DEVOTION.

 

DEVOTION: love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause.

This word has been circulating throughout my day, in my thoughts, & in my head for the past few days. Devotion. What is devotion, & how is it different than desire? To be devoted is to be fully committed to you, yourself, and only what is true for you.

We think devotion is sticking to our routine, working out, eating right, & taking time to ‘work out’. No Devotion is a higher state of being. It goes beyond listening to mainstream society or doing as your do daily. Real devotion is a quality of the heart. It’s by your own inner guidance that you can transcend and choose what and who to be devoted to.

Desire is a dream, its an urge, a pulse, something that sounds, feels, and seems good. Devotion is your ability to stay committed – not to that dream that you think you desire, but to what you desire for yourself. See the difference? Devotion is full commitment to live your life as the person you ‘think’ you desire to be, and to authentically show up, even when the world may deem otherwise. We all have desire, & we think we know what we want, & we choose to create dreams & get set on what will happen. When you embrace Devotion – you know yourself is true. You do not need the desire, you can shed your limitation in thinking that is the way it will be, and you can instead live committed to You. Meaning, if you call yourself a yoga teacher, you live in light & love & treat others well & invoke Yogic principles. You don’t get on your mat, do some poses & breathing, then drive away flicking people off or cursing. You live your life devoted to your practice. Desire is the yoga teacher who thinks they need the ‘numbers’ the ‘physical’ challenge, or the ‘mask’ to perform in a space that is purely guided by your own desire, forgetting about the other in the room & what is best for them & others.

Devotion is the act of living from an authentic place that honors who you are. When you are able to remain completely devoted to yourself, you allow things to happen, and you yield yourself to the Universe and step forward into the unknown. Desire is the catalyst to devotion. We all have wishes, intentions, dreams, etc. Desire often catches the ego – when we stop being devoted. As you evolve you change, and with that, your desires change too.

Often we place our desire with ego attachment. For example, I’m doing this to make this amount of money, or I’m not helping you because I won’t get any money. Our ego overrides our desire. If you desire is more money, you need to be devoted to allowing more money. That may mean helping someone else achieve abundance themselves, or honoring someone else needing help. Our head overrides our heart all the time, or we let other people’s thoughts/egos tell us what to do, how to think, how to behave. People can help you, if they are living fully in truth and from a conscious place of connection. The others living from their own desire, without devotion to the whole, will tell you what you need to do to serve them. Thus, you help them achieve their desire, and disconnect from your own desire.

 

As we end this crazy year of 2014, I ask you to consider how devoted you have been to Yourself. What dreams to do wish to manifest this year? What have you achieved? And what more do you wish to accomplish before this years end?

       Human nature gets busy, we forget, we get distracted, and we forget about what we committed for ourselves and our own well being. Desire is always there, and every day we are making choices to fill our desires. However, devotion is how desire is granted. Being devoted to your dreams, your wishes, your goals, is being able to truly root down and say ‘Yes’ to all you want to accomplish. In every moment, in every waking day, you set yourself up to achieve. That meaning, you show up from a place of love. You accept people when they tell you what they think you need to do, but you always check back in with you to see if that truly fits You.

 

If our desire is bigger than our devotion we will never achieve what our soul truly is asking us. You have desires, you manifest and create with devotion. To you, yourself, who you are, and who you wish to be. In the process, leaving fear behind, perhaps other people, and stay completely devoted to your desires.

When you are devoted you trust the process & surrender, stay aligned to what you heart desires and let your wishes fuel you forward in love & with joy. Let the journey continue, & stay devoted when you walk your unique path.