By Nora Reda
We come to this world equipped with an arsenal of abilities, an abstract reflected through our soul as we slowly awaken to our consciousness as children. Some of us sense a stronger impulse to do something, to become someone particular, more than others. Yet, only a select few seem to really fulfill their heart’s desire and blossom, often very early on, into something the rest of us look upon as a prodigy. Needless to say, we are all talented in one way or another. Our potential is unlimited also. How is it then that some of us are struggling with finding a true passion in life? Why is it so difficult for us, as adults, to figure out our purpose in life?
These questions have intrigued me for a while now that I am, at the height of my human journey, seeking to define. I wanted to be so many things growing up: an actor, a dancer, a popcorn maker, an archeologist, a zoologist, a zoo keeper, a vet, a psychologist, a writer – out of which I actually succeeded at one as I became a dancer and, later, a dance teacher for a while. But look at the selection of ideas that ran through my mind! Could I have become all of those things if I really tried?
Standing on my yoga mat today, running a bit late with practice and feeling pressure from it made me realize that it is the nurturing of an idea, any idea, that yields to our realization of it. Why? Because while I was feeling pressure, I dealt with it. The journey of the practice and my commitment to it was much more important to me than not being on time. This is the same way how our parents nurture (or sometimes sadly not nurture) us. Am I a very talented yogi? Well, it depends on who we consider a talent in yoga. I ask it differently, then: Am I an influencer? If I answer yes to myself here, what do I bese it on?
Remember the words build it and they’ll come? I believe it depends on the intention you build that thing with. The word intention implies that you somehow are in tension. To be intent means to be very attentive, eager, originating from the latin word intentus “attentive, eager, waiting, strained”; the past participle of intendere “to strain, stretch”. These words are all applicable to a practice that goes beyond something ordinary or usual, even comfortable. Your intention is what takes you further, like a slingshot that shoots an inanimate stone through space with a killer speed. These nuggets of desires we grow up with stay on the ground or fly through space according to how we nurture them and how we place our intention on them.
From a new vantage point, I can see myself as a young girl exercising regularly on the big carpet of our small apartment, longing all along for something deeper, flow-like, indefinably more meaningful than what I was doing then (kinda’ Jane Fonda inspired stuff), something like dance and gymnastics combined that I also feel moving inside of me with ease and a sense of pleasure. I longed for this not knowing of or ever hearing about yoga. So today I marvel at how I became a devoted yoga practitioner and teacher. I am amazed by the winding road that carried me here, and how of all those ideas I had as a child, I have become something that I put the most obscure wish into.
The question is then, how do we arrive at our life’s desire? We can sit there and think very hard on what we would like to do with the time we’ve got or we can just run around, do, and let it shape itself out. Or we can just allow. Allow and do. Do with intention and devotion. Do it with care and love. You are becoming right now what you care about. It is between two thoughts, it is in the process. It is in tension. It is also in the acceptance that you will never really arrive.
Nurture and receive. Live for the moments. Do with ease and skill. Love who you are!
