Finding Balance in Life One Breath at a Time
I’ve discovered the keys to bettering my life have come from insights about myself on the yoga mat.
Even after fifteen years of yoga practice, I know if I shake in a pose that tests my balance, I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to do:
➡️FINDING BALANCE ⬅️
Every wobble left and right tests my strength and my flexibility.
I find my way to the other side of the pose wiser.
Your personal development journey has the same process.
The way you show up for yourself on your yoga mat directly reflects how you show up for yourself and others in your everyday life.
If you’re critical of yourself on the mat—judging your lack of strength or flexibility or being really impatient with how long it takes to do a pose—then your mental tension is 100% preventing you from breathing freely and connecting mind, body, and spirit, which is the whole purpose of yoga!
Similarly, if you’re critical of yourself on the mat, you’re probably critical of yourself in your work and relationships—second-guessing yourself (“Should I have said that or THAT?”), re-writing emails a million times because you can’t get the words just right, procrastinating an important task because you’re certain you’re going to mess it up once you even start.
You feel you have no balance in your life-- you always work, you have no time for exercise, your relationships are suffering, and you’re anxious about all of it.
You think, “Ok, I’m slacking. I gotta do better.”
You lockdown, hold your breath and fight through it.
Go ahead and hold your breath in Tree Pose and notice what happens--
You cannot FIND balance because you are tense.
How do you remedy this?
Work with the intentions on the yoga mat to FIND BALANCE and CULTIVATE self-compassion.
✨✨Balance requires breathing, evaluation, and leaning into the process at hand.
If you want balance in your life, lean into the messy.
Lean in and realize that the messy action not going to overtake you.
The person you spoke to received what you said because they took in the behavior beneath the words, not the nitty-gritty of word choice.
The person receiving your email is simply glad to receive it! You honored the two-way street of communication and EVERYONE appreciates when that keeps moving!
You start the important task ANYWHERE because you know you only eat an elephant ONE BITE AT A TIME.
You do NOT have to do it all. Balance means breathing. You can’t breathe if you are weighed down by everyone’s responsibilities and the worries that go with them.
From here, lean in and realize what you can release-- delegate tasks, turn down meetings, and start to clear your plate.
And here is the most important part!
Put self-care in the place of the work you just released.
Prioritize it.
Your energy will improve, and you’ll have more of yourself to offer to your relationships-- they will be thankful. Please invest time in your personal and social relationships as well to create work/life balance (ah, there’s that word again!).
You’ll start to bring yourself back to feeling grounded, centered, and clear.
Wobble, breathe, and keep going. You got this.