26 Principles of Buddhist Psychology

1. See the inner nobility and beauty of all human beings.

2. Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.

3. When we shift attention from experience to the spacious consciousness that knows, wisdom arises.

4. Recognize the mental states that fill consciousness. Shift from unhealthy states to healthy ones.

5. Our ideas of self are created by identification. The less we cling to ideas of self, the freer and happier we will be.

6. Our life has universal and personal nature. Both dimensions must be respected if we are to be happy and free.

7. Mindful attention to any experience is liberating. Mindfulness brings perspective, balance, and freedom.

8. Mindfulness of the body allows us to live fully. It brings healing, wisdom, and freedom.

9. Wisdom knows what feelings are present without being lost in them.

10. Thoughts are often one-sided and untrue. Learn to be mindful of thought instead of being lost in it.

11. There is a personal and universal unconscious. Turning awareness to the unconscious brings understanding and freedom.

12. The unhealthy patterns of our personality can be recognized and transformed into a healthy expression of our natural temperament.

13. There are both healthy desires and unhealthy desires. Know the difference. Then find freedom in their midst.

14. If we cling to anger or hatred, we will suffer. It is possible to responnd strongly, wisely, and compassionately, without hatred.

15. Delusion misunderstands the world and forgets who we are. Delusion gives rise to all unhealthy states. Free yourself from delusion and see with wisdom.

16. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is not. Suffering arises from grasping. Release grasping and be fre of suffering.

17. Be mindful of intention. Intention is the seed that creates our future.

18. What we repeatedly visualize changes our body and consciousness. Visualize freedom and compassion.

19. What we repeatedly think shapes our world. Out of compassion, substitute healthy thoughts for unhealthy ones.

20. The power of concentration can be developed through inner training. Concentration opens consciousness to profound dimensions of healing and understanding.

21. Virtue and integrity are necessary for genuine happiness. Guard your integrity with care.

22. Forgiveness is both necessary and possible. It is never too late to find forgiveness and start again.

23. There is no seperation between inner and outer, self or other. Tending ourselves, we tend the world. Tending the world, we tend ourselves.

24. The middle way is found between all opposites. Rest in the middle and find well-being wherever you are.

25. Release opinions, free yourself from views. Be open to mystery.

26. A peaceful heart gives birth to love. When love meets suffering, it turns to compassion. When love meets happiness, it turns to joy.

posted from Bloggeroid

The Secret to Non-Suffering!

Jack Kornfield writes : 'It is not given to us to know how our life will affect the world. What IS given to us is to tend the intentions of our heart and to plant seeds with our deeds. Do not doubt that your good actions will bear fruit, and that change for the better can be born from your life.'

This is not to be confused with thinking about outcome or control. Its about having faith that the actions we take will handle themselves, without our constant manipulation. As is written in the Bhagavad Gita - 'to act well without attachment to the fruits of your actions.'

You've heard me write before about letting go and nonattachment. On the small scale we practice letting go in the moment, letting go of harsh thoughts, or anxieties in situations such as getting cut off on the highway or misplacing our wallet when in a checkout line. On the small scale of nonattachment we practice freeing ourselves from our ego dettaching ourselves from our possessions, realizing that the objects we own are not us, that if something breaks or is stolen or lost, that we ourselves are still intact. So how than do we apply these concepts and practices to the large scale? (Well one 'large' vs 'small' scale is all an illusion, its really all the same, every small thing we do is large, and every large thing we do is small, but for the sake of trying to illustrate a point, I will break things apart as 'large' and 'small' in this post.)

Adyashanti writes- 'The great spiritual teacher Krishnamurti once said, "When you teach a child that a bird is named 'bird', the child will never see the bird again." What they'll see is the word "bird". That's what they'll see and feel, and when they look up in the sky and see that strange, winged being take flight, they'll forget that what is actually there is a great mystery. They'll forget that the thing flying through the sky is beyond all words, that it's an expression of the immensity of life. It's actually an extraordinary and wonderous thing that flies through the sky. But soon as we name it, we think we know what it is. We see "bird", and we almost discount it. A "bird", "cat", "dog", "human", "cup", "chair", "house", "forest" - all of these things have been given names, and all of these things lose some of their natural aliveness once we name them. Of course we need to learn these names and form concepts around them, but if we start to believe that these names and all of the concepts we form around them are real, then we've begun the journey of becoming entrance by the world of ideas.'

Jack Kornfield firther writes - 'Freedom from views is like a cleaning of the glass, a breath of fresh air. Zen master Shunryu Suzuki calls this open-mindedness "beginner's mind". Listen to Rachel Carson, the great naturalist, as she evokes it: "A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over all the children, I should ask her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life."
'When we are free from views, we are willing to learn. What we know for sure in this great turning universe is actually very limited. Seung Sahn, a Korean Zen master, tells us to value this "dont-know mind". He would ask his students questions such as "What is love? What is conciousness? Where did your life come from? What is going to happen tomorrow?" Each time, the students would answer, "I don't know". "Good", Seung Sahn replied. "Keep this 'dont-know mind'. It is an open mind, a clear mind".'

And my favorite Dove chocolate wrapper quote, 'Marcel Proust-"The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes".'

The 'large scale' example of letting go and nonattachment is letting go of the illusion that we have any control over anything outside of our actions in this life. We must learn to not be attached to any outcome 'good' or 'bad'. True satisfaction, and utter peace is knowing we have no control, and being ok with that truth.

'It is not given to us to know how our life will affect the world. What IS given to us is to tend the intention of our heart and to plant beautiful seeds with our deeds. Do not doubt that your good actions will bear fruit, and that change for the better can be born from your life.'

posted from Bloggeroid

Morning Clouds Roll In

Morning clouds roll in, light and soft, barely touching the sky. Silloettes of tiny birds dance over head, slowly as if they were pulling the sun up themselves. One by on the blushing clouds stretch and wake, and roll out the fluffy white under bellies. The amber sun peeks out over the hill and through the trees and blooms to a jolly inviting yellow, a perfect marraige to the oceanic blue protecting us over head. The wind kisses the trees brining to life a rythm to match the lively birds' harmonious morning song. The air is cool, yet warm, crisp, yet sweet, the perfect aroma to rouse the muscles and wake the senses.

Whether you're waking up to a morning stretch or meditation, going to work or up for travel, I hope you take a moment to yourself to pause, and breathe this all in. Whether its sunrise, or sunset, or even mid day, really take a moment of apprieciation for these beautiful moments we are blessed with, the nature, and the life, and creation all around, in every breath you take.

Good morning everyone!

posted from Bloggeroid

Dalai Lama and Worry

Dalai Lama quote on worry and anxiety, 'If the problem can be remedied then there is no need to worry about it. And if there is no solution, there is no point in being worried, because nothing can be done about it anyway.'

May these words be repeated in your head every time you heart starts to beat faster than your comfort level. =)

posted from Bloggeroid

Coming into the Light

So I am sitting here in my new apartment trying to read whilst my husband is napping and I just can not help but to be aware of how painful the sun is. Where I am in Vancouver at the moment I am no longer receiving any direct sunlight. 1 there are wisps of cloud sprinkling the air, and 2. With the angle and hiegth of my unit, my livingroom is only getting 4 inches of direct sun on the carpet. So its not like I'm being blinded by looking at the sun itself or anything, but even when the blinds are fulling closed, my eyes are wincing.
See where I had been living this past year was the basement of an old hotel, in the back corner where the sun never was directly visible no matter the time of day. I had to have the livingroom light on all day long, and even then it was one of those small mock candle looking bulbs that you see mostly on chandliers, so that was only about 10 or 20 watts. ... but anywho I just can not reframe from thinking about my struggle adjusting to light and how it is my little physical metaphore.
All of life and yoga is about conidtioning and practice. Currently my eyes are conditioned to see and function in the dark, but with time and practice to not close the blinds or wear sunglasses, I will be conditioned to see in the light. Same with anything else. Say meditation, in our western society we are conditioned to either sit in a computer desk chair, a sofa or to stand more of all day long. With practice however we can learn to condition ourselves to sit on a meditation cushion without or legs or our booties falling asleep on us. With yoga asana or the physical practice and postures of yoga, we may tell ourselves 'i can't bend like that' but with practice we will condition ourselves to bend any way we choose.
Its easy to stick with the status quo and to give up or not try or to 'grab a pair of sunglasses' to make the moment easier, I don't know about you, but I would rather practice living life to the fullest and discover less and less limitations for myself by conditioning myself to ditch the easy. =)
So if you don't have it now, if you're swinting through life, or limbs are going numb, or you're struggling to be more flexible, don't feel down, don't cave, just know that you will be that much closer tomorrow! *^_^*

posted from Bloggeroid

Freedom to be Free

Quote, some food for thought on this beautiful Sunday afternoon:
'The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free.' - Nelson Mandela

posted from Bloggeroid

Full of Life *^_^*

Almost done with the move, just one more load and I shall no longer have 2 addresses... so exciting!!!=)
Sorry for the big gap between posts, truly did not mean to let something so heavy sit for so long, been so long since I last moved, I forgot how big of a job it was.

So anywho... for the past year I have been living with my husband in his bachelor pad, so all of my belongings, exept for my clothes, have been in storage. One on hand, it is so nice to see everything again and have a new appreciation and thankfulness for them and my memories. And 2 I finally get a VCR so I can watch all my old VHS tapes again! Paul and I were so excited we hooked it up in our new bedroom last night and watched Fantashia 2000. I have not seen this film for about 10 years, and it is just as magical now as it was then. My favvortie short was always the Mother Nature one, and watching that just now, as an adult verses a child, I love it so much more, and can relate to it on a deeper level. My new place currently over looks a Saturday|Farmer's Market, and this weekend there has been a concert event happening in the park (aka my backyard). After seeing the film this morning, and going outside to see all the people, all of nature, with the park and the items grow and cared for and sold at the market, and all the life from people and there pets, I am just blown away and in awe right now! Everything is so beautiful, and perfect, and magical, all the 'good' , all the 'bad' , all of life all around every moment of everyday, is all so beautiful!
This Father's Day, I encourage you to not just be thankful for your Dads|Granddads|or Moms who fill the role of Dad, but also look around, take a moment to take it all in and celebrate everything that is life!

Happy Father's Day everyone!

posted from Bloggeroid

AA

They say in AA that the most inspirational people are the ones who are just bare and honest. Now I personally have not experienced this first hand, never been in any group, and maybe that's why I have a weak following. Perhaps its hard to hear uplifting thoughts, when so much of the world and our lives are downers. Its so easy to be miserable, then look at someone smiling and think 'oh what do they know' or 'bet its easy to be happy when your life is perfect'. So I thought I would take a considerable amount of time to share with you that miserable people are the ones you see smiling too!

I was not always the way I am now, and I'm not even fully the way I 'am now' right now, I still have learning and growth to do to get out of my own inferno.

I do not know where or when it all started but can can recalls some of the factors that have shaped these layers of fear, self doubt, unworthiness.. honestly th only reason I am alive today is because my baby brother and sister literally saved my life. See back then they were 8 and 4 years old, so if I were to have taken my own life, there was no way their young minds (esp my little brothers autistic mind) would be able to understand something like that. There was no way I could be so selfish as to tramatize them like that. So I just suffered, waking up everyday, having to live in my mom and live my life was worse than chineses water torture, because at least when someone tortures a captive, they will either stop at some point or kill the hostage, but either way there was a release. I never was so fortunate....

Dating back to my earliest childhood memory, I was 4 years olf, I know because my younger sister was fortunate enough to be 2 years old and still in her crib. You know most little girls remember horses, or dancing barefoot in grass, but I remember Donnie. Donnie was an individual that was in our lives for only a minute, perhaps a month or so at best, ... oh my gosh it is hard to type when your eyes are blurry with tears..sorry.. anywho.. long story short one morning he came to our bedroom and when we asked for some breakfast his reply was 'i'll give you some food if you suck on this first.' Being an innocent child of 4 I didn't know what 'this' was and being hungry I did what I was told, and after I never got food, I just grew up. I lost my innocence at the age of 4! I'm really impressed to find out as an adult that my grandma (nicest person in the world) had to show incridable restraint not to literally murder this man in broad day light one time with her car in a bank parking lot. I really hope my mom is not reading this post today, because I know that this haunts her, and I do not mean to hurt her in any way by bringing any of this up now.

My goal I should note is not to blog about self pity, I'm not seeking attention, I just want to be honest for 2 reasons, 1 I am hoping to be able to connect and relate to people and 2 to show that things, no matter how horrible can be ok. The first time I told anyone about Donnie was when I was 14 I shared it with my first love, Jason. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, to just be naked and honest with someone, not knowing how they would react. Then on top of that, sharing the story I literally relived the whole experience of it. 10 years later, being 24 now, the more I had shared that story the less it haunted me, by the age of 21 Donnie FINALLY had no more power over me! So I successfully learned to let go of one demon, but what about the rest?

My biggest life struggle is searching for acceptance, approval, love. Which I know sounds funny since I am a married woman, but even now I have to be honest with myself, I don't think I am loveable, and until I learn that I am, my going to continue to doubt my husband, and the guilt I feel about putting him through that, makes it just that much harder for me to feel worthy of love. Outside of my husband, I struggle with my own family, I'm a regual 'black sheep' as it were. I don't know how to relate with my own sisters, I feel shy and ashamed around them, everytime still when I go home from one of there houses I come home crying to my husband because I feel picked on and hated when I see them. My mom and my stepdad, its weird to say, but I do empathize with their struggle to try and show me their love and support, so the logical side of my brain tells me they care, but emotionally I don't feel it. Only person I've ever believed without struggle is my maternal grandam, Nana, still to this day she is my bestfriend. Without her I don't know where I would be or who I would be. In our household growing up, us girls didn't know how to call 911, we knew how to call Nana, and she saved us so many times.

See Donnie wasn't the only part of my fastgrowth experience, he was just my earliest memory. As a child I suffered sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional malnurishment. My Senior Project in highschool was a thesis project on any topic we wanted. I chose child abuse. I researched everything from signs and symptoms to long term physical and pyschological effect, wrote a 20 page paper, did community service, and build a display board and delievered a speech. To this day I still have my paper on my harddrive. Learning all the ins and outs of my past and present, just gave me knowledge and insights to help explain why I am the way I am, but it didn't help me to learn how to get past it, how to escape it, or let it go or how to just move on.

Part of me still feels like a scared kid writting this because of what happened in the 3rd grade. I was in Mr. Howards class, and every morning we had a show and tell followed by a sharing time of what happened over the week. So one day I shared how my mom gave me a bloody nose. When I came home there were 2 men in suits leaving as us girls were getting off our bus. When I walked in my mom pulled me aside and yelled at me telling me never again was I to talk to anybody for any reason about 'her' business... that's what stands out the most to me, she cont. to emphasize that it was not 'my' business that I was getting beat up, but that it was 'her' business. And I really did believe her.

Since I now know it to be 'my' business, here is what I've got on the bill: spanking punishment consisted of having our mouths ducktaped, our hands tied, bare rears, and the hardest kitchenwear (used to be wooden spoons, but those kept breaking), if it wasn't that we would get slapped in the face, punched in the ribs, back or gut, kicked, or throwned acrossed the room, or if we really misbehaved, we went hungry.

To be even more honest, it wasn't until my senior year of high school that I found out that any of this was odd or not right, see I was VERY sheltered. My life was wake up, go to school, come home, go to my room, come out for dinner or chores, then back to my room, MY WHOLE LIFE. Still to this day I have no clue what common sense or social skills are, I just go by the 'fake it til you make it' creed and hope it works out.

Now through some sociology courses in college and through yoga, my eyes have been opened to empathy and compassion. I'm still learning how to see myself, but for now my biggest feat has been being able to see my mom. To know that yes she did mess up, that she is not a bad person, she has grown up so much since then, and I know that it she suffered from stress and poor anger management. She is a very loving woman, because if she wasn't she wouldn't continue to beat herself up everyday over the mistakes of her past. I don't know if I will be able to help her or free her, since I haven't yet figured out how to fully help myself yet, but my hope is that the more I learn and grown and be a student if yoga as much, if not more than I am a teahcer, that on this path we both will one day soon be able to master the forget part of forgive and forget.

Being sheltered, though it can keep a person safe from the outside world, it stunts growth and knowedge of theoutside world. College was the first time doing anything on my own, and boy was I just the most niave little virgin. Boy did I fall for the oldest 'i love you' oanties off trick in the book. Wow my first 'adult' relationship was like being right back at home.he was very emotionally abusive, but in a way I had never seen before, so I was defenseless. He had mental manipulation down, it started with small things like I couldn't wear hooped earrings, to having to let him touch me whenever and however he wanted because he said 'youre my girlfriend, what's yours is mine and what's mine if yours'. Wasn't til after we broke up that I learned about 'date rape'. So some more emotional and psychological abuse. Summer break was an interesting one. So durning the school year I was 18 and a virgin, he changed that, he who has been sleeping with girls since he was 14. Yet summer break durning my birthday phone call he (deciding to be a christian again, whilst I was still athiest) gave me the present of

posted from Bloggeroid

AA -cont.

yelling at me and telling me that I am satan for having made him have sex again when he was trying to abstinant and save himself for marriage. (And that's what's behind the tattoo on my arm reading 'eat the wounds and lick the breath, I am the sin that you like best.') Because he decided to use me as his scapegoat for his guilt for succumbing to the temptaion of the 'forbidden fruit' of having a virgin. Honestly how can a vigin, who ALWAYS said no, over and over again, be some evil tempting succubus? She can't.

So with that toxicity rolling around in my head I hurt the next guy who came along who was actaully very kind and very desent and whom I still love very much, (to my husband reading this, don't worry, don't be jealous, I don't mean it in any adulterous way.) (Funny how people most commonly only think of love as romantic love.) So I hurt him by tarnishing his name, if his name is brought up around any of my friends or family, anger always occurs, and for that I am very sorry. Being as damaged as I was after Branden, I should not have dated so early, I was jumping at shadows, seeing demons and monsters where there were none, and for some reason when I spoke what I saw as truth, people believed it as truth. But he was innocent! I felt so much guilt when I broke up with him, that when I went to seek comfort from a friend, I learned that not everyone who has a smile is kind. I was given shots of alcohol, where this 'friend' had non, and when I was blacked out I was raped, and he wasn't going to even tell me, I had to find out later when he slipped up.and when holes in my memory put humpty dumpty back together again.

This really messed me up for a while an how I saw men, esp since that individual was a co worker and often 'shared with me' how I was his muse durning his alone time in the bathroom and how my 'name' was then I a way all over the walls of the stalls in there. I was so appauled that my thought process went like this 'if guys are going to do this with me anyways, why not at least make a profeit off of it.' So I researched being an escort, and being a stripper, and I tried being a stripper for a while. This only lasted about a month because the hours conflicted too much with my day job. It was a beautiful learning experience though. 1 guys are not all perverse as they are made out to be. And 2 a lot of woman who dance are not trashy or whores as they are viewed to be, I have a lot of honor and respect for those woman out there. Many of the ones that I met are so beautiful, and passionate, and compassionate, and very well educated and honest, and very clean, healthy and sober.

After that, then for a few years I was alone, I was single, and I did some really growing up, some maturing.

Yoga has helped me so much, sure I haven't achieved the highest level of Consciousness yet, but that's not the point, the goal is not the piint the journey is! This is why I am spending the rest of my life dedicated to continueing to learn yoga and teach yoga, because I'm hoping to will save and transform of peoples lives as it has mine.

Adyashanti writes, 'Oh my gosh! Adults believe what they think! That's why they suffer! That's why they get into conflict. That's why they behave strangely, in ways I don't understand, because they actually believe the thoughts in their head.' ... 'They're insane! I understand them now: They're insane. It's insane to believe the thought in your head.' ... 'Your world is a drexm. You're living in an illusion,' ... 'Image? Good image, bad image, it's just an image!' ... in the book 'falling into Grace' the first chapter he talks about how our whole word is illusion, we live inside of what we create in our heads, our future is determined by our past, our relationships are made up of our thoughts, facing our illusions, what we think, why we think them, where they came from, really having to face ourselves and be honest is the first step to recovery, to letting go, to forgiving, to forgetting, to growing, loving, sharing, and living!

posted from Bloggeroid

Whale Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WabT1L-nN-E&feature=youtube_gdata_player

It has been pointed out in science that whales sings, and even repeat the same song over and over again. Science sees this as monotanous, yet yogis see the beauty of this majestic creature, chanting its own mantra, and swimming around at peace.

posted from Bloggeroid

Learning Our Own Responsiblity For Our Anger

Thich Nhat Hanh writes : 'If your house is on fire, the most urgent thing to do is to go back and try to put out the fire, not to run after the person you believe to be the arsonist. If you run after the person you suspect has burned your house, your home will burn down while you are chasing him or her. That is not the action of a wise person. You must go back and put out the fire. When you are angry, if you continue to interact with or argue with the other person, if you try to punish him or her, you are acting exactly like someone who runs after the arsonist while their home goes up in flames.'

This was from his book: Taming the Tiger Within-Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions. Part 1 is 173 pages about anger, recognizing our anger, accepting our anger, nurtuiring it with mindfulness and learning care and compassion for ourselves and others through our anger. This passage was highlighting that we are the ones responsible for our anger. Its so easy to pass the blame to someone else and say 'well he did that, or she said such and such, and that is why I am angery.' But a lecture hall of other people could witness the same event and be calm and at peace. It is not the other person who is to blame. No one is to blame. We much just recognize that we live with our own anger all the time. It is inside us. We must become aware of what our triggers are so that we can learn how not to over react, how not to fill our minds and bodies with all that toxic energy. How to be able to feel calm and mindful and in awe of the gift of being able to experience such a powerful emotion as anger, and as always to be able to let go, and move on and take care. =)

Much love to you all, even if that love was like a phenoix, fist created out of the ashes of anger.

posted from Bloggeroid

Boy Meets World

Many of you 90s kids may recall the popular TGIF series Boy Meets World. In one episode in season 6 Cory Matthews (the lead character) finds himself haunted with these reacurring nightmares of him killing his bestfriend (Shawn Hunter). He becomes so destressed, that as always he turns to his mentor Mr Feeny (his 6th grase teacher that became so popular to the show he ended up being the boys principle and history teacher in highschool and later a professor at his college). Anyways, Mr Feeny simply advised young Mr Matthews to stay asleep, finish the dream, and only rhen will he be able to find out what it means and gain peace. So the end of the episode was his dream playing out where he sends all the supporting characters to their deaths down an empty elevator shaft, leaving him and his girlfriend since the second grade, soon to be wife, Tapanga. He sees her in his dream dressed in her wedding dress, they have a sweet talk, and it turns out it was a dream about cold feet and wedding jitters, that he was afraid he would be killing his social life. I can not recall, either dream Tapanga or real life Tapanga helped him see that he would not lose anything in marriage, that he would be gaining more in top of what he already has.

The reason I bring up this lengthy example, is because I am noticing a common theme in all my yoga and meditation books. They all highlight how in our modern lives and cultures, we shy away from and avoid, loath and fear anything 'dark', anything in our lives that hurt or upset us. Through yoga and meditation we learn to be like Cory and 'finish the nightmare'. Instead of shunning or negative thoughts, feelings, memories, we learn to focus in on them, experience them, and discover the truth behind them.

For light example this time =) a student might 'shit down' and feel emparassed or defeated if a teacher comes over to them to make an adjustment. If we follow that feeling, we can see that we don't fear adjustment, nor our teacher, the underlying fear is of public embarrasment, judgement, disapproval. If we go deeper than that we will see that its really a fear of the past. Something happened sometime ago in our lives where a family member, or school mate, teacher, co worker, someone had us feel put down, and made 'small'. Going even deeper than that, we find this past humiliation haunts us because of our fear of being not enough, and not being accepted.

Now if we can get to the bottom of our fears, instead of getting all 'huffy' and shying away from them and blocking them out, but really getting to the root, it will no longer be something that controls us. Now depending on whatever it is we find, either we can over come it, or accept what we have discovered as being a part of us, and learning to be at peace with it or in some cases loving it, like Finding Nemo's little fin *^_^* .

You are all brave, and strong, I encourage you to explore your 'dark' by turning on the light.

~Namaste

posted from Bloggeroid

Yoga Reminder

I do not know who has quoted this, but I was reminded of this quote earlier this evening and felt like sharing this few words woth you:
'It is called yoga practice, not yoga perfect'!

posted from Bloggeroid

Six Days, Seven Nights

Harris Ford: 'It's an island, if you don't bring it here, you won't find it here.

Sure his character was drunk, so the audience is supposed to roll their eyes, but still this stood out to me.

So often in life we find ourselves confusing happiness with what has yet to come. Like 'oh if I get that promotion, then I'll be happy' or 'i just need to move, go some place else then I can be happy' or 'i need a man|woman, he|she will make me happy'... but just like with that island, you are responsible for what you have and what you will experience. If you don't learn what peace and happiness truly are for you, then you'll go through life looking under every rock and constantly wind up disappointed. Take money management for example. Most people say 'i don't have enough money' , say you win the lottery, then what?, will you finally 'have money'? More often than not all that money will be blown and you'll be back to where you currently are 'not having money'. If however you learn to manage your finances, no matter your income, you'll learn to always 'have money'. Same is true with everything else in your life, you take what you currently have with you everywhere, just need to learn how to tape into your inner self, become aware of your Awareness, and you will know peace without needed to wait for your next big life event. You'll always know how to be fulfilled.

posted from Bloggeroid

New Month- May Summary

Oops, I forgot to pay attention to my calendar, ITS JUNE! Which means its time to sum up what took place in May. So here we go:

The True Power of Yoga- this post was a very inspirational youtube video showing how a crippled veteran was not only able to walk after doctors told him it was impossible, he was able to run after a year of practicing Hatha Yoga Flow, and as an added bonus he lost over 100 pounds..really encourage everyone to go back and check it out.

Spring Cleaning--- was a post sharing some helpful internal detoxification advice.

Yoga by Equinox--- was another vido post of an artful yoga video, supporting both yogis and artists =)

Fat Burning Yoga--- was a less than 30 minute yoga video by Sadi Nardini

Bodyrock--- again was another spin on yoga by the hip online video group BodyrockTV sponsered in Canada.

Meditations From the Mat Day 133--- this exerpt from the Rolf Gates book was a passage about how to let go.

Hurtful Words--- this post was some short inspirational words I shared with a love one who was feeling down, and then decided to share with the rest of you incase anyone else was needs some help with social pains.

Honestly Being Yourself--- was a post reminding us to stay honest and be true to ourselves

Meditations From the Mat Day 135--- this passage was about going beyond right and wrong and knowing that everything is ok.

Steohanie's Yoga--- I was sharing my link to my first ever official website.. which thank you everyone for your support and patience as I am slowly but surely profecting it.

Donations Only Yoga in the Park--- Reminding everyone that this summer every Saturday and Sunday at 4pm I will be holding free yoga sessions in the Vancouver Park off Officer's Row at the Gazebo, refer back to my FB through out the week for sign up instructtions.

Observe and Report--- a strong quote from a goofy film reminding us to let go of shame and guilt and to Ksave our sorries for something sad'

Yoda and Yoga--- was a goofy post sharing some comparisons between yoga and star wars

Here Comes the Rain Again--- I was sharing a little piece of my creative writting highlighting the serenity this NW weather has to offer.

Yoga Love- was sharing how experiencing yoga is like falling in love.

And now welcome everyone to June, the first month of summer, woo hoo! =)

posted from Bloggeroid

Feelings vs Feeling

So this afternoon I spent about 2 hours talking to a fantastic young woman, the owner of Shanti Yoga in downtown Vancouver. We did not practice any asanas, so there was no physical yoga, all we did was have a discussion about her studio and her yogic style and philosophies, and how I may or may not fit in with her 'home'. She is so incredible, her studio is so amazing, that I literally felt as though we were doing yoga and meditating that whole time. (1. this is a little plug to those in the NW to go ahead and check out her space whenever you get a chance, it is completely worth it.) 2. this post is about a discovery that transpired when I arrived back home.

I was sharing with my husband how amazing I am still feeling, that when i hugged him he was a little excited himself and sqeezed too hard. When I said 'owww' his response was, 'guess your're not feeling good anymore.' and I just said out of reflex without hesitation, 'No, I do feel good, it my hips that do not.' And I left him alone in the kitchen packing to come here and share this inspiration with you.

So often we relate ourselves with extrenal items and events, even if that external item is our own flesh. Most of us have a tendoncy to emotionally react and really live into whatever we are experiencing or witnessing in the present moment. Take a toddler for example, most have witnessed a child getting hurt before, and one of two things will happen; if you laugh or smile or cheer, the child will smile and go back to their play, if however you gasp and say 'oh no' and rush over, then they start to well up with tears and cry. Now I am not saying that we are all giant toddlers crawling around through life, its just a good visual example of how you can allow you mood to change or not based on your situation.

So I invite you each to begin noticing your internal self verse your external self, and see how easy it is to let things go, and just be! =)

Love you all,
as always thank you!

Namaste
~Stephanie