Look for Glimmers

I am working with a coaching client who shared a common struggle about having trouble getting excited about things that they usually enjoyed. So I assigned GLIMMER homework to my client. I assigned it to myself last week as well and to all of my students on the mat. 

Glimmers are the opposite of minor annoyances.They are the moments in your day that make you feel happiness, joy or gratitude.As we train our brains to pay more attention to these glimmers in our everyday, our brains get better at noticing them and they happen more and more.

As I introduced this concept on the mat it became a practice in noticing the small joys. It was not about the big poses or the achievements, rather the transitions, the chance to take a rest and restore, and the strengthening and lengthening that became the focus. This training in the mind on the mat was practice for off of it. 

Personally with my “assignment” off the mat I observed that I began to pay more attention. I was walking in to teach one day and I heard two birds communicating in the trees. I stopped to listen and it made me smile. I felt more gratitude for the parking spot right in front of the restaurant I was heading into and for the fact that it stopped raining right when I needed to get out of my car to teach. It became a bit of a game to look for glimmers and I definitely found more joy in the everyday. I plan to continue this “homework” through the holidays and I hope you will join me.