Hello dear readers,
How are you today? I’m great. Quite frankly, I’m impressed that I’m writing a blog again this week. Dare I say that I’m getting back in the habit of doing so?
Anyway, I hope you’ve had a wonderful week since you were last here. Since my “Dream On” post, I’ve started up a “pay what you can” yoga class on Saturdays in our local park. I’m following a dream, and I think that’s pretty awesome. The thing is, most things that I dream of doing scare me, but sometimes just doing them works out! I mean, this is a very low risk-high reward adventure. I’m putting no money into it, we’re meeting in a public space, and if no one comes it doesn’t matter much because I would’ve done yoga that day anyway so really it only benefits me. On the flip side, if people hear about it and come, I have a class to practice with, supplemental income, and I’ll get more teaching experience!
All of that to say, it’s okay to try and fail and try again.
I do want to talk to you about yoga for a second. The other day, after a yoga class with one of my favorite teachers from the studio I go to, I told Steve how grateful I was that we’ve made sure yoga fits into our budget. I continued, telling him that it really brings me so much self-compassion and self-confidence. In a way, it feels like my own version of therapy. It may not be the sit down on a couch and talk with someone type of therapy, but it calms me. It simply brings me back to myself, centers me.
I think, in this world, the hustle and bustle and “get that bread” attitude is so forefront in our minds that we don’t know how to settle down after a long day of it. Our brains keep working and thinking and running around so much that we can’t help but become anxious and overwhelmed.
So I go to yoga. I do downward dog and sun salutations and child’s pose. I relish in savasana and the communal “om” at the end of a class. I bike home knowing that no matter what happens during the day, I am centered. I am grounded.
It’s funny, because I can tell when I don’t practice. I can feel the anxiety rising. I notice the sounds of the morning birdsong and the rustling of the leaves less. I get jumpy and overwhelmed. And then I meditate, or go upstairs and do a practice of my own, or attend a class and things feel better. Calmer. Regulated.
So, whether you like yoga or not, if you have those moments of anxiety or being overwhelmed, I encourage you to find something that regulates you. Honestly, when I’m too wound up about something (and therefore too wound up to do yoga) I go for a run or take Buoy on a long walk.
It can be dancing with your headphones in or reading poetry or baking your favorite sweet treat. The point is that everyone has something that makes them feel more like them. And that is what life is all about. Finding the places, the people, the things that make you feel absolutely, unapologetically YOU.
Cheers friends, I hope you give yourself a little more love today.
Skye
Mentally Sailing 