Can defining yourself one way stop
you from changing, growing and succeeding at times?
We always define ourselves one way
or another; with our likes and dislikes; with things we are good at, and things
we can’t do; and so on and so forth. At first it seems like all these
definitions help us to have a stand, have a place on earth, and in society.
However, if you look closely you may see that sometimes all these definitions
just limit us.
What if you
have defined yourself as someone who doesn’t like theater, and one day you go
to see one and you like it. Then what happens? Or you define yourself as
someone who doesn’t like a certain kind of food, and one day you accidentally
eat and like it. Then what? Do you embrace that change or do you call that
experience as an exception to the rule and keep holding on to your
predetermined definitions? Do you even deny that you like the theater you say
and not even go to see another one in order to prevent yourself from experiencing
anything that might contradict your self-definition?
For a while
I have been working on doing a tripod headstand (Mukta Hasta Sirsasana), where
you put the top of your head and your two palms on the floor, forming a
triangle shape, and lifting your legs all the way up from there. I have been
doing Sirsasana (headstand) for while now, but for some reason tripod headstand
hasn’t come so easy to me. I have been working on coming up from Bakasana (crow
pose), and Prasarita Padottanasana D.
Even though I have been trying it for a while, I was only able to get my
legs up only a few inches off of the floor. There was something missing; maybe
core, maybe the connection between pressing my hands down and activating my
core. I am not sure. I kept up with my daily practice, and just tried to come
up to tripod headstand a few times a week. Last week, again I was trying to
come up to tripod headstand and my legs felt light, and they just easily
started coming up. I was surprised. My legs just kept going up. But all of a
sudden I came down. I brought my legs down. What happened? Haven’t I been
working for this for a while now? Why did I bring myself down?
Apparently
physically my body was ready. Whatever was missing before was present. However,
when I was working on getting my body ready, I neglected one thing: I wasn’t
ready mentally. I had conditioned myself to the fact that I cannot do this
pose. So, even though I was trying and attempting to do the pose regularly, I
was just accepting the fact that I won’t be able to come up all the way. When
the day came, and my body was ready, due to all the practice, I wasn’t mentally
ready yet, and had to bring myself out of the pose. I didn’t try to get in to
tripod headstand again that day, or the day after. Only a few days later, I
gave it another try, and I came up all the way. I was in the pose, and I was
enjoying it. I came down, and I went
back up again a few more times. I was ready to accept the fact that I could do
the pose. I was ready, mentally and physically.
Sometimes the way we define
ourselves block us and prevent us from growing, and from experiencing different
things. Even if you are working on something, you may just keep yourself away
from actually reaching it, because you are so used to thinking that you will
never get there, and you will only keep trying. Then, what’s stopping you from
reaching and getting what you are working for is not the circumstances or
external facts, but your own mind, and your own fear of actually getting it.
You may not be able to do a
headstand today, but you are not a person who can’t do a headstand ever. You
just can’t do it today. Everyday is a
new day. Sometimes it is better not to define yourself in one way or another.
Accept yourself the way you are today, but don’t let any kind of definition of
yourself or definition of anyone else to get engraved in your mind. Allow the
room for yourself and others to grow, and change. Don’t be the one to prevent
yourself from growing by defining yourself one way or another. Sky is the
limit, and even that is not.
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