on a bus headed to nyc for the day. first the gift show to find fabulous eco-friendly goodies for the studio boutique, then a yoga class, next some bookstore browsing, finally to moby's teahouse teany, and then onto the 11pm bus back to dc. oh, and i assure you there will be some cupcake-indulging in between places to go! i think i could live on cupcakes. is that wrong?
this weekend was jam-packed with days starting at 8am and ending at midnight. i hear weekends are for restoration and i'm hopeful that i will experience that soon. day off on valentine's day. woo-hoo! i digress. during this exciting weekend, we had a guest teacher - alanna kaivalya - in town from new york to teach our advanced teacher training group. i was lucky enough to join her all three days. my favorite part was the discussion of patanjali's yoga sutras - always a treat. i had just come from a meeting and sold-out class at one of our studios where some yogis were quite disappointed that the class was full and there was no space left for them to practice. it was yoga day usa (put on by yoga alliance to raise awareness of yoga) and it drew many new students to the studio.
with the discussion of the sutras (wish i could recall the exact one, but i don't have my notes on the bus with moi), the notion of compassion to all came up. compassion and love to all. yes, even those who are not nice to you. i was still a bit jostled from an interaction earlier that day where i practiced my usual "kill 'em with kindness" mantra, yet it had lingering effects. it's important to remember the "nothing others do is because of you" bit from the FABULOUS book the four agreements by don miguel ruiz. this discussion allowed me to let go over the feelings i was holding onto and to instead practice compassion.
i used it this morning, too. my cab was to arrive at 7am. usually i get a call 5-10 minutes before the time to let me know that the cab is en route. i carried the phone around with me all morning - to the shower, to the kitchen - so i wouldn't miss the call. it never came so i continued making my rose tea, donning additional accessories, pulling together my planner pad and then i got a call at 7:05 - "did you call a cab?" "indeed!," i replied. "well come down." and he hung up.
um, good morning to you, too! i headed out and asked if he was the one who called. yes, and he had been waiting 10 minutes. i asked why i didn't get a call that he was en route as i normally do. he said i should have come out to see if he was there. in that moment, i decided to let it go.
dirty little secret, i LOVE being right. it's a personal mission of mine to always be right. think it comes from being the little sister of a bully big brother growing up. can you say still 5 years old? sometimes we have to release being right, and just be.
as i got out of the cab, we had a lovely interaction about why the bus i was taking was great (cheap + WIFI). i let him know that i was sorry that i hadn't thought to come out to see if he was there. after all, he had been waiting (not a favorite pastime of mine) and probably growing impatient while i was simply brewing some rose tea wondering when my call was coming. no right or wrong, but it is important to recognize that compassion is a better route for all involved! try it this week when a challenge arises: think compassion over being right.
1 comment:
What a beautiful post. Thank you for sharing. I really needed to read about choosing compassion over being right after some recent frustrations in my life. To deal with fear lately, I'd chosen to be very pissy, withholding and immature. I finally let that go and have been sobbing and realizing how very scared I've been. And you know what? Having that compassion for myself by letting myself cry and having compassion for others by not pushing them away anymore is so much better.
The vegan coconut cupcakes at teany are my absolute favorite. Oh. My. God. So good!
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