this ONE thing my yoga instructor said stopped me in my tracks
Questioning your path? Lacking clarity? Doubting yourself? Read this.
Okay, a RANDOM storytime comin’ atcha—
Let me set the scene:
It was a Tuesday evening.
A cold Minnesota day.
And I was on my way to hot yoga.
It was just an ordinary class— moving my body, syncing up with my breath, stretccccching aching muscles, and just slowing. myself. down. (mentally, physically, emotionally…)
Mmmm, even an “ordinary” yoga class is so dang beautiful, isn’t it?
So, there I was, just goin’ along with the flow when…
My instructor said something that genuinely had me stop. me. in. my. tracks.
And, don’t take this the wrong way— of course, there are MANY times in a fitness class where the instructor says something that just hits. It resonates. It empowers you.
But, it’s often fleeting.
You know what I mean— some encouragement like “you are strong!” during a super challenging pose where your muscles are shakin’ and quakin’, and you are reminded “yeah, I am strong! I can do this!”
….but after that 10 second period or so that statement kind of fades out and you don’t think about it again.
But this time was different.
Leading up to this mic-drop moment, she had been saying some classic yoga mindset verbiage —
things like focus on your own mat and it doesn’t matter what your neighbor is doing.
And those messages are BEAUTIFUL.
And IMPORTANT.
…but I’ll admit I’ve heard it so many times that it’s sort of lost its meaning, ya know???
Because, to be honest, I do feel pretty confident in doing my own thing in a yoga class: modifying where I need to, moving intuitively, taking extra time in a pose, going into child’s pose, listening to *my* body, etc.
So, in some ways, I’m like “yeah, yeah, whatever. I already have this ~focusing on my own mat~ thing figured out.”