Day 169 Intention ~ Let It Pass

Day 169 Intention ~ Let It Pass

I have been so spacey and tired the last couple of days. Maybe it's the summer sun, maybe it's not. Working a lot I'm sure is part of it, but it's not like my days are full on 8 straight hours with a 30 minute lunch break, but I have been working every single day. 

I usually go to bed 30 minutes to an hour before my husband, so I can read & well, just plain get a little quiet time as I drift off into dreamland. The past few days, John has been coming upstairs with mean and turning the t.v. on. This usually completely ruins my ability to fall asleep, but not the past few days. My head hits the pillow and I am out. 

In the mornings, I want to keep hitting the snooze button and continue sleeping. It's not as if I am not getting enough sleep, I get 7-8 hours a night...at least. 

So, I am not sure what this sluggishness is the past few days, or this spaciness, or just plain laziness, but for now, I am going to let it go and hopefully it'll pass. If not, then I will worry a little. 

For now, where's that rajas when I need it?!?! 

Til tomorrow...

Shanti, 

Marcia

Day 160 Intention ~ Do Something New

Day 160 Intention ~ Do Something New

Lately, I feel like I've been a little more tamasic than sattvic or even rajasic. So, yes, a little bit of a funk. Not long funks, but they pop up more frequently than I like. I think that part of that is not switching up my routine. Always doing the same things and longing for something new and different. 

Granted, I was just out of town for 2 days in a relatively new place, meeting new people. But, to bring excitement back to Cleveland for me, I am going to do something new & different today. Not sure what, but something. 

Maybe a bike ride to somewhere different or head off to a place I've never been (I hear the botanical gardens are lovely & I've never seen them), I don't know, but something to shake it up. 

We'll see what today unfolds...

Til tomorrow.

Shanti, 

Marcia

Day 141 Intention ~ Go With The Cycle

Day 141 Intention ~ Go With the Cycle

If you were on this blog last week, you may recall the discussion over the gunas & how they move in cycles.

Yep, today is just a reminder of that for myself. 

As I sluggishly moved from class to work, pretty apathetic towards the world around me...just trying to get through it, I remembered that whole blog I wrote about the cycles of the gunas and how we need each one. Well, I'm trying to go with the cycle, but am really hoping that rajas guna kicks in pretty quick over here! 

Til tomorrow...

Shanti, 

Marcia

Day 136 Intention ~ Accept The Funk

Day 136 Intention ~ Accept the Funk

No, I'm not talking about George Clinton or Sly Stone, I'm talking about my mood and how I've been feeling the last few days. I've been reading Richard Freeman's book, The Mirror of Yoga, for awhile now. I savor each page and try to soak it all in. I only read it right before I go to bed, which I tend to go to bed when my eyes are struggling to stay open. Therefore, I only get 2-3 pages in a night. 

So, as yoga lessons always go, Monday night when I was noticing how uninspired I had been feeling, I open up my book before sleep to Richard Freeman talking about the gunas: sattva, rajas & tamas. He discusses how we need all three qualities to live and that they all give us balance in this world. 

Sattva, of course, is the most desired by people. It is when we feel we are most balanced, harmonic, smart, peaceful and happy. And that was how I was feeling just last week! It was fantastic. 

Rajas gives us our energy, passion, desire, motion and sorrow. It can definitely help us to motivate...perhaps when we are feeling tamasic.

Tamas is sluggishness, depression, laziness, dullness and inertia. This is what I was starting to feel take over my body. Ugh. But then I read on...

"When we are first in a sattvic mood our perceptions are clear and bright. The feelings of joy, love, compassion, empathy are right up near the surface of our awareness, and virtually everything we experience stimulates one of these "good" and satisfying feelings. Consequently we behave ,think, and react in ways that reflect this sattvic state of being. But after some time spent in a sattvic mood - and it can be a long or a very short period of time - we become desensitized to the joyful stimulation of the sattvic state, and usually without even being aware of it, we reduce the good state to a formula or image and begin to drift off into a state of complacency, dullness, boredom, and inertia; the state of tamas sets in." 

                                                                                    ~Richard Freeman, The Mirror of Yoga, p. 81

He goes on to say that eventually rajas kicks in, motivating us to do things and find our way back to that sattvic state. 

Once I read that, I realized that my own tamasic, dull state would pass, and not to lull in it too much. I (and we all) need it to appreciate those peaceful, harmonious moments when we are sattvic. 

By this morning, my tamas has seemed to kick back into rajas and I am looking forward to finding my sattva! 

So, just trying to accept whatever is going on with you at each moment. And realizing, nothing is permanent...even if you're in a funk.

Til tomorrow...

Shanti, 

Marcia