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Yoga is one of the best practices for learning and increasing your stamina. In my opinion, there is something that happens when we set out to work with this aspect of the practice that makes it so different from other practices. In fact, with other practices, you would get the physical stamina, but in yoga you can also learn the moral or emotional stamina that you may not get support in building in other practices.

Can you sit in chair for a minute? How about two? What happens to you when you work with this? Watch not just how the body wobbles or cringes at the 20th second or 45th, but notice how the mind will placate, bargain, blow off your initial intention, and what happens when it gives up? Have you ever experienced that? We are not breaking our will. Rather, we are strengthening it in what for some will be an entirely new way.

How does it feel to you to get there? Does that feel like another badge you can wear? It isn’t. You could stop working on it and be back to the beginning all over again. This isn’t riding a bicycle. Can you find a way to enjoy the process? Can you?

How each person solves this puzzle will be different, and will inevitably change over time.

What we find is that we aren’t gaining anything at all. We are letting something go. Something that doesn’t work on the mat, or off it, can be let go. You can’t miss it! Have a great weekend exploring cardio and playing with chair pose!

Pose of the Day: Chair Pose- Utkatasana

Yogic Concept of the Day: Maybe I can just be with this moment on the mat. What can I let go?

Photo Credit: Literary Gal