Why you should embrace the Ugly Duckling pose

For a change Bob is happy. His teacher has just announced that the next pose is Marichyasana C. Bob used to hate this pose. This was his personal Ugly Duckling Pose. When Bob attempted Marichyasana C it looked nothing like the pose that everyone around him was doing.

It took Bob a long time but eventually, like the Ugly Duckling, he was able to grow into the pose and now he can do it quite well.

A long time ago Bob’s teacher told him the tale of the Ugly Duckling when he saw how frustrated he was with Marichyasana C.

The Ugly Duckling is a story written by Hans Christian Anderson in the middle 1880s.

A clutch of duck eggs hatch. One of the little birds does not look like the rest. It is bigger. It has a long neck. It is clumsy. It keeps falling over.

The rest of the baby ducks pick on the ugly duckling eventually driving it away. The Ugly Duckling goes into hiding.

All of the baby ducklings mature into full grown ducks and join their mother on the flight south for the winter. The Ugly Duckling stays in hiding and with the help of a farmer survives the winter in seclusion.

The following spring the Ugly Duckling emerges only to discover that it is beautiful. It has taken a lot longer for its body to mature. The Ugly Duckling is a beautiful Swan.

Bob’s teacher told him that it is good that he has an Ugly Duckling pose. He can learn a lot more about yoga and himself by working with his own personal Ugly Duckling pose.

What makes an Ugly Duckling pose

An Ugly Duckling pose is a pose that you find particularly difficult to do. You see the teacher demonstrate the pose at the front of the class. You see the people around you doing the pose and then you attempt to do the pose.

When you do the pose it looks nothing like the pose that the teacher demonstrated. Compared to everyone else your attempt at the pose looks nothing like theirs. In fact your attempt at the pose looks quite ugly. Your pose is an Ugly Duckling Pose.

Why do you have an Ugly Duckling pose

There are several reasons why you have an ugly duckling pose:

• The stiffness in your body prevents you from moving as far into the pose as everyone else. In Marichyasana C you need flexibility in your hips, back and shoulders in order to do the pose reasonably well.
• That extra weight that you are carrying prevents your body from twisting like your teacher’s did. If you have a lot of fat over your abdomen it is going to prevent you from twisting into the pose
• You do not have enough strength to support yourself in the pose. There are many poses which require a lot of upper body strength in order to do them well. If you are lacking in this area there is nothing you can do to have a well executed pose.

Bob looks around the room and notice that some people can do Marichyasana C quite well while a few other people are having a challenge with it. He sees that he is not the only one suffering from the Ugly Duckling pose.

Does everyone have the same Ugly Duckling pose?

As Bob just discovered, everyone does not have the same pose as their Ugly Duckling Pose. Some people excel a pose while others find it quite challenging.

Bob has discovered that while he has a number of poses that are quite ugly, he has a few poses that he excels at and others find challenging.

Everyone has a different set of Ugly Duckling poses.

Why is an Ugly Duckling pose so important

Having a pose or a couple of poses that you find difficult to do teaches you a lot about yoga and yourself.

An Ugly Duckling pose teaches you:

Control your ego

It teaches you to control your ego and accept where you are in a pose. Not everyone can do the pose the same. It is not a bad thing that you can not do the pose as well as the person on the mat next to you. Learning to accept that and work within your limitations is an important learning of yoga.

Work with your edge

It teaches you to work with your Edge. Finding that place in your body where you are challenging it but not causing harm is important as well. Once you find your edge and respect it you will start to progress rapidly towards your goal.

Listen to feedback from your body

An Ugly Ducklinp pose teaches you to listen to the feedback from your body. Your body will tell you when you are attempting to go too far into a pose and it will also tell you when you are slacking off. Learning to listen to this feedback will protect you from injuring yourself.

Respect your body

It teaches you to honor the limitations of your body. Recognizing that this is as far as you can go with a pose and accepting that is important. Not pushing beyond the limitations of your body and injuring yourself will increase your enjoyment of yoga.

Enjoy the journey

Finally an Ugly Duckling pose teaches you to enjoy the journey. A yoga pose is not an instantaneous event. It is a journey. Your body gradually develops over time. You move from one ugly version of the pose to another. Gradually with your teacher’s assistance you progress down the path to the full version of the pose.

Eventually your Ugly Duckling pose will become a Swan and then it will be time to work on the next Ugly Duckling pose.

Summary

If you have discovered that you have an Ugly Duckling pose or two and it is bothering you talk to your yoga teacher.

They will help you to grow and mature that ugly pose into a beautiful Swan. But like the Ugly Duckling from Hans Christian Anderson’s story discovered it takes some time to grow that beautiful Swan.

While you are developing that Swan like pose embrace all of the teachings of the Ugly Duckling pose.

Next Step

Find your Ugly Duckling pose and work with your teacher to move forward.

Additional Reading

To learn more about the effects of your ego on your practice read How to make your practice worse, check out the shiny objects

Read Why embracing the crow will improve your yoga practice to learn more about working with an Ugly Duckling pose.

The article How to use the Learning zone to improve your yoga will show how to progress from the Ugly Duckling pose to a Swan pose safely.