Potential

My back is killing me right now. The ache, which started last night, is attributed to the Hatha 2 class YP and I attended in the afternoon. The class was conducted by Arun, and focused on "the opening of the four main segments of our bodies" - the hip, the back, the hamstring and the last-part-that-I-do-not-recall. Looks like I need memory lessons more than yoga ones....

The Back Exercises are the best/worse, depending whether you are talking about the benefits reaped or the pain that I had to go through in the process. First Arun got the class to do some "warm ups" that "opens up the back". It's actually a seemingly simple exercise where the partner holds a strap to your waist, and you bend backwards while in a standing position. Arun walked over to me as I was doing the back bend. "More bend....come on....push yourself!". I did. This routine was repeated three times, with forward bends inserted in between the back bends.

Then came the upward bow pose, or Wheel pose, or like we used to call it in the Army, "Bridge". Army days aside, this is one pose I've never been able to perform. I've tried it many many times during previous yoga lessons, and failed. I simply could not get my body up past a certain point.

When everybody else in the class had done it, I was hoping that Arun would somehow forget, and skip me. I knew that he knew I was incapable of doing the Wheel, having attempted this during his previous Hatha lessons, so perhaps he would PANG CHAN and spare me from the embarrassment of being the only one in class to not be able to get into the pose.

Well, like I have said before, hope and reality seldom coincide, and there I was, attempting the Wheel with the entire class staring at me. What went through my mind then was to YI SU YI SU do what I can, and then slump down on my back, and perhaps throw back a meek apologetic look of defeat.

What then happened came as am absolute surprise to me.

I did it. I managed the Wheel pose.

Not very standard, not steady-poon-pee-pee, that's for sure, but nontheless, I did it. My head was off the ground, and Arun was quick to give encouragement by exclaiming "Very good! The first time!".

Many a times, we would tell ourselves that certain things are beyond our capacity. We keep reminding ourselves of what we THINK our potential is, and what we THINK are the limits to what we can achieve with our limited abilities. So much so that we become deeply convinced that we are less than what we really are.

Yes, my back is killing me now. But at the same time, I'm glad for yesterday's lesson, which showed me that Potential is something that needs effort to be unleashed. The process is sometimes a painful one, but as the old addage points out ever so succinctly - NO PAIN, NO GAIN.