I couldn't get papayas today so I had to settle for melon.
My heart was really set on those papayas.
I also would have preferred silence to meditate, not the sound of housemate vacuuming!
Often we cannot get exactly what we want, or prefer, or what works best for us. As a yoga practitioner we say all the time that practise is not about perfectionism, but what about OFF THE MAT?
When you start to perfect your yogi lifestyle, say becoming vegan, buying organic everything, being healthy, looking after yourself etc we start to project these judgements onto others that do things differently. We judge the guy using plastic shopping bags, those who drink cows milk or eat meat, those who do not work out or drink or stay up late, even those who aren't so good at caring for their basic needs. That's gotta stop, but in the beginning this happens as naturally when we discover improvements we become obsessed with sharing, preaching and 'converting' everyone.
What we need to put in the place of judgement is respect, understanding and compassion. We also need to lower our standards if our perfect choices are not available, it's ok not to be perfect 100% of the time. If you receive a gift you don't like don't turn your nose up at it, if you have to meet or eat in a venue that doesn't suit you relax, if you have to practise later in the day or skip it dont punish yourself with guilt, if you have to eat pizza and chips because you are on your period so be it. As yoga deepens and expands our awareness we notice everything and we get so fussy!
Letting go of attachments is part of the yoga process, but attachments always remain. To be entirely unattached would give us a god/ sadhu like status so go easy, we are mortals. Do the best you can and be soft with your hearts, minds and egos.
Inspired by a recent post by my dear old friend Vale who found there was available in soap in the toilets, and words of Ram Dass scrawled in my notebooks-
What often happens is that we strip away, give up this and that, and instead grab onto that and this. It's too uncomfortable to have nothing to cling to, and so we substitute a new set of attachments fir the old ones... and we start clinging to spiritual leaders and forms. It's all gotta go, everything must go
- Ram Dass, Paths to God, Living the Bhagavad Gita
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