Hello.
Welcome to a short practice about releasing what doesn't serve you and understanding that the past you've experienced doesn't define you.
Sit on your mat or on a cushion.
Feel your sits burns into the mat or the cushion.
Feel your spine straightening and the top of your head,
The crown of your head reaching toward the sky,
Tucking your chin slightly.
Relax your shoulders,
Spread your shoulder blades down your back and place your hands where they are comfortable.
Take a deep breath in for the count of four and release to the count of six.
Once again,
In for four,
Out for six.
You are the culmination of all of your life's experiences,
The successes,
The failures,
The bits where not much seemed to happen,
The bits where everything was happening at once.
All of those experiences feed into you and are stored in you and sit in you,
But they do not define you.
Sometimes when life rocks us,
We tend to shrink back,
To go back into the safe zone,
To curl up,
To hide away.
Sometimes it's because we have done something that we then regret or said something that we then regret or sometimes it's something that is done by someone else which we take personally and which we hold on to so tightly because we're scared,
Because we feel ashamed,
Because it feels like the whole world is swirling in the wind and the tempest around us,
But that thing,
That act,
That experience does not define us.
It does not define you.
We had a business collapse with the anger and the fear and the frustration and the sadness all swirling around us as the founders and the people that we worked with and I felt so much shame,
So much fear,
So much anxiety that it was all my fault and two things were said to me during that time that really helped.
One of our advisors said,
Adam,
This does not define you and another said,
Enough with the mea culpa,
This happens.
So how do we then really believe that?
Because sometimes no matter what others say to us to make us feel better,
We still hold on so tightly to that definition of ourselves,
Inflicted upon ourselves,
But we don't need to.
Yesterday is gone,
You are not the same person,
You've changed already.
Tomorrow is not here and you'll be different again.
Every moment you're changing,
Every moment you are different.
But there is only today,
There is only this moment to choose to be the person you want to be and you get to choose that definition.
There is the old tale of the elder,
The grandmother who was asked what she had done to become so happy and so wise,
So loved and respected and she replied,
Because I know there are two wolves in my heart,
A wolf of love and a wolf of hate.
And I know that everything depends on which one I feed each day.
So which one will you feed today?
The wolf of kindness and of love or the wolf of fear and of hate?
Because we can choose moment by moment.
So here's a few affirmations that I've used to try and keep me in the moment when the wolf of fear and the wolf of hate is so strong.
I take a deep breath,
I let it out and I say to myself,
I am strong.
I am strong.
I am not defined by my past.
I am greater than the sum of my parts.
I am ready to face what I need to today.
I am not defined by my past.
I am greater than the sum of my parts.
I am ready to face what I need to today.
You are ready to face what you need to today.
You are greater than the sum of your parts and you are not defined by your past.
May you journey with love,
With kindness and with strength in your heart.
Have a wonderful day.
