Maybe happy isn’t the right word, but what is the word for a holiday that is deeply reverent and yet, most of America celebrates with pool parties and BBQs? 

 

I digress. 

 

This week, I’ve really been pondering the idea of how much we let distractions get in the way of our purpose. As someone with ADHD, distractions are my arch-nemesis, and they are something I deal with daily. 

 

But what I’m referring to in this regard is a soul-deep distraction. Letting yourself take the easy way out when it comes time to do some heavy reflecting or the deep inner work that is never comfortable, but always necessary. 

 

I’ll use this example that might rock your world. 

 

If you follow me on Instagram, then you know that I made the announcement not too long ago that I graduated from Yoga Teacher Training about a month ago. And part of that training was learning all of the behind-the-scenes things that yoga teachers do to give our students a deeply personal practice. 

 

And for reference, I practice hot yoga, and it’s pretty common for students to bring water bottles into class with them. It makes sense, right? You’re sweating and hot, so water must be what you need when the intensity of class becomes too much. 

 

Wrong. 

 

First of all, even if you drink water when you’re in class, your body won’t absorb it right away. Second, now you’re doing hot yoga with a bunch of water sloshing around in your belly. But most importantly, when you take a drink of water, you’re breaking your own meditation. 

 

Because that’s what yoga is, a moving meditation. So when you break out of your meditation to take a drink of water, you are allowing yourself to be distracted. 

 

The intensity is too much. 

 

In your body. In your mind. In your soul. 

 

So you self-soothe. You take yourself out of it. 

 

Once I learned this, I never took water into class again. I removed the distraction. 

 

So, taking this idea off the mat, how can you recognize distractions that move you away from your true purpose? Your current creation of work? 

 

I encourage you this week to keep a list of things that you turn to when things get hard. And then lean into those things a little deeper. Where can you cut down the distractions, and then, where can you lean a little deeper into your purpose? 

 

I hope you have a great rest of your week, and I hope this gave you a bit of light in your regular day-to-day schedule. 

 

Until next week, my friends.