Every week I send out a love note filled with resources, musings, and inspiration about walking this path of yoga and liberation. Click here to subscribe!
Just get in the door.
Why is it that getting to a yoga class is so difficult? Getting yourself to the studio is usually the hardest part. There are so many obstacles, real and perceived, that keep us from being able to show up: work to be done, children to be cared for, errands to be run.
These barriers are real and I don’t mean to diminish them. (Also if money is a barrier, please let me know and I’m always happy to find ways to make it work.) But often, just showing up is deeply transformational on its own, without anything else having to happen.
Part of why it’s hardest to show up is that you have to choose to do it, over and over. For several years, I went to yoga class with my teacher most mornings at 7:30am. I am NOT a morning person. Once I got there, all I had to do was whatever she told me to do.
That was the easy part.
The hard part was choosing to set my alarm the night before. The hard part was choosing to keep my eyes open when it went off. The hard part was choosing to put one foot on the floor and then the other, and then getting dressed, and then getting on my bike and riding across town to the studio.
I feel better before the class even starts.
I feel better because I've chosen something good and healthy for myself. I'm surrounded by people who are seeking something similar, and that feels great. Whatever happens in the time between when I walk in and then walk out, I can high-five myself for getting my ass on the mat. Even if the class is challenging or frustrating, chances are I'll leave feeling better than I walked in.
I joke that going to therapy is good for me half because it actually helps and half because it’s so profound to opt-in to working on myself.
For sixty minutes every Friday at 3:30, I choose my own healing.
Maybe it’s yoga or therapy, or maybe it’s running or painting or fishing or meditating. Whatever it is that makes you feel cared for, do that thing. Even if you do it badly. Even if it kind of sucks today. Do it anyway.
Putting in the energy towards your growth, affirming your own worthiness, is its own reward.
So remind yourself that. And remind your friends.
Just show up.
It’s worth it. And so are you.
Much love,
Bear