Excuses are Self-Abuses

Entering a new path that will lead you to your Best Future Self requires determination and commitment. Self-growth does not just happen – it is a result of persistent effort to follow one’s vision. The first step is to create a vision if it is lacking. Who can you become? Feel it, see it, hear it – create a little video in your head of who you are and what you are doing as your Best Future Self, and play it numerous times a day. Often the gap between who we are and who we can become is filled with unconscious beliefs and outdated habits. Our modern lives are busy and full, and the adage “old habits die hard”, rings true for many of us.

Through the Beyond Addiction program, I’ve learned to examine my mind’s statements that begin with “but” and realize they usually represent excuses. They reveal my mind’s resistance to change. Whenever I wander too far from my best self, Yogi Bhajan’s quote “Every excuse is a self-abuse” brings me back to my path.

I have found that a 40-day practice keeps me on track. It helps me to confront my own thinking patterns and help to eradicate limiting unconscious beliefs. The new year is a perfect time to begin, as is during a new moon. As you consider taking this on – make it simple if you are a novice. You might practice 3 minutes of breath of fire in the morning or left nostril breathing in the evening. Make it something that you can easily accomplish – it will stabilize you on your new path and reinforce the belief that “it is possible!”

This beautiful poem by Rumi speaks about ’40 early mornings’:

“A new moon teaches gradualness and deliberation and how one gives birth to oneself slowly. Patience with small details makes perfect a large work, like the universe. What nine months of attention does for an embryo, forty early mornings will do for your gradually growing wholeness.”

Let us know what practice you choose to begin – and Keep Up! We wish you well in the realization of your Best Future Self.

 

Dharm Kaur (Ela Bielski) has been practicing Kundalini Yoga since 1991. She was fortunate to meet Yogi Bhajan in 1997 when taking the Master’s Touch Teacher Training – studying at the feet of the Master transformed her life. She is now a KRI certified Level 1 & 2 Kundalini Yoga teacher. Her calling has always been to provide these sacred teachings to those who need them the most; she used to teach by-donation community classes at the Howard Park United Church, and she presently volunteers teaching women who are breaking free from addictions. Dharm’s focus over the last six years has been on teaching at the Jean Tweed Centre and at Covenant House in Toronto. Seeing the positive impact on women in residential programs as well as on the street kids and the staff of Covenant House opens her heart. Dharm Kaur teaches at Lotus Yoga Centre in Toronto.

For upcoming Beyond Addiction online and in-person programs, see https://beyondaddiction.ca/events/training-programs/