Fear,Faith,Fly,Yoga

When you have come to the edge

Of all light that you know

And are about to drop off into the darkness

Of the unknown,

Faith is knowing

One of two things will happen:

There will be something solid to stand on or

You will be taught to fly.

~ Patrick Overton ~

Imagine

"Imagine we wake up and find that everyone has forgiven everything there was to forgive and instead of recycling the past, we could at last live FULLY in the present? We would all breath a sigh of relief. The atmosphere would be happier and many people would discover the wonder of living in the present moment instead of constantly investing huge parts of themselves in reliving events that are long past. Forgiveness is possible. It is NOT the same as condoning. It means not feeding anger for a wrong or slander. Forgiveness is the inner act of making peace with the past and of finally closing accounts."

We have all been hurt and had our intuition diminished by holding onto old pain and negative thought. 
The work of openly moving back into the flow  and moving  our minds away from the distraction and drama towards the light.  

Anti-Victim

                                           Your life is the way it is because of YOU.  

Can you imagine a world in which everyone holds themselves accountable for the quality of their life?  I dream of a day where no one places blame on anyone else for the circumstances of their life. There is no longer a victim mentality or as Rusty Wells from Urban Flow puts it, "Yoga is the anti-victim mentality."  

When I first figured this out as part of yogic teachings the thing I was most blown away by was this meant I had to work at my own development, happiness and spiritual growth.  In yoga this is known as, "Sadhana", we work daily as a practice on our own inner evolution. This evolution is where we take responsibility moment by moment for what we say, how we act, how we breath, what we think. 

Being accountable for the quality of your life makes it clear that we are living and learning from our experiences moment to moment because true living of life only takes place in the present.  We can all too easily fall prey to lamenting the past and pushing blame on things that have expired or forecasting some neurotic tendency towards the future.  If we are taking full responsibility then we are living on purpose right now.  Everything we do is on purpose or with conscious intent.  Even something like kindness is active.

Kindness takes work. Taking responsibility for one’s life takes work.  But the good news is at the end of the day we can give ourselves a pat on the back.

In a yoga class  we hold ourselves accountable pose to pose and at the end we celebrate by resting in shavasana. 

"We show up burn brightly,live passionately,hold nothing back and when the moment is over,when our  work is done we step back and let go" Meditations from the mat

The best part is that how we practice yoga eventually becomes how we live our lives!
 

Hot Yoga

When I first started teaching yoga, a student walked into my class and said, "Can we turn the air-conditioning on?" I had to explain that the room was actually heated for many reasons.

1. Heat warms up the muscles, making your body stretch more easily, which can actually prevent injuries such as pulled muscles.
2. Heat makes you sweat, and sweating is beneficial to the body in helping to remove toxins.
3. Practicing yoga in a heated room elevates the heart rate..burns more calories and speeds up the metabolism
4. Heat also helps your body relax,improves breathing and focuses the mind which develops better mental concentration

You will be amazed at how much we sweat while practicing in a heated room,all that sweat can make your yoga mat pretty slippery.So make sure you have a towel ,yogitoes or a yoga rug with you to place over your yoga mat.

Listen to your body and take breaks if you need to.If you begin to feel dizzy or overheated,find child's pose,take a water break,step out of the room and cool down if you need to.

Make sure you drink lots of water before,during and after class.I recommend Ultima which is great to put in your water to prevent dehydration.

It may take several consistent practices before your body gets used to the heat,don 't give up..if you find that the heated yoga is not for you..try a non heated yoga class.

Guilt Game

Last week I was heading out to take a yoga class....Learning slowly to take more time for myself.AsI am leaving ,kissing my daughter on her cheek,she begins to cry.You know that cry that rips your heart out.As I reassure her that mommy will return shortly she cries even  more holding out her arms to go with me.

I take a sigh,look at the clock and  hand her to my husband ....shut the door behind me and the game begins.......The guilt game.

Did you know that guilt is one of the most common forms of stress in our society.

Why do we feel guilty ?Because guilt has been associated with caring .Well if you don't feel guilty about leaving your crying child then you must not care.The truth is that guilt has nothing what so ever to do with caring.

Guilt is a learned behavior.Throughout our growing years we were conditioned to respond to good and bad...right and wrong.Guilt was enforced through the reward and punishment system.That was the time we began to identify with our actions and we began to start pleasing others first so we would not feel guilty.

Are we teaching our children the guilt game?

A value judgment placed on them instead of there actions.

"You be a good girl for mommy"

"Thank you for being a good boy today"

"If you do this for mommy..then you will get this"What if  they do not do it..does that mean they are bad,they do not get a reward.Do we punish them with our actions holding back love,being disappointed in who they are instead of there actions .How do we stop playing the guit game with our children?

I think it goes back to loving our children unconditionally no matter what they do getting away  from good or bad , reward and punishment and teaching them that it just is..no labels.Leading them down a path of unconditional love and total self acceptance.

Teaching them of course about the difference between right and wrong....not attaching anything else to it.

A favorite quote of mine:

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Kahil Gibran

Fearless

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we... give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." ~Marianne Williamson

Embrace Imperfection

Until we value seeing more real representations of ourselves as ambassadors of our beloved practice, we'll continue to see images that reflect our current impossible ideals. These impossible ideals come from an ego that tells us we're not good enough, we're not skinny enough, we're not flexible enough, we're not "whatever" enough. It's possible we'd rather see the image of perfection because it makes us believe we can achieve it than to be confronted with the reality and try to unconditionally accept imperfection.
This is the challenge. Yoga challenges us to see what's right about our bodies rather than what is wrong. It asks us to be happy with what is rather than what needs to be changed. Yoga instills acceptance... in our large thighs, cellulite, wrinkles and tight hamstrings, rather than the overwhelming and all-consuming desire to try and fit ourselves into some box that just isn't, well, just isn't us.
Surely it would be more helpful for those not at this point yet, or even for those who have not stepped not the mat yet, to see that yoga can allow us to be completely happy with ourselves. We get to enjoy our lives without obsession or a feeling of incompleteness. When we're happy with who we are, our ideals shift back into a mode of acceptance and appreciation, rather than a state of anticipation and inadequacy.