YOGA FOR IMPERFECTION

Life is messy and we all make mistakes, but by embracing imperfection, we can begin to accept all parts of ourselves.

- Rachael Coopes

When I think about "the big bang" or how the universe came to be, I picture some kind of enormous explosion. I imagine total silent darkness and then a cacophony of loud, uncontainable luminosity. The very name suggests that the nature of being is not something that comes in a neat, ordered package.

Rather, to exist requires a level of chaos that no matter how hard we try, we can't control.

If we want a big life, make space for mess

The yoga philosophy supports this notion. When Arjuna asks Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita to show him the universe, Krishna opens his mouth and obliges. But the vision of creation and destruction is too much and, though Arjuna feels at peace with the beauty of existence, he is overwhelmed by the power and disarray of it all. He begs Krishna to close his mouth and return to his more pleasant, human form. Life can sometimes feel like that, like the more we grow and learn and take risks, the harder and messier it becomes. But that's the deal. If we want a big life, we have to take big risks and fail. We need to be prepared for the ride to be wilder, the road to be rockier, with no perfectly paved route laid before us. The more we desire from our lives, the more we must welcome imperfection as a crucial part of the package.

Non-attachment to results