Self Appreciation

In keeping with last week's intention, this week we will explore the idea of self appreciation. It's a subject that may not appeal to everyone. In some cases, people may feel awkward about appreciating themselves. It may feel egotistical or vain to invest positive mental speak and feeling toward themselves. Others may feel this a simple undertaking, thinking themselves especially capable. Maybe others feel it a topic not in keeping with a yoga class.

Self esteem is an important part of everyones' life. It will strongly influence the quality of your life. Take time to be honest with yourself. How self deprecating are you? And where is the line between self deprecation and self defeat? How tight to you hug that line?

Yoga is a practical way to live in freedom in the world. It is a philosophy with techniques that bring to life the esoteric and intangible. Asana is more than exercises. It is a physical discipline that will allow you the ability to control your breath, with which you can control you energy, with which you can control your thoughts, after which you will know things you currently believe to be unknowable.
Most whom I know who practice yoga don't have such lofty goals. They just want to live less stressed out lives. Well, yoga can do that too.

One of the ways that you can be successful in your life is by believing in your abilities. This is not vanity. It's practical use of your mind. It's honest. Maybe you can find an objective place in your mind from which to see your own capability.

Perhaps a more accessible way to have self esteem is through the belief that we are of two essential parts. One of the material and one of the spiritual. If it gives you courage to think that you can overcome the worldly because you are of the universe as well, then use it. Make decisions rooted in the knowledge that you are so much more than the flesh and blood you currently occupy. You can do anything as a universal being.

Yoga philosophy has several different groups which think different things about the make up of the universe. The one thing they agree in is that there is a level of existence beyond the physical which we can have access to. Yoga practices are the way to do it.

Whether your goals are to experience samadhi or to simply live happier, practice with the same enthusiasm and belief in yourself