Svithe: Living Beyond

First, an explination of svithe.

As a yoga TA I tend to watch the class and try to keep people from doing things incorrectly and hurting themselves. Tuesday night I noticed two beginners who, throughout the class, immediately went to the hardest poses rather than doing the beginning or intermediate modifications. It never quite worked out for them. They made an attempt at the pose, tried to hold it, couldn't, fell out of it and got frustrated. I wanted to go back to them and say, "Do your own practice. Don't try and do someone else's practice. Work with what you have and where you are, not where you want to be or where your neighbor is."

That made me think of a talk at conference (was it President Monson...?) about living beyond our financial means. It's a talk we hear all the time. Stay out of debt. Remain solvent. Be a saver, not a spender. Set boundaries and work within them. If your life circumstances change, re-evaluate and set new boundaries. Don't try to one-up the Jones'.

Tonight I started thinking about living beyond our means in all aspects of life. So often we try to do more and be more than we can give at that moment of our life. That's when we stress out, cry, have breakdowns, hurt ourselves exercising...or is that just me??

Western thinking is very competitive. Most of us feel like we must be the best, wear the best, have the best, and achieve the most RIGHT NOW. Often we don't allow ourselves a starting point and time for growth, but we expect immediate perfection. Really, to be the best, wear the best, and have the best means that we must compare ourselves to others. Comparison then prompts that little pride button inside us...

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.” C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity (1960), 95

That darned pride. I have to admit, I hate mediocrity and because of that I think I lend myself to being perfectionistic (which I've come to learn is a close cousin of pride...) I try to work hard at whatever I do. When I first started yoga I was very frustrated with myself that I plain stunk at standing balances. I couldn't hold my balance for more than a few seconds in the beginning. It angered me that I was so bad. It didn't matter that I was quite adept and a natural at arm balances or back bends, I wanted to be good (or at least not horrible) at everything immediately.

After listening to my instructors, I came to look at it differently. I needed to stay inside my body, have my own practice and not worry about how good or bad I was in comparison with others or even with where I thought I should be. I was where I was regardless of how much I didn't want to be there. Really, the most efficient and long lasting progression comes gradually. We master one thing and move on to the next step, not the last step.

Yes, we must be diligent, but we must also respect our bodies and live our own lives. We can't keep comparing our lives to others' houses, boats, bodies, lives, abilities, talents etc.