Finish The Sentence Friday - My Favourite Way to Exercise

My favorite way to exercise is yoga.  I mean it.  I may not be super thin, or hugely built, but yoga keeps me long, lean and strong.  And all while helping me center, burn stress and connect with my inner life.  Not a bad deal for twenty minutes a day!

Transparency alert ~

I am not stone cold consistent with my practice.  I often will put it off or skip it entirely for the lamest of reasons. Being too tired, feeling sore, or being...ahem....too busy are all excuses I have offered myself for not showing up on my mat when I had intended to. 

And yet, when I return, my mat is always there, offering no judgements, feeling none of the neglect, ready to support me as I move through the asanas.  As a workout companion, my mat is one of the best I have had.  It's always there for me when I need it. 

And yoga is wonderful in that you need no special equipment, not even shoes, to indulge in it's benefits.

My mind, like most of yours I am sure dear reader, is abuzz with thought more often than not.  Yoga is difficult to practice distracted.  To get deep benefit from the practice it requires me to be fully present to what is happening in my body.  To be aware of what is grounding, where I am reaching, what muscles are lengthening and which are contracting, where my eyes are gazing and how my breath is moving. 

Yoga, you see,  asks nothing more of me than my presence.  In my mind, in my body and on my mat. The more I can give this little gift to myself of presence in practice, the more space I invite into my mind where there are no thoughts.  This space grounds me.  It is my awareness that is beyond thought, the presence that allows me to edit my words before they fly out of my mouth (see previous post on Unsought Words)  and stop to think before I react. 

Yoga is my constant companion, and my absolute favourite way to exercise, hands down. 

(Zumba rocks too, but that's a post for another day :) ) 

Me, A Mighty Warrior?

Here I am at the top of another page.  Another day, another cup of coffee, another new beginning.  

New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.  Its all in your perspective.  If you can look at the pain and see it as a catalyst for change, you are the better for it.  Change hurts. Growth hurts. Pain helps us grow.  If it hurts, lean into it.   It will help you to grow, to see what it is in you that is rigid and fixed.  Those are the parts of us that need to grow, need to change.  What hurts, and how it hurts are clues to the parts of us that most desperately need to change and develop.  If we shy away from the things that hurt, we are robbing ourselves of opportunities that could lead to explosive and absolute change.  The changes that we need the most to become the most effective and able person we are capable of being. 

Trust me, I do not write this out of wisdom or some mistaken saviour complex.  I do not write this because I am perfect.  I write this because I have hidden from the things that hurt me.  I have buried myself deep, away from the ideas, thoughts and experiences that are painful for me.  Times that bring me face to face with my rigidity have sent me into spirals of darkness, down the slope of The Big Black Pit.  Often, on the other side of our rigidity is the downward slope into blackness.  We have a choice.  I have had a choice.  I have often chosen sameness.  This has led me into the black pits of self doubt, self destruction.  I have not really learned to ALWAYS lean into change.  Who wants to hurt?  No one wishes to choose to hurt,  but we all desire change.  How often have you looked at the place you are, the person you are, and longed for better?  This is most often the source of my blackness, that I see my stuckness, my rigidity and I long to be free of it.  In that longing I have hidden from the very thing that would lead to the change I so deeply desire.  Because it hurts.  

Lean into it.  Nothing can hurt more than being stuck.  Stuckness can last forever if we allow it to.  It is the only state of being that can perpetually stick us in limbo.  If we hide long enough, and stubbornly enough, we will stay the same.  Somehow, life always knows.  It will always come up with a way to move us along, to make us grow.  Whether we want it to or not. 

If we want so desperately to change, take charge.  At least we can have that control.  We can CHOOSE to lean into the pain, the struggle, and allow it to refine us, to redefine us.   Choosing to lean into things that challenge us can be empowering.  We stop being victims of circumstance and start becoming warriors.  When we choose to stare down the enemy, to stand our ground, we reclaim our power.  From this position of power, we are in control.  We may not control the circumstance,  but we do control our reaction to it.  It stops being reaction, and begins to become conscious response.  In responding, rather than reacting, we grow.  We learn.  We become more self aware, and more able to tame the lions within our own hearts.  Truly, the most terrifying enemy is the fear that we harbour within our own hearts.  When we can face that, own it, and use it to fuel our growth, we become mighty warriors indeed.