Inner strength and the growth zone

A little quilt I made in 2003.

"You never know how strong you are

until being strong is the only choice you have."

                           

                      -- Bob Marley, musician

 The theme at the Y this month has been inner strength, so that's the topic of this post. Today's yoga wisdom from Jillian addressed that, keying off of the warrior poses.

Jillian does a Warrior Two pose.

"Warrior pose battles inner weakness

and wins focus.

You see that there is no war within you.

You are on your own side.

You are your own strength." 

And that leads me to this nifty graphic that showed up on Facebook recently:

Most of my life, I've tried to stay in the comfort zone. I don't like change because in my innately anxious mind, change can signal danger ahead. But as you know if you've been reading my blog this year, my well-planned comfortable life has thrown me a huge curve ball. 

I rapidly shot from the comfort zone to the fear zone, then I got a grip and shifted into the learning zone, educating myself about legal and financial options, for starters. Now I think I'm in the growth zone! I've set new goals and started dreaming about new creative possibilities. (So much fabric, so many stitches to explore!)

A picture I took along the trail on my recent trip to Oregon.

"Go within every day

and find the inner strength

so that the world

will not blow your candle out." 

            

                       -- Katherine Dunham, dancer

Have a colorful weekend