Second Chances

Lolo Jones is an Olympian bobsledder heading to Sochi next month but most people know her name from a different sport altogether.  As a track and fielder, Lolo was winning the 2008 100 meter hurdles in Beijing when she tripped over a hurdle.  She ran the same race in London and finished 1/10 of a second behind the bronze medalist.  She picked up bobsledding as a way of training and became a front runner for being chosen on the US bobsled team this year.

A guest on the Biggest Loser, she told the contestants that if she hadn't picked herself up after the first failure, she didn't know where she would be right now. 

"I'd encourage you", she said, "to dig down deep and know if you push past all the things your mind is telling you you can't do, that you can achieve something great."  

I love The Biggest Loser because every episode is so inspiring. The show's theme is about second chances.  In tonight's yoga class, every student will have the opportunity to do each pose twice!  That way, if your ego-mind tells you how crappy your first fold was because you couldn't touch your toes, you have a second chance to tell your mind, I may not be able to touch them but I can see them and that's enough!  

But, what if you are having one of those moments on the mat where you can't seem to snap back into your yoga mindset?

Contestant Marie from BL said, "If you start something and finish it, you're a winner."  Did you hear that?

You cannot allow your mind to convince you that you had a bad yoga practice. For one, I don't believe that is even possible and, two, if you made it to your mat, pushed back into a relaxing Child's Pose for an hour and went straight into Svasana, you still won.  You won well needed time for yourself. You won restorative time for your body to relax and renew.  You won 60 minutes well spent with your breath.  Your knees in Balasana (Child's Pose) for an hour might have something to say to you but when is the last time you spent an hour having a conversation with your knees???! So, you are still a winner!

There are a multitude of quotes on second chances but here are the three that caught my eye:

"Sometimes, life gives you a second chance because just maybe the first time you weren't ready."  Unknown Author  

"Life offers you always a second chance, it's called TOMORROW..." Unknown Author

"All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else." Mae West

I thought the last one was funny but it has a good lesson encased in its humor.  A second chance does not mean you try to do things over as they were or as you did before.  I saw some poem online begging an ex to give them a second chance so things could be as they were before.  No, no, no!  And why would the author want things to be as before when she already knows how that turns out?!

When one of the BL contestant's was going on and on about how she has never felt good enough and that's why she couldn't jump onto a box, Jillian told her, "It's your story and you're sticking to it. You have to tell a new story."

Tell your own new story on the mat because the yoga lessons on the mat extend off the mat into life.  Do you always go to pigeon from down dog?  What other ways could you get there?  Or, are you not able to get into pigeon from down dog yet continue to mentally beat yourself up because you think you should be able to? Why?  Again, how else could you get there?!

I apologize if I bore everyone with my Biggest Loser quotes and analogies. I am just so inspired by all the contestants and the wisdom of the trainers.   But that just made me think of something else one of the contestants said on the last episode... she was referring to life before BL and life 12 weeks in at the Ranch, where most are between 70-105 pounds lighter.

She said, "In my past life..." I knew she meant before the show, but it made me think of reincarnation.  Your current life is your last life's second chance. So make every day important and memorable; not just the ones with the ups and downs.