Understanding ability vs. attainment to support yoga for everyone

People practicing yoga

 My daughter’s school recently sent out an email of an academic assessment they planned to do on the kids. They emphasized how the assessment would focus on ability and not attainment, so no preparation was required.

Ability vs. attainment

These terms felt so fitting in the context of a yoga asana class in my mind. Hear me out.

For so many of us the first hook to a yoga asana practice was watching someone effortlessly jump up into handstands and crow pose. I was one of them.

For some of us years of discipline and practice will eventually lead to attainment of some peak pose we’ve fantasized about. And that is awesome! I remember doing a happy dance when I first unlocked chatarunga after years of being frustrated with it. And this article is not about discouraging anyone from attempting the hard stuff.

Here’s the thing though. What do we do when practice and discipline are not the only answers?

1.     What if someone has an injured shoulder that acts up every-time they try to do a handstand drill?

2.     What if someone started yoga in their late 50s when muscle loss is well underway and has significant balance issues?

3.     What if someone has a tennis elbow and just can’t plank enough?

4.     What if someone risks popping their knee every-time they attempt pigeon pose?

5.     What if a tired corporate manager has showed up in class and just can’t keep a neutral spine, due to years of sedentary sitting? 

6.     What if a new mother shows up in class, and can’t hold a squat for the life of her because her pelvic floor is obliterated?

How does attainment of physical asanas sit with these real people in real life scenarios? This is where respecting one’s ability and meeting it exactly as it comes in. This is where we start thinking of ways to increase accessibility of yoga for everyone. I know you are thinking blocks, other props and modifications. But the conversation needs to run deeper than that. The conversation needs be about thinking of ourselves as worthy of support first.

Few days ago, I was teaching a fit private client who had recently injured her neck and shoulder. I tried to modify everything to work around her injury and yet I kept catching her from the corner of my eye, pushing herself again and again past her ability into a risky territory. When I called her out on it she admitted, “I am sorry i have such a fitness mindset, I can’t seem to help pushing myself.”

Fitness mindset. The no pain, no gain mindset. The no excuses mindset. The constant need for dopamine mindset. Basically BS in 2024 if you are looking at health from a wholesome perspective.

But wait doesn’t yoga tell us to practice non-attachment? Don’t yoga tell us to do no harm? Haven’t we heard enough spiritual people talk about working to not chase but attract what we want? 

In a nutshell, can we for a minute detach from attainment to focus on ability? Real life functional ability. Isn’t yoga supposed to enhance that or at the very least maintain it?

Pushing ourselves physically out of our comfort zone has its perks but learning to discern the fine line between pushing and pressurizing is key.

Because not only years of discipline and practice will do the job. We need to meet our physical and mental ability every single day to provide ourselves with the support we need to get through that day. And do it again and again and again. 

Gauging every single day, when there’s room to push ourselves and where we need to ask for support.Years of respecting what our bodies can and cannot do and meeting ourselves where we are at repeatedly, will, in my humble opinion,  eventually lead to a shift in ability.

1.     The person with the injured shoulder opting for less aggressive inversions than a handstand, resting between shapes and building muscle around their injury, will eventually be pain free.

2.     The lady with muscle loss using props to support herself will have better daily functional mobility.

3.     The tennis elbow dude dropping their knees in plank to respect their limitation will still have a functional arm.

4.     The person skipping pigeon to protect her knee and finding other ways to stretch her glutes will be able to walk without excruciating pain.

5.     The corporate manager sitting on a bolster in class will learn to sit straighter in work meetings because of better pelvic positioning

6.     The new mom using the support of a prop will eventually recover and squat like a pro once she’s strong enough.

We are not here making shapes on our yoga mats to look fancy. That’s what our obsession with attainment wants us to do. That’s what our need for external validation on social media wants us to do.

If we are approaching our yoga practice authentically, we are living out our stories on our mats as we move connecting with ourselves. Asking our bodies:

“How are you today?”

“How are you processing yesterday?”

“How can we work together today?”

“What sustainable action can I take today so we are okay tomorrow?”

Listening what the body communicates through sensation, though physical limitations, through shaky muscles, through hyper mobility. And respecting that.

To summarize, not practicing for attainment but consistently practicing to understand, respect and connect with our bodies will eventually shift our ability to do the magic of helping us witness our day to day with more fullness and ease.

That's how I unlocked my first chatarunga by the way. After years of modifying, understanding my limitations and respecting my body enough to know I needed to work to build strength, without obsessing over perfecting the asana, but tuning into my experience of it. And one day, it just happened. My ability had shifted. And it felt good.