Yesterday I happened to sit in on a training session for people who had been unemployed for anywhere between 3 months to a number of years.

The trainer tried to challenge some basic assumptions and asked the question what really motivated people. He wrote two words on the white board: “Fear” and “Will”. His explanation was that people do things either because they are afraid of something or because they really want to achieve something. In this case the question was whether people were in the group because they were afraid of the “Department” cutting their payments or because they really wanted to get a job. He asked: “What would happen if you got a job tomorrow?” There was a stunned silence in the room…..

This reminded me of the time I ran goal setting and planning sessions for people who for various reasons thought or felt that they were not in control of their lives. I asked the question: “What would you wish for if you had a magic wand and could change your life in whatever way you wanted to?” I usually was greeted with stunned silence as well….

Why is this? What would you answer if you had the option to change your life completely? Would you really want to? Or would you rather stay where you are?

I found over the years that change is one of the scariest things for human beings. We are creatures of habit. The only thing that brings about change is pain. It doesn’t matter whether this pain is physical or emotional – we want it to go away. We will do just enough to make the pain subside. There are healthy and unhealthy ways to deal with pain.

Yoga of course is one of the healthy ways of dealing with pain and bringing about change. I have many students who keep telling me: “I wish my husband/wife/partner would come to class, it would be so good for them…”

You know what I have found over time consulting a large number of people?

The pain people are experiencing has to be greater than the pain caused by the change they will have to make to alleviate the pain. 

I leave you with this thought for today, let me know what you think. Post a comment. You don’t have to agree with me, you might have a totally different opinion.

Connie,

Your Yoga Partner

from

www.yogainahurry.com

A bit of my Flexibility History – to encourage YOU to join a class!

I am not naturally flexible and I had to earn every bit of flexibility I got. I also was never a “sporty” person. There are memories ofcoming last in swimming, being a very slow runner and crashing into various sporting implements and injuring myself quite badly. I remember falling off balance beams, never being able to do a backward roll and not even being able to do a nice forward roll.

I hated sport – every type, every facet of it. Eventually I did aerobics, lots of it, and it got me fit-but after a while the high impact style taught back in the early 80’s took its toll! This is how my yoga journey started.

Read all about it in My Yoga Timeline.

I never was one of these perfect “Super Yogis”. I love watching them, I admire them. Their life is yoga. Hours of it every day. Yoga has been part of my life for a very long time but it has never been my life.