“Just seeing them and accepting that they’re there and through that process, establishing compassion for myself.” With repeated exposure, she was able to see the boxes she was putting herself in. You don’t look anything like them.’”īut Stanley stayed with it, and began to feel a change. Why did you even think you could come? Look at everybody else. “I was very much consumed by self-hatred, and I would be looking at myself in these yoga postures or attempting to practice these yoga postures and I would just be like, ‘You can’t do it. The yoga studio she practiced at featured a mirrored wall, and those boundaries became obvious when she was on the mat. “I decided all of these boundaries for myself.” Boundaries that included what a fat, Black body like hers could do and where it could fit in. “I didn’t realize until I started practicing yoga just how much of my life was being lived inside of boxes,” yoga teacher and author Jessamyn Stanley says. Yoga Teacher, Author, Body Positivity Advocate And I’m not inhabiting the wholeness of my heart.”-HH Stretch Outside of Your Boxes Jessamyn Stanley I’m not seeing their humanity, their suffering. All I’m seeing is some idea of what’s wrong with another. I’ll read something in the news and just immediately think, ‘That’s the bad guy.’ And then I do RAIN on blame, because whenever blame comes up in me, I know I’m in a trance. “I am continually making mistakes and continually at the mercy of my conditioning. She’s not just teaching this, she’s putting it into practice.
And then, you can have more choice about how to respond wisely.” “By contacting that hurt or fear with care, you’ll reconnect with the tenderness and goodness of your own heart. you make a kind of U-turn and ask yourself, ‘What feels vulnerable inside me?’ By contacting that hurt or fear with care, you’ll reconnect with the tenderness and goodness of your own heart. There’s something in that anger that’s asking for your attention-anger alerts us, but then we need to keep on deepening our attention. “First, I say, if you’re feeling anger toward someone, don’t try to ignore or get rid of it. The big questions people bring these days are about how to deal with the judgment and anger they feel toward those who don’t agree with them.”Īmong her most popular practices is her RAIN practice, which clears a path for honest, direct contact with our own vulnerability, self-compassion, and healing. Every Wednesday she hosts live mindfulness classes online Saturdays she hosts small-group question-and-answer sessions. Meditation teacher and psychologist Tara Brach has been curating moments of connection throughout the pandemic.