One thing at a time...

Do you remember that scene from Friends where Chandler freaks out about marrying Monica and runs away? Ross eventually finds him and helps him overcome his fears of marriage by breaking everything down into “baby steps”.  He guides Chandler by getting him to do the easy things, like showering, getting dressed, etc., taking it all step-by-step, so that getting married doesn’t feel so overwhelming.

There aren’t many things in life that cannot be likened to an episode of Friends!

This episode shows us how breaking things down, taking one thing at a time, can be a wonderful way of dealing with any anxiety we might feel over something that seems scary in our life.

When thinking about setting our intentions for the day, week, month or year, often we only focus on the bigger picture. We all tend to project into the future, which can cause a sense of worry about situations that haven’t even happened yet. This takes up a lot of time and energy in our lives. But if we know one thing for certain, it is that we cannot control absolutely every single thing when it comes to making plans and desiring certain outcomes.

What we can do though, is compartmentalise things. We can take things slowly and break the big things down into little, more manageable things. 

Our Yoga practice helps us to do this by giving us an opportunity to break our poses and sequences down steadily, getting us to focus on our breath every step of the way, and notice the subtle changes in ourselves both during and after the pose or sequence.  

Often we are so focused on the final pose itself, or the outcome of our practice, that we forget to enjoy the moment when we’re in it. We forget about the component parts that make up the pose or sequence, often missing that feeling of freedom in our bodies as we move through the transitions between them. What then happens is we tend to create more tension in areas of the body where we don’t need or want it!

So when you’re next on your mat, ask yourself these questions:

Where am I holding on unnecessarily?
What am I feeling physically in this pose?
Should I be feeling tension in my neck, face and jaw, when I’m actually opening the hip?
How is this pose making me feel emotionally? 
How did it feel to move through that transition? Smooth and easy, or hard and clunky?
Am I using my breath to help guide me through this?

When confronted with something that seems daunting or overwhelming in your life, this practice can come in really useful. Our yoga practice can help us to see the bigger picture for what it really is - a whole, made up of smaller parts. We can ask ourselves what it is we need to focus our energy on in that given moment, rather than using it all up thinking about the final outcome.

Namaste Yogi
xxx

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