What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?
Resentment
Perfectionism
Busyness
Being right
Clutter
Filling up lists ...
Next year I want to explore spaces. The space between breaths. The nothingness of having little. Lists with only one thing on them. Or nothing on them. I want to let go of my superhero complex. My desire to be all things to all people.
I want to focus on being happy, instead of being right. That alone will shed the resentment. I want to breathe more. Deeply. Expand the ribs, expand the belly. Relax the brow. Just be. Here. Now.
A week ago a doctor told me, "Let NOTHING stop you from going to yoga." So, still in my cast, I went back to class. Four times so far, and in three of them I've been the only student, benefiting from one-on-one accommodation to my limitations and needs.
Why do I so often neglect my own needs? Why do I tell myself that I have to stay at my desk, because I am so busy?
The world will not fall apart if I take an hour in the middle of the day to go to yoga. If I spend 20 minutes in meditation before my commute. In fact, the world will be a better place if I inhabit these spaces, if I welcome the gaps. I don't need to add things to the list, just so I can check them off. Less is, in fact, more. More peace. More love. More of the good stuff.
How will this change my life? It already has.
2 comments:
Hashi, reading this has already changed my own life. I have been yearning for yoga. I live too far away for a class, so I have been pondering how to gain the discipline and practice here in my home...which is still a messy-dusty construction zone....so hard for me to relax inside these walls.But reading this post from you, my tender heart, has given me the nudge and inspiration to do so. I admire your list...go forth and be at peace.
I have been pondering this post and our last conversation, and yet find it hard to distil how I feel and what I want to say about this. I'm with you in wanting to release from my soul the things that I do not want in my life. Will that then make space for the things that I do want, yet don't look hard enough for? It's more than just simplifying one's life, isn't it? It's about working on the things that are truly important. I think that so often we concentrate on how we can physically (I mean in actuality) simplify our lives, but this thinking should be about the soul. I'm happy for you that you have this new message about not letting anything get in the way of your yoga.
I need to think some more.
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