Moving into Deeper Feeling | Kat’s Movement Mission

Movement for Modern Life founder Kat Farrants’ weekly column, where she shares her thoughts, tips and tools for living a bigger, brighter life, moving and living more. Don’t forget to tune in to our weekly facebook live chat with Kat every Friday at 1pm for more!

How do you feel? Although we may be asked by others, several times in a day maybe ‘how are you’, and we normally come out with a stock response, it’s just the done thing – and most of us are way too busy and overwhelmed with our crammed schedules to really think about how we are feeling.

I’ve been doing the Transformation Challenge this week with Zephyr. And after week one I can say that I already have a very different relationship to how I feel.

On Day 1 of the challenge, Zephyr asked us to name how we were feeling. I’m going to own up here. I was feeling lousy. I didn’t want to practice. I was just going with it because it’s what I do. And in a fit of rebelliousness I said out loud  ‘I feel stiff, achy, I have a headache, I’m exhausted, run down, I’m feeling sick and I feel like I hate yoga’. Yes, it was a pretty bad day.

I went through the motions like a disgruntled teenager, full of hatred. I couldn’t tell you when it happened, but after about 12 minutes of yoga, I forgot that I was feeling terrible. And by the end,  when Zephyr asked us to name how we felt, I was able to say ‘I feel light, my headache is gone, sickness is gone, my body feels free – and most of all, I just felt so grateful that I had yoga to make me feel this way’. And I went on to choose another class to practice because I was feeling pretty great. You’d have thought that after practicing for over 20 years I’d be more enlightened and less grumpy in general, and yes, you’d have thought that I really wouldn’t be surprised to know that yoga is a tool that I can pull out of my took kit when I need to feel better in any way.

This reminded me that one of the benefits of practicing yoga is the swift check–in before practice – how are you feeling right now. This is a really useful practice. To actually take a moment to name exactly how you feel – when do we get to do that in everyday life! Don’t forget to give yourself a full body and emotional scan and name exactly how you feel before class! It can really result in interesting revelations.  One benefit of naming exactly how you feel is that you become more closely acquainted with yourself, which means that you’ll start to make decisions which better fit you and your life. The other fabulous benefit is that you can sit and name exactly how you feel after your practice. For those who ponder about whether they’ll have the commitment and motivation to practice yoga at home every day, for me, the best motivation you can ever have is to recognise just how different you feel after your practice.  That’s the only motivation I’d ever need.

So go on, take the time today to sit and ask yourself – how do I feel. Then do your yoga practice, and check in again and prepare to seal the deal on a committed, daily practice.

And I’m delighted to say that our Transformation Challenge is the most popular challenge we’ve done yet! Over a hundred of you started the challenge when I did, on Easter weekend, and I can see that more of you are joining daily – the rest of you can join in anytime! Don’t delay starting the most magnificent journey of your life!

I’m also really thrilled to report that Movement for Modern Life, and I were named in this months’ Vogue! I was named as the ‘Fresh Face of Wellbeing’ and MFML as the ‘Netflix of Yoga’! I’m beyond delighted that our little secret tribe is getting the attention we deserve. Massive congratulations to the team!

With love
Kat xxx

Watch Kat’s weekly Facebook Live video below for more thoughts on this, and don’t forget to tune in this Friday at 1pm on the MFML facebook page for the next installment!