What Stops Me?

I’m half-watching a yoga therapy anatomy conference presentation as I write up tickets for work…as one does, when a slide catches my attention and pokes at my brain in a certain way…there’s something here beyond just yoga anatomy.

“What Stops Me?”

In this context, the speaker is talking about normal variation in anatomy and how it can be the factor that stops someone from going any further in a position or pose. If the angle of your leg bone in relation to your hip joint doesn’t allow your leg to go any further…it’s not going to go any further no matter how much stretching you do. It simply can’t. There’s two things that stop you from going any further in any position, either tension or compression. Either there’s too much tension in tissues to allow you to go further or you’ve reached the point where tissues are pressed together as far as they can go, like in the example of the hip joint and leg bone. Everyone’s body is different, so everyone has a different place at which they simply can’t go further. Models on instagram or in pictures can often go far further than most people because they are gifted with certain proportions that enable them to do that, not necessarily because they’ve worked longer or harder at it than someone who simply can’t.

But…”What Stops Me?” off my mat?

When I have a goal I want to reach that’s not a yoga pose, what stops me? Where is the limit of how far I can push myself before I hit some kind of inherent limitation, like bone hitting bone? If I haven’t reached that point yet, what’s holding me back? Is it the tension I feel, the discomfort of change or trying so hard? Is it the compression of carrying so much? What stops me from reaching that goal?

I’ve been struggling with eating clean this month. It’s not that I’ve gone on huge binges, but each day there’s a little something I wind up letting slide and it’s leading to me just staying on another plateau. I’m not gaining weight, but I’m not really losing it either.

“What Stops Me?”

In this case, it’s evenings. After a long day of work, I just don’t feel like cooking anything and the easiest things to eat aren’t 100% on my plan or I sneak a few squares of dark chocolate after a long day. I’m tired. I’m likely not getting enough rest and I might be overtraining. By feeling into that question, “What stops me,” I’m able to start to ease into where I could stretch just a little bit more and I see that I haven’t hit some hard and fast limit here yet…I just haven’t taken the time to start to feel into what I need to be doing differently. I could food prep in advance for those nights I’m tired. I could add in more rest days and get better sleep. There are things I can try to go just a little bit deeper into this goal.

What’s stopping you?

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