Last night after class one of my yoga students approached me to tell me that she hadn’t been to my class in nine months. Nine months ago she took my class on a Monday and then the next day Donald Trump got elected President. She associated all things she’d done leading up to that event with the event itself and so had been avoiding doing those things again.
Of course I was glad to see my student and it made me think of how often we do this, we make these associations. It’s a protective mechanism. Once we’ve had a bad experience we might not want to do those same things that we think got us there. Maybe we say:
“I won’t open my heart up to love again because last time it got broken.”
or
“I won’t apply because last time I got rejected.”
or
“I won’t get married again because last time it was a disaster.”
In yoga we call these grooves – the patterns and associations that the mind makes once we’ve had an experience. When we practice yoga and move our bodies in all sorts of unusual ways we are smoothing out those grooves, coming back to the realization that the only thing that is real is the present moment and each moment is new. “Behold I am making everything new” God says (Revelation 21:5).
So does it really hurt? Or is that just in your head?
This morning I ran my usual path, I typically stop running and start walking when I get to a certain hill because it’s too steep and too hard to keep going. But today I had to ask myself – “is it really too hard?” “Does it really hurt?” Or was it hard once and I just keep telling myself the same story. Keeping myself stuck.
I decided not to believe my thoughts and instead feel it again as if it were the first time. Step by step, this morning, I ran up the hill.
What new thing can you do today?
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Thank You Very Sweet 