Getting out of your own way

Playing the game of life:
1. Our society tells children they must abide by all these rules and follow a certain pattern and always be preparing for the next thin, and it never seems to end.
2. Society's preparation for life is really school. We are always preparing for the next thing, elementary, then middle school, then high school, then college, then a job, then whatever is next from that. Nowadays it is becoming harder and harder to get a job without adequate college education, so if you don't "prepare" the correct way, you can almost forget about what society determines as success.
3. Once you hit your "goals" you often feel cheated because it is just not all it lives up to. You've constantly been forced to prepare for you don't really know what. Once you reach it you think you would feel great, but most times it is not even what you really want.
4. Our final goal is retirement. Work all your life just so you can do nothing eventually. I personally think this is really sad, and in a perfect world people would be doing what they want in life and would happy with their work and not have a goal of retiring, but of making the world a better place by the work they set out to do.
5. The problem with living for the future is that you are missing everything that is happening right now! It can be really hard to not think about the future and what goals you have, but you will miss so much in life when you forget that the present moment is really the only important one.

The secret of life:
1. The Chinese word for nature is ziran, it means "that which happens to itself."
2. You stop the spontaneous flowering of nature by telling something it must do it.
3. According to Watts, humans are the fabric and structure of existence.
4. According to Watts, the secret of life is to be fully engaged in the here and now.

You're already awesome:
1. Dr. Brewer's flow experience was him riding his bike down a steep mountain side.
2. According to a Harvard study, we get caught up in thinking 50% of the time.
3. A wondering mind is an unhappy mind!
4. During meditation, the brain quiets down quite a bit.
5. In nine minutes, the test subject learned the difference of getting in his own way and being in the moment.

Reflection:
This relates to our yoga practice because it is something we do to help be in the moment and settle down our brains and stop worrying about the future. It is the same with killer ball and performing, these tasks require you to be fully in the moment if you are going to do them successfully. You have to be so focused on the present, and not let your brain run wild with everything else. Looking at it in another way, not only are these task that require you to be in the present, but they are tasks that should just naturally put you in the moment, When playing killer ball, it is obvious most of us become fully engaged in what is happening. Yoga is so relaxing and nice you easily stop thinking about your problems. And for an actor, acting is something we like to do. We don't do it because we have to, we do it because we want to. Being onstage as someone who is not yourself makes it so easy to let go and live in the moment, because really, why would you be thinking about your future as you take on another character?