Today MANMAKER SPORTS had the privilege of participating in a 2 hour workshop with Irene Pappas (a.k.a. on Instagram as Fit Queen Irene). The workshop was time was well spent as Irene shared with us her knowledge, experiences, perspective, truth, and humor. This particular workshop was focused on inversions. We all wanted to learn more about how to float effortlessly and get "up" there to do the fun stuff like handstands. There was definitely loads of valuable information, exercises, and step by step guidance to help achieve a strong and balanced inversion practice. The physical work helped build foundation, was useful, and fun, but the philosophical perspectives that Irene shared were just as useful. Irene emphasized that there is beauty and peace in recognizing and accepting the present moment. That is, meeting yourself with friendliness and kindness where you are right now on the yoga mat, and off the yoga mat. Irene challenged us to think about the present moment even though we all were reaching for some "better" version of handstand and some "better" version of ourselves. It was a brilliant moment when Irene pointed out that even after you are able to float effortlessly into a beautiful inversion, you are still the same person as you were before. Nothing changes. So, love who you are and what's going on in this moment. Grounded or flying, you're still you and that's pretty great.
