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
Thought(S)
Posted: October 9, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: blogging, compassion, Critical thinking, culture, cycling, exercise, family, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, Intelligence, intuition, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, mind, Mindfulness, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, paleo, passion, perspective, pilates, recovery, Religion and Spirituality, rest, running, Social psychology, Thought, whole foods, WOD, writing, yoga 5 CommentsIf you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people-
We tend to naturally treat some of our thoughts as superior to others. Moment of honesty folks – All of us at one time or another believed we were smarter and superior to those around us … At times these intuitions guide us fairly well and during other times, rather poorly. Gather around if you like, as I lament, once again about honing our intuition and judgment …
As much as we tend to think our perfect little lives are well – perfect. Our intuitions and actions have evolved, we have learned subtle adaptations honed slowly to fit the “imperfect” world we live in.
Touching on mindfulness once again … I firmly believe mindfulness is best cultivated through critical thinking, through taking inventory of our weaknesses, the places where we’re naturally prone to misinterpret reality. Thinking Slowly and Diligently rather than Fast and Easy. I – We automatically favor thinking fast, it’s what we have been programmed to do after all! We favor the path of least resistance, although with practice we can make the harder path easier … That’s why we do what we do right? We meditate because its easy, we perform yoga because we are super flexible, we max out the leg abductor machine because its easy, we write touching blog posts about painful situations we are too scared to confront in real life, it’s why we argue with loved ones via text than face to face, held close – The easier path …
Mindfulness practice is easy. Breathing is just being. It takes courage to let go of a pesky thought, the ability to say, “I’m thinking way too much about this” and to ultimately – let go, surrender.
Notes:
I wish more people would allow mindfulness to expose the “sad but true” moments in their lives. I passionately do … Be well today and please take care.
Grief
Posted: October 3, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: blogging, compassion, family, freshly pressed, friends, Grief, happiness, health, hope, kindness, life, Loss, love, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, passion, perspective, Poem, Poetry, Prose, recovery, running, simplicity, Stephen Dobyns, writing, yoga 8 Comments…
Trying to remember you
is like carrying water
in my hands a long distance
across sand. Somewhere people are waiting.
They have drunk nothing for days.
Your name was the food I lived on;
now my mouth is full of dirt and ash.
To say your name was to be surrounded
by feathers and silk; now, reaching out,
I touch glass and barbed wire.
Your name was the thread connecting my life;
now I am fragments on a tailor’s floor.
I was dancing when I
learned of your death; may
my feet be severed from my body.
Ground(ED)
Posted: October 2, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: Alternative, Anahata, blogging, Chakra, compassion, cycling, Earth, energy, family, free range, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, Muladhara, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, paleo, perspective, pilates, Religion and Spirituality, running, Sahasrara, Sanskrit, simplicity, trail running, Walk, whole foods, WOD, writing, yoga 8 CommentsThe body, she says, is subject to the force of gravity. But the soul is ruled by levity, pure-
I often get asked how I retain a calm center when all that I know, all that I have been taught, all that I have so diligently built over the years, centered on “performance” and “perfection” appears to be slowly falling away as I get older – not wiser mind you, older?
You may feel personally challenged on multiple fronts today: A recent spat of dealing with injury – again, stressing too much about an upcoming race, yoga pants riding up on you during class, family matters, school and the old standby: Work. You may feel un-grounded.
Grounding yourself is a way to build a relationship with the Earth, that “thing” beneath your sparkly toes. Grounding ourselves means actively choosing to make a conscious connection between your self and the source of your life force energy. Breaking News: Your job, online relationship status and how many sun salutations you can do in a row are not your true source of life force energy. Grounding provides our spirit with precise GPS coordinates on our physical body.
Spirit —> Body
Notes-
Discovering our root center connects us directly to the pure essence of the Earth—not to the physical surface of the Earth where our daily lives are played out, but rather the living, breathing entity of Earth.
*The inspiration for this tedious post came as challenge from a friend: Explain Chakra, without using the word Chakra and make it digestible for “common folks” … How did I do?*
(Auto) Porción
Posted: October 1, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: Abstinence, blogging, compassion, Crafts, cycling, exercise, fitness, food, free range, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, kettlebell, kindness, life, Lifestyle (sociology), love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, nutrition, Omaha, paleo, passion, perspective, pilates, running, Style, Support Groups, trail running, weight loss, whole foods, WOD, writing, yoga 4 CommentsLive to the point of tears-
Part of my philosophy here at CultFit is that I believe that people who engage in a healthy and active lifestyle and folks who don’t, can benefit from sharing stories with each other.
Quick example: If you’re struggling with injury, doubting yourself, stuck in a deep – treacherous training rut and wonder if it’s even possible to live a happy life without fretting over a tedious marathon training plan? It can be refreshing and helpful to hear from people who don’t train like a bunch of “freaks“. What do people do who merely run for fun? How do they relax the temptation to compete? On the other hand, if you don’t fancy running more than a meter, it can be affirming or simply a vicarious pleasure to hear the ups and downs of other people’s lives.
Exploring and surrendering to your own style can help you craft your own plan …
Notes:
When all is said and done, the most helpful thing we can do is ask ourselves: What makes me comfortable, given who I really am?
CultFit 