Walking the Talk

Last week I was themeing on how facing challenges on and off the mat is one of the quickest ways to grow a habbit stronger. I talked about how if you can apply the universal principles of alignment (UPA) in a challenging pose you will get stronger at being able to apply those principles, so when you are in a pose that is less challenging you will be even stronger at using the UPA's. However, if when facing a challenge you use unhealthy habits or on the mat if you lose your alignment you will be instead strengthening the misalignment's making the misalignment's more prevalent in other poses and in your posture off the yoga mat.

After themeing on challenges this week I have been faced withe a challenge oppurtunity to grow. This week I started teaching at a new location, a gym (Steiner Aquatic Center). I haven't taught at a gym in about 4 years and when teaching at any new place I get nervous. My brain tries to tell me "I'm not good enough" "the students wont like me"... So showing up and practicing my confidence and believing that I am good enough, that I know my stuff, and that I have something to offer is hard for me. But I know facing this fear but still cultivating confidence will help me be more confident in all areas of my life and make me a better teacher. But just like the example above, I also know that if I listen to the negative self talk in my head and when facing this challenge I tell myself "I am a piece of crap and am no good", I will be strengthening that negative self talk, which would show up in other areas of my life, making me feel miserable!

One of the gifts of teaching yoga is I get to share really awesome wisdom for facing the ups, downs and oppurtunities in life, and then when life's ups, downs and opportunities appear in my life I get to choice if I am going to walk my talk or if I am going to not take the advise I teach in class. And boy does it feel good when I am walking the talk.