Be all you can Be

“The more we ARE, the less we need.”

I read this quote in a local weekly paper recently and it led me to reflect on the multiple areas of transition I have experienced over the past 2 years:

• Job holder to retiree

• Home owner to snowbird(ish)

• Yoga practitioner to yoga teacher

• Settled in one spot to mobile living

All of these transitions have required downsizing of “stuff” in combination with an expansion of the self. The transition from employed to retired required adjusting to less income AND finding a way to validate myself without the crutch of a job. I have worked my entire life, so to be without an occupation, the thing that appears to define who you are (I’m a manager, teacher, mechanic), was daunting. In preparation for retirement, I told myself and everyone else that I would go back to school. This was basically meeting my “need” to have an external definition of who I am. The two main “occupations” in my life were student and working. If I was no longer working, then being a student seemed to fill my need to “be” something.

What I have discovered during this process of letting go of my profession, my house and the state where I grew up in and lived my entire life, I am now more “me” than I have ever been. I have discovered that most of the material things I thought I required were not serving me. I expended my life and my energy to maintain my profession, house, clothes, and “things”. I felt the subtle, constant pressure to acquire more – more training for my job, a promotion, more household items, more clothes, more toys. There never seemed to be enough time to just be. While I was working, my focus was on work and everything else took a back seat. I discovered how much “deferred life maintenance” I had accumulated when I decided to sell my house. It took a month to sort through the physical paper in my house.

Since retiring, I am extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in an eight-month 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program. Through this training I have acquired life skills like meditation, being in the moment, and have learned so much more about who I am. I have discovered how much less I “need” – less food, less entertainment, and fewer material things. The more content I am with who I am the less “want” and “need” I experience.

The transition process of letting go of my profession and my house has been much more freeing that I ever anticipated. I thought I would miss my garden, my yard, my kitchen, my home. However, the more I focus on becoming me, living in the moment and opening up to the world and all the possibilities around me, the less I feel the “need” for all those things I once considered essential.

The more we ARE, the less we need.