It doesn’t need to be perfect. The pose, the timing, the event, none of it.
Ishvara pranidhana in yoga means surrender. Surrender is not passive or complacent. Surrender is the most peaceful, soft, and least passive-aggressive “fuck it” you’ve ever given. It’s the “oh well” that lets you finally see that none the small stuff ever mattered anyway. It’s a gift of seeing a bigger picture.
Ishvara Pranidhana has us give up the ego. The “what if it’s not good enough?” The fear of failing. The fear of succeeding. Aren't we all, in a really strange way, afraid of BOTH failing and succeeding?
Done is better than perfect. An imperfect result is better than a burned out creator. Can we really show up in self-actualization as a fried, overworked, stressed version of ourselves? Eventually, we have to let all that other stuff go. Not that the shit will ever stop hitting the fan, but the idea that contentedness and shit hitting the fan are mutually exclusive. Isn't something always going wrong? What if you could be fine regardless of all the external drama?
Ishvara pranidhana is the easiest path. It's the path that recognizes all the extra hurdles and pitstops and drama we create around the path aren't important.
I'll be the first to tell you, I haven't mastered this and reached the end of the path by any means. I'm a long ways away. But yoga has given me a map. The idea of surrender lets me explore it.