Yoga With Carie

Freeform Focus

Have you given yourself a break today?

Have you done something nice for yourself yet today?

We work so hard at cultivating compassion for others and being nice to others that we often forget the very place where the compassion flows through: ourselves. We're so tuned in to cutting other people some slack that we forget to do it for ourselves.

How could you cut yourself some slack, right now, right where you are? What could you do right now to be compassionate with yourself?

An easy way to begin to cultivate compassion within yourself is within your yoga practice, right on the mat. The practice serves to erase tension, to facilitate letting go of hassles, not adding to the pile we already have.

Instead of pushing yourself to work on handstand or a difficult pose or a prescribed set of sequences, how about doing whatever your body wants right now? Compassion for ourselves begins right where we are, right here, right now.

Unroll the mat and sit with yourself for a moment, exactly how you are without trying to be a different way or wishing things were a different way.

"Ok, here I am. I'm angry, I'm stressed out, I'm feeling down, I'm tight", whatever it is. Be with how you are, right now, and come to the practice from here.

Put on whatever music you feel inspired to put on and begin moving into a pose that feels best for you. Breathe into the tight spots and be gentle with yourself. Be loving with yourself. Cut yourself some slack.

Keep staying with the feeling so that each new pose that you move into is inspired from the now-moment, with how things are right now. Watch things change and shift as you let the poses change and shift.

So what if you spend the entire practice in savasana? That's ok. Be ok with however it is. Just for right now... and right now....

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