Tara and I have watched a few movies lately. Frozen. Pocahontas. Ice Age. Our 11-month-old Daisy even watches with us sometimes. And of course hands down, Moana is my favorite. Competing even with Love Actually.
So one of them has me thinking now about the phrase “I’ve got your back.” I think it was one of those nice weasels in Ice Age, asking “Why can’t anyone ever get your front?” Isn’t that where all the action is? It’s really up front that we need the help, isn’t it??
It’s funny. But there’s also something there. I think these old phrases survive to become old when there’s really something there. Something big. So maybe it’s, you have to have your own front.
We can support each other. Be there to uplift and inspire. Be there to step in when something unexpected rushes up from way out left, right, or behind. But we each get to carve our own path forward.
From our genes and neural nets to bodies and minds to neighborhoods, nations, and cultures. We’re creating all that for our selves, from our selves. Even when we don’t know it.
So how do we make the most of this? Because that’s always the question. It’s so much to know things. Knowing is a lot. It allows us to talk to each other, write books, share ideas. It took a lot of research, a lot of thinking, to build up all this knowing we have now.
But, knowing doesn’t create. It doesn’t build what we’re talking about, or what we’re writing. It doesn’t make us healthy. It doesn’t make pain go away, ease conflict, or create peace. It doesn’t give us happiness, or wellbeing. So we need something more.
We need some time, some practice, to move beyond knowing into being.
And really, we’re already very good this. Because we’re always practicing, even when we don’t know we’re practicing. We’re always creating everything, even when we don’t know we’re creating anything.
All this moving, making choices, navigating through our lives – it wires everything about us – our habits and abilities, our experience and our world. We wire everything there is, through how we move in each moment. How you move wires you. How you move wires this universe.
So it’s all practice. And creating what you want is simple. Practice what you want. See how what you practice creates where you are. And then practice what you want. A couple of changes will help.
1) Slow down, enough to look
2) Start simple, enough to see
It’s why we do slow and simple practices like yoga, or tai chi. They give you the chance to see you, all the habits and choices you make. Fast or aggressive exercise, running full force into big challenges, maybe we get the heart rate up, and this is good. But we don’t see so much. We’re just our habits here, both good and bad.
Of course, we’re always our selves. Who else could we be? But we’re not always our selves free from the habits that hurt, the unhealthy practices, the blocked energy and disconnection, the unhappy parts, the wiring that doesn’t work. So we need a way to see.
And from here, from seeing, think about what it means, to do what you do. Because one way or the other, it means everything. There’s so much in this cookie jar. So let’s loosen the lid a little together.
What might it mean to practice straining and struggling?
To be rigid, or to immobilize yourself in so many ways and then try to move?
What might it create when there’s always someone telling you which way to point your toe,
how to look, who to copy. What happens when we practice aggression in response to challenge.
When you wear yourself out in every moment. When you give continuously without replenishing.
What might it mean to heal the broken connections in your body and mind,
come into harmony with your whole self, and move gracefully and easily, through everything?
How could you change you, by making different choices? You’re always in the making. Always moving, creating. Starting where things are simple. Building a body and mind that has the habits and abilities, the wiring, to create a world that stops choosing force and aggression. That makes something better, by being something better.
First inside. Then outside. We can get more this way. We can be more this way. All of us.
– by Mike
About Strala Yoga Training
Strala combines the movement and healing wisdom of tai chi with the form vocabularies of yoga, tai chi, qigong, and Traditional Chinese and Japanese Medicine, to help people release stress, move easily through challenge, and live radiantly inspiring lives.
It begins with a mindset, that says our best way to get where we’re going is to feel good along the way. It also works miracles for whole health, helping us to find ease in our bodies and minds, and create the right conditions both for healing and optimal performance.
In our Strala Yoga Training Courses, you learn to shape your destiny on every level that counts, from your psychology, chemistry and neurology, to your chromosomes and even gene expression. The unique set of skills you develop – for connecting with yourself and others, unblocking your energy, healing what needs healing and accomplishing challenge with ease – uncovers your ability to create the life you want, and be an inspiring leader to the people around you.
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