om spirit
goals to postures, like standing upside-
down, the typical release of emotion that
follows a win never occurs because we
suppress the competitive spirit beforehand.
This is why it is so important to think about
competition, winning, losing and judgement,
as four separate feelings that do not have
to coexist.
As an emotion, in and of itself, winning is
a feeling of elation; a lightness, a watery-
eyed smile that has culminated from hours
of practice and years of perseverance. It is
the feeling that transpires and builds from
the start of time bending; our motions slow,
gravity pauses, our breath deepens into
waves of compression, and our surroundings
become obsolete. Our physical movements
start to act out deliberately, through second
nature or instinctual thought.
Different kind of victory
Winning is the feeling when you come out
of that; when time resumes, the crowd
cheers, the wave breaks, the mile marker
passes, breathing takes over, adrenaline
releases, and gravity resumes. You look
around and remember where you were after
several moments of complete mind-body
isolation free from worry about who was
watching and what just happened around
you. You experience all of the work, all of
the challenges, all of the struggles, and
everything you’ve accomplished pulsating
through your body at once. It is a moment of
inexplicable euphoria. When you let go of it
all, you can feel the win. It’s hard to imagine
another feeling that defies all physics of
time and is more present-moment than this.
To know that many yogis deprive themselves
of it at the risk of feeling competitive or
judged is disheartening. While I believe it is
possible to retrain our brains and detach
winning from competition, for some, the idea
just has to be introduced.
Inner competition
Understanding that competition is what
usually provides the nerves and excitement
that is released upon victory, I’m suggesting
that we can find other ways to channel
the emotion if we practice. Competition
is a feeling that we instinctually possess
and has been reinforced to us by society,
sports, and academics. Although there
can be benefits and detriments to this,
winning is different than competing. The
competition is fictitious, the competition is
physical, and the competition is a means
to an anxiety provoking end that our brain
tells us determines the fate of whether the
activity and our efforts have paid off. It is
the build-up, it is the game. The intensity
of a competition can be replicated without
judgement; the magnitude of a competition
can be replicated without an event.For me, the feeling comes from the
excitement that arises when I do my best
and I try something new. Oftentimes, it’s
an inner competition of self where my
body has the final say but my mind will
continuously challenge regardless of
whether I am by myself or in a crowded
studio. The feelings that we experience are
real, the activity of the competition is not.
If we start to reshape our thoughts, the
build-up can almost always result in a win,
regardless of the outcome.Beyond judgement
Winning is different than judging the
outcome. Judgement in yoga occurs from
the assignment of finality to postures or
the comparison to something else. I used
to think the only way to feel a win in yoga is
to reach the ‘end goal’, such as kicking my
feet over my head. My competitive intuitions
would act up at the most inopportune times
and, if achieved, I would experience a short
burst of shallow victory. Cue the high fives,
party tricks, and Instagram feed. This is not
winning, this is gloating.
We have been told that when we fall in
yoga, or in life, we make the most progress.
It is hard not to feel silly, sad, or even
embarrassed, since that is what we have
practiced for years. I believe we can train
our mind to release different emotions than
what we rehearse if we start telling ourselves
something different. We can experience the
feeling of winning when we sit in Child’s Pose,
take a break, take a fall, or stop short. We
just need to control our mind to celebrate
this threshold, mark this milestone, and get
a glimpse of this growth.
This can take years of practice but it can
create a lifetime of happiness. It can happen
in yoga, if we let go of what we think we
already know.Jered Seibert is the founder of Warrior Wear
(yogawarriorwear.com)“As an emotion, in and^
of itself, winning is
a feeling of elation; a
lightness, a watery-eyed
smile that has culminated
from hours of practice and
years of perseverance.”