Aware

There was a meme circulating recently which read: Don’t tell your children “be careful” tell them “be aware.” Because being overly careful is a liability later in life, being aware is always a good thing.

I feel this advice is not only for raising children, we need to take this advice for ourselves. I am not saying be reckless; be aware.

In the physical practice of yoga, we can guard ourselves. You can guard against the physical practice and the poses, being too afraid or too careful, to try anything new or anything that has hurt us in the past. Clenching or holding our breath....

But if you can shift your thinking, especially in your practice, and just be aware, everything transforms. Notice how your body feels and each pose. Notice how your body reacts, how it feels in transition.

Perhaps you’ve had a knee injury, and you’re always guarding against any pose that can potentially hurt the knee. Try next time to safely enter each pose with a sense of wonder and no attached fear that it “will” hurt. When you leave the expectation to the side magic things can happen.
So for the next 24 hours, when you would normally tell yourself to be careful, try to be aware.
Notice what shifts.

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