More Acceptance, More Peace

Wikipedia defines acceptance as "a person's agreement to experience a situation, to follow a process or condition (often a negative or uncomfortable situation) without attempting to change it, protest, or exit".






In life we have so many opportunities to experience acceptance and also to experience protest. Why would I choose to protest? Seems so much better to accept and experience peace. Yet, there have been so many times in my life when I know I've done just the opposite.



I have had expectations for all sorts of things in my life. Here are just a few (maybe you can relate to one or two). what success looks like, how i am supposed to look, when i was to get married and have kids, what my house should look like, how my friends should act......WOW, that's a lot of expectations! (and that's not all of them ;-). These come from a long line of experiences, past history and watching what went on around me as the unwritten rules for life. However, these rules, these expectations eventually caused me pain when i realized that I am not in control of what other people do or how they act or how things are "supposed to be". All in all, it really all comes back to being in the present. If I begin to have an expectation for a certain outcome to occur or a certain person to act in a specific way, I have entered down a path that can now lead to major disappointment and also miss out on many gifts that come in different packages.





Deepak Chopra says in the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success that " Least effort is expended when your actions are motivated by love, because nature is held together by the energy of love. When you seek power and control over other people or situations, you waste energy. When you seek money or power for the sake of the ego, you spend energy chasing the illusion of happiness instead of enjoying happiness in the moment." All things we perceive as problems have in them gifts; an opportunity to grow into something else completely.





For example, you walk into the yoga room and half way through class you realize that you have a lower amount of energy than normal. You are feeling that your whole practice up to this point is just a struggle and you begin to feel frustrated. Frustrated to the point, that you begin to give up in the mind and begin sending negative messages to your brain about how your body isn't performing the way you want it to. If we use this definition of acceptance now and break this down, we could instead, see that our energy is low and accept this. We may decide in standing head to knee that it may be beneficial to stay in the first part instead of going to the deepest part of the posture and instead focus more on our pranayama breathing. We can bring more focus into the breath. We can focus more on finding the stillness in the posture and also in between the postures. Wow...what a gift. This could actually become a huge learning curve in your practice. In these moments of stillness that you begin to create now in your practice, you feel good. You send feel good messages to the brain because you are in acceptance and treating your body with respect. So the message is "It may be uncomfortable, but don't leave...don't exit the situation".





I recently had a situation in my life that I wished I handled differently because I came from a place of non acceptance. Of course, because of that, It caused me pain and as I looked at it closely, I had to peel the layers away, and it was really uncomfortable. But, I want to learn and go through this journey. I want to self realize and learn from the things that don't work so i don't have to repeat them. Life is full of mistakes so that we can learn from them.





Pattabi Jois, who was an icon in the yoga community and creator of Ashtanga Yoga, said "Perfect asana means you can sit for three hours with steadiness and happiness, with no trouble." I love that. It's not about being perfect, it's about coming back again and again to stillness, to being. To being a person who is a work in progress.



Om Shanti

Trusting Your Body

It's amazing what just one day can do for how I feel when I eat differently.  I had a week where it seemed like every day and every night was filled with a commitment.  It was great, but sometimes when this happens for me, I eat a little bit differently.  I wasn't prepared with 7 days worth of healthy food and found myself eating out more than I am used to or like to.  The great thing though, was that I was seeing lots of friends, clients and talking to so many people.  I felt so good and fulfilled.   I was thinking after the week, that although my food was different, I felt great.  It was really the week that I needed because I had been spending a lot of time marketing and at home alone.  It was the week I really needed to balance things out. 

I've also learned, as I've learned to take care of my body better and better, that my body is an amazing machine.  All i needed was just one day of juicing and eating some of my favorite raw foods and the next morning, I opened my eyes and felt amazing. 

Nourish your body with something that you love today. Take a walk with a friend, go for a swim in the ocean, go out for a long run, go antiquing, take a dance lesson.  Your body gets the nourishment from all of these things and gets all the benefits as well.   When you feel fulfilled, your body feels satisfied.

All Or Nothing....What About The Idea of "Start Somewhere"

I can rememer so much of my life spent thinking about "Starting Tomorrow!" Tomorrow I won't have cake, tomorrow I will make that call, tomorrow I will mail the payment in, tomorrow I will make that appointment, tomorrow I will call her back, tomorrow I will go to that meeting, tomorrow I will eat better. I spent so much time on what I was going to do tomorrow, that nothing ever got done in the day, except for piling up all the things that perpetuated my feelings of insecurity and low self esteem. In the morning, I would wake up and automatically wonder if I was going to do what I said I was going to do. The anxiety was ever present. Of course, it had to be all or nothing, so if I ate that bagel for breakfast that I said I wasn't going to eat, I couldn't make the appointment I was going to make, or skip the cake for desert, or make the call i said I was going to make. It had to be all "good" or all "bad". I put those words into parentheses, because that was my judgement of everything. Everything fell into a category of good or bad. So then, if it was good, I was a good person and had the right to feel good about myself and if it was bad, I had a reason to punish myself and sabotage.

Learning how to "start somewhere" was one of the most healing things that I have learned in my life. It's also an ongoing project. There are many areas that I have learned to do this: relationships, nutrition, exercise, career...... and others that will appear that need to be worked on. One of the things that helps this process along is a gratitude list. Stopping and being aware of what I have done so that I can feel good about it. This gives me something to build on and creates good feelings, positive attitude and momentum to keep going forward. If I can stop and feel good about the fact that I ate a healthy satisfying breakfast and made a phone call to my mother to be in touch, I automatically start my day in a way that propels me to continue the cycle of doing good things for me, my life and loved ones around me. I am present for my life.

Feeling like life is an Opportunity not a Trial

I can remember the days when life felt like a trial. I would open my eyes in the morning and feel a knot in my stomach. I wasn't sure what the day would bring because I was in the clutches of my mind. My negative thoughts and fears were always in the forefront of my mind. although I had friends and spoke with people, I was not truly connecting to anyone. Nobody knew what was going on for me and because of all of this, I was unable to give or receive in any relationship. Having experienced these times in my life makes me so grateful, because now that I am in a place where I have energy and passion to give and receive, I don't take this for granted. It is no coincidence what I love to do and have chosen to do with my life. It is a way for me to give back where i needed help in my life. See the progress that you have made in your life today...you have come so far....keep on going!

Check out this Video about Bikram and the Yoga

I just watched this video this morning.....I love my Guru! I miss seeing him and taking class from him. Talk about keeping it real!

I am so grateful to be carrying on the lineage of my Guru and sharing this wonderful yoga to the world.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjJzaArEYfA