Effort verses letting go

 The first principle of asana is effort and let do. It states that first when we go into the posture, we need to put effort and once we are in the posture we let go of the effort and relax in the posture.

Today, I was doing Laghu Shanka Prakshalana. I started the process with the aim to clean my stomach. I put effort in all the preparation required to start the process. I prepared kichdi, lukewarm saline water, looked the material to revise all the asanas required to do in each round. I started the process. I drank 500 ml of water in squatted position and did all the required asanas but I did not feel any pressure to go to the washroom. So, I began the second round, did all the asanas and still did not feel any pressure to go to the washroom. But I still decided to go to the washroom and forced myself to do potty. Very less small stool came out with a lot of effort. I was slightly disappointed with the experience. Now continued with third, fourth and fifth round. Still no urge to go to the washroom. Drinking 500ml of water with every round required lot of effort. And I was surprised and disappointed that no internal cleansing was happening. I decided to sit in washroom after 5th round and just sat. I thought the process is over and just gave up. I just let go and sat. And then after 7-8 minutes I saw cleansing suddenly started happening. I sat in the washroom for at least 20 minutes till all the cleansing happened. Then I rested for 40 minutes. I got up and started having kichdi. While having kichdi, I realized that I was putting lot of effort physical and mental to cleanse my system. After the 5th round when I let go, cleansing just happened. I was a wow moment and it clearly showed effort verses let go in action.