Judith Lasater, a wonderful yoga teacher and writer, tells a story about “selling the goat.”
It’s a metaphor for taking a step back and gaining perspective on your life when a situation is troublesome or stressful and it’d be helpful to see it with a new pair of eyes. She suggests, “selling the goat” – which simply means, to let go of your fixed, fearful hold on things and see the situation from a more accurate perspective.
Breathe.
I’m taking her idea one step further. To me, “the goat” represents not only our conditioned way of thinking about things and our habituated response from a negative, limited-view way of thinking, but also, it represents the multitude of distractions in our lives.
You know the ones.
Unsupportive friends. Negative lovers. Disrespectful agents. Toxic relationships. Two-timing partners. Mean managers.
Sell it. Get rid of it. Life is too short.
We end up expending so much wasted energy on things (i.e. Drama!) that don’t hasten our growth. That don’t nurture our talent. That make us question and doubt ourselves. That make us feel unworthy and untalented. That support our incorrect belief that we don’t deserve any better.
When you get distracted by such energy-suckers, make this your new mantra:
“I don’t have that kind of time!”
We don’t, people. No one does.
So simply. Effortlessly. Sell. The. Goat!
“We say we waste time. But really, we waste ourselves.” — Alice Bloch