Pissing in your ear
A six year old boy rushed up to his mother, all out of breath.
"I found a dead cat in the yard!" he exclaimed.
"Are you sure it wasn't just sleeping?" his mother offered.
"No, he was dead; I pissed in his ear and he didn't move at all."
"You pissed in its ear??" his mother asked, somewhat horrified.
"Sure," said the boy. "You know; I leaned over, got real close to his ear, and said, 'PSSSSST!'
We make so many wrong assumptions.
And it's not just the ones we make on a daily basis that hurt us; it's the ones we made long ago and live our lives by, unaware. It's a prison of our own making, and yet we can unlock those iron gates at any time.
That's where hot yoga comes in...with a key.
Hot yoga is not about assumptions or interpretations; it's about feeling.
Your body is great at that. You know for sure when you feel - stretch, pain, twinge, anything in the physical body.
Sometimes you get a surprise and you'll even feel some emotions in the body: a clench in the gut, a sigh when you're sad, tears for fears.
It's all good - because feeling in your body means you are in the present, where life happens.
We are a thoughtful bunch.
From the time you're old enough to talk, you're taught to think before you speak; to run everything through the filter of the discerning mind...as if this is a good thing.
The mind can be a trickster who misinterprets and damns you to a life unlived: a life in your head.
So when did you first misunderstand your worthiness? Or your deservedness? When did the "facts" talk you out of the gut feeling that you can do anything, have everything and live your life unafraid?
Your body can bring you all the way back to the truth of your limitless potential...in hot yoga.
Hot yoga is not an experience meant to be felt. In every part of your body. We work your entire body from bones to skin, for 90 minutes, so you can feel this amazingly sensitive and highly intelligent guidance mechanism you have.
If want the quick lesson, the 30 Day Challenge wlll train you to be present right now.
Your body has an intelligence. And unlike the mind, the body never lies or wavers. You never second guess when you feel pain. And what you feel in your body is always a message of guidance for you life.
Your body is a receiver of inspiration and your guide to the life you want to live. Those messages only come to you in the present moment - but you have to be there to get them
Thus, hot yoga.
Those feelings in your body are teling you something more valuable than you will learn in any PhD program. This is an education meant just for you.
And here is the lesson: go in the direction of what feels good. In your body. In your heart.
Stop pissing in your own ear long enough to hear your life PSSSST!-ing to you, like when you were a child.
Just behind those feelings - especially pain - there is an inspiration to take an action. Listen. Dont explain it away. Feel it and go with it- and take no action until you do (no matter whats on your To Do List.)
Perhaps it is illogical to turn off the reasoining mind in favor of your present-moment impulses.
But psssst.....give it a chance.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (2)
Thank you, Rhonda! I often remind myself that the present moment is all that I really have, and it is what I do with that moment that matters most. The past and my experience of it certainly shaped me, but do not define who I am. And I can CHOOSE to use any event or experience, whether joyful or painful, as an opportunity for growth.
What's interesting to me, Aimee, is that often the experiences that shape us most are the ones we can barely remember: wrong impressions we got at an early age and simply live within their confines. It's like wearing blue colored glasses and not realizing that the world isn't blue it's just your clouded view. But how can you take those glasses off if you don't even know you're wearing them?
A practice like hot yoga is powerful at removing the shades. You are actually aligning your chakras during the push/pull/twist of the hot yoga asanas. Add heat and humidity, simmer for 90 minutes and before long, those painful beliefs come into focus where you can finally to let them go.
What's beyond that blue horizon? Limitless freedom.