Now, Then, Later

Ask yourself this:  What is it that I’m trying to do?

There are so many facets to our lives, each clamoring for the lion’s share of our attention.   While working on one task our minds are already surging ahead to the next job.  While painting the bedroom we are thinking about what color we should paint the hallway.  At work, one project is barely begun before you begin prepping for the next.  Breakfast dishes are hardly cleared before thoughts of what to have for lunch appear.

Let’s alter the original question a bit:  What is it that I’m trying to do NOW?   I am trying to get this room painted.  So paint!  It’s okay to buy the hall paint while you’re in Home Depot, but while you are painting the bedroom, paint the bedroom.  Pay attention to the bedroom.  Do a good job.  Listen to music. Enjoy yourself.

Don’t let your body complete one task while your mind is two hours/days/weeks ahead performing the next task.  Pull yourself together! Don’t lose today in thinking about tomorrow.

What am I trying to do now?  I’m trying to live my life with awareness.  I’m trying to do what I love with enthusiasm and do unpleasant tasks with grace.  I’m trying to take care of today.  Some days it works, some days I’m still working on it!  What are you trying to do now?

Standing on One Foot

It’s all about Balance.   When one foot is off the ground, you don’t want to tip over.  In my yoga classes I advise my students to practice balancing in all sorts of funny places.  Stand on one foot when waiting in line at the grocery store.  Challenge yourself by putting your socks on without sitting down. Revisit childhood by walking on top of the cement things in parking lots.  Improvement comes quickly, and it’s actually kind of fun!

Let’s pull that idea into the rest of our lives.  For instance, I just had a piece of leftover birthday cake for breakfast. (A sliver, really!)  I am now standing on one foot, nutritionally.  So for the rest of the day, I will practice my balance, eating wholesome foods. I’ll still be upright by dinnertime!

And exercise -- an extended four-letter word for many of us.  Step one is to get some.  Step two is to balance it with your own lifestyle, and for the highest good of the ol’ bod.  My preferred exercise is yoga, so balance for me is adding a brisk walk with the dog every afternoon, giving my body the sensation of fast, repetitive movement.  If you are a runner, taking off for miles around town, the addition of a stretchy yoga class will reacquaint you with muscles you forgot you had, balancing your quickness with the awareness of smaller, slower movements.

Finally, look for a balance of information.  Find a way to be aware of what is going on in the world around you without being inundated with negativity.  Look for news media that doesn’t exaggerate the bad and downplay the good; learn to change the subject when conversations turn to gossip; limit your exposure to people or things that drag your spirits down.

Look into all aspects of your life and find balance.  Then, when events come that start to tip you over, you will have the resources to recover from the wobble.  Maybe your hand will touch the wall for a moment; and once in a while life will knock us over completely.  If we have made Balance an automatic response system in our bodies and minds, we will find ourselves upright in the end.

Never Mind When I'm 65, How About When I'm 100

Don’t laugh, but I plan to live to be 100.  And not the sitting in the rocker waiting for a card from the President 100, but a yoga-practicing, blog-writing, trail-walking 100.  In order for this to happen, I first have to successfully deal with being in my fifties.  Here’s what I’ve found so far:

I take Level 2 yoga classes with relative ease, except I need reading glasses to sign the release form.  I can be pleasantly surprised when I look in the mirror, as long as I’ve been using my heavy-duty nighttime moisturizer, and avoid glancing down at my neck.  I thoroughly enjoy my kale and white bean soup now that I don’t have to cajole a 4-year-old into trying it. 

There is nowhere near as much time in the day as I thought there’d be.  I don’t work “full-time” but I work “crazy-time”, so my days are a chopped-up mish-mash of hours.  Keeping my schedule straight is what I do instead of crossword puzzles to keep my brain alert. 

Instead of hanging out with the parents of my kids’ friends, I now hang out with the people I do yoga with.  Luckily for me, that includes my mom and sisters, so I get to see them regularly.

I am WAY less shy than I used to be, and can easily strike up a conversation with just about anyone.  And I’m always willing to try something new because my fear of appearing foolish has vanished along with my smooth hands. 

What is your favorite part about your age decade?  

With Apologies to Willie

On the Mat Again

(To be sung to the tune of Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again")

On the mat again, I just can't wait to get on the mat again,

The life I love is doing yoga with my friends, and I can't wait to get on the mat again.

On the mat again, doing poses that I've never done, feeling  things that I may never feel again,

Oh, I can't wait to get on the mat again.

On the mat again, like a bunch of hippies we do Salutations.

We're the best of friends, believing that the world is more than Nations, than Nations.

On the mat again, breathing in and breathing out again, 

Vira Two to Trkonasana is fun, and I can't wait to get on the mat again.

(musical interlude)

(one more time, with feeling!)

On the mat again, like a bunch of hippies we do Salutations.

We're the best of friends, believing that the world is more than nations, than nations.

On the mat again, I just can't wait to get on the mat again,

The life I love is doing yoga with my friends, and I can't wait to get on the mat again.  

And I can't wait to get on the mat again.

(Yee-ha!)

For the real thing, try this: http://www.youtube.com/embed/1TD_pSeNelU

Open Up!

You know how I love my computers.  Instant access to information; frequent, succinct messages between my daughters and myself; the fun of getting email every day!  As a yoga teacher, though, here is my warning:  Sit up straight! 

Computers, phones, mp3 players, and all our other fun and exciting devices have our whole society curling forward.  We hold our smart toys at waist height and round our shoulders as we click away.  We strain toward the computer monitor and lose our perfect posture as we melt toward the machine.  This brings us into a protective stance, curving our bodies inward and making it difficult for our heartspace to beam out the way it wants to.  Our breath becomes constricted, which puts our nervous systems on high alert:  I can’t breathe, why I am protecting my vital organs; what’s happening to me!!!

Open those shoulders.  Raise that iPhone to shoulder height. Put a timer on your computer that alerts you to pay attention to your posture.  Use a lumbar pillow.  Learn some chair yoga (hey, the computer’s right in front of you -- Google it!).  Join a yoga class. Shine that heart out and notice the vitality that flows through you even when you’re hard at work.  

Don’t let your devices drain your batteries!

Happy St. Valentine's Day

Love your neighbor as yourself. 

This brings up a couple of questions:  1)  Who is your neighbor?  2) What if you don’t love yourself all that much?

Here are the answers:  1) Everyone is your neighbor.  2) You are lovable and loved, so jump on the bandwagon and show yourself some love!

Picture the person you love the most.  You want the best for this person.  You want this person to feel love, to experience kindness, and to live their best life. You want to be instrumental in bringing all this wonderfulness to your beloved.

Of course, we all know that you cannot give that which you do not have. If you do not honor yourself, love yourself, and take care of yourself, you are cheating your loved one.  By not turning the qualities of love to yourself, you cannot shine these qualities on another.  The one you love the most is missing out on what only you can give.

We are all created equal (Hey, Tom Jefferson said so in the Declaration of Independence – it must be true!).  We also have free will.  So decide to love yourself as you love your neighbor.

I love you!  Happy Valentines Day!

Computers Are So Cool!

I love the computer age.  Internet, email, Google; all these make life so much easier, simpler.  In just five minutes I can get store hours, coupons, and directions to get there.  That catchy tune playing on the radio?  I’ll find and download it in two minutes.  If the kids want enchiladas for dinner, I can get three recipes in seventeen seconds.  I am connected to yoga teachers, meditation gurus, my church congregation, and cousins I haven’t laid eyes on since before the days of sunscreen.  Woo hoo! It is exciting and fun to have such unfettered access to people, things, and facts.

Tovie prefers hardcover books.

Yeah, I know it can be a time-suck.  One Shiva Rea YouTube video can lead to an hour of vinyasa viewing.  But hey, as long as I’m getting the laundry done and enough sleep at night, what the heck!  I even like these new-fangled Nooks and Kindles.  A book is about the story, not the delivering medium.  If you like the feel of paper, then by all means read from that; the convenience of twenty books in my purse makes my Kindle a treasure.   I don’t have a smart phone, though, and I may never go that way – but only because the screen is too dang small and I’d have to start wearing a magnifying glass on a string around my neck! 

I’m going to skip the cautionary tales and horror stories of stolen identities and lost electricity, because there is a shadow side to everything and you’ve heard it all before.  So blog me a blog, find me a find on eBay, catch me an eCard; I’m just gonna throw the laundry in the dryer and I’ll be right back!