Don't Believe Your Mind!

“Am I doing something wrong?” I looked up at my yoga teacher.

“I feel like I am going to roll over my arms into a somersault.”

She walked over to my mat and asked me to go back into the pose while the rest of the class watched.

“The reason she feels like she’s going to go into a somersault,” she explained, “is because her body is ready to go into the next level of the pose.”

“Do you want to go into full headstand?” she asked me.

“I would…if I wasn’t afraid,” I replied.

“Ahhh”…she smiled broadly and addressed all of us, “her body is ready to go deeper and do more but her mind has convinced her that she can’t.”

Does your mind do this to you? Stop you from trying new things, expanding your horizons, experimenting or simply experiencing unexpected joy and success? After more than nine years of shoulder issues including cancer surgery, two frozen shoulders and strained rotator cuffs I had become convinced that I would never have the strength or range of motion in my shoulders to do any kind of arm balance in yoga, never mind headstand! But now, I’m wondering what else my mind has talked me out of, has been keeping me from experiencing.

What if you didn’t believe your mind? What if you trusted your body first and let the mind take a back seat? How could this change your daily activities, your courage to experiment or the pursuit of your dreams?

As we transition into summer next week, it seems like a good time to try something new. Are you with me? Imagine what kind of summer we could create if we decided not to believe our minds….

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