Losing Focus

In yoga this morning, it felt like everything was falling into place: my breathing, a mantra ( something unusual for me), my practice.  Then something  clicked, and it dawned on me how well it was all working!  I think I got excited or something.  It was as though the realization threw me off!  I kept trying to get back to my breath and mantra and regain my previous rhythm. The focus and ease returned intermittently but never to the same extent. Interestingly, my lingering feeling about the class, though, is my memory of the absolute high I felt when I realized  I was experiencing "meditation in motion."

Yin and Yang

Confronting stuff. Makes me think of the Yin and Yang symbol,
black and white and all one.

Thank you

Bruce

How to Blog

Don't worry. Just write it. If you are thinking it, we want to read it. If you have experienced it, we want to know about it. If a thought pops into your head, please share it! The blog is for simple sharing of the heart. One sentence works. Don't worry about grammar. Don't worry about sounding silly. Don't worry about being philosophical or "smart". Just be on the blog, burping up your thoughts and moments of inspiration.

Just blog... as soon as possible... as often as you can... We are all waiting to hear your voice!:)--Charry

Thank goodness

Thank goodness for friends. They keep you out of the muck. They help you see your strengths and encourage the work with your weaknesses.

The eagle eye and open heart of a friend is not to be underestimated.

Of course, at the end of the day, you are left with just yourself.

So you better keep practicing... to give back to your friends.

Or just for yourself. Because you deserve your own greatness!

Sometimes you need a friend's shoulder to cry on, to set you straight, to give you the honesty you deserve.

Become your own best friend through meditation.

Sit and befriend what is already there for you.

Be receptive to your own greatness!

--Charry

Friday!

Stay with the practice. Make the practice feel good so that you look forward to doing it. Like Friday! Look forward to your practice like you look forward to Friday!--Charry

Week left

A flurry of emails from my fellow Columbia retreatants have been blasting around the globe. The deep sense of community and shared experience is palpable and intensely kind. Imagine if we greeted one another, every time we met, with pure loving kindness.

Take the mantra OM.

What if you opened your heart and connected to the deepest, clearest energetic channel within you? What if that channel flowed with pristine mountain water? Bubbling, gushing, moving through you in a way that you couldn't stop it even if you tried.

What would it feel like to be literally "struck awake" by the vibration and sound of "OM"?

Try it.

The next time you sit. Start with OM. Don't be afraid. Be receptive. All is coming with practice.

--Charry

Travel Yoga Mat Recommendations?

Hi there,

I'm determined to stay committed and practice on some upcoming trips - any recommendations on a travel mat? I found a few on amazon.com

Are they worth it or should I just bring my regular mat?

Thanks!

M.

the cycle of sacrifice and renewal

Annie McKee's article "Balance Yourself: Not Work and Life" in the Huffpost Healthy Living section caught my attention enough this afternoon to read it not once, but twice. In particular, the concept of the sacrifice syndrome and power stress gave me pause.

Some staggering stats on stress:
--A Google search on stress results in 73,000 new or updated websites with news articles, blogs, magazines, programs, etc. on stress in life
--A survey of business leaders found the net increase in work-related stress increased 28 percent globally in 2011
--A HR organization study showed for the first time in the organization's history that stress was the most common cause of employee absence

How can we manage the cycle of sacrifice and renewal?
Prioritize well being.
Start with mindfulness.
Focus on hope.
Exercise compassion.
Balance ourselves.

Namaste
Sandee


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/annie-mckee/life-balance_b_1284613.html?ref=healthy-living

Kung Fu Panda

My son is loving kung fu right now thanks to Po the Kung Fu Dragon Warrior Panda. He was just watching Kung Fu Panda 2 and is fascinated by a scene in which Tigress holds out her hand for Po to practice punching. He winds up and lands a full blown punch into her hand. She stands totally unphased. He, meanwhile, crumbles to the ground. "Whoa!" he says in astonishment. "How did you do that?" Tigress replies: "Training- punching an iron bar over and over... for 20 years. Now I don't feel anything."

So, as I was walking my son to school today Maddox says: "Tigress can't feel anything. Not even if it's good."

Hmmm... Whoa.... Yes....

Here we are training ourselves, mind, body and spirit not to feel pain. But, in the end, we are also numbing ourselves and training ourselves out of being able to feel and receive pleasure!

Notice what your practice is training you for. You are your own best teacher. Listen carefully. Watch receptively. Be open to the pain and the pleasure.

--Charry

Teachable Moments

I read the LY365 email this morning and then minutes later received an email from my Dad, who ironically retired after a 35 year teaching career. I am sharing the message in his email, since it ties directly to the message of teachable moments.

Best
Sandee

The Window from which We look

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.
The next morning while they are eating breakfast, The young woman
sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside.
"That laundry is not very clean", she said.
"She doesn't know how to wash correctly.
Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, The young woman
would make the same comments.
About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean
wash on the line and said to her husband:

"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.

I wonder who taught her this."
The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our
windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on
the purity of the window through which we look!

Meditation is...

“We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.”
~Alan Watts

Best,
Sandee

Tonglen Practice?

Any questions?--Charry

Meditation Practice

Remember that this meditation thing, this full wheel back bend thing, this full arm balance thing, this split thing, this ____ thing is not going to happen over night. In fact, it may never "happen" at all. What will happen though, with a lot of "will" power, is improvement.

What if you were really angry with someone? What if someone really "hurt" you? So, in your wisdom from this year of Living your Yoga you sit in Loving Kindness meditation and send that little rat your loving kindness. May they be happy (ugh). May they be healthy (grr). May they be at peace (really?)...

So, you deem it fruitless and frustrating.

But the magic sauce isn't made instantaneously. The awakening and the softening doesn't happen with one little metta meditation. Go back to the Buddha. If it took him umpteen days and nights to become fully enlightened, why would you even put that much pressure on yourself to think that you could transform hate/anger/resentment/rage/guilt/grief into anything close to love in one sitting?

Of course, no effort is ever wasted... so sit. And sit. And sit. And sit. Ad nauseum, or maybe ad happiness. Each time trying to improve. Each time doing your best.

Be receptive.

--Charry

Compassion, selflessness, generosity

"If you want others to be happy,
practice compassion.
If you want to be happy,
practice compassion."
--The Dalai Lama

In my inbox this morning, I read today's LY 365 email "Dalai Lama" and then I read Seth Godin's Blog post "The Sad Irony of Selfishness" http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/02/the-sad-irony-of-selfishness.html and Sasha's Generosity Day Experiment http://sashadichter.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/generosity-day-in-graphs/

Compassion, selflessness, generosity....all good!

Namaste
Sandee

Emotional Equations

I have never been a math whiz, but I must say I find of interest Chip Conley's new book "Emotional Equations:Simple Truth's for Creating Happiness + Success."

Making mathematical equations out of emotions is a fascinating concept:

Joy = Love -Fear
Happiness = Wanting What You Have/Having What You Want
Regret = Disappointment + Responsibility
Authenticity = Self-Awareness x Courage
Wisdom = The Square Root of Experience

Check out the book trailer at the clip below:


Best
Sandee

Courage

"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest." ~Maya Angelou

After reading Thursday's LY365 post on Couer, I came across the above quote. Each day we are faced with choices--play it safe....take a risk...hover somewhere in between. If we all have potential, then how do we achieve courage. One thing is for certain, it is not the gift of the Wizard. It is digging deep within oursleves.

Namaste,
Sandee

Hello from Miami

About to head to destination yoga week with Andrei. I will be sending everyone all the benefits of the practice! There will be many, so stay tuned, turn your antennas up and sit for as long as you can find time in your day for the next 7 days!

--Charry

Letting Go:The Power Of Closing Doors

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”―Joseph Campbell

I read a blog post this morning that really resonated with me.
http://www.positivelypositive.com/2012/02/05/letting-go/

As I read the post, I reflected of how "we" are conditioned in so many ways to play it safe, to not to let go, to suck it up and work harder, to not close doors, to toughen up and accept that it is just the way it is...

This post gave me fresh perspective on the fact that there are options as long as we let go and consider what is true to our heart.

Namaste,
Sandee

Layers

In response to the dominant theories of behaviorism and psychoanalysis a group of  psychologistis in the  60's developed  the humanistic theory of psychology. This view of people included the importance of one's subjective experiences and desire for self-actuallization. The early humanistic psychologists, including Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, described the "layers" of the human experience. Check out this youtube video clip from the original movie, Shrek. Here Shrek talks about layers and the stories that interfere with our abiltiy to see clearly and experience others accurately.
Have fun.
Elena
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZnztwiWZo4

Frog Pose

Have you ever been in a pose that is so uncomfortable you think you are going to get sick to your stomach?

Have you ever been in a pose and you can't even think about breathing?

When something is so intensely uncomfortable, how can you even begin to find softening?

Playing at the edge, means going to a place where you are face to face with discomfort and you are able to either back off to find breath and release, or be where you are and soften, shift and move deeper.

The edge is a knife's edge, or the razor's edge, of the wisdom traditions. We are practicing sensitivity to what is arising in this moment, as each moment unfolds.

If you need a pose to practice finding your edge and playing with it, try Frog Pose.:)

Have a great Friday!--Charry

Be your own amazing

"You are as amazing as you let yourself be. Let me repeat that. You are as amazing as you let yourself be!" ~Elizabeth Alraune

This has been a heavy week of contemplation for me. I now understand that with all that thinking came self inflicted restriction of the power of amazing. I resolve to work to make letting go my friend.

Be you.
Be beautiful.
Own your story.
Embrace your uniqueness.
Stop underestimating yourself.
Stop punishing yourself for your mistakes.
Practice self love over self hate.
Be true to your voice.
Love more.
Feel more.
Pursue your dreams with wild abandon.
Never give up hope.

Be your own amazing!

Namaste,
Sandee