I often see people in class resisting a pose with all the energy they can muster. It can show up as physical pain or wanting to quit the pose altogether. I can see it in their body language, or their eyes flickering all about the place. Often resistance is reflected in our face without us even knowing. And I can guarantee this happens to me as well. But, as you know, I love to pause and reflect on these experiences.

In Yoga we call this Svadhyaya (spoken svad-yaya) - the practice of self study.

Watching this struggle, recently, a thought came to mind. It reminded me of the the monkey trap. The story goes, that to trap a monkey your put a bunch of bananas in a jar. The monkey will happily reach into the jar trying to retrieve the bunch of bananas. However, if the bunch of bananas is too big to pull out of the jar and the monkey refuses to let go of its spoils then it becomes trapped!

Now all that monkey can do is sit there, trapped by what it is holding on to. The monkey won't let go to find a better way or even consider that letting go could be the better (albeit, uncomfortable) option.

You see, in yoga poses, we often resist the pose because there is an attachment to an emotion or pain that we don't know if we can let go of. Its all we know and we become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

But what if we let go of the bananas? Just simply released our grip on what we've been holding on to and see if there is something better for us?

What are my bananas that I'm desperately clinging too?

What am I holding on to that I don't need to?

I ask you, are you willing to let go of your bananas for the possibility of better?