Plateaus

(Original post May 4)

In his book Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment, George Leonard writes, "if our life is good, a life of mastery, most of it will be spent on the plateau. If not, a large part of it may well be spent in restless, distracted, ultimately self-destructive attempts to escape the plateau."

It was good to remind myself of this earlier this week. On Tuesday it seemed that every way my trainer tried to push my limits, to stretch me, led to the same place: a plateau. Until now the climb had been steady. It had been hard work, but each session I felt that I had gone further, grown stronger, gained balance and flexibility. Tuesday, it felt that each place I reached for was just out of reach, just too far to stretch.

Fortunately, I have come to learn about plateaus, and accept them in my life. I have been there with my photography for a few years now, and am just beginning to climb again; I made some of my best pictures ever this past weekend.

Yoga is a place where we all have experienced plateaus. Sometimes it will be in one specific asana; other times it will seem to be our entire practice. For the past two years, my morning practice has begun with fifteen minutes of Viparita Karani (Legs Up the Wall Pose). At some point, it became routine and seemed to lose its power. I continued to do it, fifteen minutes each morning. Last week, just once and not for all that long, I felt a power and depth to my presence in this pose that I have never felt before. I know it will come more frequently now, for longer. I am preparing to leave the plateau.

That is what plateaus do. They allow us to stabilize, to strenghten our commitment. They prepare us to go deeper, further, higher than we have been able to go before. They are a place to rest in our weariness, and to launch our ascent to the next level.

I admit, I was frustrated when I came home from the gym on Tuesday. Wednesday I celebrated the achievement of a new plateau.