Live your Dharma by Will Blunderfield

Those who are succeeding and are thrilled and joyful in the unfolding will often
tell you, “I’ve dreamed this since I was little. I imagined it, I pretended it, I used to practice with the hairbrush pretending it was a microphone.”

Purity is the alignment of energy. Doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks about anything. It only matters what you think about it. — Abraham

WILL-ISM: Do yoga to bring yourself into this surreal space of it’s enough, I’m
enough, I’m OK. This state of contentment (Santosha) enables the Universe to
gift you the life it’s been trying to give you for years.

————

Feel the difference between these two sentences. One is in the flow, one is not.

“I want to get where I want to go.” Stress = Resistance

“I am connected to a purpose.” Intensity = Enthusiasm

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“Your Passion is your Purpose.” – The Bhagavad Gita

The path of yoga is the path of revealing dharma (your purpose) and enabling you to live it. My job as a yoga teacher is to assist in this process. In doing so, I am able to help my students realize their uniqueness, act on their passions, and, as they continue to walk on the path, more fully embrace their purpose.

Personally, through yoga, I started having these moments of clarity. Okay, I know why I’m here. To be an entertainer.

This is what my purpose is (my dharma). This is what I’ve always known. From childhood I’ve always wanted to play, to entertain people, and help uplift people though music and performance. And it is just so clear to me when I do yoga, when I’m listening to my heart’s call.

Also this feeling of personal power, and not from an egotistical sense but when you just know your own worth and power— I kept getting these strong, resonating messages to follow my dream. Then, I realized that you know what, you need to
EXIST in this realization, and just take full advantage of what you’ve been given and make it happen. Instead of waiting for it to happen to you.

YOU have to make it happen.

Then I got nervous.

“What if I fail?”

“What if people don’t ‘get’ it?”

“What if it’s not ‘lucrative’?”

Then I read the Bhagavad Gita, a key yogic text, which helped me find clarity: Krishna (God) said, “Arjuna (the warrior), you have work to do. Do it! But give up all interest in the fruit of your work.” Krishna did not say that there would be no fruit. The fruit will certainly be there. Every action has its consequence or fruit. But the fruit is not your concern; you should not aspire for it. Therefore, the essence of the teaching is that you must do your duty, but do it without keeping the outcome in mind.

The lesson behind the Gita is that rather than act on emotion, or obsess about results, you need to act in accordance to your dharma. The belief being that when you know your dharma, you know what you need to do (and your actions come from a place of rightness rather than emotion i.e. fear of failure/success).

So, according to the teachings, your Dharma is your heart’s desire. Yoga is the series of techniques and recalcitrant patterns that help you more deeply and consistently harness the powers of your highest Self/Heart.

It is important to realize that in “living yoga,” we have to accept that we are not our feelings. Feelings are merely the waves on the surface; Who You are is the deep, infinite, blue-green ocean; You are the loving awareness observing the fluctuations of the “mind-stuff,” as Patanjali put it. To live your Dharma, you must let your feelings, especially those of inadequacy or “I don’t measure up,” be there, without judgment.

You’ve been conditioned to believe that your feelings are “who you are”. However, “who you are” is largely an amalgamation of parental influence, peer group mimicry, and billions upon billions of dollars of advertising, movies, magazines, and billboards geared to make you feel bad about yourself. So if “who you are” doesn’t serve your mission, act like someone else! “Be yourself” really means behave like the person you’ve always wanted to be. PROJECT your inner superstar as a form of service/inspiration to those like you.

Lead by example. Even if you don’t have a single feeling in your favor, move forward and play big! Take life by the horns and make it happen. DON’T live by your insecurities. Forge ahead instead, be brave, and your feelings will eventually follow. Sure it’s scary, but you’ll be ok! Provide value in your own way and the Universe will support you. In doing so, you will inspire others like you.

That, my friend, is living your Dharma.