One trick that is sure to improve my mood at any time of day is to take a walk outside. I like to get it in as soon as possible after I wake up. It's a nice transition from the comfort of sleep to the chaos of the waking world. My yoga mentor also says that walking is a gentle twist and thats why it is helpful for metabolism and digestion to walk after meals. Finally, I most enjoy taking the opportunity to talk to trees and check in on any uncertain situations in life.
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It feels good to be wanted. Even by strangers who only know the sound of your voice. I teach online classes to professionals about green buildings and sustainable operations. The topic is near and dear to my heart and my passion comes through when I'm teaching. Apparently, it's contagious. When I log on and my students excitedly say hello and that they are glad I am back, my entire day is lifted. It surprises me a little. And it feels like bragging when I share it. Bottom line is, I feel it, they feel it, it's undeniable that genuine enthusiasm is contagious.
Living in the South, snow, sleet, and ice all in one day is kind of 'a big deal.' If you live in Atlanta, like my father, rush hour traffic is also 'your worst nightmare'-one that you relive every day. And when these two worlds collide... watch out! My father was one of hundreds of everyday Joe's who got caught up in Atlanta's ice-induced gridlock nightmare that lasted 72 hours. It happens about once every three years and gets progressively worse each time. But this blog is not about climate change or urban planning and the unique opportunities available at their intersection. I digress. Today is about the joy in expressing the most basic feelings of genuine concern for a loved one's comfort, safety, and well being. A casual phone call to my mother revealed that my Dad had spent the night in Home Depot after eight hours of sitting on a clogged highway. It was such a foreign idea reserved for such terrifying events where passer-by's need to seek refuge from tornadoes, zombies, or terrorists attacks. I had to call my Dad and check in. Now it's my style to talk to people like they live the same lifestyle as I, and get them to react as if I assumed they would behave like me. So I asked my Dad if was meditating to pass the time and remain calm. He said he was praying-did that count? Yes, 100%! Connecting your conscious thoughts with the faith and belief that an energy source stronger than you is available to help co-create your desired outcome of reality is opening yourself up to the grace and power of the unknown. I've never heard my father talk about his prayer life before today. I've even heard him talk about my mother's spiritual life on multiple occasions, but never his own. Sometimes it feels weird when something great has to come out of something yucky. Nonetheless, when I expressed my empathy for his situation, he showed me that we are more alike than I knew. Believe in the yin and the yang. I asked my boyfriend, 'What makes you feel like a man?' -Holding you. Protecting you. It makes me feel like a woman too. He asked me, 'What kind of protection do you need the most?' -Emotional grounding. I knew right away. And I'm guessing I'm not alone. Admitting I enjoy the protection of a man does not make me any less of a feminist. If you ask a wise woman about the Age of Aquarius she will say that the scales have been tipped towards the matriarch and men's voluntary purpose is to protect the woman. And what happens in that soft, yin, feminine space that needs protection? Dreaming. Visions of love soaring so high that our 3D earth appears rendered obsolete and useless. True love and true nature exist in the realms unconcerned with timeliness or economic feasibility. The yang needs the yin to dream every night for their shared success, and the yin needs the yang to transmute the energy in their shared reality. Telling someone the truth that I thought they were amazing. I didn't know it felt so good. This was not, 'boyfriend, I think you're amazing.' It was, 'You, fellow member of homo sapien sapien, my heart feels your heart and we are one. There is one light, one love, pulsating within all of us, and we are here to do awesome things. I am in awe of your potential and your current practice. You are amazing.' What if we acted this way towards everyone we met? We don't have to get quite so heart-circle expressive about it, but imagine the simple thought of, 'I believe in you.' It's also a great exercise if you need to transmute some unloving feelings. Bring the person or object of conflict into your awareness and use your heart to say 'I believe in you, I think you are awesome.' Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week because it means I teach a yoga class, and get washed with loving feelings of deep connection and growth. It's 'easy' to find joy on days like today. The lesson I shared with my students today was about Prana or Chi/Qi/Ether/Energy. The American English vocabulary lacks an adequate description for the divine nature of the concept. In a Shamanic setting, I may use the word Great Spirit. In a Yogic setting, I use Prana. So what is it? And what does it do? Prana is the life-giving current flowing through all things at all times. It is in every person, rock, tree, and hamburger. It's even in the air. You can't see it, taste it, smell it, hear or touch it. Like a belief in god, it requires faith in it's presence and power. Like a prayer to the Holy Spirit, you can know it, and you can ask it for whatever you need. I let my yoga students know that when you breathe in, take in oxygen with your physical body and prana with your subtle body. If you need relief from muscle strain, visualize the prana as white light easing the discomfort as your breath moves the healing energy through your body. If you need to energize mid-day, step into the sun and ask the sun's prana to stimulate all your cells and fill your mind with patient alertness. When we do yoga at the beach, I like to ask the wave prana to help release anything no longer serving me. Thats the beauty of subtle energy-you don't need to be specific! The importance is having the best intention. If we tell the prana of the universe (with our hearts) what we want to manifest in our lives, we can create abundance Some of you may now be asking, 'What is so easy about making yourself happy? How do you start?' Get to know yourself. The long term goal is to know what makes you happy and create those circumstances. In the short term, you can share the positive feelings of someone else receiving what makes them happy. Basically, the fastest way to make yourself happy...is to make other people happy. I spent my whole day Saturday making other people happy. I live with my sister right now, and I know she appreciates it when I tidy up so she can come home to a neat and clean abode. So I put in extra time in my morning to set up that smile for my sister. While I'm working, I imagine the relief in her face when she opens the front door to see a toy-free floor and the lightness she feels when she can start a meal in a fresh kitchen. I want to be around her when she is feeling happy and free. She jokingly asked me to 'get the house ready.' It's an inside joke about having a beer in the fridge when her husband comes home from a long time out on the road. I fill up the fridge because it will make him have an extra bounce in his step when he gets home and he may be extra sweet to my sister. I imagine their warm embrace as I swipe my debit card at the grocery store. I picked up 2 big bags of chips too because its always nice to get an extra surprise on top of a surprise. (I believe nature calls this phenomena a double rainbow.) This was all before noon. Then I helped a friend move boxes into a storage unit. More fulfillment of other people's dreams :) The evening ended in an interesting lesson. Two friends got in an argument, one left the party, and the third asked open-endedly, 'What just happened?' I replied back to the remaining 2 individuals what I thought was an objective account of the interaction. What I learned was that my friend did not desire an objective account, rather subjective sympathy to the remaining person's side of the story. What I hoped would make one person happy, really made the other sad. Bottom line, don't get involved in other people's arguments. How do you win at making other people happy? Make sure you are fulfilling a desire they ask for. And remember that you are sharing the emotions of the outcome, so use a loving intention and genuine compassion. The law of attraction. The mirror of the universe has been kind to me lately. She reflects back all the most beautiful and genteel emotions. This is the law of attraction-your thoughts attract like-minded persons and ideas. Sometimes I engage in this activity without realizing the nature of the game I'm playing In the spirit of my birthday, I was moved to solicit advice from people I met who had lived my age of 31 years. Two responses really stuck in my memory. A woman said, "Be more open minded and less judgmental." I thought, I practice those everyday already, so I'm in the clear. I knew in my gut that I had already received those gifts of awareness of suffering and the complimentary compassion. At separate occasion, a man said, "be happy." He even added on to clarify that he now lives by this advice every year and every day. This one floored me because it was from a co-worker who I knew little of any spiritual inclinations. I think his is the church of self sufficiency. To meet all your physical needs in nature is only one feat when there are also mental and emotional needs that must be fulfilled as far as self awareness and purpose. From the mind of an engineer, the most elegant path to a self sufficient system is relying on renewable resources that are abundant at your location in time and space and work in harmony with efficient systems to generate the end result. So how does one create a sustainable emotional state of happiness? Create it yourself! At every moment, where ever you are! What kind of people do you think you will attract? ;) Am I supposed to say it's my birthday? 2014 has been full of joy and today was super saturated. I tried something I have never done before-a yoga class with a new instructor at a new studio. It was my treat to myself. My birthday was not always a source of divine love. I used to punish myself for failing to reach expectations like a birthday party with 20 friends or even a few special words from a special person. I didn't take responsibility for holding up my own mirror to say, "I'm awesome. I love being me!" Fast forward to now, Making myself have a great day is my number one objective. This means prioritizing the activities and awareness-es that fill me with love and joy. This birthday yoga class turned into a synchronicity telling me to return to this place. First, I received a $4 discount for being a yoga teacher. There was a free seated 12 minute meditation after the class, which rocked my world. While chatting with the owner on my way out, she gifted me a token to return for a free class-and I didn't even tell her it was my birthday! It was not the other worldly coincidence that makes you question reality; more like an angel reaching down to say, 'Keep it up! We support you.' |
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