Experienced Yoga practitioners often feel discouraged when a gifted dancer, gymnast, or martial artist, do an advanced asana with little effort. As I mentioned earlier, there are people with elongated joint capsules and exceptional range of motion they are gifts. You and I may have to work hard, but the many benefits of Yoga practice are still there. Yoga consists of many facets, and Asana, only one of many parts of Yoga. Many students have tremendous flexibility to admit they are struggling with another part of Yoga – such as: Students who can not calm down to meditate, balancing in asanas, Pranayama, Yoga Philosophy, and so forth.
Unfortunately, I have seen many promising Yoga practitioners quit practicing Yoga, due to a competitive mind-set. In their own minds – they are in competition with each student in class and, possibly, their Yoga teacher too. Remember that Yoga means “union”. Simply put, we can say the unification of mind, body and soul. There are many more explanations about union, but that could be a separate article. There are also many branches of Yoga and, therefore, many types of unions, but the competition is still far from the trade unions.
Competition increases the ego, and ego is only part of your personality. The ego resists union for its own survival. The ego is our social mask and does not want to share anything. Remember, next time you start to feel jealous of other students or teachers – who are not union. If there is, it will hinder you from the union and many more valuable contributions that Yoga can make your life.
