Set Higher Standards by YogiRavi

Tomorrow I am heading to Montana for more Yoga Teacher Training. This is the second part of the training required for Baptiste Power Yoga teachers (“Level 2″ Teacher Training). I’ll be offline the entire time. Will post an update when I return in 10 days!

The problem with getting caught up in thoughts about the future is that the future always looms larger than reality. Objects, emotions, fears, thoughts, etc….all seem magnified when you ponder how things might be, as opposed to how things really are.

This is big problem.

It keeps you from doing things out of fear of failure. It keeps you from experience things out of fear that you might not live up to your own fabricated expectations. In actuality, fear is a very poor indicator of how things will actually turn out.

You can try your own experiment to prove this in your own life.

Next time you are fearful or nervous about doing something, make note of the fear…and do it anyway. Once the activity or situation has come to pass, write in a journal how the event went, compared to your expectations. Was the fear warranted?

In my own experience, for every case the fear was a false indicator. Disaster never occurred. In fact, I see a strong reverse-correlation. In situations where I feel fear, the outcomes often leave me feeling fulfilled for having done something worthwhile, new an exciting. Now, I seek those situations out.

Fear is no longer fear, it’s an opportunity to experience great new things.

Think of the last time you made an excuse for why you couldn’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t do something.

It is in those moments that you are getting caught up in your stories about why things won’t work out. Too short, too fat, too poor, too busy, too young, too old, etc. The stories have little to no basis in fact, other than the fact that you made them up, but they govern your life all the same.

It is just so much easier to explain away something and justify why it can’t be done, than to venture a chance at it and risk your ego getting a little hurt.

The paradox of all this is that the very stories that you create to defend yourself are the same stories that  preventing you from truly living. That is to say, they keep you from experiencing life in the moment, and growing, learning and truly contributing beyond your means.

Learn to identify your stories when they arise. It is the first step in creating space between who you really are and what your ego says you are. Over time, the stories will lose their grip and the real you will shine through.

(Baron Baptiste and I on the final day!)

I re-entered my orbit this week, after a wonderful week of yoga followed immediately by a few days of business meetings. Baptiste Level 1 Teacher Training was incredibly challenging, in all the right ways. Physically, emotionally, mentally.

A few key distinctions I picked up from this week with 142 amazing yoga friends:

• Your body can go farther, longer and harder than you think.
• Your attitude and outlook on life will determine your reality.
• The most important question we have in life is “Who am I?” Ponder this daily.
• Approach every moment with an “empty cup” and the world will fill it with more that you’ve imagined.
• Our “stories” have run or lives in the past, but the future can be different.
• Teaching in fun and I have an gift for doing so that must be shared.

I head to Level 2 Teacher Training in a few weeks (in Montana). Round 2 will focus on even more “inner work,” that is to say, improving our ability to be present and teach from our hearts.

Tomorrow evening I head off to start my Level 1 Teacher Training in Baptiste Power Yoga. I’ll be away for about 9 days, in the Catskills (upstate New York, near Albany) with no access to a computer. This means no blogging.

I’m looking forward to this training and whatever may come from it.

Talk to everyone when I return!

Namaste,

Ravi