DON’T BE AWESOME!

Yes, you will never usually hear this from me!  Right??!!  I typically am a huge advocate of going AFTER (ALL IN!) towards your goals and dreams, right?

But, here we are in this FIRST WEEK OF THE NEW YEAR!  And I implore you to:  DO NOT BE AWESOME.

DO NOT GO ALL OUT.

BECAUSE- none of us are ready.  NO SINGLE PERSON on this earth is at their most fit on these days.  Many of us have not MOVED.  We have not reached up, we have not twisted, we have not even STOOD as much.  We have been seated more than ever.

As I write this, I am very much thinking of YOGA PRACTICE.  Do NOT expect yourself to move like you moved 2 weeks ago, if you haven’t been consistent.  And it. Is. OK. 

Take this week to re-enter.  Arrive, attend, show up, move with your breath.  Just feel, and that is ALL. This is not the time to do more.  This is not the time to try a position that previously hasn’t worked well for you- the turning of the calendar hasn’t changed that.

And then, even after this week, guess what?  For some people (MYSELF!!), yoga is my place where I remind myself EVERY TIME I arrive on my mat- do not be awesome, do not go 10/10, do not do your best, do not break barriers here.  I have learned, personally, over the years that trying to reshape my body into shapes that don’t work for me, leads to injury.  Yoga isn’t really the place for “goals.”  If you show up day after day, month after month, year after year, your body will become more balanced, flexible and strong, your mind more present, and that is the only “goal” that is needed.  This doesn’t mean that you cannot be interested and actively working on balancing on hands, in crow or handstands, or working on becoming more flexible in hips or hamstrings.  But the mindset is on the journey- the showing up and trusting the natural progression of practice.

Yoga is a great place to teach yourself to not be at 100%.  If you are a person who works on not always being at their best, being real, use your practice to do just that--- arrive, be where you are.  I challenge you to have one thing, in each yoga practice, where you “let yourself” do a modification that you might not have done.  Something “less”.  Something to remind yourself that you don’t need to always go big.  That you have the capacity to listen and follow what is right from day to day, and it doesn’t always have to be your “ultimate.”  You can learn to feel whole and complete, while being just as you are today—nothing more.  Practice a bit of “not being awesome.”!!  You heard it here😊