The body keeps the score.

"When you speak, your body listens."

One of the most impactful things that our yoga and meditation practice can do, is show us insight into the mental programming that goes on under the surface of our days.

We think a huge number of thoughts day, but the majority of these are based on our old programming. They are conditioned beliefs that we believe will keep us safe and that our ego believes will benefit us by keeping us in what is familiar. We think them without any questioning. And most of the time we are not even conscious of them.

Some are useful, like remembering to look both ways before we cross a road. Others are less than useful. Continually telling ourselves we are too clumsy or unfit for example gives us an excuse not to challenge our physicality.

And the more we repeat old ways of talking to ourselves, the more strongly engraved they get.

Yoga and meditation is a study of our habits and preferences. We develop our capacity to focus, we cultivate a receptive awareness and we get quiet. This opens a pathway where we can see clearly the dialogue that goes on just beneath our awareness and we can also see how destructive it is.  

The bonus is that from this place we have the power to make a different choice or choose a different thought. We know that the body is always listening to this dialogue and that the ego wants you to remain in the state where you feel most familiar, even if that familiar place isn't where you could be if you dared to question you're own bias. 

This week I'm challenging you to question some of that old programming. Are you always putting yourself down or giving yourself an excuse? Look for the most persistant or negative thought you have about yourself this week and try this approach which is based on the work of Byron Katie.

Name the persistent thought, write it down. Then answer the following questions.

The Four Questions

Is it true?

Can you absolutely know that it’s true?

How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?

Who would you be without that thought?

Turnarounds: Could the opposite be as true? (There may actually be several opposites, or turnarounds, to the original thought.)

Hope to see you on the mat this week.