While February is the shortest month of the year, to me it sure feels like the longest here in Wisconsin’s frozen tundra. Yet, I’m sure there are many folks who wish February was longer and snowier so they could ski and snowboard more. It’s truly a matter of perspective. And how we view our world has a tremendous impact on our daily mood, energy level and level of happiness.

Lately when caught up in a mindset of “my life is so hard,” I recall Judith Lasater’s parable in the chapter on Perspective her book Living Your Yoga. She tells the story of a villager who lived in a small house with his wife, mother in law, six children, a cow and some chickens. This was driving him crazy (I imagine his wife wasn’t thrilled about it, either).

So he went to the village rabbi, asking for advice, and the rabbi said, “Buy a goat.” The man immediately bought a goat, and the house was even more chaotic than before. The man went back to the rabbi who said, “Sell the goat.” The man’s house was then positively peaceful without the goat.

Lasater’s conclusion regarding this parable: “When you find yourself in a situation that could be made better if you were to step back to gain perspective, inhale gently and on your next exhalation, say to yourself, Sell the goat.” Life is pretty darn good as it is, right here and now, today. As Voltaire said, “The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.”

By Karen Erstad

Last Sunday, Jackie Meacham, 38 enthusiastic yogis and I (Karen Erstad) launched Inner Fire Yoga’s first 40-Day Bootcamp, inspired by Baron Baptiste’s 40 Days to Personal Revolution: A Breakthrough Program to Radically Change Your Body and Awaken the Sacred Within Your Soul.

As part of this special class that kicked-off the Bootcamp, we had a not-quite-two-hour-long asana practice, which was great because lengthier practices give yogis a chance enjoy long holds, perhaps experiencing some breakthroughs in the process, and then we also had time to really wind down before savasana. In preparing for this special class, I ran across one of my favorite excerpts from 40 Days to Personal Revolution.

It’s in the chapter where Baptiste explains the fifth of his 12 Laws of Transformation, which is “Shift Your Vision.” This is about looking at usual things with fresh eyes, says Baptiste. “As we start to spiritually awaken, our new vision allows us to see that most of our obstacles are created within our own hearts. Our greatest power to change ourselves is found in our ability to see beyond the veil, to see with an enlightened vision.”

Shifting your vision, continues Baptiste, calls for attention, intention and faith. “Attention is mental focus, and attention begets energy. Whatever you give your positive or negative attention to, you will energize, for better or for worse.” Be aware of where you’re attention goes, and know you can choose where it goes — even if you think you can’t.

“Intention has tremendous power, because when you hold an awareness of what you need to do in the back of your mind, you direct your energy and the energy of the universe in that direction,” says Baptiste. “Right intention leads us to the realm of flow, or what the Indians call vinyasa. When we find the pureness of our intentions, we unleash a force that has the miraculous and infinite ability to rally circumstances, energy, situations, synchronicity and serendipity all on our behalf.”

This is one of the reasons we focus on intention with our asana practice: is your intention to expand your awareness or to expand your biceps? One intention can lead to a flowering of consciousness and greater enjoyment of life, while the other could lead to tendonitis.

Lastly, to shift your vision calls for faith. Says Baptiste, “It’s important we develop a heart of faith and use it as a great tool to shift from seeing with our literal eyes to seeing with our spiritual ones.”

Especially at this time of year when we’re led to believe that happiness comes in a wrapped package tied up with ribbons and a bow, it’s great to reflect on pratyahara, meaning turning inward.

When practicing pratyahara, you go from energy-draining distraction to energy-building direction, turning a focused mind inward so that you can begin to plumb the depths of your soul. In this process, you connect to your truth and to your true self. Ideally, this helps you live more from your intuition, listening to the promptings of your own heart. Pratyahara is the moment in yoga when you decide to let answers and joy come from the divine wellspring within rather than looking outside yourself for happiness and fulfillment.

Writes Rolf Gates in Meditations from the Mat: “At the heart of pratyahara is the notion that we are already there. We are already in heaven, and heaven exists in us, right now. We must simply stop reinforcing the fear that this is not so.”

Thus, in practicing pratyahara, we begin to acknowledge the true gift we have to offer is not neatly wrapped in ribbons, but rather comes from sharing the divine light already within, which gives everyone else in your world permission to shine brightly, as well.