IMO one of the very best things about yoga is that it’s your body showing your mind how to dismantle boundaries (and if dismantling boundaries isn’t a key priority for any conscious citizen right now then I dunno what is..).
Your body is WISE - think of all things it just knows about growth, regeneration, transformation, healing, really feeling and encountering pain - and pleasure. It’s not just some lump of flesh you’re dragging around (though truly I get sometime it does feels like that.. hello Monday mornings).
Our minds love to build wee borders and boundaries around what we can and can’t do – physical, social, emotional – like little boxes made out of rules for us to live our lives inside, often stifling, overwhelming and misery inducing when we start to grow or change and they don’t fit us anymore. Stilling your mind and letting your body show you your innate and inherent freedom is a practice and art, a conversation you need to put time in to develop but oh man it’s worthwhile to bust out of that box. And yoga and meditation are sciences, techniques that allow you to develop this.
A good example of this body wisdom in a physical yoga asana practice are the moments when we are in flow, our minds are quiet, and suddenly we’re executing a posture or a sequence or going further and deeper than we believed we could. The first time I did a headstand I was so surprised I had a wee cry! I was SO SURE that my shoulders were too tight and not strong enough for me to do it, it was something I said a lot to yoga pals, a story I totally believed, a rule I was living by, and bam suddenly, effortlessly I was up there – my body knew I could do it, my mind had convinced me I couldn’t.
So a wee invitation today is to try and clock your mind telling you one of these stories, enforcing a rule and maybe just notice that at play - pause, reflect, question – is that really the case? Is that really true? If you pay attention you might even notice a subtle emotion or response in your body that tells you it isn’t – build trust in the wisdom of your body.
Hope you enjoy this #yogachat #content. Sorry if you’re just here for tips on getting bendy. Lemme tell you - if yoga was just stretching I’d have got bored a long time ago.
Now please enjoy this completely unrelated selfie I took with a racing pigeon that made a home on our roof at the weekend and who my neighbours named Jeffrey.
Anna xx
