Before I had my second child, I had a pretty solid yoga practice going. My body was agile and strong. I could do a headstand for minutes, and I felt pretty good about it.
After our precious baby came along, I set out to get myself back on track and back in that headstand as soon as I could. A friend of mine was training in a specific approach and had reached out to me wanting to practice, one on one, with friends. I thought this would be the perfect setting to revive my headstand practice!
She had converted this little office space in her apartment into a charming yoga room, and I felt peace immediately upon entering. I sat in butterfly position while my friend observed my feet, and I shared my headstand goals. She smiled at me and nodded. I knew we were on the same page, she just gets me!
My friend then grabbed a few yoga blocks, blankets, and a chair and proceeded to transition me into restorative pose after restorative pose. Relaxing me. Releasing months of stress. Spending time with only my breath at times. It felt SO GOOD. Pretty soon my “want” of getting into that headstand melted away, and I was able to be present and receive what I NEEDED. It was liberating.
This was one of those big life learning moments for me. An “Ah-Ha!” moment. A turning point.
I learned to recognize that I was focusing on some sort of end result at the beginning of the process. If I let go of this end result (what I WANT) for the moment and lean in to what feels “just right” right now, (what I NEED,) it could free me up and keep me present.
I use this story as a guide on getting ahead of myself, giving myself grace while I’m growing within something, and being truly aware of my present needs.
I think sometimes in our process as players we have an idea of what we WANT the scene to be for us. Whether it is an experience we WANT to have within the scene or a way we WANT to play it. And maybe sometimes we get a little in our heads about that WANT so much so that we might miss what we actually NEED right now.
I’m often heard saying “Be where you’re at today,” or “I’ll meet you where you are, in whatever stage of rehearsal you are in.” This invitation comes directly from my headstand moment when I learned, thanks to my intuitive friend, how to let go of the end result and focus on what I need to grow right now.
– Shannon
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