Becoming a Yogi : Consciousness Explored

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How Can I Get Paid to Play

I love this speech by Alan Watts. I think about this a lot with my own life. I’m one of those people with a thousand different interests. But it comes down to how can I get paid to play?

I don’t want a boss. I want to love what I do. 

Successful writer or artist

Psychologist

Researcher

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Running Therapy

I love this approach to mindfulness.

Movement can heal. With running all you need are shoes. 

How does running or movement help you work through your issues?

"For a lot of people, this process of therapy is a lot more emotionally accessible. I take the tools applied in the office and attach them to running," explains Saremi, whose work tends to attract high-achieving individuals who often struggle to commit to traditional talk therapy—or just sitting still for an extended period of time.“

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Routines

For the first time in my existence I am comforted by routines. By chicken and potato dinners, cuddling with my dog, night baths, tea before bed, reading, stillness, waking up with the sun. 

I am learning so much about life. What makes it beautiful. How comfort does not need to equate to boring. I finally feel like I’m waking up -- learning something new about the world every day. It’s overwhelming to be honest. To think of all the things I didn’t know before. 

But I did the best with the knowledge I had. And so are you.

[wordsnquotes]

Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.

Alan Watts (via wordsnquotes)

[fyp-philosophy]

The future is a concept, it doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be, because time is always now. That’s one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.

Alan Watts (via fyp-philosophy)

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Poem

In my heart there are visions of you

A room with a window and I can see the sun setting

I draw the shade and lock the door

Light a match in the center of the room and lay my head down on a pillow

Everything is good

Everything is calm

Then a knock on the door

I open it and there you are

The reflection of me

Beautiful strong kind support love brave

We lay on our mats

Your face is illuminated by the flame

It’s so beautiful

Holding hands like we’ve grown roots inside of one another

And before I blow the candle out

You ask me to come lay with you 

So we can spend these last few sweet moments of nightfall together

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The 8 Limbs of Yoga

Yama: Ethics relating to others

Niyamas: Virtues relating to oneself

Asana: Posture

Pranayama: Breath regualtion

Pratyahara: Sense withdrawal

Dharana: Concentration

Dhyana: Absorption

Samadhi: Illumination

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The Self

There is only one way to find out who the Self is. And that is through stillness.

There is so much more to you than meets the mind. Every person has an essence. When we still our mind, we can find out who we are.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” - Carl Jung

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Friends

As I started my spiritual journey, I realized that some people in my life supported and rooted on what I was investing in myself. Others, took it as a personal offense that I wanted to dive deeper into my own practice. 

You have to be truthful with yourself about your relationships with friends, family, and lovers. Are they helping you learn? Are they raising your vibration? Do they help you find joy? 

When you are doing this work -- the journey towards the self -- you have to be truthful and surround yourself with love. If there are people in your life who are not ready to accept you for journey, you have to make a decision. For me, I had to distance myself from these relationships in order to preserve my own well-being. 

I can no longer be dragged down by negative energy, drama, jealousy, hatred, or closed-mindedness. I am worth more.

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Pay Attention ... to everything

As I started practicing yoga and as I get prepared for my training, meditation has become a huge part of my life and practice. When I started a meditation routine, I started paying attention to my thoughts, feelings, and reactions. When I went throughout my day, I noticed if I felt unhappy or anxious or depressed. I noticed when someone didn’t treat me right -- whereas in the past I may have disregarded it. 

I started believing that I was worth paying attention to. That I did not need anyone’s approval except my own. 

I grew up as a people pleaser. I thought the role I had to play with friends and family was making sure everyone was having fun. That everyone was ok. I wanted approval. This led me to years and years of inauthentic relationships with others, but most troublesome, with myself. After I started going to therapy and practicing yoga, I started practicing being my true self. I showed up as myself. This is the practice. Not placing weight on whether or not someone approves of my true self. I went on dates and instead of faking conversation, or trying to show my best side, I was like HEY! It’s me. And it felt so good. To be authentic is sexy. Live your truth. It’s impossible not to fall in love with yourself when you are letting your true light radiate from within.

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Surrender

Suffering comes from the Sanskrit word dukha: du means bad and kha means space. 

For the past year and a half I have been fighting against the stars. I have tried to make relationships work. I have pushed and pushed to find a different career. I have chased after love. But when I practice yoga, I realize that I cannot change the world. I can only change my reaction to it. 

I never have to hold one pose forever. There will be relief. I will grow stronger. The next pose is meant to challenge me or provide me with relaxation. But when I fight against a tide of constant change, we set ourselves up for frustration, heartache, and sadness.  This was a huge obstacle I had to overcome. I wanted instant results. I wanted everything to feel better. I wanted love, now. Not tomorrow. But when I learned how to surrender and lay down to the world, I understood that surrendering is brave. You trust the world. You trust God. There is a plan much larger than yourself at play. In the realm of love, I am not meant to find it yet. I am doing so much work for myself. 

Meditate on an area of your life where you feel you are suffering. You are not here to fix or change what you find. Just notice what comes up for you. Can you feel where you are struggling in your life or where things don’t feel right? 

Surrender does not mean that you stop working or taking action. It means that you thank and love God. You continue following your dharma. You accept the outcome and God’s grace. When you are in a place of acceptance you are in a state of peace and strength.  

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Positive Thinking

The way we see the world is colored by our own thinking. Instead of dreading a  stressful experience, what if you think of it as way to test your limits? Something as simple as deciding to smile can boost our moods. Our thoughts shape our world. That in turn changes our world -- creating a feedback loop.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna’s chariot is being driven by Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu. Arjuna is called onto the battle field but he does not want to go. He turns to Krishna for advice and Krishna says, “Do not waver in the face of your duty. For a warrior, there is no higher calling than to fight for what is right. Warriors given a chance like this are blessed with an open gate to heaven and should be happy to encounter such a battle.” 

Although yoga preaches non-violence, Gandhi interpreted this story in the Gita as an allegory for us as we turn inward. We must be brace enough to explore our own heart and mind -- and the battlefield that is there. We must take an honest look around. Looking inward isn’t always easy. While you will find love, peace, kindness, and happiness, you may also find jealousy, hatred, and sadness that make us human.

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Forest Bathing

Some of my most profound experiences happen when I am in nature. Joshua Tree, Sunset Cliffs, and Ensenada are recent places where I have stood in awe of the natural world. Forest bathing was developed in Japan during the 1980s. Now, it is part of Japanese medicine. There are studies showing the health benefits of spending time in a living forest -- taking it all in. 

When you visit nature and walk around in a relaxed way you experience calming, rejuvenating and restorative health benefits. Research shows that forest bathing can reduce stress, increase mood, improve sleep, increase energy flow, deepen friendships, increase happiness.

How often do you spend time in nature? How does it make you feel? 

“You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here.” - Alan Watts

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Yoga & the Pursuit of Happiness

I’m reading this book to prepare for my yoga teacher training, Yoga & the Pursuit of Happiness by Sam Chase. The book centers on positive psychology and its relation to yoga. Each page I’m highlighting parts of the book that resonate with me. We live in a society that is scared to look inward. So many people choose not to meditate or practice yoga because they don’t want to dig deep. But, when we look inside we find our dharma. We find the things that fuel us. 

Chapter 1: What do you think happiness is? Answer that. Happy people live longer and have better immune function. They make more money, they are more altruistic, optimistic and resilient. Our own perception of own happiness is biased. Negativity bias, cognitive bias (peak/end effect), and impact bias -- all impact how we view the world, ourselves, and our own happiness. So what really makes us happy? Martin Seligman distills it down to three things: pleasure, meaning, and engagement. 

Yoga is the deep absorption of attention.