What does it mean to be visible?
In this world? In your work?
For many people, it means being seen by others. It means having a platform and followers and fans; likes and hearts. Affirmation of and exposure for your work. Reinforcement that you’re on the right track. Recognition of your contributions.
All of these are certainly forms of visibility.
But there’s a pre-requisite.
Visibility isn’t just about being seen by others.
First, it’s about seeing ourselves.
More specifically, it’s about how we learn to see ourselves.
This is where a yoga practice comes in.
Not just a home practice, or following a YouTube video, but a practice with a teacher who can see you from the outside.
What is Revealed on the Yoga Mat
On the yoga mat, we are revealed. All of our physical asymmetries, our habits, our patterns.
How we hold ourselves. How we move through a pose, through adversity and through joy.
The places and ways in which we overwork and overdo, and the places in which we don’t work enough.
The places where we are vulnerable and those where we are strong.
The ways we protect ourselves and the ways we leave ourselves too open.
On the yoga mat, we are revealed. All of our physical asymmetries, our habits, our patterns.
The places where we are too rigid and stiff and the places where we are too loose and lax, where we lack boundaries.
The places where we are fluent and where we lack fluency.
On the yoga mat, we reveal where we are caught in time, where we don’t have enough time, where we have too much time.
We reveal whether we are selfish or magnanimous.
We reveal where we get caught up, and where we flow with ease.
What is revealed on the mat is a metaphor of what we do in our daily experience.
How we move the body on the mat is how we move the body through life. Where we get stuck on the mat is where we get stuck in life.
On the mat, we are fully visible and vulnerable. All is exposed.
How We Learn to See Ourselves
The mat is where we can start to become conscious of it, where we can start to rewire those patterns.
But only with the aid of other people.
On our own, we can’t see where we are askew or misaligned. We can’t see how our past overcomes us and restricts access to our potential.
We cannot see our own blind spots.
We cannot see our own blind spots. We need the support of others to help us see around ourselves, see past the limitations of our own perspective, and get over ourselves,
Not even with a mirror. Especially not with a mirror.
A mirror only reflects back our own perspective, our own frame of reference. It can’t tell us if our frame of reference is askew, if the corners of the frame don’t quite measure up.
For this we need support of others.
Teachers. Community. Coaches.
We need the perspective of others to help us see around ourselves, to see where our corners don’t meet, where our frames are askew.
We need others to “have our backs” — sometimes quite literally propping us up — so we can access our potential.
We need others to support us at our edges so we can find the middle: our center, our presence.
With the right support, the yoga mat is the place where we can learn to be vulnerable, to soften our protective shell, so that we can meet ourselves — perhaps for the very first time.
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