Continuing to Practice

Introduction

In this part you will consider both the things that make it difficult to sustain a practice, and the things that motivate you in continuing your practice.  There may be certain groups of Asana that you find are difficult to start practising, that you’d prefer not to practice.  An example of this may be backbends.  Backbends often require high amounts of effort and a high level of motivation to practice.  It can be hard both to start a backbends practice and also to keep going with them once started.  It can be difficult to continue over multiple repetitions of backbending and to hold a single backbend for longer timings.   However, once a backbend practice is completed, there will often be a pleasant effect.  A backbend practice can make you feel energised and lifted.  The practice has a positive effect on the way a practitioner feels.  This outcome, or the change to how we feel can become the motivation that gets us to practice and also keeps us practicing.  

Watch the following video for a reflection on the obstacles that practitioners continue to face as they continue in their practice.   

Reading

The following extract from BKS Iyengar’s Light on the Yoga provides another description of the Antarayas.    

Once you have read the extract, you can check your learning via the quiz on the following pages.  Make sure you are familiar with the concepts covered within the extract and the content on the previous pages before proceeding to the quiz.