The Grad Student Yogi

Graduate school is throwing my yoga practice for a loop. Which is to say, really, that it's throwing my life into total, patas arriba confusion.

I see my life as my practice. Yoga, Buddhism, Meditation, whatever lens I'm applying in the moment (and they're all the same at the end of the day) provide frameworks for how I try to approach every moment in my life. Walking the dog. Doing the dishes. Studying. Going to class. having feelings. Studying. Eating. Studying. Everything I do I try to do with mindfulness and compassion.

Grad school makes this hard.

Feeling like I'm just barely keeping my head above water all the time has created a situation in which it's very hard for me to hold myself and my struggle with compassion. It's also led to my constantly questioning whether it is really a good idea to "do your best and let it be." How do I know when I'm doing my best? How much sleep or yoga practice or whatever else do I need to miss for my work to be hard enough? And what if it isn't enough?

I suppose, though, I can perhaps shift my practice a little by taking a wider view of my situation. As my Laura taught me, I can pull my perspective back to a broader view of the situation and hold everything with compassion including how hard it is to be kind to myself.