I wish I could give out Ashtanga Yoga merit badges— today’s would be “I was kind to myself. ”
Practicing yoga with a contented mindset matters a great deal— really, what we’re doing on our mats is exploring our inside world to find a place where we can be self-satisfied. Cause you know, there isn’t any person out there that can satisfy you except you.
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In order to do that work, we’ve also gotta maintain enthusiasm and heat around practice. Balancing that with our own self-satisfaction is hard— how are we to want to improve while also feeling like we’re golden just as we are?
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By identifying the kind of satisfaction and the kind of work that makes us feel more and more free. The kind that doesn’t make us suffer more. The kind that helps feel satisfied and enthusiastic not just in practice but in our life.
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In DC, a lot of folks take a push-hard get-results mentality to their work and their personal lives. They’re so miserable and don’t know why. They don’t want to be. So they push harder in all the ways— including on their mat. Maybe it’s not just dc.
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What’s sort of funny/poignant/ironic to me is that the place in which folks could stand to push extra hard is that whole “being kind to yourself” angle. Laying off from pushing so damn hard is actually way harder than literally pushing hard— and it builds a ton more heat and breeds a ton more joy, contentment, and cleanliness of mindstates.
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But doing the less “hard” thing (even when it brings them all the deep goods folks want way down inside) is so impossible that people push-push-push until they break. And then they wear their wounds as though they were honorifics on a sash. What if we could bring that same intensity to our self-compassion?