I commonly hear students say that yoga has changed their life. I can relate, it has changed mine and continues to change mine. The true goal of yoga is Self-realization. This means realizing who we are beyond all the attachments of the mind. The yoga texts describe our true Self as being of the nature of unconditional love and infinite bliss - not the worst things to aspire to;) As I move further into my practice I'm continually made aware of more and more things that I am attached to. Letting go of our attachments requires courage. I was recently faced with a decision that I was both excited and terrified about and experienced a familiar lower mind state of swirling dread and analysis paralysis. I allowed my body to feel the emotions that were arising within it, I cried, I wrote, I stepped up my meditation game and asked an empty room for guidance then I was reminded to pick up an old book I love - Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. I immediately opened the book to the chapter on "How to Make a No-Lose Decision". This beautiful chapter suggests an exercise of writing all the POSITIVE things that could happen from each alternative. It helps reframe the mind from focusing on all the things that may go wrong to all the things that could go right. After I was done I had a page and a half of positives from choosing the scarier route and 3 bullet points for the less scary route:
-It will be more comfortable
-I will save money
-I can keep living the way I have been for the past 7 years
It was very clear that the "scarier" decision provided more opportunities for growth. I chose to let go of my current comfort attachments and dive into the scarier choice that would force me to step up in new ways.
I hope 2020 is a beautiful year for all of you that helps you move past you fears and closer to the beautiful light that we truly are.