Impermanence & Mental Resilience

February felt like the air I was breathing was the same consistency of honey.

And not like the smooth honey in the squeeze bottle.

The thick, raw stuff at the bottom of the jar behind the stale tea leaves you never drink.

Life moves like this sometimes—dense, slow, heavy. And yet, it moves.

Yoga has taught me that, luckily, nothing lasts forever. And also, sadly, nothing lasts forever.

A common thread between us all is that we tend to hold onto the positive experiences and run from the negative ones. Because they’re hard. Of course, we would run. Why would we stick in the hard?

But what if we could sit in discomfort without immediately seeking an escape? What if we trained our minds the way we train our bodies—building resilience one breath at a time?

Building Your Mind

My mind = a muscle.

If I really reflect… many of the hardest experiences I’ve gone through weren’t physically taxing. My quads and glutes weren’t being stressed (well, maybe for a short 45-minute workout).

But mentally, things sucked. That’s where the real challenge was.

And yet, I’ve also known times when my mind felt strong, clear, unshaken. So the question becomes: what was I doing then that helped? And what do I need to do now to build back up?

The answer is the same as in any strength-building process: repetition and consistency.

You. Just. Keep. Going.

Yoga: Learning to Sit in Discomfort

Yoga has taught me that discomfort isn’t something to run from; it’s something to observe. The moment I step onto the mat, I’m practicing patience, awareness, and endurance. Holding a deep posture, resisting the urge to fidget, staying present when my mind wants to wander— these small moments mirror the challenges of life for me.

While in a difficult yoga pose, we don’t immediately collapse. We breathe through it. We soften what can soften and strengthen what must hold. That’s exactly how we build mental resilience off the mat too.

For me, it looked like this:

“Hey, maybe the air feels thick this week and that sucks, but at least I’m still breathing.”

That awareness alone was a lifeline. Not everything needs immediate fixing—sometimes, we just need to witness it, accept it, and trust that the tide will shift.

That’s the metaphor of Sea Coaching.

Impermanence

And now here we are, in March—with a little more sunshine in the day. A reminder that even the heavy, sticky moments don’t last forever.

The thick, raw, stale honey is now starting to melt. I’m even adding it to my tea and into my smoothies.

Breathing feels smoother.

Existing feels lighter.

The beauty of life is in its impermanence. The highs, the lows, the stagnant in-betweens—all of it is fleeting. But when we develop the strength to meet each moment fully, without resistance, we stop getting stuck in the hard and clinging to the good.

We just be.

So let’s soak up this season while it’s here, shall we?

And when the air thickens again as it always does — we’ll know exactly what to do: Breathe. Observe. Keep going.