I am aware that my classes are intense, so once in a while the question pops up about whether it’s OK to feel muscle pain after a class? Well, it might just be an adaptation pain from years of physical and emotional holding which needs some time to digest and/or compromised biochemistry. Personally I rarely feel any pain and if I do I’m always slightly surprised as complete breath awareness usually prevents us from going beyond our physical capacity in the moment. Through embracing physical pain I have learnt to embrace emotional pain. I like to ask myself ‘what if everything is a gift?’ What if everything that comes to us is an opportunity to transform and grow? What if it’s a quantum leap to a new reality? There is a particular emotional pattern which began when I was a one year old which occasionally repeats itself. It comes through when certain people (some family members!) are pushing my buttons, but are actually giving me the opportunity to grow and heal. As I was not spiritually awake enough back then, I could never be grateful for their gifts and I would robotically react by reinforcing the armour around my heart, put on the automatic smile and move on. I called this my strong character mask and it was playing a role in life’s theatre until I eventually realised I was just running away from the pain suffered by my one year old self. These days I just close my eyes, meditate and start sending blessings and gratitude to the people I naively believed had been maliciously hurting me. No, they never did; they were like mirrors reflecting my unhealed wounds to help me be whole. I believe that however challenging the circumstances, we can always choose to respond with wisdom or react like robots.These days I open my heart to the Universe and say thank you for all the gifts. I feel free. I feel grateful. It’s a perfect day to stop building walls and start building brigdes. Love you.