“When I find myself in times of trouble…” As the wise Beatles said, “Let it be.”

I practice “emptiness” during some of my meditations and I find this to be very helpful both on and off the mat. The idea is to realize that your perception guides your reality. As we label things whether or not they are objects or even emotions, those thoughts come directly from you, subjectively.

For example, have you ever been in a situation (maybe even a yoga class) where you felt less than ideal? Sometimes it behooves us to just get through class and chalk it up to a loss; however, I would consider approaching this differently. If you decided mid-class that this was actually an amazing class that made you so happy and joyful, the end result would be entirely different, as opposed to bleh!

So what’s stopping you from changing your mind? People have tendencies to not like change. I don’t particularly like change, but realize that there will always be change in this world. So even change for the good is sometimes a hard journey in itself. Our egos disable us through stubbornness, and we also project our emotions onto other people. If you felt like a peer had slighted you in some way, why not set an intention of compassion for them instead of harboring ill feelings. Hold space with the idea that maybe they could use your understanding, and you might find that what you once felt that was negative, has now transformed itself into a positive!

You feel better; you “let it be,” and did something MORE – not only did you release yourself from an uncomfortable state of mind, but you’ve grown as a compassionate person. This just shows you that you have a choice to pick and choose your battles through mindfulness. This isn’t apathy and this doesn’t give you an excuse to be complacent. But this may help you, as it has helped me, think about different ways of approaching, evaluating, or perceiving your life’s facets.

~Namaste~ BC