Where to from here?

I won't lie, I've been feeling a bit lost. There have been several changes in my life, vast majority of them great. But with change comes some instability, I guess. Readjusting to, playing around with, getting used to, and seeing the ripple effects of change.

In a yoga practice (and in life) you want change. That's what we strive for. Without change we'd be stagnant, stuck, with no growth. Change is something that we'd usually celebrate. Being able to hold a handstand when you were never previously able to, for example, would be a fantastic feeling! ("would be", because I still haven't gotten that right yet. Ugh.)

On the flip side though, not being able to do a back bend anymore when that was one of your best poses is also change, but more a change that needs to be dealt with and accepted (been there, done that). It can be seen as a 'negative' change. Or you could choose to see the lesson in it.

So where is the lesson in this instability and fear that I'm feeling? But also, why am I struggling with it when the changes themselves were so positive?

Staying grateful for the positivity is definitely something that I needed to learn (as is each little bit of progress on my handstand). Trusting that the change will lead to better things (and that it's not just the change itself that was good) requires a leap of faith. It also requires persistent effort to making the best of each new thing that arises. So, I guess I'm saying that I need to listen and look out for the positive more? Just keep on keeping on. Keep practicing. Keep doing the yoga.

So, with one foot in front of the other, slowly and steadily, I keep moving. Perhaps this week I'll teach more flow, to just keep going, quietly and mindfully.

Or something like that.

Almost sorta' got it... I mean, I can get up there, against a wall, but I'm still way off from actually holding it away from the wall...

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Hello to new beginnings

If you've been following the website or our Facebook page, or you're a new or existing client, you'll have seen that things have changed a bit... We have a spectacular new studio in the most amazing setting.

I have had the immense privilege of partnering up and working with amazingly amazing women to help me on this new venture. I won't mention names, but you guys (should) know who you are! You all rock!

This whole turn around has also made me very much aware of how awesome many of my clients are. The support and understanding that I've gotten has been tremendous. I am absolutely sure that it will all be worth it once you see and start sessions in the new space. But thank you to you lovely people!

...this is sounding a bit like an Oscars thank you speech...

*music starts playing*

Come check out the incredible new space and the new extended timetable! And also our open day on the 7th of March... save the date so long, details will follow soon!

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Trust

ANOTHER BLOG POST?? ALREADY?
What can I say, when inspiration hits, it hits hard.

So, I was just having a chat with my sister and she’s trying to encourage me to write more, or at least trying to convince me that my posts really aren’t that bad and that people actually like reading them - or at least that’s what the stats say? I find myself in a position of needing to just let go and trust her.

But this isn’t the only time that this kind of trust thing has come up for me recently. I had to let go of some crappy stuff that I was terrified of ‘losing’ (inverted commas because it turned out that I gained so much more from letting go that ‘loss’ hardly played a role) and that took a lot of trust that other, and hopefully better things would come along.

I’m really modest, often to my own detriment. But the message has been coming across pretty persistently that I’m actually not that bad at what I do, and that perhaps, maybe, I’m actually really good at it. Maybe I really do have a knack for helping people and seeing things and knowing how to go about shifting things. But just to type that has taken so much (letting go and) trusting people (and their results, too) that I’m wondering if perhaps I don’t have major trust issues… *jots down notes for next therapy appointment*

I’m also wondering now how trust can play into your yoga practice, and I guess there it would be all to do with trusting your body, trusting the process, listening and being kind to yourself (more on this here).

My sister and me. She looks trustworthy, right? 

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It never rains, it pours

In my head I’ve written this blog a thousand times. Each one has been slightly different, but they've all had the same gist. The same topic. The same everything, just phrased or sorted differently.

Each one was about how “it never rains, it pours”, and how, (somehow; I can’t think about it right now for some reason) it relates to yoga, and letting go of the excess, and how the two intertwine so magnificently.

But then, in my head, I started making this blog post so much bigger, and bolder, and more detailed than it needed to be, that I started to loathe the idea of having to write this post... I always had an excuse, or an alternative time to do it, or any reason to avoid writing it.

Yes, I was away on holiday at that time, too, and that could easily be a legitimate reason to postpone thinking about ‘work’ stuff. But still, my head continued birthing ridiculous comments. This time about how I was being so lazy, procrastinating again and falling back into bad habits, being so selfish and self-absorbed, a disgrace to humanity.

Luckily I managed, somewhat, to capture this train of thought at that point. I took a deep breath. I realised that it was self-sabotaging. I realised that it was a toxic thought path. A dead end. And it was only a week later, while lying in bed trying (admittedly, not very hard) to fall asleep, that I realised that I had just lived out the message of my blog post. The excess noise that our thoughts make needs to be let go of. It doesn't always have to be pouring.

But even if it IS pouring, and it isn't just your head making little mole hills into huge-ass mountains, we still can calm the mind down. We can still make it less pour-y and more rain-y, in our heads. And by doing so, perhaps alter our perception of where we're at. Similarly, in yoga, we need to let go of where we were yesterday, or where we want to be, and we need to stop putting ourselves down for not being somewhere further, or somewhere else. We do have the power to calm the storm in ourselves.

Sometimes I feel that my cat always thinks that it's pouring. Like, if she has only two bowls of food available to her around the house, rather than three, her world might end. But it is all about perspective, Elsie, it's all about perspective.

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