May all your dreams take flight this year.

May every joy be yours during these Holy Days.

Trust n. a firm belief in the reliability or truth or strength etc. of a person or thing. ~The Oxford Dictionary

A few months ago I hired a fitness trainer. The goal at the time was to lose excess weight and gain a more defined and chiseled physique, i.e. look more like my trainer, but while working out one afternoon my goal shifted. During that particular workout session I found myself struggling, both physically and emotionally with an exercise that required strength and balance (I was afraid of falling). Immediately, my trainer pointed out that I was favouring my left foot. I’d broken this foot over 10 years ago falling down a set of stairs and after all this time I was still very protective of it. It had become commonplace for me to walk sideways down a set of stairs, right foot first of course, and I’d also trained myself to shorten the stride on my left side while walking. Having made this observation my trainer stepped closer, looked me squarely in the eye and said, “You’ve stopped trusting your body”. I felt uncomfortable with her words primarily because of the further reaching implications that I sensed. If I didn’t trust my body, I wondered how trust had been limited in other areas my life?
The result of that afternoon with my trainer has changed my initial goal from a quest for the perfect body, to the desire of simply feeling good in my body. Aiding me in fulfilling this new found desire is my enrollment in Hot Yoga classes. In the short time I’ve been practicing I’ve noticed a new flexibility and space entering where movement had once been limited. Even more interestingly is the confidence both physically and emotionally I’ve gained, for example I no longer walk down a flight of stairs sideways for fear of falling an accomplishment that makes me smile. While it is important to encourage myself to push past physical limits when on my yoga mat, I’ve also had to learn the lesson of listening to my body for signs of strain. When my body indicates that I’m pushing too far I relax and attempt to find a more comfortable level for myself and thereby develop a sense of trust between my body and mind. In these moments of listening to my body’s wishes I place my inner critic aside with its demands for faster progress and whisper to myself “I’m here for you”.