What Hot Yoga Has Taught Me About Myself & Personal Growth
Embracing Discomfort is the Secret to Growth
As a 38-year-old man that grew up playing baseball and basketball, I had done all the hard workouts before. Circuit training, running until you puked during Hell Week, jogging around the high school football stadium track through inches of snow in 30-degree weather.
None of that prepared me for my experiences stepping into a 105-degree sauna of a room and getting into poses that my mind and body visibly laughed at in response. All the while sweat was dripping down my forehead like somebody had turned on a faucet.
Not only did I feel gross, but I also felt like the only person in the room that wanted to get up immediately and leave. Everyone else seemed to be just going through the motions as if it’s a regular day and this isn’t even the hardest thing they’ve done that day.
My ego has taken many hits when I’m struggling in class to hold a pose like dolphin for more than 10-15 seconds.
I’ve learned some hard truths about myself in hot yoga and the lessons I’ve carried forward as I continue on my self improvement journey.
What Hot Yoga Taught Me About Myself
I realized in that hot torture room that my mindset in hot yoga has been a microcosm of my mindset in life. I’ve avoided any kind of physical or mental discomfort throughout my adult life for fear of that demon breaking out of the shackles I put him in. I wrote about him below.
Thank You, Panic & Anxiety
You’ve terrified me most of my adult life. Your presence was a constant reminder—a tight chest, shallow breaths, a persistent sense of fear.
Because of these fears, I’ve lived a small life where I only did things I was comfortable with and I hadn’t expanded my ability to embrace discomfort.
I realized that growth happens only after you embrace the discomfort.
Let me drive home some examples: I’ve only left the United States once in my life and it was to go to Toronto for business. One of my deep fears is being stranded in another country without my support system and access to my antidepressant. Up until recently, I’ve felt incapable of managing that fear and discomfort by myself.
This fear is the same reason I’ve never been on a cruise. It’s the same fear that has kept me from pursuing my passions in life and instead accepting and being grateful simply for having a 9-5 job.
My internal managers1 of fear and avoidance have been on high alert to keep me from this discomfort because they knew I couldn’t handle it.
What I’ve realized in that sweat box of hell is that my need to avoid discomfort has caused me to not grow in many facets of my life. And it wasn’t until I started to embrace that discomfort that I started to notice my life change.
To Grow, You Have to Embrace Discomfort
The most challenging part about personal growth is you don’t grow without going through discomfort. Think about it: We’d all be superhumans if we could learn everything, lift the heaviest weights, do the hardest things, without actually having to go through the pain of learning, building, and failing.
Concepts like Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule, while not necessarily accurate2, do help you understand the amount of practice that’s needed to become a master at anything. If you’re doing something for 10,000 hours, like learning the piano, do you think that’s 10,000 hours of perfection? Absolutely not. That’s probably 7,000 hours of feeling like a complete failure, 2,000 hours of feeling like “Okay, maybe I’m starting to get this” and 1,000 hours of “Oh my god I think I can be good at this.”
I’m not trying to learn the piano, however. I’m on a focused self improvement journey and one of my largest mountains has been my fear of anxiety and panic symptoms. It’s the reason I’ve been on an antidepressant for 20 years, ever since I had that first panic attack at 18 years old.
What I learned in hot yoga was that I had to embrace that discomfort, that anxiety about the unknown, if I truly wanted to make changes in my life. I had to be honest with myself and ask, “Is that who I really want to be?” The answer was a resounding “NO!”
If you want to improve your life, you have to first accept and embrace the discomfort that will come with it. You have to be willing to push through the initial pain and uncertainty, understanding that these feelings and emotions are necessary for your growth.
How Do You Learn to Embrace Discomfort?
I’m glad you asked!
Next week, I will publish a follow-up that will walk you through how I’ve learned to embrace discomfort as I’ve continued my self improvement journey.
I know this will be really beneficial and I’m excited to post it!
Part 2
Unlock Your Growth: Why a Little Discomfort is Your Secret Weapon
Last week, I wrote about what hot yoga has taught me about myself and about personal growth: That embracing discomfort is crucial to achieving meaningful growth.
“Managers are a type of protector part in the IFS model. Their primary job is to keep you feeling in control, safe, and acceptable in the world by preventing painful or difficult emotions (held by Exiles) from surfacing. They are proactive and strategic. They try to manage your life, your environment, and your interactions to avoid triggering exiled pain or causing further harm.” (Gemini)
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/8/23/20828597/the-10000-hour-rule-debunked
I realllly enjoyed this! The way you described building a life around avoiding discomfort- I recognised myself in that more than I wanted to. It’s hard to admit, but even harder to keep ignoring. Thank you for writing this so openly!!
This really resonated with me.
I’ve done Bikram yoga, too, and I remember the discomfort. The way the heat makes you want to run, and also teaches you not to. It’s wild how, over time, you stop resisting the heat and start embracing it. That lesson has stayed with me far beyond the mat.
I live with anxiety and self-doubt, and you’re absolutely right: growth doesn’t happen in the cozy, curated zones. It happens when you stay with the thing that scares you just long enough to realize you can.
Thank you for putting this into words.
I needed the reminder: feel the fear, and do it anyway.