Tending to what we hide

Maybe soon, the pursuit of wellness will turn us to tend just as much to what we keep in the dark, as we do to what is shown in the light. I fear most of what we see and show is the good lighting, the right angle, the fifth take, the morning that went sideways and got cropped out. It’s not lying exactly, it’s just showing the lit side and leaving the rest in the dark.

That matters more than it sounds, because it changes how you measure your own practice. If all you ever see is the finished version, your scared, messy, tired, barely getting through it days start to feel like failure, when really, that's the good stuff. And once a practice feels like failure, you stop showing up for it.

We hide, and that’s human.

There's a gentler way to work with it. Notice where the light is landing: what's going well, what feels easy right now. Then look at what it isn't reaching, and stop being so hard on those parts. Tend to them instead. Fall is a good time for it. Maybe this is their season.

Physically

We’re training the backline, the side holding everything up, supporting our sense of stability.

Rest in the shade

Yin started as a word for the shady side of a hill. That's a good way to think about slower practice: not the lesser half, the other half. One long-hold class a week keeps the faster stuff sustainable. Brooke's new Yin collection is a good place to start.

Let the evenings get dark

Your body reads darkness as the signal to wind down and make the hormones that get you to sleep. Bright overheads and a phone at 10pm blunt that. Switch to lamps after dinner and park the phone somewhere else. It works.

Show the rest of the room

Love and tend to the rest of the room. What we hide that isn’t “in the frame.” Your authenticity to show up as you are inspires others to do the same, and I think we could all use a bit more of that.

The darker half of the year is coming either way. You can treat it like the part to crop out, or you can let it be part of the picture.