Are you a Dabbler? Why Consistency Matters.
Living my best (yoga student) life
The first time I ever tried yoga was when I flipped through the pages of Rodney Yee’s Yoga: The Poetry of the Body. I was recommended the book while volunteering at a local TV station. I had yet to find a form of exercise that I stuck with (excluding Suzanne Somers Thigh Master) and thought I'd give yoga a try.
I dog-eared the sequences and started the poses, barely skimming the accompanying instructions. My most vivid memory from this experience was doing Downdog and thinking, "What is happening to me?!" Didn't touch the book again for a very long time, though I did bring it with me when I moved to London so it clearly made an imprint!
My first group class was at a local gym in Greenwich with a woman called Bernadette. While I don’t remember the class itself, I had the best night’s sleep that evening and that was enough for me to decide to go back every week.
After moving to Highgate I resumed my yoga classes at another local gym with a woman called Sharon. I was terrified of her but she was brilliant and I was hooked! I turned up every single week and eventually took classes at her home studio.
I then discovered triyoga in Primrose Hill which quickly became my second home. The two teachers I credit with profoundly transforming my yoga practice are Jean Hall and Nadia Narain, who helped me begin to learn to take my practice off the mat and into my daily life. But this didn’t happen overnight. I was consistent. I was disciplined. I practiced at least 4 times a week and it was the best!
Practice makes perfect? Not really.
Practice is a process. There must be consistent input for something to come into form.
Nowadays we’re in for the quick fixes - being told we can “Learn to do Handstand in 10 Days” or follow a “30 Day Challenge to Lose Weight”. While there’s nothing wrong with wanting either of these outcomes, my concern is these challenges focus on short term gains at the expense of a more gradual and nuanced understanding.
The best example that was given to me by another teacher of mine, Jason Crandell, was that you don’t go to two piano lessons and then expect to be able to play Beethoven. Same applies to anything that you want to learn, including yoga.
The point of sharing my own (abridged) yoga autobiography above is to press the point that I’ve been doing this for a chunk of time and I’m still deep in my studentship. And will be for the rest of my life.
Yoga is a practice of self-inquiry, self-regulation, and self-transformation - so you have to put in the work and do it consistently. This is known as Tapas, self discipline or “burning enthusiasm”. The magic happens in consistency, not from a one-off. This where you learn how to come into arm balances or inversions. This space is where you discover those old habits that are holding you back. This is where you fully feel the breath.
Whether it’s for five or ninety minutes. It all counts. Let go of the outcome and just keep showing up. That’s what matters.