I’ve been doing yoga for a while now. In the beginning, I hated all of it. Now, my body tells me what it wants. But every day is different. Some days I have good balance; some days I teeter-totter and fall. Some days I can stretch; some days, I get cramps in strange places. Forget everyone else in the class, and go within. Listen to your body and keep breathing. 

The first yoga class I ever took was a hold-pose style. It started easily enough, but soon, I found myself teetering, holding my breath, eyes darting to the clock on the wall to see how many minutes were left. The twists made me have to pee. Great! That ate up some more minutes. Maybe I could make it to the end of the class. My muscles cramped. I strained. I was reminded to breath and realized I had been holding my breath. Again. 

In short, it wasn’t fun. I felt clumsy and couldn’t see the allure at all. 

But then I went to other classes–softer movements, flow-style where just about the time my eyes searched for the clock, we shifted positions. Yoga isn’t easy, but it shouldn’t be awful either. You have a different body every day. Some days you can balance, others you can’t. Some days you can reach your toes, others not. 

 Go at your own pace
 Don’t judge yourself against others
 Be kind with yourself
 Over time, if you stick with it, you will see remarkable change