Day 303 Intention ~ Start Over Again

Day 303 Intention ~ Start Over Again

Everyday is a new chance to start over again. If you read yesterday's post, I was feeling a little bit down on myself and I am sorry that you got to feel the brunt of that. I blame Mercury! 

Today, I am feeling much better about things and am ready to hit the reset button. Yesterday, I was questioning myself about choosing to teach yoga in this life. Today, I feel reinvigorated to teach yoga in this life! Could it be more financially rewarding? Sure, but I look at different jobs I have had throughout my life and no matter how much $ I ever made, I was always broke. I am a spender, what can I say!

So, let the adventure continue. Search for happiness, love, peace, bring joy to others and keep on truckin'! If today has got you down, just remember, you have a chance to start over again tomorrow...and the next day and the day after that, so don't get to caught up in the gloom of the day. See the brightness of tomorrow.

Til tomorrow...

Shanti,

Marcia

Day 296 Intention ~ Bring A Positive Light

Day 296 Intention ~ Bring A Positive Light

I see a lot of different people throughout my day. As the colder, stormier weather starts to roll in, people seem a bit more down, tired, stiff and, sometimes, negative. 

Whether it is my students, or the check out person at the grocery store, I try to bring a positive light to our interaction together. Sometimes it only takes one smile or person being nice to you or perhaps sharing a joke (even a corny one), to change that person's outlook on their day. 

Why not try to bring joy to those you run into. Everyone wins in that scenario. Besides, what's that saying, you get what you give :)

Til tomorrow...

Shanti, 

Marcia

Day 269 Intention ~ Practice Some Yin Yoga

Day 269 Intention ~ Practice Some Yin Yoga

In particular, yin for the lungs, large intestine, small intestine &heart. In yin yoga, the student holds the poses for 3-5 minutes and really gets into the connective tissue and allows the body to deepen in each posture. There is also a connection to the meridians of the organs and chi...more Eastern medicine. There is a lot to it & believe me, I am just scratching the surface, but I will tell you the emotional & mental reasons why I would like to work on these parts of the body in particular. 

Lungs and large intestine: the emotional qualities of their chi is courage and reverence...allowing us to be strong and present. Mentally, we are strong, have endurance and confidence. Also, we can think clearly.

Heart & small intestine: With healthy heart chi we find some inner peace and calm, we are joyful and feel nourished ~ inside and out. We feel connected to life. With the heart and small intestine working together, we feel happiness and love for the world and the people in it. We have purpose and find meaning in life. 

These are things that when I feel a little depleted or maybe negative about things, I need. Last week I was feeling tired and worn out...uninspired. This week, that will be changed (even though it is Thursday already!)

A great book for Yin Yoga is Insight Yoga by Sarah Powers. That is where I got the information shared with you today. 

Til tomorrow...

Shanti,

Marcia

Day 192 Intention ~ Find Joy

Day 192 Intention ~ Find Joy

Finding joy in all that you do, whether it is work or play, whether it's rainy or sunny, hot or cold. Even if it seems as mundane as balancing your checkbook (although that is not always a joyous outcome!), try to just enjoy life, being thankful for each moment. 

If you hate your job, and hate every moment you are there, guess what?! It won't get any better until you find something there that gives you joy. The attitude in you has to change for things to turn around. 

It's amazing how just tweaking your mindset a bit can really change how things look. And then, when you are joyful and positive, joyful and positive things start to happen around you! The energy shifts. Misery loves company is the saying, and yes, if you wallow in the misery, it continues. 

Who really wants that? No one. 

So, today is the day, this moment is the moment, make a choice to find joy & start enjoying your life now.

Til tomorrow...

Shanti, 

Marcia

Find Happiness Within...

Well, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday.

Whenever I feel this crabby, I actually feel a little bit guilty about it~so non-yogic of me! I tried to tell myself all of the things that I say to my students about finding happiness within.

Wasn't working. In my own stubbornness, I convinced myself that I was being more "real" by being crabby and owning it.

Then a friend of mine shared famous yoga teacher/writer, Max Strom's Facebook status on her page. It read, "No matter how many chaturangas we do, no matter how much wheat grass juice we drink, no matter how many kirtans we attend, we will not have a happy life if we are carrying inside us resentment and hate. 'It's not what you eat, but what's eating you.' Our yoga will take us quite far down the road, healing past wounds, purging us of ghosts, but at some point down the road we have to do some work on ourselves which is also part of spiritual tradition; self-enquiry, and in that work, one of our greatest tools is the power of forgiveness."

Thanks Max. Okay, I will try. I will look inside and find out what is eating at me. I will, at the very least, try to forgive myself this mood even if I can't find the cause to forgive.

I continued my funk, putzing around the house, ending up in the kitchen. It is here that I found a fortune cookie fortune sitting underneath some items in a bowl.

"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change."

Okay universe! I get it. I'm trying.

I went and sat down and started thinking about it. I came to one of my favorite yoga sutras that I love to teach in class.

Duhkhanusavi Dvesah: Aversion is that which follows identification with painful experiences.

Sri Swami Satchidananda goes on to explain that "We attach ourselves to pleasure because we expect happiness from it, forgetting that happiness is always in us as the true Self."

After stewing over that and getting a good night's sleep~I know that all of these statements I ran into are true. My mood, who knows, sometimes we just have good ones, sometimes bad ones. No need to attach to it in the end. No need to long for happiness or a better mood if that is the case that day, just know that if you let go from attaching yourself to your anger or resentments and do forgive whoever or whatever it is that is bothering you, you will find that happiness, that peace & that joy within. I know that I am trying...every single day.

Om Shanti~Marcia