Know it All

Went to yoga this morning in Brooklyn with a teacher I liked a lot when I was living closer by. She talked about some inner-self stuff today, like letting go of the desire to control our lives or wish they could be different and just be open to how things really are and trust that when we are open and alert we will identify things we are truly drawn to. Something like that, I'm paraphrasing.

And she also gave us a little advice in the form of recommending that we try not to give people advice all the time; or maybe more like tell people how they should think and feel and act or even think to ourselves how we think they should be thinking and feeling and acting. I thought this was pretty good advice - I loooove to give my friends advice and I should probably just listen and sympathize more, so I decided to give it a try today. This has already not worked out. In fact, it took me about 5 minutes to go off track, and when I saw my friend this morning after yoga class, and we were chatting about how's-it-going, I proceeded to tell her what she should have said to her mom on the phone an hour ago, how should view her relationship with her boss, and what kind of business to open and in what location. Boy oh boy I sure do know a lot of things about a lot of things.

I guess I'm just noticing this tendency. Yoga teacher lady this morning said something like well What If we all directed our advice-giving energy back at ourselves and our own stuff instead of displacing or distracting ourselves by focusing on other people's lives and problems, wouldn't that be nice/change the world? Probably. I always slippery-slope these kinds of observations though - sure we should think about our own stuff and not tell other people what to do, but we also shouldn't just be self-absorbed and let people who need perspective or help or, yes, advice, just sort of flounder around. Is the difference just waiting to be asked? Nah, that's not it exactly. Anyway every piece of wisdom is flawed if I slippery-slope it to death - like the "control" thing the yoga teacher said this morning. Sure I could stop trying to wrestle my life into the shape I want it to be and let it all unfold organically, but that sounds like a great way to stay unemployed and unfocused, too.

It's all a balancing act blah blah blah.