Allow hope to replace your fear
I’ve been noticing something lately. When I sit in the front of a room filled with students many can’t sit comfortably on the floor in a cross-legged position. Their knees are way up in the air and to stay seated they have to place a blanket under their bottoms.
Even more surprising to me is that people are getting hip replacements at a younger and younger age. I used to think hip replacement surgery was for older people that fell down and broke a hip. But not anymore. Many people in their forties are having hip replacements. That means that they are experiencing pain and tension in those joints in their 20’s and 30’s.
What’s up with that??
Well, I’ve been sticking my elbow in the butt cheeks (piriformis muscles to be exact) of clients and students for years. So I can say from all my years of experience that as a culture our asses are tightening and pulling our lesser trochanters (leg bones) into our hip sockets.
Why?
As I’ve noticed the ass tightening epidemic I’ve also noticed people are feeling a whole lot of fear and don’t seem to know what to do about it. Letting go and feeling hope seems too challenging.
Here’s my theory — not knowing how to create the change we want to see in the world is the problem. We simply don’t know how to let go and be a part of the solution to what we see as a problem. We are afraid to try a new way.
We’re stuck!
Stuck wanting things to be different than they are. Which physically means we are chronically holding on to our piriformis muscles. Making us feel powerless and out of control. We believe things are happening around us and we don’t have the power to change a thing.
Ahhhhhh, time to give our poor tight asses a break and become the solution to OUR problems.
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Thanks, Gandhi and how do we do that?
- Mind your own business — With the rise of social media, we have our noses chronically in other peoples business. And we think we know what’s right or wrong for other people. So turn off your devices during your morning practice. Yup, get a morning practice if you don’t have one!
- Look at YOU first — First thing every morning. Lie down and place your right ankle on your left knee. Put a ball in your right butt cheek and ask yourself who or what do you want to be different outside of yourself. Once you have the answer — take a deep breath in and exhale a big Haaaaaa and let them go. You may have to do this over and over again, day after day until your body convinces your brain that you really are going to let them go. Place your left ankle on your right knee. Put a ball in your left butt cheek and if it’s tight — take a deep breath in and exhale a big Haaaaa and let yourself be just as you are– right NOW.
- Open your heart — Lie on your back and place a noodle ball (six tennis balls in a knee-hi sock) in your heart space. Take your arms overhead keeping your knees bent. Rock side to side and up and down breathing in and out of your heart space as it breaks open. Look into the cracks of your heart with compassion and chant “I love you” to yourself and others.
Butterfly Pose
- Find hope — Be the change you want for yourself and the world. Sit up and take butterfly pose by placing your feet together in front of you sole to sole. Drop your knees toward the floor. Take your hands behind your buttocks and lift yourself up and scoot yourself forward until your heels are as deep into your pubic bone as possible. Hang on to your big toes or all your toes, place your elbows on your thighs and push down slightly. Slowly bend forward over your feet take your heart down toward your hips and allow yourself to see yourself as the change. (If you are really tight in the hips do this with your back into a wall and don’t force the forward bend).
- Go out into the world with free hips and an open heart — After your morning practice — go into your day with trust. Ask the Universe to put you in the right places, with the right people at the right time to do your part in creating the change you want to see. Believe and see how co-creating with the Universe works magic. Perhaps something new will pop into your being. Maybe you’ll end up on the front steps of parliament or the US congress holding a little sign that will spur a revolution as Greta Thunberg did.
You will find hope
I know hope can seem allusive but what is the alternative? Stay stuck feeling powerless? I say, “Heck No!!” Try practicing hope and see what happens. You may be surprised.
Do this week’s Ageless Movement Hope Will Free Your Hips Practice to find hope. And to go even deeper into being the change you want to see in the world.
Let me know what brings you to hope in the comments below.
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