Practice and All Is Coming

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois once said, “Practice and all is coming.”  We can apply this idea to yoga practice, to working for non-profits, to our jobs, and to our relationships.  The point here is that we need not worry about the outcome.  If we just do our practice, wholeheartedly, what will come will come and we have done our parts.   Given that non-attachment brings us closer to our natural state of bliss or enlightenment, that effort to simply practice, regardless of the concrete outcomes of the practice, brings us closer to our true selves.

Today, I was reminded of this as I participated in a 90 minute vinyasa practice, led by one of my fellow teacher trainees, and then taught my 90 minute practice session.  Looking at these two experiences from the perspective of the immediate, neither was everything I might have hoped it would be.  Katie’s class was great, but the ongoing problem that I’m having in my right arm made some of my poses feel sloppy and/or uncomfortable.  And then, in the practice I led, I learned that I am not ready to teach immediately after taking a class.  My head was in the “follower” space instead of the “leader” space and I felt pretty discombobulated. I also realized that I would rather have more pages of notes with bigger words, or less words on the page but bigger – basically, I need to be able to see my notes without my old lady glasses on 🙂

And yet, even with these problems, I’m glad I came to the mat.  I am glad that I did my practice.  Because the practice itself is good for me, and so is being in these moments where my expectations and reality are clashing a little and needing to push myself into letting go of the expectations.  It’s all a practice –  all of it.

Namaste,

L