(A) Visit
Posted: October 22, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout, Yoga | Tags: blogging, compassion, cycling, exercise, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, kettlebell, kindness, Knee, life, love, lululemon, marathon, medicine, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, Orthopedic, pain, Pain management, paleo, passion, Patella, perspective, recovery, running, Surgery, trail running, whole foods, writing, yoga 6 CommentsIt’s not time to worry yet-
Dear Readers, since Summer has surrendered to the beauty of the Fall, I have been obsessing over my left knee as the days grow shorter and the nights increasingly grow colder. I feel nothing different in it. It doesn’t hurt as much as before, just some clicking and popping – the occasional swelling reminding me to slow down and rest. And yet, in the past, I have had severe, tear inducing pain underneath where my left index finger rests this morning. A few months ago (July maybe …) after doing too much physically during class, cycling with no intention or purpose: In essence ignoring my body, I had the same feelings, in the same spot of my surgery. I obsessively spent countless hours rubbing and massaging around the medial side of my left patella, the femoral notch, the spot on your lovers knee that you place your hand while driving one Fall morning to pick apples … I did this to the point of bruising the still tender soft tissue where my surgeon ripped my knee apart.
Last evening while reading Siddhartha, cuddled up with my Son lying on the floor, nothing is going on. no pain, Yet in my mind I feel like I feel something, in the sense of sensing something is wrong. I feel like I sense something there, like an old friend paying a visit after a long journey …
Which reminds me of something. It’s about “some” dude who visited a friend recently, “Right here.” I He said, jabbing, poking at the exact spot. The doctor friend replied, looking directly in my unwavering eyes, “have you been doing this a lot?” “What do you mean by this?” I replied, jabbing and prodding at the incision points insistently.
“Yes. Said the doctor. “Yes,” she said.
Notes:
My friend looked me in my eyes once again, her hand placed on my knee with care and softly spoke … “Stop doing that – Dude.”
(e)Strecho
Posted: October 21, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout, Yoga | Tags: blogging, compassion, Dhāraṇā, friends, gluten free, Gravel, happiness, health, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, mind, motivation, musings, Namaste, natural, nature, non-attachment, Omaha, paleo, passion, perspective, pilates, Practice, Practices, Religion and Spirituality, running, trail running, whole foods, WOD, writing, yoga, Yoga Wisdom 9 CommentsLook around you. Everything changes. Everything on this earth is in a continuous state of evolving, refining, improving, adapting, enhancing…changing. You were not put on this earth to remain stagnant-
There is much more to yoga than twisting into poses on a sweaty, $95 Prana Revolution yoga mat early one Sunday morning.
Quick example, one of the ways of applying yogic principles away from our mat is by developing non-attachment, focusing on what we are doing in the moment … Practicing not getting caught up in the drama and uncertainty swirling around us. When we practice yoga in class, we are reminded to breathe into the movement, release tension, surrender, disconnecting our mind from discomfort. Practicing non-attachment away from our practice allows us to disconnect our mind, from wanting “things” to be different and worrying about the future. Our mind(s) is then free to stretch, explore, and tap their true creativity.
Is complete non-attachment in today’s world realistic? Are you reading this post on your iPhone? Our innate sense of control is an illusion at times. Disappointment in life is inevitable, although pursuing and actively seeking to develop a strong practice of non-attachment can help us realize that we don’t have to choose to get stuck, mired in a bog of cynicism and hopelessness.
Notes:
Hidden within our narrow focus, among the 8 Limbs of Yoga, lies ishvara-pranidhana, which is a way to explore staying connected to something larger than ourselves. Non-attachment is just one varietal of surrender, where we recognize no one can truly control the events of our day or other people in our lives.
Les Éventails, Portraits of Passion
Posted: October 10, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout, Yoga | Tags: Arts, Bird, blogging, compassion, exercise, family, friends, health, kindness, life, love, lululemon, meditation, motivation, music, musings, Nathalie Handal, natural, Omaha, passion, perspective, Poetry, Recreation, simplicity, Winds, Woodwinds, writing 3 Comments…
The shadows of birds fading on a fighter’s back
The undressing of words on an unstamped postcard
The wet swings in the distant park
The jealousy of raindrops on the umbrella of lovers
The laughter of a boy before a bird
The song of two flutes, two swords, two bracelets, two fingers
The stare of a wave before a pearl
The yearning between the legs of a farmer’s wife
The opening of doors closing midday
The sudden howling of our muse—and
les éventails—disturbing the guest inside of us
– Nathalie Handal
Decidir V. Decidido
Posted: October 8, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout, Yoga | Tags: blogging, crossfit, cycling, Facebook, family, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, kindness, Learning, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, mind, Mindfulness, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, paleo, passion, perspective, philosophy, pilates, running, Thought, trail running, walking, whole foods, WOD, writing, yoga 9 CommentsIf someone comes along and shoots an arrow into your heart, it’s fruitless to stand there and yell at the person. It would be much better to turn your attention to the fact that there’s an arrow in your heart-
If through practicing mindfulness, we practice letting go of thoughts – hopefully? We need another practice for letting thoughts in, getting comfortable with threats from soccer moms, the risks associated with yoga class, discouraging and difficult thoughts during a recent early morning run. We need to exercise our ability to comprehend the tedious, harsh and more discouraging thoughts we encounter during the day more so than blasting reps and sets in a gym. Without ever practicing letting thoughts in? We tend to interpret the world through the lens of easy, wishful thinking …
We need to be brave enough to take our shoes off, expose our knackered and worn toenails to step confidently into dark, discouraging and confusing waters in our quests for uncertain gratification.
It’s not enough to be able to dismiss all the “thoughts” we process and return to the here and now as “mindfulness” practice encourages. Seriously folks – Please read the last sentence again. This is where many people get mindfulness wrong, horribly wrong: Mindfulness practice is most attractive and helpful to people who succumb to the weight of negative thoughts and feelings.
Consider that most often mindfulness is meant to discourage, discouragement.
You may be able to tell I am clearly frustrated with the current view, adopted by so many in regards to mindfulness. The power of neutral-thinking, an ability to, in effect pre-grieve the possibilities of not having the latest yoga fashion(s) so that we aren’t scared of living without them, limbering our minds much the way we learn to breathe into and surrender to the searing burn of a stretched hamstring during chair pose.
Notes:
By letting thoughts in, we have already visited failure, humiliation and injury. We are prepared to contemplate deeply even when it’s not cool or trendy. Here’s the harsh truth that many yogis, blog posts and tired yoga magazine articles fail to provide us: Mindfulness practice is not believing you can ward off undesirable outcomes by not thinking about them.
Un poco de fe
Posted: April 9, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout, Yoga | Tags: blogging, confidence, exercise, faith, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, Heuristic, hipster, hope, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, Neomania, Omaha, paleo, passion, trail running, walking, whole foods, WOD, yoga 8 CommentsI have great faith in fools – self-confidence my friends will call it-
Why is it that even our best efforts to create change often fail? Is it sheer laziness? Lack of motivation? The quality and variety of reality TV programming? Netflix? Many would attribute our failed attempts to change as a result of these examples. Really, who knew that duck calls and sophisticated red necks would resonate so deeply with ‘Murican folks?
Laziness and lack of motivation are often the go to excuse when our weekly goals implode on a Tuesday morning. Maybe what we need to address is our lost faith (in ourselves), the ever sagging confidence in our own inner ability to create change, possibility and growth.
As a society, external influences are growing in dominance, we are attributing increasingly more of our power to external solutions …
“This damn website lost my weight loss stats for all the hard work I had been doing this past month! And look, I gained five pounds this week!”
By releasing control of our inner power and resources to external forces, we lose faith in our own abilities to create change, which only makes us more dependent on the latest and greatest external solutions. Neomania run a muck!
It’s only Tuesday the 99th day of the year (awesome hockey number) – Let’s resolve to rediscover our own inner ability to create meaningful changes in our lives. Before turning to the Google Machine or The Facetube for an answer to a problem, what if we first look within ourselves for the resource(s) to bring meaningful change?
Notes:
Learning to be apart of the solution is a heuristic process. A process that will help you slowly build confidence – faith.
CultFit 