Work to Live or Live to Work?

My teaching schedule has (extremely) expanded. I now teach yoga everyday. When I tell people this I get sympathetic comments. Most of us identify work as that which we should not invest more than 8 hours a day 5 days a week on. We need weekends and vacations to bring us back to balance because work is not play nor rest.

Fortunately for me, my work is as much a play and rest as it is work. I teach one to four classes a day. There is a lot of commuting involved either driving my car or riding my bike. But I also have plenty of time in between classes. I do not miss weekends nor a full day off. Though, I do plan to take some time off to learn (guess what?) more about yoga.

I realize that my path of practicing yoga is to teach yoga. I read somewhere a long time ago that if you want to learn, you read; if you want to understand, you write; if you want to master, you teach. Or something like that. So, I took it to heart and from the beginning I told myself that I would teach in order to learn and master yoga. And yes, I do read and write about yoga.

According to ayurveda, your work, job or career is vital to your well being. Especially, if you are of Pitta age which is the productive stage in the human life cycle from age 20's to 40's. Often when people are unhappy with their life or career situation they begin to look for something else to fulfill them. For me it was traveling. Back in my corporate job, I would dream up exotic destinations and incessantly planed my future vacations. I would also play sick. In fact I was truly ill at ease mentally and emotionally and it did manifest physically.

During the productive age it is vitally important that you do produce. Either you procreate or co-create. If your career or personal life does not allow you to express your full potential the repression turns into symptomatic conditions. Left untreated your life would spiral into what we now call mid-life crisis but it can happen anytime during the productive age (a different crisis at a different stage of life may also manifest). At one point your lid would blow open and you would do something extraordinary (weird, you may say). This is utterly necessary and normal!

I had my crisis at the age of thirty (and look forward for more to come). All of a sudden my life transformed. I did something totally out of character (weird or even sinful, you may say). And five years later I found the work which allowed me to express my full potential. It continues to grow with me. When your career uplifts you your service feeds others as much as it feeds you. You do not feel tired and depressed. You feel alive and vital. Your work is your nourishment.

Not all of us need a mid-life crisis. But all of us need to live life with purpose. Your career and your work is the reason why you are needed here on earth. And I don't mean that it has to be a job. You can be a mother, a monk or a beggar. Whatever your chosen contribution is it must nourish you and others. Is your work junk food or whole food? Are you working to live your daily existence or are you living to work your full potential?