3 Ways to Get Out of Your Own Way
If you are wanting a yoga, meditation, or mindfulness practice but are unsure where to begin, you might be surprised at how little it takes to get going. Anything new that we want to integrate into our regular rhythm of life can be introduced patiently, with as little as ten minutes a day to start. If you ever find yourself experiencing symptoms of life in a highly individualized, modern society such as depression, anxiety, stress, nervousness, insomnia, and/or any number of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aches, it could be serving to you to begin giving yourself a safe place amidst life to retreat and heal from those conditions. Even just sitting down at some point in the day, closing your eyes, and trying to do nothing but breathe for ten whole minutes can slowly begin to shift your brain chemistry to a calmer state of being.
Imagine doing that for six days in a row. You will have spent a whole hour just breathing, not demanding anything more of yourself than to just be. Today the average person spends multiple hours a day looking at their cell phone or computer, consuming rather mindlessly whatever content the algorithms of the internet have generated for them that day, yet we often struggle to dedicate a mere ten minutes of our waking hours to recuperating our brains and bodies from the mess of life in these times.
In this way, your simple effort of yoga or meditation becomes a radical action of choosing to pause and tend to yourself in a world that makes it increasingly difficult to do so. Imagine how our world culture could shift if we all spent just ten minutes a day sitting down to breathe, or just be.
Okay, but back to your blossoming practice.
I find one thing that hinders many people trying to begin any practice is getting going and doing a bit every day, then once struck by the inevitable unpredictability of life, maybe we miss a few days (or weeks, or months....or years) of practicing. This often causes feelings of shame, guilt, self-criticism, or self-doubt that keep us from going back to try again.
Luckily, a yoga or meditation practice is not like a houseplant or an herb garden. If neglected or "unwatered", it does not die. All one must do is return back to it again. Something I tell my yoga students is that there are no "levels", that the yoga you practice is entirely yours, and that it is always there for you. At some point, it does not matter so much what lineage you practice, how "good" or "flexible" you are, not even for how long you practice or how long you've been practicing.
What matters is THAT you practice. Even the word itself, "practice", indicates that it is all an ongoing process, with no clear beginning or end. When you do finally begin your yoga or meditation practice, it will be because something in your life has somehow pushed you toward that point. Maybe it will be an abrupt change or event, but more than likely it will be a slow, arching line of arrival- many moons of experiences that have culminated in a wanting and a choosing of yourself, through prioritization of your own well-being.
Secondly, going back to the note of flexibility, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard someone tell me that they “cannot do yoga” because they are “not flexible enough.” No one takes swimming lessons because they already know how to swim. Everything is a process. And if you feel your limbs and muscles are tight, or you find any kind of stretching uncomfortable or difficult, consider that not only would a bit of yoga be helpful for you but that in reality, your body might actually need it. Gradually as you begin trying it out and feeling the benefits, not only will you find your flexibility increasing little by little, but you will likely also begin to observe your initial feelings of self-doubt and self-criticism slowly retracting from your internal dialogue.
A third reason we often struggle to give ourselves to a mindfulness/wellness practice that I want to address, as its prominence is constantly growing stronger in our society, is feelings of selfishness. It is all too common that the idea of choosing ourselves and making time to care for ourselves makes us “selfish” as it diverts our energy from taking care of others as well as contributing to the economic and societal machine we are expected to engage with at all times. Maybe there are children or relatives depending on you and it is difficult for you to justify taking time away from them and from work to practice yoga, meditation, or do literally anything that is just for you. This phenomenon is generations in the making and is not a belief easily dismantled. It is a direct symptom and side-effect of the pressures and pace of our culture.
It is time to acknowledge that caring for ourselves enables us to better care for our families and communities. As you begin to come to your practice more regularly and start to feel the benefits beginning to affect your mind and body, it will inevitably become increasingly easier to arrive at your mat, or wherever you practice whatever you practice. The association and actualization that the time you are taking to care for yourself is positively impacting other aspects of your life will begin to clarify. You may reach a point where you find your sleep is so positively impacted by a quick ten minutes of breathing and stretching before bed, that this small ritual that was once so hard to begin is now a sacrament in your evening routine. You may find you have more patience and presence to offer the people in your care because of your newfound time investment in your own well-being.
Whatever it may be that brings you to begin your practice does not matter as much as that you have arrived at the beginning of something good. Be patient with yourself and as radically forgiving to yourself as you are to the people you love the most. Just keep trying.
The yoga waits, and the hardest part of beginning is soon to be a distant, happy memory.
As always, truth is just on the other side of fear.
Just start, whatever it is you know you need to, and your blooming will attest to itself.
