I hope this finds you enjoying these long, lovely summer days and nights!
Even though the spectacular weather here in the Northwest where I live calls us to some great lively outdoor play, I still make sure to get to the yoga studio a few times a week. The practice of yoga helps me be more fully who I am. Yay!! Yay for who I am!! Say it with me right now; I’ll wait…
Here’s a tip for being glorious this summer; it’s Part One of a Two Part Series about the Laws of a Perfect Body.
Simply put, the way you’re living in your body today is exactly what will create the body you’ll be living in, in your future. The attitude, the beliefs and emotions of today literally manifest in the form of your future body…whether bigger or smaller, more or less energetic, more or less healthy, you get the picture.
The easiest way to begin working with this law is to actively, consciously do things that put you squarely in your moment-to-moment experience of life, as often as you possibly can.
In the work I do with clients, we create practices that deeply support this, recognizing fully “all the things I don’t want”, and re-framing these things as we begin to create new neuropathways, so they can create and sustain what they really want.
Back to the yoga mat…
This means there’s a whole lot we can do to influence this. Like engage in things regularly that support and remind us what it is we want to bring into being.
And there on that yoga mat, I am undeniably in my own body, on purpose, living a life both in and from this body.
It’s a reminder I need often, especially when I get all caught up in the busyness and complexity of day-to-day living. And maybe eat something I don’t need and don’t really want. Does this happen to you? Heads, nodding…
For example, we know the experience of life is incredibly enriched by the simple practice of staying in presence with breath. That’s one of the things yoga does for me.
If you’ve following the work for awhile you know I’m big on teaching simple practices to get and stay present as the easiest way to re-connect…
With precisely what we want to eat and why.
With how we want to feel when we’re eating with pure enjoyment.
With what this means for our confidence, self-trust and ultimately for the bodies we’re living in.
How are you living in your body today?
Are you waiting for something to be better?
Do you live in your body from a place of not good enough, not thin enough, not healthy enough?
What things could you do in your life RIGHT NOW to remind you to be fully who you are? Things that remind you to live in your body EXACTLY as it is today?
Could you sing?
Meditate?
Walk quietly alone after dinner tonight?
Wear clothes you really love, even (and especially) when you don’t feel wonderful about yourself as a gesture of self-compassion and respect?
Tell the evening sky you’re ready to re-claim what you’re really capable of?
I believe all of us need to be doing things like this all the time to remind us, meaningful touchstones that can work to awaken us a little or a lot in each day. When you have simple practices that speak deeply to you that you can enjoy and take pleasure in, the best version of yourself naturally begins to step forward in all the areas of your life.
So…to your perfect body…
Whatever you may or may not like about your body, it is the temple where your goddess self lives. And if that ain’t perfect Sister, I don’t know what is.
And when you do things that help you to remember how perfect this is, guess what?
You start doing more and more (and the doing becomes easy) of the things you know are good for your soul and good for your body.
How:
Choose only one or two interesting simple things that speak to you and start trying them out.
Choose things that feel like, yes, I can live in my body and my life more when I do this.
If you don’t know for sure, just experiment and have some fun.
If it’s not so fun, try something else.
Life is a draft. Just start scribbling.
So now, for example, I can’t go to a yoga class and then go check out and eat ice cream.
Because I’m not checked out, I’m all nice and checked in.
I can intentionally, thoughtfully and mindfully DECIDE, CHOOSE to eat ice cream, if that’s what I really want, but no craving or lack or awareness is going to run the show here.
And this is a very, very different thing. This is true freedom.
Ready to see what true freedom, eating with pleasure and easy body confidence feel like?
XO,
Marina