October Musing

Last month I was writing about beginnings and intentions. September being the start of the school year, we associate that month with beginnings and resolutions. I hope you all had some fun beginnings, set some meaningful intentions, and now are ready to settle into October and the rest of the Fall. 

This month, circling back to intentions, I wanted to share one of my favorite quotes I not only use in yoga classes but I try to live by as well:

" Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; for it becomes your destiny." - Upanishads

It is a profoundly true and humbling quote. Our mind is full of unfiltered thoughts every minute of the day as we are surrounded by "noise" in our lives. We worry constantly, as expectations weigh us down. From family, friends, and society. There is an image out there what happy, accomplished, successful is and we thrive to achieve it no matter what. We study, we work hard and once we reach one goal, suddenly there is something else out there that family, friends, and society tell us we need to maintain happiness and satisfaction. And it becomes a vicious circle of "overscheduling", "overworking", "overdoing" and "overworry" unless we are able to pause and quiet the outside world down to check out what truly makes us a success in this life. Then focusing our energy fulfilling those dreams.

"Watch your thoughts; they become words...". But how can we even attempt to watch our thoughts when there is so much noise out there and in our minds?  We need to set aside time to reflect and contemplate, to find mental stillness. We need to cultivate silence. There is too much chatter in our minds so we need to unplug at times from the TV, iPad, smart phones, newspaper, the radio, family, friends and society. We need to learn to be comfortable with silence, which is another way saying to be become more comfortable with ourselves. Yoga and meditation help us with quieting the mind and finding this comfort.

Once we start to deepen our understanding of our true Self, our deeper rooted intentions and desires, the chain of actions described in the Upanishads quote will bring us that happiness and contentment. Just think of a situation from the recent past when you were reacting to something negative, and you reacted too fast... Maybe you thought of anger, you perhaps chose hurtful words and upset someone you love or respect. Then try to imagine how the situation would have been if you were operating from that deeper understanding of your Self, and the sense that everything links together. You probably would not have gotten angry so fast, used different words and the situation could have been resolved in a more satisfying manner. Does it sound familiar?

That is what this quote and yoga teach us. Finding our true intentions within our hearts is not easy. But once you do, your words, actions, habits will reflect it and you will have a bright destiny.