Sun Signs and Moonbeams

Today people across the U.S. will witness a rare astronomical event: a total solar eclipse.

The eclipse occurs during the New Moon in the sign of Leo. As I've read from multiple sources, the astrological environment right now is extremely fertile for intention-setting connecting to your highest purpose.

Solar eclipses are not a dimming of light. They are a brief masking of the light source which still maintains its full luminousness in the background.

If we look at the sun and moon as representations of yin and yang energy, the yin moon correlates to our inner self, and the yang sun correlates to our outer, expressive self. When we overlay this theme of total solar eclipse, we can conceptualize the inner self, our desires and intentions, passing in front of what we typically shine out into the world, almost like an unavoidable pronouncement of who we are inside.

August is my birth month, and as with my sun sign, Leo, I feel my outer self transitioning into a brief but total eclipse. Even my birthday this year was more interior than years past. I spent it at home, sipping champagne in a hammock, surrounded by close loved ones.. very mellow, and wonderful. So, this is a short insight, but I hope to have more on the other side. Until then... ♡

Body, Mind & Heart

Gosh, where do I begin with this one? As I perused the themes of my life this past month, I've realized that each big thing going on right now exists primarily in one area of the body/mind/emotion triad.

Since my last writing, I've had knee surgery (very much body-related), my partners and I have been busy trying to get our new yoga studio space ready to open (mostly mental at this point), and I went to West Palm Beach, Florida to visit the Raja Yoga Academy teacher training (heart/emotion-oriented).

Part of what yoga teaches us is the integration of the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of our nature, that we can balance these three things. (Emotion is sometimes in a gray area or overlooked when talking about the role it has in our individual balance. Sometimes it's lumped in as mental/emotional in psychological terminology. In some esoteric teachings, there's reference to the body/mind/spirit connection, absent of emotion. In my understanding, the spirit encompasses all three, and since we are talking in material terms for now, I will include emotion or heart, which may be more tangibly relatable.)

“Your mind, emotions and body are instruments and the way you align and tune them determines how well you play life.”

— Harbhajan Singh Yogi

When it's glaringly obvious which aspect we are inhabiting the most in a given situation, the influence of the other two aspects can become somewhat vague. Each aspect is functioning and processing all of the time, but oftentimes one is at the forefront of an experience.

As we navigate the events of our lives, we can start to see how the non-dominant components positively or negatively support our experience. We can start to see which aspects we are most comfortable or uncomfortable leaning into. Through our approach to life's situations we can view the macrocosm of our own internal balance.

For me, taking on the experience of recuperating my body from injury was not at all daunting. I felt very trusting of the process and knew that I had the ability to regain my strength and mobility. My mental attitude was helpful in that area and emotionally I was also content. This experience felt very balanced on all fronts.

As for the group challenge of opening a brick and mortar business from the ground up, while I find myself doing okay with the mental hurdles of organization and problem-solving, the physical efforts of helping with the build-out and some of the normal emotional stresses swirl about. This too feels somewhat balanced, not heavy-handed in any one area, though I certainly have a higher comfort level with the mental dealings.

Personally, the emotional center is the one I have the most trouble in allowing fluidity. I hold myself back a lot, creating dams to the flow of emotion. Visiting the Raja Yoga training was an interesting way to begin to understand that about myself. The training can be an emotional time for the trainees, and I felt very empathetic to their process. In a way, I experienced some of their vulnerability by osmosis. And through the reflections of one of my mentors, I came to see some of what causes me to hold back: When I'm too much "in my head", I block myself from "coming from the heart". In that way, the mental influence is commandeering what should be more of an emotional experience.

As with all of these writings, I can only offer my own experiences. I relay things as I see them, which means I'm usually still processing. But I know you can relate, because several of you have sent emails and shared with me. Thank you so much for that. ♡

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On another note, Summer Solstice is here!

"For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, the Summer Solstice is a time of celebration, of honoring the light, our connection to the Sun and the Earth. Every culture has festivals to honor this day and our ancestors around the earth built numerous monuments to commemorate this time."

For the past several years, June 21st has been recognized as International Yoga Day! They even have a huge yoga gathering in New York City where hundreds of people practice together in Times Square. This year, it's called Mind Over Madness Yoga.

In 2017, Summer Solstice falls on Wednesday, June 21, at 12:24 A.M. EDT. Due to time zones, this means it falls on Tuesday, June 20 in CDT, MDT, and PDT as below:

Wed, June 21, 12:24 A.M. EDT
Tues, June 20, 11:24 P.M. CDT
Tues, June 20, 10:24 P.M. MDT
Tues, June 20, 9:24 P.M. PDT

Detaching The Future

A lot of people have regrets. Some people have the proverbial "skeletons in their closet". Most people, if they're honest, have things they'd like to confess, sources of shame, or incidents from their past they'd like to own up to or would have done differently if they could. All of those things reside in the past, however. Through reframing, we can change our relationship to past events, but we cannot change what actually happened. While it's important to forgive and heal from those occurrences emotionally, personally, I'd prefer not to dwell on past events, which I cannot affect. But where we can have an impact is on our future, by changing our perspective in the present. This may necessitate an untangling of our future from past disappointments. Or it may require identifying perceived opposition to forward momentum.

Interestingly, have you ever felt conflicted about what you want for your future, either related to your past or your current situation? Do you have any dreams that you keep secret or wishes for your future that you don't share because you feel others might not understand? Does saying what you want feel like a confession?

In that way, sometimes our dreams can carry negative emotions. We have wants and desires that we can't discuss with anybody for fear of failure or being judged, or more likely discouraged from by "dream-killers". Sometimes what we want for ourselves may seem selfish by societal standards, or sometimes they are separate from the life we're living which is intertwined with obligations towards others, so by achieving our dream, we have to take something away from someone else. Other times, we draw from past experiences to forecast pitfalls or we carry some burden from a previous disappointment.

What causes us to perpetuate fear and hold ourselves back in this way? Detaching our dreams for the future from all of that stuff, we can start to examine our true intentions and recalibrate as necessary. We can get a fresh perspective on the pros and cons and the affect of action towards our goals.

At Teahupo'o, May 2007

My deep motivation for exploring this concept is related to my dream, which is to see... a Wave.

Yes, like a wave in the ocean. But not just any wave and not just any time because technically, I have seen this wave before, 10 years ago to be exact, just not during the ideal conditions.

My dream is to see Teahupo'o during a "code red" swell when the waves are heart-poundingly massive.

This is one of my greatest dreams, one that I attempted to realize in 2007 and was unable to. Though I didn't fulfill the experience I was hoping for last time around, the journey was amazing in other ways. I was left with many impressions, some that changed the course of my life. 

Inspired by my experience and what I was learning about myself, I started writing a book, which flowed through me to a certain point and then trickled to a stop. Events that followed moved me to begin making a film, which detoured into concert photography and ultimately opened up a whole world of experiences that I never would have had otherwise. But the film project too became stuck in perpetual limbo. I have felt inadequate, even a sense of guilt, for allowing those products of inspiration to wither on the vine. In light of these realizations, I'm finding that disappointments stemming from my first visit partly color my future desire to visit Teahupo'o again.

After some examination, I know that this is a current dream, not merely the dream of the person I was 10 years ago. I'd like to re-embrace that feeling of wonder, that calling that propelled me on the journey in the first place. (See below...) So I'd like to change my relationship to returning there and untether my possible future.

In regards to living in the moment and not focusing so much on the future, here too we can get bound up... I find myself asking: Spiritually speaking, aren't I supposed to find contentment wherever I am, absent of desire? Furthermore, why should I desire something outside of myself? And why should I concern myself with the future instead of living in the present moment? All valid questions. While I'm not presenting answers, simply opening up the questions begins to dissolve some of the fear.

In addition to our internal life, we also live an external life, a life that's meant to be experienced and expanded into. For me that means to put myself in front of something profound, and if I can detach myself from the outcome, then I see value in pursuing the dream. This is all still unfolding for me, but I know the journey itself holds keys to understanding.

Feel free to email me and share your experience. ♡

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The significance of Teahupo'o...

I grew up in Hawai'i, but I didn't really get into surfing until I moved back to California just after high school. I dabbled with surfing here and there... I lived close to the ocean and had a board so I'd go out occasionally and try to catch waves.

In 2004, my 6-year-old sister Alana was hit by a car and nearly killed, by which I mean she actually flat-lined and was resuscitated. I rushed back to Hawai'i to be with my family and returned from my trip a bit stunned. Suddenly there was a big empty space where I had previously been preoccupied with both the frivolity and minutia of life—now none of it mattered at all. Or perhaps it was more like a vacuum, as the experience left me in need of some sense of understanding to fill the void of questions regarding the deeper meaning of life.

I started surfing every single day, rain or shine, no matter the conditions. Surfing was a sanctuary of solitude where I could tune in to the natural rhythm of things. The salt water was like a baptism. The more I connected to the ocean, the more I became drawn to the power of that source energy.

Through videos and magazines, I became aware of huge waves around the world that people were actually surfing! The one that stood out the most, projecting sheer magnificence, was Teahupo'o. It was almost unimaginable. Not that I would ever have the skill (or even desire) to ride it, but I knew I had to SEE it. So in 2007, I went. The ocean was undeniably beautiful, but unfortunately, during the time I was there, The Wave was not showcasing its full grandeur. And so I'm left with a part of my soul still thirsting to one day return.

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Read about the Science of Teahupo'o

Photo credit: Unknown

Adding Grace to Injury

Opportunities to learn and grow come in all forms. This past month, mine came in the painful form of physical injury due to an abnormal lump in my left knee which became inflamed and even had me in a wheelchair for a couple days! Thankfully there is no damage to my tendons or ligaments and, for my own peace of mind, though it was aggravated in a yoga class, it is not a "yoga injury". I simply knelt on it. Crazy, right?

There are many lenses through which to view injury, many things to ponder. I'll share with you some of the things that have been running through my mind as I deal with mine. This is going to be a long one, but well worth the introspection.

First, I'd like to emphasize the importance of learning from all situations, even and perhaps especially from the unfortunate ones. When you encounter an undesirable event, you can let it take you down or you can let it inform you. Oftentimes people are more inclined to be grateful for the positive things in their lives, thankful for the blessings that the Universe bestows, but end up overlooking the gifts that are available in the midst of the hard situations. They turn to prayer to overcome struggle, sometimes even taking on the approach of "rising above" hardship without reflection or gratitude for what the struggle is offering them. Of course, prayer and a positive attitude are important, I would say vital, to healing and moving past problems. I seek to integrate that with gratitude for the struggle itself. 

GRATITUDE FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF INJURY

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I recognize and am grateful for my strength and balance. When you're injured, it's easy to focus on how limited you are, especially when it renders you immobile. For me, having to operate mostly on one leg, I was so, so grateful for the strength and balance I had in that one leg that allowed me to compensate temporarily. I have my yoga practice to thank for that.

I am grateful for the experience of being incapable. Have you ever been physically incapable? I not only had to come to terms with this for a short time, but I also had to accept assistance from others. For someone like me, very independent, this took some adjustment. For two days, I was also in a wheelchair, which gave me immense appreciation for the struggles of the disabled who navigate the world from a completely different vantage point.

To be grateful for my strength and balance as well as the experience of being incapable, I must also express gratitude for my overall health. I've been very fortunate throughout my life in not having dealt with many personal illnesses (knock on wood). I have always been thankful and aware of this, but I recognize the value more as I deal with acute pain.

This experience allows me to relate to knee pain and limitations. As a yoga instructor, many of my students have knee pain or use yoga to rehabilitate after knee surgery. I would not have wished for my injury, but while I'm going through it, I can start to understand first-hand what it can be like for my students so that I can better relate to their pain. I have also been able to get a tiny glimpse into the pain of two of the most important people in my life, my fiancé and my grandmother, who have both undergone multiple knee surgeries. This deepens my compassion for them.

This is a great exercise in adjusting expectations. We had a guest coming to visit from Bosnia who I met for the first time the day after I injured myself. In preparing for her 3-week visit, I planned a variety of activities for us—doing yoga, going hiking, exploring San Francisco. The whole landscape of her visit changed in an instant. I could barely walk for nearly two weeks and much of my time was spent in pain and icing/elevating my leg. The injury became somewhat of a focus for the majority of her time here. I couldn't even be the hostess to her that I'd intended to be. She was so easy-going about having to alter her own expectations, extremely gracious and very caring towards my situation. Ultimately, we had a great time just hanging out and getting to know each other.

I recognize that I am in a different state of mind than that of past injuries. I've only had three occurrences that I would consider injuries. When I broke my wrist snowboarding, a back injury, and now a knee injury.

When I broke my wrist, it was very tangible thing. My focus was on healing the broken bone. I was doing a lot of yoga and practiced almost daily with my cast on. I increased my calcium and Vitamin C intake. I was optimistic and extremely determined to heal as quickly and efficiently as possible. The bone healed a week earlier than the doctor predicted.

The back injury was much murkier. I don't have a clear incident to explain it; it could have been too much home practice, experimenting with deep backbends without warming up properly and pushing the limits of my knowledge and flexibility, it could have been a photo shoot where I did several backbends only on one side, it could have been my Vinyasa teacher training when I came out of a handstand one leg at a time, felt a shooting pain and could hardly get out of bed the next morning. My guess is it was all of the above. At the time I was also reverberating emotionally from a painful breakup. I was not focused on healing so much as "putting the pain behind me". Was it any coincidence I created a back injury for myself? The limitations from this injury lasted several years. I identified with it. It became an exemption from depth, physically and emotionally.

The knee injury occurs at a time when I am wide open to learning and gleaning all that I can from my own situations in order to share my experience. I can accept this. I can experience this. I can learn from this. And I can heal from this.

INTENTIONS FOR RECOVERING FROM INJURY

I choose to avoid becoming identified with this injury. As cited above, I have first-hand experience in strongly identifying with being injured. The back injury became a kind of persona or some badge of experience. It was "my back injury". I took ownership of it (which is different than taking responsibility for it). While I'm currently tending to "my" knee injury, I will be happy to shed ownership once my body has healed.

“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”

— Marcus Aurelius

This is an important thing to consider for yourself and can pertain to many areas of life. How many "injuries" do we carry around needlessly? For physical injuries, oftentimes when the body heals, there is still some echo of it that remains. We favor a certain side or attach ourselves to our former limitations. What would happen if we could recognize the imbalance, consciously release the "old injury", and correct our course? How might we compensate for imbalances or "injuries" in other areas of life, and how can we move towards correcting them?

I'm looking forward to renewing a more focused attention to my yoga practice and different areas of my body. I've been practicing yoga for more than 15 years, and I'll admit, I've gone through phases where my routine practice has become, well, routine. Part of why I liked participating in yoga competitions was the renewed sense of focus and attention that returned to my practice when I had a "goal". Recovering from an injury offers the same opportunity. My presence and attunement to my body's needs will be heightened.

I am determined to recover well. In repairing my knee, my intention is to address my entire body holistically. Everything in the body is connected, so every area will need to be considered as I aim to return full mobility to my knee. This involves hip-opening, stretching my groin and hamstrings, targeting tightness in my IT bands, continuing to keep my spine strong and flexible, improving my core strength, keeping my shoulders flexible, etc. This also includes making sure my diet is aligned with healing my body from the inside out, tending to my gut health, including things in my diet that are beneficial for joint health, etc.

These are some of things I've been contemplating while nurturing myself through this. Right now, I'm filtering my understanding through the lens of physical injury, but perhaps you can translate some of this to other areas of your life.

Please feel free to email me insights from your own experience or with questions! ♡

It's All About LOVE

“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be...
This is the inter-related structure of reality.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

So much has happened over the past month—in our country, as well as in my own life. Perhaps you've experienced the same? Rounding the corner into the New Year (or two if you count the Lunar New Year) tends to be a time of transition, and this being a year where our country has undergone a "transfer of power", it can be a time of uncertainty, discomfort, hope, or perhaps a gazing out towards the unknown possibilities for helping one another to shape a common future.

Our futures can only be common—we are all bound to each other. We must coexist. We are coexistential. The fact that we exist together takes precedence over our individual egoic self-interest. Somehow we must take care of each other.

It was tempting to make this month's topic about romantic love, as we have Valentine's Day coming up, and while I typically reserve talking in political terms on this platform, I cannot ignore the fact that vast numbers of people all around the world are feeling unsettled by our new administration. The Women's March this past month was an important indicator of that, and a show of solidarity for championing the values that both women and men hold dear, namely basic human rights, the rights that are inherent to simply being human.

I'm not trying to sound naïve or utopian here, but the sense that I get is that it's ALL about LOVE. The basis for every argument, on the right and the left and in between. Deep down, it's love that compels people to act as protectionists, even when fear is the driving emotion. Women rise up by the millions in the spirit of love to preserve each others' dignity and the rights to their own bodies. On the flip side, others oppose the right to choose because they love and value life in all forms. Mind you these debates span every aspect of daily life and there is oftentimes staggering hypocrisy and contradiction on both sides. This is nothing new. There has been division amongst people since the beginning of time. And the differing of viewpoints is a beautiful thing... right up until it causes us to hurt one another.

The unifying quality that all human beings share is LOVE. To me, this is the source of our essence, which goes beyond the mere fact that we exist, and we can use this commonality to identify with each other's struggles. The more we feed into an "us against them" mentality, the further we drift from that innate essence of love and the more we allow hate to seep in. This does not mean sit back and do nothing. By all means voice your viewpoint as a conversation. Love encompasses reason and I appreciate those that have been standing for something rather than against something. If we can do less opposition and more observation and harness our own instincts for compassion, we can press on together in a meaningful way. ♡

The Year in Pictures: 2016

As I've reflected more, it seems 2016 was pretty jam-packed! Here are some of the highlights...

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• The year was off to a great start with dinner atop the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington (not pictured)
• I completed the Culinary Nutrition course through Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy
• We attended a Yin/Vinyasa yoga retreat in Sayulita, Mexico
• I trained to instruct Yin Yoga
• Yoga Wire was re-branded with a new logo, website, newsletter and apparel
• I helped my dear friend Mandy release her second book, Yogalosophy for Inner Strength, to which I contributed a personal story and two vegan recipes
• Wonderful seeds were planted for something very exciting in 2017 (announcement coming soon!)
• I placed 7th at the National Yoga Asana Championship in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, having one of the most profound experiences of presence on Day 2 of the competition
• We explored Portland, Oregon, its nature gardens and flourishing foodie scene
• I danced to the music of Steel Pulse on my birthday
• We packed all of our things into storage and roomied up with our good buddy Brett for two months
• I enjoyed time with family and friends
• I had several Indriya Jewelry pop-up shops showcasing the adornments I create
• I helped to facilitate an amazing transformational experience during the Raja Yoga Teacher Training
• Sal became a teacher!
• ..and finally we settled into a new home

Do The Work / Make The Effort

As I wrote in a recent post, I feel like I floated somehow through 2016, mostly in a state of surrender to big changes. Almost like drifting on the surface, above the depth of all that's happened. And most of it was really good! But even in the stressful times, I felt a degree of separation from it all, like almost nothing struck that deep. I've traveled and gone on retreat and packed up everything and moved and been a part of a transformative experience and settled into a new home. (Check out The Year in Pictures: 2016 for full highlights!) What I've reflected on as the New Year rounded the corner is that through all of those events, with so much happening, I relied on a sense of ease and somewhat lax satisfaction with my natural abilities and where I've come, internally and also as it relates to my body. Non-stagnant, non-complacent, yet non-motivated.

The year before, 2015, I was still reverberating from a complete shutdown following many years of constant work hustle. I gave myself some time to go easy instead of maxing out my energy expenditure. And that time was necessary. Then last year, I came to life again, still gentle and perhaps a little nurturingly indulgent. My attention was diverted from my own wellness homeostasis and fractalated out to the multitude of things going on, or whatever required my soft focus at the time, which occasionally involved wine and cheese.

Well, New Year's morning, I woke up at 5:00am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to take and teach some yoga! And there it was, my intention for 2017: DO THE WORK.

My motivation to tend to my nutritional needs, to practice yoga with heightened purpose, to apply myself more attentively to spiritual practices has returned. I feel drawn back to self-discipline, and also to more expressive freedom. I feel like I have a renewed capacity to MAKE THE EFFORT towards the state of inner and outer health that I want to see and feel.

My intentions may seem body-focused, which can come across as a little cliché around the New Year, but I'm fine with that. What goes on inside my body flows back out as information. My inner experiences allow me to understand and connect with you, to transmit the information I glean to you and others from the vantage point of my own understanding.

In order for me to make the effort, it's helpful for me to know what obstacles I'm up against. What's hindering me? Sometimes the best thing to do is to take the smallest step. If you want to practice yoga more consistently, maybe the first thing to do is to simply put your yoga mat on the floor. That's not too hard. Then maybe put on an outfit you would practice in. You're halfway there already!

• Write down your intention and keep it in a place where it will act as a daily reminder.
• Tell people what your intention is. Ask for their support.
• Make a list or a roadmap of simple steps you can take towards your intention. Keep it bite-sized. The simpler, the better.
• Then make a list of obstacles that might deter you. Begin to brainstorm, strategize, or meditate on how you can overcome them.
• Take those simple steps, one-by-one, until your efforts become habitual, and before you know it, you'll be on the path you intended.

My mantra for 2017: Do the work. Make the effort.

What's yours? -- Email me!

Scratch That, New Reality

Personally, I really like the delineation of a New Year. I like the ritual of reflection and intention-setting and the general contemplation of life's path. I pay more attention to the little epiphanies.
For example, I'm not much of a morning person.. It takes me a few hours to acclimate, especially when it comes to my body... Or so I thought.

This morning I took the 8:00am class. I noticed that my body was feeling fantastic, and I thought "Wow, this is great. I'm normally so tight in the morning." And then I thought, "Actually, I was practicing a lot in the morning this past Fall and I felt perfectly fine." Hmmm. That tells me that: "My muscles are always tight in the morning" is no longer a true statement. My experiences NOW disprove my outdated experiences. It was true at one point, but up until now, my habitual thought patterns hadn't budged to accommodate. It took a conscious realization for me to understand something that seems so obvious. I could simply scratch that belief from my reality. What a refreshing epiphany.

What opportunities does this new reality open up to me?

What other limiting thoughts can be scrapped?

Home

Home means many different things to people. Home can be a place (a house, a city or state). Home can be with the people you love... "where the heart is". Home can be something within yourself that makes you feel as though all is good and okay. Or any combination of those things.

I've recently gone through a change of home, moving from one place to another. Having moved around a lot as a kid, to me the idea of home is very abstract. I still consider Hawai'i my home though I haven't lived there since I was 19. I think of my grandparents' house as home because it has been a constant my entire life. And I am also able to feel at home wherever I live.

We just moved into a wonderful 3-bedroom house. This is my first time as an adult living in a proper house, rather than an apartment. I feel the desire to settle in here a little more. I feel the desire, more than ever before, to share our home with guests. So far much of my focus has gone into creating a SPACE. With visitors in mind, my intention has been to create a place for those who enter (including those of us who live here) to feel light and grounded and comfortable.

We hosted Thanksgiving here, just over two weeks after moving in. We had 9 adults and 4 little kids for a two-night sleepover, and I prepared my first Thanksgiving meal. It was incredible to be able to provide that space for our loved ones to gather and to create memories. It really felt like home.

This holiday season, consider your notions of home. How can you feel at home in any given situation? How can you bring a piece of your "home" with you into the things you do?

Post-Election Reflection

I am a woman. A strong, intelligent, beautiful, serene spirit of a woman. I respect myself and I respect men of high character and integrity.

I am engaged to a Muslim immigrant refugee from a war-torn country. He is a generous, loving person, a hard worker and an asset to the richness of our great country.

I honor the Earth. I see our time here as a blessing and our responsibility to be good stewards, to nurture and attune ourselves with nature. To speak out in Mother Nature's defense.

I believe in kindness and compassion for all people, especially those who are fearful of their circumstance. They need compassion and understanding the most through their scary, stressful times.

I feel the pain of people needing to know that they and their families are safe before they can extend their caring concerns outward towards others. I understand how strong and primal that survival mechanism can be.

So I am committed to being in a state of peaceful acceptance. And I will further commit myself towards efforts and pursuits, in all ways uplifting, towards humanitarian outreach, gender-equality, race-equality, environmental awareness, and the elevation of spiritual consciousness within myself and as best as possible for those around me.

An Education

Raja Yoga Academy Class of Fall 2016

Over the course of six weeks, I had an opportunity to re-immerse myself in an environment of growth, expansion, and education, this time from a very unique vantage point: simultaneously as a partner, as a teacher and facilitator, and (always) as a student. As my fiancé, Sal, embarked on his own journey to becoming a yoga instructor through Raja Yoga Academy, I was able to share in the experience, learning about myself in this new capacity while witnessing the transformations in each trainee, the facilitators themselves, and the group as a whole.

I absolutely love learning. I've always been one of those students who sits at the front of the class and raises my hand to answer the questions... you know the type. I feel that any time you enter into something with a dedicated focus and intention set on learning new things (as opposed to acquiring new information in passing), you bring a higher quality of receptivity which opens your mind to a greater sense of understanding—going beyond what you "already know" into what you didn't know that you didn't know.

Many people fear what they don't know or what may seem to conflict with their currently-held knowledge. I am of the mind that if I am to grasp even a sliver of an abstraction of Truth, I have to fill the pipeline with information from many sources and perspectives and filter out any untruths that I encounter. I trust that the untruths will not resonate, and new ideas that do hold truth will only continue to reinforce my sense of Truth, in other words, help me to calibrate my esoteric bullshit meter.

That being said, it was not surprising to discover that the experience of the past couple months has inspired me to want to learn even more! I met some unique souls and inspiring teachers that have reinstalled in me a drive to seek. To understand more. To hone my skills. To communicate, translate, and pass on information. To become a better teacher.

It seems education begets a desire to learn. And for that, I am grateful and embracing what I have yet to learn.

Living In A Material World

What gives you the greatest joy in life? What creates a lasting memory? When you think about these questions, do material possessions come to mind?

I've just gone through one of the most logistically challenging moves of my life. I moved boxes of photos and miscellaneous things I haven't looked at or thought about in years, clothing I've never worn, and furniture that's managed to tag along with me because it's been deemed "useful". From a large one-bedroom apartment, the stuff just kept emerging, endlessly, it seemed. More than ever before, this most recent move got me thinking about the perceived value of material possessions.

What does it ultimately cost to maintain our things, year after year? What is the toll monetarily, emotionally, even spiritually? What do these possessions provide us with?

• Survival? Some do, for sure, or at least modern comforts and practical conveniences. But what about the other stuff?
• Does it offer a sense of joy? How and why?
• Are they tools for expressing your passion? Have you identified what you're passionate about?
• Do you keep things as nostalgic reminders of somebody or some other time?

Ask yourself those questions. Begin to think about the things you've allowed to tag along with you. Are they empowering your life, or are they becoming burdens? Can you look around and see 3 things that you could donate to someone who may need it more than you or get more use or joy from it? I'm not saying to denounce all possessions. I'm simply saying it could be time to look at habits of carrying things along.

Personally, the more I contemplate this, the more I realize that the real joy I experience in life is in connecting with others. Family. Friends. Meeting new people and having new experiences while traveling. All of these things in color, in reality, in all the magic of the senses.

Social media is wonderful, but it is no substitute for sharing someone's company, looking into the eyes of another person, hearing the inflections of a loved-one's voice. You can see lovely photos of a place, but there's no comparison to feeling the air on your skin, or inhaling the scent of a place.

You don't have to go far to connect with people or to fully experience a place. The distance you need to travel is simply from your normal awareness to your conscious attention. If you have an opportunity to travel abroad, that type of renewed attention may kick in automatically. (Check out the Travel File for a great place to connect with some amazing people and experiences.) And if you don't have an opportunity to travel, consider being more present with the people you encounter everyday.

• Make eye contact with people
• Give yourself enough time so that you don't have to hurry everywhere, allow time for a random chat, perhaps with a neighbor
• Next time you give a hug, take an extra couple of seconds to soak it in
• Actually read the sign of the person asking for handouts, maybe it's true
• Next time you think of something you want, also think of something you can offer 

The more you fully experience life, the less the things in life will matter.

Finding Beauty in the Transitions

This past month, I have been contemplating major changes coming up. Basking in the mindfulness and heightened awareness that accompanies big shifts.

Circumstance has made me a creature of change and transition. I thrive in an atmosphere of growth and expansion, and that usually means significant upheaval, which tends to be uncomfortable for most. But this is when we have the opportunity to evaluate our priorities and our desires, as well as our true intentions behind them. When we can honor the situations and circumstances we've experienced, and the people that have been a part of them, and step forward into the undiscovered potential of our new life. Resistance is a barrier to the full joy available in these times. Surrender and presence are called for.

Over the next several weeks, as I move (literally) through to the next phase of life, I'm reflecting with gratitude on the path that's lead me here.