Recently I became certified to teach yoga in the city of Ubud. If you follow along on Instagram, you already know this was quite the adventure! To say this experience was absolutely life-changing is putting it lightly, I like to refer to it as life-making. My mind is in a completely different place than it was 6 months ago and I wish I could send all of my loved ones on this journey. Unfortunately, I cannot do that so I plan to share my learnings with you and I hope they can positively transform your day-to-day as well.
The Art of Detachment
Detachment was by far the biggest personal journey I was on during my time at yoga teacher training. Once I understood how attached I was to stuff, things, ideas, opinions, etc., I was able to really take control of my life and just live. We spend our entire day, everyday, forming opinions about everything and we depend on it to either make or break each and every moment. Once I finally detached from things I could not change, I really saw my life begin to improve.
I will give you an example. You go to a restaurant and are seated outside, you are with your significant other and plan to have a nice dinner and quality time together. You order an iced tea and salad. After you order your iced tea you spend 5 minutes wondering if maybe the iced coffee was a better option. During your time sitting outside you determine it is entirely too hot, a few bugs have landed on you and you’re not a fan of bugs. Your iced tea comes and it is not as cold as you normally like, yup, should have gotten the iced coffee. Your salad arrives and the dressing is not flavorful, you clearly picked the wrong restaurant. Your evening has gone from 100 to 0 due to the horrid temperature, bugs, bad tea and gross salad.
We have all spent our lives creating opinions about everything and when things are not just how we like it, it ultimately ruins the good in simple things. You have now made what would have been a nice evening out into a complete mental mess. You have focused all of your energy on what you think is not perfect instead of just simply being and living in this moment. You have missed the beauty of the water in the lake sitting next to you. While focusing on all the bugs you don’t like, you missed the lady bug which landed on you. Instead of being grateful for the people behind the counter who made your tea for you, you have been complaining about the temperature of your drink. Let I remind you it is a luxury in this world to sit at a restaurant and order a glass of tea. You are surrounded by someone you love, are safe, immersed in the beauty of the outdoors, enjoying great conversation, and you let the temperature of your glass of tea ruin it all. Ask yourself, does my glass of tea really matter? Does it actually matter? No.
This scenario may sound so silly but once I actually started viewing life this way, I realized how many moments I was ruining. Let go of how you think life, you, what’s around you, and your glass of tea should be like and simply enjoy the moment. Your life will flourish.
So, how can you apply this to your everyday life? It is simple, stop creating an opinion about every single thing which crosses your path during the day. I am not saying when you are sitting inside and are freezing you should not turn the AC off. What I am saying is when you are sitting outside and have no control over the temperature, do not ruin a perfectly good evening because it is too hot for you. Detach from your mindset of what it should feel like outside and be present in the moment. Do not let external factors which you cannot control, control you.
So much love to my Akasha Yoga Family who shared their incredible wealth of knowledge with me.