Even Self-Confident People Lack Self-Confidence

Yes, it’s true. And apparently, even good writers write not-so-good article titles sometimes

I feel the deep need to remind myself and my yoga students something over and over: we are multidimensional!

One day you might be feeling super-confident, staring a giant task in the eyes and yelling, “Bring it on!”

The next day you could be curled in bed, squeezing your childhood teddy bear whispering, “I don’t think I can do this.”

We all have confidence and fear. Light and dark, and endless pieces to our personalities.

I’m known in the yoga community to be a silly, funny, fun teacher. I love this and embrace it because it’s a huge part of who I am. I mean, after all, my slogan is, “Seriously Good Yoga That’s Not TOO Serious.”

The issue comes in when my sometimes silliness is misperceived as a full-time lack of seriousness. Luckily, only people who’ve not yet studied with me are making this blanket judgment. My regular students know that my levity is there to disarm and connect us so that when we go deep, we’re more relaxed and open. And also, as I mentioned earlier, it’s not something I just turn off and on.

But yes, I‘ve heard nearly the same statement time and time again from people after they take their first class with me. “Oh man, I heard you were the funny teacher, but that class was deep and I learned so much!”

Yep, we laughed, and maybe we even cried — surprise! There was space for it all and everything in-between because that’s what’s necessary for emotional, physical, and mental health.

My wish for you is that you be round. Be a pie chart with slices that depict a myriad of emotions, likes, dislikes, personality traits, and more. Don’t feel the need to stand under a neon title stating who you are based on how you are much of the time — or how you’ve been predominantly described.

When we stick too close to the perceived header above us, we push down the other parts that might need or want a chance to show up. So keep yourself well-rounded. Just ‘don’t be a square’ like they used to say in the ’50s.

I doubt they were referring to multi-dimensional self-expression, but maybe they were just ahead of their time…