Namaste

“Be a person who can speak your mind and stand upright like a mountain with your convictions, but can adapt like water in an ever changing season without losing your genuine elements.” ― Roseville Nidea

Depending on how well people know me, they would most likely classify me as a “thinker” or an “over thinker”. This can be great for business, but I have to make a conscious effort to not let worry or excessive planning steal my joy or desire to live in the moment. That said, I believe that the first step to resolving a problem is realizing there is one and so I’ll consider myself at step two…searching for outlets to work on this part of me.

You probably don’t know me as the hard core yogi type, but I have fallen in love with the practice over the past year and a half. I stopped hot yoga when I found out I was pregnant but continued basic yoga through my whole pregnancy and only switched to prenatal yoga in my last month (things were starting to get interesting in the basic classes, even with modifications lol).

I started back postpartum around week 6 and have tried to go at least once a week since. This month, Trevor and I are taking the medical hold off of our Lifetime Fitness membership, meaning I am surrendering my ClassPass addiction in return for unlimited fitness classes and daycare while we work out. Hard to turn that down, huh? All that said, I wanted to make the most out of my last Class and so I chose to go back to a hot vinyasa class at Ember with Jeff. This used to be one of my more challenging yoga options, even when I was in prime shape, so I knew going into it that I would need to get my mind right – overcome the heat, overcome the discomfort and not just enjoy the parts that felt good, but also embrace the more challenging moments – both physically and mentally.

On my drive to Ember, I recalled an opening statement that Miriam often makes when I go to her classes at Be Yoga. She says something to the effect of “how you respond on the mat, is similar to how you respond in the outside world. Do you want to run and hide when you’re challenged or do you embrace it and lean into it?”. I can’t say that I don’t want to run and hide sometimes – whether on or off the mat – but on this day, I would choose to embrace it.

Your yoga instructor will usually have you set an intention for your practice before you begin. Most days I choose something like “Courage” – I have needed an abundance of courage here lately between my ventures into motherhood and entrepreneurship. What I don’t always realize is that this wonderful word can put additional pressure on me, when I’m in the midst of trying to turn off the outside world. Realizing this when I was presented the opportunity to set my intention, I decided to choose “Peace”. It was the most rewarding time I have had to myself in a while and those 75 minutes at 95 degrees flew by way too fast, if you can even imagine that! I was able to turn off my busy mind and take in what I needed most and rid myself of the rest. Can you imagine spending any amount of time focusing on your breathing and, with each breath, inhaling thoughts of peace, joy and forgiveness and exhaling thoughts of fear, judgment and worry? What a wonderful world it would be if everyone did yoga, right?

Case and point- taking the time to have a moment for me and not worrying about anything but my presence on the mat has been life altering these days. It was great before Banks arrived, but now, I literally crave that time and feel so refreshed afterwards. What do you do to turn your mind off and give yourself a break every once in while?