LIFE STEPS COACHING

Some time ago, my yoga teacher offered up a wonderful topic to consider and it has since become integral to my  coaching practice, and how I view my own life.  She talked a state of constant tension between two opposing forces.  The first being a longing for transformation and the second a sense of contentment for life just as it is.  We can use this concept to help us practice balance in our lives. 

Yoga
If you practice yoga, it happens to be  one of the best ways to gain an understanding of this concept!  In each pose, you physically embody both a transformational movement, and simultaneous contentment for what is.  As you stretch in a pose, you can literally feel the transformation at the cellular level.  Depending on the pose, for example, you may feel a release of tension, an opening, or strengthening of the muscles.  Your energy may be transformed into stimultion, or calm.  At the same time as all this, you also experience contentment for what is through awareness of your own physical limitations.  In each pose, your movement can only be as deep as your body allows.  Otherwise you'd push yourself  into injury. 

Contentment
So it is in life!  Its important to have a sense of gratitude for who you are here and now; to reflect on where you are today, and appreciate exactly what the experience of this day holds.  And if you happen to be in a painful place, then just cultivating a sense of contentment might reveal an opportunity for relief from your hurt, or clarity to your confusion.  Too often when we are dissatisfied or unhappy, we conclude that "transformation" is necessary.  If you are in this state, I challenge you to explore what cultivating a sense of "contentment for things just as they are" has to offer.  Sometimes life's trials and hardships hold a nugget of learning.  Don't run away from that.  What can you learn from a practice of contentment whether your life feels amazing or lacking?  

Transformation
Transformation tends to be encouraged in the world we live in, so many of us spend time seeking it.  In any case, cultivating your longing for transformation is as essential as that of contentment.  Without passion, desire, and motivation for change, we cannot grow.  When we're not growing we become discontent, possibly anxious.  Like a plant, if not nourished with growth, it either lies dormant, or dies.  Transformation is key to unleashing your potential, and as you step further and further down the path of your potential, happiness grows and you feel like sunshine.  What aspect of your life needs transformation?  Think back on your life to times of change.  What did you discover about yourself  through these moments?   

Homeostasis
Life is like a wave that ebbs and flows between periods of transformation and times of contentment.  Like day and night, sometimes you're in motion and other times you are at rest.  Both are ingredients to the balance recipie.  Your body is innately gifted with an extraordinary way of seeking balance.  Its an organic principle called homeostasis and it happens throughout nature.  Course-correcting when you recognize that you are out of balance can be simple if you consider where more "contentment" is called for, and where a real focus on transformation is needed in your life.  Where have you become too comfortable, or too conent in your life?  Alternatively, where have you been too fixed on driving transformation?  Perhaps a dose of peace and contentment could in fact be the transformation you seek.  Check in with yourself on this balance scale.   Both the place of contentment and that of transformation hold great power.

Purna
In yoga, this balance is called Purna.  Purna means "I am whole.  I am complete.  I am perfect."  Turns out... YOU are purna, and you are purna at all times!  Consider a daily 3 second mantra in which you remind yourself of this very important truth!