"We should be grateful for all the situations that make us the most uncomfortable, because without them we would not know there is something unhealed within us." Ken Wapnick

 

As God would have it, today -  November 25th, has landed on a Wednesday so I get to share with you all my 1 year anniversary from my breast cancer diagnosis!  I am so grateful to be on the other side of the terror of last year at this time and I clearly remember my husband watching me and gently saying - why don’t you write about it in your email? Thats what you do, maybe it will help.  I didn’t want to share this news and felt like a fraud - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  I am grateful I was courageous enough to share with all of you and that I continued weekly connecting no matter where I was in my treatment and recovery.  I am also grateful that I continued to live the way I always lived, not throwing in the towel on my solutions - I continued to feed myself well, I reached out to my functional nutritionist - Dr Lipman - and trusted his suggestions for supplements to support my healing, I continued to do yoga, pray, meditate and speak to people close to me who listened and didn’t impose their opinions on me.  All of this work has brought me to my recovery 1 year later and to a place today of complete gratitude for where I am - I am not sure I can say I am “grateful for this uncomfortable situation”, but I am grateful for my life and for the knowing that I am here to help others when they are in their own uncomfortable situation.  The intention this month, “I honor and share my perfectly, imperfect self” is in line with where I am right now.  I was once again shone I am certainly not perfect in any area of my life - physically I got sick, mentally and emotionally I was wrapped tight in fear and spiritually I had lost faith in the feeling that I was being taken care of.  My yoga classes are an opportunity for us to live in integrity with our own authentic selves - lining up our thoughts, attitudes and actions with who we say we truly want to be.  I was out of alignment for certain many, many moments this past year.  I spoke out of fear, I acted out of fear and I judged myself the whole way.  The gratitude I can take from this year with cancer was the awareness of the unhealed parts of myself that brought me to extreme fear.  However, I didn’t give up - I asked for help, I accepted help and I shared my perfectly, imperfect self along the way.  Thank you to all of you - I am grateful and blessed!!!! 

 

We all need to remember - yoga is about awareness, but awareness without judgement.  If we can observe ourselves without judgment, we give ourselves the opportunity to grow and change as opposed to judging ourselves and therefore being stuck.  I read this a way back and it’s a great reminder to put in the work, no matter what……….

 

"Expecting things to change without putting in any effort is like waiting for a ship at the airport.” Hahahahaha