Either there has been a lot more talk lately or I’ve been much more aware of the talk of self-imposed limitations these past few months. And while I’ve always agreed with the idea and felt like I understood it, tonight, during yoga while thinking of contortionists, I reached a much deeper level of understanding.
It was when I began to understand the physical limitations that many of us have that some do not that I began to understand that “self-imposed” is a little misleading. The term implies a sense of awareness or choice. Some of our limitations that we’ve created are by choice. Letting fear prevent us from reaching our desires is sometimes a choice. Choosing comfortable over exciting is sometimes a choice. But there are many other limitations that we have self-created that are not choices we’ve consciously made but habits we’ve developed or patterns of living we’ve adopted or been “forced” into.
When, as an American, I drive on the right hand side of the rode, this is far less a choice than a habit or pattern. It isn’t saying that I can’t chose to drive on the left side of the road, but most of my driving is now automatic. So is most of our lives. This idea was brought to my attention because of my relatively limited hip flexibility. There are many people that do not have these same limitations, but I can’t simply identify the limitation that I’ve let myself grow to develop and correct it instantly through choice. I will need to change many aspects of my life in order to obtain the flexibility that the human body is capable of. And this area of correction is perhaps what was most illuminated to me tonight. I cannot simply choose to remove the limitations my life has developed. It is not a mind over matter, willing oneself to victory event in most cases. It is a long struggle much of the time. But in this, we begin to understand who we are and what is important to us, because it is not easy and fast. Because we cannot have everything, we find out who we really are.
As Aristotle said, “we are what we repeatedly do.” Many remain on autopilot, stuck in our life patterns, but if you are fortunate enough to become aware, you have the responsibility and opportunity to become who you want to be. And there is some pressure in this. It requires some seemingly difficult decisions. But they are good decisions to get to be making. You control your life. But to control your life, you must let go of a lot of your programming, a lot of what made life easy, because it was a safe, comfortable path you were on. It was the path to mediocrity. But mediocrity, while we don’t want to admit it, is comfortable and for many that comfort is desirable. But maybe you know there is more.
