Gentle Season
Posted: April 8, 2014 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: April, compassion, courage, cycling, David Baird, fitness, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, passion, perspective, pilates, Power Yoga, running, Spring, trail running, Value 6 Comments…
“Yes no yes no yes no?
Red blue?
Yes red, no blue?
No red, yes no?
In out, up down?
Do don’t, can can’t?
Choices sit on the shelf life
New shoes in a shoe shop.
If the in crowd are squeezing into a must-have shoe
And the one pair left are too tiny for you
Don’t feel compelled into choosing them
If you’re really a size 9, buy that size.
While everyone else
Hobbles round with sore feet
Your choices should feel comfortable
Or they aren’t your choices at all.
Why limp when you can sprint?”
– David Baird, Fiesta of Happiness: Be True to Yourself
Daily Meditation:
May I ask you once more? In a deeper, more personal way … Why limp through the day, when you can sprint?
Urban Buddhism
Posted: March 24, 2014 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: Bliss, blogging, Buddhism, Commuting, compassion, cycling, exercise, fitness, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, joy, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, nature, nebraska, Omaha, passion, perspective, simplicity, writing, yoga, Zen 13 CommentsKeep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you-
” … Get your bike off of my road asshole!!!”
Last summer I built up an old Jamis road bike in order to make it more efficient and useful for commuting back and forth from work. For me – This is the perfect way to get a bit more exercise, heal and rehab some old injuries, save a couple precious dollars on gas, and in all honesty – I enjoy the ride, alone, the peace and quiet of spinning along in the early light. (I’ll save my rant about saving the environment for later this summer)
On my afternoon ride two Thursdays ago … I was waiting at an intersection near home for the light to change, when an Audi Q7 (affectionately adorned with five look at how many kids I have created stickers in the rear window) squeezed past me to get to the front of the line. The “kids” driving turned sharply in front of my front wheel and the driver kindly shared her advice mentioned at the beginning of the post.
My first reaction was one of slight amusement, as an avid cyclist, events like these happen all too often. I was simply waiting to cross the last intersection after a long day of work, when out of nowhere I was called some rather amateurish names. Instead of reacting, I simply crossed the street when the light changed, and then gently rode home.
When I arrived home and started to remove my helmet, I thought for a moment what was shared with me 15 minutes earlier … The recalcitrant behavior of our society is nauseating.
Daily Meditation:
Why do so many people feel the need to make these kinds of remarks in the first place? I’ll share with you my theory as to why: There are critical thinking flaws present in the way we live our lives, especially pertaining to unwarranted inferences from others.
I’m Sorry …
Posted: March 18, 2014 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: Anger, balance, Bliss, blogging, compassion, exercise, fear, fitness, freshly pressed, friends, happiness, health, life, love, lust, meditation, Omaha, passion, perspective, Solitude, thoughts, yoga, Zen 3 CommentsWhy didn’t I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future-
” … Of course! Your blog is just another way of saying we all want to live in a hedonic present, a present where everything is easy and we suffer no consequences for making “whatever” choices we make, the moment we make them. If only more people took notice of how unsuccessful and unhappy a life would be, from adopting a living in the present moment only approach. Are we too lost in ourselves to strike a balance!”
Balance from whose perspective? Mine, that dude over yonder, or your own …
Moving forward, one of the main undercurrents to keep in mind as you skim over these posts is: To whom do you owe your greatest allegiance? Do you owe your allegiance to your yoga studio, running club, cycling team, your family, your abusive workout regime?
Life, isn’t just a competition between our now self and our future self. We have for all intents and purposes, an infinite number of future selves, all of whom potentially have competing interests and competing desires.
Daily Meditation:
The question we face when deciding to do “whatever“: Do we abuse our bodies now or save ourselves for the future? Or rather, how much time and energy do we spend now and how much do we save for later in life? In both of these cases, the answer is – It depends … Dude.
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In between Your Choice
Posted: March 7, 2014 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: ahiṃsā, Ahimsa, Buddhism, compassion, exercise, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, hipster, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, paleo, passion, perspective, pilates, running, trail running, walking, writing, yoga 4 CommentsI picked up a new language a few months ago. It was just laying on the ground, dirty, so I scooped it up and popped it in my mouth–
On Wednesday I wrote a post discussing self-talk. A post in which I trimmed a major theme out, primarily because it was aimed at self coaching for athletes and dare I say – ultra competitive folks. One of the issues I struggle with, daily – having once been über-competitive, is introducing mindfulness, awareness, compassion and self-love as important tool(s) to reaching your full potential, in whatever you choose to do.
I would like to thank A Somewhat Likable Girl and Fit Recovery for twisting my arm a little bit! I’m not one to back down from an opinion, although when it comes to doling out advice? I like to tread lightly, for each of us are truly unique and special, and I mean “special“. Warning: A healthy dose of self-serving advice and bloated opinions lie ahead ….
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The portion I edited out …
It amazes me how much time, effort, and money we pour into training for “whatever“. Thinking that better equipment and shoes will help us break through the ultra marathon wall, typically at mile 43.5. Cyclist, obsess over saving a few grams, for what? Four meager grams will not help your torrid pace near the finish. Yoga folks … Fabulous new pants and a see through crop top will not help you hold a pose longer – That’s the truth!
How does this tie into finding equanimity, self-talk, mindfulness etc.? We are keenly aware that competing and training, aerobic exercise, yoga and lifting weights are effective ways to relinquish the anger and frustration that can fester when we “Zip it Up” rather than fully expressing ourselves in the moment. Physical activity and competing can be a pathway to equanimity, like any type of meditation. Although, I feel we are missing out on the best part.
During competition, yoga – brutally honest moment: I have seen more people comparing and competing in yoga class than at the start of CAT 1 Crit. A topic for another day … More so than letting out aggression and relieving stress. Positive self-talk and personal coaching allows us to deconstruct the elements of what happened, let’s our aggression escape the moment, allowing us to resolve conflicts in a magnanimous way.
For those of you reading who may not know – I fully have surrendered to myself and embrace ahiṃsā. <- This is where I stopped, before a long-winded rant ensued.
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Daily Meditation:
What in the world am I talking about? Remember who you are, that’s it. Remember that you a special person doing something you love to do, but please keep in mind that YOU are not the ACTIVITY. Positive self-talk and coaching affords us the time to reconnect with our humanness. WE are not our GOAL(s), no matter how important they are to you. I’m pleading with you not to lose this perspective. Instead, cultivate it within your self coaching, self-talk and whatever. Having goals and competing can make us pretty damn cool, but not as cool as the all-encompassing, creative and mysterious universe to which we already belong. Knowing your true self in this crazy world assures you of finding serenity, even at four in the morning, rain pouring down, butterflies in your quivering stomach … Mile maker 43 cannot come soon enough!
Be well this weekend and please take care.
Boy at the Window
Posted: March 6, 2014 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: blogging, Buddhism, compassion, exercise, family, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, life, love, lululemon, marathon, Media, meditation, Mindfulness, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, paleo, passion, perspective, pilates, Poetry, Prose, Richard Wilbur, running, trail running, walking, winter, yoga, youth Leave a comment…
Seeing the snowman standing all alone
In dusk and cold is more than he can bear.
The small boy weeps to hear the wind prepare
A night of gnashings and enormous moan.
His tearful sight can hardly reach to where
The pale-faced figure with bitumen eyes
Returns him such a god-forsaken stare
As outcast Adam gave to Paradise.
The man of snow is, nonetheless, content,
Having no wish to go inside and die.
Still, he is moved to see the youngster cry.
Though frozen water is his element,
He melts enough to drop from one soft eye
A trickle of the purest rain, a tear
For the child at the bright pane surrounded by
Such warmth, such light, such love, and so much fear.
CultFit 