Birthday Present.
I turn forty in July and Dominic recently asked me what would I like for a birthday present. So I started to ponder on what would really make me happy. I wanted it to be something special as it would be a symbol of the last forty years. Then it came to me. Something I have dreamt about for a very, very long time. Something I knew would make me feel fantastic and for sure would change my out look on life.
Well, today my birthday came early and my gift arrived! And I was right, it made me feel fantastic and my out look on life definitely changed. I am now the proud owner of my very own headstand.
It has been four years in the making but it is finally here. You see, the dreaded headstand has been my nemesis ever since I started yoga. I remember seeing it for the first time back in the nineties on TFI Friday when Spice Girl Geri Halliwell showed Chris Evans hers. I immediately thought I could NEVER do that.
That declaration I made stuck with me because when I found myself on a yoga mat twenty years later being asked to try a headstand the same thought resurfaced. I am not capable of standing on my head. No, definitely not.
Don’t get me wrong, over the years I have tried a few times but to no avail. Well, it turns out all I needed to do was decide that I really wanted it, practice for five minutes a day for about three weeks and boom I’ve got myself a headstand!
When it happened for the first time with my legs straight in the air I couldn’t believe how so darn easy it felt! As if I had been standing on my head my whole life. It felt as easy as standing on my feet. The weeks of huffing and puffing trying to balance and find my strength to get my legs up was worth it because the destination was just glorious and the view magnificent - my world was finally upside down.
Now, that I am back on my feet I have realised there are a few questions that I need to find the answers to. Why did I believe I could never do a headstand? What else have I told myself I am not capable of over the past thirty nine years? These are difficult questions. I know there has been plenty I have stopped myself from doing in the past because of fear. Well, not anymore. I’m frigging forty this year and I feel the strongest and fullest I have ever felt. I also have the most important audience I have ever had watching my every move. My daughter, Nell.
The gift I would love to give Nell is the knowing that we are all born equal. No one is better than you and no one is worse than you. It is what you make of your circumstances in life that will lift you up. It is how you speak to yourself that will determine what paths you take. How you treat yourself is the way you will treat others. If you are hard on yourself you will ultimately be hard on others. So we all need to show ourselves deep kindness in order to make this world a better place and to come to the realisation that we are all far more capable than we think we are.
Let’s embrace the joy of practice, the joy of the journey, the joy of effort. Let’s truly believe anything and everything is possible. All we have to do is decide how much we want it and then practice, practice like we have never practiced before! Then boom! One day, before you know it, you may find yourself standing on your head looking at the world from a whole new perspective.
Namaste.
Laura x