Weaving in Kindness

New month… new mantra to think about in classes this week. I thought we’d work with the idea of “weaving in kindness.” This first week, I thought we would talk about weaving in kindness for ourselves. I love the idea that kindness is finding the seed of love within everyone you encounter, starting with yourself. I think of kindness to yourself as being kindness to the physical form, the mental body, and this energetic body. And just appreciating yourself for what it is, an accumulation of what has gotten you to this point in your life. So if we can kinda think about it that way, we can appreciate it. It’s been through a lot! It does a lot for us each day. Can we see our physical form, mental body, and energetic body as a beautiful gift?

“Kindness can be it’s own motive, we are made kind by being kind” ~ Eric Hoffer

Maybe this month, you can think about ways to be kind to your “self” in your yoga practice, both on and off the mat. That could be how you move, how you talk to yourself, the mental loops that you allow yourself to get into. Just notice and be aware. That’s were you can ask yourself as your going into those loops… can I be a little kinder to myself in anyway?

I came across a chat by Frank Ostaseski, he’s in the end-of-life and palliative care world. In working with individuals who were coming to an end to their life, he found that there was a common theme for a lot of individuals. The common theme was that they asked, “have I loved well?” That feels like such an important question to ask. That’s something that we can ask ourselves everyday…. “Have I loved well? Have I loved myself well? Have I loved those around be well?” That can look like so many things. Sometimes we love people, but we set boundaries. Sometimes we love people, but we have to say “no.” And there are different ways that we love. Some of us are gift givers. Some of us do things for others. Some are really good at verbal affirmations. So just thinking about, for yourself, what your own love affirmations might look like. That might be taking moments of pause throughout the day for yourself and really appreciating that this is my time, my time to care for myself. Or thinking about relationship around food. You can ask yourself, “am I taking in things, eating things, that are healing me, helping me, that are a representation of love?”

See if weaving in more kindness and love for yourself this week has any noticeable shifts to your practice. Sending lots of love and kindness your way!