Last week I wrote about how my yoga instructor basically had us play mind games to get us through the difficulty of boat pose. I’ll say it again: Yoga boat pose is definitely on my top-five list of poses I really dislike and is a boat trip I do not want to take.
So, this week the instructor asked us to get spiritual in the pose. What? Spiritual! I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can get spiritual when I’m working my abs.
But since it worked last week, I figured I would give it a try. When I really looked inside myself and tried to see the beauty of the pose and concentrate on the good spiritual effects that yoga and this pose has brought to my life, I lost myself again in the spirituality and was able to hold the pose with an amazingly reduced amount of pain and mental anguish.
So, the moral of the story is: When you are doing abdominal exercises or a pose that you just don’t like, use your mind to think of the positive aspects of the pose or everything that is beautiful in your life. Breath into it, play mental mind games, and you can make it through. It really works!
Photo: Karin Lindstrom
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