What do you love most about being alive?
I was asked this question as I filled out a survey for a Kickstarter campaign I enthusiastically supported. (Check out Jade Beall’s A Beautiful Body Book Project if you haven’t already.)
I had just answered my name, address, and occupation and this was the following question: What do you love most about being alive? The intimacy of the question caught me off guard. What really struck me though, was how quickly I wrote an answer. I didn’t even think about it.
I love the effort that goes into growing and changing with intention.
It just popped out of my brain and into the computer.
And then I stared at it for a few minutes.
I have always loved hard work. That is what I loved about school, about being a dancer, and that is why I was so attracted to living in New York City in my early 20's. There is something so supremely satisfying about doing the most hard core thing all the time.
This tendency is something that has been shifting dramatically in my life this year. I am finally releasing my addiction to struggle, constant intensity, and hard work, (the kind that exists just for the sake of hard work).
That is why I had to stare at the computer screen, in surprise. The kind of effort I was talking about here was different. It wasn’t effort for efforts sake, it was quiet and grounded intention.
I love the effort that goes into growing and changing with intention.
I started to unpack the meaning of that, and this is what has unraveled for me: It is such an amazing gift to live a human life. A human life is filled with sadness, joy, trauma, irritation, boredom, love, and most incredibly, the capacity for change. Y'all have seen all the hot new science on the neuroplasticity of the brain, right? It is everywhere.
But as yogis, we don’t need western science to confirm what we have already experienced in our own lives and practice. With our human consciousness, we have the ability to look within ourselves and make choices about how we behave moving forward. Much easier said than done sometimes, right? But the ancient technologies our yoga/meditation/spiritual practice offers us gives us the tools we need to put some effort into growing and changing with intention. Lucky us :)
What do you love most about being alive?