I had the most magical run yesterday! While it's possible I "just" had a runner's high, I've been running (a lot) for 20+ years now, and have never had an experience like this before. 5.5 miles in (halfway) and running uphill at a good place I couldn't stop smiling. I was lit up with excitement from the inside out, like I could and was flying. I felt connected to the trees, plants, birds, waters, people ... EVERYTHING, and like we were all joyously singing together. Isn't that wild?
A few hours removed from this extraordinary experience, as I got up from lunch my body gave me one of those "old guy" groans. My brain echoed the sentiment by saying, "I don't want to work, let's just lay down, relax, and read," to which my low back said, "AMEN!" I share this because these high and low points mirror something I'm increasingly finding to be true about us and important to see and accept: To be human is to have glory and shame, light and dark, kindness and meanness, success and failure, luminousness and shadow.
The more we see, name, and embrace ALL of these, the more whole, healthy, and well we become. Like much else, though, this is best done together because, to paraphrase Richard Rohr, both the burden of our screwups and weight of our awesomeness are too much to carry alone. I think the beautiful interplay of light and dark in this pic both poetically speaks to this and reminds us of a deeper Truth: While we HAVE both light/glory and dark/shame, we are NOT them, we are the harmonious, holistic, and contented observer!
#love #lovealone #onlylove #light #life #unity #harmony #connection #holistic #shadow #dark #glory #shame #bliss #yoga #kindness #luminous #whole #healthy #wellbeing #aweseomeness #togetherness #observer #awareness #upwardspiral #kitsaphotyoga #blissology #blissarmy
Last time I saw the dentist, I learned I'd been brushing my teeth "wrong" for ages. Turns out while I think I'm brushing all my teeth evenly, when I switch from one side of my mouth to the other, I end up largely missing the 3 teeth to the right of center because of the angle of the brush in my hand. I'd NEVER noticed this and always thought I covered all the teeth evenly until my hygienist pointed this out. Isn't it crazy how many deeply ingrained habit patterns we have, wherein we do the same darn thing, the same way over and over again? Often without even realizing it!
In yoga we call things like these Samskaras, the deep mental/emotional grooves inside us that keep us stuck in cyclical behaviors, which are often detrimental to our individual and collective thriving. It’s why we keep having the same silly fight with kids/partners, repeatedly date people who don’t treat us right, and regularly think someone else is to blame for things that go wrong in our lives, for instance. An example in my life is a long held belief that my worth and significance is defined by numbers. If I don’t get a lot done, have a bunch of students in my yoga class, run fast, get great grades/scores, weigh the right amount, etc., one of my Samskaras tells me I’m a failure.
While it’s difficult to see these habit patterns in ourselves, yoga, therapy, and meditation definitely help open our eyes to them. As do the observations of people close to us, or noting characteristics we regularly judge others for (we quite often tend to criticize others for things within us that we dislike, but aren’t aware of). Do you find yourself stuck in any unhelpful (or hurtful) habit patterns, dispositions, or behaviors? The trick, I’m learning, to changing these is going slowly and with grace. Since they took time to get ingrained in us, they will take time to be refurbished. So, when we fall back into the cycles of thinking and behaving we’re trying to change, let’s give ourselves a hug, a pat on the back, a word of encouragement, and begin again. Hugs, blessings, and Love to you on your journey of growing and blooming!
#love #lovealone #onlylove #light #life #yoga #samskara #stuck
One of the thing's I cherish the most is tucking my daughter in at night. After we share what we're grateful for and pray, she rolls onto her side, closes her eyes, and we begin a sacred ritual we've been practicing for 10+ years. While I hum "Go to Sleep My Little Baby", I caress her back. Like anything else, all it takes for this ordinary routine to become special is intentionality. Our mindfulness turns my hums into musical blessings and hands into embodied prayers. During this time, it's as if angels are dancing around us, the air turns into Joy, her mattress becomes a place of Peace, and Love is all there is.
This reminds me of the yogic practice of Satya (meaning "Truthfulness", which really makes it a human practice) and something I recently heard from Peter Rollins. The Irish philosopher pointed out Truth is subjective. You see, Truth means, "that which is in accordance with reality", and reality is NOT a cold, sterile, fact-focused, objective experience; it's a relational, warm, messy and mysterious, Love-centric, subjective endeavor. Really and truly, then, anything and everything can be sacred and special, like Lara and my bedtime ritual ... if/when we want it to be!
Love is the flow of reality, everything in the universe came from the big bang, and we exist, which means you and I are Truth, Love, and One. It seems to me to live Truthfulness, then, is to live Love, which is marked by givingness, attention, intention, and kind, connected relationships wherein the mundane becomes sacred and ordinary extraordinary. So, today I invite us to practice Truthfulness by choosing Love and seeing the sacred within and without!
#love #lovealone #onlylove #light #life #truth #truthfulness #satya #yoga #sacred #reality #relational #mysterious #lovecentric #intentionality #oneness #giving #together #attention #intention #kindness #connection #mundane #ordinary #extraordinary #kitsaphotyoga #upwardspiral #blissology #blissarmy
From one perspective this view from about 3/4 of the way up the hills leading to our house is glorious ... from another way of seeing things, particularly at the bottom, it's Mount Doom. Seriously! While it's a tad annoying, and a good bit sweaty on warm days, to ascend the 750'ish feet when I walk home from teaching yoga, running it is the WORST!
Yet, why is that? And, better yet, does it have to be? I just listened to "Stillness Speaks" by Eckhart Tolle, in which he points out: "Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary." You know what the worst part of running the hills is? The anticipation! The mile BEFORE the hilsl, when my brain is dreading the hardship, is FAR worse than the actual ascent. Our minds have the power to make situations either heavenly or hellish. And I don't know about you, but ruminating on my worries, anxieties, insecurities, and fears is definitely a hell of my own making!
What I find changes the suffering game, though, is shifting my attention and awareness from future struggles to present beauties (like this view), choosing to smile as I lean into the climb, slowing my breath down (while rapid breathing = frantic thinking, smooth breathing = calm thinking), and doing my best to take it one step at a time. WHEN I'm able to do this, my suffering turns into celebration, which means Mount Doom transforms into Mount Zoom. Are there any places in your life where a sense of doom can be replaced with an attitude of bloom?
#love #lovealone #onlylove #light #life #attitude #perspective #suffering #celebration #presence #being #breath #breathing #mindfulness #yoga #running #mountdoom #eckharttolle #calm #kindness #bliss #kitsaphotyoga #upwardspiral #blissology #blissarmy
Over just a few short days, the tranquility of our peaceful little suburban community was broken by an ambulance pulling up just outside our house … THREE TIMES! As we’d guessed, and later confirmed, our neighbor’s husband with dementia had had some medical/health “adventures”. After she told me about it the other day, I expressed my admiration for how calmly and gracefully she handled it all. With a smile, she told me the secret: Thirty years of yoga, meditation, and other mindfulness practices ... Read more on the magic of getting calm and connected below.
https://gracenpeaceyoga.com/2019/09/13/dont-just-do-something-sit-there-calm-collected-grounded-connected-centered-makes-us-much-more-effective-yoga-life-lessons/
#love #lovealone #onlylove #light #life #yoga #calm #collected #grounded #connected #centered #yogalife #peace #wisdom #action #contemplation #spirit #meditation #confidence #being #bliss #kindness #koshas #wisdombody #blissbody #clarity #breath #kitsaphotyoga #blissology #blissarmy
