I am amazed that how some people who might have just started the practice or may have just practice for a while, can walk into an advance yoga class and expect to cruise along with the other practitioners. Mind you, this is not an entry to look down on these people just because I have been practicing for some time or that I can do more advanced level classes, this is to help keep things in perspective and to serve as a note for those who have just started yoga. When I first started with my practice, I would never even think twice to step into any higher-level classes. With the lack in strength, weak core, shaky arms and wobbly legs, one is simply not ready. You need to learn how to crawl before you can walk, to learn how to walk before you can run: not to think of sprinting when you can barely even crawl. You may say that well, it does not matter, as long as you try your best on the mat. True that, but there are reasons why one should not try a more advance class without some yoga foundation, something which I will share in a future post. I only stepped into a higher level class after more than eight months of practice, I started to practice Ashtanga only much later. It was when I know I have established some base and have since built some strength. But still, even then I could barely do half of what was taught in an hour-long class and my worst experience by far (I have yet to step into that class again) was to struggled through the first twenty minutes of the class and to spend the remaining forty minutes literally seated on the mat as I could not follow the pace of the class: they were doing transitions between arm-balances and inversions where as I, someone who do not even have a regular headstand practice.
There is a difference with doing what you can versus doing what you know that cannot be done, and to recognize this difference.
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