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Meeting (yet again) resistance

By September 27, 2022No Comments

Currently, no discernable difference between a forward bend and just sitting upright 😆

Meeting (yet again) resistance

Regular readers will know that I had an operation on my hand a couple of months ago to counteract the finger-curling effects of the so-called Viking Disease aka Dupuytren’s Contracture.

I’m happy to report that things have healed well, my Potteresque zigzag scar is looking good, and because I can now put my hand flat on the ground, I’m able to start doing yoga again

After a two year break, I’m frankly stunned at how far I’ve regressed. At “peak yoga” I was never very flexible, but now a plank of wood would be better able to touch its toes than I.

What’s helping is showing up regularly to the point of resistance, and just staying there. In yoga, it’s a physical thing. I lean forward over my legs, my hamstrings say “woah!”

I don’t push beyond the resistance (something that’s taken me, oh, fifty years to learn not to do), but I just spend a couple of minutes in that place. Sometimes it softens and gives a little, sometimes it doesn’t. 

You’ve already figured out that this isn’t about yoga.

It’s about sitting with the resistance and seeing how it changes.

Seeing how I change.


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Michael Bungay Stanier

Michael Bungay Stanier

I'm the author of five books that have collectively sold more than a million copies. I'm the founder of Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that helps organizations move from advice-driven to curiosity-led. I'm the host of the *2 Pages with MBS* podcast.