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