Last night at yoga I had an opportunity to witness the power of assessing versus judging. As I was putting my mat down, a cell phone began to ring – let it be known that I have a serious problem with cell phones in yoga rooms – but nevertheless, I just joked with the man next to me that if it was his he’d be in big trouble.
About ten minutes into class we did our first forward bend. With my eyes now facing the back of the room I noticed a pile of diamond jewelry next to the same woman whose cell phone rang. For an instant I thought about judging her – my mind almost went into thoughts of materialism, etc. But before it did, in a fraction of an instant, I decided to look at the jewelry and simply say to myself, “that’s information” without attaching any emotion to it at all.
Later in the class as we were doing triangle pose, I noticed that the fat on my hips was bulging over my shorts – for some reason I glanced back at the woman behind me and saw that the she was staring at my excess padding!
My reaction was interesting. Rather than trying to adjust my clothes or change positions, I clicked into appreciating and even celebrating my quirky imperfections. I allowed my bulge to stay in plain sight with complete comfort.
This was so refreshing for me, and upon reflection I have to think that the charity toward myself was an extension of my decision not to judge the woman’s cell phone and diamonds.
As we observe others and ourselves without heavy emotional judgement we become free and light inside… I guess the saying, “What goes around comes around” works both ways!