Balance comes from strength...

“Good enough is the new perfect.”

 ~Becky Beaupre Gillispie

I started doing Yoga a year ago. 

I immediately learned why I had been concerned about starting it before. Standing on one leg it hard! It looks so easy when you are looking at a photo of someone in a peaceful repose on one leg - but until you've tried it - you have no idea...  I stressed and struggled when I first started, falling far more than I stood up.

I asked myself, "Why is this so hard? What is holding you back?"

You see, I wanted to master this balance. That's the way I am - I don't do things halfway. I don’t think I’m very different than most people in this. Anybody who is going to take on a new practice of something wants to be good at it, right? But where my personality has often gotten in my way in the past is my drive to be Mary Poppins in most things – “Practically perfect in every way.”

I wanted to find my ‘perfect balance.'

For months, each time the Yogi Teacher would work up to ‘Stand strong on your right leg and lift your left leg…’, I would feel my insides tighten. I was going to do it, this time, come what may. And as I practiced, I got a little better, but I still wobbled, and the peace that was supposed to envelop me was far from happening. I began to get a little discouraged. Then one day, a new Teacher said something that helped everything come together, and I discovered something I had not considered about ‘balance.' 

"Think about how you are feeling... You are standing strong on one side of your body,

 and floating on another..."

I was thinking too much about floating side and not enough on the strong side!

My balance needed to come from my strength, not my weakness. How many times in life had I insisted on making my weakness stronger than it was capable of being in the name of perfection? Now, I focus on what is strong about me and push it just a little bit harder. It compensates for the weak parts of me and brings me the balance I need.

I may never put my floating leg behind my head, but that's ok...

My good enough is my new perfect.

Cheers.