Expectations & Attachments

“Do not become attached to the fruits of your labor.”- During my 200-hour Yoga teacher training, my teachers would repeat this quote quite often. It wasn’t until after my training was over that I truly understood.

My Yoga practice began with deep Meditation way before Asana’s (postures) and to be honest, I didn’t even know meditation was a part of yoga. If I were too be really honest, I didn’t know the first thing about practicing asanas. Basically, I knew zilch about yoga :/ But I knew that somehow, sitting tall and quieting the mind to breath was speaking to me. Not with language, and I still struggle to find the words on paper, but it was something else. It was an intuition. A knowing. Some kind of faith, I guess.

I started the physical aspect of yoga because I heard it was great for runners. I’ve heard most westerners only refer to yoga for flexibility and I was guilty of it too. My hips were tight and my knee was taking a beating and I knew I had to stretch. LOL.

The first time was a challenge, but my focus on the body and breath cleared my thoughts. I found peace. Not a runner’s high, but a different kind. I was able to continue my tasks the rest of the day with an open heart, feeling less stressed. Ultimately, I practiced every day, and when a family member suggest I do what I love it was an instant lightbulb. I signed up to become a yoga teacher in hopes of helping others find their peace.

Fast forward to the end of teacher training, I got so caught up with resumes and looking for a place to teach before I even finished my training that I almost forgot why I began the journey. I lost myself in thoughts of the future. I became attached to the fruits of my labor, when in reality there isn’t a guarantee to anything on earth. I set up expectations and I tore myself down. This was all in my head of course.

I didn’t understand my anxieties until my teacher said something that resonated with me. She advised us to write a mission statement for ourselves outlining why we chose to teach yoga. As a teacher herself, she had the foresight of knowing one could become so overwhelmed that we lose our zest for the very thing we love and forget why we began our journey to begin with. Her statement took me back to my mission. (Thank you, Soo Yoon)

If you find yourself lost or disappointed, try to look from the outside in and ask yourself if there are any expectations you have that might be holding you back from happiness or moving forward. Are you blindly attached to your fruits of labor? Or are you living from the heart? The Bhagavad Gita (Ancient Indian/Sanskrit scriptures) teaches us to perform every action from the heart, fixed on the Infinite Supreme, and to have evenness of temper in success and failure, to which is the essence of balance. The nature of Life.

Namaste,

Azil Rose