Finding My Balance
“Connect to your breath and drop into your body.” I did my best to follow the instructor’s directions as I sat very still on my mat breathing. My mind argued with the instructor “I am in my body” and “what does that even mean?”
Years later I realized I had asked myself a pretty good question, “what does that even mean?”
As a Gemini getting grounded does NOT come naturally for me. It is something that I am working on and deepening every single day. I spend most of the time in my head arguing with myself.
My favorite yoga poses have always been the ones where the least amount of body is in contact with the ground. Like warrior III. Put me in a seated twist and it’s basically my version of hell. “Lengthen your spine,” is a popular cue and important alignment point. As much as I tried to find more length I ultimately ended up hunched over and incredibly uncomfortable. Because I wasn’t grounded.
I am an air sign. I am most comfortable up in the clouds. Alas, this behavior wasn’t serving me. My business wasn’t moving forward in the way I wanted it to or as quickly as I had hoped. Talking about money made me extremely uncomfortable. After having my first baby (which served as a spiritual awakening) I lacked physical vitality, wasn’t expressing (or even aware of) my needs as a woman and in general I felt stuck, uncomfortable, totally disconnected from my body and STRESSED!
I thank my lucky stars everyday that I met my life coach and friend, Michiko Rolek when my daughter was 8-months-old. Her book Mental Fitness taught me how to finally breathe correctly and the importance of building a strong foundation. Coaching with her has helped me and continues to help me activate being grounded. In fact, just yesterday during our session she helped me to feel more GROUNDED than I have ever felt in my entire life. For the first time I noticed just how much I was in my head. Literally. Yikes!
It is a lifelong journey and for me that makes it fun. How cool that there is always something new to learn about myself? And the world? Asking questions is a relatively new practice for me. Especially questions about myself. Questions like, “what music do I like?” “What brings me joy?” “WHO AM I?” I was listening to Mallika Chopra’s TED talk recently (I highly recommend) and she shared three questions she uses before her meditation, “Who am I? What do I want? How can I serve?” What a simple, yet utterly complex question, “who am I?” Do I even know?
Finding my balance requires balancing the opposites. If I want to go up, I must first go down. Yin and yang working in harmony. The root to rise principle applies both on the yoga mat in the seated twist I mentioned earlier and in my life as a woman, a mother and a mompreneur. Living in divine alignment (grounded, grateful & gorgeous) and vibrational harmony is my intention. Sometimes I am there. More often I am not. And that is OK. I have experienced tremendous growth and LIFE CHANGING! results through my daily practice. I will share more on that and expand on the the 3Gs – grounded, grateful, gorgeous – in a future post. You can also read more about the 3Gs here. For now I will share that my “blisscipline” includes daily meditation, breath awareness and my miracle diamond mindful posture tool (I don’t leave home without it!).
I have struggled to find the words to share my practice. A Gemini who can’t find the right words! What?!? It is my intention to use this blog as a platform to find my voice and share my experience. Coaching with Michiko and applying these zen secret tools under her guidance has opened me up to (and grounded me solidly) in the present moment. I experience life in a deeper and richer way. I am a better momma, a better wife, a better friend. I ask questions. I am curious about life. I experience SO. MUCH. JOY! Life is lighter and brighter. I don’t struggle with anxiety and feel stressed to the max like I once did. AND I love being a Momma.
I invite you to join me on my journey! It is my hope that I inspire you to love yourself more and live the life of your dreams. Or at the very least help you stress less and experience more peace. It is possible. I promise.