I’m starting a two-part series on self-awareness, starting with how to use yoga this week for self-awareness. I list some specific links to yoga articles I wrote, down at the bottom at the very end.
And, self-awareness is something I believe that’ll help most of us today…
And I know it helped me to snap out of a PTSD way of living that I didn’t even know I was experiencing and carrying around as baggage until I became hyper self-aware.
And most of us have some form of PTSD living in this imperfect world. If you don’t what that is, then there’s a good possibility that you’re still carrying it around in your life, and not living as optimally as you could.
It’s impossible to come out of all of our life situations unscathed. So it’s not your fault…
In this life and when we’re younger, we’re so impressionable and less in control, but our brains don’t forget these past older memories, even though we have in today’s precious moments.
And as life grows more complicated, de-cluttering the mind and spring cleaning to get rid of outdated thoughts are necessary to run the daily mind optimally.
We can achieve this better by becoming more fully self-aware and learning more about our deeper selves and what we want in this life, and then proactively making changes.
Otherwise, our lives can just go in a usual-okay way, but that’s not optimally what it could be. We usually know some older people in our lives we can point to living in these ways and who we feel sorry for… they couldn’t see how they held themselves back.
And in wishing them well, asking ourselves: are we doing that in our own life?
And that’s because of the filters we set and the lens we look out from that affect our actions and decisions that lead to the next thoughts that are influenced by us and subconscious factors. If we stand too close, we may not see our blindspots.
So our thoughts can lead us to less-than if we’re not aware…
It takes a heightened sense of awareness on our parts to break out and uncover, and a desire to discover a better existence (that’s available for every single one of us despite our circumstances)!
We can all question and sometimes argue against our own brain’s thoughts. And to be even more successful in these efforts, act like a third-party, observer witness, and referee at all times.
In my case, I know it was the spiritual alignment path that helped lead me quickest to uncover my less-than ideal beliefs I had grown into. And out of thankfully from both the desire to grow and what appeared to be unfortunate work circumstances…
My stressful, busy working life duty in Corporate America disappeared because of a layoff due to a nationwide economic disruptor.
So just like that in a day, I had more time on my hands. And while making ends meet figuring a new way out in that season of my life, led me to grow as a person. …I’m sure you can relate in your life with just the past few years.
And I leaned into growth and took a work sabbatical that lasted for a year trusting what life could bring. I explored, traveled, and had time to think and re-center.
And the one thing that I could keep going back to was yoga for centering (…that gave that, you know, overall feeling of I’m relaxed and myself again).
I started doing yoga when I was working a busy Corporate work life.
Yoga helped me along during those stretch years to stay true to myself and step out of meeting work performance goal mindsets that I would later learn were temporary.
…Most of life’s experiences are.
Yoga and self-awareness allowed me to question what does Brandy want? (And not just from work life, but out of this life.).
In self-awareness reappearing again, my authentic feelings showed up.
When you’re in a busy running-around season (…and maybe you don’t remember what an unbusy season looks like), you can’t see the thick trees outside of the forest… where even nights are consumed with preparing and getting clothes ready for work the next day. It does feel like running on a hamster wheel.
…Or there’s a problem to get through at work that you can’t shake off during off-hours.
…Oh, and then trying to juggle other important areas of your life. And caring for yourself and others at home.
…And now we have these remote digital devices that never let us really get away from work.
So all that stacked against a busy life, yoga can be the freedom bridge that makes the difference… and that you can say yes! to. Btw, the Bridge pose is one of my favorites (and many of them are).
…And why I still love yoga for improving self-awareness is because you’re focusing on something specific: Your Body.
And that’s something we’re all aware of daily.
In yoga, when you’re wiggling your toes and flexing your fingers, that makes you more self-aware of your body. And that’s actually how many yoga classes start off to help us start feeling body sensations and any kinks we feel in the muscle joints.
That gets you to more easily relax and work on self-awareness at the same time.
And yoga is simple in that you don’t need anything but yourself to do yoga. A mat and some yoga props are nice, but not critical.
And when you’re working on your body, then you can also work on your mind. And coming full circle, that works well because of the mind-body connection. You’re able to optimize your wellness.
And especially if you’re not good at meditating, yoga could be your path to lead you on the journey to your greater mind self-awareness. And that’s not something that’s completed in a few yoga classes. It can take years.
If you’re wired like me, meditation is a waste of time as it doesn’t heighten my spiritual senses. And it may not light you up either, lol. 😊
In my world, I look at everything in life as spiritual. I do that better with my eyes open from my first cup of coffee in the AM, looking out the window, to the first forming awake thoughts that enter and how I approach my day.
…There is no unspiritual part of the day because that part of me and what I see is abundance. I choose to do life that way which gives different outcomes, than if I shut off that side as I did earlier on.
You Do You Alignment
But that’s individual, and an individual choice, just like our preferences are that make us each You-nique. And you get to decide what’s best for you as you make your improving changes in self-awareness that will help you align.
One example I have here is, I pay attention better listening to podcasts than to watching videos and sometimes reading articles. That’s how I hear messages, learn best, and can multi-task… and part of why I just recently started audio recording these blog episodes to be in full alignment 🎧
…And I share this for your benefit because if you would like to be more aligned in your life or enlightened on your path, small tweaks help and you didn’t have to have started out that way at all! You can improve and learn as you do you in your life and keep desiring to grow.
The opposite can be true too. In my earlier journey, I followed culture’s ways like most of us. And grew up in a relatively affluent area which led me to think material gain was the riches. But so much of that came from pride and ego, that I have disabled.
I was stuck in an in-between, out of alignment, when I worked for others that didn’t have the same growth desires in mind. I had to show up a certain way to fit into the work culture. And so I shut off the spiritual side, except when I got to my Sunday weekly dose of inspiration that I wanted to feel every day. And those years I was rarely creative, finding an occasional creative hobby.
But without needing a project, you have an available outlet for your health and self-awareness with a daily yoga practice that will help you become calmer. You’re able to rest and park those frustrating and irritated areas of life on your yoga mat.
You can change you anytime (but wisdom words here: anything that affects the life decisions or finances of close ones is best first communicated 😉).
At the end of the day, you report to yourself.
Everyone (and you) can choose what he or she wants out of their life, but if you’re not happy and this becomes seasons or inconsistent seasons where you go back-and-forth in a tug-o-war, then that’s actually creating heat for your progress and a sign to change course.
It’s time… and you won’t get this time back is a good motivator.
If you listen to your gut and move in that direction, soon enough you’ll feel aligned, that’s better than staying in a pattern without self-awareness growth.
And in doing so, then get the wheels turning to focus on priorities in your life of what you DO want from this life that usually has nothing to do with today’s fleeting to-do lists.
Yoga to Disrupt the Non-Essential Lists
And if you rushed around this morning… and you have your lists running in your mind all day, healthy yoga can disrupt that interruptive pattern.
You can’t act on a to-do list in yoga moments. Yoga forces you to slow down and refocus while stretching the body (that can be a good distraction if silent meditation doesn’t work for you either 😉).
And no matter how you get to your slow down, then you can find out more meaning in self-awareness, and how that impacts you.
As promised, here’s the list of past yoga blog post articles: