TAKING CARE OF OUR SELVES- WHAT WOULD THAT LOOK LIKE?

 

WHY YOGA? WHY DO THE THINGS WE NEED TO DO?!

I’ve been meaning to write this for a week, but it seems to big, too important and I know my words cannot do justice for the passion burning inside me. I went to a conference a week ago and, as always at these events, was reinvigorated. I care so much about the people I work with.

To care about your health and fitness- what does that mean?  Well, it means sometimes doing things you don’t necessarily WANT to do.  It means sometimes going out of your way.  It means asking yourself, “if I’m not taking care of myself fully in the way that I know how to, why not?” and “if not now, what am I waiting for? What would it take, a health disaster for me to start really making choices based on knowledge and research?”

(Some of you have heard this in the week since)- but there was a session and the guy leading the session was saying that if you do these stretches/strengthening exercises 2x/day for 2 weeks, research shows it realigns /balances discrepancies in joint angles and alignment. Well, when I heard that, I’m thinking – how does this guy get people to do these things 2x/day when I sometimes just have people do something ONCE and that doesn’t always get adhered to.  I asked, “what strategies have you found successful in having people adhere to doing this twice/day?”

The response was: “do you brush your teeth twice/day?” (embarrassingly I nod yes).. and he says, “Why are we taking care of only our teeth twice/day?”  And honestly it was such a good question. For real.  I mean- why is it really so much to take care (ESPECIALLY WHEN WE HAVE PAIN!!??!!) of our physical bodies 2x/day?  Why would we NOT take 2x/day 5-10 minute to MAKE A DIFFERENCE in how we feel, move and go about our world. Why have we learned from the time we are babies that our teeth are the biggest thing to take care of twice/day?!  Why not our spine, our muscles, our joints; why is this not a GIVEN??!! As much as I love and believe that what we do makes a difference- it really felt eye opening to me that yea- we choose what to take care of.  We have time. It is a choice.

We know the importance of regular exercise in optimizing health and reducing disease, but we still don’t always make the choices in line with our knowledge.  We KNOW that we are too stressed out, but do we take the time to regularly practice slowing down.  We know we are tight, we know we need more balance (both physical balance and balance of the ways we expend our energy and balance of our fitness), but do we incorporate this balance into our weekly fitness program.

WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE TO BEGIN?

That brings me to the practice of YOGA.  Some of you know I started as the unlikeliest person to do yoga.  I actually walked out of the first class I took in college. (They were doing alternate nostril breathing and oh mY GOSH I HAD NO TIME FOR THAT- I know it just was not the right place for me to get a foot – hold into making yoga an accessible practice to me).

I cannot say that I know what is right for everyone, but I can say that if you are someone who wants to be in tune with your own self, feel what it feels like to be in your body, have a slowing down of your mind, learning to be more patient with yourself and others, practice being in the moment, (not even yet mentioning the actual PHYSICAL parts of yoga), then I think you should give it a fair shot.  And a fair shot doesn’t mean trying it once or twice). What about 6 months?

In 6 months: What if you:

Learned to breathe: What if you could slow your entire being down enough to take actual full and nourishing and nurturing breaths, and what does that even mean?  And really- what does that FEEL LIKE in your body? (because we KNOW that our life experiences for the most part have taught us to NOT feel things in our body, to ignore sensations). So, what if we used our full muscles of respiration to strengthen those- to help us in so many ways having stronger lungs, along with all of the hormonal changes that come with calming the nervous system with full and complete breaths that coordinate with the muscular movements of breath. Honestly, how amazing even is THAT. 

Stop doubting yourself. What if you were able to catch yourself when you were busy doubting yourself, thinking you didn’t know how to do something, and instead began trusting the wisdom of your body.  Trusting your body’s natural instincts.

Learn to be with yourself. Can we practice literally sitting with ourselves.  Standing with ourselves.  Breathing with ourselves.  And then MOVING WITH OURSELVES.  WITH our natural rhythm of breath. Can we find a way to not look outside of ourselves to distract ourselves from what arises, even uncomfortable sometimes, from within.  The only way to be true to ourselves and know ourselves is to take some time with ourselves, right?

Practice patience. I mean, I don’t think I’m alone in being one of the people in the world struggling to be more patient.  It is hard. We are always a work in progress on this. (unless you aren’t in the place of working on it?!)  In practice, can you be patient with yourself:  can you be patient when you fall, when your mind wanders, can you over and over give yourself the grace that you would give your best friend who is working on something?

Be curious and open. It makes me amazed at the open mindedness that it takes to show up at a yoga practice with really no idea what is coming and to be OPEN to just following, open to doing things that maybe aren’t your favorite (but maybe those are the most important things to do!)

Practice being in the body with no goals, practice for the sake of just practice, not need to be good. PRACTICE FEELING WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE IN YOUR BODY! AND OK IN THAT SPaCE! What does it feel like to relax (while upright and awake).  What does it feel like to raise your arms to the sky and lift your chin?!  Do you feel free in a sense that you’ve never felt?  What does it feel  like to push DOWN into your heel and feel your BODY connecting in some fundamental way to the earth that you RISE FROM.  Sometimes yoga is awe, wonder in movement, astonishing amazement.  We are so lucky to experience life.

Did I say learn how to breathe?  Yea, It’s kinda important.

Be okay right now, one moment at a time. It’s so common to always be either looking forward- working TOWARDS something (and you know I’m not against having goals!) or looking back/ ruminating/ regretting. To have the ability to settle into the present moment… HERE… NOW… relieves so much anxiety, if even for moments you can come back to presence, you find your body softening, breathing settles, what circulates in the body shifts. It is frankly quite amazing.

Practice imperfection: Ok – it’s so common to hear people who “cannot do yoga.” And that is not a thing. If someone thinks or says that “they cannot do yoga,” they don’t even maybe know it isn’t a thing!  Everyone can do yoga and every single persons yoga looks different. My arms lifted straight over my shoulders LOOK DIFFERENT than someone else’s arms overhead.  That doesn’t mean I cannot do it because mine might not go as narrow.  My downdog will look different than 100 other people’s downdogs because of TONS of reasons- ankle bone shape, calf and foot flexibility, arm and leg length differences, hip and spine differences!  YOGA IS NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE! IT IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE! And that is part of the practice – to learn to be genuinely in the place that is only right for YOU.  If we go into tree position and you fall 7 x while we are in one tree position- that still does not mean you cannot do yoga!  YOU ARE- falling is part of it! It is such a GIFT to arrive on the mat knowing that your practice will never be perfect.  (there isn’t even really a “perfect” in yoga- it just is what it is). We can LET GO and LET OURSELVES BE. Would you tell your best friend that “they couldn’t do yoga” because they aren’t awesome at balancing, or because they have tight hamstrings?  Of course not.  Treat yourself like your very own best friend and show up for yourself.

Physical:  What if we got in 6 months time to a place where our bodies were on their way to resetting in an aligned posture: with shoulders back and down, awareness of how we feel our feet, stand with a tall spine, engaging core.  What if we regularly NOTICED being able to relax our neck and jaw. 

WHAT IF we learned to breathe in a way that signals to our nervous system that we are calm, so we turn on parasympathetic nervous system (instead of fight or flight which so many of us are accustomed to being in). 

How often do you twist and breathe in that twist?  If you don’t, you are losing over time the ability to have that range of motion.  Same with side bending, with reaching, reaching behind you, learning forward.

Maybe most of all, in yoga, WE PRACTICE BEING “EMBODIED”- that means being in tune with the sensations of our body, of listening to what feels right and TRUSTING OURSELVES.  Enjoying the feeling of raising our arms over shoulders.  Of circling arms, of looking UPWARDS, of noticing our bodies feeling free within movement.

IF NOT NOW, WHEN WILL YOU BEGIN?