By: Haideh Plock

Another successful Seasonal Stability Series just ended. At the beginning of each session I often identify a theme or thought to consider as we go through the yoga sequence. Sometimes this is a concrete, physical idea (ie, how to engage your transverse abdominus to stabilize your core) and sometimes it’s more abstract.

One of the more abstract ideas I introduced was considering DOUBT.  We all suffer from it. Whether we doubt our ability to lift a certain amount of weight, finish a WOD in a certain amount of time, that we can do yoga, or perhaps doubt how intelligent we are, that we are qualified enough for a job, or that we are good enough for someone else- we have all experienced doubt in one way or another.

I would like you all to consider that DOUBT is nothing but a THOUGHT.  It is created in our own minds.  It manifests from PAST experiences, it is not rooted in the present. What we did or did not do yesterday is not what we are doing RIGHT NOW.  If you allow your brain to create thoughts that doubt yourself, you set yourself up to fail and prove your doubts right. “See, I knew I couldn’t do it” “told you I wasn’t able to lift that”, etc. That gets added to your past experiences so the next time you may be even more hesitant to try again.

So I’d like to offer you a different way at looking at ‘success’. Have you considered that success is just the manifestation of many different failures? You’ve heard that we learn from our mistakes- this is very true. The problem is we hardly ever hear about all the mistakes people make before they succeed. There are many examples of this: Fred Astaire was told he couldn’t act and could dance ‘a little’, Albert Einstein didn’t talk until he was 4 years old, Dr. Seuss’ first book was rejected 28 times by publishers, I can go on and on.

The point of all of this- if we allow doubts to creep into our minds we may be blocking our path to success. Instead of thinking “I won’t be able to do this” say instead, “let me see how close to a handstand I can get” or “let’s see how much I can lift” or “let me see <fill in the blank>” . What often amazes me is how many people say they can’t do something while they are doing it!So maybe you can’t do 50 double unders in a row, but you can do two. You are still DOING double unders! Keep that thought in your head- you can do double unders, now work towards doing more.

This yoga series was centered around stability and it is challenging. I don’t want that to scare people off because they don’t think they can ‘do yoga’ or that it will be too hard for them. Yoga helps you to be present in the NOW, what you can do TODAY and gives you the tools to be stable not just in body but also in mind. Hope you all give it a try.