If you follow me on social media, you may have noticed that some of the content I share is about taking your yoga off the mat and into the world. I haven’t really brought that into my blogs, but I’m going to, and here’s why it’s relevant (whether you have a yoga practice or not)…
The very definition of yoga is “union”. This can be taken different ways, but most commonly is taken to mean the union of the the individual, with the divine consciousness.” Click here if you’d like to see where I snagged this description.
I don’t know about you, but whether I’m committed to creating my best life, my best business, or my best career, I’ve learned over and over that if I don’t work with the divine, I have to work HARD, and I’m sick of that story that we have to work hardto thrive.
It’s bullshit.
Now, I don’t mean you don’t have to do your due diligence and show up from your highest self while being in aligned action, but “hard” is a mindset, and it’s a limiting one.
If you’re like me and you believed (or still believe) this is the way to create, you may notice that you keep pretty busy. You may notice you play a lot of value on “doing” vs. “being”.
If you have ever been to a yoga class, you know that the final pose is svasana or corpse pose. This is the end posture where you rest and integrate all the effects of what was created. Literally, you just lie there and be.
During the first group class I went to, I bawled like a baby in my dead person’s pose because I noticed how rare it was for me to be still and do nothing. I noticed how uncomfortable I was being with myself, and it felt like my heart was breaking.
Like many, I took on this new endeavor because I felt like I had to. You see, when I moved to North Carolina in 2006, I was t-boned by a van breaking my pelvis and collapsing my lung. My body didn’t like to stay in alignment after that and my nervous systems was hurting due to the trauma. Yoga was of MANY things I committed to in order to live a pain free life.
While I chose it to feel good in my body, I continue to re-choose it for umpteen reasons.
I thought yoga would, automagically, make me a more calm person, but I really struggled with taking my practice off the mat and into my life. I’d feel zen, but then get in my car and cuss at the “jerk” who cut me off.
When I found my first coach in 2014, I began to learn how to take my yoga off the mat. For me, coaching is like yoga for the mind. All those concepts and philosophies that wouldn’t translate came alive, and I began to embody them.
Whether my clients know it or not, the philosophy of yoga is weaved into every coaching session. It may be something as simple as inviting them breathe so the nervous system can be reminded it’s safe, and it gets to relax. Or, it could be asking someone to take on a particular yoga posture that may support them in shifting their state.
Taking your “yoga off the mat” could be as simple as practicing breathing from one daily activity to another. Maybe you stick your chest out with your hands on your hips and connect to your super hero powers. Or, perhaps you decide that hopping in corps post for a 5 minute rest is exactly what the doctor ordered.
You will get out of your limiting beliefs more quickly, when you have practices that dislodge them from where they’ve been stored in your body and on your nervous system. Yoga helps with this whether it’s breath, meditation, movement, stillness, chanting, etc.
If you suspect you may be addicted to busy, I get it, and I’d like to invite you to consider asking for support. Addiction is addiction, and anytime something else is running the show, you are not in your power.
Overwork as a business owner leads to resentment and burnout. When we can slow down and show up from our highest self, we generate more impactful results than if we’re in frenzied action.
If you’re corporate, it may be easy to make your company the scapegoat for making you work all those hours, but if you’re an addict, it’s on you, too. We like to think we can run from one job to another to make it all better, but we just drag what doesn’t work around until we transform.
In Charlotte, join me at Okra on June 19th from 7 pm – 9 pm for Yoga Off the Mat! By the end of our time together, you will:
— Begin to relate to the transition in your life more like you relate to the transition in your yoga practice.
— Slow down to hear your highest self more clearly
— Connect to what’s behind your desires, and gain clarity on what you’re putting in the way of them.
— Walk away with an exercise that will allow you to clear space in your mind, body, and spirit.
Not in Charlotte (or can’t make the date), contact me to schedule your very own 90 minute version of this workshop!
Together, we will start removing you from that old, fear based mindset of you having to be busy to be enough, and you will have tools to unite with the divine in an even more powerful way.
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Jenn Shull is an ontologically trained life and leadership coach and certified yoga teacher who combines coaching, neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and yoga principles to support her clients in shifting their mindsets, so they can transform their businesses, jobs, and lives. Jenn created her business, The Bold Thing, to help people bring their visions to life in a sustainable way. The Bold Thing is: a thought to think, a conversation to have, an action to take, a way of life and an opportunity to experience deep fulfillment as you get paid to share your gifts.
Ways To Work With Jenn:
- 1:1 Coaching
- Overwhelmed Entrepreneur Package
- Untapped Intrapreneur Package
- Deep Dive Session
- 1:1 Coaching and Yoga
- Bold Practice for a Busy Brain Session
- Yoga Off the Mat Session
- Speaking and Workshops
- Bold Practice for a Busy Brain
- Wild West of Entrepreneurship
- Recipe for ROI (entrepreneur version)
- Recipe for ROI: Wellbeing & The Workplace (September 25th, corporate client)
- Entrepreneur Envy
- Sales: From Dirty Word to Delight
- Retreat – Release. Relax. Restore. Boone, NC. November 7-10, 2019
- Team – Customized coaching and workshops
- 1:1 yoga – customized restorative and mindful flow yoga sessions
- Group yoga
- Thursdays at Okra 12:30 pm Deep Stretch
- Fridays at Be Yoga (South) 4:30 pm Slow Flow
Let’s chat about which option is the right one for you.
