The Meeting
Posted: December 19, 2013 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: American, art, blogging, christmas, compassion, family, free range, freshly pressed, friends, happiness, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, holidays, kindness, life, Literature, love, meditation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, passion, perspective, Poetry, simplicity, World Literature, writing, yoga 5 Comments…
After so long an absence
At last we meet again:
Does the meeting give us pleasure,
Or does it give us pain?
The tree of life has been shaken,
And but few of us linger now,
Like the Prophet’s two or three berries
In the top of the uttermost bough.
We cordially greet each other
In the old, familiar tone;
And we think, though we do not say it,
How old and gray he is grown!
We speak of a Merry Christmas
And many a Happy New Year
But each in his heart is thinking
Of those that are not here.
We speak of friends and their fortunes,
And of what they did and said,
Till the dead alone seem living,
And the living alone seem dead.
And at last we hardly distinguish
Between the ghosts and the guests;
And a mist and shadow of sadness
Steals over our merriest jests.
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 …
Armonía
Posted: December 13, 2013 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: blogging, compassion, exercise, fitness, Forgiveness, free range, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, hope, Inner peace, kindness, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, paleo, passion, peace, perspective, pilates, running, Thought, trail running, whole foods, writing, yoga 6 CommentsOne of the keys to happiness is a bad memory-
What does our inner self sound like when it gently whispers to the world? My inner self, sounds like peace – and swearing, swearing then peace – something to that extent …
It’s interesting to witness someone in the throes of exploring the sound of their authentic self during yoga class, even while changing a newborns diaper (anything). Very often we will ask the instructor, a dear friend or our mother in law, what they think is going on: “Hey – Do you think I’m…?” they, too frequently responding with, “Yeah, you’re probably right …” Or, if we don’t ask, we just make assumptions based on what’s happening within our mind(s), based on the worst case scenario(s): “I guess I just suck at yoga … Damn dirty diapers!”
This deflating inner dialog leads us away from our true authentic self.
Peace, is calling us home through these trying moments in our lives. We can say “Fu*k it” and choose to ignore peace, continuing on the same path that created the resentment, the bitterness. We can choose to partially ignore it, and partially listen to it (men have perfected this tactic), leaving ourselves sitting perpetually on the fence, giving ourselves halfheartedly to the world …
Daily Meditation:
Or, we can choose to listen to ourselves, honor our deepest truth(s) and begin to do “things” – Differently.
Be well this weekend and please take care!
Love After Love
Posted: December 12, 2013 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: Arts, blogging, compassion, Derek Walcott, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, friends, happiness, health, hope, kindness, life, Literature, love, Love After Love (poem), meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, passion, perspective, pilates, Poetry, Prose, relationships, Romance, simplicity, writing, yoga 15 Comments…
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
ätman
Posted: December 9, 2013 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: ätman, Bhagavad Gita, blogging, compassion, cycling, exercise, freshly pressed, friends, gluten free, happiness, health, Hinduism, hope, karma, Karma yoga, kindness, Learning, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, Omaha, paleo, passion, perspective, pilates, running, trail running, whole foods, yoga, Yogi, Zen 2 CommentsThe love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books-
Teachers today often speak, lament – painfully about adjusting their techniques to a student’s learning style. Yet, very few have evolved to assist students who seek enlightenment, to learn about their essential ätman. The true identity of their soul …
Yet another kind of student, another kind of teacher … A kind of teacher who prefers to approach this enlightenment “thing” through work, and for me there is Karma Yoga.
I would like to share my fave passage from the Bhagavad Gita with you this morning:
Who dares to see action in inaction, and inaction in action,
he is wise, he is a yogi,
he is the man who knows what is work.
And if he works selflessly,
if his actions are made pure in the fire of knowledge,
he will be called wise by the learned.
He abandons greed; he is content;
he is self-sufficient;
he works, yet such a man cannot be said to work.
If he forsakes hope, restrains his mind, and relinquishes reward –
he works yet he does not work.
Daily Meditation:
If you thought this post was about yoga? You would be dead wrong! Cycling, running, being a parent? Warmer. Being you, being authentic, being vulnerable … The individual, who wishes to attain enlightenment – union through work, must cultivate a particular view of his or hers endeavors … Let’s read the last line one more time, together.
CultFit 