 There are many different ways to remind yourself that you’re awesome and you can do FAR more than you think you can. I would like to present you with the challenge today that you go out and find one small thing that is slightly beyond where you’re comfortable. A thing you want to try or do but you’re resisting because you don’t believe you can. I don’t mean something that requires training or practice, but just something you think you could do if you took a stab at it. I recently found mine after a weekend at a yoga retreat. I’m by no means a yogi and was nervous I was going to collapse in a heap during the two hours of yoga. Fortunately for me about half it was kundalini yoga, or breathing exercises, which I mentioned in a separate post on here. At this yoga weekend one of the asanas we were asked to do was a headstand. I thought NO WAY. There was no I was going to do that and tumble off my mat and break something (which wasn’t even the worst fear - public humiliation is a far bigger motivator to stay down). For those of us, which was the majority, that didn’t want to try the headstand we were given a different exercise to do. This exercise was hard and further cemented in my belief I’d never be able to do it. After I got home though it lingered in the back of my mind. If I tried, could I do it? How long would it take to master? I thought, well, only one way to find out. I decided if I used the wall as support I could try this out. I got into position as the teacher had taught as and started kicking my legs up. And just like that, I was up. The first few times I did use the wall. But after those first times I wondered if I used it ONLY because it was there. What if I trusted myself that I could stay up? The thing I was realizing was this headstand business was mostly mental. Although it does take a physical element I promise you the headstand is not about how strong you are (and if you are going to try this PLEASE have the first time be with an instructor, there is a way to place your arms that is very important). I don’t lift weights, do pushups or anything much in that manner. Once I was up the challenge was staying balanced and trusting myself. I had to trust myself. That was my challenge. I’ve heard for many years now the benefits of doing inverted yoga poses. I’ll let you read all about it here http://www.sunandmoonstudio.com/Articles/headstand.html if it interests you. But to be honest my biggest motivator in trying this was a change of perspective. The exercises that had prepared me for the headstand where a million times harder than the headstand itself. As I had been in the midst of these exercises all I could think of was that phrase, “Change how you look at things and the things you look at change.” I realize this wasn’t meant literally, but something inside me really did want to flip upside down and gaze at the world that way. Why not? A few minutes reversing a lifetime of gravity sounded nice to me. Once I did my first headstand without the safety net of the wall I felt something inside me I haven’t felt in a long time. I felt open and capable. I felt refreshed. I felt, “If I can do this, what else is possible?” I would love you to find one thing today that helps you to say to yourself, “If I can do this, what else is possible?” There is something. How could there not be? Unless you’ve tried everything on Earth then there is something, there is a thing waiting for you to try. Perhaps you want to try baking bread for the first time. Or running up a nearby hill without stopping. What’s your thing? Go find it. Don’t put it off until tomorrow. Because wouldn’t it be amazing to wakeup tomorrow knowing you did it and asking yourself, what else is possible?  |
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