For me taking time away from yoga is unthinkable, most of the time. Yoga is what makes me feel most centred, grateful, grounded, and all those really amazing feelings. However, from time to time when life gets crazy I have been know to take a bit of a break from my yoga practice, I always end up going back and I usually end up going back with a little regret from taking that time away. Last week was one of those times where I choose, consiously and subconciously, to take a little breather from my practice.
Last week I had experinced some crazy news coming back from Banff that made me highly anxious, irritated, and just over all odd feeling; this is usually when my running and yoga practice would be at it's all time high, but for me this time I was exhausted to think about anything let alone yoga and running. It all started out with sleeping in an extra hour and skipping my usual morning yoga and mediation practice, this was day one and continued through out the week, then the next thing I knew I had skipped three yoga classes that I would normally turn over boulders to attend. I knew that my body and mind just needed the extra time to itself and quite that I can only get by being locked in my house with my furrbuddies, but there was a bit of me that felt guilty for missing my practices. So what did I do? I did a little grounding mediatation and released my ego which was telling me I should feel bad for braking my practice. It was not until I had released my ego and all my judgements about myself and not practicing, or all the "should's", that I was fully able to hear my higher self and inner guides.
For those of you who are unfarmilar with inner guides and higher self I will explain a little bit. Your higher self and inner guides are the ones that give you guidance through out your life and help to keep you true to your greatest good and achieve your life's purpose. Your higher self and inner guides are the ones that deliever messages to you in every aspect of your day, they are the ones that when you are in traffic and you get that sense, voice or gut feeling to go left but you go right instead and then end up stuck in traffic, they were that gut feeling, voice, or sense that told you to go left. Anyway more on that later on.
This is the message I got from my guides and higher self once I was fully able to let go of my ego's words and I choose to relay this message to all of you as I think it is important for us all to know:
"Not doing something does not make one bad, it does not make them lazy, and it certianly does not make them any less of what they are. Everyone needs time away from things, people and places to regroup and ground. When we take time away from something and take time to ourselves we can come back stronger and more dedicated. When we choose to let go of all the should's and expectations of ourselves and express self love and care by taking time to ourselves to do what is best, we become more aware and more fulfilled by things, places, and people when we come back to them. It is okay to take a break."
These words resignated deep with in me and made me realize that just because I was taking care of myself in a different way, by taking time away, it did not make my practice anyless meaningful or important when I choose to return to it. This is the feeling and lesson that I hope you all will learn instead of feeling guilty; it is okay to take a time out and a break from anything in your life, anything at all!
AND let me tell you, when I returned to my practice with all that I learned and realized while I was away I recieved a true gift...After 5 years of doing yoga I did a full crow pose! This is a pose I have never been able to do, I would get maybe one toe off the ground for a moment or two but never both and never in a full pose; BUT, this morning I finally achieved a full crow! While practicing I heard my inner guide say "try doing a full crow today", so I listened and went for it and BAM, I achieved it!
In closing taking time away from things can be a good thing when you learn to just let go of your ego and just be. Taking care of yourself and listening to what you need is the biggest and best thing you can do and learn in life as long as you learn to not feel guilty about whatever it is and do it with love and intention. Who knows you might even receive a little gift like I did! :)
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