Step into a Successful Fall
By Theresa Shay
“How are you feeling about going back to school?” I asked my friend. We were sitting in her reading nook under the fairy lights.
“A little nervous.” She paused and shifted her gaze from my eyes to the cover of her book. “It’s a big step.”
Fall season is a big step for many. Starting at a new school. Starting school at all. Making a new beginning. Making new friends. Making new impressions. Making the team. Making, at last, time for what matters: a new plan for a new start that will create a new feeling in a new place. We are hopeful.
At the same time, we are thick in the letting go. Releasing the summer fun. Giving up plans that never materialized. Leaving lazier mornings, longer evenings, different responsibilities and changed rhythms behind. Letting go of the idea that summer will be a spacious and expansive eternity of hanging out sipping lemonade.
When you live in a town, as I do, where the population doubles the week the university students return, even if your life is not ruled by the academic calendar, it is affected by it. On the physical level, the sights and sounds change. On the subtle level, the energy changes. Many are, as my friend described it, taking a big step.
And big steps can trigger anxious feelings.
The energy is edgier. The mind less spacious. The body less relaxed.
But only if you’re stepping forward without awareness.
The natural response to the uncertainty of new beginnings includes anxiety and concern, as well as excitement and anticipation. These are not better or worse responses; they are simply currents of energy passing through the field.
The element of ease comes by bringing awareness to what is playing out as it happens. Notice the hopes, the fears, the desire for a successful big step. Notice the disappointment and the difficulties. Notice the experiences without chasing or rejecting anything.
From this quiet place you rise above the concern. Other days you dive deep to let the wave pass. With awareness, you start to notice that some part of you, untouchable, unchangeable, is traveling well on this incredible journey. She’s not here to fail. She’s not here to judge or defend. She’s not here to shrink back or charge ahead. She’s simply here with steady love and presence. In fact, she’s taking all the big steps just fine.
Jump on her back. Go for the ride. Laugh with delight as you gallop together up the stairs, through the doors, toward the uncertainty, right into your next big, wonderful, unknown step.
Take a step with us and join TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania’s Soothing Anxiety Challenge . Registration now open. Challenge begins Sept. 2.
Theresa Shay is the founding director of TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania, where she teaches weekly yoga and meditation online and trains others to teach TriYoga®. Each week, she shares wisdom cultivated from decades of TriYoga study and practice.
Learn more about her here. Theresa can be reached at Theresa@PennsylvaniaYoga.com. Find her on Instagram @theresa_of_triyoga for more inspiration and light.