Showing posts with label non-grasping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label non-grasping. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Your Future Self is Better Than You

People are naturally competitive... even when no one is around we tend to compete with ourselves. Yesterday's quote was all about this. It can be a major motivator, or it can be an anvil holding you down.

Generally yoga is considered non-competitive. Generally. There are asana competitions and there's many peoples tendency to eyeball the best person in yoga class wanting to have the ability to hold a textbook Utkatasana for minutes without a sweat. Humans compete - it's built into our genetics and instincts. If we weren't competitive the human race would've died out instead of the neanderthals. Competition is handy when it decides who lives and who dies. Its even helpful when you're trying to achieve a goal and you need something to help you do better today than 2 months ago. Competition drives progress.


However, sometimes that competitive outlook can weigh you down if you're not on top. If you're doing worse today than yesterday, or six weeks ago, or four years ago - your natural drive to want to be better than you think you were then is going to irritate and discourage you. It happens, but don't let it get you down. Just because you sat in painless meditation for 45 minutes yesterday doesn't mean you have to do it again today. Five minutes is just fine.

Let yourself be where you are today. Sometimes you need to compete with yourself on your ability to accept things as they currently are.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

A Dave of My Very Own

I was specifically listening to non-Christmas music a couple days ago and these lyrics jumped out at me while listening to my favorite Dave of all time. Dave Matthews Band - love em. Always have - Always will.

"...What I want is what I've not got
But what I need is all around me..." - via the song Jimi Thing.

I thought - how painfully accurate. Isn't this generally the case for most of us? Wanting whatever it is we don't have... while everything we need is right there. I could turn this into a whole yogi-thought post, but I think I'll just leave it there. Something to think on...


On another Dave note - I've always wanted to meet Dave. Instead, my brother met Dave. Turns out his now-ex-wife went to school with him at some point or something. They're apparently on hugging terms. boo... I want to hug Dave Matthews.

See there I go... wanting what I don't have...

photo obviously not mine: whose is it? *shrug*