Why is Everything Such a Hustle?

As I enter the world of becoming a yoga teacher, something has been nagging at the back of my mind. Why is this such a hustle? Doesn't this go against the purpose of yoga? Isn't our aim to be in the present moment and not react to all the bullshit around us? To connect with ourselves and sit with the feelings and not try to think 10,000 hours into the future? Isn't this why we sit and cat cow and down dog and pigeon?

Doesn't the hustle take away from all of that?

Social media, competition, always thinking of the best way to stay relevant. It's a lot. I'm in an interesting place where yoga meets business and it's uncomfortable for me to say the least.

But then I look around and I realize that EVERYTHING is this way. Everything. My 9-5 workday is a constant hustle. How do we attract an audience? How do we get people to care? How do we get people to listen?

Caring for my family is a hustle, the constant meal planning and laundry and trying to balance all of that out with fun and make sure we are having time to connect and just be ourselves. The constant worrying over if I am a good mom because I stopped breastfeeding at 6 months or because I still have a full time job and send my kid to daycare or because I am honest and open about just needing time to myself.

Social media makes it all worse. I see post after tropey post about all aspects of life (motherhood, wellness, self-care, entrepreneurship, etc.) and find myself feeling the need to share the same type of content. Sometimes, I find sharing my honest thoughts and feelings to be helpful to me. Other times I feel like I betray myself by engaging in behavior that I can't stand.

Glennon Doyle always talks about self-betrayal and how it's such a violent act against ourselves. How can we (I) work towards a way of stopping the constant acts of self betrayal?

Can we stop the hustle? What if we just... stopped. What would happen? I highly doubt the world would fall apart. I actually think we would be a hell of a lot happier and more connected to ourselves and to our friends.

We would have more time for stillness, so we can get to know ourselves tease out just how we can live out our dreams and goals.

We would have more time to just breathe.

More time to stop comparing ourselves.

Doesn't that sound nice?

Much love,

Mara