I teach at the local college— North Idaho College— a beginning yoga class— it is really my most magical class as I get to teach on AIM from the book Waking to Ordinary Life by Lalitha Thomas. I get to #keepmyaim by being present everyday to the teaching by actually teaching it and realizing that looking at it with new eyes every 4 months actually deepens into me.
The first day I start with, “Aim happens when you break out of your self made jail, when you wake up and show up to your Life, As it Is, right now— to not justify why you’re not awake but to WAKE UP!”
When I first read this book, it was like a literal slap in the face to wake up— there is not much sugar coating and frankly that’s the kind of teacher I am so it works for me — you are either awake or a sleepwalker— both are necessary in life — you get to choose which one you are.
We take this teaching in the body by waking up to movement through the poses of high lunge and forward fold— which seem easy but are hard if you’re paying attention. Transformation happens at the root of attention— it doesn’t come from a Transformation Fairy in a glittery box on your pillow when you wake up. You have to arrive in your body without judgement and wake up to what your body is or is not based on how you pay attention.
I teach on a commuter campus, meaning there are many non traditional—over 24—many coming back to college students and there is also a mix in of traditional students 18 years old ready to conquer the world with what they know. It is magical to watch them fearful of falling over, fearful of looking stupid, fearful of trying— but we get through because AIM=ATTENTION without one there is no other— and we spend 4 months twice a week digging AIM out of ourselves with movement and journals.
To break out of your self made jail means you’d have to know what is keeping you jailed. I find perfectionism, wanting to please, and not wanting to look stupid my jailers. I’ve learned over the years that nothing is perfect, and being a people pleaser is actually being a doormat and well truthfully I do stupid things when I’m not paying Attention. But because life happens moment to moment I forget that I have been set free and walk right back into the jail. That is where AIM is powerful for me, I also get to Remember my worth by staying present. And so we move onward in our bodies and in our minds to Remember and #keepyouraim.