Called to Become Great

Over the years, people around me have talked about how amazing yoga is. I even worked at a spa with a yoga studio where I frequently interacted with yoga instructors and students. Everyone always seemed so rejuvenated by the practice. I’ve never been against yoga as a practice, but it was something that just wasn’t for me… or so I thought.

Yoga is Too Easy… I Thought

Here’s the thought process: If I was going to spend time working out, I wanted to go hard, lifting weights or sweating and out of breath. I loved high intensity workouts. Deep down, I felt yoga would be a good thing for me to incorporate, but I still always gravitated toward other things. I thought I had to feel like I was exerting all I could for the workout to be effective. But the funny thing about life is, it seems to have a way of forcing you to listen to that little voice eventually. After having babies, I couldn’t even begin to work out like I used to be able to. Just 10 minutes of easy weight lifting and my body would ache like I had the flu for a month after. It was incredibly frustrating for me because I’ve always loved working out.

Time to Learn Yoga

About a year after my second baby, I really felt I needed to do something, even if it was just stretching. My body hurt so bad. My joints ached, and I felt swollen everywhere. I knew I needed to get my lymphatic system moving. As I started stretching daily, Heavenly Father reminded me of that one thing in the back of my mind that I kept ignoring – yoga. I felt strongly I needed to start a serious practice doing it. It’s funny how that works sometimes. The one thing you feel deep down you should do but you keep avoiding is the thing that ends up being what you should have been doing all along. At least, that’s been the case for me more than once in my life!

As I started practicing yoga, I learned a principle parallel to something I had been learning on my spiritual journey. This principle can be summarized in one single word: Surrender.

As I got into various yoga poses, I realized I was holding tension in areas I needed to just breathe into and surrender. I thought I was protecting that area by holding tension there – protecting myself from stretching too far and getting hurt, or protecting myself from opening up too much. But when I would breathe and surrender, I found my body really needed that stretching or openness. It made me feel better.

When it Comes to Yoga Poses and Limiting Beliefs… Just Surrender.

I immediately realized the parallel to a concept I’d been learning on my spiritual journey – sometimes I tried with all my might to hold onto beliefs or ideas that I THOUGHT were serving me, protecting me even. The ideas and beliefs I so desperately held to were the very ideas I needed to just take a deep breath and surrender, letting them go.

Simultaneous to beginning my yoga journey, Heavenly Father has been trying to help me stretch in new ways. I thought holding onto my beliefs was protecting me from pain or from being too open, but the reality was, holding onto them was actually causing more pain and suffering. They were limiting my capacity to grow…halting my spiritual progression. The more I surrendered and leaned in to the discomfort, letting go of these beliefs, allowing the spiritual and mental stretching, the better I actually felt. And these ideas were replaced with goodness and truth. What once seemed a protection ended up being the biggest threat to my own personal development and progress.

Ask Heavenly Father What Limiting Beliefs You Hold

I’m just getting started on this yoga and spiritual journey, but these concepts have been life changing for me. My hope is that your heart will be open to the idea of surrendering as well. As you ask Heavenly Father for help seeing what is holding you back and how you can change, surrendering your limiting ideas and beliefs, you can also be stretched in ways that actually feel helpful and positive as He shows you how you can be more aligned with Him.This is a great first step to discovering and living in alignment with your purpose.

In starting a practice of yoga, in the beginner poses, you have to learn to surrender. You have to get stronger. You have to learn to stretch. You can’t move on to more advanced yoga poses without first surrendering to discomfort in the basics, breathing into the areas to release tension, and strengthening weaknesses. Similarly, you can’t grow as a person without surrendering limiting beliefs and growing stronger spiritually. As you learn to surrender your will, your beliefs you think are serving you, you’ll get stronger and stretch beyond what you ever thought you were capable of. You’ll learn more about yourself. You’ll learn what you are capable of, which is a lot!