Courage

Courage cannot exist in your life when your ego is in the way.

The above picture is one of my favorite yoga poses, Hanumanasana a.k.a. the splits. Symbolic of our battle between yoga (the calm) and the real world (the chaos). What makes me love this pose is not so much the stretch but the history behind the pose. The monkey god, Hanuman, is revered throughout India. Hanuman demonstrated his devotion to King Rama by searching the world for Rama's beloved wife Sita, who had been kidnapped. So great was Hanuman's desire to serve his master that he performed a mighty leap across the ocean to find her (hence why this pose is named after him). Hanuman had no ego, his devotion to 
serve his master is so great that he did everything in his power to find the King's wife. 

It's the qualities embodied by Hanuman that serve us most—not only in the pose but also beyond it: purity of motive, the conviction to unite what has been made separate, and the zeal to rise to any challenge. Love begets courage, so when you can fully love someone then you have the courage to speak the truth to them, to serve them, to cross the ocean for them and to stand up in their defense. If you don't have this then you cannot truly love anyone or anything.

Hanuman stands for the ability to soar. Hanumanasana reminds us that we can free ourselves of our small stride, our narrowness and our petty circumstances.  I look back on issues in my life that ended relationships or divided friendships. They all are caused from ego and lack of service. I have to first learn to love and embrace myself for all that I am, both the good and the bad. When I can fully understand that then I can serve someone in the capacity that will better both of us. 

We can all be more like Hanuman by taking with us his pure motive into relationships, the workplace, your yoga practice, even family issues. Be pure with your intentions, stop playing games and just be honest with yourself and with others. Go out of your way, be inconvenienced by the people in your life and inspire them to go out and help others. Be inspired by Hanuman and go out of your way to tell the people in your life that matter the most how you feel about them. Keep them close, and value them more than any other possession you have. 

As fall is at our doorstep, I challenge each person that reads this to make a change. To be of service to someone. Or to be like Hanuman and devote yourself to a cause. Take ego out of the equation and be humble enough to serve. Free yourself from the ego that tells you your too good. All of us have insecurities and weaknesses, embrace them. Take your scope of awareness outside of yourself, realize we all are facing problems, we all have been hurt and we all want to be loved. The more your honest, the less you will be holding in and the more open you will be to give, to live and to love.