“Don’t be afraid to catch feels” ~Katy Perry
If you don’t know the song, take a listen. It’s on my ‘I need a pickup’ playlist.
To me, yoga is many things. It’s exercise, it’s stress management, it’s self-awareness, it’s inward focus, it’s a spiritual practice. But mostly, it is where I stop thinking and start feeling. On my mat, my brain gets quiet…so quiet I can hear my heart.
It’s also the place where I begin to feel. I catch feels on my mat. And that’s not always a place of sunshine and unicorns. Sometimes, many times, I feel peaceful. And sometimes I feel sad. Angry. Elated. Upside down. Inside out. But I feel.
So many of the things we are addicted to prevent us from catching the feels. We would rather be numb than feel. We would rather drink, shop, eat, shoot up, over schedule, did I name yours? Whatever our drug of choice, it keeps us from feeling. But there’s a catch. We numb out from the bad feelings, and we also numb out from the good feelings. We numb out from all the feels. And we don’t numb out from the thinking. Yoga and meditation are the only drugs I know of that do the opposite. Less thinking, more feeling.
When we finally slow down enough to feel, we begin see more clearly.
We begin to live our lives On Purpose.
And now the practice of yoga begins…
Namaste.
**Photo by Vero Photoart on Unsplash
