E
very week I have the privilege of teaching yoga to a beautiful group of people. The number of participants differs, sometimes in the low teens and other night bursting the room close to 30, but always with the same strong energy – peacefully grateful to be there.
This particular week when I arrived 10 minutes before the class I found a young women finishing up a personal yoga workout. Trying to give her space and comfort I quietly laid out my mat and was about to head to the restroom so she could finish in peace when we struck up a conversation. She wanted to ask me about moves I could give her for her core and hips.
Within a matter of a couple sentences my heart broke for her. The way is breaks for all young women with the same outlook – I need to look different in order to be acceptable. If that doesn’t break your heart, I don’t know what does. The sad truth is we are bombarded daily with media; media which tells us there is an “ideal” and it’s not you. Yea, an abrasive message if we are willing to really read between the lines of airbrushed figures.
So with this particular dear women, maybe a few years older than me but certainly in my same life stage, I knelt down to show her our shared experience by literally sharing her experience in that moment and continued a conversation I wish could’ve soaked deeper into her. But that takes time. One plants, another harvests. I spoke words of truth – that she was beautiful, that she was a very healthy body, and that she should have a more loving goal of personal strength, not physical exterior change. It’s words that I have spoken to myself every day of life since the very first years the media became “noisy” instead of white noise in our surroundings.
Dear woman reading this, dear man who thinks you’re not enough. Today, hear this “You are enough. Right now. No change needed.” I’m not suggesting stagnation in life. I’m empowering you to live, grow, change, and become your FULL SELF within the arms of being loved, accepted and belonging.
Sadly when I came back to the studio after the restroom she was gone. Finished with her workout, she must’ve travelled home never getting to hear the life-giving words continued within my classroom. I can only hope to see her presence again to speak into her practice & life.
Speak into your life. It’s a journey. A Practice. Remember who you really are.
For more about learning to let go of culture and love the skin you’re in:
