Tuesday, May 25, 2010

3 out of 10

I am one of those people who can give healthy, positive advice. When I speak to friends who are struggling with their self-image, their relationships, their place in the world, I can clearly see the beauty, strength and importance of those women. It is easy to give advice to such amazing people. Just tell them how fantastic they are and why.

Before you think I am a little too sure of myself and tooting my own horn, read on.

I am terrible at accepting healthy, positive advice. It has taken me a long time to see my own beauty, strength and importance. In fact, I am still working on it.

So, when I made my list for this year, I decided to choose goals based on the advice I would give to my friends. "Choose yourself." "Take time for you and your interests." "Take a chance; you are strong and amazing." "There is no reason to feel guilty."

Hence, #3. Get yoga back into my life.

I have learned to really love yoga. It was a stretch for me (horrible pun truly not intended, but my inner dork will not let me edit it out either, so...) to appreciate the strength, the focus, and the endurance it can take to get through a challenging yoga class. I was a gym girl and focused on the numbers, the time ticking away on the machine to tell me how hard I worked. Yoga was different. I learned to love the difference.

Now, I am taking my own advice. Once a week, I bring my kids to the gym and drop them off at the kids' center. No guilt. I stretch, I balance, I flow, I practice yoga. No guilt. I even take a shower sometimes. At the gym. With no kids around. Yeah. No guilt.

For an hour and fifteen minutes, my kids play and I choose myself. I lose the guilt. I choose my interests.

And, because life truly is in session, I may or may not have had to leave my beautiful tree pose today to wipe my kid's bottom. Isn't that just perfect?

Namaste.

No comments:

Post a Comment