A Downward Look
Posted: December 27, 2013 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: Bliss, blogging, body, compassion, freshly pressed, friends, happiness, health, hope, James Merrill, kindness, life, love, marathon, meditation, mind, Mindfulness, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, passion, running, Soul, Spirituality, yoga, Zen 5 Comments…
Seen from above, the sky
Is deep. Clouds float down there,
Foam on a long luxurious bath.
Their shadows over limbs submerged in “air”,
Over protuberances, faults,
A delta thicket, glide. On high, the love
That drew the bath and scattered it with salts
Still radiates new projects old as day,
And hardly registers the tug
When, far beneath, a wrinkled, baby hand
Happens upon the plug.
Alive, I
Posted: December 23, 2013 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: blogging, christmas, compassion, Contentment, cycling, Everyday life, exercise, family, Festivus, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, holidays, hope, kettlebell, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, passion, perspective, pilates, recovery, running, Silence, trail running, whole foods, writing, yoga 16 CommentsIn Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves-
How different would everyday life become, if we embraced silence?
…
Over the course of writing this blog-o-thing I have adapted a leisurely pace in life … Attending more yoga classes, spending more time unconnected from the web and partaking in long, flowing bike rides without a care in the world.
As Festivus and winter set in, the bikes resting at ease in the front bedroom. I turned my attention homeward, focusing more on the events of my daily life. It truly is possible to attend a silent retreat, where my only interactions with my surroundings are with a smile and an attentive ear. I stopped listening to the radio while driving, the TV stays off when I get home from work and magically … My son and I are reading more in front of the fireplace.
It is such a relief to be free of “noise” … The stillness in my heart is based solely on silence rather than a frantic beat or change in tempo.
I have begun to notice in this “silence,” the crunch of salt on the walkways leading into work, the rustle of a few stubborn leaves in the breeze, a red tail hawk gliding past …
Silence has kindly given me clarity and inspiration.
Daily Meditation:
Be kind your body and heart today …
Lies
Posted: December 20, 2013 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: Asana, blogging, compassion, cycling, exercise, failure, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, kindness, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, paleo, passion, pilates, Practice, running, Self-compassion, Self-esteem, Self-Help, Spirituality & Religion, whole foods, WordPress, yoga 8 CommentsFailure is the condiment that gives success its flavour-
Search “self-help” this morning using your WordPress reader, and you are likely to find a billion posts listed under “self-esteem.” Let’s be fully open and honest – The sole purpose of these posts is to not only tell you why your self-esteem is suffering, but rather to guide your delicate heart to more of it.
Why is this so?
Self esteem is considered the pinnacle of true individual success. How can we possibly get ahead of the next person in life, unless we intimately believe we are perfect, and perfectly awesome!
In order to be perfectly awesome? We live in quiet terror of making mistakes in life, and we feel utterly devastated when we do. Our defense mechanism is to refocus our attention on the “things” we do well …
Stroking our own ego, relentlessly until our hearts forget this horrible episode of not being “awesome” and moving on to “something” more satisfying.
How does this relate to yoga practice, cycling, running and whatever else?
It’s important to understand, when I discuss self-compassion during a post … I’m discussion what self-compassion is not. Some folks like to think self-compassion is giving yourself a break, taking it easy. In essence self-compassion is simply accepting responsibility for, YOU. The difference lies not in where we end up during a flow of poses (the flow of life), but in how we process the ups and downs of the journey, our path in life.
Self-compassion is a willingness to look at our own mistakes and shortcomings with kindness and understanding – To err, is indeed human.
Daily Meditation:
The “trick” in life is to allow ourselves to make mistakes without feeling humiliated … Tune in and take notice of your abilities, your actions, and evaluate what needs to be done “differently” next time around.
Skating
Posted: December 17, 2013 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: art, beauty, christmas, compassion, Enviroment, family, Freinds, happiness, health, holidays, ice skating, inspiration, kindness, life, love, meditation, memory, mental health, musings, nature, Omaha, passion, Power Yoga, Self-compassion, Self-esteem, Self-Help, Style, yoga 3 CommentsCompassion is the basis of morality-
Here is the flat-out, honest truth you have been searching for your entire life: You are going to screw up eventually.
Everyone, You, me – the dude picking his nose in the car next to you … Make many mistakes, daily.
A few times in the not so distant past, I have lamented painfully about self-compassion. Self-compassion (loosely defined) is the extent to which you treat yourself with kindness. Self-compassion differs from the likes self-esteem (its critical to note this), which is how good you feel about yourself. Self-compassion determines how well you spring back from adversity during the course of the day. Like getting down on ourselves when “things” go sideways … Treating ourselves and others with kindness, makes it infinitely easier to recover from harmful experience(s).
Daily Meditation:
When our sole focus is intent on protecting our self-esteem, we can’t afford to look at ourselves objectively, honestly and with a pure heart. We fail to acknowledge the need for improvement, because it means acknowledging weaknesses, shortcomings and maybe – That we screwed up somewhere in our past …
Aburrimiento
Posted: December 16, 2013 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: blogging, Boredom, compassion, Emotion, exercise, freshly pressed, friends, happiness, health, hope, Iowa, kindness, life, love, meditation, mental health, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, perspective, running, Templeton Rye, trail running, twitter, writing, yoga 4 CommentsIs life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves-
With our attention spans dwindling every second this Holiday season, our impatience increases twofold.
Feeling stuck in the moment … Painfully listening to a co-worker’s weekend escapades in Templeton, Iowa, waiting in line for a cold latte that arrives ten minutes too late … The more agitated we feel and the more agitated we become. Stuck with no cell access in a morning meeting, no Twitter on our gadgets, our anxiety increases with the slow passage of time. What can we do during these painful moments?
My cure for “boredom” is to make life interesting, stimulating and fun. Maintaining an emotional balance also requires finding the time for “boring” meditation practice, resting my mind and body …
Daily Meditation:
Recognize your boredom this morning. This is all I ask of you before the Holidays set in, settling in to agitate and overwhelm us. When we start practicing now, before we sense ennui enveloping our bodies and spirit? Awareness is a beautiful antidote to boredom.
*It’s also a great method to not getting injured during the winter months*
CultFit 