I’ve been practicing yoga for about 15 years. And, I love it.

However, with a four-month old baby, I have NOT been on the mat in months and months and months.

Not so very long ago, I would have berated myself.

My 23 mind monkeys would have screamed at me, “I can’t believe you’re not doing your yoga, you stupid, lazy girl! You aren’t sticking to you’re yoga routine and you are SUCH a spiritual loser. You lack real commitment and discipline.”

“No - we don’t care if you have a baby and  you are breastfeeding and you aren’t getting sleep. Look at Madonna - she can do it and she’s OLDER than you!”

Nice self talk, eh?

One of my yoga teachers helped me when she said, “Observe your mind while you are on the mat. How we are on the mat is how we are off the mat.”

And so I began to listen to what those monkeys were saying during my yoga practice. They said things like, “You’re not in as deep of a forward fold as that lady over there!” and “You still can’t touch your heels to the ground during down dog - your practice sucks!”

Yes, I was self-deprecating on my mat. And so I began the work to quiet the mind monkeys a little and to begin to be my own advocate.

I started to say to myself, “Good job, Wendy, you’re really paying attention to your breath.” and “”Everything is ok - it’s just yoga. Have fun with it!”

And wouldn’t you know? This began to spill over into the rest of my life. I learned more compassion for myself.

Because there is no separation. Yoga does not begin and end when I step on and off my mat.

I can practice yoga ALL the time.

My life is my yoga. My relationships are my yoga. Motherhood is my yoga. Entrepreneurship is my yoga.

It all is a continuous yoga practice. It requires all requires balance, patience, discipline, and mindfulness.

And at every moment, I have the choice to be in a yoga mindset. I can work to be compassionate to others and to myself.

Do I succeed? Sure - at times.

And a lot of times I fail. I get all nasty inside my head.

So, I don’t think I’m going to reach enlightenment any time soon. But, I can keep practicing. Because that’s all it is…a practice.

Whether you practice yoga or not, start to see that how you are in any situation is how you are in every situation.

Do you react to external circumstances with anger? With anxiety? Fear? Do you play the victim?

There is no separation between who we are and how we show up in the world.
Our shit comes up.

And this includes our business.

As entrepreneurs, we typically reach a point where we are stuck…when there is no movement…when we aren’t achieving a goal that we really, really want.

But because it’s our business, we often blame something external. It’s the economy or it’s my stupid assistant or my clients are difficult.

But it’s not. It’s us.
It’s our shit.

We are getting in our own way, again.

It’s time to acknowledge that building a business and achieving our goals is about working on our stuff, telling our mind monkeys to SHUT UP, and getting the hell out of our own way.

Then this is when things begin to unclog. It’s a place where movement happens.
We step into the flow.

And then - like magic - we reach a new level of success in our business.
Everything gets easier. We have clients who want to pay us more.
Our assistant suddenly got less stupid. Everyone loves what we offer.

Life is so good and we’re doing the Snoopy happy dance.
We’re dancing, we’re dancing, we’re dancing!

And then we hit another wall. And the brakes go on.
And we are back to our same ‘ol patterns.
We’re angry. Or anxious. Or victimy. Or paranoid.

And business sucks because gas prices went up…because stocks went down…because nobody wants what we are selling…because our stupid assistant quit.

Blah…blah…blah…

We have the opportunity to once again listen to ourselves. And to once again return to our practice.

Because that’s all it is…a practice.

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