Gratitude

Thanksgiving Eve... This time of the year we get reminded of all the beautiful things we are thankful for, and I love that! This year it so happens  to be a time where I feel lots and lots of gratitude... Gratitude because things are falling into place like crazy! It's a good year and I'm having an awesome time and I'm so very thankful for it all! I'm thankful for all the steps on this journey of mine. The hard ones, and the easy. The tricky ones, and the ones I didn't have to sweat much for. All of them have helped to make me stronger. I love that!
Work (yep, that's teaching yoga basically for me), is evolving into something so beautiful that it's almost hard for me think of at times...  I will be able to very soon allow it's transformation to face the morning light (did that make sense???). 
My family is expanding (no, I'm not pregnant, but my sister is), and I'm looking forward to the winter/christmas holidays to spend them with my sisters here in my nest. 
Friendships are on a roll, old ones are resurfacing, new ones are blossoming. It feels so cool to be alive!
With that in mind, I bought a book for my very good friend (and yogi), Angela Travaglini (I love you baby!), and one for myself a couple of weekends ago when I visited her that I've been enjoying a lot lately. Here is a sweet piece that spoke to me today and that I shared with class tonight. 


Enjoy & Happy Thanksgiving to us all! 


P.S. Love and gratitude to all of you, my readers, my students, my teachers, my family, my friends, and all of you I still haven't met, but so looking forward to meet! 


"All of my changes are easy to make
When I begin to work on myself, sometimes things get worse before they get better. It is okay if that happens, because I know that it's the beginning of the process. It's untangling old threads.I just flow with it.It takes time and effort to learn what I need to learn. I don't demand instant change. Impatience is only resistance to learning. I let myself do it step by step. It will get easier as I get along."
By Louise L. Hay

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you don't have everything you desire -
if you did, what would there be to look forward too?


Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.


Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.


Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.


Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.


Be thankful for your mistakes.
They will teach you valuable lessons.


Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.


It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life full of rich fulfillment comes to those who are 
also thankful for the setbacks.


Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.


-anonymous

Our thoughts... Our mind...

Throughout the day thousands of conversations are taking place in our head. Make sure that the ones you focus on are the right ones... 

Non-judgement,

Gratitude,

Love,

Compassion,

Forgiveness,

Love,

Peacefulness,

Freedom,

Love,

Non-cruelty

Calmness,

Love,

Faith,

Acceptance,

Love,

Love,

and more Love.

A Native American Legend

A grandfather from the Cherokee Nation was talking with his grandson about how he felt. He said, "I feel as if I have two wolves fighting inside of me. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other one is the loving, compassionate one."

The grandson asked, "Which wolf will win the fight inside of you?"

The grandfather answered, "The one I feed".

With love,

Me :)

Some Greek philosophy...

This has been my weeks reading in class (not same place and students every time!)... Made my day when I saw it was Socrates :) Enjoy & maybe even try it out... 

The Test of Three (Truth, Goodness, and Usefulness)

One day, Socrates came upon an acquaintance that ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Test of Three."

"Three?" 

"That's right," Socrates continued "Before you talk to me about my student let's take a moment to test what you're going to say. The first test is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second test, the test of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So, Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him even though you're not certain it's true?"

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.

Socrates continued, "You may still pass though, because there is a third test - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"

Yep, made me totally regret a bunch of things... Letting go... Tomorrow is a new day. Good luck to all of us! 

Love, 

me.

Ahimsa 

When we practice yoga, we are speaking of ahimsa (of non-harming). In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali says that non-violence is avoidance of cruelty, injustice and violence. Which is to have compassion, kindness and goodness, to others and ourselves. 

Ahimsa isn't always black and white. Violence, after all, takes many forms. Thoughts, rude comments, pollution, pushing it to hard on our yoga mats, but also physical defense when we feel our lives are in danger. Another one is vegeterianism/veganism. A question I get quite often. A question that made me rethink my choices a couple of times. 

I've come to the conclusion, that I/We don't have to give up meat to practice non-violence. There are many ways, and many small actions we can take. Back off when things don't feel right. Push negative thoughts away. Small steps in the right direction. Keep trying again and again with mindfulness and compassion. Let your goodness shine through. Ahimsa is universal, compassionate love. 

I love this story:

Buddha was traveling in the company of several other people. 

One of the travelers began to test Buddha by responding to anything he said with disparaging, insulting, hurtful remarks. Every day for the next three days, this traveler verbally abused Buddha, calling him a fool, arrogantly ridiculing him in any way he could.

Finally, after three days, the rude traveler could stand it no longer. He asked Buddha "How can you continue to be so kind and loving when all I've done for the last three days is dishonor, offend and try to find ways to hurt you? Each time I try to hurt you, you respond in a kind manner? How can this be?

Buddha responded with a question for the fellow traveller, "If someone offers you a gift, and you do not accept that gift, to whom does it belong?"   

Peace out my friends. Love is the choice. 

How to change the world...

It's a beautiful day! With all the colors of grey in the sky, and its still gorgeous! A new yoga studio has opened up in the world and it will brighten up many peoples lives :) 

My good friend Angela posted this the other day, and it just seems fitting to pass it back on.

I Wanted To Change The World 

When I was young, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as I got older, I tried to change my family.

Now, I realize the only thing I can change is myself. Suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

(Unknown Monk, around 1100 A.D.)

and here's the link to Angela's studio:

http://solyogastudio.com

Focus on What's Right

The following passage is really speaking to me at this moment in my life...

We are so incredibly well trained to notice what's wrong in any given relationship, work situation, or experience that it's easy to overlook what's right. That's not surprising, because our entire education system trains us to notice flaws and mistakes: in school, the wrong answers are marked, not the right ones. In relationships, we spend a lot of time, energy, and money, often with the help of therapists, working on fixing what's wrong. At work, we study our failures and mistakes for hidden clues so that we can prevent them from happening again.
But what if we have it backward? What would we be like now if all the answers we got correct on every test had been marked? What if we spent as much energy in relationships noticing and appreciating the other person's gifts and talents and the strengths and beauty of the relationship itself as we do exposing and dealing with it's flaws? What if, at work, we spent an equal amount of time looking at what is working and how we can do more of that as we do analyzing what's wrong?
An "asset focus" - noticing and appreciating, as Joan Borysenko puts it, what doesn't need healing, is an incredibly powerful tool for creating connection, fostering creative thinking, and over overcoming obstacles. (M.J. Ryan)