My first student came in this morning after being gone for a few weeks. As I normally do, we sat down for a few minutes to check in.
“Oh, the past few weeks have been so busy”, she said.
“I haven’t done so well. You know the first thing to go when things get busy is paying attention to yourself.”
The important thing here was something that she left unsaid: her belief that bringing some attention to herself from time to time is difficult. That she will have to try hard. And that she will have to make time for it.
Your beliefs, conscious or unconscious, underlie your behavior.
If you think you cannot possibly run a 5k, you probably won’t even give it a try.
If you think that singing is difficult, you will probably put a lot more tension into trying to do it, than if you think that singing doesn’t have to be difficult.
I have a belief about learning anything to do with technology. My belief goes something like this: “I can’t understand it. It’s difficult. I can’t learn it.”
Although I have held this belief for a long time I was not able to verbalize it. I just knew that when I was faced with needing to learn something new to do with my computer or the DVD player, for example, I would avoid it like the plague. I would put it off. I would ask someone else to do it for me.
I was familiar with my behavior. But not until I was aware of my beliefs, did I start to change my behavior. Now I give myself the space to learn. And I very often succeed. And I very often succeed without the help of my tech-savvy husband. And that feels great!
What beliefs do you have about your posture? Do you believe it is terrible? That it is unchangeable? Do you believe that any work on your posture will be difficult? Physically demanding? Time-consuming? Boring? And only if you try really really hard will you be able to change anything?
I encourage you to sit down for 10 minutes and write down all of your thoughts when it comes to your posture. Sometimes to find out what beliefs you hold, you simply need to ask yourself.
So, what advice did I give my student this morning? I reminded her that working on her posture always has to start with awareness of herself. Not all the time. From time to time.
And that to work on her awareness she can always come back to the Two Questions: What am I touching? Where is my breathing?
Yes, it can be that simple.
And she can do that anywhere. Anytime.
She doesn’t have to make extra time for it.
It is not difficult.
And she doesn’t even have to try hard.
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