At the beginning of March I completed a two year course in yoga therapy - yeay! Completing a qualification comes with equal amounts of pride and nervous anticipation. I am ending one story, opening the page to an unknown next.
Before becoming a yoga teacher I worked in business development for media companies. In the corporate world the biggest indicator of success was how many deals I secured and how much money I brought in. In yoga therapy, the biggest indicator of success is the amount of love in the room. How wonderful that love has replaced money as the measure of success in my work.
But how do you impact how much love is in a room? How do you make a heart connection with another person? How do I 'succeed' as a yoga therapist?
Not just as a therapist, but in all relationships, in order to have heart connection with another person you have to be vulnerable.
How does the notion of being vulnerable make you feel? I don't know about you but it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable! This reluctance to feel uncomfortable is where the obstacles come in. Often, the obstacles we find in our path are our subconscious ways to avoid being vulnerable. I'll give you a few recent examples...
As part of my yoga therapy training I had sessions as the client with another yoga therapist. At the start of each session I would say what I wanted to work on and what my obstacles were. In my first session I said, "I want to work on my issues with shying away from confrontation. I need to learn to be more assertive".
The therapist replied, "what if you don't need to 'fix' that all. That is just a part of who you are, that is a part of what makes you human".
In the second session, I said, "although I am doing work I love, I am feeling tired of the mundanity of my week. I'm frustrated with myself for feeling like that and need to learn to be more content with my life as it is."
The therapist said, " what if you don't need to 'fix' that. Needing variety in your week is a part of who you are, that is a part of what makes you human."
In the third session, I said, "I'm feeling anxious about the future, I don't know what's going to happen with my work when the pandemic ends. I need to be more present rather than thinking about what's coming next".
The therapist said, "yes, we can work on grounding, but what if that anticipation about the future is what makes you human."
With vulnerability, my obstacles and imperfections become qualities that make me human. With that simple shift, my obstacles are no longer my obstacles. Vulnerability, although uncomfortable, is what makes us alive.
You see I don't need fixing, and neither do you. You are already completely whole. Instead of trying to fix yourself, invite vulnerability.
As we slowly move out of lockdown into a new beginning, I'm feeling that familiar nervous anticipation, perhaps you are feeling it too? In some ways, this new chapter forces us all to be vulnerable; we are all stepping into an unknown future.
This is what inspired me to create this 7 mins breathing practice. Click the below to join me in a practice to invite more courage and vulnerability in order to "speak from your heart". You can be seated on the floor, seated on a chair, or lying down.
The root of the word courage is "cor" the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant “To speak your mind by telling all your heart.” What would happen if you took that feeling of vulnerability to your next meeting with your friend, family, partner. Can you listen to them with an open heart, and have the courage to tell your whole story?
In yoga therapy, the biggest indicator of success is the amount of love in the room. What if the biggest indicator of success in your life is the amount of love in your days. Vulnerability, is not only your superpower to overcome your obstacles it is the way you can succeed in life in the best most joyful way possible.