Our good friend and awesome yoga teacher/movement person/anatomy fiend, Alicia Suárez, sends out newsletters sharing her experience and insights. This month’s in particular struck a cord. Here we share what she wrote about feeling stuck and getting unstuck. We hope you find her reminder about cultivating awareness as helpful as we do. Then sign up for her newsletters and expect more goodness:
When making a decision one usually checks out the options at hand, considers the “pros and cons” and picks. But, have you ever considered that the number of options one sees as available is based on what one is already predisposed to notice?
While it might take effort, slowing down and being more mindful might reveal options that we did not realize we had. This is something that I am currently trying to do. In order to explore some of the vast number of possibilities out there that I never considered, I am trying to expand my focus and allow myself to sense beyond my usual habits.
Simply put, I am “shutting down the autopilot.” And, in doing so, I am forcing myself to pay more attention to the movement and thinking patterns I have developed over the years. For example, I have a ritual of wiping my desk clean every morning before I start working…a little OCD perhaps, but it is a habit that I find very useful as it helps to ground me and shift gears for work. On the other hand, a habit that I have discovered that it is not so useful is my tendency to chew food on the left side of my mouth. I have no idea how long I have been doing this but at least I now know why the left side of my jaw is always so tired and tense and can choose to do something different. Like chewing on both sides…
Becoming aware of habits (mine and my clients’) is at the core of my teaching and personal practice. In my experience, being mindful does, indeed, require effort and a desire to unravel, at times, years of unawareness. Although sometimes not an easy task, it has been profoundly healing for me and, to top it all off, it makes me feel more “in the moment.” Woohoo!