Amazing Aspirations

      It is incredibly hard to define one’s highest aim over an entire lifetime because so much changes about a person and their life over the course of a lifetime. When I was a little girl, my highest aspiration was to become a teacher. I went to college with that intention and came
out with a confused sense of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Nursing? Medical school? Find a job?

After working more than forty hours a week and trying to be a full time student, I realized that I needed to choose: work full time or be a student and work part time. Ultimately, I decided that being a student was my best option, because I feared that if I left school I would never go back. This has put a strain on me financially, however, I still believe that I made the best choice. 

As of right now, my highest aims are to be a great student and learn as much as I can not only about the subjects I am studying, but also about myself. I recently lost myself in the worst way and yoga is helping me to realize that even though I completely lost sight of my goals and myself, they were always still right there. If anything, yoga has provided me the opportunity to regain strength and confidence in myself. My goals have reappeared and manifested in a way that is so clear to me now. Yoga reminds me to keep working towards those goals and when I accomplish one goal, I need to set another one. Most importantly, yoga has taught me that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I may not have taken the path I would have preferred, but the path I took was the path I was supposed to take. Had I not taken it, I would have a skewed sense of self and my goals. 

One of my biggest future aspirations has nothing to do with my career choice. I would someday like to start a family and be a great mother. This is not to say that I do not have career aspirations, as those are there as well, but at the end of my lifetime, I want to have loved someone unconditionally and to have children with that person out of love. I want to raise my children to be caring and loving towards all beings. I want them to set their goals high and never settle. I want to raise them to be patient with themselves and others and accept themselves and others as they are. I want them to be of the mindset that nothing is more important than family. 

Yoga incorporates all of the values I wish to instill in my future children: love, compassion, caring, patience, acceptance, goal setting. Yoga continues to teach me all these values and how to incorporate them in my relationships and everyday life. Yoga continues to be my connection through my best and worst moments and all the moments in between. Yoga is strengthening and uplifting at the worst of times and at the best of times, yoga is humbling and grounding. On a day-to-day basis or the transition moments, yoga is whatever I need it to be and it continually teaches me about my mind, breath, and body. Yoga helps me to deal with my everyday stressors and the stresses of life that can sometimes be overwhelming. Most importantly, yoga teaches me to just be in the moment and that all things come in time. Knowing that I am exactly where I am supposed to be is one of the most powerful mantras in my life, and I someday hope to teach my children to remember the past, hope for the future, but more importantly, live for the moment.