Make A Choice And Take Control
by Azmi Samdjaga in Mind+Body+Spirit | 1 Comment | Add your comment

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I was observing a storm from my balcony one afternoon while doing some routine self-reflection and it dawned on me how reflective the storm is to life. The strength, the forcefulness, the vigor that it engenders is somewhat metaphorical to what life is capable of.

A storm hits us while we are out in the open, what do we normally do? We run to look for shelter and seek refuge until it is safe enough to step out and carry on with our journey. Likewise in reality, when trouble hits, we run for help, find solace and seek comfort from people we love and trust the most. If we don’t get that and everything else fails, do we ask ourselves why, because we have been good and yet no one to lend a hand to help? Or do we turn around and blame on our misdeeds? Our mind boggles. We fail to see the bigger picture, we fail to realize that it is a common thing for people to avoid complicated issues, especially if its not their own and along with the fact that many refuse to lend a hand if it doesn’t benefit them. It seems wrongful the way humans react in such situation given the moral education that we were brought up with. Therefore in a bid to make us feel better, we have to take a moment to analyze, accept and understand the evolution of mankind, what we have become and the behavior we have acquired.

The human population is slumping in the realm of attitude; mannerism and the way people should be treated by one another. Are we not supposed to evolve into better humans? Believe-you-me we better! Better wake up to the truth that The Golden Rule is a fact. What goes around comes around. It’s the cosmic law of attraction. Ugly attitudes and bad manners would attract the same treatment. As people remember wickedness easier than virtuousness, they react quicker to the former than the latter. However, in the wake of virtuousness, would that be worth it? Would it be worth putting all that effort and energy for a pay back just to end up being on par with the villains? Why not let nature takes its own course? Integrity and nobility are not something to be put at stake.

Having said that, do people learn from that intelligible commandment, “Do Unto Others What You Want Others Do Unto You.”? Because the gruesome reality remains – many still get forgotten, dumped and unappreciated. Despicable attitude is rising in such alarming rate.

Nevertheless, in a very small leap of faith, random acts of altruism and appreciation are still noticeable.

For example we still see people who bend over backwards to help others they don’t even know, people who take the extra mile to do charities so that others in need have a better life and kind-hearted children who still affectionately take care of their elderly parents. Sadly, the numbers are scarce. Many of us have few experiences with it. Be that as it may, wickedness eclipses morality and we don’t see virtue in exceptional behavior. It only bestirs ourselves when it directly happens to us. How many times do we have to read about altruism, act of kindness, salvation and redemption? How many times do our hearts have to break reading about them before we can wake ourselves up and be selfless, kind-hearted, helpful and compassionate?

Life can surely throw some stumbling block at us. Sometimes our predicament comes through and we are grateful for coming out of it but sometimes things turn out far worse than we expected. When that happens, we find ourselves struggling to pull through and we feel like every single orifice in our body shuts tight and we wait to explode. And we wait. Should we wait? We choose to wait. So it goes, the constant struggling to survive and waiting to explode wear us out and get us in the low-down and we see no signs of salvation. Life bites you from all directions and kicks you in the face when you are down on your knees. Eventually we find ourselves abdicating to life. Isn’t there a way out?

This is the part where we start to analyze the gravity of the circumstance. How are we going to get over this? With questions like; ‘What have I done?’, ‘Where are my friends?’, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ permeating our mind, we lose that grip on what life is really about. But can we actually allow ourselves to lose grip on it? YES we could if we really don’t know what it is about. It would be totally different if we do, because then we may be able to turn around, count our blessings, work with what we have and still come out happy people. So, what IS life really about?

Life is about making choices and taking control. When a wrong choice is made, it usually continues with a choice to struggle and another choice to give it all up. What happen to making a choice to accept the wrong one made, be responsible and take control? Every so often we need to snap out of our misery and realize the great deal of things we have achieved in our lives, look at how far we have gone with what we have, analyze how much we have learned and work out the things we need to let go. The things we can’t be fighting for forever. The ones that has been straining us and stopping us from ‘living’. Because stopping us from living do not stop us from dying.

So instead of pushing ourselves to the edge of insanity, we should save our mind, body and soul by doing everything that is going to make us happy, by following our heart and pursuing our passion instead of denying it.

Then perhaps, we can enjoy life a little better and live a little happier.

~~~ About the contributor ~~~

If passion is what keeps a person alive, then Yoga is his life. Azmi Samdjaga has been one of the strong and well sought after teacher in the Yoga industry having taught in countries like Indonesia, Singapore and Japan. With over a decade of experience and studying under yoga legends such as the late Sri Pattabhi Jois, Matthew Sweeney, Lance Schuler and Louisa Sears, Azmi has converged his expertise that he acquired and brought it to the heart of his practice. An Ashtangi by training and a background in dance and massage, Azmi often shares the grace of his practice in the classes he teaches.

Groomed to be an Architect in school, Azmi changed his course of life and found his calling in teaching after he experienced a great shift in his life during his training in India. He is known for bringing his passion in his classes, creating a close bond with his students which, have built a yoga following that, has grown in numbers throughout the years. Up till today he has students who have been practicing with him since the day he started teaching. The greatest thing that he loves about Yoga is that it has helped him through difficult times in his life. He believes that yoga only works best when you apply it to your life.

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