Do you sometimes feel like you only “deserve” yoga when you’ve had a successful day?
But what about those days that just sucked? How do you get on the mat those days?
C’mon, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
You’re at the end of a long shitty day and now you’re grumpy-cause-today-totally-sucked-and-you’re-exhausted headspace and just want to crash and hope for a better tomorrow, kind of day.
We’ve all been there.
Before Magnus, I would actually have a nap in the middle of the day. For real. I called it my “reset button” because I needed a do over.
Now, of course I don’t have that luxury (lately, I don’t even have the luxury of sleeping through the night).
But do you know what I do have?
5 minutes.
You have seen the transformation that yoga and meditation can bring in only a few minutes.
The hardest part is to remember that when everything feels like the depth of shittiness and all you want to do is scream, or cry, or run away.
So, how do you remember this when you feel terrible?
When I was trying to get back into running daily 15 years ago, it felt impossible.
I did not want to do it. It felt way too hard, and I knew it was going to be hard, and I resisted it like I resist jeans after Christmas (or “Snack-mas” to my belly).
But even way back then, I knew that what we pay attention to grows in our awareness (now I know there’s science to back this as well).
If I focused on it being hard, that is what I was feeding my subconscious, and that is what it would notice most. When I thought about running, it would start to remind me of my body hurting, my brain telling me to give up, and my emotions focused on struggle and difficulty.
So, I purposely started ignoring those things, and started to look for the moments that felt great when I was running.
I would notice the wind that helped cool me down, the smell of the fresh air early in the morning, the freedom I felt while running.
But where the magic really happened was in the shower afterwards.
I would relish and savour the runners high. I would feel the full appreciation of a hot shower after a long run, how good my body, mind, and spirit felt.
Then, I would take a “mental snapshot” to solidify in my mind how worthwhile this was for me and how important it was to continue.
This is what I have associated with running ever since.
Just this spring I started running again after a year off.
Resistance will tell me a story.
It will tell me how hard it is, that I’m out of shape, that my knees will hurt, and that I won’t be the runner I was so why bother.
But what I REMEMBER is how good it makes me feel.
This in itself, is motivating enough for me to continue with it even when I have days I don’t want toTry this:
Nod to the resistance, but don’t dwell on it and get on your mat anyways.
Then, notice the positive things in your practice. Pay attention to how good it feels to stretch and move, how it feels to be grounded and steady, the strength of your body, your capacity to be with things that are difficult, the sun setting, whatever it is. Just be aware of it and make mental notes of how awesome it is.
AFTER your practice (this is the magical part), take a few moments to take a mental snapshot of how amazing you feel inside and out. All the little bits. How you feel more mobile, free, calm, peaceful, connected, happy…all of it. Do this daily, and you will start to see this as the anecdote to your crappy day rather than another commitment you don’t feel like doing.
Try it, then tell below in the comments how it went!
Sending you so much Love, Light, and Support…we are in this “life thing” together and I’m so glad to be doing it with you!