Last
week I was traveling, which is such a great opportunity to catch up on guilty
pleasures which in my case is listening to TED talks. I was so inspired by Aimee Mullins’ talk that
I had to share. She was born with a rare condition which left her
without fibulae in her legs. At her
birth, her parents were told she would never walk or have a "normal",
mobile, independent life, and her legs were amputated just below the knee around
her first birthday. One might put the
label “disabled” on such a person, but she subsequently went on to learn how to
walk with prosthetics, created the industry standard for athletic prosthetic
legs, and became an Olympic track runner setting world records in 2
events. This is only one of a very long
list of accomplishments including becoming the youngest person ever to have
top-secret security clearance at the Pentagon. She has graced the covers of
Life, Vogue, and Bazaar magazines as a model, and has become a spokesperson for
WSF (Women’s Sports Foundation) among other leadership and inspirational
roles. “Disabled” doesn’t seem to fit…
Aimee’s talk was about how
she achieved the amazing things that she did not IN SPITE of adversity, but BECAUSE
of it. She never got the message “disabled” from the people around her, and
from a very young age she learned that it was her attitude and her work ethic
that was more important than the circumstances of her birth. She goes on to say
“Success and happiness are not dependent
on having overcome adversity; it's not something that happens when you get to
the other side. It's not an obstacle we have to get around to get on with
living our life, it's part of our life.
The question is not whether you're going to meet adversity, it's how.”
One approach to facing
adversity is to develop a sense of curiosity.
In his book the 6 Qualities of Consciousness, which we are using as
inspiration this month at Shree, Danny Arguetty says: “The Tantric teachings of
Yoga invite us into inquiry without a specific singular way to engage them.
Instead we are invited into inquiry. We are offered the opportunity to
take a seed concept and sculpt it in a way that helps us enhance our
vitality, energy, creativity, and heart.” In the case of Aimee Mullins, this
concept could have been “disabled”, but she instead took her particular
situation and saw it as an opportunity to create something new. Her prosthetic legs became the model for all
athletic prosthetics – they didn’t exist before her and her particular disability
and now have gone on to help hundreds of athletes perform at their best.
Danny goes on to say “In
the face of specific challenges as well as in the course of daily living, these
Tantric teachings help us Connect to our inherent skillfulness and empowered
presence through consistent practice with a mindset of inquiry.” Ms. Mullins talked about looking at her
circumstances as a possibility rather than a disability. I know for myself my challenges and injuries
have all led to greater awareness and understanding, even though when I was in
the midst of dealing with them it sucked.
We don't know what we're made of until
were tested and that's the gift adversity gives us - the ability to see our own
power and what we are capable of. We
often don’t know until we are called to dig deep.
When we come at our lives
from a spirit of inquiry we see opportunities for
growth. A different pathway than the one
you expected is often jarring, but approaching it with curiosity lets us
see possibility and potency rather than restriction. How often do we come to
our mats with a fixed mindset of what and how things will play out? We tell
ourselves “I can’t because….” Those thoughts become the seed concepts we
develop. So when we come to our mats
with a spirit of open curiosity, or a mindful intention of what we wish to
cultivate, we sculpt our experience in a way that enhances our practice and
life rather than staying stuck in self-limiting patterns. It makes the
impossible seem possible. This is what I love about thoughtfully sequenced yoga
- that even if the final pose is not available right now there's something you
can do about it to make it available in the future.
There will always be
challenges. I tell my children all the
time, you cannot change your circumstances – what happens happens. All you can change is your reaction. We don't need to get rid of adversity we just
need to get good at it.
Off the Mat:
Examine your “seed concepts”
– the things you believe about yourself. Ideas that start with “I can’t do that
because…” or “I’ll never be able to….” or “My body doesn’t….” etc. Try replacing those statements with “I’m
going to try doing…and see what happens.”
“This may take some time.” “I’m going to train my body to…”
On the Mat:
Approaching challenging
poses, whether that is a Warrior II with good alignment, or balancing in
handstand is daunting if you don’t have a plan. Just trying the pose over and
over without proper warm up and strength building won’t get you very far. Look up sequences and exercises to help you
get ther – message me and I’m happy to send mine! Everything is possible if you
are working in a thoughtful, progressive and sequential way. In my Monday class we worked towards Eka hasta
bhujasana to eka pada koundinyasana II with lots of core work, hip openers and hand
balancing prep.
For the Anusara Junkies:
Open to Grace: Open up to
the possibilities this practice has to offer you.
Open to a deeper breath and
open your mind to a spirit of inquiry.
When I call the pose, come
at it as if it's the first time, sculpt it from an inner experience of wanting
to shine radiantly in whatever form it ultimately takes.
Ground your hands and ground
yourself in who you are and who you have the capacity to become.
Muscular Energy: Muscles
embrace bones to embrace the situation at hand wholeheartedly
Hug midline and draw into a
place inside of complete confidence in yourself and your abilities.
Hug midline to pull into
your inherent skillfulness.
Hug midline and connect to
your empowered presence.
Organic Energy: Spread your
self-confidence through the whole form of the pose.
Let your inherent skillfulness
shine brilliantly wherever you find yourself in the pose.
Radiate your empowered
presence from the inside out.
