Listening to ourselves to best serve others.

I’d like to share a little bit about thoughts I've been having about what service is.

In all the spiritual and yoga worlds, there's a lot of discussion about service and serving others. Of course, that's what we do as parents, it's what we do as educators, it's what we do as therapists. But what we don't do in all of those situations is serve ourselves.

Over the years of being a parent—my children are significantly older now than they were when they were very little—I knew somewhere in me that I needed to take care of me.

Although I had a daily practice, there were still things in my mindset that weren't quite there, and I didn't have the kind of drip-feed through the day that supported me.

So I did my practice very diligently every day, which held me to a great degree, I have to say. I'm not suggesting one shouldn't do that—it would definitely be beneficial.

“There’s also that whole piece of observation, of noticing when things aren’t okay, when you’re starting to get really frustrated, when those moments happen and you feel like you’re going to explode. ”

You just don't know how to serve, or you're feeling really uncomfortable because your child is having a massive meltdown in public, and you're just self-conscious and feeling really uncomfortable.

We know—and this is what we teach at Special Yoga all the time—that we need to take care of us. Something incredible happens when we start to take care of ourselves. We start to do some heart work and regulate our breathing.

Then, in those moments, when the heart's really open and we're really regulated, the mind changes.

We can be more present, more loving, more patient, and we can be with our child or children in a very different way. We can ask, even if it's just in our heads, "How can I best serve you in this moment?" It's not about getting someone to do something that makes us feel better, or gets us somewhere on time. It's about asking, "How can I best serve you?"

In that place of inquiry, we can be of greater service. That's really what we want: to be of the greatest service, but it has to start with us.

I love that the testimonies we get at the end of our courses reflect this. People say, "Wow, it's amazing." When we start to change our state and our thoughts, we give someone the biggest gift we can give: our full presence with our children. We're not worried about getting somewhere or feeling a certain way—we're just here, listening. It all starts with listening to ourselves. That's what our heart meditation and Special Yoga offer, which is such a powerful and beautiful practice that I've used for over 30 years, and it just keeps deepening.

Click above 👆🏽 to access a 13 minute guided heart meditation.

So, just think about taking care of you. Watch how you are, and start to cultivate a different kind of relationship with yourself. The idea of self-love requires work, but it's a beautiful piece of work. So come and join us; we'd love to have you. Wherever you are on your special yoga journey, there's always further to go.