9 Years Later: How Yoga Strengthened My Understanding of Staying Power
FROM STILLNESS
I come to sit down to write a final post for 2020. not only has it been a metamorphosis of a year, it is a year that was necessary for my soul. I took the opportunity to cleanse away many of the dead leaves I was desperately hanging on to. leaves such as: grief, internal pain, fears, conflicts, grudges, obstacles. As we all set back due to covid, it seemed the world stopped. It seemed as though we were in an ice age. We witnessed for the first time ever, the country undergoing a very necessary reality check. I felt my soul crying for my people. I worked during the pandemic and continued to hold my head up but my heart ached. The feeling of wanting to scream but no one hearing, that is the ultimate form of madness. My career in education has not only been an awakening for me, but it has also been a road of alienation for me. being a black and asian female in the wellness space and having the opportunity to work with law enforcement in the era of george floyd is by far one of the most complex, demanding, painful, proud, anxious, and endearing experience I have ever gone through. I am grateful for it everyday. I felt like a frontline worker indirectly at times because it was also a lot of pressure to provide essential education and resources for those in need. I did not want to let anyone down during this time. I tried to talk about it on my socials from time to time but in reality, Nothing is more humbling than being a silent fighter. because of this, i find myself at odds internally But I somehow always find my way back to stillness. lately, it feels like standing in the rain. It feels good to let the storm do what it does. Just accepting the stillness for what it is. That is where I find myself at the end of 2020. The stillness is where I discovered my staying power.
TO STAYING POWER
As a yoga practitioner, I took time to re-align in 2020. I took time to make changes to my website, update my scheduler and write new content. But also, I took time to really be free to focus on what really was important to my soul. I made a pact to myself to commit to working on my strength and conditioning for the first time ever. This is what I believe to be the money bag, it’s the real wealth. It is what motivates me to stay tethered to my definition of longevity. Longevity is a concept that all societies and cultures seek all over the world. we strive to maintain and preserve ourselves, whether it is the body, mind or spirit. We as humans value this innate intention through the way we live our lives. Sometimes we get caught up in trying to prove ourselves to the world, i.e. that we are aging well, that we are still strong, that we are still relevant, still important, still beautiful, still respectable, etc. 2020 taught us that we really needed to calm this compulsiveness. it’s an inflammation of the mental processes.
I’m a big believer in building up confidence through self-validation and by practicing a bit of restraint. this is something that we sometimes lack in a consumerist, individualist society. we forget that what we put out is currency. i believe it’s more effective when we can exude our value through our interactions and what we contribute unto others. this is a primary foundation to building mental strength and how we come to finding true solitude so that our minds feel at peace. Yes - it is very important to share what we are doing, but it is also important to be strategic and controlled in what we put out. I believe this is where we find true staying power and can consistently and skillfully demonstrate our work.
In a yoga flow, we know that we are in a flow by the way that we move from one pose to another. It is like building a house, every breath a brick, slowly and steadily and consistently. Do you see what I mean? We don’t pitch tents. We build houses. staying power is seeing the bigger picture. it’s about mapping out your moves, taking advantage of timing, and putting in the honest work to achieve your aspirations. I hope that the lessons i’ve listed below will help you come back to the understanding of longevity and how we create energy for staying power. You don’t build longevity if your only desire is to prove your value and win. you build longevity through consistent moments of solitude and stillness. It’s sometimes about tapping into your momentum that does not need to be seen but felt.”
THE ANNIVERSARY EDITION: HOW YOGA INSTILLS STAYING POWER
1. fearlessness | After 9 years of practice, yoga has helped me fight for what I want. It gave me the backbone, both literally and figuratively, to strive towards my goals. It helped me to get used to being uncomfortable and making that experience part of my daily existence. I allow my brain to experience the feeling of fear over and over to increase agility and adaptation.
2. heat | yoga has helped me learn to create heat in my body. Also figuratively and literally. when our bodies become warm, we are primed for a powerhouse practice and that is exactly how I approach each and every situation. creating heat should be done the old fashioned way, through work, sweat and honest effort. In other words, yoga does not allow me to take short cuts. therefore, when it’s time for me to execute in the workplace or in the classroom, I have to build the right foundation for success and i have to take ownership for how much heat I bring to a class. it’s all up to me and that is scary but also gratifying.
3. re-wire | yoga has helped me take things less personal. no - I am not completely cured but I find myself re-wiring my emotions about things and that’s all that I need at times. because yoga is a great practice for self-regulation and emotional wellbeing, I enjoy witnessing my own progress as an imperfect human being.
4. properrest | Through consistent practice, I have also recognized the importance of rest and decompression. I have learned to implement relaxation throughout my day which is key to self-preservation and muscle healing. It may be a mid-day body scan, choosing a nap after a weekend workout, going to bed early everyday for a week, etc. I find the recovery process to be essential in this marathon of a life.
5. eco-friendliness | Yoga inspired me to become more efficient and to cherish our environment. I believe that it is our duty to keep our Earth clean and free from pollution. The longer I practice, I feel more and more compelled to reduce waste. Just as you would remove waste in your body, it is the same for our planet. Consuming less, packing lighter, re-using creates a lifestyle of longevity.
6. will | This practice teaches you about restraint and patience. Holding a pose for an extended period of time while sweat beads drip down your forehead meanwhile you can’t afford to look away or focus on anything else but yourself. That is true power in my opinion. Learning to have good patience is all a part of discipline and honestly, you cannot succeed without it. I am grateful for this lesson most of all.
7. to embrace | the good lord knows how much I have struggled to embrace myself over the years. but the truth is that no one is really that focused on me as much as I led myself to believe. yoga helps one to recognize the vulnerability in all of us, we all have body challenges to face. but through this practice, i’ve been forced to let go - fully let go - of peoples perceptions. teaching yoga has helped me recognize the unproductiveness of caring heavily about opinions. you have to allow yourself to rise above this. to maintain momentum, i have had to embrace who i am. that is: my body type, my hair, skin color, height, weight - all of it.
8. healing | the healing process is something that never ends. we are constantly processing micro traumas consciously and subconsciously on a daily basis. healing is essential in this practice but when i think of my life away from the mat, there is no way that I can motivate others without addressing my own issues first. you figure this out very quickly as a yoga instructor! but to have true staying power, I’ve learned to acknowledge the fact that my healing process is ongoing. the minute I stop doing the work, I’ve allowed the ego to take over.
9. faith | people often shy away from merging religion with yoga and I am not here to push beliefs on anyone. however, I do want to stress the importance of fluidity between the two. I allow myself to pull teaching from various sources as a way to create balance and meaning for my life. there are many parallels between the teachings of yoga and that of the bible, quran, the vedas, etc. nevertheless, yoga is something that strengthens my faith because it gives me the right energies required to act with morals and ethics. I believe that staying power requires this the most because we all have to take leaps of faith in order to succeed. trusting myself is my biggest life lesson and one that I learn through yoga every time i step on the mat.
