We went to the lake for a week. It was my first time leaving the studio and boy did I learn some things, some good, some not so good. But I think I would be missing the point if I didn’t learn the lessons.
🌲 Leaving a business to go out of town is like leaving your kids with a sitter. You worry and fret and it’s all you think about if you’re not careful. Try, try to leave the business behind or whatever it is, try to be in the moment.
🦟 You can try to be “enlightened” all you want (I certainly don’t think I am) but when the mosquitoes are swarming your feet you may still lose your shit. Don't let the yoga world spiritually bypass you into thinking you can't get frustrated.
🛶 I cannot control anyone else’s moods, what I can control is how I react to them. I maybe need to brush up on this skill.
🪵 If you have the right people on your side and you ask for help the world can be a more enjoyable place, you don’t have to do it alone.
🐿️ Even if it is your dream job, you still need to take a break once in a while (as mentioned above, stay in the moment).
🍄 It’s okay to fail and it’s equally as okay to change your mind. Just because opening a yoga studio was the right thing to do in April does not mean it will be the right thing to do in December.
🦉 Remember what sparks joy for you and do that as often as possible…don’t wait a full year to paint a rock, do it today. Get on your bike and peddled like the wind, smile and feel joy. Joy is as important (if not more) than productivity.
🍃 Just because your on holidays does not mean that your body (especially your stomach) doesn’t need to be cared for properly. Take care of yourself so that you don’t have to recover from your holiday. Eat so you feel good, get enough sleep, sit in the shade and move your body.
I’m sure there is more, but these are the heavy hitters.
The more yoga I do, the more I learn in school; the more I am getting to know myself better, the more I am listening to these lessons. My younger self would have let the weather, shitty moods of others and stomach trouble ruin my week and leave me bitter. Now I can see that there is learning in it.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I lost my shit, I got mad. When the mosquitoes were swarming and a certain somebody was acting childish I was not my best self. Now that I am away from it, I can see the lessons that I needed to learn. This learning and digesting of lessons has come after so much time of working on myself; Like I said, younger me wouldn’t have seen it this way.
It’s funny that this is coming up for me right now because I am reading a book called How Yoga Works by Geshe Michael Roach and they are talking about exactly this, learning the lessons so that you don’t keep reliving crappy situations. I can choose to be like the petulant child and not listen to the universe or I can slow down, breathe, reflect and choose a different path; either way the universe is going to ensure that you learn the lesson.
Choosing the same behaviours over and over again and not learning the lessons is creating grooves, in Sanskrit these are called Samskara. In some traditions it is believed that you will keep reliving these lessons until you understand, and therefor we are already born with lessons we need to learn (and didn’t from a past incarnation). In other traditions there are set Samskaras that each incarnation needs to learn and always will no matter which life you are on. These lessons, these Samskara will make themselves known, whether you ignore them or not.
Actually, it's funny because there was a cooler at the lake that we sticking into the hallway and I think we all stubbed our toes on it, more than once. The cooler needed to be moved and rather than moving it we were hurting ourselves trying to ignore it. The cooler was going to teach us a lesson whether we ignored it or not.
I guess all of this is to say that a week at the lake with all the stuff taught me a few things and for that I am grateful. It wasn’t the holiday that I wanted, but maybe it was the holiday that I needed. I get it now.
Comments