photo by James Sutton

Someone inspired me to try and see the beauty in my yoga students.

At first I found it very difficult—when I teach I look for things to correct. I look for someone who isn’t aligned or someone who’s pushing themselves too hard.

Even though I see myself as I kind and positive person, I didn’t see the beauty and I wasn’t looking for it. I was only looking for things to correct.

1. I started to change by taking small steps. First, when I went down to correct the student, I looked for something beautiful in that particular student. This changed my own attitude a bit and in my experience the student handled my corrections better.

2. My first change really made me think how I could gain and give even more with this new point of view, so I decided to tell the student I was correcting some of the beauty I saw in them before correcting them. This made an amazing change because instead of being corrected and maybe feeling that they received negative attention, they were praised and got positive attention.

3. Number one and two made my classes so much better. The students started to contribute with a new and more loving atmosphere. That inspired me to start telling the students what beauty I saw in them regardless of whether they needed to be corrected or not.

4. These three changes made my classes so much more popular and I had to open up for more classes. This made me so proud and happy and I wanted to let this change spread to my entire life, so I started to watch people on the street—seeking the beauty there, as well.

I recommend all to try this. What you are looking for you will find. It is not possible to be negative or angry when you seek the beauty in other people or situations.

5. The last thing was the hardest—to see the beauty in myself. I think that we are always our own worst critics and I am so good at pulling myself down. Now I try to see the beauty in me. I may not have the perfect body or be the perfect mother and sometimes I screw things up, but when I look for the beauty in me there is so much more there than being perfect and doing everything right.

So be your own kind of beautiful and know that you are my idea of beautiful.

Gitte Lindgaard lives in Denmark with her husband and two daughters. She has a degree in Nutrition and Health and specializes in empowering people to be aware and take responsibility for healthy living. Gitte practices yoga and after recovering from whiplash, she began teaching yoga to people with disabilities. She believes in doing something every day that her future self will be proud of. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook or her blog.

Editor: Jamie Morgan

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