Sneaker Showdown! Are these shoes pink and white - or teal and grey?
What color is this shoe? How much of what we see is a function of our internal chemistry, and how much is colored (pun intended!) by our perspective?
Despite this being an entertaining Internet diversion, it does bring up a good point to ponder. Do you consider the right hemisphere of your brain to be dominant, or your left? And how much does this orientation affect how you interact in the world, influence your choices or even impact your careers?
The past has a tendency to influence our decisions in the present. And often times this is to our benefit; helping us to make informed or well-thought-out decisions. And yet, we can become paralyzed by fear of making a wrong choice, or ignore our intuition for the sake of what appears to be the right choice. Fortunately, perspective is mutable, and what may not appear to serve today may in fact do so tomorrow. We choose the best that we can, in the moment that we have.
When we step onto our mats, we can get caught up in the rights and the wrongs, as if there were a single way to experience our practice. There isn’t one, there are many. And your practice is not going to be the same as your neighbors. Would you really want it that way? Our perceived ability in practice goes far beyond any pose. We come to move, breathe, and step up to the challenge. What flows from there is yoga; the practice of patience, compassion and acceptance. And whether you see pink or teal, whether right brained or left, the power is in your perspective.
We’ll meet on our mats.