Childlike Mentality

As I practice yoga I try to maintain a beginners mindset. Today I had the perfect opportunity to do just that because I took a new style of yoga class. It was very fast paced, hot, in a dark room lit primarily by candles, and the teacher had a microphone which was somewhat hard to understand.

At one point the teacher said to go into high lunge, but I went into high plank. I didn’t realize for a while, and when I looked around and realized that I was in the wrong pose I laughed to myself and moved into high lunge to join the class.

We also worked on handstands, which I’ve never done very successfully and which I have’t practiced in a long time. I gave it a go anyway and ended up falling, but was very happy with the progress that I was making. Instead of focusing on falling or “failing,” I was pumped that I could hold it as long as I did.

A couple weeks ago when I was in Boulder, one of my favorite classes that I took while there had the theme of childlike play. The teacher encouraged us to try new balances or poses that we were afraid of or didn’t think we could do. Embracing that childlike mentality of no fear to try something new, even if I thought I’d fall, I was able to do many more poses than I realized, even a few cool arm balances!

The message of harnessing the spirit of not caring about failing and jumping in with both feet to try new things continues to inspire me in my practice. The next time that you’re afraid of failing or falling or not being able to keep up, I encourage you to just go for it!

Embracing the childlike spirit in me when I was on a road trip with my brother.