Kirra, Questions, and Practicing Self-Kindness

On flexibility

“But my hips can’t move like THAT,” declared bear, watching bird wrap herself into a yogic pretzel.

“The first step toward your goal,” replied bird, “has nothing to do with moving your hips; it’s the *belief* that you can.”

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📷: Passages II in full color
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“Can you say something really kind to yourself?”

“Like I’m proud of you or you did a really good job or you’re safe here. Just say something kind.”

The first thing I do every morning is stretch.

Often, I follow along to Peloton, and more often than not to Kirra Michel.

When she asked this question this morning, the first thought that popped into my head was that I wasn’t stretching enough … although I wake up every single morning and stretch.

Almost as if hearing me, she repeated her invitation: “Say a kind thing to yourself. I’m proud of you. You did good. I love you.”

How often are our present moments hijacked and recast by those old, looping stories, the ones on auto-repeat, the ones in which you can never possibly do enough to be enough, to be good enough?

“And if you resist that,” she says, almost as if hearing my thoughts, “you need to say one more thing to yourself that’s kind.”

And so today, I’m grateful for my body, for the choices I make to start my day, for the gift of movement, the ability to be flexible in my thoughts, and for creating the space to listen to others like Kirra.

In that same spirit, what can *you* say to yourself right now – without qualification – that is kind and fills you up with those “little bits of goodness” Kirra invites us to metabolize?

Perhaps:

I’m proud of you.

You did a really good job.

You’re safe here.

I love you.

You’re doing great. I’m proud for you. You are always safe here. And I love you.

++ yes, this is the same design as my last post (Passages II). These are the "default" colors I usually make it in (and just did for a client in Golden, CO). It's amazing (to me) how different this mobile looks compared to the all-white version I shared in my last post (that went to a client in Humble, TX). Fun to see how the addition of color - in life, in art, in our thoughts - changes everything, isn't it?