My Yoga Journal Day 9: You Don't Have To Suffer To Get Results

Yoga teaches me to slow down, breathe, and find pleasure in my daily activities. These are three movement principles taught by Angela Dinunzio. I remember the first time she gave us permission to slow down, link breath with movement, and find ease while in a pose - I felt liberated beyond description!​

A traditional yoga class focuses on the balance of sukha and sthira, effort and ease. I often honed in on the effort part and figured the ease would come after I worked hard enough in a pose.
 
This is how I viewed life for much of my short time here on earth. If I just work hard enough, then life will surely become easy.....AFTER the hard work part.

Not to diminish the respectable quality of working hard, but why don’t we equally respect those who possess the quality of finding ease? I love having these people in my life, reminding me to be present, eat a cookie and smile. And slowly, I’ve become one myself!

I live in a college town, so I frequently hear conversations about degree plans and consequent life trajectory. Before teaching a yoga class, a student asked me what my degree is in and I replied “nutrition” to which she replied “what are you going to do with it? - I guess you could get a job here or there.” I smiled as I thought to myself “This is my job. I’m here now. I’m not on my way to something else. I love what I’m doing. This is my ease.”

I wish I had known and practiced this while I was in college. I tended to focus on the suffering caused by this assignment or that project or my incompetent partner - rather than finding ease and comfort somewhere in the university, slowing down to make sure what I was learning was in alignment with my beliefs, and breathing long enough to realize the beauty of being alive.

Luckily I have the chance to be present now and so do you.  Find the ease now and let go of the work and consequent reward model of thinking.  Sometimes, we can just receive to the reward, easy peasy.​