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Susananda pointed out that some people adopt an adjustment into their body and change the way they do the posture, but others are very resistant. She noted that the teacher can tell them and adjust them every single day, and they will not budge from their habit / preferred way.

I wonder if the adoption of an adjustment, the real integration of an adjustment into an Ashtangi’s practice, isn’t all about timing. Over the course of a long-term practice, there will always be things that practitioner doesn’t (and can’t) know yet. Individual biomechanical details, and combinations of a number of biomechanical insights (physical gestalts). A nudge in the right direction (i.e., an adjustment) can certainly help. Either immediately (the practitioner can use it right away) or as another piece of the puzzle that’ll eventually kick in in combination with other previously stored and yet-to-be-discovered pieces.

To physically adjust, over and over, though — isn’t there a good possibility the student will just be desensitized? If the student can’t use the information in the adjustment, if the student can’t interpret and apply the adjustment, does it make sense to keep doing it?

I’m not suggesting that if someone doesn’t “get” an adjustment, then forget about the whole thing. I’d say, give it a few tries, then set it aside for later. Somehow this reminds me of when I discovered John Ashbery’s poetry as a teenager. There was something about it that appealed to me, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. I set it aside and returned to it periodically. And one day, when I went back, there was that “eureka!” moment.

Or maybe it’s like the creative process: there are times when things just have to percolate internally. And there has to be *space* for that to happen. Where you can look at your intentions and connect emotionally with your actions. Where you can meditate on it.

Isn’t that where it all comes alive?