Sarah J. Blige

“Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things – with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.” -Corazon Aquino

Patience is defined as, “quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence” and, “as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.” Bikram Yoga is always trying. It pushes us to our limits (or rather, we push ourselves) and we’re often met with pain and discomfort, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Some days we rock it: our bodies feel strong and energetic, we go to our personal edge and then poke our toes over, and we lie in final savasana thinking the last 90 minutes just flew right by. And other times, we struggle hard: everything hurts, the floor seems miles away in hands-to-feet-pose, it’s hot as hell and your body just won’t seem to cooperate. But every class is another opportunity to face and conquer whatever difficulties we’re met with on that particular day. Yoga is a battlefield, and your weapons are patience, single-pointed focus, determination, and love. Be strong and fearless, and fight your personal battles with everything you’ve got, but also be kind and gentle with yourself, and simply witness and appreciate your growth, slow as it may be at times. And never, ever compare your journey to that of another: you’re not going to the same place, so comparing the path that leads you there is a big fat waste of time.

In my nearly four years of practice I’ve accomplished tremendous growth in most of the 26 postures of the Bikram series; however, there are a couple of postures that I continue to struggle with and the degree of improvement here has been slight and slow-going. And still other postures have improved significantly, but I remain “stuck” at a certain point, unable to progress further. This truth is, it’s not that the progress is  stunted or that I won’t continue to improve in these areas; it’s simply that these postures are improving incrementally and at a slower rate than the others.

Life is like this. Sometimes things just “click” and improvements are swift and apparent. Other things give us difficulty for long periods of time and the growth is not obvious, but nevertheless, it’s happening. Hold on to the intention to improve and the faith that you will, and don’t allow yourself to be discouraged by continual struggle; you’ll only be that much more grateful for the improvement when you can finally see it.