The process of transformation is yoga
It’s a peaceful day at the beach. You’ve found the perfect place to sit — close enough to hear the ocean, far away enough to stay dry. Yet, hours later, you feel the coolness of the tide against your ankles. The waves look much more powerful now.
One of my favorite things about nature is its versatility. Every element, every living thing, has the potential to be anything. Take the ocean: powerful, still, soothing, rough, dangerous, serene, cloudy, clear. The list goes on.
During my yoga teacher training, when we explored the chakra system, we were given several prompts to reflect on. One of these was the question, “If you stripped away your identities, who are you really underneath?”
As people, we are desperate to assign permanent meaning, both to ourselves and to the external forces that we interact with. The truth, though, is that we are none of the adjectives and labels we attach to ourselves. We are simply energy.
The good news about being energy is that it can be transformed, and so can we. This means that, often, the limitations we face are self-imposed. I’ve recently let go of a limiting belief about my lack of flexibility, and I’m amazed every time I move into a pose that I used to tell myself I’d never be able to practice.
But over eight years into my yoga practice, I still face mental barriers. This is why the practice of yoga and mindfulness is simply to show up. We are always evolving, always learning, and always moving past new blockages. It is when we stop transforming that we are no longer succeeding.
The process of transformation is yoga. And yoga is the practice of yin and yang, push and pull, effort and ease. To move forward, we need to exert ourselves. But to stay in it, we need to find lightness.
In life, this looks like working hard so we can enjoy rest. On the mat, it means engaging every muscle while relaxing the mind. It is finding the strength to balance while retaining our focus so we don’t lose that balance. It is exerting and restoring.
Reflection prompts:
What do you accumulate?
What are the thoughts that you are attached to?
Who were you before? Who are you free to be now?
What do you want that is possible when you plug into an abundant mindset?
Class playlist:
Love + light,
Lex
