Imagine that: Only 20 percent of success is the mechanics of achievement; the other 80 percent come from your psychology. That idea has stayed with me ever since I heard it, because I can really see how true it is for everything in life. The "how to" element isn't the problem. It's how receptive we are to growth that really determines how far we can go. It all comes down to whether we choose to play small or big, whether we become instruments of peace and power or vehicles for pain in this world.
The reason it is so difficult for us to change is that we focus too much on the microcosmic steps, or the "program," and not enough on changing the perspective that landed us where we are in the first place. Deep and true changes come from the inside out, not the other way around.
We can try all different kinds of techniques to transform ourselves, but unless we address the underlying structure, we are just moving the pieces around. We haven't made any lasting changes just by saying affirmations, or going on a diet, or superficially altering our habits. We've addressed the symptoms without going to the root.
Affirmations change the thoughts but not the thinker. Diets change the eating patterns but not the eater. Willpower holds the negative actions in check for a little while but does not ultimately change the doer.
The physical aspect of power yoga will transform you body -- of that there is no doubt. And who doesn't want a more powerful and peaceful body? The real question is do you want a more powerful and peaceful body, or do you want a more powerful and peaceful life?...
The Western path to "self-improvement" is based on attacking our problems, which we see as the enemy, and ourselves as the victims. We look at the cause, analyze the pattern, and seek our ways to "fix" it.
In the Eastern model, there is no need to improve ourselves, because our real power flows from a force that is in us but not of us. The goal is to simply surrender ourselves and our problems to the highest powers in the universe. The Eastern model tell us not to struggle against our problems but rather to forgive and let go: resist less, struggle less, fight less, and flow more. From birth we are taught to swim upstream, but in yoga practice the goal is to jump into the river of life. Struggle just drains us and fortifies the very thing we want to release.
Surrender is not such a difficult thing once we realize that within us is a brilliance that is already perfect, already wise, already healthy. Problems are just places where we have been separated from out authentic selves. The only solution needed is to become aware of the thoughts and imagining that are keeping our true selves buried. When you change your focus from limitations to boundless possibilities, from doubt and fear to love and confidence, you open your world in entirely new ways. You stop worrying about fixing what's wrong with you and start living from all that's right within you.
When you focus on the problems, you get more of the same. What you focus on you create. You can analyze the problems, react to them, wrestle with them, take them all personally as though something is wrong with you. But that just keeps the negative merry-go-round circling in your head and leads you to again seek out another plan, another program another 20 percent solution. As Einstein said, "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them."
When you make that deep internal shift from your problem-solving mind to your truth-knowing mind, you don't need to search for the answers anymore. The search for answers is over and the process of more fully accepting and owning what you already know has begun. All that is not authentically "you" falls away, and you have a new center of being that allows you to see very clearly what is needed to effect change in your life. You stop trying to fix yourself and start being yourself."
Baron Baptiste
