Being Me*
Posted: July 10, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: exercise, family, fitness, freshly pressed, happiness, health, hipster, hope, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, paleo, passion, pilates, running, walking, WOD, yoga 32 CommentsMake your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything-
Over the past couple years of writing this blog-o-thing, I have alluded a few times to having chosen vulnerability as a path of spiritual practice for myself. Most recently when I wrote about the freedom of committing to a path, I wasn’t expecting to be pushed back to the very beginning. This is precisely what happened to me last weekend.
Last Saturday I was exposed to a unique set of circumstances that took some effort on my part to digest. Years of gentle practice has enabled me to go beyond my old, persistent way of being too hard on myself, pushing too far and letting my ego roam free. For the most part, I felt enormous tenderness towards the situation I put myself in. Every time I think of the pain I have caused myself and others, I feel an inner cringe. I’m not much fun to be around when I am so preoccupied with my fleeting thoughts; I feel less free, less open, less capable of loving. Where can I go to get relief?
In this moment, writing at ease, calm about the pain I subjected myself to. I am not in the least bit surprised at the events that occurred. One of the areas of challenging ourselves and changing behavior(s) for me personally is that I can revert back, in a split second, when I am under a lot of stress, when I am trying to ask my body to do something it physically cannot do … To a very dangerous place. Looking back now, all it means is that in certain challenging moments, I thought I was more present than I actually was.
I strive to share kindness towards myself and towards others. Why is this so hard?
Notes:
Now, as I am wrapping up this post, the confusion I so often have when I write about my personal struggles surfaces again. Why would anyone be interested in the intricacies of some random old dude’s life? How could this blog be of any meaning to anyone exploring a spiritual path?
Today Dear Reader, I see that new path arises off in the distance: How can I help you (and myself) embrace the possibility that some people may respond with love and appreciation? Please take a moment to read my heartfelt question again: How can I embrace the possibility of love and appreciation? How can I allow myself to take it in, to enjoy it, to rest in it?
* Tired, broken and completely laid bare … I place the future of CultFit in your hands.
Of These, (Hope)
Posted: July 9, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: blogging, exercise, fitness, free range, Giving, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, kindness, life, love, lululemon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, Omaha, paleo, passion, running, whole foods, WOD, yoga 3 CommentsBegin, be bold, and venture to be wise-
Giving is extremely simple. The post today is dedicated to you, how’s this for a simple gift? Giving is also extremely easy to get wrong: Handing your beautiful wife a vacuum cleaner for her 10th anniversary or a New England Patriots – Tom Brady Snuggie for her birthday? Bad idea (we learn from our mistakes). When we give to others, its critically important to be kind and sensitive to whom we are giving to. During the process of giving a gift we need to consider what will genuinely make the other person happy, what will make them smile and bring joy into this special moment in our lives.
There is one gift, a gift we give whether the other person likes it or not: It’s the gift of our time and company. While giving my time and company I have found it useful and maybe you will as well … To be sensitive and delicate with how much time we allocate to listening, and how much time we spend jabbering away about some god awful yoga class or the folks at the store this morning. Giving is easy, but doing so with sensitivity, care and a dash of tact takes a lot of practice.
Notes:
The way in which we give reflects in the way in which we receive. Whether it be instructing an early morning class or sharing the company of a friend riding the dusty back roads of Nebraska … Learning to give with purpose and meaning is the same as learning how to receive. The very essence of both is one in the same, giving and receiving are reflected in the other, appreciating the “moment” for everything that it is, receiving warmly – with kindness, we learn that giving a vacuum cleaner is not a good idea.
No More Rain (In these clouds)
Posted: July 8, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: blogging, crossfit, exercise, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, natural, paleo, running, whole foods, WOD, yoga 7 CommentsPresents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not the merits of who receives them-
There are many different types of giving. There’s the giving that we do to feel good about ourselves, the giving we do because we expect something in return and the type of giving which comes from a place of kindness. Sadly, the gift of kindness is all but forgotten in today’s world. Does this make us all terribly rotten people? Nope, it’s much better to give a little than not to give at all, no matter what your motivation is.
Although giving kindness does give us cause for reflection. When we give to others and ourselves, is it from a place of insecurity, inner pride, desire? Or is giving kindness from a place of peaceful confidence, of unadulterated kindness which, just like the brilliant blue sky above, is always present, unchanging and limitless in nature.
Notes:
Have a beautiful day today and please be well!
Lose Your Way
Posted: July 1, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: blogging, Canada, Canada Day, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, musings, natural, paleo, passion, whole foods, WOD, yoga 11 CommentsOh! that gentleness! how far more potent is it than force-
No healthy path I explore is going to lead to having “success” waiting at the end. During the course of my 37 years, in my experience, the long-term success of my path depends largely on the amount of gentleness I bring to my “failures.” Spending time exploring my path requires enormous amounts of energy to confront and then walk directly into discomfort, to shift away from prior habits. Fighting with myself drains much-needed energy, quickly. Gentleness, on the other hand, creates internal harmony and allows my inner energy to flow, to be regenerated, released. I’m not sure of a singular event that made it possible for me to accept myself to the degree that I do now. I still screw up daily, although I do know that acceptance has left my inner landscape truly a gentle place, a place for me to find myself once again.
At some point wandering around this vast path, I lost interest in protecting myself: Worrying endlessly about working out, staying fit, eating right, recklessly practicing yoga, competing in frivolous races, caring more about my outward appearance than loving my inner-self. Whether it was by finding grace after constantly injuring myself, self-acceptance of where I was at, or the help of some close friends. I came to full ownership of the “path“, completely free of the: “should I do this” or “I have to do more”.
The most empowering aspect of inner alignment is the ability to arrive back onto the path when I fall off. My old habits still remain, as hard as we try there is no erasing old “habits“. When I am not conscious of my actions, when my resilience is perilously low and I feel helpless in the face of daily challenges? I still tense up from the fear of the unknown and lose connection with myself and family members. Even in these most trying moments, my deep commitment calls me back onto the path.
Notes:
Happy Canada-Land Day folks, please be well and take care … Eh!!!
Auot Pilot
Posted: June 28, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: acceptance, Blame, blogging, exercise, fitness, Forgiveness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, musings, paleo, pilates, running, whole foods, WOD, yoga 7 CommentsFor after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain-
The single most important practice we can cultivate is gentleness towards ourselves. Yes, even more important than a regular yoga practice, healthy eating habits and “exercise“. Cultivating gentleness is especially important when we discover, once again, that we have tripped and fallen, head first, into a pattern of reaction instead of making well thought out choice(s). Sadly, we are more likely to react to prior injuries rearing their ugly head once again, falling off the diet train and sitting on the couch marinating in self-pity. By constantly putting the blame back on ourselves, we fail to open our warm beating hearts to our own human fallibility, accepting exactly where we are in this amazing world.
As part of this comforting engagement with ourselves, we tap into our curiosity and try to formulate reasons as to why our energy is drawn to placing blame. Why do we place such importance on blame, especially given that placing blame is against so many other values we are trying to develop?
What we discover today, this weekend maybe, can help us dampen the blame we throw towards ourselves.
Notes:
Blaming ourselves and others is re-markedly easy, gravitating towards acceptance on the other hand? Is not.
A few of the posts next week will be about me, the humble dude that writes this blog-o-thing. I have been reluctant to do this for many reasons, the most important of which is: I loathe talking about myself, its boring and dreadful. But, for the sake of where these posts originate I fell its important to give you some context. Be well this weekend and please take care!
CultFit 