Today is, literally, the first day of the rest of my yoga life. I have just returned from the Living Yoga Program teacher training intensive. (I’m now 100 hours closer to a 200-hour Yoga Alliance/Yoga Registry teaching certificate!) These 10 days were the greatest gift I have ever given myself. The intensive was a powerful, informative, and transformative event. We had 90 minutes of yoga every morning, studied teaching the asanas in afternoon sessions and listened to yoga history, philosophy, business, and lifestyle lectures in evening sessions.
One of the big themes of the training was goal setting and how to set goals appropriately so that you can stay in flow. Goals that are too big result in fear. Goals that are too small result in boredom.
My goal today is: for the first 24 hours after returning home, to be aware of, and follow, my inner-most desire. My true desire. Yes, going to bed early last night was exactly what I wanted to do. Yes, taking 20 minutes for yoga this morning was exactly what I wanted to do. Yes, taking time to read some of the 200 emails that piled up is something that I want to do. Yes, writing a blog article is what I want to do. Yes, making notes of tasks that I want to take care of later (pay bills, contact my customers, laundry, grocery shopping) is what I want to do now.
The key skills I am exercising in selecting these goals are to listen to my inner-most voice, not second guess it, and then move into that desire. This is not the voice that wants to slouch and watch TV. This is the voice that wants to watch the birds flitting about in my front yard (What a pretty cardinal!). I may want to slouch in front of the TV later. But at this moment, right here, right now, I desire exactly what I am doing. Feeling my way through this first day is my only goal.
Moment by moment, hour by hour, I make goals that keep me in flow. Who knows, perhaps in one of these moments I will choose to think about goals for the next 24 hours, the next week, the next year, the rest of my yoga life. And when I do, I will choose goals that keep me in flow. In order to remain above boredom, I will choose goals big enough to challenge me and increase my skills. In order to remain out of fear, I will choose goals that are small enough that I will feel the joy of success. Staying in flow… and flowing in the direction set by that inner-most voice.