Muscles of the Soul

Through my understated approach to fitness, I have discovered that I’m exercising a different kind of muscle. Muscles of the soul perhaps. I’m learning to trust myself and re-envisioning myself as someone who can succeed. Do you have one of those little voices that is so quick to criticize and let you know that failure is imminent? I have a very active one that has had free range in my brain for nearly as long as I can remember. It lets me know that I am not to be trusted and that any positive changes I might be making are short-lived. After I posted about my 3-weeks of doing yoga everyday, I realized that I didn’t have time for yoga and had to rush off to work. Oh, the voice loved that. “See, I told you so.” But I found that I wasn’t so concerned about what the voice had to say and that I had a new sense of trust and confidence that I would do yoga later in the day. And I did. Lately, I have found that through my little successes I’m building up a new sense of myself. A new assumption of success instead of fear of failure.

There’s a synergy that as I accomplish my goals my new concept grows and with that my approach to my goals changes. I am no longer trying to force myself in an effort to keep from failing yet again. Instead I am walking, doing yoga and dancing for the pleasure of it. For the way it makes my body feel. I can imagine how I would have avoided thoughts of exercising because of their association with failure. Now that I am letting go of that association, the urge to move and stretch is becoming a regular part of my consciousness. And I am developing a new relationship of trust with body and soul.