Perfect is Boring — Yoga Girl

Wellll tomorrow is THE day, you know, the day I teach a public class to possibly people I don’t know, fellow teacher trainees and even worse, my friends. What if my friends hate it? What if the music sucks or worse yet, I simply fail, lose my words? I know - that seems rather unlikely as I never stop talking…Of course I want it to be perfect and lots of people show up. Why did I invite so many people? Seriously? I had beautiful postcards made and distributed them all over town and sent out an evite to every person I thought remotely interested, what was I thinking? Now I am thinking, as I have taken my fellow teacher trainees classes, who had maybe 10 people, UGGGGG. In hindsight that seems so much less intimidating. Why did I care so much about how many people showed up? I’ll tell you why – perfection.

I wanted to have the perfect class with the perfect number of people, the perfect sequence, the perfect message, the perfect music. I even made individually wrapped bloody mini organic brownies with Namaste labels on them wrapped in twine – see image below.

As I taught my friend Kidist today and took her through the entire sequence including music and my well thought out message, it dawned on me or well she very pointedly stated that I need to either memorize my message or take it to heart. Meaning - I need to let go of this notion of perfection. I have been trying and trying hard but that idea of the perfect holiday (whoops got a bit tipsy on Thanksgiving and for the first time did not clean up the kitchen before going to bed – if you know me, this is seriously like a crime), the perfect day or even the prefect moment – in all this searching for perfection, my whole life is going to pass me by. So now, knowing that I did my best, I AM PREPARED, I am going to try and possibly even fail, but trying and failing is better than not trying at all. So here is my message coming directly from my heart:

Opening - As a fellow teacher once said to me, perfect is boring. Perhaps today on our mats we let go of this notion of perfection. Knowing that no one pose looks the same on all of us. Allowing ourselves to fall out of a pose, knowing we can simply try again. Trying and failing is more rewarding then not trying at all. Possibly allowing ourselves to simply enjoy our breath with movement, for the next 60 minutes putting the idea of perfection aside.

Closing – as we finish today perhaps we reflect back on the idea that perfect is boring. Maybe, possibly even throwing out the notion of perfection as we step off our mats today AND simply being completely content with who you are, including all your imperfections. I thank each and every one of you for joining me on our mats today. May all the light in me honor the light in you – Namaste.

#stillfreakingout #havingaglassofchampagne