I’ve always wondered how the great avatars and truly evolved personages respond to the boring, quotidian, zero-glam aspects of their lives.

How does the Dalai Lama wake up? How did Gandhi brush his teeth?

Here’s what Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) said to his followers about that moment, in bed, when he first opens his eyes. 

“Wake up! Get out of bed! Do not lie there ‘thinking!’ Nothing good ever came from that!”

What Yogananda meant by “thinking,” I’m convinced, is Resistance. It’s not really thinking. It’s not rational cogitation. It’s the voice of self-sabotage. It’s the dragon. 

We will not “think our way” out of that chatter in our heads. We will not overcome it by reasoning with it or listening to it as if it were talking sense.

“Get up! Get out of bed! Do not lie there thinking! Nothing good ever came from that!’