I need to get at least 6.5 hours of sleep to make it feasible, but if I can do that once and insist on 5 am to get up, my bedtime will shift itself. The hard part is keeping the importance of getting up at 5 - for me. I get more done before 8 am than I do after 5pm, so those hours are critical!

The biggest thing that I always come back to is identifying what the most beneficial anchor habit for our wellbeing is. Mine is absolutely waking up at 5am.

In 2020 I became really obsessed with micro-practices and incorporating them into my work day. Now that I work in an office and have 5000 plates spinning, bringing the attention and the intention to micro-practices is even more important... But so many of them I'd forgotten for myself!

Personality is just a consequence of actions. Changing our actions changes our personalities, not the other way around.

The essence of what is released from our actions becomes our #personality. We become known by what we put into the world, not by what we keep to ourselves. Even when we hold something close, we give away it's negative - hoarding money gives off greed and selfishness, for example.

and I can catch it and try to prop it up.

or even #acceptance (there are three dogs, and it's not uncommon for at least one dog to not feel perfect once a month -- plus I'm the one that has three dogs!).
Noticing that the window is shrinking definitely helps to create that pause. Instead of the window slamming shut it starts to slide...

This morning, one of the dogs threw up in front of the door as I was getting them set up to go out and it felt like just "one more thing" that was "happening to me". It's a complete mental transposition, anchoring into a narrative of annoyance and frustration vs #compassion (what made him throw up?)

The strong aversions are ultimately reassertions of my personality and ego identity. There may be value in the reaction, but the effect of actions rooted in aversion always produce new karma and reasserts the ego over the Self.

In karma yoga, we are wanting to focus on our obligations, the highest of which is growing towards Self realization. This can happen through any action, but it's the intent and the purpose that matters. This is not a moralistic philosophy, it's a transcendental one.

The pitta constitution has a very strong gut reaction. But that's exactly what it is - a visceral, sacral response that may provide an accurate read on a situation, but does not lend itself to #karmayoga.