Correction! Go Ahead and Follow Your Passion

What would Arjuna do? There are important reasons to choose passion work - and you don't need to know who Arjuna is.

Dear Readers,

Thank you for being here again. I’m still amazed by Substack and that I get to do this. 

I’m in the middle of a move, so I’m just going to quickly revisit my advice to Frustrated from last week. If you didn’t read it, all you need to know is that I advised a pragmatic approach toward work and listed all the ways following your passion is problematic. 

Perhaps I was projecting. I’m 47 and living on a quite unimpressive retirement account. That account isn’t amazing largely because I’ve followed my passion (and bought a lot of sweaters). I need to do something that's not too risky. I need to be pragmatic, so I’m applying to social work schools. Is it a fiery passion? Maybe not, but there are a lot of elements that I’m deeply interested in. The advice I gave Frustrated was the advice I have been giving myself, which is not necessarily the best advice for everyone. 

(By the way, do you need advice? Most likely, I’ll complicate things because life is like that. I have heard that Frustrated did find her way, not by following my advice exactly, but I’ll take it.  I’m 1 for 1. Submit it here.)

So let's rewind. 

The definition of passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion. Frustrated, if you’re really passionate about something, I hope that you don't resist the pull. Just be sure you can still buy your kale or peanut butter cookies. (Or both, if you’re like me.)

Here are some really positive experiences I've had with passion work, and I think you will too: 

1. It’s incredibly exciting.

2. Making decisions based on what you want, not society’s or other people’s expectations, is completely liberating.

3. It’s going to be really fucking scary, and you’re going to do it anyway. That will make you braver.

4. You’ll learn a lot more than you can imagine. 

5. Passions typically ease suffering. Yours will too, and that’s the best news. 

You don’t have to quit your day job. I’m following my passion as I type these words. (I don’t have a day job to quit, but let’s not get too particular.)

To bring it back to yoga, the definition of dharma is that which supports, or holds together. In the Bhagavad Gita, we read about Arjuna’s distress as he’s heading into battle against people he loves. He doesn’t want to do it, but he does anyway. It’s his dharma.

When I teach the Gita, most students wonder how to find their dharma. The question is: what is the way you are needed to hold up and support your corner of the universe? Your skills are important clues. So is your love for the people in your life, and the suffering you see and just can’t stop seeing. One thing I know about dharma is that it’s not usually easy. You have to do it anyway.

If your passion involves yoga:

I got so caught up in my passion for writing an advice column last week that I forgot to mention a way that you can follow your passion. (Just be sure to ignore my advice from last week.) Gillian Hull and I are hosting a 100% online Yoga Teacher Training program that begins in September.

Teacher training doesn’t mean you have to drop your paycheck or your kid’s dinner so that you can run around town teaching yoga. You might want to do that, but there are so many ways it can go, including not being a yoga teacher at all. No matter what, you’ll learn a lot and transform your practice (and sometimes your life).

Curious to know more?

Or, email me to set up a 20-minute call

Some Housekeeping: 

• I couldn’t help but change the name of this substack. I hope that what I do here does feel like a sanctuary, but I don’t want to get too sanctimonious about it. 

• My goal is still to bring outside voices into this conversion. Are you an outside voice? If you have a yoga or yoga-adjacent thing to talk about, please let me know. I’ll record our conversation and post it here, a la podcast. (You’ll have a moment for low-key self promotion if you want it.)

If you’ve read to the end of this, I adore you. I hope something was helpful.

With love,

Katy