Youga = You Growing Abundantly. Now…abundance doesn’t necessarily mean financial abundance. You can be abundant in many things; health, love, support, and money. I will be using this blog to help me grow abundantly during my lifestyle change from an unhealthy one to a healthy one. I’ve been doing yoga and meditation for 3 years, but I haven’t been consistent. My intentions are to meditate every morning for no less than 10 minutes and do yoga every day for no less than 30 minutes. Setting these intentions is my way of creating a new healthy habit.
It’s been a rough couple of months, but in December I made a HUGE leap towards changing to a healthy lifestyle. I threw out all of my toxic makeup and body care are swapped them out for ones with less chemicals. I also converted to natural cleaning products and in-home gardening. I’ll be sharing my experiences and articles on this page soon. Holding myself accountable to myself is one of the reasons why I wanted to do this blog. I don’t expect anyone to follow it, but this is a way for me to journal my progress and give real life experience to anyone else that wants to change their unhealthy lifestyle.
I notice most things. You don’t act like I do. I didn’t know all of season 10 of the Big Bang theory could be timed perfectly like that. So amazing. Or the sound.
I don’t feel like I deserve any of that. But memories make me smile, especially at this time. You always…. I feel…I don’t know melancholy. It’s definitely something to do with my brain and brain chemistry. It is science but nature always brings me back. And thinking about that perfectly timed…it was impeccable. And I would have said ‘yes’ for sure. And I’d still say ‘yes’, there’s no doubt about that. And what is it? The saying: “lifting some of the burden off.”
Whatever Aldon Reese says (that was perfectly timed also!) And I love them. And love you.
Most times I think I’m crazy, But what I do know is, feelings, they mean something. There isn’t a day that I don’t feel. Know that horse that freezes or sleeps with his legs straight out. I feel like that most times. Just like a feeling, fantastic, just paralyze me. I’ve always been like that but I’ve always been able to mask. But now it’s very difficult to mask anything. That’s why I feel like I should be alone but I don’t be alone.
For safety sake. But I think I’m okay with pulling out all my tools in my toolbox. But just with these heightened aware feelings and I’m afraid of the freezing or the shaking. I get a lot of shakes too; like all sorts of tremors through my whole entire body.
Masking always helps that. It covers it so that I don’t have to worry about it. But I don’t have the energy to mask anymore.
Like right now, I’m here in nature just recharging. And tomorrow will be good too. I will be recharging, going to the botanical gardens anytime. Nature is like a quick dose of hormones, or feel good endorphins. I don’t know what I’m saying but I’m here by the water, which water does have negative ions that work positively in the body. That’s really true.
Not making that up. But I’m also checking out the fall colors to see if there is such a thing. And there’s just a squirrel hanging out bleating, not bleeding like b-l-e-e-d-i-n-g. It’s bleating like a sheep. I look down on it and I don’t know whether it’s hurt or whether it’s giving birth. I have no idea but I’m pretty sure the squirrel will take care of itself.
Thinking about what’s my next move. There’s a mobility class that I want to take. I plan on taking that on Sunday. It really would be a great bridge between the yoga of awareness and Zumba® Gold. So putting those together will be well worth it.
I just noticed that there is a tree that has fallen. Not necessarily into the water but its branches and main trunk have broken off. I was wondering why there is so much tree debris in the water, which is actually bringing up the fish. Like they’re just trying to check out what is it. This would be a very good place for fly fishing for sure.
There is a love that I have. It’s not fleeting. It’s not spontaneous. It’s not arbitrary and well thought through. Again, I think I’m crazy. But what I felt and continue to feel are true. Having the ability to be clairsentient is not a foreign feeling and isn’t anything new. I’ve always known I had it.
When you become aware and curious about this old and destructive biological tendency of humans to be biased because they feel unsafe, they have a fear that’s driving them. So, this low energy state, if that is the dominant human condition; and if we are aware that this old destructive human imbalance is amplified at this time due to our current technology in the over abundance of content that is displaying this bias, we now have to turn inward more often in order to check ourselves.
Is our own human trait out of control? Out of balance? If we’re checking ourselves daily through a morning practice that includes exercises, mindful breathing, concentration, and meditation allowing us to turn inward, quickly and in a methodical manner; this practice helps to reset, to keep that balance, to raise our energy from that low energy state to a higher energy state.
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So when we are reacting in our lives, when we are observing our spiritual discipline, creating that balance life, liberating ourselves from suffering while we’re enjoying the fruits of our labors in this higher energy state, we are in our true selves.
So, I wanted to give an example that my teacher gave me to understand more of this concept of living your yoga, living the four aims of life basically.
And the example is a sports example. So if you’ve ever watched a soccer game, football, you understand that there’s a ball that’s being kicked around on this field. The ball has no choice. No choices in its life to where it is getting kicked. The ball is completely dependent on the players in order to move around. The ball has zero balance, zero control.
If the ball had to make any decisions about anything, it would not be able to it’s the ball, the players make all the decisions. So think of the ball as when you’re in that low energy state.
You’re just being kicked around and you’re feeling kicked around. It’s unfair. This isn’t right. All these different low energy reactions to being the kicked ball. This is your life. When you’re being led by your emotions, when you’re being led by others, when you’re letting things happen to you.
When you become aware, through exercises, mindful breathing, meditation, concentration, as you turn inward to study how you are reacting, your emotions, what you’re feeling at that time, when you’re sitting with those emotions, when you’re feeling those emotions, you can become curious about your emotions and direct those emotions.
Now, all of these things are happening simultaneously. As your body is balancing those three neurological centers, you become now the player. You’re no longer the ball because when you are observing your own emotions, you have the chance and your body is giving you that inner energy, that fresh blood through nourishing breaths with that fresh oxygen giving you that foundation to make those higher energy state reactions, decisions, automatically, without you even thinking it, it brings your true self into the soccer game.
So as an intelligent player, you can now direct your reactions into a better play.
So using that sport example might not work for you. So I will give another example that my teacher gave. So, a low energy reaction to your child, let’s say your child made a complete mess in the kitchen.
They were trying to make you some cookies. And there’s flour all over the place, there’s sugar all over the place. There’s cinnamon! There’s an absolute mess. And of course, no cookies! A low energy reaction would be to yell at your child. Their little face would fall because they were trying to do something for you. So the low energy reaction to this would be yelling at them, and making them feel like they will never ever, ever do this ever again. And that is so bad. It’s detrimental. You hate them. All the low energy reactions to this thing that they were trying to do. That’s a low energy reaction. So hopefully, I know I felt that his telling the story that you feel also what that would feel like. And it’s very low. It’s not fun. And would your child want to do that again? No, no, they will not.
So any thought to do something like that for you, won’t come to their brain anymore. Because they got yelled at. They were in trouble.
A higher energy reaction. Would be to say, Wow, whoa, wow, you really made a mess in here. You know, to keep it light.
And to keep it like okay, all right, everyone makes a mess once in a while. What were you doing, you know. There’s different things that can be done at that time. You can say, I always enjoy when someone helps me clean up when I make a mess, because I made a mess before. Not as much as this, but I’ve made a mess before. That gives the child like okay, alright, yep, really made a mess. But I’ve got a friend here. I’ve got a buddy here to help me clean up. Now, the kid has to clean up, of course, because we’re learning things here. It’s not like you just clean up. They clean up and then maybe, hopefully you’ll have the time and we can make cookies together.
So, these are the higher reaction states that you can take when you are aware of your imbalance. When you’re aware of your low energy state, because a low energy will always react low energ. So being mindful and aware of the low energy states is what’s important in order to change reactions.
So we can make this world a better place by simply taking our self study seriously and understanding that our bodies are so much more intelligent than what we give ourselves.
So I guess we can talk a little bit more about our ego. I think this is a good time to talk about ego. And I’m gonna say ego, like ego with a tone, because I know that most people have a negative connotation
to the word ego and that’s unfair. Because the ego isn’t any thing bad or good. It’s just neutral it’s just a word. We have been conditioned through education of psychology, I guess. If you look up the word ego (Google it), you may get something that is skewed, has a negative meaning.
When we talk about ego in our Kundalini yoga practice, we see the ego as glue.
So let’s visualize our bodies. Some people will call your body, your meat suit. To me, I find that the body is like the housing, the container that holds your shiny, soft soul. Shiny, soft, soul the SSS. Not that one. That’s only two. This is the Triple S. Your shiny, soft soul. So since it’s shiny, you don’t want it to be flashing all over the place, you might blind people. So it’s shiny. It’s soft. So it can be damaged easily. That’s your soul. That part of your higher self, that’s your true self. So your body is this container ,this housing this onesie, this mecha, this suit for your soul and it can look the way that you want it to look. No one really sees it.
I do like the idea of the Avatar. I know, we’ve discussed this before. I do like the idea of it. So if that is a better analogy for you, go with it. For sure, whatever gets you there, but your body is that part that supplies the nutrients that supplies everything your shiny soft soul needs to live a balanced life. So when we’re doing the exercises, the mindful breathing, the meditation and concentrating to turn inward, we’re taking that shiny soft soul and using the ego to stretch the shiny soft parts to all sides of your insides.
So if you’re thinking, if you can visualize just the outer part of your body as this shell, as this container, and your shiny, soft soul spreading out to fill every single part of your container. So all the shiny parts are stretched out to every single part, it’s like hooking onto the edges, every part of the inside of your body. That ego is the glue that keeps all the shiny parts attached to the inside of your container, of your body. Without that ego, your shiny soft soul is going to just not be able to conform to all the parts of your inside of the container. Your body is mainly made of water, right? So if your shiny soft soul is made mainly of water, you want the container to be pretty full. There’s not so much sloshing around. There’s not so many bubbles, there’s not so many
ways and I’m saying waves, WAVES, that are disrupting. So that glue that ego acts as a glue. So ego is not negative. It just has a negative connotation because of the way that our bias or that we have been educated to see ego in a biased way.
In Kundalini, we want to energize this ego and knowing that the ego is the glue for our shiny soft soul to attach to the inside of our container. We are always building it or making sure that it is fit glue. So let’s say we are growing in our in our particular position that we’re in.
So when we’re thinking of the enjoyment of the fruits of our labors, and we’re talking about ego, it may be something that people may take as negative. Like you’re a rich CEO, you’re a billionaire, that sort of thing, your ego is big, your ego is negative. That’s how society might see it. In Kundalini Yoga, we don’t see it as a negative. Again, ego is the glue that takes our shiny, soft soul from being just in a central part of our bodies, and we reach it out to encompass all of our bodies, all of our insides because that’s our true self. And that’s what we bring out into the world. So if your shiny soft soul is not negative, it’s not bias is not low, it’s a high energy, it’s a joy to experience your shiny, soft soul. So you want that ego to be a good glue, not the Dollar Store glue, we’ve got billionaire glue here in our bodies,
and we bring that shiny soft soul to our surface, a lot more people get to experience the joy of you. And since we know that we are in a higher energy state, when we are in our higher selves, we react in a higher energy; bias cannot live in that environment because bias is a low energy imbalanced state,and high energy balance states cannot house that negative energy and the spread of that higher energy is where that ego comes into play.
So don’t think of ego as a negative. It is a positive. Ego is a motivating. It’s just what are you embodying? What is that ego glue attaching to?
Beginning yoga and meditation are perfect compliments to maintaining a healthy mind and body. Yesterday, my yoga and meditation sessions worked on balancing my heart chakra and releasing tension in my body and mind. I’m feeling the effects this morning by more sensations (not unpleasant, but “there”) on the left side of my body where I usually hold much of my tension. There’s a releasing feeling in my guts, but the left side still seems to be tense throughout times of the day. I’ll practice letting go of the tension in my stomach today by taking mini meditation breaks and using the liberation mantras by Deva Premal Mantras for Precarious Times
As we continue our reading in the Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison, we discuss the four aims of life. The first aim is the observation of a spiritual discipline. So, that’s that idea we’ve discussed before. You know, I made the joke, but seriously, it is the knowing that there is something larger than yourself. Whether you call that universal energy, whether you call that God, it is your observation of a spiritual discipline that is a heightened awareness.
The second aim of life or just another aim of life is to create a balanced life. And we’re going to be talking a lot about balance.
Another one is to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor. So, yes, the quote that we love to use! Enjoying the fruits of one’s labor is extremely important. And then the fourth aim of life out of the four aims of life is the liberation from suffering.
And this is a quote from a song by Beautiful Chorus
“Please let me feel inner peace from the center of me.”
We also reference the eight limb path of yoga and that is what we talk about and discuss during the book club crossover Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga
As we reminisce more about Annie and her obsession, I just remember her Trapper Keeper, and how it was graffitied with hearts and just names; and I was appalled that her Trapper Keeper looked so….it’s a Trapper Keeper, come on! Why is it all littered?
And it made me think of that part in Shrek, where he’s reading Fiona’s diary and she’s all “Mrs. Fiona Charming”, “Mrs. Fiona Charming.” It makes me laugh because that would not be my diary! If I kept a diary.
Or my Trapper Keeper! It was always pristine, organized. Every year I got a new Trapper Keeper, I would never ever think about graffiting it with words of love or anything like that. No!
But if I had a Trapper Keeper today, it would be littered, just graffitied all over the place. Because I am so in love.
“The best things in life are on the other side of difficult conversations.”
Kwame Christian
Why you ask. Often people don’t know how to answer a why question, or they may panic, or take offense to the question, answering with a curt, “why do you need to know” type of response. These misinterpretations, oftentimes rooted in unconscious bias about the question asker quickly leads to spiraling emotions and unproductive conversations.
Tough conversations about race creates a more inclusive environment and moves toward equity.
GOAL Strive to engage in a way to create the environment that we want to see and cultivate self awareness to change behavior to make it easier to have productive conversations about race.
There are three main reasons race conversations are difficult:
1. Fear political reprisal (losing place in social hierarchy by making a mistake in conversations about race.)
2. Social reprisal (don’t want to risk offending friends and colleagues which is too much to lose.)
3. The payoff is unclear. (Why begin a conversation when there’s so much to lose? What’s to gain?)
AVOID The temptation to figure out the “why” or someone’s intent behind saying or doing something (i.e. Why did they say that? Why did they do that?) because this leads to unproductive dialogue.
HOW Give people the benefit of doubt and free yourself from the need to be the mind police.
Focus on the actions that somebody took and the impact that it had on yourself and/or someone else.
Be aware of your emotional needs (your values) and what you want (your goals) before engaging in productive conversations.
Apply a repeatable framework to mitigate bias and emotional reactions to help you function at your best during difficult conversations. (Think of a repeatable framework like conducting a science experiment and using the scientific method.)
Compassionate Curiosity Framework Part 1: Acknowledge and validate emotions Why: Helps overcome emotional barriers and tendency to problem solve by labeling emotion to engage the cognitive process to accept or reject the emotion to calmly express thoughts. How: Say “It sounds like…” “It seems like…” “It sounds like _______ had an impact on you.” And then after they express their thoughts, you say, “That makes sense.”
Part 2: Get curious with compassion Why: Move conversation forward with the power of curiosity by asking engaging, open-ended questions in a compassionate tone to lead to a productive conversation. How: Lead with saying “Out of curiosity,” and then ask your question. (Ask who, what, where, when, how questions.)
Part 3: Joint problem-solving Why: Builds long-term commitment by inviting others into the process to find solution(s) that work for everyone. How: Engages all participants to work together by acknowledging that they have something to contribute with their different perspectives to fill in the gaps in solutions.
“The best time to plant a seed is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”
Chinese Proverb
Talking to Kids About Race Duration: 1 min 42 sec LinkedIn Learning Course: Difficult Conversations: Talking about Race at Work Instructor: Kwame Christian
When you think of yoga, do you automatically think of downward dog, cobra or tree? I know I did when I first embarked on practicing yoga. But I would like to share with you the five principles I’m taking off the mat and incorporating into my life.
Yoga is made up of an interconnected, circular eight limb guide with the asanas poses, also called asanas, included as a small fraction of practicing yoga. In this blog, I’m going to focus on the yamas, or the five moral restraints of yoga. Non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, moderation and non-hoarding
One of my favorite beginner poses in yoga is downward facing dog. You know the one where your butt is in the air? This pose is essential for any beginning yoga student to practice and has many stress reducing benefits.
Downward dog pose calms the brain and helps relieve stress. I love doing downward dog for 10 minutes before bed because it settles my mind and releases tension in my upper back, neck and shoulders. Down dog pose also relieves headaches, fatigue, back pain and insomnia.
But what if you’re like me and have extremely tight shoulders or weak wrists? How can you get the many stress relieving benefits of downward dog pose if you can’t physically maintain the pose for more than 10 seconds? Here are three of my favorite yoga hacks I love using in my personal beginner yoga practice.
Hack #1: Downward Dog Step-by-Step Instructions & Video – YogaJournal.com (Boulder, Colorado)
The Yoga Journal provides detailed beginner instructions on how to get into downward dog including how to activate the pose. The video accompanying the how to instructions is short (only 1:47) and provides a 360 degree view of downward dog being performed; which is what every beginning yoga student needs to see. This Yoga Journal article also provides the contradictions and cautions of downward dog pose. For example, people with carpal tunnel syndrome and pregnant women should not perform downward dog pose. This Yoga Journal also provides much needed information about how to modify downward dog pose and how to use yoga props, such as blocks or a bolster, to assist beginners with gaining proper alignment to obtain the stress relieving benefits while in downward dog. The Yoga Journal blog also provides instruction on how to practice downward dog pose with a partner. My yoga instructor teaches her beginning yoga students using the same downward dog hack and I can say from experience that having a partner use a yoga strap in this manner helped me feel and understand what downward dog pose feels like in my body. And lastly, this blog provides relevant links to other downward dog pose articles and videos from yoga instructors around the world.
Hack #2: Downward Dog Tips for Beginners – BrettLarkinYoga (San Francisco, California)
This YouTube video by yoga instructor Brett Larkin answers a fan question on her Facebook page about a beginner struggling with downward dog pose. I love this yoga hack video because I posed the very same question about downward dog to my yoga instructor during our yoga basics class. In this video, Brett Larkin explains the importance of having a long spine in downward dog pose and that not everyone, especially beginning yoga students, can get their heels on the ground when properly in downward dog pose. In the video, Brett Larkin shows how downward dog is performed improperly with rounded shoulders and overall poor form. She recommends doing downward dog in front of a mirror so you can see your alignment. I don’t have room for a mirror large enough to see myself doing downward dog, so I improvised. I set up my video camera and used my iPad as the view finder to see myself doing downward facing dog enabling me to correct my alignment immediately.
Hack #3: Downward Facing Dog: A Guide for Plus Sized Yogis and Beginners – BodyPositiveYoga.com (Charlottesville, Virginia)
Body Positive Yoga embraces that fact that yoga is for everybody and acknowledges that downward dog can be a source of frustration for many yoga beginners and for larger bodies. I love this blog because it answered many of my beginner yoga questions and gives many safe modifications to doing downward dog pose. Like hacks 1 and 2, Body Positive Yoga explains the stress reducing benefits of downward dog pose and the importance of a straight spine; but my favorite part of this blog is the detailed instructions on how to modify downward dog. For example, those of us just beginning yoga may have weak wrists that aren’t used to having weight on them. This article provides easy to follow ways to modify your downward dog to accommodate wrists that hurt, backs that round, tight shoulders or boobs that suffocate.
“Whether you do your first downward dog at 14 or 44, it’s not your history but your presence on your mat that counts.” K. Pattabhi Jois
About the Author
Elizabeth Green is a beginning yoga student, teacher and photographer.
Today is my birthday in more ways than one. Reflecting on getting a year older has renewed my commitment to myself. A rebirth to the commitment to no longer live a painful, stressed out, medicated life. A renewed commitment to take the time to live in the present moment; free of anger, liberated from fear of doing the hard stuff like saying ‘no’ or letting go of the things that no longer serve my happiness.
When my yoga teacher began leading me to the yogic philosophy of living and dealing with stress, I took notice. I began to observe my reactions to things I have absolutely no control over, I realized that my attachment to the annoyance and anger at the situation increased my physical pain. Then I understood what she meant by attachment.
With my renewed commitment, I celebrate my birthday with a positive outlook. I’m another year older and thankful for all the joys and wonderful people I have in life.
Here’s to you all. Thank you for reading our wonderful blogs.
YouGA...You Growing Abundantly 