Feeling is Freeing

When you’re in tune with your feelings, you’re in touch with your senses, intuition and place in life. The opposite of feeling is numbness. Who wants that? Thinking and analyzing all the time creates numbness in the body. Thinking can be constricting. When you over think, you lose touch with what feels best for you. If you’re not sure how to feel, a yoga class might be a start.

Asanas (postures performed in a typical yoga class) and meditation open you up to your senses, thoughts and feelings. You’ll feel your body and breath in ways you haven’t since you were 5 years old. You’ll observe movement and notice subtle sensations –good and bad. You’ll feel tension you didn’t know you had (i.e. in those hips!). You’ll feel a release in the thinking muscle (your brain that you use all too often). You’ll feel your heart open. Best of all, you’ll start to experience some freedom from thinking and make decisions from your soul.

A yoga class also introduces you to feeling your connection in space –to the earth, sun, nature, etc. Feeling invites awareness to your surroundings and placement within the environment. A more practical example bumping into someone and saying excuse me. Many people bump into people and don’t even realize it. Hence, they never say excuse me because they are so clueless about their bodies in relation to the present environment.

Lastly, feeling increases your connection to those you interact with -family, friends, coworkers, pets. Who brings out the best in you? Who in your circle of friends creates anxiety and stress? When you feel good, you bring out goodness in others. Feeling good is addictive. Who doesn’t want that?

More on feeling in my next posting.  In the meantime, take a yoga class and experience “feeling”.  It’s not something you can learn by thinking.  How freeing?!?!?!

You’re Great

Why do we wait until someone has passed away to speak of how great he/she is? Please don’t. Tell those you love “I love you”. Tell those who inspire you “You inspire me”. Tell those you see beauty in “You are beautiful”.

Everyone has something special to offer. Start to capture your random compliments when they pop into your head and express them. Don’t wait to tell someone how you feel. Today is here. Tomorrow might be too late.

A dear friend, who left my world this week, has inspired this entry.  I will never forget the sparkle in his eyes and his glowing smile. I miss you Derek, but I believe your charismatic spirit is more alive than ever.

Modern-Day Enlightenment

What is enlightenment?  I’m jumping into the land of the unknown with this entry.  Or is it unknown? Have I experienced enlightenment?

The more I continue to study the various aspects of yoga (a.k.a. the 8 limbs including philosophy, meditation, asana, breathing, etc.) I seem to get closer to my heart and the things that really matter in life.  I’m more aware of the incessant “voices in the head” (If you think this sounds crazy, read on).  Randomly I have subtle moments I feel my mind quiet and I am fully aware of the present.

I don’t think the chatter will ever stop but I’m becoming aware of how redundant, unnecessary and useless much of the noise “upstairs”.   At times, I’m able to tune it out/turn it off.  Prior to recent, I thought the chatter was normal.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, what’s going on in your head right now?  What chatter do you hear?  What judgments are you making about me?  About yourself?  Or maybe the world around you?  How often do you think the same redundant thoughts about yourself, others, etc.?  How often do you worry about things that will more than likely never ever happen?  I remember attending a lecture with Judith Lasater last year and she said “Worrying is like praying for something bad to happen”.

Along with all this, I can’t forget to mention my listening has greatly improved.  When someone speaks, I do my best to provide my full attention physically, mentally and emotionally.  I now find myself noticing how often others aren’t listening (they’re doing what I use to do!).

Unless you’ve done any spiritual self-studies, this entry might sound foreign or simply crazy.  I use to think it was all crazy, but my experiences have opened my eyes to what it means to live in the present and live life.  I often experience myself feeling more “awake” in the chaos to a point where I’m able to rise above it and just observe.  Basically, I think I’m waking up to life.  Could this be modern-day enlightenment?  Maybe, maybe not…but I think I’m on the right track.

LIVING YOGA – Movie Screening

Are you familiar with Integral Yoga?  Have you heard of Swami Satchidananda?  Have you been to Yogaville?  Whether you said yes or no, the following is a great opportunity to learn more about an Indian guru who helped spark yoga in the U.S.

St. Mark’s Yoga Center in Washington, D.C. is hosting a screening of a new documentary, LIVING YOGA: The life and teachings of Swami Satchidananda. The birth of the modern Yoga movement and its impact on the world is chronicled in a new documentary film that informs, entertains and provokes self-inquiry.

Producer Joshua M. Greene will be present for discussion after the one-hour film. Joshua has been described by the New York Times as “a storyteller in film and video” whose films of have been seen on television in more than twenty countries. He is the author of ‘Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison’.

The screening date is Thursday May 15, 8 – 10pm. $5 at the door. To view a clip, visit LIVINGYOGAmovie.org

Seva = Service

I’ve been in search of a volunteer opportunity that I can commit to once a week. I donate money every year to several organizations but I’ve been in search of a way I can donate some of my time. There are always plenty of openings and I’ve found some of great interest. The obstacle (a.k.a. excuse) I seem to encounter is having the time. Why can’t I seem to carve out a couple hours a week to help others?

Teaching yoga as a full-time is a commitment of Self. I teach about 12-15 classes per week. Add to that roughly one-hour of commuting for each class since I’m a mobile yoga teacher – I travel to all of my clients in Arlington & Alexandria, VA as well as in D.C. Administrative tasks associated with having a small business, my own yoga practice (oh, so needed!), walking the dog (my current meditation practice) and personal stuff (i.e. laundry, bills, cleaning house, grocery shopping, etc.) all take the ‘t’ word. Time. Oh and let’s not forget I have a husband who would like some of my time ☺

I recently concluded that teaching yoga is an act of Seva. I don’t need to formally volunteer with an organization to practice Seva. By teaching 5 days/week, I’m serving others. I’m giving myself. I’m pouring my heart into helping others in a way I don’t think I can currently offer by volunteering. Whether my teaching is geared toward toning bodies or putting people in touch with themselves on a spiritual level, I’m practicing Seva.

So while I continue to have my own yoga business, I’m no longer going to beat myself up for not doing “volunteer work” per se. The work I do as a yoga teacher is helping others by improving the quality of their lives in some way. That is Seva. This is good work.

A New Earth

If you haven’t picked up Eckhart Tolle’s newest book, please do so. It has the power to positively alter your relationship with yourself, your life and those you walk around with in this world. One of my favorite quotes from A New Earth: “The present moment is the field on which the game of life happens.”

I’ll be back with more. I just bought a new MacBook last weekend so I’ve been spending my time playing with it. Yes, the blog has been neglected but trust that it’s only temporary. Impermanence, I’m learning, is a quality hidden in everything.

Aside from reading and MackBooking, I took an awesome workshop last weekend with Simon Park. He rocks! Taking the top off the JEEP has been fun. Getting back out on my road bike has been refreshing. Yoga outside on my back deck has been rejuvenating. Long walks with my dog have been meditative. All things that are keeping me playing in the present.  And all signs that Spring is here.