We all struggle with something. Some days it’s the size of our thighs, or our inability to say ‘no’ to a second slice of pie, other days it’s a relationship that we seem not to be handling well, or one that we keep returning to, even if it doesn’t serve us well. Other days it’s our work. This can be a problem when we repeatedly categorize a part of ourselves in a negative way & refuse to accept part of who we are.
A few years ago I was doing a lot of yoga teaching in High Schools. A lot of these kids had never done yoga and I had a real battle to persuade them to take off their socks. A few boys said their feet were smelly, a few of the girls said they needed a pedicure. But, there was one girl who said she never showed her feet: no flip flops, no open-toed shoes. Her feet she said, were so disgusting that there was no way that she would ever let anyone see them.
In the few moments I had before class I said to her “please don’t think of yourself in this way. Your feet are as much a part of you as your face and your brain, and by thinking this way you are hating part of yourself. Try and think of something amazing that your feet do for you – like carry you around the world.” Who knows if any of what I said resonated, but I’ve never forgotten her.
At one of our yoga classes on retreat in Peru a few weeks ago, the theme for the class one day was centered around this: imagine you have a table at your heart center; please invite that part of yourself to the table that you reject. As a way of specifically considering this part of me, I found this approach to work well. Immediately I knew which part of myself I had to invite to the table.
So, today as you move through your day, remember this great quotation:
“The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.”
― Mark Twain
Pull out a chair and invite that part of yourself to the table and embrace your WHOLE self!
Copyright 2015, Tamsin Astor, YogaBrained LLC.