Talking with a friend and colleague the other day and it came up that I am in the midst of another level of yoga teacher training, a 300 hour class. I was recounting, or maybe whining, about how much easier it seemed to be to do my 200 hour class. It was early 2021, we were still living with COVID restrictions and being available for three hour classes two evenings a week and a six hour class every Sunday was a stretch. But now that we are living in a post-pandemic world, real life has come back into play, schedules are tighter and commitments more numerous. I am absolutely invested in my class but there are time that juggling of all the moving parts of my life feels intense.

The person to whom I was speaking, looked at me quizzically and said “Why are you doing that? It’s not like you are going to teach yoga or anything.” I have to say that I was taken aback and even a little offended. “I teach yoga now,” I said. “And what’s to say I wouldn’t want to teach more of it in the future?” I went on, babbling a bit about other ways I saw the opportunity to use yoga, in both personal and professional applications.

Afterwards, I thought about the comment and how I reacted to it. I found myself defensive as if I had to justify why I chose to take another level of learning, I felt I had to have reasons for something this person obviously thought made no sense. In truth, it still rankles a bit.

But what I realized is that this individual, some but not all that many, years older than I am, sees their life differently than I do. I am not judging that, it is their choice and their truth. They are focusing on backing away from things that they had been doing and making their life more compact, and perhaps, manageable. I, on the other hand, am still looking for what’s next and what more, feeling as if my growth is not, and may never be, complete.

There are no rights or wrongs to our choices. We move in the direction our nature and our personality lead us. What matters most, though, is not judging other’s direction but recognizing that they can, and should, make choices to fill their own full hearts.