Leap

By Emma Docherty

Every month, I lift 3 cards from my Angel Oracle deck; two cards acknowledge my present self and a third card acts as my challenge for the month ahead. This month’s challenge card was L​eap of Faith,​ and it got me thinking a​lot a​bout how often we cultivate faith in ourselves.

So I asked around. I talked to friends, family and even looked inwards. Pretty quickly I realised just how little self­ faith we have! It’s as though we have developed a default setting to doubt our capabilities. Take our yoga practice for example; how often do you find yourself doubting that you can achieve a complex a​sana or even touch your toes? How many times have you heard people claim “I could never go to yoga, I’m not flexible at all.” when the reality couldn’t be further from the truth! And of course it isn’t just on the yoga mat, we doubt ourselves in all other areas of our lives. But why?

Patanjali explains to us in the Y​oga Sutra t​hat unless we work on having faith in ourselves, we will be unable to transform. If we can focus on practicing and cultivating self­love, self­respect, and self­faith, we can experience love and happiness in abundance. Looking closely at the words used; w​ork, transform, practice, cultivate, we are reminded that our lives are a journey towards a destination and that we should e​xperience t​hat journey to the fullest. Faith leads to courage and courage leads to love.

I fully encourage you to pay attention to how many times you doubt yourself in the next few weeks and focus on replacing that doubt with a positive message to yourself. Y​ou are enough, just as you are! T​ake a leap of faith as often as you can; attempt that pose you’ve been avoiding, hold it for just a few seconds longer than you think you can, push yourself that inch further, and most importantly, congratulate yourself when you do. I hope you will find it as liberating as I did.

I recently read a wonderful Japanese saying. It goes;

Fish live in streams

Birds nest in trees

Human beings dwell

In warm hearts.