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Health & Fitness

Facebook - One Yogi's Perspective

I like Facebook. I like seeing pictures of my friends, their children, nieces and nephews, funny cartoons and great quotes. It is also a great way to promote my business (please do like my Facebook page Yoga with Carol), or to get in touch with students quickly if I have to cancel class unexpectedly. After all winter is coming.
However, last week, I had an experience with Facebook that left me feeling empty. This surprised me. A friend posted something great that she was doing, and when I was really honest with myself, I realized that I felt jealous.
When I looked again from a yogic standpoint I saw that Facebook can create desires. Desires create pain. How does Facebook create desires? And how do desires bring pain you might ask?  
Let’s face it, people post to Facebook the highlights of their lives, not the mundane everyday living of life. They post their pictures of a new baby, grandbaby, fantastic vacation, new job, new car… all of these things can trigger desires in us. All of these desires lead us into an external chase for happiness. We are constantly grabbing for whatever others have, wishing that we could be the one to win that lottery, or get that promotion. Desires bring pain because we think when I get ________ I’ll be happy. When I fulfill this desire I’ll be all set, life will be good. The problem with this thinking is that we are all looking on the outside, being led around by our desires to find happiness. Have you ever noticed that even when you get those things that you craved, the happiness is short-lived? Yoga says that happiness comes from within you. That your true nature is bliss and that it is always inside of us. Waiting to be found, recognized like an old friend.
 You don’t have to give up Facebook, just be aware of what it might trigger emotionally for you, and remember that the true bliss of happiness is always there - you just need to look inside to find it!

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