The Benefit of the Short Burst

My motto for my clients is, what you do consistently determines your health. Not what you do some of the time or every now and then (whether it may be good or bad), but what you do consistently. However, sometimes it’s important to take extra time and attention to up-level your skills and habits, and then bring them back into your daily life.

 

As some of you know, I recently went to the gorgeous island of Vis in Croatia for a week-long yoga retreat, taught by a dear friend of mine, Miya Signor. It was an amazing week, full of daily yoga and meditation by the ocean, fresh healthy food, and some of the most beautiful, clear water that I’ve ever seen. I highly recommend it to anyone for next year (here’s her yoga Facebook page so you can stay updated)!

 

What I particularly wanted out of seven days in a row of mindfully doing yoga, was to be able to go upside down by myself in the middle of the room (without the support of the wall). The practice of the week was headstands. Now, I had done headstands before, many when I was young and taking gymnastics classes, and even more recently if I had the wall as a safety net, but I had developed a real fear of falling over and hurting myself if I didn’t have the wall, and had stopped even trying in class.

 

The great thing about intentional time taken to practice something, is that you learn the intricacies and details that you might have forgotten, skipped over, or never knew in the first place, like where your center of balance is, where your strength should be coming from, the order of steps to take. You fill in the gaps, you get practice, and you form new habits, new muscle memory, new neural pathways.

 

I did end up falling over once, and while a little embarrassing, I survived. But by the end of the week I could do a tri-pod headstand easily in the middle of the room, and even briefly got up into a regular headstand. I’ve been able to bring this renewed confidence back into my regular yoga practice. I’ve even increased the days each week I go to class, because doing yoga seven days in a row reminded me that my body feels better with more exercise. A good friend of mine was inspired to start an exercise routine after returning home (for the first time in a while), because she was reminded that she was stronger than she thought she was.

 

We must take the time to learn and hone our skills and awareness so we can bring them back to a consistent practice. When you do this, when you put your priority on something, you can more easily make it part of your new normal; when you go back to your busy life, you’ve already done the foundational work, it’s there, it’s integrated as a new skill, you don’t have to think about it as much.

 

Summer solstice is a powerful time for setting new intentions, especially if you have some extra time over the summer to take action on something specific. Ask yourself what you would like to up-level or create in your life? What practice do you want to integrate?

 

For instance, you could take a cooking class to bring new skills into the kitchen (and new recipes), learn meditation, take a painting or art class, get a trainer for exercise or take a yoga workshop, look into that thing that’s been sitting on the backburner forever. A short burst of learning/practice/action will pay off dividends in the long run and enhance what you do consistently. So go ahead and up-level!

 

Happy Summer Solstice, and let me know how it goes:)

 

Are you ready to upgrade the food you eat? Contact me at jaimesaginor@gmail.com for a free consultation, and let’s take your health to a whole new level.