I know I know, someone with a Leo sun and Leo rising is going to talk to us about how yoga is humbling?!
Yes, yes I am 😅
A someone that grew up learning gymnastic and dance, I've had many a humbling moment. But as an adult, yoga gives you a different kind of humble. It's that humble that reminds you to keep learning and evolving. It's that humble that goes "you don't know it all so stop acting like you do".
Rather than giving you a large essay or 10K bullet points, here are 3 major ways yoga has humbled me and helped me confront my stubborn self (outside of listening to Kendrick's Humble) 🙏🏾
Out of My Head Into My Body
This is one that I believe is universal. It's a humbling experience in itself to get out of the 50 million fluctuating thoughts and pay attention to the details of you body. The amount of times I have to tell myself to put a random thought on a shelf is wild. Practicing asana, it's a common belief that one should be in the present. But no one tells you how hard it actually is to do that. It's humbling to know that I'm not a master of being present 100% of the time. Luckily it's called a yoga practice for a reason 😅
Reminds Me to be Patient with Myself
For those of you that don't know, I used to teach dance to children and that definitely taught me about being patient with others. But yoga (and dance) have taught me to be patient with myself. I'm not going to get things right on the first or even the 500th time but that doesn't mean I should give up. Just like in life it's okay to take a day off from trying a certain posture. The important thing is to not leave in the back corner of the storage room of the mind forever. We gotta bring it back and try it again.
Everyday Is Different
Everyday is different! Personally crow pose is one of the postures that has taught me this. Some days I can float for a solid 5 breaths, other days I can stay up for a breath, other days I can't get up, and sometimes I face plant. Every time I hit the mat I have an idea of what is about to go down but I can never be sure. The feeling of being able to do postures can even shift throughout class. Like you can start class not wanting to move at all but next thing you know you're in a headstand for half the class. You learn to listen to how yourself. That feeling of surrendering to what is and navigating internal communication is humbling.
There you have it! 3 ways yoga has taught me to "be humble... sit down!" 🙌🏾
How has your practice humbled you? Leave a comment below 💜