Keeping an empty cup

I’m starting a new training tonight, to get my certification in kids yoga, and I’m sure it will be unlike anything I’ve learned before.

(Well, not entirely unlike anything I’ve learned before, since the training is being led by the same person who introduced me to kid yoga during my 200-hour training. But that was just a taste; this will be a four-course meal.)

I’m tempted to have expectations. I sort of want this experience to change my life, to open up new opportunities for growth, for transformation–and for employment. Because I want to earn my living doing what feels fulfilling. I am grateful to have a job right now, but I have more to give than what my current position can take. I need to share the love that’s in me, and I suspect children will be more receptive than corporate coworkers. I suspect I could be an amazing educator, teaching yoga to the young, in a school setting or otherwise.

But I am suspending my suspicions for at least a few days, because I know that needless expectations take me nowhere. They also wreak havoc on my hopeful nature. I honestly don’t know what this week will bring, and I want to be open to any outcome, trusting that it will be in my highest good.

There is a metaphor about full and empty cups that helps me keep my mind at rest. I think I heard about it in relation to Bikram yoga, but I can’t find attribution online so I’ll just chalk it up to yogi legend. It goes like this: If your cup is full, there is no room for more liquid–i.e., new ideas and experiences. Thinking you know what to expect–even if you may be correct–gets in the way of mindful awareness. But when you enter a situation with an empty cup, you are open to receiving whatever is offered. Previous knowledge does not distort your present moment.

I try to empty my cup before every yoga class I take, to remind me that although postures may be familiar, the feelings of my body and mind will always change while in them. Similarly, when I enter the training space tonight I will do my best to arrive with an open heart and an empty cup–ready to discover what awaits, willing to accept what it is, believing I can handle what I am given.

….But I woudn’t complain if I was given a new career. Not that I’m expecting one. I’m just saying.