It is my job, my desire, my greatest wish- to teach yoga to any and all individuals wishing to change their life through the practice of mindfulness. One of the most difficult parts of becoming a yoga teacher has been figuring out where my voice comes into play. When I became a yoga teacher, I had to acknowledge the weight my words may carry sometimes. I also had to see staying silent doesn’t help me help people. When I share- it does not come naturally to me. I worry and have insecurities of being seen as self important. Though, that is far from the truth.
When I thought about yesterday, I knew what happened was not something I should, could, or wanted to stay silent on but I wanted to respond with careful thought, instead of just sharing my reaction. Yesterday I reacted. Then I sat with my anger, I sat with my disgust, I sat with my sadness. I let it in. This morning I saw people in my feeds looking for a silving lining, I saw people trying to overshadow the unhappiness and drown out the anger with positive things and cheerful quotes. I saw people struggling to drown the discomfort inside.
So I wanted to offer a bit of advice- all feelings are ok. Say it out loud.
As humans, we really dislike discomfort and while it can be unbelievably hard to sit with negative feelings. They are important things to feel.
We have this idea that we are supposed to push down, shove away, and ignore negative feelings. It is pushed on to us on social media channels, books, podcasts, etc.- do this if you feel this way, fix this if you feel that way. Change, change, change. Should we wallow in our discomfort, in our negative feelings forever? No. Are we supposed to accept that we are unhappy and do nothing about it? No. But sometimes, we have to accept what we feel- sit with it, let it in, see it, feel it. There is a time and place for anger, sadness, grief. Yesterday was not a day to try and bury anger, it was a time to feel it. Emotions are here to help us thrive- if an emotion is unsettling, it is a signal something needs to change, that something isn’t ok. Don’t turn away from that- listen. Then keep listening.
Yoga with Kate 