I was on a yoga session this morning and the trainer was talking about looking into the mirror or not when doing the yoga poses. What is the most important to you? That you look good in the different poses or that your body and mind feels good? When you let go of the way you believe yoga should look like and start to focus on the breath instead, you let your body guide your brain, not the other way around. So when you stop looking into the mirror and start focusing on what your body tells you is right, things will happen. When you let go of trying to do the “perfect” yoga poses and relax, you will more easily find the flow and it will actually help you improve your poses when not trying that hard! Let your heart and soul show the way, not your head.
I do yoga for me. To feel good, not to do advanced poses, trying to force my body into poses that I know only gymnasts can do :-). This is not for me. I am a regular person with limits in my body, in how far I can stretch and how flexible I am, and I try to accept this. Then of course when feeling you have improved and can go a LITTLE bit deeper into some pose, or stretch a little bit further, you know that yoga is contributing to strengthen the body and helps to take care of oneself.
Why do you do yoga? Give it some thought. If you realize the answer is that you, unconsciously or not, maybe have been pushing yourself a bit to far, striving to do too advanced poses but your body is not following? Next time, try to let go of the “perfect” pose and just follow your breath. Do not look into the mirror but do yoga for yourself! We all have different bodies and different conditions, either way, we can all do yoga, in our own way.
Wish you the very best. Take care. Namaste.
Beayogawoman 