Making Your Sacred Offering (&Your Offering Sacred)

May you awaken like the sun at daybreak,

Ready to make your sacred offering.

Set forth with delight, like a pilgrim on his journey.

O heroic one, move forward with resolve

To make this sacred offering of yourself to life.

May you plan the banner of victory

In the service of humankind.

Rg-Veda

When I returned from living in India for 4 years, one of the things I dearly wanted to hold onto was the awareness that everything I do can be approached as an offering. I wanted to remember, no matter what, that my highest goal in life is to be of service to others.

To remind myself of this intention, I put a small candle on my desk and lit the flame each day when I began my work.

With time, I stopped lighting the candle on my desk, but I found other ways to remember and uphold the spirit of offering in my daily life. It continues to be a treasured and guiding force. It elevates work and family life to the realm of dharma, and allows me to see that even my most mundane responsibilities (washing the dishes, chauffeuring my daughter, paying the bills and so many more) can be approached as sacred duties.

This morning, I wanted to accomplish something in my work that felt like a big challenge and that called on me to be courageous and to step forward with confidence and trust. The truth is, I was terrified I would fail at this goal I had set for myself. I lit the candle on my altar. I made my work an offering. And, I was pleased with the result. It felt easier, more enjoyable and infinitely more purposeful to approach my task with this feeling of offering and not simply accomplishing.

• What is your framework for making your work, the tasks of your daily life, more meaningful than simply getting things done?
• What are the things you do, in yoga or otherwise, that help you to remember the bigger vision underlying, and perhaps inspiring, your efforts?
• How do you use your practice to empower you with the strength and courage to meet the challenges of your day with sensitivity and presence?
• In short, DO YOU USE YOGA TO HELP YOU IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? If not, WHY not?

If these questions intrigue you, then you’ll want to join me for my upcoming free webinar where we’ll dive into some of the most meaningful and powerful approaches to practice that have allowed me, and so many others, to extract and integrate the benefits of yoga into my life.

The live online event takes place on February 8, and the link to the recording will be sent you after that.