Ground Down in 2020: 5 Lessons from the Yoga Mat

We are taking time to ease into the New Year and will return to full-length content next week, so enjoy this issue of "ABG "Lite".
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January 2020! Can you imagine?

It’s an exciting time, between reflecting on years past and resolutions for the time to come. It can also be an overwhelming time, particularly as we continue on with life and work as usual while the whirl of planning and anticipation swirls around us.

That’s why this week, I’d like to focus on settling everything down, getting grounded, and taking a few slow, deep breaths to help navigate the start of this new decade.

To share some of my all-time favorite takeaways from the yoga studio – things that I’ve heard teachers say over the years when they sense that the energy in the room is exactly what many of us are sensing right now. A little too-high adrenaline. A little anxiety. A little overwhelmed. A little I-need-to-calm-down-and-so-do-you.

If you don’t happen to do yoga or meditate, don’t worry. If you’ve never even seen the inside of a yoga studio, no big deal. Not everyone who reads A Balanced Glass has, and we get that. Every reader of A Balanced Glass is, however, interested in being more mindful and aware.

Which brings us to these five takeaways. I hope, very much, that some of them will resonate with you as they did with me, on the mat and off.

“Simplify what you see.”

I hear this most often at the beginning of yoga class in a sun salutation, feet planted, arms overhead, eyes looking up. All you CAN see at that point is, pretty much, your own forearms, wrists and your hands. Pretty simple.

That’s all I need to do in that moment. Stand there. The next movement – usually swan dive to forward fold with hands toward the ground – is also all I need to do in that moment. Simply that. And so on, through the whole asana sequence.

It’s a short step to applying this to work situations. Simplify what you see at work, too. You don’t have to do everything at once. Simplify what you see in your Inbox, say, one email at a time. Simplify what you see during a conversation, to only the person in front of you. Simplify what you see on your to-do list, to the one thing that’s going to move the needle the farthest. And so on.

“Yoga is like a love letter of apology to your body.”

Right? We put our bodies through a lot, and yoga is one way to bring it flowers.

If yoga isn’t your thing, just substitute your favorite self-care in that sentence. Resting. Going to bed early. Getting a haircut. These are all ways to gently make friends again with the physical anatomy that keeps us moving and active in the world.

“Watch your self-talk.”

Pay attention to your internal response when someone suggests something that seems, at least at first, out of reach. “Press up to handstand? Is she kidding??” Or, “There is no way I can get this report done by the new deadline!”

Sound familiar?

What if, instead of that kind of self-talk, you imagined your response in the voice of someone who loves you? Imagine how that would sound.

Encouraging, most likely. More compassionate and supportive, almost definitely.

Try it out. See if you can catch yourself in negative self-talk and say it (whatever it is) in a different, more encouraging tone. The point is to monitor the internal chatter, and shift the conversation to something kinder – particularly toward ourselves.

As another teacher of mine says, “We aren’t just doing yoga. We’re training our minds.”

“Drink while you pour.”

We all spend an awful lot of hours “pouring out,” by giving our attention and help to others. But if we don’t also replenish the supply, our wells of resources will run dry quickly.

It’s about staying “juicy,” which is one of my teacher’s favorite words. If you’re juicy yourself, then you have extra to give when someone asks something of you. If you’re dry though, then there’s no juice either for you or anyone else.

Remember to replenish, however that works best for you.

“Deepen the well from which you drink.”

This final takeaway is about replenishing also but, more importantly, it’s about actively developing the resources you pull from.

Personally, I deepen my well through reading. For you, it might be prayer or playing music or riding horses or getting out in nature with the family. Whatever it is, let it expand your internal fortitude, so that you can be the calm in the storm all around us.

I hope it helps.

Namaste,

Cathy