I’m a collector of memes. I’m guessing you are too (God Bless the Internet). Unless you’re just looking at the cat videos and in that case, Sylvester the Talking Cat is a personal favorite. You’re welcome. Talking Kitty

“You can eat the kale, drink the alkaline water, and do the yoga. But if you don’t deal with the shit going on in your head & heart, you’re still unhealthy.”

I could just as easily take this and make “my own” meme out of it but, um, that seems a little inauthentic. So I didn’t SAY this technically, but it sounds like something I would say…verbatim. Disclaimer over.

Confession:

I eat the kale

I drink the alkaline water (actually I drink the alkaline green juice…but details)

I definitely do the yoga

I also operate under no misconception that doing those three things makes me “healthy” or somehow “a better person” than anyone else. The “doing of the things” doesn’t automatically heal your shit or break negative patterns or increase your net worth by six figures. It can massively SUPPORT your healing, for sure (especially the yoga).

You can do juice cleanses until the cows come home (and they might, just to ask you WTF you’re doing all those juice cleanses)  but it doesn’t make you healthier if you’re still letting your inner voice or wounding drive the ship. Particularly if the inner voice is giving you massive amounts of unhelpful shit while you’re drinking your fortieth Kale-Dandelion-Crabgrass-Turtle Wax smoothie:

“Oh sure, you’re doing a juice cleanse, but we know you won’t stick to healthy patterns. You always fall off the wagon, this won’t be any different. You’ll be back to burgers and fries tomorrow.”

…or whatever the specific brand of jerk in your head likes to tell you….

Frankly, I started “doing the yoga” at a point in my life when I could barely get out of bed in the morning. It was a dark night of the soul, my friends. I had to tell myself “All you have to do today is get on that mat and breathe for 90 minutes”. Yoga saved my life…not because I was twisting and bending…but because I was able to quiet the fluctuations of my mind long enough to allow me to go deep into my own world and understand why I was in so much pain in the first place.

I have KEPT doing the yoga because of the amazing healing that’s happened from it, how incredible I feel when I do it, and the lessons I’ve learned on my mat (which you’ll hear about a lot as we go forward). Also because I was never flexible, even as a kid, and the fact that I can do a backbend now makes me want to do cartwheels. Which I still can’t do….

Here’s my point: Our outer world is a direct reflection of what’s going on inside of us. Period. We can fake it for a while, but unless you’re supporting it with inner work, the facade will crumble…and you might too.

As we heal those parts of us that we’ve forgotten or neglected – the parts that have been driving negative patterns – our outer world automatically starts to come into alignment. We WANT to nourish our bodies. We WANT to move our bodies, either through yoga or a walk or a HIIT workout….whatever feels good for us. And the DIFFERENCE is that we aren’t doing it out of guilt because it’s what we “should” do (man, I’ve got a million posts coming about SHOULDING on ourselves. Fuck. That. Noise.). We do it because it authentically feels right for us. AND it also means we can enjoy the treats and delicious pleasures in life, rather than feeling like we have to punish ourselves for it the next day. Example: I will WRECK my mother’s German Chocolate Cake with ZERO guilt.

Namaste away from my cake, or I’ll cut you.

Sparkle on, my friends…

JW