Most of us are too lazy to sell our stuff, some even too lazy to donate, but Salvation Army, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity etc. will all pick up from your front door. While you’re at it, consider the “stuff” outside of inanimate objects, that you could clear out and declutter from your energetic life. When you say “no” to things, you leave space to completely throw yourself into that rare thing that makes you say ‘HECK YEAH!’ This ideology is perfect for anyone whose position involves managing plentiful demands on their time and attention, even if that’s the demand of your own imagination, hopes and dreams. Derek Sivers, musician, producer, TED speaker and publisher, started the conversation with his post Hell Yeah, encouraging people to use the rule, "if you're not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say “no”. Inspired by Derek, NYTimes bestselling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, blogger, and internet entrepreneur, Mark Manson used this rule to devise a new mantra to live by, Fuck Yes or No. Go through your stuff and try it out, then do the same with the habits and maybe even the people in your life. As I say in class, only engage what’s serving you in the moment, and if it’s not serving you, let it go. This is the best possible way to conserve your energy. To pool it into the things that matter most, those which amplify your positive vibrations.
Pep Talk
Note to self, “I’m gunna make you so proud!” As a spiritual student I’m taught that releasing expectations will help me find happiness, but that’s not entirely true. As a spiritual teacher I have to tell you, the act alone of releasing expectations is nearly impossible as they are part of the human condition. What we CAN work on is the light in which we view our expectations. Learning to appreciate the contrast. Learning to understand that even the greatest tragedies can be used for our gain and our biggest mistakes can become our strongest improvement. I’m more excited about life, in this moment, than I have been in ages. I have great expectations! I know that a bright and brilliant future awaits me and I want to be everything I can be, I want to shine and glitter in its light! The butterfly’s of excitement I feel can quickly turn to waves of fear if I entertain questioning my abilities. But I know that it’s only through resistance that we become strong, so lean into it! Flex! Stay excited and celebrate everything you are, everything you’re going to be and everyone you have to share your existence with. Expect the absolute best, and know that tough times will only make you stronger!
Sādhana
Sādhana (Sanskrit साधन; Tibetan: སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་, THL: druptap; Chinese: 修行), literally "a means of accomplishing something", is a term coming from the yogic tradition. It refers to any spiritual exercise that is aimed at progressing the sādhaka towards the very ultimate expression of his or her life in this reality. What is it that you have been wanting to do, toying with the idea of, or “planning”? We spend so much time telling ourselves we are planning to do something when the truth is, we are procrastinating. What is it you will do this season, this summer? There is so much activation energy required to propel yourself off your comfort zone course, and summer provides you with energetic wind at your back, use it! “It is a self discipline practice, it is a self meditation into the total activity. If we never learn in our lives, to break the patterns of life for ten days, we will never learn to live happy.” Yogi Bhajan
Do what you love
How is it so easy to forget the things that feed our spirits, our minds and our bodies?! I ask myself this every time I get back into the hot room after a hiatus. The ego lures us into distraction, it’s deceptive, selfish and yet self destructive. Do what you love and love what you do! If you don’t feel like working out, and you don’t feel like getting up early, consider what it is you truly want. If you want to feel and look healthy, you make the decision to do what’s necessary, even when you don’t FEEL like it. “I shouldn’t have eaten so clean, and I shouldn’t have gone to Yoga”, said no one ever! Like Yoga, life is what we make it. Make your life the manifestation of all that you want.
Neurology of Yoga
Womans Best Friend
(click title for image) Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to make people happy, that I forget the reliable, and unconditional love I have from this boy. If I do one thing in a day, I want to make him smile. Everyone thinks their kid is the smartest and every pet owner thinks their pet is the cutest, but what I can say with confidence is that Azar has been my saving grace. Still, I get distracted and overlook how much he loves me. How often do we get so caught up that we neglect the love right in front of us? If I can sit still for a moment, he is sure to run over and tell me how much he loves me. Without fail. His smiling face has been a light through some dark periods. Sure, there were times I thought I might punt him off the 24th story, but with love there are often also expectations, and with expectations come disappointments. If we can learn to let go of our expectations, to be present and love things as they are, how much more content will we be? How much more love will we receive, if we just allow it?
Travel
(click title for image) Want to be rich and humble? Travel! I’ve seen more than I remember and remember more than I’ve seen. I haven’t done as much traveling as people assume I have, which I take as a huge compliment. I have always wanted to travel more, I want to go everywhere!! The luxury in wanting to go everywhere, is that you’re happy to travel anywhere. Discovery and enchantment is not only attainable in a new landscape, but with new eyes. A shift in perspective can change everything. I have been focused on keeping my intentions clear and my decisions in line with my desires. My intention has been to expand, to grow and to ground. My intention manifested into this magnificent trip. If you’re feeling restless or discontented, shift your focus to something that raises your vibration, shift your perspective from a position of lack to a position of possibility. Then eagerly anticipate the adventure waiting for you around every corner!! Don’t quit your day dream!
Bend and Never Break
(click title for image) I have bent in the hands of those who have tried to break me. Like sand in a clenching fist, I have been responsive. I have slipped through the cracks, I have moved for others, I have contorted myself. Such human contortion. I have been the sand. Swept up in the wind or settled at the bottom of the ocean. Used to fill molds, then brushed off. But the limits of possibility are determined by moving beyond them and my flexibility has been limitless. Flexibility is gained through the strength of spirit, and my spirit is like water. Without it, no sand can hold shape. I am learning to separate the elements that make me who I am, to distinguish my mind from spirit and to manage, yet value, them individually. Some may never know the worth of water until their well is dry.
Tending the Garden
(click title for image) "I wear a necklace because I want to know when I'm upside down." Mitch Hedberg We are so adaptable, sometimes we adapt before we recognize there was anything to adapt to in the first place. Observe your surroundings, beyond physicality, observe the energetic current you're swimming in, against or with. Whatever we do in any given moment, however we think, we become better at it, including negative thinking. Any track of thought imprints in our minds and whichever track we take the most becomes the deepest, until the flow of thought begins to move in that direction without our recognition. Don't let anyone else be the passenger driver in the vehicle of your mind. You are inherently complete, fulfilled and your capacity for love is abundant. Is there more to work on? Of course! Do we need to stop and ask for directions sometimes? Without question! That is why we are given community! Guides, healers, teachers and prophets. I'm sure you can relate to this: telling someone there's a thing they can work on and they deny, deny. It takes them hearing it from multiple, unrelated sources, in order for them to (hopefully) be self contemplative and take notice of the trait you have been attempting to expose. Well, the same is true for ourselves. We are "they" we are someone else's "other", we have just as much to work on, and just as much room to grow, as anyone else. Sometimes the root of our suffering is not in our neighbors garden but our own. Tend to your sacred garden of spirit, weed out what's not necessary and nurture what is. Create your own mental pathways, strengthen the neural networks that fuel your spirit and ignite your soul, shift your perspective. How do you read your state of mind? What is your spiritual barometer? How do you take the pulse of your life? What is the necklace you wear that helps you determine whether or not you're upside down or the world is? Ask, and most important, enjoy the journey of self discovery!
How to get Flexible
(click title for image) My hamstrings have been SO tight lately so I've been doing more of what I call "intentional sitting". Anyone who knows me, knows I'm rarely on the furniture, I'm always on the floor. Students ask "what can I do to gain flexibility?" All I say is "don't sit on furniture at home." If you're always at that same 90 degree angle at the hips and knees; driving, eating dinner, watching tv, working online, studying, etc., than simply standing up straight will kill. Once you begin "intentional sitting" you realize how much time you'd normally just be.. well, sitting. Probably with the gut hanging and the shoulders slouched. But once you bring intention to simple daily habits, you begin to multitask, you begin to create space. If you bring your laptop to the floor, you give your body no choice but to slowly open up. As you wiggle around trying to find what's comfortable, you learn a lot about your body. Maybe there's no way for you to feel comfortable on the floor yet, that's great, there's a lot of space just waiting to be opened up, that's exciting! Stay positive and just remember to be playful. The most mundane activities can become experimental play, there's no rush, stress or pressure, thinking makes it so. We all have something we are working on. I'm working on opening up my hamstrings and hips, so I can eventually get my lifted leg to straighten in this bird of paradise. What are you working on? How can you implement intentional sitting into your daily habits?
My God
(click title for image) I'm an Indigo child, I am a Mystic. Imaginative, intuitive spirituality, I value peace, harmony, and inner silence. Nurtured by walking alone in pathless woods or sitting quietly, anything to experience my Power. Sometimes I may seem too contemplative, introspective, but I'm filtering, processing. I'm intuitive, and focused on an inner world as real as the exterior one. Hearing from my Power, my Source, is more important to me than speaking to God. My name, Samantha, means listener of God. Some try to attribute human characteristics to God, but I see God as ineffable, unnamable, and more vast than any known category. I am intrigued by God's mystery.
Mystics want to inspire and persuade others, and need to live lives of significance. At times I may push the envelope of spirituality, helping others imagine who we might become if we got into touch with ourselves. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about my need for solitude and silence. But no more, I won't buy into the American myth that says being alone and doing nothing is lazy, antisocial, and unproductive. I give myself permission to retreat and be alone. It's essential for my well-being.... and the well being of those who come into contact with me 😝
On the other hand, I need to be certain I don't get so carried away retreating that I become a recluse. That only deprives the world of the gifts I've been blessed to offer and lessons that come from being with others. I'm in constant evolution. Learning and growing. I intend to spend the next week, invested in my alone time, making it quality time I spend with myself, reinforcing positive self talk and positive action. The first step, is YOGA!!!
Practicing Contentment
(click title for image) The path of right-living people is level. The Leveler evens the road for the right-living. Lately my focus has been on living a life of intention focused on contentedness. Helping me to be less reactive and get out of my emotions so I can focus on how to be of better service to others. The human condition revels in successes and the drama of failures. We get a thrill out of life's highs and lows. We often hope our monumental decisions will be what defines our character, "he was on a 6 month mission trip", "she donated all of her things to charity", "they adopted a child". But it's who we are while in line at the grocer, it's how we speak to our friends and our family, it's the humility we have in the face of conflict that will define our character. I encourage my students not to fidget between or in postures, so their energy can be focused on maximizing the posture as well as inspiring those around them to remain focused. In our daily life, we can reduce the fidgeting, creating space in our life for growth and reflection, and providing us with the energy to invest in others. Living a life of contentedness, in line with our ethics, creates peace and abundance. Reflect on your life, habits, daily rituals and routines. How can you straighten your path, remove obstacles and live a life of even more abundance? Just set your intention and live it out. Like anything, the more we practice, the more natural it comes.
Being ok with weird
(click title for image) If you're going to be weird, be confident about it! It took me years after developing to come to the understanding that I don't need to dim my light or downgrade my femininity for the sake of others comfort levels. Rounded shoulders, crossed arms, crossed legs, no! Why do you think Wonder Woman stands like Peter Pan?! Exposing your vulnerability shows strength! Femininity is our superpower, wars have been raged over women, remember that. Ladies, it's time we stop body shaming ourselves and stop allowing society to dictate what we can or can't be confident about. It's time we get secure, only one who is content can feel happy for others. I have burned (literally) my last underwire or padded bra, parents, I suggest you speak to your children about the fact that yes, everyone poops and we ALL have nipples!! Let's make a better world for ourselves, I'm taking Micheal Jacksons advice & starting with the woman in the mirror.
GOT Philosophy
(click title for image) We find comfort in the familiar. Our perception of what's normal is reliant on what we are used to, it begins to feel "right". Stepping outside of our comfort zone, moving away from what we have become used to, can be a barometer in determining what is right, now. "If you love something let it go." What worked for us once, may not work for us always. We evolve, we grow, we have ups and downs, highs and lows, we ride the waves, at times we fight the tides. Friends betray us, lovers disappoint us and our senses deceive us. What can we do? In the words of Littlefinger, "Fight every battle, everywhere, always. In your mind. Everyone is your enemy. Everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening, all at once. Live that way, and nothing will surprise you. Everything that happens will be something that you’ve seen before.” Move from the particle to the wave, connect with the infinite, find and BE the peace in the eye of the storm. Open your heart no matter how painful it is, let love pour in and out, there is never a shortage! Be courageous and curious. If you love something, let it go, if it comes back to you, you will know the love is mutual.
Science of the Heart
(click title for image) “The heart is a sensory organ and acts as a sophisticated information encoding and processing center that enables it to learn, remember, and make independent functional decisions,” said HeartMath Institute Director of Research Rollin McCraty. The heart, like the brain, generates a powerful electromagnetic field, McCraty explains in The Energetic Heart. “The heart generates the largest EMF in the body. The electrical field as measured in an electrocardiogram (ECG) is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the brain waves recorded in an electroencephalogram (EEG).” HeartMath studies show this powerful EMF can be detected and measured several feet away from a person’s body and between two individuals in close proximity (✨GOT AURA?! ✨). When people touch or are in proximity, a transference of the electromagnetic energy produced by the heart occurs (HEALING TOUCH 🙌🏽). The heart’s EMF contains certain information or coding, which researchers are trying to understand, that is transmitted throughout and outside of the body. One of the most significant findings of HMI’s research related to this field is that intentionally generated positive emotions can change this information/coding (POWER OF INTENTION💭). Habitual emotional patterns underlying stress are replaced with new, healthier patterns. Gratitude is one of the best emotions to practice within yourself, this doesn't mean always being positive, but the power of gratitude is grace, patience, tenderness, gratefulness and appreciation, which makes it a whole lot easier to live a positive life. Remember, it's not magic, it's SCIENCE 🔬! You don't have to believe in gravity in order for its force to be upon you, but if you accept it, you have the opportunity to use it for your advantage.
CrossFit
(click title for image) Just started training and I've fallen in love with CrossFit's effects on my body and mind. In a nutshell CrossFit is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. By employing a constantly varied approach to training, functional movements and intensity we see dramatic gains in fitness. Similar to yoga, I have so much fun with the community that spontaneously arises when people do these workouts together. One of the things I appreciate the most is that the CF program is driven by data. Keeping accurate scores and records, running a clock, and precisely defining the rules and standards for performance, not only motivating output but deriving both relative and absolute metrics at every workout. Overall, the aim of CrossFit is to forge a broad, general and inclusive fitness supported by measurable, observable and repeatable results and yoga can only enhance and increase those results. As always, what works for one person may not work for another but I'd encourage anyone to try the combo, especially given that CF is so easily scalable. In the short time I've been training I have recruited a mid 30's ex basketball player and a gal 50+, and seen everyone in between while I've been there. If this isn't up your alley than I encourage you to just get out there and try something new, move n groove and enjoy your life!!
Searching for my Destiny
(click title for image) So often we yearn for escape. We dream of being somewhere else, far away from home, experiencing the unfamiliar. Then before we know it, time passes and we fantasize the familiar. We cry for our soft sheets, our creature comforts. Perspective shifts, suddenly the overwhelming kept us sound, the mundane would now be a thrill. We are finicky and discontented. For a large part of my life I’ve felt ill, homesick for a place that never existed. Far from where I came from and unaware of my destination. There were moments of certainty. I’d fall in love or find my calling, but these were only moments. The emotional adrenaline would subside and I would again feel heavy, completely alone surrounded by people, screaming silently. We often learn from moments once they have become memories and I see now why I was discontented and disconnnected. We are all sojourners, travelers passing time together but I exist in many dimensions, in many forms and unity is not in the flesh, where I have been grasping for it. My value does not decrease because of a persons inability to see my worth. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I know by whom I am held. My destiny is not a person, place or duty, nor is my path. My destiny, my purpose, and my path is multidimensional love! At times I may fall back into a narrow awareness, day-to-day routines, my creature comfort‘s, my finicky ways but here I remind myself that I am a multi dimensional, spiritual being. I AM love!
Why not Vegan?
(click title for image) I don’t always go on vegan tangents, but when I do, I speak the truth in love! When was the last time you really thought about what you’re eating. Really, really think about it.... a body part? At the end of the day, if we can live life without taking any, why wouldn’t we?!? Why?! Cuz for moments you experience pleasure?! So you kill for moments?!? Fleeting moments?! So many people say “ew, I could never go hunting/kill an animal/gut a fish/drain the blood from a pig” etc. then they sit down for a steak and pork chops. Out of sight out of mind might be working for your conscious now, but if you’re avoiding the truth, I have to remind you that’s ignorance. Tough love. I love you, I want you to experience the physical vitality and emotional liberation one experiences when they are no longer consuming flesh. There’s no reason to keep doing something that’s incredibly destructive, just because society taught you it’s ok. Or because cavemen did it. I could list a number of other things cavemen did, but people tend to pick and choose the facts they want to address. If we only made decisions that had been made before, or continued to do something just because society made it “acceptable”, how would we ever progress?! That’s just a silly argument. And I’m not posting this to debate with you, I’m just asking you to consider what you’re eating. Then do some research, and make sure it’s not all confirmation bias, from sites that get their money from the very companies that advertise to you. Don’t you think it’s odd that the American Heart Association states that eggs and meat are hazardous to our health, then post recipes with those very “ingredients”?! People, animals, we aren’t ingredients! Please, just ask yourself the hard questions and be diligent in finding the answers. We are blessed to have an abundance of real foods, there is no reason to resort to kill anymore. If you’re going to try and use medical/health excuses it won’t work. Do the research and you’ll find out. Nothing will sway me.
Why We Do What We Do
(click title for image) “What is the heart? A flower opening” Rumi❤️ At first I only practiced Hatha. I loved the consistency and set sequence of 26 postures, it gave me the opportunity to develop strong awareness of my body on the mat, in the heat. Once I felt comfortable enough, I began branching out into Vinyasa. There was no going back. I only ever wanted to take Vinyasa, Power Yoga. I wanted to vibe to the playlists the teachers would create, breathe and move to the rhythm. The collective movement would give me goosebumps. I wanted to be introduced to something new and different in every class, to be put outside my comfort zone and practice “fun” postures. I began avoiding hatha, thinking the set sequence boring and the script repetitive. One day I heard my teacher say “the postures we avoid are the ones we need”. She was right and I knew it. So I forced myself back into my hatha practice. Well, our monkey minds are crafty and before long I noticed I’d slipped back into old patterns, this time only practicing hatha. I knew now that it was up to me to push myself into discomfort, to find somewhere new and exciting in each posture. As we evolve and move through life, our practice evolves as well. We can use our practice, and desire, as a diagnostic of our mental space. If I was going to a lot of Vinyasa, I was often trying to distract myself from something, I wanted to tune out my own internal dialogue by hanging on the teachers every word. If I needed the security of a Hatha sequence, I was probably feeling fragile, insecure or unstable. Often these desires and reasons switch roles, what finicky minds we have. Sometimes, not practicing asana (postures), IS my yoga. The beauty is that it is exactly, and only, what we make of it. I used to complain about so many studios popping up, but now I feel we are so blessed by it’s prevalence, we can pick and choose the classes we want. Ask yourself why you have the desires you do, be it yoga style or anything else, then use the information to strengthen your self love. You are the trainer, the trainee, and the spectator, all in one, so try not to get too caught up in any one role. Just breath, observe and keep on keepin on!
Training the Mind
(click title for image) Dude, life is a lot. It’s hard, it’s fun, it’s exhausting, it’s rejuvenating, it’s everything we perceive it to be, because our perception is our reality. To put the law of attraction in basic terms, all thoughts turn into things eventually. I’ve said it before, but anything we are doing in any given moment, we are training ourselves to become better at it. Thinking positively, negatively, whatever. Some people question New Thought Philosophy, while teaching their kids the science of Universal Law, that like attracts like. Eventually they will see, these truths are one and the same. In order to effectively change your negative thinking patterns, you must also feel, through visualization, that the desired changes have already occurred. By visualizing that we have already accomplished or received our hopes, the reticular activating system (RAS) filters information, discarding “white noise” and only allowing what is at the forefront of our mind to move through to the cerebrum where this information is turned into conscious thought and emotion. RAS can help you focus on the desired outcome you’d like to receive, while the release of dopamine is what makes us feel good, so they play off one another. Visualize to feel, feel to visualize. Exercise psychologist Guang Yue, compared gym goers with those who visualized workouts, resulting in 30% muscle increase for gym goers, and 13.5% for visualizers, that’s almost half! An avg. that remained for 3 months. Long story short, and I know it’s easier said than done, but like any muscle, the mind must be trained, so train yourself to get what you want. Use what you have to get what you need. Visualize that all you want and hope for, has already occurred, then HAVE GRATITUDE. Your body doesn’t know the difference between chemicals produced through visualization or real time experience. Most of the time, we are living with a body flooded with chemicals produced based on experiences from the past, but when we produce these new chemicals of positivity, we allow our body to stop living in the past, and we begin to live in a future we create for ourselves, the present moment.