A Labor of Love

I have no excuse for not sharing. I have been writing, just not sharing.

Rather than dwell on that, I figured I could just jump right in to what's been going on for me lately and how yoga ideas help. (Speaking of yoga, I will be teaching new classes with Visalia Park and Rec so stay tuned!)

I talk about this idea of Dharma Peak as the mountain we are climbing in our yoga practice. I talk about the climb, the work, and the effort we put in while trying to get where we are going. Here's a secret, I think that I talk about these concepts because they are easier for me than some of the others! It's easier for me to think about what I can do than try to figure out this idea of non-attachment. Easier than even just sitting still. I'm always trying to do something.

Which is fine. But... This "doing" could be done as a labor of love. 

I’ve been working, searching, and studying. I have come back around to this yoga idea of pain or hard work (tapahs) as a means to purification. What I have realized it this. Accepting the hard work is one challenge. Understanding and awareness of the reason that we accept it is another.

The hard work, the struggles, the challenges we put ourselves through in the pursuit of something better would be more beneficial to us if our intention was to do so out of love of ourselves.  If we think that we are not good enough and that is our motivation, we are only setting ourselves up for more disappointment. "All grief comes from expectations." – Amma

"Doing" because we are not good enough goes against this other yoga idea of underneath everything we are perfect and whole exactly as we are. "Doing" because we love ourselves, now that's another angle. A slightly new one for me. I get love. And I get work/effort. I just haven't always put them together. How can work come from love? 

I am not talking about work as in what we do as an occupation, although that is a good place to start. If you think about work that you do because you have to versus work that you do because you love it, do you see a difference? The work in either case is not the variable, our ability to come from a place of love is what is changing.