Daily individual practice enables you to trust the personal courage that lies within you.
Your body has an intelligence that is clear and precise in its own needs, integrity and desires. When you are in the middle of your yoga practice and your body whispers, “Move slow,” it is literally seducing you with your own internal desire. How often are you open and quiet enough to hear that part of you? When was the last time you listened and honoured that whisper by slowing down your movements?
Maybe you are working all day at your desk computer and your body starts to stiffen with tension — your shoulders are rising in an effort to communicate that you need to relax, let go, take a break and move around. Its contractions are physical ways of screaming,“You’re choking me!”
When was the last time you walked away from your desk for ten minutes to stretch and take a few deep breaths so that you could truly feel more grounded and at ease within your body while you work?
When I am practicing in any space alone, I am forced to quiet all of the distractions. My emotions, my body, my mind, my spirit, and my soul are all ecstatic to have a chance to finally share with me through clear and direct influence. The way I slide on the ground and shift my weight from my legs to my hands with careful placement, or the way I slosh and roll on the floor in order to feel closer to the earth takes me on a courageous journey. Each movement gives me feedback. Each time I listen to where my body wants me to go, I am nurturing a deeper sense of self-trust.
I open myself to trust.
I am trusting my body to guide me.
My highest heart leads me towards divinity.
When I practice trusting my movements and my impulses exploring through the creation of physical shapes, I awaken and enliven certain sensations or feelings that I never knew I could stand tall in. I release unwanted pain by spending time lovingly creating space for it to dissolve. This let’s me walk closer to the place of ease and freedom that comes from letting my highest self lead the way.
Many of us have a hard time trusting anything or anyone, and so it’s really no surprise that we lack the trust required to bring our own selves to harmony. We are so hardwired to ignore our physical sensations and numb out our emotions that we jump straight into our heads and analyze every little piece of information before our true guidance gets to speak its wisdom. Before our true guidance gets a chance to lead us into light.
When we find ourselves overwhelmed with thoughts, possible stories or outcomes, we experience more fear, more anxiety, more confusion and more discomfort in all aspects of our lives. We begin to second guess every single feeling, thought, creation, or sensation and we mistake everything for a “logical” decision. Logic is wonderful, and at times necessary but your logic will not be in integrity and truth if you are not grounded, connected to your heart and trusting your inner wisdom.
If you are not fully present to your body and its intelligence sharing of what it truly needs and desires, then your logical mind will confuse you or possibly even lead you astray. It is the feeling of internal torment that keeps you up at night, or keeps you from jumping out of bed in the morning for fear of failure. It’s what happens when you’re in the midst of creating something wonderful but you’ll second-guess yourself until you’ve quit. The conflict between body, heart, soul and your mind will be tormenting and debilitating for a long time if you don’t make space to coax your mental chatter into quieting and trusting the other loving parts of you.
When you’re practicing solo here are a few ways to nurture and awaken your self-trust:
Close your eyes and ground in your current state. Wherever you’ve just been, whatever you’ve just done — recognize where it lingers in the body. Allow the emotion or the thought to receive the acknowledgement it seeks from you, and then let it fade. Transition into the focus of physical sensations, and any time your mind starts to take you backwards or forwards in time, remind yourself of where you are and what you are presently doing (moving through yoga poses in your room, dancing to music in a studio, sitting at a coffee shop writing out your feelings.) Let that again become the focus and immerse yourself in the doing; in the expansion of expression.
Use your breath to steady your mental rhythm. Breathing is something we all do naturally. But you will find once you start to incorporate a practice that focuses on observing or steadying your breath that there are places where you hold your breath, or where you breathe a little shallow. You might find that all of your breaths are quick and sharp, or maybe they are long and lethargic. You can let your physical actions or movements be moved by breath, or you can let your breath initiate your movements. Let yourself play, allowing your body to move with the inspiration and exhalation of your breathing.
Use your body like an instrument. Movement is an expression of what is inside of you, and using your body as though you are creating music is a great way of understanding what is within. An incredible ballet teacher of mine, Christine Wright, always says to me, “Use your body as if you are singing a song. Tell me a story.” This helped me truly connect to what my body was feeling and how it wanted to express itself through movement. As you move your body, pretend that you are singing beautiful melodies. There are no wrong notes. Your body is the perfect instrument and the movement that you make, is the music. You can even sing aloud or hum softly to create a vibration from your vocal chords, making it really easy to listen to your most genuine sounds.
Have a loving conversation with yourself. In the moments of your practice when you’re feeling tense, or stuck and you want to ditch the practice altogether to go eat a slice of pizza or just take a nap instead… tell yourself that you want to work together. Let your higher self know that you don’t want to fight, ditch or resist. Remind yourself why you’re there, fully present and wanting to trust what it has to share. Tell yourself you’re willing to try and be quiet enough to listen, to move in the directions and follow the paths that your heart is desiring. Speak words of kindness in your mind, or out loud and let yourself truly resonate with the vibrations of those love-affirming words.
Be consistent and practice daily. A consistent practice where you get to become fully present and connect to your whole self is an absolute necessity to developing a strong and loving sense of self-trust. Do this over and over again, with very a humble and receptive heart until you wake up in the morning feeling fully ready and open for what’s to come each day. Continue developing trust for what you know to be true inside of your highest heart, committing each day to doing the best you can.
There will be moments of this practice where it feels off, where it feels strained or fake. You may encounter discomfort in places that represent feeling stuck and broken, pained and lost. Let yourself work through what arises, and be there for yourself in times of resistance. The only person who can fully support you in building self-trust is yourself.
Work with yourself setting the intention that brings you the ability to listen, to discern, to create; to guide, to follow and to lead.
Do these practices consistently for at least five days and you will notice that when you’re walking down the street you feel more trusting of your balance, or that your mind, body, and spirit are now starting to play, communing together. You’ll see how they start to more frequently offer you exciting and daring opportunities than usual because they know that you will trust them enough to take the leap! Allow your heart to fully open in your practices, coax yourself into letting go of the internal rigidity that keeps you from living fully. There is no better time than right now for nurturing your own self-trust.
If you desire more guidance and support in your journey through self-trust please contact Vanessa for your complimentary 30 minute Soul Therapist consultation.
Edited by: Moriah Stendel