How many times has this happened to you? You’re in a rush and need to meet a deadline.  As you’re banging away at your computer, trying your hardest to get everything finished, your co-worker comes by.  He starts talking and talking about something unrelated to work and won’t even take a breath to notice that you’re working harder than James Brown.  But instead of taking a few minutes to give him your undivided attention, you ‘yes’ him and half listen to what he’s saying.  In fact, you’ve heard all that your co-worker has been saying one too many times, as he seems to go on this rant several times a week.  So, instead of engaging your co-worker and thoroughly listening to his words, you basically just nod your head and answer his questions in your mind before he even asks them.  Sound familiar?

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Well, I don’t want to admit it, but I am totally guilty of this.  I used to think it was me being a fabulous multitasker, but that was just me trying to convince myself that I could do no wrong and that I basically had everything figured it out.  Sometimes I get so focused on what I’m doing in my own life, that I tend to shut out the rest of the world.  I’m not trying to say that I walk around like a zombie and that I don’t communicate with humans.  In fact, it’s the complete opposite.  My goal is to look and act as ‘normal’ as possible on the outside, but to be completely engulfed in my own self-thought on the inside.  Actually, I’m so good at this little charade that at times, I tend to fool myself.

The other day in yoga class, I was having a difficult time keeping up.  I’m not sure what the issue was?  Perhaps I wasn’t hydrated enough?  Maybe I didn’t get enough rest the night before?  Was I hungry?  Did I have too much on my mind?  Whatever the case was, I just wasn’t feeling it.  But instead of listening to what my body was telling me, I told my body to keep going.  After all, I had been practicing on average about 6 days a week for the past two years.  I knew my body could hack it.  The poses that we were doing in class weren’t hard.  I knew them all like the back of my hand and it didn’t seem as if anyone else in class was struggling.  I just kept ignoring what was going on inside of me and plowed through the rest of the class.  I felt like crap, but I didn’t care.  My goal was to just finish – how my mind and body felt didn’t play a factor.

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As I was pushing through another pose, my teacher started talking about having a ‘know-it-all’ mind.  She asked if we were treating ourselves like so many other people we interact with on a daily basis.  Were we fully listening?  Were our bodies trying to have a conversation with us that we just couldn’t pay attention to?  Did we think we already had everything figured out?  Like in almost every class, I thought my teacher was talking directly to me.  I had the ‘know-it-all’ mind and I was definitely not listening to what my body had to say.  I was treating myself the way I was treating my chatty co-worker.  That kind of treatment wasn’t fair to my co-worker and it wasn’t fair to me.

After having my revelation, I finally decided to let my body do the talking and my ears do the listening.  Even though we were coming towards the end of class, I decided to make the every last minute count.  I listened to what was going on inside of me and walked over to the wall and just let my legs rest (viparita karani).  It felt amazing to completely let go and to feel the support beneath my legs.  While I wasn’t feeling 100% for most of the class, I felt completely at ease while I was resting.  Once I allowed my body the chance to speak and to be heard, the ‘off’ feeling I was having started to disappear.  For the last few moments of class, I was at peace – physically, mentally and spiritually.  I wasn’t pretending as if I knew what was going on with my body and that I had everything figured out.  For once, the ‘know-it-all’ didn’t want to know anything.  I was glad to have the opportunity for my mind to learn as much as possible from my body.  All of the information was available for me to soak in, it was always there.  I just had acknowledge it.  But when we train ourselves to constantly be the best at everything, we don’t leave room for growth or improvement.  For that reason, we need to understand that it’s important for us to be both the teacher and the student.  As soon as we start thinking we know everything, that’s when we’ll find just how little we know.

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Are you a fan of Lost?  I am!  And I’m so psyched that the new season has started.  If you are a fan, what did you think of last night’s episode?  If not, are there any television shows on right now that you just have to watch?

Namasté,
Nicole