Having a Choice

Today I am feeling a little grumpy.  I could talk about why, what’s bothering me, how things aren’t the way they are supposed to be.  That would be easy to do because when in a bad mood, everything gets colored by that, the mind wants to keep focusing on what’s wrong.  But what’s interesting to me is what happens next with it.

I went to the grocery store and because I didn’t feel like shopping and nothing really looked that great (because of my mood), I did a crappy job.  I spent about half as much as usual, which means I got roughly half as much stuff, which means that now I can continue to be grumpy all week long when there is nothing to eat.  I really believe every moment is a chance to turn things around.  If I had been at the store focusing on what would really help this person out, what would nurture and care for her, I would have been setting the stage for a better week. 

So in yoga thinking, we have the idea of karma, which is basically the law of cause and effect.  What’s happening now is the result of things that have happened in the past and what we are doing now is leading to what will happen in the future.  This means that every choice I make is important and is planting seeds what will sooner or later grow. 

It can be hard not to get down on yourself when you are watching yourself do something that is not so great.  It could even make a person want to just stop being aware, to go unconscious, so you don’t have to see it.  But if I see it, then there is a chance I will make a different choice and that seems worth it.

I read this great quote by Victor Frankl on the website of a fellow therapist and yoga teacher:  “Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”