Designing Your Life

I just spent the weekend in a two-day Design Your Life Workshop put on by the Handel Group out of New York.  If there is an area in your life that is needing a reboot, this is something to consider (or for you personal growth junkies like myself, a great bet too).  Much of the weekend was dedicated to the idea that if we are willing to work hard and get messy, we can live out our dreams (in fill-in-the-blank: career, romance, family relationships, money, you get the drift).  Our thoughts/inner dialogue have so much control over what we do in life and how we act, which naturally lead to whatever results we are experiencing in any given area of our lives.  Many of us devote a lot of mental energy to the thoughts that get in our way (e.g., our excuses, such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’ll never succeed at that”; that is, if we even dare to dream big in the first place).  This part of our brains is like a well-staffed office, nay think tank, with lots of excuses at the ready.  The part of our brains where our dreams reside, unless we are extremely intentional about it, looks more like an unpaid intern is manning the office (disclaimer – I heard these analogies from Handel group, I didn’t come up with them.  But they are too good not to repeat!).  The point: we need to attend to our dreams if we want to bring them to fruition.

What does this have to do with yoga?  A lot, if you ask me.  Yoga (and meditation) provides us with an opportunity to witness our thoughts with detachment.  Not that this comes easy.  It doesn’t.  But if we can see our thoughts with some degree of objectivity, we are in a much better position to exert some control.  To start nurturing our dreams instead of the excuses we create that stand in the way of them.