An important clue comes your way through a dream, so make sure that you take some extra time to recall what went on at night. If nothing comes to mind, you might have already absorbed the lesson. ~ Sagittarius Horoscope for July 28, 2009

The other night I dreamed this weird yoga dream and thought nothing of it until I read my entertaining horoscope.  The dream, which I thought was just slightly on the strange side but left me feeling subtly lighter and freer when I awoke, was one of my lucid teaching dreams.  I chewed on the images my subconscious conjured up…

I’m in yoga teacher training and I’m in some funky pose  – a cross between triangle and extended side angle – a pose that I simply “flopped” into.  My right side was crushed – there was no space in my rib cage and I was critical of my stance and just going through each piece of the pose.  But the feeling I felt was that I wasn’t critical of myself…I was just aware…and analyzing as if I were the teacher offering gentle corrections to myself.  My own teacher was there and I remember looking at her and saying, “see…see how my right side is crushed…it’s hard to get the breath there…”

I came out of the pose and then went back into it, only I took my time.  I didn’t just “flop” into it.  I found tadasana and allowed my heart to lead my body into my fullest expression of the pose.  For whatever reason, my teacher was on the floor checking out my feet (this is the slightly weird part) and she had a piece of paper in her hand.  I glanced down and she wrote “4″ next to my name.  I saw that someone else had the number “5″ written by their name, somehow I knew she was grading me. 

I looked at my teacher and sort of half-smiled, “I’m cool with a four…I’m not aiming for perfection.”

I awoke with this lighter feeling in my heart.  Like I didn’t have to conquer the world or be better than someone else.  I just had to be.  

Wow…I don’t need to be perfect today.  

As a recovering over-achiever who used to think I had to be “the best,” this was quite a freeing feeling – I don’t have to strive for  perfection today, tomorrow or next week.  I’m perfect just as I am…I can be a four today, a five tomorrow, a two on Friday.  It’s all good. 

I knew when I emailed my teacher about my dream she’d say “but honey, you missed the point – you are perfect just as you are.”  I get that…well, my head does.  My ego needed to see the message in my dream and realize that the younger me who needed to over achieve for approval can let go.  I’m here already…and I probably have been for a very long time.

Today, I’m letting go of my quest for perfection.  I’m just going to be.

What can you let go of today so you can just be?