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In response to the question = Isn’t there always some level of wanting to get good at practice? Why? The why you do, is more important than what you do? A true yogi, or anyone who would like to live in a better society...create a more enlightened society, needs to start with themselves. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Self inquiry is the highest form of maturity." I agree. Start asking your self the question, "why?" And if the answer is anything less than noble...then it's time to course correct. Back to the question above...if your mindset is that of one-up-manship, competition, or just showing off your awesome skills, you're actually diminishing and detracting...from yourself and your fellows. Instead of competition...try creation. Creating a better you. The ego will try to bring shades of gray into the answer of why? But truly, it can be pretty black and white. There is a part of you that knows the truth. Listen to that. Work hard...not so much to show everyone how awesome you are...but how awesome they can be. Become an example of goodness. There are way too many people out there trying to look good and it's not working. Be good. A high aim indeed...difficult at first...but with practice, it can become easy and your regular mode of operation. Stay True, JDS
In yoga practice, as well as in other activities and endeavors, when we achieve something or "get" something, we'll often say, "I did such and such today!" This is a mistake...whether we're talking about a difficult yoga posture, or a New York Times best selling book, the work was done way before the achievement. All of the weeks, months, and years of practice and work that came before "that" day, is what made it happen. Very, very rarely, are there over-night successes. Anything of value worth having or creating, takes patience and hard work. Michelangelo had this to say about the two... "Genius is eternal patience." and "If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." He clearly knew something that many of us are ignorant to...and, had an employer that we should all strive to work for.Stay True,JDS
At first it’s nothing. So say at first, you have no discipline. And you are told you need to be disciplined in a certain area to achieve a certain aim. But you are not a disciplined person so to speak…you have none. Like I said, at first it’s nothing.
Then comes a thought like, “I want to be a serious writer…I want to write books.” The thought is great but action then needs to be taken. Go to the desk, sit down and write. Now again…that’s nothing…that is not discipline. The next day comes…go to the desk, sit down and write. Still it’s not much…you’re not a writer…you’re not disciplined. Do it again the next day. Do it again on the day that you’d rather do anything but write. Keep doing it day after day, even when some days you write absolute shit.
Keep doing. Keep going. Six days a week at 4:00pm you go to your desk, sit down and write. After some weeks, you’ve become consistent and most days you look forward to it, but it’s the days you don’t feel like writing that are most important to see it through…just write something…anything!
Now something has changed…when friends call and want to go out at 4:00pm, you say, “No, I’m busy at that time, maybe later?”
Months have gone by, they turn into years, you’ve written hundreds to thousands of pages. You are now a writer. You now have discipline. You are disciplined. You have experienced what it takes…how it works, and now you can do it again and again in any area of your life.
Discipline is not something that you start with…not a gift that some have and some don’t…it’s something that’s created and built by our choices made. Discipline in short, is saying no to the things you like, so that you can focus intently on what you love.
Stay True.
~ JDS
I received this question at the end of class today = "Is it okay if I put my hands on the floor during Warrior III?" Absolutely! One huge thing that we're working on in Vinyasa practice is being able to adapt to the needs of the moment...the truth of the moment. Working to not be attached to a certain way of doing things. For example... I've just had you go thru a very difficult combination of postures and movements and you've become a little winded and now you're in boat pose...and I say, "If you've lost your breath catch it here." Wait what!? In boat pose? That's right. Perhaps you're boat is usually tip top...looks like a perfect V...yoga journal cover stuff. Can you adapt the posture, perhaps bending the knees, so that you can catch your breath? This requires removing ego from the action. Humility. Bravery. True confidence. Watch out though...ego is tricky...you may start adapting postures so that is appears to others that you're evolved. ;) Some great questions to ask yourself to evaluate your actions are... What am I doing and why? What am I not doing and why?Stay True,JDS
That said… We practice more so to achieve a state of Yoga (union or stillness), than do Yoga. What we do in class is use all of the Yoga movements, Yoga postures (Yogasana), and rhythmic breathing to cause our minds to be more calm, focused, and effective. To realize and begin to cease the constant (and many times negative) chatter going on inside our heads. Shakespeare said, “nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so.” This is very true. Through Yogasana and meditation practice we can begin realize, and stop placing so many of our judgments and labels on things and just let them be…not good or bad, just be. What a calm and peaceful life that would be? That is Yoga…much more than just stretching and working out. Of course, as a by-product of diligent Yogasana practice, the body will become in excellent physical condition, but the mind is the target. Our lives are the sum total of our thoughts. Yogasana and meditation practice allow us to see just what goes on in there, start to improve our patterns of thinking, and begin to respond better and better to life, therefore achieving Yoga (Union).Thanks for practicing!JDS
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