I don’t think I’ve said this enough lately:
This journey is your own but you’re not alone
We’re interconnected beings, each living our own unique stories with many points along the way in which we can connect and relate to each other.
It’s like we’re an Earth sized venn diagram, each person’s journey is a circle and various pieces of our experiences overlap with others’. Each story interwoven one way or another, held together with the common threads of human experience.
The human experience being the vast array of emotions that we feel - love, hope, despair, anger, fear, compassion, acceptance, peace….
In this episode, hospice nurse and yoga teacher, Cory Angel shares the story of her Yoga journey. She shares the benefits that she got from yoga including how her practice has helped her through injury, grief, perfectionism and ultimately changed the way she sees the world.
What I like most is that Cory is a wizard at bringing her lessons from the mat and into real life!
As she says, “Who you are on the mat is who you are in real life”
Listen in and see where your own story might connect with hers!
Topic Summary:
Learning to take what you need “what do I need right now?”
Slowing down
Taking lessons from the mat and into real life
Resources:
Mentioned in this episode was Episode #40 with Melanie Klein: Body Image and Yoga [RE: When me and Cory were talking about feeling safe in your physical body)
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Key Nuggets:
What Cory has learned from her yoga practice:
She was a perfectionist, always striving for more, feeling not enough and having an urgency to “be productive”. Yoga has helped her let go of that sens of urgency by showing her that the worthiness gremlin and perfectionist gremlin are signs for her to show her that something is out of whack.
When she receives this communication, she goes back to her practice or to meditation to see what her body and soul have to say.
Other lessons:
SLOW DOWN and let it be good enough
Where am I at today? What do I need? What’s going to help me with that?
Rest
You need to feel safe in your physical body b/c it’s a container for your mental and emotional body too
Whoever you are on your mat is who you are in life
Take yoga off the mat:
Ex. learning to breathing through emotion in yoga and using that to breathe through emotion in day to day life
Ex. learning to back off in a pose and using that when you need to back off in day to day life
Normalize negative emotions. It’s okay to feel grief and to feel sad. You can grieve and also have joy.
Tips to reconnect to your body now:
Ask yourself: What do you need right now?
Accept that this is what you need and don’t give any other meaning to it
Give space for change
One of Your Biggest Lessons So Far:
“The thing I struggled with the most was my voice and it became my biggest teacher and tool in my classes. I was literally petrified to talk in front of a class. Had to go through much inner healing work on feeling safe in my body, worthiness and confidence. Now the thing students love about me the most is my ability to create safety using my voice. I am constantly told they love listening to me. (the universe works in magical ways)”
What is one nugget of wisdom that you would share with fellow seekers who are on this journey of growth and transformation?
“Nobody is the same and no person experiences their world the same ways. Giving choice in class is one of the greatest gifts we can give students. Choice creates safety and empowers people to begin exploring how they feel, both physically and emotionally. The choice to move into asanas (with options) and then the choice to remain still. Also the choice on how they feel an asana in their body needs to be there. Telling students exactly what they should feel in a posture reinforces what they already feel - out of control. Even choice with breath is important as this literally is life sustaining so taking someones choice with breath away can feel very traumatic.”
Resources:
Mentioned in this episode was Episode #40 with Melanie Klein: Body Image and Yoga [RE: When me and Cory were talking about feeling safe in your physical body)
Links:
If you have any questions for Melanie or want to learn more, connect with her through:
Instagram: @_coryangel