This post is inspired by my friend, the brilliant and incandescent Linda Coletta, owner of Blackbird Yoga.

(Also, inspired is actually a synonym for stolen.  PotAto; potAHto.)

I wasn’t there when she taught an entire yoga class using, “Tell your mind to shut the fuck up!” for a theme but I wish I had been.   I would have totally touched her lotus feet.

I always feel most at home in tantrika-ville so I’ll qualify that, for me, the best reason to tell my mind to shut the fuck up would be because it’s not telling me the truth, not telling an empowering narrative, not advocating for me, not serving, and is instead wallowing, blaming, clucking about falling sky and impending doom, and generally up to old, self-deceptive tricks.

My inner rogue vigilante–who has trained in a secret village on a Himalayan mountaintop–and who tells my mind to shut the fuck up, looks something like this:

Imagine the possibilities:

Mind:  “Take that risk and you are going to wind up impoverished, alone, naked, and living in a cardboard box on the side of the road without any teeth because you can’t afford a dentist.”

Rogue Vigilante:  “Shut the fuck up!”

 

Mind:  “It’s not really all that bad.  Maybe you should just maintain the status quo…”

Rogue Vigilante:  “Shut the fuck up!”

 

Mind:  “Why not just turn the alarm off instead of getting up to write that book?”

Rogue Vigilante:  “Shut the fuck up!”

 

Mind:  “Maybe you don’t still have Celiac Disease.  Maybe it was all a mistake.  Maybe you actually can eat that slice of pizza…”

Rogue Vigilante:  “Shut the fuck up!”

 

Mind:  “So-and-so just does that because he/she has too many responsibilities, is confused, is going through a hard time.  He/she will eventually see the light, come around, and treat you the way you want to be treated.  Tolerate it for now.”

Rogue Vigilante:  “Shut the fuck up!”

 

Mind:  “Why even bother finishing this book?  It’s never going to get published.”

Rogue Vigilante:  “Shut the fuck up!”

 

Like that.

PS:  with very heartfelt thanks to The Handel Group who is teaching me how to tell my mind to shut the fuck up.