“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
I confess I used to complain a little bit (actually a lot) whenever someone mentioned Peacock Pose. Imagine my best whiney voice as I say, “It hurts my stomach,” “It makes me feel claustrophobic,” or my personal favorite, “I can’t.”
Mostly, I complained because it made me mad that I couldn’t do it. I didn’t feel like I was even close. and it made me less than excited about trying to do something I was pretty certain I’d never be able to do anyway. I mean, it wasn’t a lie that I couldn’t do it, and that made it pretty easy to say, “I can’t.”
Those two little words come with lots of problems and implications. “I can’t” limits your mindset, framing your situation as impossible and creates a self fulfilling prophecy of failure. According to the article, “Yes you can, how to stop saying you can’t do something,” You will not understand the depth of harm “I can’t” can do until you begin to understand and believe the power of your thoughts.
I see it all the time in yoga class — we take one look at an unfamiliar pose and immediately decide, “I can’t do that.” How do you know though? Did you try? If you didn’t get it the first time, did you try again? Did you push yourself or simply make a half-hearted effort just so you could say, “I tried and I couldn’t get it.”
What we’re really doing is giving ourselves an excuse, when we really should be truthful, using words like, “I don’t want to or I’m scared.” In which case you have to ask yourself, “Why don’t I want to at least try to do this? What am I afraid of? Will I actually hurt myself if I fail? Or will I look/feel silly when I try and can’t get it?”
So while I was saying, “I can’t,” about Peacock, what I really meant was, “It’s too hard and I don’t want to work on it.” And honestly, it kinda made me mad that this arm balance gave me fits, while others seemed so simple.
Something happened though when I added the word “yet” after “I can’t.” Using the word “yet” leaves the door open to possibility and makes you more motivated to make the effort. It allows you time to make it happen, while reminding yourself that it will never happen if you don’t make the effort.
This small mindshift gave me an attitude adjustment, and I started looking at Peacock as a challenge I hadn’t mastered yet, rather than as a nemesis. I watched how-to videos, took notes on tips to make the pose more accessible, practiced A LOT, and then one day, I got it! I set up my arms, put my forehead to the floor, felt my feet and legs floating, and then lifted my head! (BTW this all happened in my 60s, not my 20s.)
Now Peacock is one of my favorite poses — partly because it really does look/feel cool when you do it — but mostly because it was difficult, it took a lot of work, and I stopped saying, “I can’t” to get it.
