Inspire You!

Photo credit @AnnieSprat

Early in February, I challenged followers to try creating a good habit. In my subsequent posts, I have been providing ideas on how to support creating a new habit. Yesterday I read something that I just have to share.

Inspiration comes when we hear, experience something that gets our heart beating, our sense of possibility and of being alive. Or it can scare the sh#t out of us. The difference in the two - our perspective. If we see the potential for injury, we have chosen fear. If we see the possibility of enjoyment, a better future, we have chosen inspiration. Sounds pretty simple, but it is very hard to chose wisely especially in the heat of the moment. 

Many moons ago, back in Rifle, Colorado, my then husband, Nick was try to complete a route called The Crew. Tough route and next level for his climbing performance. I belayed as he sailed up this route looking absolutely on point with every move. He got to the final holds, the next step to grab his rope and clip the chains. A foothold broke. Instead of sending, he was sailing through the air. I was beyond belief. A fellow climber and the first ascentionist of this route was watching. When Nick hit the end of the rope and was swinging wildly, he said, "This route is so cool!!!" 
The first ascentionists words were not nearly so inspired, more devastated. "You were robbed." He actually added an even more violating description, and I won't repeat it here. The moral of this story, where my response and the other spectators response was devastation, Nick chose to see the possibility, to be inspired. Nick found meaning in the climbing, not the grades.

Viktor Frankl, who spent time in concentration camps as a prisoner observed the very real consequences of the choice. Those who chose to live, to aspire for the day of release and who upon that day became disillusioned often then chose death. Where those who chose to live to see a loved one, or for something bigger than the end of the suffering, often chose life again and again. 

What is the key to choosing to be inspired, to keep trying?        YOUR WORDS
Consider what you say to yourself when things are going badly.
"I will never get this."
"This is too hard."
"I can't"
"What's the point."
All of these statements are not inspiring. They are choosing death, or at the very least, being stuck. They are choosing the belief that nothing will change. Everything always changes. 

“Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, 
​Man's Search for Meaning

"I can!     I will!     I must!"

Reading Dr. Edith Egers book, "The Gift", she states, (paraphrase) "To try is to not actually commit to change. It is to give oneself an excuse. You are either doing something to change or you are not."  I should... again, you are currently not doing, and you are now shaming yourself. Not helpful.

As a coach, I hear it all the time... "I can't" and my response is "Can't? or Won't?" There are so many ways one CAN try to learn something, BUT only if one stays curious. As Dr. Egers notes, and as I have written about in previous posts, CURIOSITY is an essential ingredient to growth, to change. Without curiosity in the yoga world we would say you are closed, not open, or very adeptly put - inflexible. Flexibility is not just in the body, but also in our attitude.