Resolution: Yoga

You’ve purchased champagne, glitter and sparklers and you’re ready to party; that means there is only one thing left to do: come up with your New Year’s Resolutions! Don't groan!!

It's New Year's and everyone hopes to make changes for the better for 2015. Whether your plans are to exercise more and get in better shape, or to change a personal aspect of your life, you can find hope in knowing that many others have made similar plans before you.  With the end of one year and the beginning of new one, we often find ourselves at a precipice….one that involves change, endings and beginnings, new resolutions, and a new hope for things to come.

Many of us create the ever popular 'Resolution'. I will admit that I gave up Resolutions long ago, but still meet each new year with a new sense of purpose.  I have a theme or saying and a motivational song that help keep me on task and on rhythm to what I want to accomplish.

Many years ago I learned that the yearning for change happens each time I step upon my mat and that each mini lesson or cheap yet profound therapy session my yoga has offered me translates directly into my everyday life.  Yoga has become my resolution; my each and every day resolution.  Why? There is this amazing path of yoga that consists of eight limbs. In Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, the eightfold path is called ashtanga, which literally means “eight limbs” (ashta=eight, anga=limb). These eight steps basically act as guidelines on how to live a meaningful and purposeful life. They serve as a map of sorts, but in yoga as in life, the journey is more important than the destination!

The first 4 limbs are the limbs of tapas (spirituality in action).  Included here are the first 2 limbs known as the yamas and niyamas which are known as the 5 moral restraints and 5 observances of yoga.  (So think 10 Commandments!!!) The yamas and niyamas bring us into right relationship with ourselves, others, and God. The next 2 limbs of tapas are asana(postures) and pranyama (yogic breathing).   The asanas (postures) refine our bodies, deepen our awareness of the senses, and enhance our powers of concentration.  Pranayama (yogic breathing) develops our control over the flow of our breath and therefore our life energy.  These first 4 limbs combine to form our path of action as we deepen our practice and become actions taken (or not taken) with our bodies. These 4 practices refresh the body, refine the mind, bring peace to our heart, and allow us to meet our life’s pressures with equanimity.

Limbs 5 and 6 are called svadhyaya (self-study) and they are pratyahara (turning inward, withdrawal of the senses, turning our senses inward) and dharana (concentration). In the stillness of pratyahara, dharana can be developed. Together these two limbs make the deepest form of connectedness possible.

The last two limbs are what are considered the limbs of isvara (the final frontier).  These two limbs are known as dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (union with God).

When I first learned of this 8-limbed path I though, "All right! A linear path! Most excellent!"  I am a strategic thinker so I thought Step One was mastering the Yamas.  I laugh now at that thought!! This thought also reminds me of an Eagle’s song lyric from Life in the Fast Lane: WE DO EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME.   What is cool about this yogic path is we unknowing begin to do all 8 limbs without realization. As we practice our postures (asanas) with our breathing (pranayama) we are refining our relationship with our bodies.  To be present, to practice in the moment, we must have a mind that has left go of the habit of distraction and developed the habit of concentration (dharana).  All limbs function in support of the other ones.

Each time we come to our mat, we have the opportunity to work the entire path, moment by moment. Rolf Gates once told me after I took one of his classes, “Just remember, as we move through postures, our bodies, our breath, our minds, and our choices are being refined in the laboratory of our yoga mat.” How cool is that??!!! As our yoga practice becomes more and more established on our mats, meaning we show up to our mats more often, it becomes established in our lives as well.  Driving to work, mailing a letter, checking out at the grocery store, having coffee with a  friend, saying hello to a stranger on the street as you pass by--basically ANY INTERACTION and every given moment become part of our yoga practice  Our life ultimately becomes an uninterrupted flow of our yoga practice.  We are doing our yoga all the time!  All the limbs, all the time!

Let Yoga be your resolution, be your change, be the transformative tool you come to every day.  Get on your mat and evolve in a way that is perfect for you! It’s your own journey so enjoy the ride!
 

Onward!

COMPASSION

COMPASSION

[kuh m-pash-uh n]

A noun to describe a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.  Better put, a  sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress combined with a desire to alleviate it.

What Is Compassion?

Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.

Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. While empathy refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help. Altruism, in turn, is the kind, selfless behavior often prompted by feelings of compassion, though one can feel compassion without acting on it, and altruism isn’t always motivated by compassion.

While cynics may dismiss compassion as touchy-feely or irrational, scientists have started to map the biological basis of compassion, suggesting its deep evolutionary purpose. This research has shown that when we feel compassion, our heart rate slows down, we secrete the “bonding hormone” oxytocin, and regions of the brain linked to empathy, caregiving, and feelings of pleasure light up, which often results in our wanting to approach and care for other people.

Yoga on Compassion

"Through cultivation of friendliness, compassion, joy and indifference to pleasure and pain, virtue and vice respectively, the consciousness becomes favourably disposed, serene and benevolent."  

~Patanjali's Yoga Sutra I.33

This is my favorite sutra from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.  The Yoga Sutras are considered sacred by yogis and are compiled into four chapters containing 196 sutras, or words of wisdom. Patanjali constructed his work in 400 BC when two styles of teaching collided. (Samkhyan philosophy was known as the older style.) Little is known about Patanjali himself, although he is not the creator of yoga, this scholar was a great expositor. 

Yoga master, B.K.S Iyengar decodes the sutras beautifully in his book, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In his interpretation of I.33 he states, "This sutra asks us to rejoice with the happy, to be compassionate to the sorrowful, friendly to the virtuous, and indifferent to those who continue to live in vice despite our attempts to change them." It is this translation that continues to encourage me to trudge along a compassionate path. I say trudge because it is arduous to continuously be gentle and soft in the way you relate to yourself and others, as Patanjali advises.

I don't know about you, but this is a hard life assignment. We are human; we are going to form opinions and will have judgments. One of the reasons why I’m so attracted to this sutra is because it seems as if my life work is to remain indifferent to the faults and imperfections of others, despite my attempts to change them. It is difficult for me to find empathy for those I can’t relate to.  My response is typically “Rub some dirt in it and move on!” I have grown to empathize (although not as much as others). I think this began to take shape within me after my brother was killed and took solid root only after I had children.  I will admit I am just not wired that way.  There is a running joke among those that know me—Need empathy?  Send Trish!  And they laugh….What can I say?  I am a work in progress!!

I remember when I was a waitress, I could never (and still don’t) find warmth for that customer who snaps their fingers to get my attention……I had another response J For many of us, it maybe that neighboring car that ignores your flashing blinker and refuses to let you into their lane. Does road rage ring a bell to anyone? On a more serious note, how could we ever feel compassion for someone who's committed a violent crime?  Can you imagine experiencing mercy for all beings, including murderers, rapists, and abusers? Or is this something we leave up to the monks, priests, pastors and ‘enlightened ones’?   I laugh here because God calls EACH ONE OF US to do JUST THIS……JUST as HE DID for US by way of His son, Jesus, and the cross.  Amen to THAT!

At least I am not alone in my struggles. Even revered yoga teacher, Judith Lasater admits to the frustrations that come along with practicing sutra 1.33.  She shares, "just as with amity, dispassion, and goodwill that Patanjali encourages, expressing compassion is definitely a learn as you go process. It is also cumulative. We can strengthen our ability to be compassionate by repeatedly expressing compassion...It is always a partner with wisdom, which is gained from experience. And this experience leads directly back to compassion."

As the pace of our society picks up and as we change into more of a “I, me, mine” society, we’re becoming more desensitized to others' feelings and also to our own. It's almost like we don't have time to stop and feel. When we aren't properly processing our own trials and tribulations our brains and hearts can become too full to fit in anyone else's struggles. It's almost like our baggage is too heavy to help relieve someone else of their load. Yet, it's through the experience of our own struggles that can lead us to empathic behavior towards others suffering.

Several years ago, I was battling some serious prognosis and was left feeling defeated and vulnerable. I was forced to limit my movements. No yoga, no running, no swimming, no biking–even long walks were a stretch. For someone who moves their body for a living and who has their entire life, this was quite a shock to my system and a huge blow to my ego. I pushed myself (of course) and taught my normal yoga classes. Looking back, those were the most loving and authentic classes I had ever taught. Because I was feeling so raw and exposed, I felt sincere unconditional love for the strangers, the regulars and the friends in front of me. My instructions were softer, my words were encouraging and I had nothing to hide. I became more in tune or present with the energy of those around me and realized just how broken down everyone was! My individual suffering had shifted to the awareness of a universal suffering, which made me feel less alone.

Upon doing further research on this topic, I was relieved to find scientific proof that loving one another is in our DNA.  Renowned geologist, Charles Darwin declared that, “Sympathy is the strongest instinct in human nature.” In the documentary I am Neurobiologist, Jonathan Height fought hard to prove this point as well. "We are hardwired for a compassionate response to the trouble of others,” he declared. There is even a word in Sanskrit made to spread the news of our innate goodness and that word is Sri. It's one of my favorites.

Remember, a harmonious life and a complete understanding of our basic sameness is the pot of gold at the end of the road of compassion. Nelson Mandela, a man who trudged along this road for many years reminds us not to worry if we have forgotten, for our empathy can be taught. So I’ll leave it up to him to conclude:

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Onward and off your mat!

Gratitude In Everything.....Always

Gratitude means thankfulness, counting your blessings, noticing simple pleasures, and acknowledging everything that you receive. It means learning to live your life as if everything were a miracle, and being aware on a continuous basis of how much you’ve been given. Gratitude shifts your focus from what your life lacks to the abundance that is already present. In addition, behavioral and psychological research has shown the surprising life improvements that can stem from the practice of gratitude. Giving thanks makes people happier and more resilient, it strengthens relationships, it improves health, and it reduces stress.

Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live. ~Jackie Windspear

Research Shows Gratitude Heightens Quality of Life

Two psychologists, Michael McCollough of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Robert Emmons of the University of California at Davis, wrote an article about an experiment they conducted on gratitude and its impact on well-being. The study split several hundred people into three different groups and all of the participants were asked to keep daily diaries. The first group kept a diary of the events that occurred during the day without being told specifically to write about either good or bad things; the second group was told to record their unpleasant experiences; and the last group was instructed to make a daily list of things for which they were grateful. The results of the study indicated that daily gratitude exercises resulted in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism, and energy. In addition, those in the gratitude group experienced less depression and stress, were more likely to help others, exercised more regularly, and made greater progress toward achieving personal goals.

Dr. Emmons – who has been studying gratitude for almost ten years and is considered by many to be the world’s leading authority on gratitude – is author of the book, “Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier”. The information in this book is based on research involving thousands of people conducted by a number of different researchers around the world. One of the things these studies show is that practicing gratitude can increase happiness levels by around 25%. This is significant, among other things, because just as there’s a certain weight that feels natural to your body and which your body strives to maintain, your basic level of happiness is set at a predetermined point. If something bad happens to you during the day, your happiness can drop momentarily, but then it returns to its natural set-point. Likewise, if something positive happens to you, your level of happiness rises, and then it returns once again to your “happiness set-point”. A practice of gratitude raises your “happiness set-point” so you can remain at a higher level of happiness regardless of outside circumstances.

In addition, Dr. Emmons’ research shows that those who practice gratitude tend to be more creative, bounce back more quickly from adversity, have a stronger immune system, and have stronger social relationships than those who don’t practice gratitude. He further points out that “To say we feel grateful is not to say that everything in our lives is necessarily great. It just means we are aware of our blessings.”

Take away: There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance.

Awareness of Each Day’s Gifts

People tend to take for granted the good that is already present in their lives. There’s a gratitude exercise that instructs that you should imagine losing some of the things that you take for granted, such as your home, your ability to see or hear, your ability to walk, or anything that currently gives you comfort. Then imagine getting each of these things back, one by one, and consider how grateful you would be for each and every one. In addition, you need to start finding joy in the small things instead of holding out for big achievements—such as getting the promotion, having a comfortable nest egg saved up, getting married, having the baby, and so on–before allowing yourself to feel gratitude and joy.

Another way to use giving thanks to appreciate life more fully is to use gratitude to help you put things in their proper perspective. When things don’t go your way, remember that every difficulty carries within it the seeds of an equal or greater benefit. In the face of adversity ask yourself: “What’s good about this?”, “What can I learn from this?”, and “How can I benefit from this?”

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Practicing Gratitude

A common method to develop the practice of gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal, a concept that was made famous by Sarah Ban Breathnach’s book “Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude”. This exercise basically consists of writing down every day a list of three to ten things for which you are grateful; you can do this first thing in the morning or before going to bed at night. Another exercise you can try is to write a gratitude letter to a person who has exerted a positive influence in your life but whom you have not properly thanked. Some experts suggest that you set up a meeting with this person and read the letter to them face to face.

Several years ago, millions of people took the challenge proposed by Will Bowen, a Kansas City minister, to go 21 days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. To help condition the participants to stop complaining, they each wore a purple No-Complaint wristband. Several authors in the self-improvement genre have suggested that people do something similar to help condition themselves to be constantly aware of the things in life that they’re grateful for.

A variation of the wristband concept is to create a gratitude charm bracelet, with either one meaningful charm or different charms representing the things you’re most grateful for. For example, you could have a charm shaped like a heart to symbolize your significant other, figurines to represent different family members, an apple to represent health, a dollar sign to symbolize abundance, a charm that represents your current profession or a future career, and maybe a charm that makes you laugh to represent humor and joy.

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward

Yogic Conclusion

Once you become oriented toward looking for things to be grateful for, you will find that you begin to appreciate simple pleasures and things that you previously took for granted. For instance, rather than getting all agitated when holding side angle for an extended period of time, can you be grateful for the ability to use your body in this way? To be able to walk up the stairs to take a yoga class? To have all these like-minded people sharing this experience with you? For the financial freedom to attend yoga? To be free of ‘the wilds’ by releasing that which you hold onto in your body? For those fantastic and revealing outside voices from within that let you know you hit something good? Yoga is our magic tool that allows us to cultivate gratitude in each and every moment—to release the bits of us that are ungrateful for the good, the bad,and the ugly of our lives.  There is always a silver lining. There is always something to learn—our lesson shows up when we are ready! If we see the world through grateful eyes we shall become the change we want to see.  WE will change our mood which will affect others.  This will change us, our life and of course those around us! The ripple effect can and will be awesome!  It is a CHOICE and an ACTION!

Gratitude should not be just a reaction to getting what we want, but an all-the-time gratitude, the kind where we notice the little things and where ew constantly look for the good even in unpleasant situations. Today, start bringing gratitude to ALL your experiences, instead of waiting for a positive experience in order to feel grateful for.  In this way, we will be on our way toward becoming a master of gratitude.  Remember, gratitude is an attitude! Our heart should be open and our soul to receive!

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

ONWARD!
Namaste!

Peaceful Warrior

Here we are at the precipice of fall and many of us feel an inner stirring….a need to change….a need to shift.  Our bodies crave comfort foods rather than the tropical citrus delights of summer. We have an inner yearning to ground down, snuggle into that brilliant sweater or hoodie and feel the crisp air in our lungs. I love the change as it makes me delve inward and check in for the harvest—the harvest of the seeds planted before and learning what took root and what did not.  I liken the inward journey to peace and war. It is the brilliant excavation of our resounding stillness that only love can provide along with all the shadows, trauma, and turmoil of our life’s journey.  We have all suffered and we have all failed.  We all have experienced loss and betrayal.  We have experienced anger, hurt but have also soared with love and excitement.

I used to funnel my anger and discontent into physical activity and had little inclination for inner work. I aspired tog realness and thirsted on leadership type training, but never wanted to spend time trudging through the muck and mire of my being.  God had a different plan in store for me—one that I did not expect, but now years later, those that knew me long ago say, “Yeah I can totally see this as this is you/“  Well what a surprise.  I always thought I would never be married and be highly successful at my career; powerful, financially better than most, the best in my field. We make plans and God laughs.

My brother was killed sometime ago and this October he would have been 40.  Through his death, my life took unexpected twists and turns.  I realized how truly empty my goals were.  Grand goals? Yes.  Achievable goals? Yes.  Fulfilling goals? Nope…..not even a bit.  What I once thought would be the epitome of my existence now was like an anchor pulling me deep into darkness.    Through my very best friend, Tammy, I found light and life in my most darkest moments on this earth.  Even though she has recently expressed to me how she felt she failed me at that time, she could never know how her love for me changed me.  She always asked me asked me those inward questions.  She knew every inch of my being and the eternal bond of my brother’s and my relationship.  She lost him as well.  The inward journey is one that never ends and can provide endless wonder.  I came to faith in Christ and discovered how He was always pursuing me.  I discovered yoga that not only made my relationship with God profound and live, but it also gave me the tool set and strength to look deep within.  It is there that I discovered that I held onto the woulds of losing my brother, Ryan, like a badge of honor.  I was afraid if I let them be healed that it meant my brother did not exist or that the bond we half was not true.  I thought if my heart was healed then I would forget him.  Seriously?  How crazy is that??!!

Our bodies store everything that happen to us—the good, the bad, the sad and the brilliant. Our experiences become our biology.  We all come to yoga for different reasons, but I think we all at some point discover this inward journey.   Our job is to become better in each and every moment so that we can be available to join God on His mission which is already taking place….right here….and right now….in your life whether you believe in Him or not.  I call my process the way of the Peaceful Warrior. It is on-going. It is yoga. It is life.

Peaceful Warrior: A seeming oxymoron that is a symbol of grit and glory. A concept that pushes those of us who embrace it into a need to shift from competitive to collaborative minds and hearts. There is a myriad of ways to do the dirty work of knowing yourself. There is no best principle, book, teacher, religion to follow just as there is no best exercise, diet, sport or way of life. There is only the best one for each of us at any given time of life. Think of this self-excavation concept as a highway whose trajectory will help us understand and navigate the complex world of our own personal growth.  In other words, each of us  a car on a highway driving different vehicles and choosing different exits on the road of life. We each go at our own speed and get on and off the highway as we desire. The caveat is that without a destination in mind, there is no journey.  Through our yoga journey we discover our reactivity, our compensatory patterns in body, mind and life. We can quiet ourselves to hear what our inner wisdom has to say, what it has to release, and what it has to nurture. Breathing in to our body’s tensions provides us a looking glass into the things long forgotten and those which are deeply stored. We connect back o who God intended us to be and become aware of our own inner spirit, our will and the desires of our heart.

This type of heart centered spirit helps us turn what we know and what we believe into what we do. Our external changes affect the world and our internals changes affect ourselves and those around us. Both are necessary if we are to live a heart-centered life….whole-hearted living. By letting go of the dis-ease within we create a more brilliant person who will positively affect our loved ones as well as our sphere of influence. By tuning into our inner sanctum, we can learn so much about life and how much more fantastic it can be.  We need to be the change.  WE need to be brave to face our darkness and our demons so that our light can shine on in this world.

Life comes at us in waves of change. When we learn to surf these waves of change,  we realize that the quality of our moments become the quality of our lives.

“When moment is experienced as joy, it adorns our lives, makes our days go better, and fives us something to look forward to. When movement is joyful and meaningful, i may even inspire us to do hints we never thought possible.” ~Sott Kretcman, Penn State University Professor of Exercise and Sports Science

Do some yoga.  Make some changes.  Be brilliant.  Go. Do. Now.

Upward.

CHANGE IS THE ESSENCE OF LIFE

Well, fall is under way…..the change into deep fall and winter seasons approach…….the change into the ‘school schedule’…….’change’ is just plain in the air literally and figuratively!

Change is constant. It is the one thing consistent in all of science. Energy, matter… it’s always changing, merging, morphing, growing, dying. It is the way we try to NOT to change or believing that people don’t change that is unnatural. We need to experience and enjoy the constant changes that ARE life in others and more importantly within ourselves whether that  be coming back to your yoga practice or starting from scratch.

The way we experience change is up to us. It can feel like death as you cling to the past (past events, people, past perceptions, etc), or it can feel like pure adrenaline rush knowing that at any moment we can have another chance at life. At any moment, we can be born all over again with God’s help. You have the power to embrace change and let go of fear because letting go, opens the doors to new possibilities.  When we let go of how things have always been or how we perceive our reality to be, we can move into a new space. A space that is more grateful, more  willing to be engaged, more able to SEE things which call us to ACT. It is a space that can provide more ease in our bodies, our minds, and our hearts.  Ultimately it is a space that can be life changing and effect EVERYONE we come into contact with.

Bob Marley’s Redemption Song says it all, “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. No one but ourselves can free our minds.” The things in our lives we perceive to be obstacles have been placed there by us and only we have the power to remove or overcome them. I strongly believe yoga helps to 'declutter' our minds as it is SO easy to stay wrapped up in our everyday dramas. Getting out of your head and into your body—FEELING versus thinking—just once a day works wonders for all parts of your being; physical, mental, spiritual and emotional. Maybe this is something you can think about when contemplating whether you should practice yoga again, or invite more of it into your life, or leave for class once you’re home from work. Emancipate yourself from the "I can’t”, “It’s too late”, “I’m tired” or “I’m not used to it”… because on the other  side of the jailhouse of your thinking is your ticket to freedom knowing you can, you’re adaptable, and brilliantly able to do more than you ever thought possible. As Charles Darwin said “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”.

The best part of having this brilliant tool of yoga is that you don’t need fancy equipment and it is available to you at any time and in any place throughout your day. All you need is your undivided attention, some time (even if it is only 5 minutes), your breath, and your body. Don’t have the patience? Just refer back to Bob Marley’s quote!! LOL!

Being in your yoga space allows you to tune in to tune out, to be ENGAGED not only with yourself and others, but with GOD.  One simple change in your mindset can create a catalyst for meeting and exceeding any goal or dream you can imagine.  Remember, God’s plan for us is more than we could ever imagine and might just take us to the most unexpected places!

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you perceive it. If you can’t change the way you perceive it, practice yoga and see what happens……

Onward!
Trish

There is no place like OM!

Just click your heels and repeat, “There’s no place like Om….” This wasn’t Dorothy’s mantra of choice, but it is a happy and fun coincidence the words Om and home rhyme–especially as we embark on the 75th anniversary of Oconomowoc's Strand Theater hosting the world premiere of "The Wizard of Oz" on August 12, 1939 -- Three days before the big Hollywood premiere.

We all know and love the story. After that colorful hot air balloon flies off without Dorothy, the music stops and the only one-way departure out of Oz is canceled. But then, with gentle guidance and a simple suggestion from the Good Witch of the West, Dorothy realizes the truth. She possesses the personal strength and inner power to deal with her challenges head on, entirely on her own.

At a very tender age, Dorothy connects and taps into the immense capacity that resides within her, and she intuitively knows this energy is available to the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man too. She calls upon this force to take her where she wants to go. We all can, and yoga can aid and support us in the journey–beginning as very young children and throughout our lives

I think I may have watched The Wizard of Oz a few too many times as a little girl. For one, it filled me with a pretty crippling fear of tornadoes. I had nightmares of being swept away in the swirling tunnels of destruction. And, while I loved the Lion and the Tin Man, I had no intention of being carried away to a place with scary, flying monkeys and cackling witches with long, bony fingers. NO WAY. NEVER.

More importantly, however, the movie developed this very deeply held belief that there was some hugely powerful and omniscient entity, almost like a governing body, that had all of the answers to everything. This belief mirrored the way that Dorothy viewed the Wizard of Oz himself; believing that he held all of the answers, knowing that if she could only get to him that all would be revealed to her. All until she discovered the truth, of course. But, the true message of the story was lost on me at such a young age. 

And, for a very long time I found myself walking down my own version of the yellow brick road trying to find the source that held all of the answers. Wandering and winding and looking and seeking, hoping to encounter just the right person or job that was part of this all-knowing entity. Hoping to find the one who had the answers to all of my questions; the one who could tell me what to do and what not to do, who to be and who not to be. Believing that everything was black and white, cut and dry, and that this magical entity was the omnipotent architect of what was right and what was wrong, of all that was certain and absolute. Believing that they had all of the answers. Believing that I had none.

Maybe you, too, can identify with the feeling of not knowing which direction to go in life? Or, maybe you have experienced doubt about what your purpose should be? Maybe you have questioned who you truly are? And, maybe, just maybe, you are familiar with the inclination to believe that someone else knows better than you do?

Truth be told, I know that I can’t blame this thinking entirely on Dorothy Gale. Many traditions, as well as the American way of life, teach us to look outside of ourselves for all of the answers. We are taught to look up and out and down and all around to find the truth. Many traditions teach us to look everywhere else except for in, that is.

But, not yoga. Yoga is all about going in.

Yoga takes us off of the yellow brick road and puts us on a one-way street that moves right through the muscles and the bones, straight into the center of our hearts and souls, re-connecting us powerfully and profoundly to our truth, to our true essence—that we are infinite children of God. Yoga encourages us to turn away from the litany of distractions and instead to tune in to the present moment in order to hear God’s guiding voice. Yoga teaches us to be here now. And, when we are fully present, we are fully alive and engaged. And, when we are fully alive we are able to re-connect to our truth, finding ourselves more deeply aligned with the object of our faith, our true nature.

That’s not to say that there aren’t serious road bumps, detours and diversions that present themselves along the way, because there are. They show up all of the time in an asana practice, but they are just part of the journey that guides us to the place where our own, unique truth resides…within. God has a purpose for each and every one of us. There may be times in our lives that we find ourselves feeling disconnected from that truth, from that knowing. But, one of the beautiful things about yoga, and I’m referring to every aspect of yoga, not just asana alone, is that it is always there. It is always there to help remind us who we really are, to re-set our course to the place where all of the answers dwell.  Yoga’s sole purpose it prepare the body and mind to meditate with God.

The answers have never been somewhere else. The man behind the curtain was just that, a man behind a curtain. The answers and the truth have been within each of us all along. God’s divine seed exists within each on e of us because we are His.

May my thoughts, words and actions connect me deeper to my truth and may they align fully with God’s plumb line. And may that, in turn, help to serve the greater good for all beings everywhere.

Onward!

Inner Independence

Today is the day to Celebrate Your Inner Independence!

Are you INDEPENDENT of the limitations and tyranny from your past or do old inner enemies made up of wounds and limiting beliefs rooted in the past sometimes stop you from the freedom you deserve?

A long while back, a new client arrived for her first private session. She’d recently heard how powerfully healing and liberating the yoga process was. I recall how excited and eager she was to schedule her session just a few weeks earlier. Yet, from the time she arrived, I felt her reluctance. When I asked her about the reluctance I was sensing, she confessed that she had been listening to Eckhart Tolle in the car on the way to over and was getting tired of dealing with the past and just wanted to learn to be present.

“All Emotional pain that is not fully faced, felt and accepted becomes part of the pain body.” ~Eckhart Tolle

The term 'pain body' has been around for a while and recently been made famous by Eckhart Tolle’s work. A pain body is formed when the ego experiences something it cannot process, something so horrific or over-whelming happens that it can’t be faced.  The negative energy of the experience becomes stuck somewhere in the body. Most of us can relate to having painful circumstances in our childhoods that often affect our response to life as adults today, particularly in our closest relationships. The adult ego will usually try to hide these early hurts through either avoidance or overcompensation. Yet they remain unresolved in the mind and energetically stuck the body. Until healed and released, the unconscious will continue to create self sabotaging circumstances that hijack us from the present moment and reinforce our emotional pain. It is as if the stuck energy has a gravitational pull that attracts people and circumstances into the persons life for the purpose of the hurt being experienced and finally released, yet the protective ego wont allow this to happen.

We can never totally remain in the present moment when we have old wounds that are the source of our ego-reactions today. These wounds when triggered call us out of the present moment and into the past. We may think that we are upset about something in the present, but it is actually a ghost from the past. Before we can move forward, emotional wounds must be healed and the energy that surrounds them in the pain body released. To do anything else is to further suppress our emotions and take us further from the present moment kind of living that we seek. Again, the past is only the past when we become present to it and release all energy around it.  Not yet buying it? Think of all the crazies that happen while in pigeon or how about coming back to Warrior 2 after 50+ breaths in side angle!

“Whatever is not conscious will be experienced as fate” ~Carl Jung

Here’s a typical example: A young boy grows up in a strict home of high achievers. There is constant pressure for him to be the best; make all A’s, be a star on the ball field and be as good at math as his father. His father’s attitude is, “average is unacceptable in this family.”  Well, although he tries, he’s not as gifted in math or baseball as his father. His pain body becomes filled with shame and the mind adopts the story, “I’ll never measure up.”  As an adult he overcompensates by needing to appear successful, impressive, winning at all cost, preoccupied with acquisitions, drawing attention to and even exaggerating his accomplishments. All extrinsic motivations. Or, he goes in the opposite direction of avoidance, having given up, he hides behind drugs, alcohol or some other form of escape. He may shift back and forth between the two. Until he is ready to wake up, the last thing he will do is become present to the emotional pain of his pain body by conscious choice. In one way or another the happiness and wholeness that he really seeks will allude him. Know anyone like this? When he finally has the courage to fully face, feel and accept his actual experience of hurt and shame with compassionate presence, it dissolves and he is free.

Why are people so afraid to experience their hurt feelings of fear, shame, anger and sadness?

1. The mistaken belief that the pain will be greater than is actually so.
2. Fear that the feelings will overtake them and they may not be able to recover, remaining stuck in the discomfort.
3. Fear of being or appearing week.

One of my greatest discoveries, both personally and professionally, is that any emotional pain or limiting belief that is experienced fully, for just one moment, is healed and released,  permanently.I believe that each of us comes into adulthood with past wounds crying out to be healed and a divine purpose from God calling out to be fulfilled. Whatever we resist persists. Yet, whatever we have the courage to fully face, feel and embrace becomes grace.

Upward & Onward.

Lesson Learned

“What we call chaos is just patterns we haven’t recognized. What we call random is just patterns we can’t decipher.” ~Chuck Palahniuk 

Life has a funny way of teaching us lessons. When there is something you need to learn, something that you need to work on, the same situation will continue to repeat itself until you either learn your lesson or find a healthy way of dealing with that particular issue.

Think of the movie Groundhog Day. Once Bill Murray realized that he was living the same day over and over again, he came up with ways to fix the things that went wrong before. He learned how to fix the relationship with the object of his affection. He even learned to deal better with the annoying insurance salesman who approached him every morning. It wasn’t until he learned to accept his fate that the cycle of reliving each day ended. He also became more compassionate and more sympathetic—an overall better version of himself.

I hear people say: Why do I keep going through the same things in relationships? I’m with different people, but things always end up being the same, or they act just like someone who I used to know. Some of these people give up, some get stuck in a vicious cycle of their own making, and others don’t even realize that they are basically chasing their tail, repeating the same situation over and over.

A good question to ask is: Am I reliving the same scene, over and over again? What’s my part in that?

It might not be in relationships, but in different situations, like at work for example, when the same issue comes up disguised. If you work with the public it could be the same issue with different customers, until you find a way to deal with it or until you learn the lesson.

Early on in my yoga teaching (and let’s be honest here…..it still happens sometimes in phases of my current life), I have noticed times when every single student (and random person in public) I come across is upset, angry, or annoyed, and at first I would react in a similar way. We are all mirrors of ourselves. After a number of people with the same, or similar issue, came up to me, I started to try to find different ways to resolve the problems—for example, not taking things personally and showing empathy to the person I was helping. A pattern, or lesson, here could be described as: How to stop taking things personally and how to view problems as opportunities. In other words, what is God doing in my life in this moment?

Had I not experienced the same problems with customers and made the necessary changes, I would possibly still be in the process of learning that lesson. I’m still working on this; some lessons take longer than others. Instead of reacting to situations, when something comes up and seems familiar, I try to stand back—if even for a second—to think. For a while it will seem like coincidences playing out, but over time the pattern of your lesson will come up. This is the lesson you need to learn at this time.

What are your current lessons? Pause for a moment and meditate/pray on it. It could be a lesson in humility, or a lesson in gratitude, or maybe you may need to learn empathy to see things from the other person’s point of view. Instead of reacting all the time, every time something challenging comes up it could be an opportunity to learn.

One lesson I’ve needed to learn recently can be summarized with a Shakespeare quote:

“To thine own self be true.”

I’m realizing that, no matter what other people say, do, or think about us, it is our opinions of ourselves and God’s view of us that really matter. And, when making decisions, sometimes it is good to question our own intentions. Think: What am I doing here? Or what am I up to? What is God inviting me into in this moment?

Ultimately the question I’ve needed to ask myself is: Am I being completely honest with myself? What is the particular reason why I’m scared of change? How does my reaction reflect my trust in God?

There are times when opportunities have come up for me to change my residence, or my place of employment, lessen the load of my schedule, or have reached a monumental goal—the peak—and have nothing planned after that………..and I haven’t seized the opportunities of these moments. I’ve stayed in place. Why?

When I started being honest with myself, I realized that this fear of change was a big issue for me. I needed to handle it because, if I did not, situations would continue to come up where I was forced by circumstances to make a decision involving a change. It felt infinitely ungrounding to take the coat of habit—good or bad off and discover what it would be like to live without it.  For me there was so much grief not dealt with.

I learned that not making a decision is in itself a decision—and that my fear of change was actually a fear of failure. Failure that I would no be seen as having it together.  Fear of sitting alone with myself and actually feeling all that I had not dealt with—the death of my brother, the failure of a marriage, the reaching the mountain top goal and then feeling as though there was nothing beyond that because it had been a focus or so long. That was when I noticed the pattern of things breaking, or circumstances changing, forcing me to deal with my inability to sit and grieve.

Find your pattern. Find your lesson.

A good way of recognizing patterns in your life is by listening to your feelings, your intuition. I’ve found that when I am involved in a pattern, my emotions run a bit stronger, kind of like a warning from my subconscious mind (AKA the Holy Spirit) to pay attention to what’s happening.

More often than not, I recognize the pattern when the situation has ended, or changed. Hindsight is 20/20 in this way. It can be difficult to recognize a pattern while it’s playing out. So, usually we realize what happened afterward. And that is okay. In turn, life will continue to send us ways to overcome our patterns and learn our individual lessons.  If not….we are just sent the lesson again.  Might as well get on board rather than reliving your Groundhog Day.

The key is to be alert. When you’re open to recognizing a pattern, you can change it by learning the lesson, and in doing so, change your life.


Onward.

Trish

Going Deeper

In the beginning

I was a hurdler, sprinter, and long jumper in college. In track practices and meets, the goal was always to sprint faster and jump farther. When you made progress, the evidence was absolute, even if you’d only beaten your last personal best by one hundredth of a second or a half inch. After college, the sports I engaged in were not so easily quantified. Still, I often compared my 'performance' to the last one: How long did it take me to get from Point A to Point B? What weight did I loft last time? Did I tire out more or less quickly this time? How well did I keep up with my training partner? And so on.

So what is 'Progress' anyway?

Yoga asana being a physical practice, I approached it the same way early on because this is the paradigm I’d grown up with—as have most of us. We look for results in the form of how far the body can move, compared to the person on the next mat and compared to our last practice. When I first started asana practice, touching my toes in a forward bend was but a dream. Six months in, my inborn flexibility had returned and I was nose-in-my-shins in seated forward bends. Progress, right?

If you approach asana practice from our familiar Western paradigm, you could definitely interpret it as progress. But as I came to find out over the years, the concept of progress is a completely different animal in yogic thought. I came to find out that progress in yogic terms was not the continuous push to go deeper into poses—to rest my nose on the floor in forward bends, move ever higher in back bends or stay longer in inversions. Progress in yoga is exactly the opposite:  to rest more deeply in the pose that you are already in, because this is where you find yoga’s greatest promise—the settled mind.

I often tell my students that deepening our practice does not mean adding more Cirque Du Soleil postures or crazy arm balancing. There is not some pose somewhere out there in the future—one where you look more like the bendy gymnasts that grace the covers of Yoga Journal or populate Bikram asana competitions—that’s better than the one you are in now. The pose you are in now is, in fact, the most perfect pose for you in THIS moment. And since THIS moment is all we truly have, our choice is this:

1. to wish it was different and push to make it something different, or 
2.  to relax into it right now just as it is

When all effort is relaxed

Many people are familiar with the following two sutras from Patanjali about asana practice:  

·      Sutra 2.46:  The physical posture should be steady and comfortable.

·      Sutra 2.47 says:  [Asana] is mastered when all effort is relaxed and the mind is absorbed in the Infinite.

Hmmm. Nothing in there about rocking crazy-fancy poses or about pushing your edge. I think what Patanjali is suggesting is to relax into where we are right now. In releasing effort, we cease doing the pose. When we cease doing the pose, we are free to be the pose. If the definition of yoga is “the settling of the mind into silence” (Sutra 1.2), then to go deeper in the yogic definition is to cease struggling against what is and to instead settle into the vast peacefulness that is available in each moment when we stop struggling. It doesn’t matter whether the asana you’re practicing is active and challenging or quiet and restorative. Can you relax into the truth of this pose, right now?

Of course, with all of us being Western yogis, the competitive paradigm is deeply woven into our conditioning. It takes time to rewire that pattern so we can begin to practice yoga asana from a completely different intention. That process is another challenge we can relax into—the truth that the pattern of struggling and striving still has power, and probably will for a while. But that is what is present. Relax into it.

Be patient and kind to yourself. Get curious and explore if you are willing to relax?  If you are willing to let go of the striving and the pushing and the achieving in order to choose to just be—be with what you are, be with what you have, and be in the sensation of the present moment feeling whatever it is you need to feel and the emotions attached to those physical sensations.  Are you brave to sit within yourself with yourself? Are you willing to wrap your arm around your deepest fears and wounds? Are you willing to explore the ‘who’ and ‘what’ you are in the present moment?

After two decades of asana and meditation practice, I can attest to the fact that the mind is much more stubborn about changing its habits than the body is. With patience and softness around the process, your experience of what it means to go deeper in yoga will evolve. Enjoy your present process, because that’s all there is. Be brilliant.