The Freedom of No Expectations

Many times I’ve found that my best yoga practices emerge on days when I didn’t expect too much—when I wasn’t feeling at my best physically or when I didn’t feel like practicing at all. Expectations are tricky things. They can fill us with hope (not a bad thing) but they can also be limiting, lead to disappointment, or even arouse a sort of aggression in yoga (“I ‘expected’ to be able to do this posture today and so I’m going to force myself into it”). Part of the problem is that expectations always take us out of the present moment and can lead us to focus on result, not on process and practice. Of course we know from experience how we often feel after a good yoga class (energized, relaxed, limber, or even a bit “worked-out”) and hoping for that is what keeps us coming back. At the same time, it’s still important for every practice that we remain open and not let our expectations (high or low) limit our experience of yoga.