At the end of my yoga classes I often tell my students about how important it is to take care of yourself and to protect your energy. When we practice yoga and self-care we work hard to move into a place of inner calm and peace. I personally feel that this is a sacred space that then needs to be honoured and protected. However this sacred space can often be easily lost when we return back into our day to day lives. So today I wanted to write about two important life lessons that I have learnt which help me to hold my ground and stay connected to my inner calm and peace.
The first lesson is not worry about what other people think of you. In fact there is a great quote…
‘what other people think about you is none of your business’…
I think this is so true and it’s something I have been trying to implement into my life for years! The second lesson is the importance of placing boundaries for your wellbeing. This has been a game changer for me and when I have honoured and valued the boundary it has felt so empowering.
When I started teaching yoga almost ten years ago I really had to throw myself out there in order to start and run my business. I had to have a photoshoot and then stick pictures of myself onto leaflets which I then printed and handed out door to door in order to encourage people to come to my class. It was not an easy process because I was just a shy timid girl who always worried about what people thought. But I soon realised that if I wanted to follow my dreams I needed to let go of those worries and instead I needed to focus on my purpose knowing with conviction that what I was doing was for the greater good of myself and others.
Then when I became a mother I once again started to worry about what people thought of me and my approach to motherhood. I soon realised though that if I continued to worry about others this would hinder the voice of my natural motherly instinct which would affect Vanaya’s development. This realisation has really taught me to become stronger and to let go of what others think about me because frankly those thoughts are actually just my own thoughts about myself. So rather than allowing these negative thoughts about myself to rise in my mind I started to ground my awareness and attention in myself and my purpose. With the practice of grounding your mind and energy daily and regularly you get to know yourself and you become focussed on your own path. With this sense of strength it can start to squash and drown out the negative voices.
Another important practice in this process is setting boundaries. If you constantly put yourself into situations where people project negativity onto you, whether that is physically or energetically then this can also hinder your energy levels and progress. Therefore I have learnt to remove myself away from those people or at the very least to limit my time with them. Also I’m learning to observe when people have crossed a boundary into my personal space. Sometimes this is not so obvious and it has only started to come to my attention when I suddenly feel uncomfortable or insecure around the person. Saying no and taking space is the healthy option but sometimes this can be difficult as we often don’t want to offend others. However in the long run this really is for the greater good of everyone involved.
Managing relationships is a huge part of our existence as we all want to feel connection and love. However when that connection and love comes with other attachments, obligations, habits or patterns it clouds our journey to living our truth to being whole, complete and in alignment with our soul’s purpose and destiny.
So I encourage you to take care of yourself and to take care of the inner work that you do on yourself. Preserve and protect that space even if it means you have to take space from others and say no without worrying about offending people. For further resources on this check out the Holistic Psycholigist who’s Instagram page has really inspired me to make those changes in my life too.
Wishing you a lifetime of strength and protection.
Jaina x
