Honoring Where You Are

You probably hear the phrases “honor your body” or “listen to your body” a lot in yoga classes. On its face, this language is a teacher’s way of encouraging you to stay connected to yourself, to stop comparing yourself to what you think you ‘should’ be doing, and to avoid injury. But the practice of “honoring yourself” is also a life skill that runs so much deeper than that.

Every time you take the time to direct your energy inwards and make an honest assessment of exactly where you are – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually – you give yourself a gift and an opportunity. The gift is that you show up in the present moment in full authenticity, without imagining what ifs or contorting yourself into spaces you aren’t (yet) suited for. The opportunity is that you have the chance to grow freely and naturally from there, if you choose.

In any given moment, we get to choose whether we want to stay within the bounds of our comfort zone or to reach a bit further into new territory. Both options have their merits; neither is right or wrong. Knowing when it’s time to vibe within your comfort zone or to expand beyond your current boundaries is a very personal practice. And it’s a practice you can only approach with confidence when you have cultivated a very open and honest relationship with yourself.

Once you learn to trust yourself, external comparisons fall short. Other people’s opinions suddenly matter a whole lot less. You have a clear and direct line of communication with Self (infinite you) and yourself (everyday you). You no longer waver in the face of questions like, “Should I strive harder?” Or, “Should I scale back?” The answers resonate in your body, and you know them before the question is even asked.

So how do you cultivate such a deeply honest relationship with Self and with your body? Practice.

Here are a couple of recommendations for cultivating trust in self, so that you can confidently and comfortably honor where you are:

Asana – Practice Listening to Your Body’s Intuition, in Yoga and in Life

Reaching too far beyond where you’re at can strain and deplete you in ways that aren’t in your best interests. Taxing yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally does harm. In a yoga class, if you are rightly at level 2 of a pose but you try to leap to level 4 because that’s what many of the other students are doing, you can tear a muscle, strain a joint, or pop something out of place. If you constantly push yourself too hard, you might feel exhausted the next day and unable to practice.

On the flip side, shying away from your potential and retreating from what’s possible deprives you of growth and expansion. Cheating yourself out of fear leads to turtling. In a yoga class, this might look like sticking with the same basic variation of a pose without ever exploring other possibilities. Sure, it’s “safe,” but the same old thing gets stale, and your energy stagnates when you no longer work towards things.

Only you know what feels like retreating and stagnation, what feels like luxurious resonance inside your comfort zone, what feels like an expansive step or leap outside your comfort zone, and what feels like depletion or strain. When you’re just starting out, your breath is the best indication. If your breath is free and easy, there’s room to go further if you want to. If your breath is strained, irregular, or catching anywhere, it’s time to dial it back.

The same principles apply to your life off the mat. The more you tune into the subtle (or not-so-subtle) signals your body is sending you, the more adept you become at reading them. It’s an incredibly effective way to avoid burnout, exhaustion, and injury. Forge ahead when you’re feeling it, and care for yourself when you’re not. You stay energized and in the flow.

Meditation – Practice Observing your Thoughts in Neutrality, Without Judgment and Without Automatically Buying into Them

There are many ways to meditate, but almost every form of meditation involves using some kind of drishti (point of focus) as a tool to create a separation between your consciousness and your thoughts. Common drishti include an actual focal point for the eyes, mantra, observation of a breath pattern, guided visualizations, an image in the mind’s eye, observation of sensation in the body, and many more.

The mind is very good at bossing you around, and the more you let it have its way with you, the stickier your thoughts become. I say sticky because it’s like the brain generates a gummy buildup. Meditation clears it away, but the longer thoughts roll on and on, the stickier they become. Sometimes they are so sticky that they just adhere to your consciousness like octopus arms suction cups. And when your thoughts start to fly all over the place, your consciousness goes with it. It can be disorienting. Pretty soon, you don’t know up from down.

Meditation cuts through the noise, and whatever focal point you choose acts a bit like Goo-Gone, gently separating your consciousness from the sticky thoughts. Eventually the thoughts become less sticky and your mind is more like Teflon. Nothing sticks, everything just slides right off.

The more you practice observing your thoughts, the more you recognize that you are separate from them. And with the realization comes the understanding that, while your thoughts can shape your mind and your feelings, you have the power to choose which thoughts you acknowledge and give power to.

It all starts with using a meditative tool to separate yourself from your thoughts enough that you can observe them in neutrality. This practice will tell you a lot about your habits, your mindset, and the underlying thoughts behind your emotional state. If you can observe yourself without judgment in this way, you can truly and deeply know yourself.