My Yogi Lifestyle: Manifesting Your Dreams

After kids yoga the other day, my daughter Maggie asked to throw a penny in the fountain so she could make a wish. Her wish was that she could listen to her mom and dad every single day (Wait, what?? Who is this kid?!) She asked me when her wish would come true and I told her that she already had the power to make her wish come true. We all do, for that matter. The greatest obstacle we face in pursuing our dreams is our own self - our own doubts, fears, and reservations are what really get in the way. The trick, of course, is finding the balance between going after what we dream of and at the same time stepping back to allow things to fall into place. Sometimes, in our efforts to achieve something, we try force the circumstances. But the timing might not be right or we may not fully be ready in mind or spirit, though we usually don't recognize this. The same is true when we do our asana practice. We may be working towards an advanced pose or working to build strength and flexibility and we can do this by believing that we can, but we must also respect our limits.

When I did my yoga teacher training a few years ago, I became very familiar with the term "manifestation." I have to admit that at first, I didn't entirely buy into it. How can we make what we want happen just by deciding that it will happen? Eventually, I came to realize that there is more to it than that. We don't just sit around thinking and saying that our wildest dreams will come true, we actually do have to get up and take steps to make them happen. But then what about all this "accept the way things are," "go with the flow," "be content with what is" stuff?  The truth is, again, its both. Its a delicate balance between taking steps to make our dreams come true and being able to accept the way things actually unfold. We manifest our dreams by shifting our energy from "this could never happen" to "I'm going to work to make this happen." We transform our energy from negative feelings of doubt or fear to positive feelings. 

Our yoga practice helps us to release some of the stagnant energy that we hold onto, that energy that harbors negative emotions and feelings. When we move through the postures in yoga, we open up our bodies to allow energy to move and flow, bringing in the good and releasing the negative. We do our part, but we also realize that we must practice patience as events unfold in the way in which the Universe, not our own mind, intends.

My Yogi Lifestyle_The Unrelenting Urgency

For the past several weeks I've made it my intention to separate myself from my Smartphone as much as possible. I've cheated a few times but for the most part, I've found that this separation has brought me a great deal of peace and presence and has reduced my anxiety and sense of urgency. We live in a world where we are expected to be doing a hundred different things at once. We are expected to be accessible at all times. We are pulled in so many different directions that we are constantly stretching ourselves thin until we snap - harming ourselves either mentally and emotionally, spiritually, or physically, or all of the above. We are not meant to live this way.

There's a sense of freedom that comes with slowing down and letting go of the urgency. We can only be in one place at one time and we can only truly be doing one thing at one time. Our mind tries to pull us in different directions at all times of the day, but if we could just take a moment to clear away those thoughts, to pause and breathe, we would realize that where we are is the most important place we can be. It's the most important place because it is exactly where we are. When we are fully present to where we are and what we are doing, the urgency falls away. I've found that when this happens, life has a tendency to very naturally fall right into place.  Its almost as though life works itself out the moment we stop pushing and demanding that it happen "our way." When we free ourselves from our controlling nature, we free life's energetic flow as well. 

There's no sense in rushing from one thing to the next, simply because life will unfold in the manner and at the pace at which it was intended. Free yourself from the perceived need to be doing 10 things at one time and from the urgency of getting on to the next thing. Have patience with this moment. Feel it, embrace it, absorb every last ounce of the moment into your life, because before you know it, that moment will be gone. Life is not made up of major events, it is made up of every tiny little moments built one on top of another.

Day 243 of My Year Of Yoga

Day 243 of ‪#‎myyearofyoga‬ :
Patience, patience, patience, breathe, breathe, breathe. I offered this to a friend the other day and it made me think about how I apply this to my own life. And how I sometimes forget to. Everything will happen as its meant to happen and in its own time. That time just might not be the time we've predetermined for ourselves. When we are injured, whether physically or emotionally, we heal. It's our natural state to be whole. Our bodies know intuitively how to heal, it is just our minds that prolong the process and make it seem unbearable. Pregnancy is not an injury, but when I was pregnant, I couldn't do a lot of the things I could once do. And postpartum, I had to give myself time to heal. What I had to continuously return to was the understanding that my body knew what to do. I am meant to be whole and so, I allow it to be so. When things in our lives are put on pause or seem out of reach, we must remember, patience, patience, patience, breathe, breathe, breathe.

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