Create Desire
Posted: July 11, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: American Poets, Creativity, desire, family, freshly pressed, friends, happiness, health, hope, kindness, life, love, lululemon, motivation, musings, passion, Poem, Poetry, Prose, whole foods, WOD, yoga 4 Comments
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!
(I) Remember
Posted: July 2, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: blogging, compassion, exercise, happiness, healing, health, hipster, hope, life, love, lululemon, marathon, meditation, musings, natural, Omaha, passion, pilates, running, whole foods, WOD, Wounds, yoga 8 CommentsAfter nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world-
I don’t think I’ve been gentle enough around other people’s vulnerable, exposed wounds. Mainly because my short coming for all these years is that I have a tendency to get all self-righteous, to make myself “superior” to people once I’ve seen them in a vulnerable position. I make myself “right” and others “wrong” and then my ego convinces me that I shouldn’t have to walk on eggshells around someone else’s wounds, I should step all over them. I used do this all the time when I would first learn of someone’s weakness while competing … Seeing a runner ahead on the trail struggling to finish the last few miles, pulling away from the pack during a mountain bike race, watching someone struggle with an advance pose during yoga class, knowing I could do better, I would show them how its “done” or whatever that is supposed to mean.
Sometimes though, walking gently around someone’s raw wound(s) is the perfect opportunity to practice compassion and to demonstrate love. Not only towards ourselves but to other kind folks as well.
This Dear Reader, is my wound to work on. Maybe one of you could put arnica oil on it for me? Just being compassionate with this side of myself, the side I’m not so proud of, is a good start. Slowly over the years the lights have flickered on… No longer am I blind to how I created my own suffering for so long.
Notes:
May you find this post in light, probably on a tablet or whatever the kids call them these days. Take care and be well!
CultFit 