Great class in Murray today (Saturday). Thanks to all who participated for helping to build the heat. I very much appreciate the dedication of my “regulars” and love to see new faces, as well.
geo
As I hurried last minute out the door on my way to your class tonight, a nagging inner voice that seemed to be coming from my body said, ” You are not feeling well, and need to rest”. But because your yoga class is the only yoga class I enjoy, and actually get relief from, I ignored the voice and told myself that I must “force” myself to make it, albeit late because the traffic has become so horrendous in SL over the years. I am angry, and tired, and sick, and stuck in traffic. I keep looking at the clock on my dash as I hit each red light.
“I am going to be late”, I murmer.
And indeed I was. As I drove all around outside the gym to find any parking I could, I remembered how I barely found a space to lay my yoga mat last time. How I could hardly breathe because of how many people were there, and from the hot humidity of sweat in the air from the class before.
I could not find a parking space tonight. That was a first. I knew I wouldn’t be able to find space in your class. I drove home, it wasn’t meant to be.
Just as I have heard you say,”you cannot force yoga”, I thought, “then why am I forcing myself to go when I feel so crummy?”
I finally made it back home, bummed that I missed out on the peace that your class brings me. The emotional stress release I was so craving and needed.
I remembered something that you said that stuck in my mind and I apply it to all aspects of my life now, “Honor where you are”.
I am sick and my body needs rest. And so I am honoring that and heading to bed, hoping that next week I will feel better, I will be rested and prepared, arriving early, a place to park, a space to lay my mat. I went to your class last week for the first time in a very long time and finally had the courage to thank you for the peace that I feel there, and that I remember your healing words.
Thank you,
B.L.
As a Cognitive/Behavioral Therapist, I have opportunity to observe the mind, both my own and others. It appears clear to me that what we think has a direct impact on the quality of life that we allow ourselves to experience. We choose what we think and we can choose to change the pattern of thinking that we nurture and cultivate. Therein lies our freedom.
Some people may watch this video and move into fear. I hope you choose to move into a more expansive state. I enjoyed and was moved by watching this and wanted to share it.
Take 17 minutes to watch this: 2012 – The Revolution Has Begun
geo
Brene Brown studies human connection — our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. A talk to share
In each of my roles as a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Registered Yoga Teacher®, I have opportunity to witness the positive effects on mental health when a client, in either area, begins to quiet down the random ramblings of the mind. Our experiences of life are, largely, determined by the meaning that we attach to the random events that occur in our lives. Ten different people can be exposed to the same stimulus and report ten different experiences. This is because each person is processing the raw data of the event, the who, what, when and where, through their own filters of beliefs, perceptions and attitudes. Our beliefs, perceptions and attitudes are nothing more than systems of thought that we learn and to which we become habituated. After years of practicing a particular method of thinking, our minds come to feel “safe” within the internal environment that is generated as a result of our predominant way of thinking. The mind, thriving on the status-quo, works very hard to perpetuate its familiar environment.
For example, a child who grows up in a home with an anxious parent learns through observation to behave in an anxious way. The energy generated in the home by the anxious behaviors of the parent begins to feel “normal” to the child. The child adopts the parent’s set of perceptions, attitudes and beliefs. She learns to generate her own anxiety. Her mind begins to grow accustomed to this anxious state and creates thoughts that help to perpetuate that state. Being anxious becomes the state in which the child’s mind feels safe. The beliefs, perceptions and attitudes that help to create the anxious state become part of the child’s system of thinking. When this system is practiced throughout life, the anxious child becomes an anxious adult.
Yoga has been called the practice of moving into stillness. Through synchronization of breath and movement, both the mind and body move to a quieter place from which the habitual ramblings of the mind can be better observed, the first step in learning to manage them. The simple act of breathing in a slow, deep, deliberate manner helps to break the cycle of “fight or flight” thinking and behavior that have become a routine part of many of our daily lives. Yoga poses or asanas encourage the body to move in ways that are outside of our typical ranges of motion and open up areas that may be the storage places of undigested emotion and feelings.
If being in a state of good mental health requires the ability to observe and manage the ramblings of the mind and the capacity to allow emotion to move through our bodies, as I believe it does, then yoga is an effective vehicle for cultivating each of these behaviors.
geo
