How I Learned to Live My Truth And Release Myself of Other People's Expectations

Sleepy me

Hello !!

Let me tell you something, I is tiiiiiied! 

We’re coming to that time of the year when the days continue to shorten, the to-do lists continue to lengthen, and the emails, like the pounds, are starting to pile up. I am becoming plump! 

For a few years, I did yoga almost daily, and there are a few lessons I still carry with me: 

1. Learn how to listen to your body.
2. • You can really hurt yourself in yoga if you do the poses incorrectly. And while a good instructor makes a huge difference, only you truly know what feels right (or sometimes, it just feels not right).
     
     Whether it’s exercise, work, people, or places your body will signal things to you way before your outside senses can notice them. If something doesn’t feel right for me, I’ve learned to take time to understand why. And if it does feel right, I’ve learned to trust my legs and stand firmly in it.
2. Yoga is a practice, not a workout.
3. • There is no end in yoga, and that’s why they call it a practice. A more complex expression of a pose is not better or worse than any other variation, because yoga is not about the pose– it’s about the mindset.
3. Every practice is perfect.
4. • Your body is different everyday, and so it’s expected that each practice will, and should, be different. If you’re honestly honoring your body, then whatever happens while you’re on your mat is perfect. What’s important is that you show up.
4. What’s happening on someone else’s mat has nothing to do with me.
5. • And vice versa.

Through yoga, my body taught me to accept it for where it was, but it also showed me what it could do. I learned how to define success for myself and to measure progress on my own terms, rather than benchmark it to other people. And it worked! 

And if it works in yoga, then why not in life, too?

Los Angeles, CA, USA
December 2019