Shigeko Yoga October Newsletter 

One of the beautiful messages I continue to receive from my dear yoga therapy teacher is to not focus on the little problems. She always encourages me to look for all the good things happening in my students' movements and postures. It is such an eye opener because it’s easy to see what’s wrong first instead of what’s good. It almost feels like switching my own lens - from a micro lens to a wide angle lens. My eyes get softer and I begin to see more beauty and possibilities in movements and postures. 
 
Every so often we get caught up in the small views in our practice and life. We get annoyed from falling out of the balance pose. We get bothered by little discomforts in our bodies when we do our very first down dog in class. We get upset when we have to stop at every single red light and that makes us late for yoga class.  We get disappointed when a work/school project falls into pieces. We get sad when we burn the perfect pancakes (well, I finally started to use a timer for that…). It’s easy to just focus on one little problem directly in front of us. And these small situations can feel so BIG. Where is the bigger picture? Does it sound familiar?
 
Obviously, the big picture doesn’t come into the view if we live our life through a micro lens. The truth is, it’s hard to see possibilities through a micro lens. You might be missing out on all the other goodies because you’re so caught up with the details of what's wrong. You might feel everything is against you and not supporting you.

There is always another angle to take a look at. We can step back or adjust the internal lens. We can always try to see things differently. There is not only one way. There are many other ways.