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?
April Chores
Posted: April 3, 2014 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: April, blogging, compassion, family, freshly pressed, happiness, health, Jane Kenyon, kindness, life, love, meditation, Omaha, passion, Poetry, Spring Leave a comment…
When I take the chilly tools
from the shed’s darkness, I come
out to a world made new
by heat and light.
The snake basks and dozes
on a large flat stone.
It reared and scolded me
for raking too close to its hole.
Like a mad red brain
the involute rhubarb leaf
thinks its way up
through loam.
Fiction
Posted: March 20, 2014 Filed under: Meditation, Yoga | Tags: America, family, Fiction, life, Lisel Mueller, love, Omaha, Poetry, Spring, yoga 2 Comments…
Going south, we watched spring
unroll like a proper novel:
forsythia, dogwood, rose;
bare trees, green lace, full shade.
By the time we arrived in Georgia
the complications were deep.
When we drove back, we read
from back to front. Maroon went wild,
went scarlet, burned once more
and then withdrew into pink,
tentative, still in bud.
I thought if only we could go on
and meet again, shy as strangers.
Don’t You Evah
Posted: April 3, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: Attention, blogging, Breathing, crossfit, exercise, fitness, focus, free range, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, kettlebell, life, living, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, musings, natural, nature, passion, pilates, Playing with Lego's, running, Spring, trail running, walking, whole foods, WOD, writing, yoga 8 CommentsWe are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be-
Delicacy and intentioned outcome. Could we be talking about: Walking, Yoga, Breathing, Love, Playing with Lego’s? Possibly, let’s narrow our attention on meditation this morning. If meditation is so not cool enough for you? Feel free to empower yourself to change it to whatever you like.
Why meditation talk again? Well, you can do all of the above and more while meditating. Our thoughts shape our reality in ways we all too often take for granted (post from yesterday), the effectiveness of our meditation practice hinges upon our state of mind. Not getting the results you seek through meditation … Take a look at your attitude, paying attention to our attitudes towards meditation and how we meditate, is critical. Some attitudes are especially powerful in hindering the positive and beneficial effects of meditation: Vanity, Ego, Competition. Yet it seems that far too often we fall into these thought-patterns, resulting in us having a unfocused meditation experience with undesired results.
Be at ease, present in the moment
Meditating is not a marathon, warrior dash or whatever competition suites you the best. Meditation is one of those “things” in life where the quicker you try to get it done, the worse the outcome is (any other areas in life where this is true?). Slow down, relax and chill in a tranquil state of mind. No need to rush, study, read up on meditative techniques and time yourself in the act. Time, does not exist in a meditative state. The truly productive “things” in life take longer than a few moments to blossom.
Notes:
I’m hoping the messages here are starting to settle in a bit, making you uncomfortable and vulnerable. Be forewarned: Friday’s post is going to pithy, rich and basically? It’s going to expose what we are all doing wrong in regards to health, fitness, whatever (clues are buried in the prior two weeks posts- FYI).
Time to Pretend
Posted: March 29, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: Bike Riding, blogging, Children, cycling, development, exercise, fitness, free range, freshly pressed, gluten free, happiness, health, hipster, hope, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, motivation, natural, paleo, passion, pilates, playing, running, Spring, walking, whole foods, WOD, yoga, youth 8 CommentsIt is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them-
In some ways learning how to be happy daily is a lot like learning how to ride a bike; there is a learning curve, and you are going to crash.
There is infinite wisdom, innocence of a child learning how to ride a bike, if we can pay attention long enough (stop taking videos – updating status …) and watch?!? Kids have the keen ability to show us what the true ‘secret’ to happiness is. By kindly placing our adult baggage aside, witness ‘happiness’ as the little ones roll on … Believe in yourself (everyday) and Practice (everyday). A child learning how to ride a bike doesn’t know and quite frankly doesn’t care that there are a plethora of different pathways to achieve happiness: kissing a loved one in the morning, holding hands, meditation, mindfulness, spiritual awakening, whatever. A child simply wants you to experience what they are feeling in this moment; “I believe I can do this bike riding thing, I’m smiling and I am true to myself.”
Notes:
Believe in yourself this morning and Practice, everyday. Be well and have a great weekend.
CultFit 