“The man of today does not need to practice hatha yoga for hours and hours together. He is dynamic and needs to express himself through action and various interrelationships with people. Yoga must meet the various elements of his personality, and for this reason he needs a balanced combination of Hatha Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bahkti Yoga and Jana Yoga,” from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.

Well, I guess since I do not strive to be a monk living in a Buddhist temple in the Tibetan mountains *(although I may end-up there in another life), I have to work on keeping balance with my other live duties alive daily. This will be my biggest challenge for the rest of the Dharma Yoga 500 hours training and for the rest of my life since I keep on struggling with the definition of who am I a Yogi, a photographer, a runner or else…
But, yet again, this uncertainty and this plentitude of titles to give myself, it’s ultimately the biggest blessing of it all.
Again, though, one biggest challenge to the concept of a “modern yogi” is the bad company, the one the Hatha Yoga Pradipika speaks about; “those who live an anti-spiritual life or who think negatively. People without any purpose in life, who are unaware of the importance of spiritual evolution do not enlighten one’s soul and should be avoided by a sadhaka.”
How do you push them away from your life, though? It is not their fault if they were not meant to be as spiritual? I sometimes feel strongly about this concept and other times I think it is not in my place to push friends and family members away because they are not on my same self-awarness path. I rather teach them if they wish to learn some than pushing them away. Now, if they, somehow get in my way, I will have to just be stronger with myself, not with them. I am the one who has decided to change her life around to be more spiritual and more in touch with herself, not them. It’s my karma, not theirs especially if they may not be willing to be taught. They will have to move on that path on their own, with their own two feet in the understanding of what they are willing to do and why, as I did.
Yet, on the other hand, living next to them, being around them, does feel sickening at times. It feels wrong and depriving, as if their energy and mine cannot match, they just can’t coexist in the same space and time.
For example, I live with my little sister who is not a Yogi, she practice, but she does not agree with most of the things I have been doing. She respects them because she things they are benefitting me, but she sometimes steps in the way of my self-realization putting me on the spot about how much I have changed, and how much she does not recognize me because I am different and calmer and she cannot relate to me anymore.
This pains me immensely. I know I should let it be and I am working on it, but it just makes me feel upset and annoyed. I am working so hard on ameliorating myself and becoming more self-aware and a better human being in general and the one person I love the most in the world is rebelling against me. But, then again, I think she is still young and has to see a thing or two about herself still…so I am serving as her example one way or another and, as if do to so I have to take her criticism daily, so be it, as far as I can keep my mind still and calm and not get affect it by it. I am happy to help her discover she may need to learn to meditate too one of these days!