Day 304 Intention ~ Enter With An Open Heart

Day 304 Intention ~ Enter With An Open Heart

In Max Strom's book, A Life Worth Breathing, he suggests starting each day with an intention for that day. Not an intention for selfish worldly items, etc., but a way to create goodness in the world that day...for yourself and others. Of course, I have been writing these intentions all year long and admittedly, as you can most likely tell, they aren't set as soon as I wake up in the morning. The events of the day have definitely shaped what my intention turned into on several occasions. 

Often when the alarm goes off, I am struggling not to hit the snooze button several times, but today, the intention was buzzing in my brain. I lay in bed for a few moments and set my intention for the day. It was to enter each interaction I have today with an open heart. So, not pre-judging a situation, trying to be open to hearing what the people around me have to say and listening. It doesn't matter if I agree with what they are saying or not, but just being open to hearing it. 

Trying to lead with love. With an open heart.  

Til tomorrow...

Shanti, 

Marcia

Day 164 Intention ~ Be More Present

Day 164 Intention ~ Be More Present

In this day, in this moment, in this life. Just as I am finally coming out of my weary traveling nonstop oh poor me attitude, I start to think about how I would feel better about not only my yoga classes, but of other things in my life if I just became present. That, of course - thank you yoga, is when I stumble upon Max Strom's facebook post about being present. 

The common state of the ego-mind is that it almost never wants to be in the same place the body is. “Anywhere but here,” that’s its motto. Again, this is the reason we don’t remember most of our life, because we weren’t truly present. The ego-mind is very tricky, very cunning; it avoids being present and still. Watch how when you’re extremely busy and distracted it will tell you, “I can’t be still and peaceful now, there’s too much to do. I’ll be calm when things have quieted down.” Then when you get into a
peaceful situation, the ego will complain, “I can’t stay present here, this is boring,” and off it goes into the future, or to revisit past memories. Perhaps while practicing yoga, you’ll find yourself in a posture thinking about your upcoming dinner, and then later you’ll be at this dinner,
and you’ll be discussing your yoga class with your friends. “Anywhere but here . . .”
~ Max Strom (from A Life Worth Breathing)

Thank you Max. No matter how many times a day, in pretty 

much every class that I teach, I have to remind students to 

let go of outside thoughts and concerns. Just today, a 

student went into a child's pose instead of going into the left 

side of a sequence. When I went over to make sure she was

okay, she said she was just distracted. When we go on our

mat, no matter how stressful our lives are, we need to allow

that time to be ours and ours alone. Be present on the mat. 

It will bring more presence into your whole day and your 

whole life. 

Til tomorrow...

Shanti,

Marcia

*I apologize for the different formatting on this post, but once I added Max's quote, I couldn't get the formatting back to normal!!*