Start With Your Feet
Photo : Sonya Rothwell
Imagine trying to do a headstand without first warming up your body. Without core muscle strength. Without your shoulders being strong, open, and flexible. Without limbering up your mind to expand it enough so that you believe it is even possible to do a headstand without falling over, and without the support of a wall or another person to catch you.
You wouldn’t be able to do it.
Even if your ultimate goal is to turn your world upside down, and look at it from the perspective of your head connected to the earth and your feet in the air…you start with your feet.
Finding freedom in a yoga pose doesn’t start with going for the full expression of the pose. It starts with your feet. Finding the four corners of your feet. Finding your balance. Feeling the strength in your muscles and knowing you can rely on them to support you.
It is the same in life. If you don’t start with your feet and build a strong, careful, and present foundation, how are your relationships going to feel? Your work? Your play?
It sounds so simple, but even though I know this premise to be true, I find I keep forgetting, and keep having to remind myself to start with my feet. To start with the building blocks and the details that I need to put into place in order to be able to bring what I imagine, what I choose, what I want…into reality. It has not been easy. I live in my head. Like so many of us do. My tendency is to dream big and trust the dream, but along the way get lost and have big moments of doubt that I made the right decision because the dream feels so big and after a year I am not yet in the space of the big ideas.
So, I remind myself to work on patience in building foundation and holding to the knowing that the choice and freedom to turn myself, and my life, upside down with ease, grace, and laughter means starting with my feet. I bring my awareness to my feet and to my structure…both internal to my body and external to my life. Only then do my days feel grounded again, and the promise and possibilities of those big ideas begin to flow into my reality again.
I invite you to start with your feet, and see what changes for you…