Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Honesty as a policy?
In Yoga, there are the Yamas, or social ethics. The first being Ahimsa (non harming) the second being Satya (truthfullness).
One of the hardest things I can think of is the act of being totally honest with yourself.
I have to admit, I like to delude myself quite often.
It works both ways. Thinking I am better, smarter, or cooler than I really am. In other words forgetting that my sole purpose on the earth is to serve others.
But that is already written about regularly.
Strangely, it is much harder sometimes to be honest about where I are limiting myself. Where I believe I am incapable of something or bound to a label of myself.
Take for instance the label of procrastinator. It had become such a belief at times that I truly was that person, until I started to learn who I really was.
We create who we are each day. When we truly live in the present moment, now, this breath, we can't be a label. This moment hasn't happened yet. We have never been here before.
Take for instance the approach to an arm balance or deep thigh bending posture where we "know" we have weak arms or weak legs or something else like that (even believing we are strong because we always have been). When we approach a pose as we were and not as we are, we rob ourselves. We enter the posture with a predetermined outcome and we will work to satisfy that belief. Neither stretching ourselves to grow nor being compassionate with ourselves when we need nurturing.
What this means is that to get the most out of life we have to engage in what we are doing at that moment. See what is possible. Who are we really? If nothing had ever happened before in our life, what would be possible this moment?
It is called a Yoga practice because we get a chance to fracture these beliefs every time we come to the mat.
I practice as often as I can and reap the benefits in all other areas of my life.
Practice yourself and see.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
