(More than a decade ago) I used to teach yoga for my college rec center while going to school as a Psychology major. One day in one of my psych classes, we had a guest speaker- a woman named Laura King, who we were told did research in a new field called Positive Psychology. This is what she told us~ and how it changed my life path:
You have a watch. (I know most people probably don't even have a watch anymore, because we all check the time on our cell phones now, but play along..:) So let's say you want to figure out how the watch works, so you can build your own functioning watch. Do you break it? And then study the pieces- once they're all broken and disconnected? Or do you study the working watch?
It doesn't make sense to study a broken clock if you want to know how it works. Just like if you want to know how to create or help facilitate a healthy mind or person, you study people with good mental health- who are happy and fulfilled in life. Pretty simple- but it makes so much more sense than the typical way psychology is studied- and it creates endless possibilities to uncover the perfect formulae for happiness:)
So the next - and last - psychology class I took was a class in Positive Psychology!
Our first assignment led me to my dharma, or my purpose in life- my first understanding of my place and role in the cosmos:
1. Imagine your perfect life- on an individual level... So visualize and then write down vivid descriptions and details about how your life would be to make you the happiest you could be.
2. Now imagine your perfect world... and visualize how the ideal world would be, from your perspective. Write down the details so you really think about every aspect of how you would like things to be.
So now you have a very clear idea in your mind about what makes you happy on a personal level- and what would make you happy on a collective level... and find the place that you fit into the picture.
You've been explicit about what would make you happy - and your ideal version of the world is another way to be clear about your passions in life and purpose in the world.. When you combine the two- knowing what you want in life, and what you want to change in the world- it's a simple way to discover what you want to do in this lifetime.
One of the main ingredients to happiness in life is a sense of meaning and purpose. And just as we have to get centered before we begin yoga, we have to get centered before we begin the yoga of life.
We need a drishti. Before we attempt to balance on the mat- before we even check in with our bodies- we find a drishti, a focal point. It's the same way in the yoga of life.. There are too many distractions and detours being thrown at us by society, that if we don't find our place and our focus, we'll lose our balance.
So find your drishti- and find your dharma. ♡♡
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And as the word dharma has no english translation, here is an explanation of the way it is used here:)
From the buddha garden...
"The dharma is touched upon at length in The Bhagavadgita (The Song of God), a section of the epic poem The Mahabharata. In it, Krishna explains the meaning of righteousness in sustaining the world order. It is implied that everyone has a path that they must follow in order to uphold righteousness and lead to their individual salvation. Krishna stated that of the three paths that lead to salvation - yoga and ascetic practices, bhakti or devotion, and Dharma or wholesome activities according to your role - it was the latter that was most effective because it contribute to both the individual and the world as a whole, while the two former practices only helped the individual.
Those familiar with Buddhism know that the dharma was the main focus of the Buddha's meditations. These were the main characteristics of the dharma:
1) Namely, that it was infinite and spanned both the material (mundane) and spiritual (supra-mundane) worlds.
2) The dharma could be thought of as the mental "sense." That is to say, while the eye has sight and the ear has sound and the nose has smell, the mind has dharma.
3) The dharma was the carrier of goodness and wholesomeness, and thus the word dharma good be used to imply a good sense, while the word adharma would imply a bad sense.
4) Dharma was a person's duty, those acts which were fit to be carried out according to their responsibilities.
5) Dharma is a permanent universal truth, including the laws of nature and the nature of laws.
It is through the meditations of the Buddha that he tried to realize the true meaning of the dharma. It is through insight meditation (Vipassana) that the Buddha instructed that lay people would be able to realize the dharma themselves. The Buddha taught that direct realization on an individual level was superior to relying on speculation or traditional beliefs."
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So find your dharma.. Find your medicine.. Find your path. ♡
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