\u201cProgress not perfection\u201d is a great mantra. It brings into focus the practice of yoga rather than the visual achievements we see such as handstands or that new #yogiseeyogido trend. Sometimes, though, I wonder if the definition we\u2019ve attributed to \u201cprogress\u201d is focusing on the \u201cgains\u201d that we are striving towards in yoga. Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I have been working towards my handstand for years and will continue to because it makes it feel strong and challenged and brave. But what if we saw the act of showing up as progress? Even if I never hit a minute handstand (which is quite possible) I am still progressing in my practice by showing up, doing the work, and incorporating the asanas and other limbs into my life. The conscious choice of practicing in order to feel strong and brave is where the magic is.<\/p>\n
Fear-Based Progress<\/span><\/h2>\nA little fear that\u2019s popped up a few times during quarantine is that I am going to \u201close\u201d all of my progress I\u2019ve made in my yoga journey. \u2063As fears do, this one highlights where I feel unsure or misaligned with where I am and where I want to be. Feelings of shame, embarrassment, frustration, and lots of self-criticisms show up to remind me that the only constant is change. Progress isn\u2019t linear. It evolves and shifts and flexes and expands. Just like a good ol\u2019 flow.\u2063 I have been experiencing shame around \u201closing\u201d my yoga practice. But maybe I\u2019m more worried about the identity that yoga gives me. What I\u2019m really experiencing is my ego not wanting to lose \u201cgains\u201d in my flexibility, inversions, arm balances, etc. I recognize ego is fueling this feeling, but it still comes up.<\/p>\n
Your Body\u2019s Wisdom<\/span><\/h2>\nI\u2019ve also been grieving the classroom space. Experiencing the duality of being completely alone in my own flow while being surrounded by others who are experiencing the same is incredibly powerful\u2014an illustration of the connectedness of all of us. In my practice, it is the one place where I never feel I\u2019m supposed to be somewhere or doing something, else. I show up 100% on my mat and just be in my practice. For the most part, no one else exists outside of the four corners of my mat during that 70-minute flow. I am practicing letting the ego go to know that I am having the asana practice that is needed right now. The brilliance of your body is that she knows, inherently, what you need at every moment of every day.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve learned not to listen, thinking we need to seek external insight and advice for how to make our bodies work better, faster, stronger. But in your unique experience, only your body can tell you what you need. And right now, she\u2019s probably asking you something different than when we\u2019re not in quarantine. This heightened awareness that we are experiencing in every other aspect of our lives can also be found within ourselves and what our personal mind, body, and souls need, right now. So, if you\u2019re feeling like you\u2019re \u201closing\u201d your practice, this is impossible. Your practice is you.<\/p>\n
By Jordan Page<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\")
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Jordan Page<\/a><\/span> is a traveling nomad who takes her love of yoga with her everywhere she goes. She also believes you can learn a lot about someone from their Hogwarts House. After completing yoga teacher training in 2017, she and her husband converted a school bus into their tiny home in which they now live and travel in full-time. She has taught in multiple states around the U.S. and in 2019 she completed her professional coach training through iPEC<\/a>\u00a0and earned her CPC. Through yoga and coaching, she works to empower and inspire women to own the life of their choosing through conscious, purposeful intention. She is purposefully living, while not taking things too seriously.<\/p>\nNOTE: This post is part of a collaborative media series organized and curated by Omstars and the Yoga & Body Image Coalition intended as a deep dive into yoga & body image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This heightened awareness that we are experiencing in every other aspect of our lives can also be found within ourselves and what our personal mind, body, and souls need, right now. So, if you\u2019re feeling like you\u2019re \u201closing\u201d your practice, this is impossible. Your practice is you. Redefining Progress \u201cProgress not perfection\u201d is a great …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1451],"tags":[1020,586],"class_list":["post-3410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-jordan-page","tag-yoga-and-body-image"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/thumbnail_image001.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3446,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions\/3446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I\u2019ve also been grieving the classroom space. Experiencing the duality of being completely alone in my own flow while being surrounded by others who are experiencing the same is incredibly powerful\u2014an illustration of the connectedness of all of us. In my practice, it is the one place where I never feel I\u2019m supposed to be somewhere or doing something, else. I show up 100% on my mat and just be in my practice. For the most part, no one else exists outside of the four corners of my mat during that 70-minute flow. I am practicing letting the ego go to know that I am having the asana practice that is needed right now. The brilliance of your body is that she knows, inherently, what you need at every moment of every day.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve learned not to listen, thinking we need to seek external insight and advice for how to make our bodies work better, faster, stronger. But in your unique experience, only your body can tell you what you need. And right now, she\u2019s probably asking you something different than when we\u2019re not in quarantine. This heightened awareness that we are experiencing in every other aspect of our lives can also be found within ourselves and what our personal mind, body, and souls need, right now. So, if you\u2019re feeling like you\u2019re \u201closing\u201d your practice, this is impossible. Your practice is you.<\/p>\n
By Jordan Page<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jordan Page<\/a><\/span> is a traveling nomad who takes her love of yoga with her everywhere she goes. She also believes you can learn a lot about someone from their Hogwarts House. After completing yoga teacher training in 2017, she and her husband converted a school bus into their tiny home in which they now live and travel in full-time. She has taught in multiple states around the U.S. and in 2019 she completed her professional coach training through iPEC<\/a>\u00a0and earned her CPC. Through yoga and coaching, she works to empower and inspire women to own the life of their choosing through conscious, purposeful intention. She is purposefully living, while not taking things too seriously.<\/p>\n NOTE: This post is part of a collaborative media series organized and curated by Omstars and the Yoga & Body Image Coalition intended as a deep dive into yoga & body image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This heightened awareness that we are experiencing in every other aspect of our lives can also be found within ourselves and what our personal mind, body, and souls need, right now. So, if you\u2019re feeling like you\u2019re \u201closing\u201d your practice, this is impossible. Your practice is you. Redefining Progress \u201cProgress not perfection\u201d is a great …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1451],"tags":[1020,586],"class_list":["post-3410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-jordan-page","tag-yoga-and-body-image"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/thumbnail_image001.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3446,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions\/3446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/jordan-page-bio-pic-300x248.png\")
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