25/11/2025
I used to hate Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward facing dog).
Every time I practiced a yoga class the teacher would say ‘Rest here’ and I would be hanging there unable to breathe, sweating trying to hold my own weight, aching shoulders, aching palms and knees so bent they were basically curled up by my chest.
I’d be anxious and dizzy with zero explanation.
I’d drop down and wait for the next posture and feel frustrated that I couldn’t do it and even worse feel not good enough because this wasn’t rest for me.
I wish a single teacher would have told me that feeling restful here takes practice. Takes building strength. Takes getting familiar with inversions. Takes working through the discomfort and anxiety.
I wish a single teacher would have told me that it doesn’t always work for everyone and that’s okay. That the daily practice isn’t just working towards advanced postures and practices but sometimes is in fact starting from the beginning and learning to show up for yourself despite the struggle. Despite the discomfort.
I wish I could go back and unlearn the expectations I learned from how yoga is presented in our society, I could have known that it wasn’t yoga I sucked at, it was gymnastics. I could have loved yoga sooner. I could have found yoga philosophy texts and started the internal work sooner.
But none of this is the case and with that, I have to trust that it came to me exactly when it was supposed to. I wouldn’t have been receptive earlier, or willing to put in the work or likely to go down the rabbit hole of finding teachers that resonated with me. I wouldn’t have kept showing up, or kept changing aspects of my life. I certainly wouldn’t be teaching.
So I guess all this is to say trust the process. Surrender to ebbs and flows of life. When times are tough, know that it will change because change is the only certainty in life. Learn to listen to yourself so that when you are navigating a tough time, you are able to find the lessons to be learned so that darkness wasn’t for nothing.
Trust the process loves 💜🧡💜
