Friday, June 08, 2012

on the mat | be kind

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This quote was from my Yogi tea last night and got me to thinking. I have always been a rather impatient person and my number one pet peeve is tardiness. But learning patience seems to be a big part of yoga asana (pose) practice. You won't be able to do so-and-so pose without being able to do the pose before it proficiently and the pose before that, etc. etc. If you try to hurry yourself along and force your body into a movement it's not ready for, you end up hurting yourself.

So what does patience have to do with compassion and kindness? I, like most people, tend to take things personally (someone being late means they don't value my time) when, in reality, it's all about the other person (they were late because they got stuck in traffic/forgot their phone/ran over a squirrel/{insert any number of reasons that have nothing to do with me}). So one personal goal I have for my 42nd year is to take a deep breath, put myself in the other person's shoes, and try understanding instead of assuming. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one!

4 comments:

The Small Fabric Of My Life said...

So true.
I like to think I am a kind, compassionate person but I can easily get irritated by people being late (I am always early) and my husband saying things that I take a different meaning to.
A timely reminder that great qualities need practice too.

Rebecca said...

I definitely struggle with patience, especially at work. It is something I am working on this year.

Lisa - respect the shoes said...

I'm a people please by nature, so you would think I'm all about forgiveness for other people, but I think about getting "undervalued" all the time. I really need to either learn to speak up or let it go!

Anonymous said...

A virtues I definitely lack, yes,take a deep breath ..