Yoga - Connecting With Your Inner Wisdom

The Power of Making Time to Unplug

If you experience discomfort, breathe through it; if you experience pain, move. These were the wise words from my yoga teacher, as I was mid challenging pose with a grimacing look on my face, at a class a few weeks ago. Perhaps she had a point I thought, were the sensations I was feeling really painful, or just a little uncomfortable?

I paused and tried to switch off my mind’s chatter telling me it hurt really bad, and connect with the sensations that were actually occurring in my body via breathing deeply into that space. Could I connect with my body enough to actually feel the difference between pain & discomfort? Sure enough, my mind quickly forgot about the so called pain it was feeling, and my body worked through the discomfort all on it’s own, using my breath to expand the space and get out of my head. 

After class I thought about this some more. When times are challenging, do I immediately jump to conclusion that I must give up, it’s too difficult, it’s never going to work, I’m not good enough…..the critical ego calling. With our minds spending so much time in overdrive with a gazillion things to try and remember and do, it’s no wonder that tuning into ourselves and being able to make this distinction between ‘pain’ and just some mild ‘discomfort’ can be really really difficult.

Because of course sometimes we don’t need to throw the towel in at all, sometimes it is just a case of simply breathing through the discomfort and perhaps adjusting our perspective of a situation. Learning to make that distinction can only come through making time for regular connection and checking in with you, and ultimately knowing yourself. For me the practice of yoga & meditation gets me closet to my true self, and making time for these practices in my life is now none negotiable. 

So, make some space for your inner voice to speak up, quieten that monkey mind, what is your intuition telling you to do?  

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