dangers of predetermination

It is a pivotal time within society as many gender roles and stereotypes are being brought into our spotlight, analyzed, questioned, challenged, and broken. Living now, you constantly have to see what side of history you want to be on. And I love being a part of it.

The sermon today called out the gender roles we still hold onto despite feeling like we are so removed from the Biblical times. It reminded me of the campaign that Always ran in which they filmed people after prompting them to "run like a girl" or "throw like a girl". The older individuals ran in an overdramatic way, but the younger females ran as hard as they possibly could. The campaign epitomized the stark contrast between the perception of what society believes it means to be a girl and what girls believe in being themselves before society taints their perspectives.

I wonder why we feel like we must place purpose on an individual because of a gender. That one gender is allowed to be emotional and the other gender is allowed to have thoughts and ideas. Purpose, in a true sense, comes from within, from the heart and the soul - not from a gender.

In yoga there are no lines of gender. Each pose is about the self-analysis and awareness of physical connectivity to spiritual and energetic state of being. The risk in coming to a conclusion about yourself beforehand is a threat to opportunity.

Furthermore, this mindset of predetermination will spread its toxicity into your relationships and distort your view on what is in front of you. The desire to compare or question or hypothesize movements either of yourself or of you relationships paralyzes you. Instead of allowing fears created and orchestrated by others to control you, look inward for purpose so that you encourage yourself and your relationships to organically develop.