Pruning Your Branches In Life

Posted February 10, 2011 @ 7:53 AM | by Marianne Wells

"Transforming trauma, loss, and disability into hope and potential." Matthew Sanford.  

Many of my students have heard me share the inspirational story of Matt Sanford.  Paraplegic at a young age due to a car crash - Matt has gone on to inspire countless people with his story of hope, and his gifts of yoga both as a writer, speaker, and owner of a yoga studio a few miles from my home in Minnesota.  While some doubters may say - What can he teach me?  He can't even do the poses.  I can say that he provides a shining example of the power of one's mind in working toward enlightenment, bliss, and service to others.  Many years ago Matt accepted his bodily obstacles, and chose to work on his mind.  Through yoga (and a lot of work), Matt is beginning to feel sensations in the limbs that fell limp on that fateful day years ago.  The power of the mind is incredible.

One of the greatest challenges we face on our own personal life journey is becoming comfortable in our own skin. How do we find true happiness? Can we create our own destiny? Real lasting happiness is within your reach. It comes from the ability to find and live by a healthy sense of values.  Patanjali's Eight Limbs of Yoga, AA's Twelve Steps, Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and holy scriptures all provide roadmaps to health, enlightenment, and sense of community.

Like a tree that must be pruned of dead branches before it can bear good fruit, change in all our lives is inevitable. The question is, are you ready to make the changes in your life to grow healthy, strong, and productive?  As Covey's 7th habit guides - Are you taking time to sharpen your saw?  Are you taking the time and making the effort for personal renewal by maintaining a healthy work/life balance?  Are you eating properly, exercising regularly, spending time with the most important people in your life, sharing experiences with others, taking time to recharge your energy with proper rest, and filling your spiritual well?

It's often said that with age comes wisdom, I say that with experience comes wisdom - regardless of age. This is a gradual process that is possible only by those willing to work on themselves through the changes of life. Covey's first habit - Be Proactive - states that change starts from within.  Make the decision to improve your life through things you can influence and don't react to external forces.  None of us are perfect. The question is, are we working on ourselves internally or externally?

The path to happiness is to work on your personal internal pruning. Accepting your defects, discovering the root of problems, and one by one working on them. The other way, external self validation, is the root that holds one from finding true happiness.  Gandhi said, "They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them."  Yoga and the Serenity Prayer  both teach us to be non-reactive over the things that we have no control over, and proactive over the circumstances that we can change.  For example the negative opinions of others that have never discussed their feelings directly with you.  If you choose to focus on their negativity, you trade away your positive energy and all the good it can do for yourself and others.

Don't be reactive to negativity in areas where you have no control - for if you do you will do nothing but attract more of the same.  Instead be a role model of character and positive influence to the most important people in your life.  Your circle of influence and your own personal community of dear friends and colleagues will grow over time as a result of your positivity.  Covey's sixth habit - Synergy - through open and honest communication, mutual trust, and respect find ways to solve conflict and create a solution that is better than either one's own solution.

When we have followed through with a dedicated practice, our lives are richer, our relationships stronger, our inner peace found.  The Tao Te Ching states, "He who knows others is wise.  He who knows himself is enlightened."

Om Shanti,

Marianne

Marianne on the Web

Category: Inspired Philosophy
Tags: Marianne Wells, Marianne Wells Yoga School, Yoga Teacher Training, The Goddess Garden, yoga teacher training costa rica, costa rica yoga spa, nosara yoga teacher training, haramara retreat, 200 RYT Teacher training, yoga alliance, yoga therapy training, IAYT, Matthew Sanford, Steven Covey, Seven habits of highly effective people