Episode Transcript
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Cathy (00:01):
Transitions can be tough
both in life and on the yoga
mat.
Yet indeed you can trainyourself to make them easy and
maybe even effortless Heyfriends.
(01:14):
Welcome to episode 69 of theshow.
Before we get into the threeessentials for making
transitions a little bit moreeffortless, I want to let you
know that I've got a resourceout there that you can take
advantage of.
To make one of the most basictransitions in a yoga practice,
more accessible and maybe evenmore effortless.
(01:35):
It is a video.
Of me walking you through how todo a sun salutation.
Now, if you're familiar with thesun salutation, you won't need
this, but if you've never heardof a sun salutation or you're
newer to yoga, I have a videothat I'd love for you to grab.
And I will put a link to it inthe show notes so that you can
begin to work on a basic yogatransition that can honestly
(01:59):
transform your life prettydramatically if you practice it
consistently.
So check out the show notes andgrab that download.
Last week, we dived a bit deeperinto transitions.
And the fact that transitionsare tough because you are
grieving the loss of the waythings used to be.
It's about the loss.
It's not necessarily about thetransition or the process
(02:22):
itself.
You're grieving the habit thatyou're trying to change.
Or maybe you can think of itlike this, the old way of living
or your nature, to the new wayof living or being, even if it's
temporary, even if it's justthat transition, in getting out
the door in the morning with thetoddler or the preschooler, Or
(02:44):
even learning a new skill likeyoga.
I also took you through avisualization to reveal to you a
bit of the process that we allgo through when transitioning
from one thing to the next.
Transitions are happening.
All the time from the everydaymoments to the larger times in
life, like job changes,menopause, retirement, marriage,
(03:07):
adding children to your family.
We feel those experiences on theday in and day out and we
approach them.
And there's likely a large partof your life that is spent
anticipating or recovering fromtransitions.
But we also feel nature'stransitions through the seasons.
(03:29):
And of course the cosmic orastrological transitions with
the moon and even the planets,some of those things that we
don't necessarily think about ona day-to-day basis, unless we're
intentional about it.
All of those cosmic bodies.
All of nature's.
Essence.
Has energy.
(03:50):
We all have energy.
And we're all moving and alwaysmoving.
So naturally there aretransitions that we're going to
be going through at any giventime in life.
It's natural that they cansometimes feel clunky and
awkward or frustrating and rigidrather than smooth and
effortless and flowing.
(04:10):
But it's possible to create away of being that makes
transitions more effortless,whether they are big or small
and whether they are tangible orenergetic.
To first get to the place ofeffortless action when
approaching a transition,though, there are three key
things that I've discovered needto be included.
(04:32):
The first one is to practice andhave a plan.
It takes time to learn how tomove through transitions
relatively effortlessly and itdoesn't always happen with every
transition.
But often in life, there arerecurring themes with
transitions that we go through.
(04:53):
And often we can begin to seethe pattern of how we respond
after we've moved through acertain transition, whether it's
similar to something we've donein the past, or whether it's
brand new.
Then you can begin to use thatpattern or that information that
you've received on how youtransitioned or how you grieved
(05:13):
the loss of what you movedthrough.
To anticipate the next time youknow you have a transition
coming.
Now sometimes transitions aren'talways predictable; we don't
always know they're coming.
We can, however, tune into ourbody awareness to our feelings,
our emotions, our inner guidancethat intuitive knowing and begin
(05:36):
to use it as a guide to ask whatit needs to feel comfort after
that transition if it's been onethat is not anticipated.
Learning how to move through atransition in a relatively
effortless manner, as I said,takes practice and a plan.
It's like developing any habit.
(05:57):
Creating a pattern helps thehabits stick, which means you
have to have a plan as to howyou're going to move through the
transitions.
And like I said, sometimes itisn't obvious until you start to
take the steps to move throughit, or maybe you've already
moved through it, then youdiscover what works and what
needs to shift or change, andwhen you need to look for new
methods, Kind of like withmoving, if you've moved more
(06:20):
than once in your life, youbegin to remember and realize
what needs to happen in orderfor that move to become more
effortless the next time.
That's physical tangibletransition that you might go
through in life and you begin torefine those skills.
Just like I was talking about inlast week's episode.
(06:41):
But with this practice and thisplan, you also need reminders.
You need to surround yourselfwith a community of people that
can help you, that can lift youup that can support you.
That can be cheerleaders foryou, or can just hold space for
you as you move through whatevertransition it is.
(07:01):
You might also need anaccountability partner.
You need people in your life tohelp give you reminders.
And maybe it's the fact that youneed reminders by setting a
reminder on your phone orleaving notes around your house
for reminders.
Of how you want to be.
How you want to release or letgo of what you transitioned out
(07:23):
of.
Those are perfectly acceptable.
That's all part of practicing,moving through effortless
transitions and having a plan.
And you're not going to do itperfect, and that's okay.
It's about learning and gettingto the other side.
You are deconditioning the oldpattern or way of doing things.
And the more consistently you doit, the better you will get at
(07:45):
it.
One of my daughter's teacherstells them that practice makes
permanent.
And it couldn't be more true.
A children's book that we readrecently also said that practice
makes better and everyone canget better.
We can accept where we are inthis moment.
And yet still have the desireand the motivation to practice
(08:07):
letting go so that we can do itjust a little bit better or more
effortlessly.
And the second essential inlearning to take effortless
action or to make transitionsmore effortless is having a
growth mindset.
It's where you take ownership ofyour thoughts and actions.
(08:28):
One of the ways that I encourageclients to do this the most is
with I statements instead of youstatements or generalized
statements.
This is actually step numberthree in the F.L.O.W.
Framework that I take clientsthrough.
It's the belief in yourself andthat it's possible to do
whatever you want to be doingrather than putting it on
(08:51):
someone else.
Even if you're talking aboutyour own self, when you're using
those"you" statements, you'renot actually taking full
ownership of your actions andyour thoughts.
But when you switch thatlanguage to using, I statements
you take on the ownership, itempowers you to actually want to
do the work, to make the changesor to move through that loss or
(09:14):
the letting go process in a waythat benefits you instead of it
being some ambiguous conceptthat maybe someday it will
likely change.
When you begin to shift thelanguage and start to use i
statements that's when i know aclient is really ready to do the
work and ready to start makingthe changes, Even if you're
(09:35):
talking about your own self,it's the openness to do things
differently.
Having a growth mindset is theintention or vision of how you
want the transition to go or theoutcome you want on the other
side of the transition...
how you want to feel once thattransition has been made once
that loss has happened.
(09:56):
Having a growth mindset alsoinvolves your motivation,
whether that's internal orexternal.
Internal motivation.
Is likely going to make the newhabit or way of doing something
stick even more because you'vegot this internal drive inside
of you.
And sometimes that's somethingthat we can't always change, at
(10:17):
least right away.
That too could take practice andcould take training rather than
always being fulfilled by anexternal reward system or
consequence system.
Sometimes that's the qualitythat we have to cultivate within
ourselves is that internalmotivation.
But when you have that internalmotivation and when you make the
shift into that internalmotivation, It only promotes
(10:39):
your growth mindset and allowsfor transitions to be more
effortless.
And now the final and third keyessential for making effortless
transitions.
Is to surrender to the naturalprocess of life.
It's to flow.
The universe's pace is the exactright pace for you.
(11:03):
Your own pace is what causesstress.
You are the one who places thetime limitations that create the
stress, the anxiety, thefeelings of inadequacy, not
enoughness.
But when we can learn tosurrender to the natural flow of
events in life it allows us toflow with life, to accept the
(11:27):
things that we now need to letgo of.
It's remembering that four stepprocess that.
Everything has a beginning.
A middle and an end.
Right?
And the end means that we oftenhave to let go...
we celebrate and reflect and letgo, or release.
Now surrendering doesn't meanthat you don't have boundaries,
(11:50):
or even limits.
It does however mean that youhave to be clear on those
boundaries and limits, so thatyou can allow the flow to happen
within the boundaries and withinthe limits.
And by doing so you'rerespecting and honoring yourself
in the process.
But when you try to grasp andhold onto and control everything
(12:13):
in your life, rather than trustand surrender, life feels
sticky.
It feels like those transitionsare painful.
They feel hard, they feelchallenging because you're
holding onto what used to berather than letting go and
trusting.
That letting go thing.
It's a hard thing.
I've got a couple episodes onthat.
(12:34):
Yet with practice you can trainyourself to let go, to learn to
surrender.
And surrender is one of thebiggest things that helps you
flow with life that helps youmake transitions effortless.
Surrender and trust.
That's where the trust partcomes in.
The hope is that on the otherside of the transition, you have
(12:55):
elevated yourself in some way,you've created more
self-confidence and more easeand flow in your life no matter
what the transition is.
You begin to change yourperspective and outlook and have
a different perception so thattransitions can indeed feel
lighter and not so heavy and notso clunky.
(13:15):
And like I said, it doesn'talways happen with every
transition.
But so much of it is about theway that we approach the
transition.
And the way that we prepare fora transition, if it's possible,
or the way that we nurtureourselves, when going into a
transition or when anticipatinga transition.
When I think about this firstone, this having a practice or a
(13:35):
plan in terms of your body,especially with the menstrual
cycle.
There are the transition timesthat we know are likely going to
be a little bit more challengingand that transition time, the
biggest one is that lutealphase, which is the phase right
before your period.
And if you can begin toanticipate how you're going to
feel and have a plan for goinginto that week or week and a
(13:58):
half or so before your period.
You'll likely make thattransition more effortless.
You likely have less moodswings.
You'll likely feel morecomforted, your body won't be
talking back to you or feelingas achy and tired.
Because you've created a plan tonurture yourself.
Now, when I think about this interms of a yoga practice, it
(14:19):
means that sometimes we justhave to practice and practice
those transitions until theybecome more effortless.
With handstand, there's allthree of those elements that
have to be in place.
You've got to surrender.
You've got to just trust.
You've got to have the mindsetthat it is possible to move
(14:40):
through a transition likehandstand.
And you have to just practiceit.
All three of those things haveto be in place.
Now, if you're thinking about atransition, that's not quite as
tricky as a handstand.
Even with something as basic asa sun salutation, that
transition requires the, um, theability to do it.
And, and the plan itself isthat, you know, the postures
(15:02):
that you're going to do, itrequires practice to remember
them.
It requires this growth mindsetthat you believe in yourself and
think that it is possible toactually do the sun salutation.
And then finally it requiresthis surrender, or this trust
that you will pick it up.
(15:24):
It will become effortless.
In its own right timing.
So many times we want to rushthings.
We want to hurry through them.
But as I said before, theuniverse's timing is the exact
right timing.
And once we can really begin tobelieve that and embody that.
(15:45):
That's when you know You areflowing.
This is kind of iterativebecause.
It comes and goes, depending onthe situation.
But we make steps and we movecloser to it and closer to it.
The more we practice it and themore we have a plan.
And it all cycles through.
So those three key essentialsfor effortless transitions are
(16:08):
to have a plan and to practice,to cultivate that growth
mindset, and finally, tosurrender to the natural flow of
events in life because theuniverse's timing, God's timing,
it is true and perfect.
We are the ones who place thestress on ourselves.
We are the ones who get anxiousand get too excited and try to
(16:30):
force or control things.
But if you can do all three ofthose things, you are likely on
your way to more effortlesstransitions.
That's all I have for you today,folks.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
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(16:51):
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(17:12):
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Until next week, friends, I'mCathy Struecker and you've been
listening to health, harmony andhappiness with Cathy.
Cheers to cultivating your ownversion of health harmony and
happiness in your life.