Do you ever walk into a yoga class, you’ve got your new Lulus on, you show up wearing some fresh Nikes and let’s be honest you think you look pretty damn good. We’ve all been there, and this isn’t to shame showing up to yoga class with confidence by no means- but when vanity and ego start appearing in our practice, we are not being authentic in our body n’or mind, not to mention we are doing a big disservice to ourselves. We are stopping ourselves from gaining the optimal benefit of our practice before we even step foot into the studio. My goal this week both in yoga and any exercise for that matter, is to approach both with humility and get out of my own way-because guess what- if you’re thinking about other people watching you, whether your eyebrows are on fleek, or if you’re appearing “spiritual” enough-SCRAP THOSE THOUGHTS-that’s why you’re here right? Here are a few points of both awareness and motivation that I’ve been trying to implement this week and onward. Hopefully they can encourage you to enter your practice with a grounded mind and humbled heart.

1. This isn’t like every other sport. Don’t expect MVP of the game or a gold medal for perfecting your asanas. Gratitude for your own body, inner alignment, and self improvement has to be a sufficient enough reward. It’s all about achieving that sense of peace-body and mind and we should be thankful for that when it’s achieved.

2. You have to accept your body’s feedback. Just because you can’t go deep into a pose or get into a Kapotasana (a bridge where your head is tucked between your feet, belly up)- doesn’t mean you suck or are an utter failure. It just means you have to practice easing into it more than once. Maybe you’re pregnant. Maybe you’ve suffered an injury. My rule is always try and propose a question to the body, but listen to its answer, know how far to push yourself.

3. Ego is a mind manipulator. Yogic texts explain ego as a task-master for keeping our boundaries as individuals. In Sanskrit, ahamkara is the term for ego, translating as “The I Maker” (how fitting). Ego likes to squeeze its way into your mind, latch onto bad experiences and regurgitate them as negative feedback, so this way worry and self-consciousness become a barrier lodged in our bodies and brains.

4. Make a list of the things you feel as “I’m (your name) and “I am.” I did this this past week and it sounds beyond corny, but putting a couple minutes into this really visually displays the downside of getting so attached to the me me me. Allowing ourselves the time, effort and opportunity to get into this mindset of “I am” more consistently, builds this sense of something bigger acting through us. And once you feel it, you’ll be hooked.

5. Actively work to expand your sense of self. We identify ourselves by our career, our social roles, our political views, our religion, our perceived ‘coolness,’ etc. The ego invests in this. If we could let our thoughts and feelings pass through us, we wouldn’t get offended, or hold grudges or be so easily affected by external things. How do we do this? We have to see beyond ourselves, our life is much more than the space we take up. This requires mindful practice to expand our sense of self to include others. One of many mantras that inspire me to do this is tonglen, where you breathe in the pain of others and exhale back to them happiness. Even just writing that makes me feel less caught up in my self interest. This is one of countless, meaningful practices that have the power to expand what we know to be selfhood.

Working from identifying yourself as your name, how much sleep you got last night, or your circumstance- to identifying yourself as an all-encompassing presence of life and love- the ego as the pure “I am,” is a vital part of why we invest in this practice of yoga. When we’re in touch with this healthy ego we begin to recognize that its the same I am-ness that links us to all other human beings, regardless of culture, or class or personality. We have to approach yoga with the conscious practice of detaching our identities to life’s day to day high and lows, this type of pure ego knows that we contain a myriad- and are free in our knowledge of that.

And let’s remember what we intend when we say namaste: with all the depths and charms of my mind and all the love and cordiality of my heart, the divinity within me greets the divinity within you.

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