Santosha (Contentment)

Tonight I put on a favourite, soulful album and yoga'd for the pure joy of moving and breathing.  I didn't think about teaching or alignment.  I didn't care what the pose looked like.  I just closed my eyes and felt my way through each lift, push and twist.

The lesson:  Live without regard for what it looks like and go with how it feels.

There is so much magic when you let go of all that other junk.  This is where freedom lives.  Now.

A Pose

There are so many beautiful ways to express yourself.  How are you finding expression in this life?

Time

Dear Universe, I am open to direction.  A

Older

The last few days I just can't get enough George Michael.  Tonight I'm listening to his album "Older".  It was released in 1996 and apart from having heard a couple of the tracks before, most of the music on this cd is new territory for me.  I LOVE IT.

If you are so inclined you can have a listen here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp7JDdiUwuQ

Think About It

In your life right now, what are you at the beginning of, in the middle of and nearing the end of?  We are at all times, simultaneously, in each of these 3 stages of being.

The Yoga Sutras

The Yoga Sutras were written down somewhere between  500BC and 250BC by Patanjali (Pa-tawn-ja-lee). Patanjali is considered to be the organizer and recorder of the Sutras not the originator.  While the practice of Yoga predates Patanjali by 2500 years, he is still considered in the modern world to be the Father of Yoga.  He knew and understood Yoga to be first and foremost the scientific practice of understanding and mastering the mind.

Patanjali wrote down 196 Sutras (ideas or threads) on the practice of Yoga.  These threads comprise a road map, leading one to the ultimate goal of Samadhi or absorption with the Divine.  Some have called this place super-consciousness or enlightenment.  You cannot travel outwardly to Samadhi, it is a journey through the inner workings of one's own self.  Do not be fooled, the terrain can be rough and at times down right obnoxious!  Over and over again, you meet yourself round corners and stumble through the obstacles of who you think you are... only to realize that it was equivalent to a dream.  What you always thought "was" really wasn't after all.  To ad insult to our injured ego, Yoga asks us to accept all that is, as it is.  To become the Observer not the Judger.  Further still, be the observer of the Observer.  At first it all sounds kinda crazy... until you begin to see... begin to become the observed and the Observer.

The first Sutra is the introduction and tells us that what we are about to read is an exposition on Yoga.  The second Sutra says that Yoga is the restraint of the modification of the mind-stuff.  In Sanskrit it is written as chitta vritti nirodhah.  When I think about chitta, which translated means mind-stuff, it sounds a lot like the word chatter.  Vritti means to swirl, go in circles at a dizzying pace.  So to practice Yoga one is committing to restraining the chattering vortex of the un-restful mind.  The next 194 Sutras are a how to guide on bringing calm to the storm and liberating one's true self from one's mind.

While Yoga is highly beneficial for the body, all physical practice is meant to aid in the focusing, cleaning and clearing of our thought processes and assuaging the endless chatter and changing thoughts that can swirl incessantly.  Yoga is quite simply about transcending the mind.  To transcend we must practice.

Peace

Whatever the 'thing' is, you have to make peace with it.

Peace is not a truce.  Peace has no room for anger or resentment.  This is why peace isn't easy, why sometimes we have to come to the end of ourselves, wear ourselves out with resistance to the 'thing' until there is nothing left, not even resistance.  When every effort fails us, every turn thwarts our progression, anger has cresendo'd and can no longer be sustained...  Fatigue takes its place.  Change seems absolutely beyond the realm of possibility.  We break down.  We give up.  We stop caring and say to God, FINE, DO IT HOWEVER YOU WANT.

In that exact moment, you make peace.  The door swings open.

After a year long hiatus from work, which included more yoga hours than I can count and a bit of world travel, I'm back in the grind.

And oh how gritty I am finding it.  I'm tired.  Physically, emotionally and soul-suckingly tired.

Grace, where art thou?  For I need you every hour.

What are You Letting In?

I have discovered that life is full of whatever I "let in".  Sometimes I'm conscious of it and sometimes I'm not.  The goal is to keep expanding your awareness of your state of being.  See yourself through the eyes of the watcher.

New Perspective

Everything has a progression.  Life doesn't manifest as a finished product.  The starting place is the seed, the thought, the potential, the idea that then needs to be nurtured in order to grow.  So be grateful for the seeds and be patient with yourself.  Give both room to grow and bloom.

Embrace Change

Have you noticed that the thinking about a thing which we perceive as challenging or difficult usually seems a whole lot scarier than the actual doing or performing of the thing?  Remarkably, our anxiety seems to come before or after we have done the thing we thought we were so afraid of, not during the action itself.   Every time we have the courage to do whatever the thing may be, we expand ourselves toward a new comfort zone, we are on our way to a new normal.  But to fully get there we must let go of the fear.  Open to the possibilities that change is offering us.  It can be good, if we but allow it.

Simple Pleasures

What are your favorite simple pleasures in life? Things that don't cost much money, if any at all. Things that give you BIG emotional bang for you buck.  Brings you comfort on rainy days.  Makes you sing out loud when no one is watching.  That even if (God forbid) you lost it all tomorrow, you could still hold these indulgences in your heart.

There is much in life that I LOVE.  Good food and wine, travel and the Lexus RX 350.  ;)  

But... when I really think about it, for today anyway, here are my top 5 Simple Pleasures:

• Cooking.  I have discovered that I love to prepare and transform healthy food into something delicious.  While working in the kitchen at the Satchidananda Ashram last fall, it struck me full force how food brings  intimacy into our lives.   The kitchen can be a place of camaraderie and shared purpose, then once the tasks at hand are completed we can break bread together, strengthening both our bodies and our bonds.  
• Brushing my teeth.  I'm a little OCD when it comes to dental habits.  For about 12 years now I have been using a Sonicare brush and floss regularly.  I cannot think of a more pleasant habit to begin and end each day with.
• Yoga.  While I do enjoy teaching yoga, my own practice is what keeps me sane.  There is something about the quiet of my own mat, rolled out in the middle of the living room floor, that breaks my heart chakra wide open.  Here, I can bring myself into a sacred space, leaving behind any and all thoughts of what others might think and move into a flow that fits organically with what my body wants on a particular day.  I especially love swan diving from Mountain pose into a forward bend, arms stretched wide, freedom and bliss to experience the movement of life.
• A calm day with the sun on my face.  Need I say more?  
• Clean sheets on a comfortable bed, window open.  Even better is if those sheets have been hung to dry on a country clothes line!  

So what about you?  What are your simple pleasures that make you feel rich in spirit?  

Namaste.

Welcome to this little corner of my virtual world.   And suddenly a childhood verse comes to mind:

"I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter his courts with praise.  I will say this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice for he has made me glad."

This is a blog about me giving thanks and letting the magic of this mystery called Grace get a deeper hold in my heart.  And to this I think, how can we deny so great a salvation?  For indeed, it is Grace that saves us!

And to this I say, Om Shanti Shanti Shanti, Om Peace.  Namaste.