I want to share a little starlight with you. I recently experienced the most beautiful mirror of my own gentle soul. While relaxing on the porch among my girlfriends, my dear sister Michelle asked me to lead the small group of us in a moon circle. The New Moon just graced us with her passing and we’ve been passing the idea around all weekend.
Just those few words, ‘lead us,’ struck my most tender desire to share my path. It was a true honor to be recognized for the talent I want to share the most. Better yet, this personal win required no paid advertising, and no social networking campaigns. Just authentic connections among friends. The small request felt like a whole new vista opened up around the bend in the trail. My intentions are no longer met with resistance or indifference. My heart’s song is now being drawn out by loving admirers. What more can a yogi desire? That’s a trick question. A yogi’s path is towards releasing attachment to desire, as well as suffering. Interestingly, my desire was met once I released it as a conscious attachment. Last month I put a lot of pressure on myself to be recognized as a spiritual teacher. That got me no success. So I released that stress, and then it came to me naturally. I’m still not recognized monetarily, but that’s also just a matter of perspective. The genuine enjoyment my girlfriend received met every desire for filling my heart with unconditional love and acceptance.
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Last night brought strong rain showers at 4pm, which continued through 6pm. I know the farmers market crowd holds steady rain or shine so I made my way over prepared to teach yoga at 7pm. Upon arrival, it was a ghost town. But sure enough, my regular crew was there with smiles shining strong.
My most recent yoga sequence creation involves standing and saluting each direction to begin class. Facing the western setting sun, we began by place our hands on our low back to arch our hearts into the void. Eyes closed, soaking the rays in through the third eye. Turning north, gentle arm swinging and torso twisting to feel the wind under our wings. In this standing pose, I brought up the imagery of a corn stalk in a storm, tall and loose. Feet rooted, arms swinging in the swirling winds. With our backs to the setting sun, we did three sun salutations facing east. Finally, to close our medicine wheel facing south, we activated the bottom of our feet then circled it above the Earth to join our energy with Mother Earth’s grounding flow. Then we sat and continued to awaken our awareness of our bodily sensations with a dry bath. Rubbing our long bones and muscles with rapid up/down strokes of an open palm, and warming our joints with circles around the sockets. On the front body we circled our low bellies to stimulate our stomach and liver. On our low back, we said hi to the kidneys with some warm, tight circles. My two companions and I really enjoyed this warm-up sequence. It felt like natural yoga movements with a layer of shamanic symbolism. I’m not interested in creating my own style of yoga. I am actively practicing being a model of creating your own path of yoga-or any other wellbeing ritual or spiritual practice. Today I woke up knowing my biggest priority was teaching yoga.
I worked with one student, and we both shared a heart-filled practice. I love working with Candler Park Yoga Studio because of the giant plants on the south facing wall. Every time I envision YES Yoga in the flesh, I see a wall of plants. The time is ripe to work with our greatest ally-Mother Earth! Today, I am grateful that I have a garden at my doorstep to nurture and admire. I see birds and bees visit my garden, and my palate has relished in the divine play of flavor parades from my gardens yield. For years I have acknowledged the healing and invigorating space of morning walks. Like first activity upon waking. I used to be the only solo human being out walking at 7am. Now I have a dog, and feel more grounded. It’s easy. To connect more with the Earth, spend time with her. Make your mini dates a daily ritual. Morning or evening doesn’t matter. Intention and presence make the impact. Now, I am in a space of connecting with the Earth as a conscious practice. Folding into the flow of mother nature. I interact with my plants and trees daily. I also tend to a few plots in the neighborhood community garden. That’s where I hope the beauty I create melts more than just my heart. But every beings whom shares the air of the green field. Every soul who crosses the threshold of Reynoldstown. My success today was making money teaching yoga. For so long, that was a dream. Today I’m living my dreams. And I’m thinking, what if it’s not enough? I’m paying rent, but not creating an abundance to save for the future. For dreams not yet envisioned.
Today, August 5, 2015 was a special day. I taught a class in the studio where I took my very first yoga class, eight years ago. The class was worthy of such an exquisite tittle as ‘explorative restorative;’ we went everywhere from triangle-against-the-wall pose to supported bridge pose. I found a rain stick in the studio and turned it during long moments of surrender. In the evening, I met fellow players of the BALANCE game for a pep talk from Day. He delivered some nuggets of wisdom related to the concept-becoming excellent. /// He introduced the idea that we often run a negative mental program that success is having a lot of ‘___’. We can update that with an intention of being successfully. Being has five dimension, which can be measured: Mental, Spiritual, Social, Health, Fitness. In the BALANCE game, measuring success can be done by observing who you are becoming along the way. Successful living is 20% having and 80% being. /// I’m really glad I’m attracting fellow users of the evolution of success like Day and the other BALANCE game players. It really is our choice. The more of us who chose happiness, joy, empathy-the less power goes into fear. The beauty of being success rather than having success, is that being is contagious. When is the last time a baby smiled at you and you didn’t smile back? Last night I met a new friend. I told him that I recently started blogging about my success from yoga. How yoga helped me redefined my definition of success. One key area of evolution was the object of my desire. Career, family, reputation all fell away until all the stood in the way of my own happiness was the choice to be it.
My business is called YES Yoga LLC. I like the name because it can be understood on many levels. Superficially, it is an affirmation of approval and joy, “Yes! Yoga!” If you want to dig deeper, YES is an acronym for Yoga Evolves Success. I put a lot of consideration into this slogan because yoga has transformed my life. It has evolved the type of success I now seek, and I am the happiest I have felt in my whole life.
Before I began practicing yoga, I was on the path to climb the corporate ladder with hopes to retire before my body wears out so I can do the things I enjoy. I tried hard to make the right moves, but quickly wore myself thin. I spent my twenties in a big city; commuting, working full-time, keeping my house clean, and trying to become an adult. Yoga showed me how to seek enjoyment in every moment. To believe it is possible. My yoga practice led me to set goals of climbing mountains before my body wears out. Now I measure my success in quantities of joy, like time I send working in my garden. The strength of my relationships with my family. Being true with myself. Ways I rewild myself. Two years ago, in 2013, this blog had a series called ‘My Joy.’ I wrote daily for over 100 days about what brought me joy that day. I wanted to show how easy it is, and test it as a book idea. Now I am inspired to share My Success. It’s okay to start over. The moon does every 28 days. The tides reset even faster. So to reinvent one’s self or steer towards a different career path seem more natural than being fixed in one position. Tonight, the moon is positioned among the stars that form the Libra constellation. Tomorrow it’ll be somewhere new. As I allow the moon to transit, I allow myself to travel closer to the center of my path.
Each realignment brings me closer to my highest self, my truest nature, my happiest Buddha. So under the dark veil of tonight’s New Moon, I send gratitude for a fresh start. Knowing that no effort is ever lost when knowledge is gained. Do we have time to do yoga at work? Five year ago, it was only the tech start-ups who kept their lights on twelve hours a day could afford to spare fifty minutes for stretching and breathing exercises. Today, in 2015, even the most conservative business men are considering adding Eastern mindfulness practices into their daily routine.
In our on-demand world, it's no surprise that people are looking for on-site remedies to work-induced stress. One researcher even quantified a dollar amount for how much stress costs businesses: $250 billion dollars. Stress is not the only ailment that yoga alleviates. Yoga supports overall mental and physical health. Moreover, the casual time spent with co-workers is shown to increase bonding. But don't just listen to a yoga teacher like me. Verify the benefits with university rigor. "Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles and Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that 12 minutes of daily yoga meditation for eight weeks increased telomerase activity by 43 percent, suggesting an improvement in stress-induced aging." (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-11-22/harvard-yoga-scientists-find-proof-of-meditation-benefit) YES Yoga is founded on the principle that Yoga Evolves Success. No matter what your work is, yoga helps you work smarter and find more enjoyment in your same work. The most powerful piece to practice is reframing enjoyment-as most of our lives exist only in our minds. YES Yoga will show you how to integrate physical, mental, and energetic health for total wellness. When looking for a yoga teacher to bring into your office, be sure to find one that will take time to understand the needs of your specific population. Commit to a regular day and time for at least 3 to 5 weeks. To receive inspiration for this message, I leaned up against a tree and asked for it's help in channeling the Full Moon Energy. I felt it pour from the sky above into my crown chakra and wash down my spine grounding into the Earth below. Much like the rushing current of Sweetwater Creek (pictured above) washes over the motionless rocks.
To honor the Full Moon tonight, I've invited close friends over so we can safely express our burdens, and begin the healing process. We ask the moon to help us release the habits, ideas, and things that no longer serve our highest good. For myself, I'm asking the moon to fill me with self confidence so that feelings of low self worth/esteem no longer remain in resonance with my conscious path. I open myself up to be cleansed of emotional fear. My energy flows head to toe, like watching log-jams of leaves and debris loosen and float downstream with the water's current. I'm reminded that if I don't maintain a constant flow of self love and acceptance, entropy dictates that my being will slow to a lower vibration and my awareness loses alignment with my true nature. The river gets clogged with fallen branches and litter. I use this moon's cycle as a reminder to renew my rituals of release and renewal. For a long time, I avoided astrology because it seemed too complicated to have any benefit. Eventually I met a teacher who broke down the complexities into usable bites of guidance. Once I learned the basic patterns of the moon, I saw the power in syncing my life to her cycles. I still don't reference daily movement among the constellations, but every two weeks I tune into the peak moments when grandmother moon is in her new or full phase. The pattern goes: new moon-breath life into new ideas and full moon-release old junk.
Today, Monday May 18th, the moon is beginning the 28-day cycle in her 'new' or dark phase. It's time to reflect on goals and projects you want to accomplish. Take a moment to visualize what you want to be doing in June. Then think of the steps it will take to get there, and those are your actions you need to focus on for the next two weeks. So literally, make a list. You can use words or images, paper or electronics-whatever works for you. If you are like me, you list will be spilling off the page and include ideas of all shapes and sizes... do more cardio, eat more raw foods, plan social events, etc. How does one do it all? Pace yourself. The next step is training and trusting our intuition to prioritize and focus our energy into rational and achievable goals that are within our control. Beyond our mind, beyond our ego, our soul know what are the most important actions to raise our consciousness. Try this at home: Prioritize through Intuition Sit in a quiet comfortable place with your list of what you want the new moon to help you manifest. Next, 'fluff' your list with a few things you know you don't need (this is a test to discern your intuition). Ask Great Spirit, or your higher power to guide you to invest in the projects that align with your highest good. One by one, say the goal out loud and breath into the vibration. Notice the subtle feelings, colors, or images that arise inside your heart. Record any notes. Approach each item with objectivity and detachment. Your soul will speak to you the language you understand so let the messages in without judgement of their form. The fluff items are there to help show you what a 'no' response or non-essential goal feels like. Pay equal attention to responses to these items to strengthen your understanding of how your intuition communicates with you. You can surely do this exercise any day of the month. The added bonus of trying it on the new moon is receiving the strength and support of aligning your body with the astral body of the moon as she too begins a new cycle of growth and fulfillment. |
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