Yesterday I had a young woman in my class who was practicing yoga for the first time. She was lovely, trying everything the best she could and taking it all in with a smile. After class, we talked for a while and she had a few questions. She looked quite radiant and fresh and I felt like I could see her yoga skin start to grow right before my eyes.
At one point, she said to me, "as you can see, I need to lose a lot of weight...will this help me to lose weight?" I was taken aback by this assumption that I should "see" that she needs to lose weight, as if I was thinking this already when truth be told I had no thoughts about her weight, only thinking how amazing she was during her first class. After being caught off guard, I talked a bit about balancing out the metabolism and mentioned that I personally don't like scales/numbers when striving for better health. I said that she would gain strength, would tone her muscles and maybe she'd notice her clothes would fit differently. But later, as I thought back to our conversation, I had some regret. I wish I would have said what I was really thinking.
This is what I wish I would have said:
You are enough.
You are beautiful, right now, in this moment.
You are making steps to be a better you and that is amazing and inspiring.
I am inspired by you.
You are unique.
And beautiful.
You are enough.
That is what I would say to her right now, if she were to ask me again...and it's what I feel about each person that comes to class. We are all simply striving to be a better version of ourselves as we step onto our mats. And to me, that is enough. That is beautiful.
Love from Oz.
