Why we do advanced yoga postures

I practice Ashtanga yoga, a rather dynamic yoga style that requires its fair share of strength and usually makes you sweat quite a lot (don’t even imagine Barcelona summer when the puddles of sweat between mats turn the yoga studio floor into an ice skating rink). In Ashtanga, you practice the same series of postures again and again until your teacher deems you ready and rewards your efforts with a new posture, which you add to your current ones (yes, the prize for hard work is more hard work in Ashtanga). But while doing the same thing again and again (like Andy Warhol), something happens: there comes a point when you stop thinking about what you’re doing and just commit to the act of doing it. This is when Ashtanga yoga becomes a meditation in movement.

All of that seems right and fair, but why add more complicated postures then? I really think this is where Ashtanga yoga provides one of its deepest life lessons: It’s not so much about actually achieving a complicated posture; true growth happens on the way there. Trying again and again to bind your arms in Marichyasana D (a rather deep twist with a half lotus) or to lift your chest from the floor in Bhekasana (a backbend from the 2nd series) teaches you a lot about how you confront challenges, about the abilities of your body, and how time really is an essential ingredient of progress. When you want to move through the postures of the Ashtanga series, there is no way around trying again and again. On the way to a posture, we can learn discipline and perseverance but also compassion with ourselves and our bodies.

Then, one day, it just happens, and you enter the posture. What a feeling of blissful joy! Interestingly enough, that usually only lasts for a short time. There is always another posture to work on, another challenge to master. It is then when you realize that it’s not so much about the destination, but all about the journey. About how you got to know yourself a little better along the way, and became a little kinder to yourself and others through the challenges you were facing. In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether you can do a lotus or get your leg behind your head; it’s about the lessons learned on the way.

One of the secrets in life is literally this: The magic you are looking for might just be in the work you’re avoiding.