The importance of self work in the service field

You cant help anybody until you help yourself.

Take a moment and let that truly sink in. How often have you given advice to someone in an area that you yourself are still working through? How many times have you offered a hand, an ear, a solution to other peoples “problems” and you have yet to check yourself in those same areas?

Too often for most of us. And usually its completely innocent right? Offering a friend relationship advice or recommending how someone should confront someone who is mistreating them. All seemingly harmless gestures because you care, right?

Wrong. You cant help anybody until you have done the work yourself! Now if your are honest that the issue is something that you too are still actively working through or towards that’s one thing, but offering suggestions on things you have yet to check yourself and your ego on that’s detrimental.

We see this a lot in the service field. Folks offering “healing” when they themselves have yet to fully sit in the discomfort of their own challenges, face them head on, and continue to work on them. We all know anything of great struggle is a daily journey not a one time fix.

Working as a yoga instructor and space holder it is my responsibility to hold the space and show up but I cannot do so if I am not showing up for myself in my own personal life and pursuits. How can I guide you through the process of letting go when I still carry around attachments that weigh my mind, body, and spirit down. How am I do be there for your when I am not there for self? I cant.

We are all working through things, we are all challenged, we all break sometimes, but it is in the shattering of ourselves that we put together the pieces to become stronger, wiser, and more fascinating than before. Yoga is a vehicle for processing, confronting, and letting go, but it is self that has to do the work. I can practice day in and day out but until I am ready to surrender to the universe and reality that somethings are not meant for me and find comfort in letting go I cannot help any of my students through that journey.

So to my fellow colleagues in the service field I bow to you, see and honor your journey for this path we have embarked upon is difficult and trying at times but remember take time for your healing, acknowledge your growth, and make time for self. You’ll see with this dedication to yourself that your ability to effectively hold space while practicing non attachment will make a world of difference.

Peace and Love

-Memoirs of a Firebird