What I have learned so far from keeping a food journal is that for me it's not what I do eat, but what I don't eat. It has brought mindfulness to my tendency to forgo feeding my Self. It's intriguing for me to explore the correlation between my physical intake of food and how I nurture, or forgo nurturing, my Self in other ways. The practice of yoga, and especially the 21 day challenge has brought new awareness to how I may change this childhood samskara (past impression recorded in mind and body).
I seem to be able to handle challenges, hardship, deprivation, with more ease than I handle softness, nurturing, vulnerability. I'm sure the hard core outer shell is related to my upbringing by parents who themselves were born and raised during the Great Depression. I remember food in my parent's house not so much as being nurturing as being something we put in our bodies for fuel. Very pragmatic.
I read something somewhere recently that said we wound others where we have been wounded. Very thought-provoking for me and caused me to pause and reflect on how I "fed" and continue to feed my own children (including my own inner child).
I also heard somewhere that we teach what we need to learn. That makes sense to me and why I believe I feel called to teach gentle yoga. Beginning where I am; with this new awareness, peeling back the layers one life-enhancing breath, one bite, one swallow, at a time; and gazing in awe at how the practice of yoga continues to open my mind, body and heart.
Namaste,
Donna
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