Uniquely you!

Each time you return to your mat, you show up for just yourself. And just as you show up for a friend for coffee or lunch, and you anticipate enjoying yourself and the friendship you both share, the mat is where you meet with your most significant and most long term relationship. And yet, we can meet ourselves with far less kindness. Why is it that we can show up for our friend with compassion, kindness, anticipate connection and the goodness in that, and then be so self deprecating? We easily become frustrated and condemning over prevailing self imposed unmet expectations because our bodies don't move in the way we want them to. Our self worth erodes and our negative emotions take us captive. It's no wonder some never find the mat, that is until our bodies or our doctors strongly urge us to. You have such a story to tell in your own unique body. Such stories of resilience, fortitude, tenacity and heart. You are the very hero in your story.

You are unique in your own-ness. Your skeleton is unique. Did you know your pro trochanter bone is of a size and shape unique to you and that protruding bone on your hip is what allows you your unique range of motion through the hip joint especially when in external rotation? Think pigeon, figure 4, malasana (deep squat). The shapes you make with your body are so uniquely your shapes. There are yoga classes, by which the teacher never demonstrates a pose but only by verbal queuing asks students to find it in their own bodies. We have such tendency to compare ourselves to others, falling short with that pattern of thinking. Each one of us comes to our mats as a product of our whole lives up to that very moment. Not only does what you did the day before in the way you did or didn't' move your body, what you ate and how you slept all influences your present practice, but all of your life up to that point has made an impact on your body, your mind, your emotions and all of it is present on your mat. Trauma, illness, a car accident 15 years ago, even how your body positioned and grew in utero makes you uniquely you. That beautiful one of a kind you, need not be compared to any other, but rather celebrated. You are resilient and strong and look at all your body can do today and all it has overcome to this point. The mat is a place for not only showing up for yourself, but celebrating just that. Let your body tell its own story. Your story in yourbody is absolutely beautiful.

In Light and Love,
Jill❤️