In our busy lives and schedules we’re often looking for ways to shift what’s already there and find the smallest ways to fit more in. We cram our calendars until we’re exhausted, exerting much of our creative energy in playing Tetris in our dayplanners rather than other creative endeavors (imagine what we’re robbing the art world of!). 

Within the 8 limbs of yoga, the physical yoga practice is actually meant to help you prepare for meditation. Movement makes meditation practice more accessible (think of it like getting your wiggles out first), and if you’re not into yoga, any kind of movement can work. It also helps to drop any expectations. Loudly. And with a thud if you can.

We give our time and energy so readily to many other things that we find worthy without a second thought. Let’s learn from that. Own your worthiness and show yourself that you mean it by investing your own time and energy in you.

Mindfulness shows us a wider, bigger truth: the universal law of giving and receiving. Everything is an exchange that requires balance. You taking care of yourself keeps the universe (and the YOU-niverse) in balance.

Let my discomfort and body aggravation be loud enough for us all to remember: keep your small pockets of self care at the forefront because they create BIG goodness.

It’s really easy to confuse brain business with body presence. Brain business (or brain presence, if you will) is you trying to tangle intellectually with whatever’s happening — trying to puzzle over it, work it out, or solve it. Body presence is literally being with it. Noticing the sensation and your breath, and then whatever happens next. Not trying to exert force or make it into anything in particular. It’s riding the wave with wide open inner eyes.

Most of us have learned to numb because it feels easier than restorative care, but it can be really hard to notice that’s what you’re doing. So I’m inviting you to get better acquainted with your own personal numbing habits as a loving step toward breaking that pattern.

Do you enjoy moving around? When it doesn’t feel obligatory? If you don’t, did you ever? If you notice that it’s shifted to not enjoying it over the years, what changed to cause that?

Choosing which version of a shape you explore gives you much needed autonomy over your own practice, your body, and your mind. You can accommodate a physical limitation, a low energy level, a busy mind, and overly boisterous body sensations. Plus you can tap into all these bits of yourself just waiting to be acknowledged with the simple shift of standing up, laying down, and even sitting in a chair.

Flirting with variation squashes the dull staleness that comes with exhausted routines. We don’t flourish if we eat the same things all the time, and the same applies to our physical movements. Vary your menu. Not only will your body thank you, but so will your brain, and that’s a hot time 🔥

We would benefit from getting down with some silly to balance out these extremes. But first we need to reconnect with our grander sense of playfulness and wonder. I’m sure many of us can relate to losing touch with fun and silliness in response to “trying to hold it all together.” Because silly feels a little useless in those situations. Except it’s not.

People often come into a conversation about yoga with me with common assumptions of what yoga classes are like or what being a yogi is about. Many of these things are untrue for me. Being open about what I’m not as a yoga teacher and differentiating what I specifically offer has helped me be seen just as I am, and outside the yoga realm, clear communication has become a way that I feel loved and seen.

We’re seeing firsthand how this affects our society on a very large scale: political and social divisiveness, lack of social navigation skills, inability to have challenging and constructive conversations, algorithmic echo chambers, etc. etc. etc. It’s hurting us at the macro and micro levels, and it’s something we can affect directly with personal action.

It can be challenging to sit with yourself in your own home, doused in chores-to-be-done and essence-of-busy-life. If, despite your efforts, you are finding yourself mid-hullabaloo, a little frantic, and/or struggling to connect with yourself, it might be time to observe where your attention is going, particularly when you’re actively engaged in a mindfulness practice.

This month I invite you to support your local LGBT+ communities in ways you can. Show us you care and you stand with us. Not only is this a powerful heart opener off the mat, it’s also a magnificent way to connect with your own personal power — you can do something.

For those of us that live in a near (or actual) state of constant tension and activation, softening our bodies can be so far beyond our realm of familiarity that we don’t recognize it as safe for our bodies. It brings a lot of sensations that aren’t the hard, locked muscles we’ve grown accustomed to moving with. Instead it brings things like twitching, shifting, lengthening,  and loosening, and sometimes those things are uncomfortable or even hurt.

When we don’t take the time to show ourselves we’re safe, we’re likely to (a) rush and/or force our bodies into shapes, or (b) resist at the same time we’re trying to allow. Either of those things is a recipe for discomfort and pain, which is going to make you feel less safe. Which is going to turn up the tension and guarding in your body and mind. Which is not an environment that supports embodiment.

We do kind things for others because we think they’re worth it, but it’s a little too easy to only do things for ourselves out of obligation. However, I don’t do well when I feel like others are treating me as an obligation, so why would I treat myself like that and hope for a different response? 

I’d like to say something out loud: you’ve been taught to not like your body.

Various systems and companies and institutions and people in your life benefit from you not liking your body. That’s just fact.

Not liking your body is a huge obstacle to getting on a yoga mat or sitting still with only yourself. In those moments, you’re being asked to turn inward to the very places you’ve been taught are bad or not worthy or unacceptable.

This week it just isn’t lining up. But like all things, I know that’ll shift. The best thing I can do for myself is try not to force it. So even with this week’s Mindful Morsel, I’m going to keep it short. Because what better way to show something than to do it?