#8: Success, Failure, and Why None Of It Matters in Yoga

On the this episode of The Yoga Inspiration Podcast, I'm sharing with you the powerful life lessons I learned about failure from the yoga mat. If you remember back to my first episode, you know that I didn't come from an athletic or particularly physically fit background when I took my first yoga class. I didn't even know what any of these poses were when I started! But just because you can't balance a pose doesn't mean you aren't worthy of practicing yoga.  Yoga practice is anything but easy. You will most likely meet failure right there in your first yoga class. When I first started practicing yoga, I wasn't good at the poses-- these backbends don't come naturally! In fact, it was the Pose Pincha Mayurasana that was absolutely impossible for me, and I failed more at this yoga pose than anything else.  I wasn't good at failing, either. Frustration and failure have a nasty habit of sneaking into your mindset, and they have the potential to really ruin your yoga practice if you let it. The reality of staying inspired to practice yoga when you keep failing is exceptionally difficult. You can't force it. What you can do is change the way you think about failure. Yoga practice is a space where failure is welcome. Failure is the only way you can learn from yoga because yoga isn't about memorizing or perfecting the poses. Yoga is a personal and spiritual journey that strengthens your mental abilities just as much - if not more - than your physical form.  Are you afraid of failure? Fear of failure is a huge inhibition, both on the yoga mat and in your everyday life. This fear can stop you from achieving the things you want most in the world. When you let fear rule your actions, you trap yourself in an endless loop of fear and failure that can be difficult to break.  In a success-oriented society like ours, failure can be seen as a threat to our livelihood. Each of us will experience this fear more times than we can count. Did you know that I was afraid to start this podcast because I thought I would fail? Even after 20 years of yoga practice, I still have my own doubts when it comes to my abilities as both a yoga student and a yoga teacher. The trick is to acknowledge these doubts and create a process-oriented way of thinking that will focus on the steps that will work through these doubts rather than just setting an impossible goal for yourself.  Remember - perfection doesn't exist and you will never achieve it. What you can achieve is self-acceptance and a higher sense of self that is able to accept failure and learn new things because of it. This process of trying-failing-learning is the process-oriented thinking that is required to be successful at yoga. Process-oriented thinking in your yoga practice gives you the freedom to not care about whether you achieved the poses but to focus on your breathing and the internal journey you are taking with your practice. My goal with this episode and this podcast is to change the whole paradigm of "success". The next time you get on the yoga mat, I want you to challenge the way you look at failure. My stories as a yoga student will inspire you to see your failures in a new light and give you the guidance you need to keep moving forward with your practice. Success is what you get from yoga practice when you learn something about yourself, not necessarily when you do a headstand.  Don't be afraid to share your failures with you. If you're a yoga student and you want to share your yoga journey with me, I would love to hear it! Send me an email at [email protected] and tell me - what does yoga mean to you? You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast with Kino MacGregor! Stay connected: @kinoyoga and @omstarsofficial View my teaching schedule, blogs, etc on Kinoyoga.com Get your free 30 day membership on Omstars.com& use code: PODCAST