The other day, I emptied the dishwasher. It is one of my least favorite tasks to do in my home…actually I think it is my least favorite. I avoid it. I would rather handwash a sink full of dirty dishes (we have a 17 year old – our sink gets full a lot) than empty the dishwasher. At any early age, our son was assigned this task as one of his responsibilities. No matter what I tell myself…that it’s a luxury, that we’re lucky to have one, that it only takes 5 minutes…I still avoid it.
But, I emptied the dishwasher. As I finished, I thought “what’s the big deal?” Because it isn’t, right? Because it does only take a few minutes & it is a luxury & it’s easy to do it.
I realized I have probably put more effort into avoiding emptying the dishwasher than is required to actually empty it.
How often does that happen to you?
Maybe you avoid emptying the dishwasher too:) But really, I’m talking about other stuff. The stuff we go to great lengths to avoid. The stuff that takes a lot of effort to avoid. The stuff we don’t want to deal with. Sometimes it’s external stuff, like the dishwasher & people or situations. But so often, it’s internal.
THIS is what makes the yoga practice so challenging. You can only avoid chatarunga for so long before you realize, it’s not the pose you’re avoiding – it’s a part yourself that you’re avoiding. As a culture – we’re good at avoiding. We’ve set ourselves up (with distractions at the tips of our fingers) so we can avoid ourselves.
But you get on your mat & there you are. Inevitably, if you’re going to stick with the practice, you have to stop avoiding. It’s challenging. It might even be scary at times.
But is it worth it? You tell me.
