I’ve been listening to Glennon Doyle’s book, Untamed, and she tells a story about her friend who attended a Hot Yoga class for the first time. The Yoga Instructor told the class to push through their discomfort with the heat and stay with it. The friend took it literally and stayed in the class despite feeling overly nauseous and miserable. Once the class ended, she ran out the door and into the restroom, only to find herself extremely sick. As she reflected on it later, asking herself why she stayed in the class, she came to realize that she pushed herself to stay, despite knowing that her body wasn’t handling it well, and when she finally ran out at the end, the door wasn’t even locked. In other words, the only thing trapping her inside that room was her own mind.
How many times have we all done this where we’ve created a reality in our mind and kept ourselves trapped in a situation?
- I want to set boundaries with my work hours, but my boss will view me poorly if I don’t answer him after hours
- I want to be a stronger people leader, but the company doesn’t care about people, they only want results
- I want to show up differently, but I just can’t find the breathing room to make it happen
- I want to create a different life, but it will upset my family
- I want to lose weight, but my family isn’t very supportive
- I want to exercise, but I just don’t have the time
You’re seeing yourself trapped in that hot room with no power to break free, yet the door is not locked. You have the power to make a different decision and handle the situation the way you want, but you have to get off the mat, open the door and walk through it. I’m not saying you have to leave your job or separate yourself from your family, but if you want to set boundaries, set them. If you want to create a different life, start taking steps towards the life you want to create. If you want to be a people first leader, do that. If you really want to lose weight or start exercising, start showing up for yourself. You have to stop holding yourself back from what you know is your truth while blaming the outside world about a door holding you back that isn’t even locked.
If you find yourself relating to this, you are definitely not alone. The reason why stood out to me when she told it was because I was having my own moment, realizing that I too, was holding myself back. Blaming the way of the world instead of accepting that the only person keeping me stuck is me.
So here’s to no longer holding ourselves back from all the things we can be, if we just…open…the…door.