The Momentary Best

How do you find that place between good enough and doing your best?  Experiment!  This process is both an art and a science.  Try different things in different ways and feel your way to it.  That place changes all the time.  Think of a meal.  You're having guests over, you find the perfect Iron Chef recipe, carefully select the ingredients, and meticulously prepare it.  You know it's the "best" you've ever done.  Does that mean that since you raised the bar, every meal you make has to be that good or it’s not good enough?  Or can your best be any meal that nourishes the body and was made with love?  Or can it be a bag of take out as you run to a class/meeting/movie?  Who's judging?  That's what I love about yoga.  It's not trial and error; it's exploration and discovery.  Allowing your best to vary according to the present circumstances keeps life alive and dynamic and full of possibilities.  If we found our "best" and locked it there so we always met that minimum standard, we couldn't do worse but we also couldn't do better.  You can put this question into your heart or out to the Universe: What does this moment require of me?  Your own wisdom will recognize the answer and your body will feel at ease.

Regarding the guilt of less than perfect, yikes!  Of course there are times when we just drop the ball.  But sometimes it's our need to control the Universe that triggers a thought like "I didn't do enough," "I'm not good enough," or "I failed."  There's a faith practice that says "My best is always enough, whatever that is in the moment."  That doesn't mean that everything has a successful outcome; it can mean disaster!  Guilt comes from the belief that things are only supposed to turn out a certain way.  Back to possibilities!  It's this Shiva energy (lord of destruction) that disrupts our rhythm to draw our attention to something that needs to change.  It's all in service to our Soul's curriculum.  If you're always late to a specific appointment you can feel guilty or you can evaluate the situation to find a better solution; or you can be late without beating yourself up for it because the way it is right now just happens to be late.