How to avoid the challenge of the Dog’s Shadow

Bob looks across the room at Alice with envy. Alice is binding in Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana with ease. Bob has been trying for months to hold his foot with his arm behind his back. He has only recently been able to hold on to his elbow with his hand.

Bob struggles and tries even harder and he is able to get his hand further down his arm when suddenly there is a tearing sensation in his shoulder.

Bob has fallen into the same trap as the dog in Aesop’s fable called the Dog and his shadow.

The Dog and his Shadow

It happened that a Dog had got a piece of meat and was carrying it home in his mouth to eat it in peace.

Now on his way home he had to cross a plank lying across a running brook. As he crossed, he looked down and saw his own shadow reflected in the water beneath. Thinking it was another dog with another piece of meat, he made up his mind to have that also.

So he made a snap at the shadow in the water, but as he opened his mouth the piece of meat fell out, dropped into the water and was never seen more.

Moral: Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

What does the dog and his shadow have to do with yoga

Bob sees Alice binding with ease and he decides that he is going to do the pose as well as her. He abandons the position that he is in and tries to go further. Just like the dog he abandons what he has and grasps for something that he does not have. The dog lost his meat and Bob injured his shoulder.

There are several lessons that Bob can learn from this story:

• Work within your own limits
• Do not let your ego get in the way
• Accept that you are not the best at the pose

The first of these “Work within your own limits” protects you from injury.

Work within your own limits

To avoid injuring yourself you work within your limits. Pay attention to the feedback your body is giving you. When you try to go too far into a pose your body will tell you. Your muscles tense up and your breath gets restricted.

It is much better to work within your limitations and use your Edge to gradually increase your flexibility. Your Edge is that comfortable but challenging place that you come to in a pose. You use your breath as you exhale to slowly move you towards your edge and an inhale to move you slightly back and away from your Edge. This slow movement back and forth will gradually improve your flexibility

Bob’s ego got the better of him when he decided to ignore his edge and try to go as far as Alice in the pose.

Do not let your ego get in the way

When you first start practicing yoga your ego is a strong force. It causes you to try too hard, ignoring the feedback from your body and forcing you into poses that you can not do safely. It takes about 6 months for you to finally get control of your ego and accept where you are at in a yoga pose.

But as Bob experienced, even a seasoned yogi gets seized by his ego as the most surprising times.

Bob needs to ignore his ego and accept that some people will be better than him in a pose.

Accept that you are not the best at the pose

As Bob works his way through the various yoga poses during the class he notices that some people are better than him in some poses.

He also notices that he is better than some people in other poses and there are a lot of poses that everyone is in the same place.

Your goal in yoga is not to be the best in every pose but to work your body to the limit of its flexibility and challenge it to go slightly further by using your edge.

Summary

Bob realizes that unlike the dog, he does not need both pieces of meat.

He is happy that Alice is able to bind in Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana and he knows that one of these days he will be able to bind in the pose as well.

He is using his edge to make slow and steady progress towards his goal of holding his big toe.

Besides there are a couple of poses that he can do better than Alice and a lot poses he and Alice are about equal.

Next Step

The next time you are looking at someone doing a pose better than you remember the Dog and his shadow and be happy for them as you work careful on the pose yourself.

Additional Reading

To learn more about Ardha Baddha Paschimottanasana read How to protect your knee in Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana.

Finding and using your edge is a valuable tool for your yoga practice. How to use your Edge and improve Paschimottanasana goes into more detail about using your Edge.

What your breath can tell you about your yoga pose shows you in more detail how to use your breath to protect your from injuring yourself.