Today I had the pleasure to lead my regular Thursday am yoga group through a session about finding ways to be kind to ourselves and the effects of this on how we feel and behave. We have been exploring the use of a variety of techniques to give some time off from our ever demanding mind chatter including; relaxation, mindful movement and the use of sound in order to practice ‘intentionally paying attention to ourselves/bodies with-out judgement whilst allowing the body to breathe’* You can see why it is well known that yoga is not a quick fix!

But today in class something wonderful was experienced by one Halcyon Yoga student who I shall call ‘Pearl’ and the whole class was able to share in her moment. Pearl explained to the group that she had been told by her former ‘yoga’ teacher that because in that particular class she was not able to squat with her heels on the floor that she would NEVER be able to do it. So in my classses every week she valiantly attempts to ‘squat’ and is not able to. Of course our aim is not to be able to squat but to explore the a-fore mentioned practice *. A beautiful quality of yoga is to remain open minded and curious like a child but each time Pearl tried this approach she was reminded that she had been told she would never be able to do it. This opens up the door for self-judgement, self limiting belief and generally feeling not good enough . I ventured to completely disagree with the person who had made the shocking statement and I reassured Pearl that I had witnessed so much positive change in her and that I thought with continued practice it was entirely possible for her to happily squat. At which point we all watched as Pearl gently and repeatedly explored the movement towards releasing her heels to the floor and to our amazement she came into a deep squat and was completely stable and comfortable. Wow! I remarked that I could now happily retire on the back of that class.

We had a laugh as Pearl continued to play with squatting and looked so comfortable that those who know her may well find her squatting to eat, chat or even it was suggested ‘shop’! Maybe she could return the previous teacher and squat through the whole class with a beaming smile like the one she wore today.

Heels today, tomorrow, who knows what is possible?