I’ve been going to hot yoga classes just about every day for the past week because a studio nearby offers a free trial week, and rule number one of self-care on a budget is making the most of free opportunities. And it turns out that I really like hot yoga, too.
This morning, as in most yoga classes, the teacher asked us to make an intention at the start of class to focus on during our practice. She shared that her intention was to focus on finding new perspectives and new ways of thinking about things.
Meanwhile, I have a big job interview today, and I’ve been working really hard the past few months on finding a new and better job, so I my intention for the day was “leveling up” — crossing that threshold to the next level of my personal growth. Which in this particular case means going that last mile and acing this interview today so that I can move to the next level of growth in my career.
But then I really struggled with the yoga class. The class I was doing incorporates weights to help build strength, and I found I couldn’t do as many reps, and I was taking more breaks. I was feeling a little discouraged, but then I remembered that yesterday I had upped my weights. And that paired with the fact that I’ve been doing these classes every day probably means that my body needs a little break.
At the end of class my instructor reminded us of her intention to see things from a new perspective, and it made me think about my idea of leveling up. See I had been thinking of leveling up as reaching a point of ease, finally reaching a goal. When in reality, that’s the point right before leveling up. Because once you reach a new level of difficulty things get harder.
In terms of my job search, I’ve been on a lot of interviews, and I no longer get as nervous as I did back at the beginning of my search (I’ll choose to take that as a good sign going into this interview today). But this idea of leveling up is true about any kind of growth, I have leveled up in my yoga practice — it’s just that I did it yesterday. Today was the first day at this new level, and it was hard.
Growth is not about making things easier, it’s about embracing challenges. It’s continually finding new ways to improve yourself and the world. The key, though, is recognizing when you need to take breaks, when to go back to basics to experience that ease you’ve been craving after struggling for so long, if only to see how far you’ve come.
Flourishing 