I had to laugh at this pic my young son drew last week, according to him my morning hair lasts all day (well technically that’s not morning hair then is it, but I digress….). I’ll let you in on perhaps my best kept secret. I hardly ever “do” my hair in the morning, it seems like such a waste of time to me and I hate it.
So, a few years go, I asked my hairdresser if she could cut my hair in a way that I could just get up in the morning with my “morning hair” and get away with it all day without doing anything. Mission accomplished and the funniest thing about it is my hair is always what gets the most compliments from people, even strangers say “wow, I love your hair!” It’s astonishing and I honestly think it’s just my attitude about my hair rather than how good it looks that gets these comments. I think my hair just really “fits” with me, my persona and my lifestyle and people notice that because honestly, sometimes it is an absolute mess when people say this!
I never thought I’d be writing a blog about my hair, in fact this is the most attention I’ve given my hair in years.
What this has all taught me is that going my own way on this and making it fit with my own lifestyle has made it easier, made me happier , contributed to me being a nicer person, less stressed & stopped me from spending time on something I hate. Often simplifying something that is causing you unnecessary stress can be the answer. The true challenge is in recognizing the things that are causing us stress in the first place. I’m sure I went on for years about how I hated doing my hair and getting ready for work in the mornings. Now I throw on a pair of yoga pants, run my fingers through my hair and off I go! So simple, yet has taken me years to simplify it down.
I feel like this is a good example of “Svadhyaya” or “Self-Study” which is one of the “Niyamas” or practices that help to build a spiritual seeker’s character. I’ve always thought that serious study of the yamas & niyamas (the 1st and 2nd limbs of the 8 limbs of yoga) was meant more for yoga teachers than students. However, I can see how conscious self-study is definitely a part of a weekly yoga class once you have been practicing for a while. Like many things we discover, it is often seemingly by accident! The good news is you don’t have to do a lot of study if you don’t want to as your yoga teacher has already done it for you and is weaving the yamas and niyamas into each and every class for you and you can take it in by osmosis 🙂
If you want to know more about the 8 limbs of yoga, we run yoga workshops in Perth each year on this topic for yoga students that are interested to delve a little deeper into the philosophy, history and underpinnings of yoga.