I read an article recently in which senior yoga teachers were giving advice to new teachers. Overall the repeated message was clear.... JUST BE YOUR UNIQUE SELF.  Good advice to anyone.... whether you are teaching yoga or not.

But accepting our uniqueness and living from that place is no easy feat. When we are constantly bombarded with ways to be MORE... to do MORE.... to have MORE, it's easy to understand why we are so challenged by this notion.

Comparison and competition create divisions that tear us apart. They are born out of fear. Unfortunately, it feels like this has become the norm for so many of us. How do we move beyond fear to a place of really knowing that we are enough?  And, most importantly... ENOUGH IN OUR OWN UNIQUENESS!

"By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness."    (Yoga Sutra 1.33 translation:  Sri Swami Satchidananda)

I sometimes jokingly call Yoga Sutra 1.33 the "Facebook Sutra" (feel free to substitute your favorite social media stream because it's all the same concept). For many of us, our Friends' curated lives are often a scrolling reminder of all we feel we are are NOT... not being... not doing... not having. If  we start to put this nugget of yoga philosophy into practice, can we move beyond the fear of comparison and competition and move toward really knowing and appreciating our uniqueness instead?