I’m not good at movement. I’m that person in the Zumba class that always goes to the right when everyone goes left or lifts the wrong leg in yoga.

For the last two years, I’ve been practicing martial arts. It has helped a lot, but I still suck. What do I keep doing it? Because many of the limitations that hinder my movement at the dojo, also block me in life. 

Right now I have an issue with timing, and my sensei gave me some tough love about it yesterday: “Either you don’t know what you are doing, which is not your case. Or you have a problem with balance. Or you are so much in your head that you are your own worst enemy.”

The last point hit home. For the last few months I’ve been so intent on doing every step right, that timing and flow didn’t even cross my mind.

But I feel that is true of many of us in our daily lives as well, especially when we start new ventures. We focus so much on getting to a point where we feel confident and do things correctly that, sometimes, we let opportunities pass. We first drown in doubt, then, in regret. 

I remember listening to Oprah one day (yes, I confess I like her) and she said, "Prepare, prepare, prepare and then let go." My sensei had similar advice yesterday: "practice, practice, practice until it becomes part of you, so you don’t need to think."

The same happens with meditation, the more we practice, practice and practice, the more it percolates our daily lives and lets us go of anger and worry. The less we live in our heads, the more we flow with life. 

Love,
Nathalie