Juicy Stuff from a Yogi

Points my yoga teacher made in yesterday's class that I thought were really awesome:

-- Selfishness leads to struggling.....and struggling leads to selfishness. This really hit me bc I'm at a place in my life where I'm really making it a point to be more attentive of the needs of people around me, instead of me me me me me. Moments in my life when I was really struggling, I was pretty selfish, and when I was selfish, you got it - I really struggled.

-- Yoga starts off as a selfish practice, but then it becomes a selfless practice. Sometimes you need to be selfish so you can become more selfless.

-- There are 2 major emotions we spend our time in: Love and fear. I realized I spend a lot of my energy being fearful about things. So, I decided to focus on the love of all things, especially those where I am fearful.

I first practiced this right there in class: when I was on my yoga mat, I noticed how fearful I am while doing handstands in the middle of the room, and that fear holds me back, I can't seem to balance. And it makes me feel unhappy. As soon as I realized this, and place my intention on how much I LOVE doing handstands.....guess what? I kicked up and stayed up. And what was so interesting about it was the change in my energy: it was like the dark, fearful cloud had lifted. I was lighter. I wasnt worried. Nothing was standing there in my way.

I totally believe that what we yogi's do on our yoga mats is a metaphor for what is going on in our lives. And an opportunity to work with whatever is going on with us while on our mats, so that we can carry the changes and reflections into every day life. For instance, when I am feeling all over the place, unbalanced and overwhelmed, my balancing poses are off. I am wobbling around all over the place. When I am rushing through life or crazed with work and personal things, I often find my breathing is labored. When I zone out in class, I'm usually zoning out more in my day to day and I know I need more yoga and to relax.

One area in my day to day life where I know I can practice this switch from fear to love is: with auditions! I realized this is one area of my life that I pay way too much attn to my fear of it, instead of the love - the love of acting, the love of working on craft, the love of working on a character, the love of booking a part and working!

And remembering to simply have fun. If we are not having fun in life, what's the point, really??

;)