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- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc)
Go Out and Take a Walk, Please
Perhaps it is too simple a remedy. We’ve been convinced by the great advertising machine of capitalism to want our treatments to cost something, to be something to complain about, to be an instant fix. Wouldn’t it be better just to take a little time every day for our health and good cheer? Here’s to taking a walk in whatever the weather (almost).
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
An Example of How One Door Closing Opened Another (and Article in Yoga Journal)
I think snow can be beautiful and enjoy the hush when it first falls, but it’s not my favorite thing, which was one of the reasons I settled this far south (yes, DC is pretty far south for a native New Yorker). Last winter with its record snow falls felt at times as a seemingly endless exercise in looking for the good and trying to respond in the highest. Among other fallout of the snow, the February blizzard grounded my flight to San Francisco where I was supposed to go to celebrate the start of John Friend’s 2010 workshop schedule and to visit friends. Instead, I was home shoveling. With the arthritis in my spine and some other old injuries to groin and shoulder, I had to be extra careful with my alignment so that shoveling could be an enjoyable work out instead of a dreary and potentially debilitating task that I was doing instead of playing with friends and yogis in San Francisco. Being grounded at home and needing to be in alignment with the shoveling, led me to blog about Anusara alignment for snow shoveling. Putting this advice out there led to an editor at Yoga Journal discovering my blog and interviewing me for a short article that (I haven’t seen it yet–waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail, but a friend who was reading the most recent edition at Willow Street’s Silver Spring studio gave me the heads up last night) is in December’s magazine (page 22).
While missing out on a vacation due to weather is not exactly a momentous disappointment or life challenge, this story is an example of how we never know what life is going to bring our way. We cannot choose what life gives us, but we can choose how we respond, and how we respond will change how the path unfolds. I persist in the yoga and meditation and share my teachings and experiences because it has been so helpful in opening my perspective and finding more delight and opportunity in life. In that regard, one of the reasons I challenge myself on the mat, inviting myself into places of discomfort and effort and staying with them until I find ease and even delight, is to help me be able to see the good and to respond in the healthiest and most optimal way on and off the mat. While I love sometimes just to do the easeful poses, what has brought more strength and joy to all of my life is going deep into the hard places and staying with them.
Friday Night Out on the Town (and Nataraja)
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
“Remember Thich Nhat Hanh”
My boss with whom I’ve worked for over 20 years and who has an unfortunate tendency to get agitated (gentle understatement here) at the workplace has just discovered Thich Nhat Hanh. My boss was intrigued by Thich Nhat Hanh’s suggestion that when you find yourself getting angry, “don’t.” Knowing that he is still going to have to take action in response to the things that tick him off (and, as I would add, that not getting angry is distinct from disengaging, failing to act, or being apathetic), my boss still invited us to say to him when we see him getting worked up, “remember Thich Nhat Hanh.” I liked that. I like that he recognizes a need to change and grow and is starting to take steps after years of appearing not to be aware of the impact of his tendencies on himself and his co-workers.
One of the best ways I know to shift our reactiveness is to develop a steady meditation practice. If you don’t already have one, I invite you to begin to develop a daily meditation practice, which could include conscious breathing or visualizations. If your practice is only sporadic, notice how much better it is when your meditation is part of your daily routine.
