Learn to enjoy pain before you can enjoy comfort

When many people first come into contact with yoga, they do not feel the so-called comfort, but only one word: pain.

Before you start, you have had a lot of imagination about yoga, learned some relevant knowledge, listened to people who have experienced it talk about their feelings, and watched a series of videos. Finally, with strong anticipation and curiosity, you convince yourself to walk into this mysterious palace. However, the first practice is not as wonderful as you imagined, nor as comfortable and enjoyable as others say.

When you first start learning yoga, you experience pain you have never experienced before. After a yoga class, my head hurts, not to mention the pain in my body. It’s so sore, it’s unbelievable! I have asked many students who gave up practicing yoga after a few times. Their answer was that not only did they fail to relieve stress and body pain when they first started practicing yoga, but they also felt uncomfortable all over after practicing, so they simply gave up.

They will also give a lot of reasons why they give up: their bodies are too stiff and not suitable for practicing yoga; the yoga pace is too slow and they don’t feel anything when practicing; their flexibility is not as good as when they were children and it is too painful to practice. When practicing twisting, balancing, flexing and other movements, the muscles and joints will be pulled, changing the previous state of non-exercise, so pain will occur.

It is human instinct to pursue comfort, so this kind of pain discourages some beginners, who are eager to stay away from this pain. In fact, practicing yoga is very similar to certain physiological stages of human beings. When we were children, we had to go through the pain of our baby teeth falling out when they were changing their teeth; when we were teenagers, we had to go through the pain of our bones growing taller; and when we became adults, we had to go through the pain of our first intimate contact.

Pain is a ferocious yet gentle gift that yoga gives us. In fact, the body is the same as a machine. A machine that runs frequently is less likely to have problems. On the contrary, a machine that does not run frequently will rust, and once put into use, it will shut down. Therefore, this kind of machine that is often not in operation will soon be eliminated and lose its necessity to exist.

The same is true for humans. If you give up exercising, your body will deteriorate and you can no longer resist external germs, psychological suggestion will not help you regain your health. You can only rely on doctors and drugs, which will only make you more miserable.

If you feel that your body is stiff, your resistance is poor, and you lack vitality, it is like a rusty machine. If you insist on practicing yoga at this time, your muscles, joints, spine, etc. will be massaged through various twisting processes. This pain will also stimulate these organs, and the nerves will become active. Blood circulation will also be accelerated, and people will feel more energetic.

During the first few days or a week, you will have body aches. But after a month, you will find that the pain gradually disappears because your body becomes more flexible with exercise and the painful areas are unblocked. All the previous pains and discomforts disappeared, the asana exercises became one with my breathing, my muscles gradually became soft, my body became straighter and more elegant.

The last step is meditation. Talk to your body and deepen the feeling of relaxation or residual pain after the pain is eliminated. After meditation, your body and brain will experience a higher level of pleasure.

"Pain" is a hideous gift that life forces upon us. We have to accept it whether we want it or not. From not digesting pain to daring to suffer pain and then to digesting pain, it records the process of a person's true growth. Once you cross the threshold of pain, what will greet you will be a field of comfort and joy.