Welcome To The Lift

Hey there,

Here's something I taught in class today that I want to put in writing, because I think it's bigger than the pose we were working on.

You can do anything at 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%.

That's it. That's the whole framework.

I built it because I was watching people try to muscle their way into the full expression of High Lunge with Backbend on the first attempt, and what I kept seeing was the same thing I see in a lot of practices and a lot of lives. People skipping the base. Trying to be at 100% before they have a foundation that can hold it. Then wondering why it feels like falling.

So this is how we broke it down today.

25% is half lunge with the back knee down, cactus arms, gentle heart lift. Or hands at heart center if even that feels like a lot. This is where the pose lives when you're tired. When you're new. When today is not the day. And it counts. It absolutely counts. 25% is not less yoga than 100%. It's the same yoga at a different volume.

50% is still half lunge, back knee still down, but the arms come up and the chest reaches back a little more. You're starting to find the line. You're not gripping. You're not bracing. You're just letting a little more space in.

75% is what we did today. Full high lunge, back knee lifted, cactus arms or hands interlaced and pulling down toward the floor to open the chest. This is real work. This is the version where your legs are shaking a little and you have to actually breathe through it.

100% is the full expression. The deepest backbend the pose has to offer. The version that looks like a magazine cover. And here's the thing I want you to know about 100%.

You don't have to get there.

Not today. Not this month. Not ever, if 75% is what your body actually wants. 100% is not the goal. The goal is to find the percentage that's honest for you, on this day, in this body, with this much sleep, this much stress, this many things on your plate.

That's the practice. Not the maximum. The honesty.

Yoga Sutra 1.33 says cultivate equanimity. Equanimity isn't about being unbothered. It's about not picking a fight with where you actually are. You can't be equanimous if you're constantly trying to be at 100% when you're a 50% kind of day. The fight with yourself is the thing the practice is trying to soften.

So here's your assignment for the week. Notice what percentage you're showing up at. In class. In conversations. In the work you're doing. In the openness you're practicing.

Then stop trying to outrun it.

The monthly quote still stands: Lift the heart. Let the breath do the rest.

And the throughline still stands: Walk slowly. Just don't walk backwards.

You don't have to walk fast. You just have to keep going. At whatever percentage you've got today.

See you on the floor.

Annie

PS-If you're not sure what percentage you are right now, that's its own answer. Come to class. We'll figure it out together.