What Is Your Message?

As part of  the yoga teacher training programme classmates have to teach the class a specific sequence. Each teacher is different and chooses to focus on different aspects of the asana (posture) practice. 

The most recent sequence was torturous for my body. Having held a hip opening posture (Lizard Pose or Utthan Pristhasana) for far too long my hip flexors were in agony. 

The hips are known as the “junk drawers”  where you keep many of your unprocessed emotion. 

Despite the physical agony, I became angry (which is not an emotion I am familiar with) as the sequence continued. Being aware that the anger had arisen, I was unable to detach from it when giving feedback.

Resulting in my classmate receiving rather animated feedback from me. Thankfully, she was gracious and open to it.

The non-violence or harmonious yoga principle, Ahimsa was not at the forefront of my response. Or perhaps it was, I didn’t want anyone else to experience that level of discomfort in a yoga class, ever!

That is NOT what yoga is about. It is about being kind and loving and accepting what shows up in the moment for what it is.

My feedback was not kind and loving, but neither was my approach to my own practise.

Part of yoga is to practise Ahimsa to yourself first and to honour your body and where it is in that moment. It was my choice as a people pleaser, thinking that if I stayed in the pose for as long as the teacher wanted, I would be supportive to her.

By doing so, I totally neglected my own body’s warning signs to come out of the pose. I was violent towards my body in the hope to be supportive or impress someone else.

How often do you neglect your own needs? Being a friend, parent, partner, you may choose their perceived needs of those closest to you, above your own.

When are you deaf to what your body is trying to tell you? The exhaustion that you silence with a cup of coffee? Or the pain that you hush with a pill? Or your body’s desperate cry for more water that you simply apply lip balm or take a headache tablet?

Where in your life can you practice loving kindness and compassion towards yourself? 

Is it time for you to start listening to the messages your body is giving you? 

Sometimes when you ignore your body for so long you can become disconnected to the messages. It is OK if you don’t understand what the messages mean, there are people and books that can assist with that. 

The first step is awareness.

Are you ready to open your ears?

P. S. If you would like to know what books I am referring to, I will gladly assist. Contact me here.