View from the mat
Or how can I have me time if I don't know who me is?I'm sure if I was more flexible I would have actually looked at my own belly button.
Instead, I have been considering the very nature of myself by the dual mechanism of a social media breakfast and a yoga retreat. You could say it's been a bit dot om.
First Friday saw the Fatbuzz New Media Breakfast on the topic of managing your personal brand online.
The speaker was Jennifer Holloway of Spark Branding who went from being interesting and engaging to rather wonderful by revealing she liked listening to The Archers while drinking Rioja.
She talked about how you appear online. How your Facebook, Twitter, blog and all the other stuff are the firm handshake and carefully chosen outfits of first impressions.
She kicked off with the news that it is perfectly OK to have several different web personalities, as long a they are all genuine. So it is possible to be a mommy blogger, shit-hot businessista, cynical commentator on current affairs and good-time girly. All in the same person. Phew.
In fact, she said, there's no point in trying to be someone you aren't. It'll exhaust you and confuse people.
Then, 24 hours later and not half a mile away I was arse-up over a yoga mat on an urban recalibration weekend with teacher Jax Lysycia.
Jax is to yoga what Gok Wan is to making perfectly sane people get their kit off in public. Something of a rock star. Although lovely and approachable with it.
She kicked off talking about balance and ease and acceptance. Equanimity. Several times she said: "It is what it is."
And so it is. Apart from holding my legs in the air for quite a long time, the weekend was about finding what's right for me/you (depending on your perspective). She reiterated - you can't be or do what you aren't and can't. Same message, different forum.
Over three days in several different ways I kept hearing the message - just be yourself, do what's right for you. It was slapping me in the face (sometimes literally in the more complex postures).
But what if you aren't quite sure? Or if it shifts like leafs in the wind? Or it's been so long, you've forgotten?
No matter, she said. Stop trying to find it, the universe has the answer. Which might sound a bit "out there" but is actually just what I said the other day. We are all star stuff.
So there you have it. I am what I am and as soon as I know what that is, I'll let you know.