Warrior III fabulous practice today

Virabhadrasana III

Warrior III

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” 
― John Lennon

 This ends the hip opening week.  It has not been as scary as I thought it would be and I was really nervous.  I also did not think I would see progress so quickly.  In no way is the work or journey over.  I intend to incorporate hip openers in my every day practice.  Its where I need the most work so I will do it.  I have changed my mind about the discomfort and discovered faith in my ability to sit with the discomfort and breathe through it.

 
  Strength and balance in my standing poses was what I needed today on an emotional level.  "Are the hip openers changing my standing poses?" is what I asked myself while looking out at the cold, sunny afternoon.   It feels like they are....

  This was the highlight to my day!  I was feeling rather large and soft and round and down on myself about how I looked.  Periods, even though mine have gotten so much better after getting an IUD (maybe too much info for some but ladies you must look into the wonder that is the Merina  IUD for reducing menstrual ridiculousness) still make me a bit bloated and emotional.

    It doesn't happen often these days but sometimes I start to compare myself to others and even though I know it is silly, my mind lies to me.  Evidence of its delusions are when I see pictures of myself that actually look graceful and my big ol husband makes me look small again.
I often feel clumsy and completely without grace and yet I see myself here and almost don't believe the photo.

  I have said it every time I have coached a runner that video and photos give us a fresh and clean perspective.  Our minds eye sees us in a very different way than what we look like from the outside.  Its a useful tool.  The same has been true in yoga as well.

  Photographs of oneself is a great way to shift perspective.  When my problems seem huge I also  like to imagine myself as a universe within myself.  I think of my cells with their lovely little mitochondria and all the amazing things that are going on in my body on such a tiny level.  Then I like to imagine myself as a tiny spec on this world like a cell is in my body.  It gives me comfort and makes me feel small and part of something bigger than myself.  I also really love SciFi.  I swoon for space operas and gain inspiration and daydream about space often.  The writers perspectives often speak to me.

"We believe that the Universe itself is conscious in a way we can never truly understand. It is engaged in a search for meaning, so it breaks itself apart, investing its own consciousness in every form of life. We are the Universe, trying to explain itself."
Delenn~ Passing Through Gethesemane~Babylon 5

Cheers
Angie Bee