Begin Where You Are

I have an announcement to make. (Help me out here by imagining a bit of a drum roll, please.)

I just discovered that I can now sit cross-legged in my chair!

It’s really ok if you overcome the urge to call whichever news outlet you dislike least these days and just hang out here with me. I realize this is not, on the surface, an athletic feat likely to make the headlines. That works for me.

If you know, however, that I had knee surgery six times in nine years, it gets a little more interesting. If you also know that my back has had a few major unreliable spells through the years, one of which involved an ambulance, you might be starting to sense my excitement. And, if you know that I’ve been learning some new things about food and pain and mobility, you might begin to catch the underlying energy in this announcement.

It’s kind of ironic that I’m noticing this just now, after spending a week trying to suppress/repress/deny the tiniest hint of jealousy sparked by the yoga-on-the-floor crowd I encountered on my recent trip down the Rabbit Hole.

In fact, I spent a portion of my time there (Break time only, of course!) reflecting on the ancient wisdom I heard years ago that suggests that people who consciously lower themselves to the floor once each day, and get back up, will remain flexible throughout their lives.

This is news I quite wish I’d learned when I was my girls’ age and was totally comfortable sitting “Indian-style” on the floor, decades before the saga of the crappy knees began.

That, however, is water under the bridge.

I’ve comforted myself, in more recent years, with some similar wisdom I encountered in my Hypnosis/NLP training. The most flexible person in any system has the most power to get things done.

Try that one more time.

The most flexible person in any system has the most power to get things done.

Or, to put it another way, curiosity is the path out of stuck-ness.

This thought is really encouraging to me and doesn’t involve the floor.

Even better, it works!

Here’s a fun example.

Just in case you ever encounter anyone in your world who might be feeling stuck in an either-or kind of situation, get curious. Wonder with them/you what other options there might be. Keep wondering until a third real option materializes.

Suddenly the dynamics of making that decision are vastly different. No longer are we choosing between right and wrong or good and bad. Instead, we’re choosing the most helpful, appealing option in this moment.

It’s entirely possible that we will learn some new things, having made that choice.

It’s also possible that we’ll have more choices to make in the future. Along with a handy new way of framing those choices.

And, we’ll have a tremendously helpful new thought pattern to share with the kids we love. They learn fast. It has something to do with having less to unlearn first!

Just like learning to get down to the floor and back up every day, the earlier we start looking for flexible options, the better. It doesn’t feel nearly as scary later when we might really need to know.

Which is, when you think about it, getting some pretty big things done!

Today is a great time to start, or as I was reading in Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones…Freeing the Writer Within, “Begin where you are.”

I’m beginning by celebrating sitting cross-legged!