Health Dish - Dish-Houston

Entries in examine your true motivation (1)

Examine Your True Motivation

The Joy Yoga Center mascot Tiki the Dog is a very thoughtful little pup. We have posted the canine's musings here on the Health DISH before but this one was particularly thought provoking. Hope you enjoy and join us for a few Yoga classes at Joy Yoga Center soon. - DISH

Tiki, The Joy Yoga Center MascotGood morning from Tiki, your favorite Yoga-Dog! This week I had the opportunity to do a little exploring and learn about some really cool techniques for letting go of my limiting beliefs and raising my consciousness. What I'm learning has had a profound effect on a huge part of my physical experience, i.e. begging for treats!

As most of you know, I tend to spend a lot of time and energy at the studio dancing, spinning in circles, staring at you in a weird and creepy manner, whining, and whatever other tricks I can come up with to entice you to give me treats. And although this is a fun little drama to play out, it can get exhausting! Not only that, but the happiness I get from achieving the treat is fleeting - I find myself wanting another one pretty quickly.

I'm realizing that I had created an entire belief system about treats making me happy. But what happens when you are in yoga class and aren't there to give me treats, or even when (gasp!) I've run out of treats? How was I supposed to be happy then? Well, since I was exhausted from running and spinning around and using every trick in my book, I thought I might as well try this "changing my thoughts" thing!

And guess what? When I observed my thoughts, I noticed something interesting: I noticed that I have spent years perfecting ways to attain treats without ever examining why it was I wanted these treats so badly. What would happen if rather than trying to come up with bigger and better tricks to perform, if I just changed my thoughts about treats? What if I chose to believe that I don't need the treats to be happy?

Wow, what a relief this was! I felt my little Chihuahua body relax and an amazing peace wash over me as I realized that I didn't have to do or achieve anything in order to be blissfully happy! That joy and peace reside within me and are, in fact, what I am made up of.

I'm sure each of you have felt this way, too: that you have to rush around, fill your life with tasks and chores and general busy-ness in order to achieve certain goals. But when you really stop to notice your thoughts and beliefs, why is it that you feel compelled to accomplish these tasks at all? Is it because you think that in doing so, you'll arrive at a place that makes you happier or more worthy of love? And if so, is this belief system a fulfilling one? Well, probably not if you're waiting to achieve this, that, or the other thing before you feel happy and at peace.

So how about taking a lesson from this Yoga-Dog and changing your thoughts, rather than frantically running around after the treats? When we start to examine every belief we have and realize that these beliefs aren't "reality" but are merely thoughts we've created, we can begin to choose different thoughts. Rather than thinking something like "I need to have a certain job, relationship, or body type to be happy and to be loved," how about choosing a thought like "I am pure joy and pure love, just as I am!"

This is fantastically liberating! No longer do we have to rush around, trying to perfect ways to achieve the treats in our lives, we can relax and be joyful and perfectly at peace, just as we are!

Namaste,

Tiki

Posted on Monday, October 22, 2012 at 11:04AM by

DISHhouston in dish, dish-houston, dishhouston, examine your true motivation, health, houston, joy yoga center, yoga |