Breathe, and notice

I recently attended a “roll and release” class at a yoga studio, using massage balls to release tension. I was so pumped to work out some of the kinks in my body, but little did I know that some life philosophy was coming my way. As I settled in on my mat and tried to maneuver awkwardly over one of the spheres, the instructor encouraged us to go slow, breathe, and notice. 

Go slow. 

Breathe. 

Notice.

Those simple but wise words started turning over in my head and have become a mantra for me this past week. 

Sometimes when we are going through hard things, we are so focused on feeling better and getting away from discomfort that we don’t take the time to understand what is truly going on. Maybe it’s because we fear what we might find… but the fear and avoidance often turns out to be much worse than meeting our pain with curiosity. There’s a famous saying, 

Suffering = pain x resistance.

I really don’t want to avoid my pain- more and more as the years go on, I realize the wisdom and power that has emerged in times of pain when I just.. opened to it. More on that later.

So during the class, I really made a point to compassionately seek out my trigger points and meet them gently with a little pressure and patience. With time, there was release and I found myself feeling more open, nurtured and grateful. 

By meeting our pain points with an open-hearted tenderness, we  can achieve greater understanding through this focused introspection. And maybe, just maybe, we can also prevent the deep scars of avoidance that inevitably emerge when we turn away from it.