The Sun’s approach to a yoga pose is much better than the Wind’s plan. Follow the Sun and avoid injury.
Bob’s face is turning red. He is holding his breath as he struggles to bind in the twisting yoga pose. He has gone way beyond his edge.
“Bob, you have to back off a little bit or you are going to hurt yourself!” says his yoga teacher. “You are following the Wind’s plan when you should be taking the Sun’s approach.”
Bob relaxes in the pose a little bit and looks at his teacher with a puzzled look on his face.
“What is this Wind plan and Sun plan business?” he asks his teacher.
“It’s one of Aesop fables. You must have heard it before.” Then his teacher told him the fable
The Wind and the Sun
The Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger.
Suddenly they saw a traveller coming down the road, and the Sun said: “I see a way to decide our dispute.
Whichever of us can cause that traveller to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger. You begin.”
So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveller. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveller wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair.
Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveller, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on.
The moral of the story is that you can achieve more with kindness than you can with severity.
There is two ways that Bob can go with his yoga practice: he can follow the Wind’s plan or he can adopt the Sun’s approach. At the moment Bob is following the Wind’s plan.
What is the effect of the Wind’s plan
Bob is struggling against his body. He is forcing his body to go further than it is ready to. He is pushing beyond his edge and is risking injuring himself.
Rather than being an enjoyable and challenging yoga practice he is very tense.
His muscles are tightening up to protect themselves from injury. Bob is not getting more flexible.
The Sun’s approach allows Bob to work with his Edge, reduce stress and avoid injuring himself.
If Bob continues to follow the Wind’s plan he is going to hurt himself.
There is another way that Bob can go with his yoga practice. He can adopt the Sun’s approach by bringing some kindness to his yoga practice.
What happens when Bob follows the Sun’s approach
After talking to his yoga teacher Bob decides to try the Sun’s approach to his yoga poses.
Now he is working within the limits of his body’s abilities. He is working at the edge of his body’s flexibility.
The tenseness that he was feeling earlier is gone. His muscles are relaxing and they might even consider stretching a little bit as long as Bob does not go beyond the edge of his flexibility.
Why is the Sun’s approach better
When Bob follows the Sun’s approach, he is working within his body’s limits. He is less stressed and he is less likely to injure himself because he is staying at his Edge.
What is your Edge
The Edge within a yoga pose is that safe but challenging place. When you move into a yoga pose you can feel your muscles respond to the stretch. There are three stages to this stretching.
1. Before the Edge
At this stage the muscles are not being challenged at all. No stretching is happening.
2. At the Edge
As Bob continues to stretch in the pose the muscles will continue to lengthen. Eventually they will reach a point where they can no longer stretch safely. At this point the muscles start to tense up to protect themselves from injury.
3. Beyond the Edge
When Bob follows the Wind’s plan he moves beyond his Edge into the danger zone. He is forcing his muscles to stretch beyond there safe limit. It is in ths zone that he will injure his muscles.
Bob can abandon the Wind’s plan and adopt the Sun’s approach and use his Edge to increase his flexibility safely.
How to use your Edge
When Bob uses the Sun’s approach and enters a yoga pose he can feel his muscle stretch and reach stage 2 above. He is at his Edge.
Once he is at his Edge, Bob uses his breath to help him safely stretch his muscles even further.
As he slowly breathes in he moves back slightly from his Edge. As he exhales he moves gently towards his Edge again.
Repeating these movements breathing in and out slowly, moving away from and towards his Edge will result in his muscles gradually stretching and then Bob will discover that his Edge has moved and he is a little deeper into the pose.
When Bob adopts the Sun’s approach he will discover that he is not as far into the yoga pose as he was when he was following the Wind’s Plan.
But I do not go as far into a pose when I follow the Sun’s approach
When you follow the Sun’s approach you are honouring the limitations of your body and respecting the extent to which your muscles can stretch. This means that you have not gone beyond your Edge and you are not as far into the pose as you were when you were following the Wind’s plan.
The good thing about this is that you are less likely to injure yourself and you will be more relaxed.
Also once you start using the Sun’s approach and your Edge you will find that you will soon be further in the yoga pose than you were when you were following the Wind’s plan.
Summary
“By adopting the Sun’s approach you will get further in your yoga poses over time and you will avoid injuring yourself.” Bob’s teacher tells him. “Besides you will be more relaxed when you leave class because you will be struggling less.”
Next Step
The next time you are working on a difficult pose check yourself out. Are you following the Wind’s plan or the Sun’s approach?
Adopt the Sun’s approach and enjoy your yoga practice.
Additional Reading
To learn more about your Edge read the article Goldilocks and the 3 bears find the edge
How to use the steam engine to find your edge shows you how to use your breath in combination with your Edge.
This article How to use your Edge and improve Paschimottanasana shows you how to get more out of a pose safely.
