Going about your day on auto-pilot is a silent hazard of living in the modern age.
Here's a little test to see how entrenched in zombie-mode you are. Do you remember your morning commute? Do you remember pouring your coffee? Answering the first email of the day? Picking up your phone to check Instagram for the 8th time before 11 AM? Chances are, probably not and you're not alone. If you're doing anything without thinking, of what or more importantly why you're doing it, you're creeping into auto-pilot territory.
When we spend the majority of the day just going through the motions and detaching any cognitive thinking from our actions, were unconsciously undermining all of our creativity, stifling our sense of curiosity, and diminishing our sense of control. Day after day, month after month and maybe even year after year of this unconscious behavior can leave us with a sense of powerlessness and the uneasy feeling of being “stuck”.
But you are not powerless, you’re just out of practice with your power to make decisions consciously, and from a place of mindfulness.
An easy way to tap back into your power is by incorporating some poses into your practice that make you feel well, powerful.
This variation of Tree Pose is just that for me. It helps me to (i) ground down and really forces me to stay focused and present by concentrating on my balance (ii) engage my abdominals, igniting my third chakra (the power chakra) and charging my ability to step into my more assertive side, and (iii) feel more graceful and unrestricted by shifting my focus upward and growing my arms up to the sky, expanding my rib cage and unraveling my thoracic spine.
What are some poses that make you feel powerful?