The challenge is body kindness, and it suggests yoga for the prompt. Perfect, since I teach yoga; so my extremely wonderful friend Jacqui, had me come and teach the young women, in our old ward, a yoga class. I was slightly sceptical that they would be able to hold it together, but they were phenomenal. I wish I had a picture of this awesome group of girls! I explained a few things about yoga to them, and I'll share some of that here too:
The word yoga means "yoke" or meaning, to join together, to unite. It is a meeting of mind, body, and spirit. We tend to cut these three into separate pieces. We neglect, or torture, our bodies and expect it not to affect our spirit and soul. How many of you lay down at night in your bed, and all of a sudden you start to feel the aches, the pains that you pushed to the side during the day? We cannot continue to disconnect ourselves from our pain, our sensations, because they're there to tell us something. When I teach yoga I remind everyone to really try and be conscious of what their body is telling them that specific day, to listen, and to respond to your body by giving it what it needs, not necessarily what the mind wants, or especially what you think others are expecting of you. People in the western world think yoga is either for super crunchy granola meditation, or for super toned flexible freaks. It really isn't about that at all, it's about opening space and bringing light into our bodies. It's about excepting where were are at this exact moment, while allowing ourselves to gently roll into a new, further than we've ever gone before place. It's about being kind to yourself so that you in turn can be kind to all things, because as Christ said "love thy neighbor as thou loves thyself." It does not matter how far you take the expression of the posture, but how deeply you can breathe into it.
The prompt for this challenge is beautiful, I urge you to at least read it here . This is my favorite quote: "Drink in the kindness of sunshine and the beauty of the earth. Feel the river of kindness flow through your body and carry you forward."
I am taking the time to be kind to my body; no more diet pills, laxatives, harsh words, unkind thoughts, or practices. I think about the food I put into my body, think about the activities I do, and strive to live a healthy, happy, sunny life. And even though I might not be exactly were I thought I would be, or where I want to be, I'm ok with who I am. The only way to move forward is to first accept where you are. So now I show kindness to the body that has birthed me two children, allows me to love my husband, runs me around the block, laughs when I'm happy, and gives my opportunities I can only dream of.
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