Yoga Tastes Good

Move Your Story Forward

2012-06-29T11:36:00.000-05:00

Today in my yoga practice I felt like a race car, sitting on blocks, engine racing, wheels spinning furiously...yet I sit. Thoughts of all the things I want to do racing around in my head:

I want to bring yoga to the underserved communities in Houston.
(I need to go to the rec-centers in the Five Wards.)
I want to teach more classes in my local community.
(I need to make new flyers.)
I want to teach youth outreach classes.
(I need to email that youth director.)
It is my dream to join all communities, all races, all people (okay, and animals too) through yoga.

And here I sit. One more breathing exercise. One more pose. I need to get my foundation set for the day. I will carry this peaceful feeling with me and more mindfully handle anything that comes my way today....(engine revving, wheels spinning)

I was taught in screenwriting, you must ask yourself of every scene, does this move the story forward, or does it serve no purpose?

Your life is your movie. You are the main character, you are the screenwriter, and you decide the plot.
Does each scene move your story forward? Or does it serve no purpose?

That is why I love the Off The Mat, Into The World foundation. Even just the name reminds me to get out there and be of use. DO something. OUT THERE.

Sitting and doing the work within, on the mat...yoga postures, breathing, meditation, prayer...is the essential foundation we all need to carry us through our outer work. Then we need to know when to just get out there and move our story forward!

I know when the blocks are removed and my wheels hit the ground, I will screech into jet-propelled motion, speeding ahead full-throttle. I just hope I haven't burned up all of my fuel before I had a chance to get in the race.

I am going to the county clerk's office to register the DBA for my new yoga name now! I will keep you posted ;)

Love Without Expectations

2012-01-26T17:08:00.000-06:00

When we have expectations for an outcome, or we become addicted to an outcome, and we receive an outcome that is not what we had envisioned or hoped for, our expectations are then not met, and we are disappointed.

It may be something as small as letting someone go ahead of us in traffic, and they don't wave a thank-you. Or holding the door open for someone and they pass through without acknowledging that we are even standing there. We may feel disappointed. We may even feel anger. Is this cause for anger or resentment? We need to ask ourselves, did we do this act of kindness for the thanks we might get in return? Or did we do this simply for the kind act of doing it for the other person?

We could go away from this experience feeling bitter and frustrated for the rest of the day, cutting off the next guy in traffic, and letting the door slam behind us on the next unsuspecting person coming through it. But will that make us feel better?

Depending on how big our expectations are, they can cause us even greater suffering.

When we give our deepest love to another person, we may not always receive that love back with the same intensity, and we may feel devastated by that. But does that mean we will slam the door on the next person?

We experience who we are, by experiencing ourselves through others. So really, we are experiencing the love we already have, just experiencing it through another. It is very enjoyable to experience this love with another person, but if they don't act a certain way, we are disappointed again.

Were we giving love? Or were we taking it? Should we wonder if they are worthy of our love? (Isn't everyone worthy?) Should we keep this love all to ourselves? (Doesn't that feel selfish?)

We may need to look at why we are giving our love to another. Is it simply to receive love back, to feel validated? If we already have the love to give someone else, why isn't our love enough for ourselves?

If we choose to share our love to experience it, why be disappointed at all? It is already perfect. The act of sharing the love is perfect just as it is. No expectations.

Without any stipulations on it, we can give our love wholly and happily every time, and we will always have more than enough love to give away again, and again.

And again.

So you may say, "Am I not supposed to get upset about anything? I have feelings! I am disappointed! I am upset!"

Of course we all have feelings, we are human. We suffer. "Suffer all you want!" I say.

But when we really don't desire to suffer any longer, then is the time to change what we are addicted to, what our expectations are.

This may sound simplistic or unattainable, but Jesus and Buddha have been teaching us this for thousands of years. (And the Beatles, but much more recently)

Our happiness lies within us. It is LOVE.

Give Love. Emanate Love. Receive Love. Love is all there is.

The receiving is in the giving.

Words Are Windows (or They're Walls)

2012-01-09T11:43:00.001-06:00

I just started reading a life-transforming book: "Nonviolent Communication" A Language of Life, by Marshall Rosenberg.
I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Our words are so powerful...they can heal a heart, or start a war. If we speak with more compassion, there will be more compassion in the world.

Here is a poem from the book, written by Ruth Bebermeyer:

"I feel so sentenced by your words,
I feel so judged and sent away,
Before I go I've got to know,
Is that what you mean to say?

Before I rise in my defense,
Before I speak in hurt or fear,
Before I build that wall of words,
Tell me, did I really hear?

Words are windows, or they're walls,
They sentence us, or set us free,
When I speak and when I hear,
Let the love light shine through me.

There are things I need to say,
Things that mean so much to me,
If my words don't make me clear,
Will you help me to be free?

If I seemed to put you down,
If you felt I didn't care,
Try to listen through my words,
To the feelings that we share."

We must always remember that everyone is hurting in some way. Make your words ones of healing, not of pain.

A Radiant New Year!

2012-01-01T11:04:00.000-06:00

A beautiful beginning to my new year started with my sister and her kids arriving. Then I brought them to the BAPS Sri Swaminarayan Mandir near my house. We attended the New Year's Eve service at Unity Church, with the burning bowl ceremony, where you let go of all the negative things from your life, writing them on a piece of paper and burning it...very freeing!

May we all let go of past grievances, moving forward in Love...emanating Love, Light, and Health to share with all sentient beings!

Namaste! Keep looking UP!

The Value of Time

2011-11-30T11:40:00.000-06:00

"Know the value of time.
Time is most precious.
Utilize every second profitably.
Live every moment of your life for the realization of your ideal and goal.
Do not procrastinate. That "tomorrow" will never come.
Now or never.
Abandon idle gossiping.
Kill egoism, laziness, and inertia.
Forget the past.
A glorious and brilliant future is awaiting you.
Be in tune with the Infinite. "

Master Sivananda

I especially love "abandon idle gossiping", and "forget the past" !

Namaste!

The River of Life

2011-11-17T10:14:00.000-06:00

The river is the esoteric symbol of life's force. As our life force flows, it shows us how our attachments keep us hung up on the bank, or a boulder, or a tree branch along the way. When we look within, we see what stops that river from flowing, from becoming one with life's ocean and eternal bliss. All of the personalities we know and material objects we are clinging to keep us holding tightly to the banks of life's river. The river still flows on, but we do not flow with it. We are fighting against life's currents when we allow ourselves to become attached. When we take time to think of how our experiences in life show us how often we cling to the banks of life's river by attaching ourself to people and possessions, we may even notice that some of our attachments are things we don't even like! We are attached to objects, values, schedules, habits, memories, even likes and dislikes. We become caught up because we do not stop to realize that those experiences are just our conception of a boulder or a tree branch, and that we can let go at any time, and flow in the river of life to merge with the ocean of eternal bliss. Namaste

The Shadow Of The Buddha

2011-11-15T09:03:00.000-06:00

I have a Buddha statue on my windowsill, that when the morning sun shines in casts its shadow upon the wooden floor in front of me. Its image is beautiful, serene, as I breathe deeply and receive peace from it.

When the sunshine is dimmed by a passing cloud, the image of the Buddha fades, but I know the statue remains, strong and real.

Much like the living Buddha who once cast his shadow on the Earth, we know he is still there in all his realness. Even though we can't see his image in front of us, we know he is there.
As is Jesus.
As are we.

God's shadows are everywhere.

Happy 11-11-11!

2011-11-11T17:51:00.001-06:00

It was a beautiful day! I hope everyone was able to take a spiritual moment, in prayer, in meditation, in a group or in solitude, in a city or in the wilderness.

I guess I can say I did all of the above...I practiced my morning meditation/prayer ritual, and yoga.

I attended the Psychotherapy and Faith Conference, which included a very inspiring talk on Spirituality and healing, by Dr. Kenneth Pargament, who was wonderful! I made the wise choice to leave before the talk on Jeffrey Dahmer, since I don't want to know about that sort of evil, and I chose to focus on enlightenment today.

I prayed in the Byzantine Fresco Chapel. Beautiful! Then I visited the Rothko Chapel, just across the street. If you are in Houston, I highly recommend both of these serene chapels.

And even though I was in the fourth largest city in America, I found a place of solitude, surrounded by bamboo hedges, where I could imagine being in a bamboo forest. Bliss!

I AM 50%

2011-10-31T08:27:00.000-05:00

With all the percentages in the news today with the 99%, and I posted the 100% to my Facebook page, I thought it appropriate to show how my raw food diet is going. Not so good. I must say I am as raw as I was before I started the raw diet last week. I am always 50% raw. I did eat raw cookie dough for a day before I baked it. But I eat gluten free brown rice tortillas every day. I don't know if I want to live without those, and they are cooked. But other than cooked rice, the occasional bowl of popcorn, and maybe gluten free cereal and oatmeal, I can do this! I prefer raw vegetables to cooked anyway.

My fellow Yogi and I did make the commitment to go completely dairy free, and with all of the vegan choices out there, this is fairly easy. Eating out takes a little more willpower. Okay, A LOT more willpower, as the dish of butter across the table was calling out to me more than the veggie pizza right in front of me.

But I look at temptation like a poker game: "I'll see your butter," (acknowledge it) "And I'll raise it." (to a higher power). I do this exercise in meditation, also. When a thought comes up, especially an unpleasant one, I see it (acknowledge), and raise it (to a higher place, releasing it). You must fully see things before they will leave you alone. If you ignore them, they will be persistent in pestering you until you acknowledge them. Kind of like a child in the grocery store. (Note to moms: Everyone else hears your child; why don't you?)

But I digress...

The point is, I am vegan again, 50% raw, gluten free, and giving up temptation to a higher power!
I AM 100% FREE!

Have a beautiful day!
Namaste^

Going Raw!

2011-10-24T11:53:00.001-05:00

My fellow yogi and I are going raw for 7 days. I'll let you know how it goes. I've tried it many times before, but found it very difficult living in a small town with no raw food restaurants. It takes a lot of preparation and forethought. You really must go shopping to fill your house with good choices ahead of time, or hunger and grumpiness (ok, that's putting it mildly) can overtake your best intentions. This morning, having done neither of those things, I threw together a smoothie with coconut milk, raw almond butter, blueberries, banana, algae powder, and a splash of orange-pineapple juice. OMGEE! Delicious! So I'm off to a good start. Oh yeah, I forgot about the tea I had earlier. It was an honest mistake, as there are mixed messages online regarding the subject of tea being raw, and how hot the water can be. So I overheated the water, and the chai was probably baked, but I will be more careful tomorrow:-)

White tea, heated to no more than 118 degrees. I can do that.

I also took some cookie dough out of the freezer without thinking about it. So I guess I will be eating that raw later. (Sorry kids)

I'm going to save on the gas bill this month, that's for sure.

Not sure what's for lunch, probably just yoga. It does taste good, you know ;-D

Life Is The Butterfly!

2011-10-19T06:48:00.000-05:00

A dear friend once said to me, "Ah, life! It is the butterfly!" I didn't quite know what he meant (probably because he's French), and I waited for some explanation, but never got one. So it was open to interpretation, which for me has changed a lot since the 90's (thankfully). Whereas back then I may have thought of it as an analogy that life is beautiful and delicate and fleeting, now I can see so much more and less in it. Let me explain what I mean by less.

Sitting at my computer last week, feeling overwhelmed with attempting to write a brochure for the new yoga business, and trying to figure out a schedule of class times with the City of Sugar Land to teach in the parks and recreation centers, and trying to download pictures for the new website but the files were unreadable...for a brief moment I lost sight of what it was all for. Yoga. Bringing the mindfulness of yoga into everyday life. As the burdensome tasks began to overtake my peace of mind, with a sigh I glanced out the window and saw a little yellow butterfly flitting across my lawn. Everything stopped in that moment, the need for a brochure, a class schedule, the perfect picture for a website. I didn't just want to be that butterfly with not a care in the world, I WAS the butterfly. In my mind I came back to that center that I come to on the mat, in yoga, in meditation, the place where you realize THIS is all there is, the moment of NOW. And everything is okay, right now. We can be the butterfly at any moment. The butterfly just is.

Know You Are A Bud!

2011-10-10T11:57:00.001-05:00

Like the lotus flower growing from the mud, we must know we are really a bud. We are not the mud that surrounds us; we are a bud. As we make our way out of the mud, we find water, and we have a stem. Have we arrived yet? No. We know we are still a bud. We are not the water. We are not the stem. We are a bud, waiting to unfold. We may not even know that there is sunshine above the water, but we know we have a purpose, so we continue to strive upward. As we break the surface of the water, and unfold in the warmth of the sunshine, we bask in the glory of what we knew all along...we really were always a bud, and now we can share our bloom with the world. Here's to the late bloomers! May we all have our day in the sun!

How I got The Name: Yoga Tastes Good

2011-10-03T22:47:00.000-05:00

I was soul-searching for a name for my website when I came across this trailer for "Yoga Is". In this film Dharma Mittra says, "The reason why so many people practice yoga is because it tastes good!" I loved it!
http://www.yogais.com/

Obstacles to Yogic Practice

2011-10-01T06:50:00.000-05:00

The six destroyers of yoga practices, as mentioned in the "Hatha Yoga Pradipika" are:
over-eating, over-exertion, useless talk, undisciplined conduct, bad company, and restless inconstancy.
To overcome these obstacles, Patanjali offered the four-fold remedy of friendliness and feeling at one with all that is good, compassion with devoted action to relieve the misery of the afflicted; delight at the good work done by others and avoidance of disdain for or feeling superior to the victims of vice.
The prescription is enthusiasm, daring, fortitude, true knowledge, determination and a feeling of detachment, of being in the world but not of it, as the means to overcome the obstacles in the path of Yoga.
-B.K.S. Iyengar in "Light On Pranayama"

The Meaning Of Yoga

2011-09-30T10:11:00.000-05:00

The word "yoga" is derived from the Sanskrit root "yuj" which means to bind, join, attach and yoke, to direct and concentrate the attention in order to use it for meditation. Yoga, therefore, is the art which brings an incoherent and scattered mind to a reflective and coherent state. It is the communion of the human soul with Divinity. - B.K.S. Iyengar in Light On Pranayama

A Prayer: May All Be Fed

2011-09-29T07:08:00.001-05:00

This picture stirs so many thoughts and feelings, but what comes to my mind foremost is from the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, Aparigraha, which is to be free from hoarding or coveting. So often we overeat, worried that hunger will rear its ugly head. We over buy at the grocery store, afraid we will not have enough choices to eat later. We must have those chocolate chip cookies, or popcorn, or chips tonight in front of the TV; they are a form of security for us. We will purchase five kinds of fruit, because we are going to be healthy, darn it! Only to have it rot in the bowl before we can eat most of it.
And do we really NEED another purse?
If we take only what we need, food, clothing, shelter, perhaps there will always be enough for others. I pray that each time a dollar is saved, it goes to better use, somewhere it is needed.
May the abundance of the universe be shared equally among all sentient beings....
Amen

Sit. Stay. Heal.

2011-09-28T10:30:00.001-05:00

When we have turmoil in our lives, our first impulse is to run, avoid, get away. By facing what the difficulty is, we can come to terms with it, acknowledge it, and lessen its power over us. Meditation is a wonderful tool to ease problems that arise in our daily lives. We can't always run away and meditate when something comes up to stress us out during our day, though, and that is why daily meditation should be practiced routinely, first thing every morning. When we learn to "sit, stay, and heal" first, the stress is lessened and dealt with more calmly later. When we begin our day with calm, we carry that with us into our everyday activities. I have found I even mow the lawn more peacefully :-)
Have a peace full day!

Meet Me In The Field

2011-09-26T13:46:00.000-05:00

Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing there is a field. I'll meet you there. - Rumi

When diet is wrong medicine is of no use. When diet is correct medicine is of no need. -Ancient Ayurvedic Proverb-

2011-09-16T23:38:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday Pear Cake For Mom

2011-09-13T12:52:00.002-05:00

Today is my beautiful goddess-mother's birthday, and she requested a recipe for upside down pear cake that I made years ago, because she has an excess of pears from her orchard. So here it is: (Please note, this recipe is not in keeping with my current diet guidelines, so I will offer substitutions as well.)

Old English Recipe: Substitutions:
4 tbsp long grain rice whole grain rice
1/2 pint milk rice milk
5 oz butter vegan margarine
2 tbsp golden syrup (?) light maple or brown rice
3 oz raw sugar syrup
6 pears, halved
4 oz soft brown sugar unrefined brown sugar
2 eggs, separated egg substitute
3 oz self-raising flour brown rice flour
3 tsp ground ginger

1. Simmer the rice in the milk in a covered pan for about 25 min, until tender and milk is absorbed. Cool.
2. Melt 1 oz butter with syrup and raw sugar. Spoon into 7-inch square, lined pan. Arrange pear halves
on top, rounded tops up, so when you flip it out they will be hole side up.
3. Whisk the remaining butter until soft, gradually beat in the soft brown sugar, egg yolks and cool rice
mixture.
4. Gently fold in the flour and ginger sifted together. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold into the
mixture.
5. Spoon into the pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 55 minutes. Turn out of pan and serve hot with cream if desired.

Happy Birthday, Mom! Wish I could be there to make it for you :-)

Have a Mindful Day!

2011-09-08T07:17:00.000-05:00

"Desire narrows our awareness till we see only what we crave; mindfulness helps us see other possibilities." Sandra Weinberg, Dharma teacher

Warm Cereal for Cooler Mornings

2011-09-07T07:22:00.000-05:00

The weather is cooling off already, even here in Texas! For the first time since I started making my own cereal, I am actually considering warm versions!
Here is a recipe for Vanilla quinoa cereal from "Yoga -Your Home Practice Companion":

Serves 4
7oz (200 g) quinoa
16fl oz (500ml) almond milk (I also use coconut milk, depending on the flavor I desire)
1 vanilla pod, split
a grating of nutmeg
2 tbsp maple syrup
1. Place the quinoa in a sieve over the sink and rinse thoroughly under cold running water until water runs clear.

2. Put the rinsed quinoa into a medium-sized saucepan and cover with 8fl oz
(250 ml) cold, filtered water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then cover with a tight-fitting lid, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the quinoa is light, fluffy, and cooked.

3. Place the almond milk, split vanilla pod, and a grating of nutmeg into a small pan, place over low heat and warm gently.

4. When you are ready to serve, mix the warm spiced milk into the cooked quinoa and stir well. Serve with maple syrup.

   Note: If you make your own almond milk, this is even more amazing!

   Namaste!

Looking Outside Ourselves

2011-09-05T13:30:00.000-05:00

As much as we are taught to look inward for our happiness, one aspect of spirituality is to recognize our interconnectedness with other people. We then recognize our obligation to live morally and ethically, in ways that do not harm others. This can be inconvenient, having to think about something other than our own self-interests, but it is a part of the foundation for a spiritual life.

I highly recommend "A Burning Desire" by Kevin Griffin!

The Thirst For Wholeness

2011-09-03T10:43:00.000-05:00

"I believe, that this fervent thirst for wholeness, as well as the discomfort with it, is the underlying impulse behind addictions." Christina Grof

We all thirst for "God", we just search for Him in our own ways.

The Path To My Tummy

2011-09-01T20:06:00.004-05:00

One example of how yoga tastes good...my vegetarian dinner! Avocado, romaine, mushroom, tomato, cilantro, yogurt, olive oil, kelp flakes, salt and pepper in a brown rice tortilla. Makes me want to chant "Yummmmmmm"!