In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, May’s theme is MINDSET.
Mindset is a collection of your thoughts and beliefs that shapes what you think and what you do. Some of us are great at telling ourselves to push forward, and others of us are great at total self sabotage.
In Carol Dweck’s book “Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success,” she discusses two different types of mindsets: A Fixed Mindset and A Growth Mindset.
The biggest difference between the two can be found in the word “yet.” A fixed mindset says something like “I can’t do it,” whereas the growth mindset says “I can’t do it, yet.” It’s truly in the name, when you have a fixed mindset you might believe that things just are the way they are, they cannot change. People don’t change, and no amount of practice can make you better, you are just born to be great at the guitar.
Growth mindset believes in purposeful engagement, not a fixed ability. With a growth mindset, you don’t have to prove to yourself over and over that you can or can’t do something, it is truly about the ability to learn each time you practice.
The best way to discover your mindset is through intentional movement and challenge. The yoga room is the best place to be in discovery. It’s like a lab, you can test and push yourself, use the same pose to experiment over and over, and figure out what you say to yourself in the process along the way.
What can you start to experiment, create, and innovate in the yoga lab? Telling yourself if you can’t do something, it’s that you can’t do something “yet” all while create purposeful engagement in your muscles, not just the ability to lift your leg higher or balance better on your left leg.
