Let the ego go! Lessons I learned on the mat! 

There are so many reasons I love yoga and how it’s helped me cope with the chaos of life, how you become physically stronger, sharper,  but somehow softer,  patient and calmer. 

But today I will pick one of my fav lessons. 

Take the EGO off the mat  🧘🏽‍♂️

I have been practicing yoga for  so long now that  when I first heard 

“Take the ego off the mat “ 

I  wanted to shout, get on with it teacher, I want to learn to do a headstand and fly like a bird !!!  

And yet it now makes me want to laugh out loud when I hear myself saying it when teaching a class. 

 Being the youngest of nine children with immigrant parents, I am naturally competitive and have a strong work ethic.  I don’t competent to be better than you, I just need to do my very best , survive and keep my place in society. My desire to work hard  “ to do good work “ was born more out of fear of letting people down and not to be seen as a burden rather than a need to be Top Dog. 

Nevertheless this work ethic of never giving up and working harder served me well or so I thought until I hit the mat . 

Starting yoga in my mid-late thirties, at an incredibly stressful time in my life, running my own  business on a busy high street salon with no time to breath , eat ,think or drink so much as a hot cup of coffee . Hot  yoga  became my sanctuary  and meditation was the perfect way for me  to stay strong  , have some headspace and keep fit when time-poor . It ticked a lot of boxes. 

The tougher the class , the hotter the room  the better the yoga ! The buzz of balancing on your toes without flinching whilst sweat dripped down your face  in 40 degrees heat , stinging your eyes was pretty powerful . I was good at this yoga thing , but the more I practised yoga , the more asanas or poses would come along that I just couldn’t do .  My arms are not quite long enough , my feet too small! My head is too heavy ! I kept trying and trying to crack it this time  but then one  day I had an Aha moment.  Somewhat exhausted I realised there were poses that would come easily to me , others that with enough repetition and practice I could  competently achieve and others that I could be practicing for a million years and I would still be falling flat on my face with more than just a bruised ego and a broken finger ( #truestory ) .

That fricken competitive side , or Ego to be brutally honest was not serving me well and had become a bit of a brat on the yoga mat . 

Take the ego off the mat , back off if you need to , do not compromise the integrity of the pose  , laugh if you fall out and  be kind to yourself are all phrases you will hear in many a  yoga studio  .  So I started to listen to my body as well as the teachers.I learnt what I was naturally good at , where I had to back off and where I had to  train a little harder to become competent and when  I had to walk away or  back off completely as it just was not meant for me this hand-stand balancing on one finger !!!

So I started to take this into my day to day life  as well as my  business , where were we as a business naturally good at ? What aspect of our service could we strengthen to build in client loyalty ? When to be patient with an apprentice that needed more time to catch up . Where  was the ego competing in the market  and making us waste our energy on services that we were not really passionate about but everybody else was offering them so why not us ? Where could we train and train to not only  be competent but excel , the wow factor of beautifully executed work in a relaxed calming  environment delivered with integrity and respect for all clients . 

And when as a team could we laugh at each other when one of us was being  a brat  on the shop floor , exhausted after seeing back to back clients ? Take the Ego off the mat but keep your sense of humour , laugh if you fall out and get back together ! 

I still had and have a strong work ethic but I realised I didn’t have to work 100 hours a day , you can’t always do it all and  you can’t be brilliant at everything however hard you try . 

We all have skill sets and strengths that come naturally and we all have to work a little harder with other traits .

Accepting these saves you precious time and energy by focusing your attention where it is most valuable giving you happier outcomes .

Recognising this off the mat allowed me to   not only take the Ego off the mat but off the shop floor . 

There was plenty of space for everyone to own their  talents  .To  do their bit of magic with flair and enough heads in the world for us  to all be  brilliant at what we did and yet stay kind enough not to compete but collaborate and support . 

We thank the Ego because it serves us well to have that bit of fire in our belly , the thing that drives  us to learn to be better to be curious but when the Ego becomes a brat or when we cannot see beyond the I or self-importance  than it’s time to have a word with yourself and  reflect on what’s  not serving you well and maybe even holding you back from where you could be brilliant. 

Take the ego off the mat and into your day to day to truly fly at life 💫