Exhale lots of love out

Most mornings begin with me and Adriene and her dog Bengi on our yoga mats. Crosby used to be there too, but this morning it was his spirit that sat beside me. For those of you who don’t know Adriene, I’m talking about Yoga with Adriene from YouTube or, for hardcore fans like me, the Find What Feels Good app. I woke up this morning with a heavy heart and so, like so many heavy hearted days in the past, I took myself to the mat to find my center.

I’ve been regularly practicing with Adriene for two and a half years now and one thing that she often says when cueing our breathing is “breathe lots of love in…exhale lots of love out”. Exhale is my word of the year for 2021. It’s like a soft, accepting surrender to the ways of the universe. It’s a letting go of the things that are out of my control. And when I get on my yoga mat with Adriene and she reminds me to inhale lots of love in and exhale lots of love out, everything just feels a bit better. I am so grateful to have founded this yoga practice before I really needed it. Now it’s what gets me out of bed in the morning and sets my day off with a high vibrational energy despite what’s being thrown my way.

Today I broke from my yoga routine and did her meditation for Self Love. I need it. I needed to remember that I am an incarnation of love and that it’s my calling to first love myself and then love those around me: my kids, my students, my friends, my parents, my co-workers, my neighbors, the grocery clerk, the UPS driver and on and on. It’s the airplane oxygen mask metaphor. First, take time to care for yourself by putting on your oxygen mask, then you can help others around you. All it takes is 10 minutes to shift perspective and if you’re feeling heavy hearted today too, I encourage you to carve out some time to meditate on love.

Meditation for Self Love

“Inhale lots of love in, exhale lots of love out.” -Adriene