Gina Molinari yoga, wellness, travel and coaching
I had loosely dedicated 2015 towards personal growth and my contribution to community through service, giving space for that aim to unfold as it naturally will. Lately I had been feeling pretty frustrated because my day to day didn’t seem all that much different than it had a year ago. There's been no tangible gain or any big ticket item I can check off society's list of "Things I Need to Be Successful". Like so many others, my self-critic was telling me I am inadequate, I’m not trying hard enough, I should quit now. Sound familiar? When our self-critics/egos call the shots on how we feel, they are feeding it in from our society: Success is measured by what we have and what we have done. Fortunately, I don't truly believe that I could possibly measure my success by markers on an arbitrary list. Our culture certainly thinks we should, but do YOU really believe that our accomplishments measure our quality? Do you believe that our leaps and bounds are more qualifying than the small, steady steps? While my ego has had a field day trying to convince me I have not accomplished enough, in reality, I’ve been super busy taking small steps and guiding my intentions toward the bigger picture. I’ve been going through an online workshop on becoming a productive and peaceful CEO with The Yogipreneur (you can do it, too!), I’m signed up for a 7 Week Immersion focusing on finding my purpose and contribution to my community at Yoga Home, and I’ve completed an application for another Vinyasa Teacher Training with Beyond Asana. In fact, I’ve got my entire 2015 pretty well filled with activities that not only nurture my own growth, but that lead me towards opportunities to practice seva and enrich my community. So why am I so hard on myself? Our culture presses importance on RESULTS. Everything is measured in what we have accomplished, and that often doesn’t give us much credit for the progress we’ve made towards those big aspirations, for all the intermediary accomplishments. It’s really easy to get down on yourself when you realize you haven’t yet reached your final target. We all do it: Some epicly awesome idea comes up and we plan out how amazing it’s going to be to when its big and alive. Some time goes by and it hasn’t reached fruition and we feel like we’ve failed. Our inner critics won’t let us down easy. This comes up in our asana practice as well, especially in a challenging pose. As class progresses you’ve gone through all the necessary opening and strengthening. You approach that peak pose filled with hope and excitement, and…nope. Not today. Sure you aren’t going to throw a fit in class, but it’s likely that your striving ego has a few words to say about how you “should have” been able to do it, you “could have” tried harder. But really, didn’t you try? No matter how small a change it is, aren’t you walking away a bit wiser? Too often we fail to see the process as a success and we only judge ourselves for not reaching that distant point we call the goal. When was the last time you genuinely congratulated yourself on your attempts, your good and honest intention towards the goal? Now it is true that good intentions do not necessarily lead to progress, but without that intention to start, you aren’t likely to get moving. Imagine your downward facing dog. Our picture perfect down dog has an elongated spine, sit bones pressed high and heels down to the mat. Just because your heels don’t make it down doesn’t mean it’s wrong – you can still reap the benefits by intending your heels down as the sit bones press high. It takes time and practice to stretch the backs of the legs to allow that extension. Align your actions to your intentions and celebrate each step along that course. To nurture progress in life, we need to set our intentions towards growth and then align our path with making progress. PROGRESS - not immediate results. Striving for the end result without acknowledging the small victories leads to suffering. That act of creating and following mindful, meaningful, and intentional steps releases us from the expectation of needing that goal to be realized immediately. Instead we can see each small achievement along the path as progress, which it totally is! Celebrate your growth, whether you've run a marathon or simply stepped out your door. I had loosely dedicated 2015 towards personal growth and my contribution to community through service, giving space for that aim to unfold as it naturally will. Lately I had been feeling pretty frustrated because my day to day didn’t seem all that much different than it had a year ago. There's been no tangible gain or any big ticket item I can check off society's list of "Things I Need to Be Successful". Like so many others, my self-critic was telling me I am inadequate, I’m not trying hard enough, I should quit now. Sound familiar? When our self-critics/egos call the shots on how we feel, they are feeding it in from our society. Success is measured by what we have and what we have done. Fortunately, I don't truly believe that I could possibly measure my success by markers on an arbitrary list. Our culture certainly thinks we should, but do YOU really believe that our accomplishments measure our quality? Do you believe that our leaps and bounds are more qualifying than the small, steady steps? While my ego has had a field day trying to convince me I have not accomplished enough, in reality, I’ve been super busy taking small steps and guiding my intentions toward the bigger picture. I’ve been going through an online workshop on becoming a productive and peaceful CEO with Rachael Baxter Cook (you can do it, too!), I’m signed up for a 7 Week Immersion focusing on finding my purpose and contribution to my community at Yoga Home, and I’ve completed an application for another Vinyasa Teacher Training with Beyond Asana. In fact, I’ve got my entire 2015 pretty well filled with activities that not only nurture my own growth, but that lead me towards opportunities to practice seva and enrich my community. So why am I so hard on myself? Our culture presses importance on RESULTS. Everything is measured in what we have accomplished, and that often doesn’t give us much credit for the progress we’ve made towards those big aspirations, for all the intermediary accomplishments. It’s really easy to get down on yourself when you realize you haven’t yet reached your final target. We all do it: Some epicly awesome idea comes up and we plan out how amazing it’s going to be to when its big and alive. Some time goes by and it hasn’t reached fruition and we feel like we’ve failed. Our inner critics won’t let us down easy. This comes up in our asana practice as well, especially in a challenging pose. As class progresses you’ve gone through all the necessary opening and strengthening. You approach that peak pose filled with hope and excitement, and…nope. Not today. Sure you aren’t going to throw a fit in class, but it’s likely that your striving ego has a few words to say about how you “should have” been able to do it, you “could have” tried harder. But really, didn’t you try? No matter how small a change it is, aren’t you walking away a bit wiser? Too often we fail to see the process as a success and we only judge ourselves for not reaching that distant point we call the goal. When was the last time you genuinely congratulated yourself on your attempts, your good and honest intention towards the goal? Now it is true that good intentions do not necessarily lead to progress, but without that intention to start, you aren’t likely to get moving. Imagine your downward facing dog. Our picture perfect down dog has an elongated spine, sit bones pressed high and heels down to the mat. Just because your heels don’t make it down doesn’t mean it’s wrong – you can still reap the benefits by intending your heels down as the sit bones press high. It takes time and practice to stretch the backs of the legs to allow that extension. Align your actions to your intentions and celebrate each step along that course. To nurture progress in life, we need to set our intentions towards growth and then align our path with making progress. PROGRESS - not immediate results. Striving for the end result without acknowledging the small victories leads to suffering. That act of creating and following mindful, meaningful, and intentional steps releases us from the expectation of needing that goal to be realized immediately. Instead we can see each small achievement along the path as progress, which it totally is! Celebrate your growth, whether you've run a marathon or simply stepped out your doer
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