Be in the present moment. This mindfulness embraces your current activities. When you practice yoga you tune into your body, enhancing peace while lowering stress and boosting your health.
Wellness for Optimal Health
What is wellness? It is the state of being in good physical and mental heath. To be in good health it is a daily practice of the keys of life, eating foods to fuel and heal, restful sleep, activity to enhance circulation and muscle strength plus a positive outlook on life.
Create Centeredness For Health
Healing the mind and body is central to true, authentic yoga. The poses are moved into and released with slowness. The mind becomes steady, allowing the muscles of the body to align with the bones of the body. The breath becomes smoother, deeper, longer. The mind, the body, the soul become one.
Create Gratefulness
Being grateful is an action. Being thankful is a feeling. Gratitude encompasses both. Appreciate every moment, for your experiences, for other people, for the good things in your life. When you adopt this behavior in all that you are, in all that you do, you create fullness of life.
Celebrate You!
Acknowledge yourself. When you keep your focus on all that is good in your life, you strengthen the inner peace and the actions you have accomplished. Celebrate by being yourself. You are a unique person and there is no one else like you in the Universe. When you accept and encourage yourself, any time for any reason, your confidence lifts with this self-celebration. Celebrate the small accomplishments which allows you to complete larger objectives. Positive energy then flows to you in volumes from your radiance.
Living in Happiness
We can increase our energy and our happiness through the equanimity that comes with the practice of yoga. You can release stress, heal your muscles, strengthen your posture and balance your emotions, creating more joy in your life experiences. Feel, sense, see what you are on the yoga mat and take it into your day. Notice the increase of gratitude with everything that you are and with everything that you do. Feel the comfort and the joy.
Yoga is Integration
The intention of yoga is integration. It is the harmony between the external achievements with the internal thoughts and feelings. It is our consciousness balanced with love of ourselves, others and nature. Finding this centeredness of peace begins with our connecting to our inner being on the yoga mat, then allowing this integration to spread out into all life experiences. We can live with our hearts and minds filled with compassion and kindness.
New Year, New You!
Living life to its fullest potential. That is what most of want and think of when we begin another year. We have the best intentions and motivations to begin the trek. We make plans to begin an exercise routine and to change eating choices. We are at the grocery store and choose the fresh produce and avoid canned products. We cook at home and sit down to a wonderful meal with delectable smells in the kitchen. We feel better. Then somehow we become derailed only to find our way into patterns of the past, just waiting to be repeated. It may only take a few weeks or a few months before it seems to be where we are. So, what happens? And why?
When we make the plans to change, it begins with a thought. That thought becomes the feeling or emotions which then propel us into the action. If the thought is to change from fast food into fresh food, we must see ourselves feeling great about the choice we have made. We need to stop going to the drive-through for our meals and prepare ahead something from the grocery store which we can put together ourselves or buy from the array of salads, raw vegetables, fermented foods and low mercury fish.
It is about our health! When we feel good, we have the energy to do the things we choose to do in our life. We have a better quality of life. Food is not a luxury. It is our fuel and our medicine. We need to be mindful about our choices and be aware of them daily. As we age, we need less food, but we still need the nutrition. When we have those moments of finding our plate has frozen or canned or sugary foods on it, remind yourself of the lack of nutrition it is just for the momentary pleasure on the tongue. Is it worth the feeling of low energy, upset intestines, headaches and even illness? Get back on track quickly and see how much better you feel! Life in balance!
Be the Author of Your Own Life
When you begin to think about your life and what you engage in daily, you realize how much or how little you may be living your authentic self. You may be following those things laid out for you by someone else rather than being on the path that enables you to use your gifts and skills in service to yourself and to others.
When you are living your legacy it is empowering and engaging, making a lasting impact and eternally meaningful contribution on many levels. Living your truth is by design not default and has the power to spur you on to create a mindful, proactive, purposeful and fully expressed life. Your focus is on taking action around your values, passion and potential which can be a catalyst for positive, enduring change that surpasses your lifetime.
You can control your own destiny, putting aside the conditioned beliefs and assumptions. Allowing yourself to face fears and celebrate successes brings you into living life in the moment mindfully, to create a life with purpose, more fulfilled, self-aware and confident. Begin by identifying, defining and appreciating your core values, expectations of respect and areas for which you crave personal growth. Give yourself full permission for self-expression, taking responsibility to ensure that your gift to the world will outlive and outlast your time on earth.
When you connect with yourself on the level of living fully, notice if what you are doing is either ambition and achievement or is it meaningful and fulfilling, to provide the structure, guidance and opportunity for you to discover and uncover those aspects necessary to live as a mature and authentic individual. It is when you challenge your limiting beliefs and deeply inquire into difficult questions you begin to be the shift of a life of connection and full potential.
Abundant Living
You already possess all the inner wisdom, strength and creativity needed to make your dreams come true. When you unearth yourself from the bills, car pool, deadlines, business trips and laundry you can access your inner resources for happiness and fulfillment. It resonates with your soul. It brings emotional, psychological and spiritual transformation. It aligns you with the creative energy of you with the Universe. It produces contentment and abundance.
What you are looking for is inner peace, well-being, happiness and a sense of security. How do you reach these? Through gratitude, living in simplicity, organization, harmony, beauty and joy. Gratitude allows you to see just how your day creates the richness of who you truly are. Simplicity gives you the knowledge of what you need to live comfortably and well. Organization is both internal and external. Harmony brings an integration with the beauty that surrounds you in even the little things. Beauty brings an eye for the symmetry of your day. Joy shows up as the satisfaction and confidence of what is experienced.
Be at one with your inner awareness. Know your life is filled with abundance. Tap into that abundance that is already yours. Experience and live in authentic peace.
Jai Bhagwan!
Ancient Wisdom for the Modern World and this Mom
"Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back and reasons to stay." Dalai Lama
It feels good to love and it feels good to be loved. Love connects our hearts, connects our minds and deepens our connection with one another. Allowing our loved ones to be themselves and to have the freedom to be who they are is a true sense of love.
When we give others wings and roots we are investing both time and energy into them. We share valuable lessons of life, spend interesting and meaningful moments in conversation with them and show unconditional love towards them.
I gave my younger daughter a huge hug, lots of kisses and a few tears as she began her trek across the United State to settle, work and live in the state of Washington recently. I know in my heart this is part of her journey of her life. Everything I did through her growing up years was to prepare her to become independent and productive. She is a loving daughter and continues to develop into her best self, with interests, dreams and excitement that comes with discovering life. Her confidence and wisdom will serve her well. My unconditional love and genuine acceptance will always give her support wherever life leads her to be. By giving her wings provides the understanding to trust her inner widsom to soar, reach and discover her potential and her successes. She will know her greatness! My love and acceptance is always there for her. Believe in your potential, dear Haley. Be everything you choose to be.
De-Stress Your Life
Stress that is harmful can cause physical, mental, and emotional aches and pains. It can cause your body and mind to overreact to situations, resulting in digestive problems, weight fluctuation, heart disease, depression, and a host of other issues.
By being mindful and using yoga and meditation, you will find yourself creating more relaxation responses rather than stressful reactions. With the combination of yoga and meditation, you learn to slow down the mind and create relaxation for the body.
To be mindful is quite simply paying full, whole-hearted attention. When you do meditation it involves paying full attention to the breath as it flows in and out of the body. Focusing on each breath allows you to observe your thoughts as they arise and, little by little, to let go of struggling with them. You come to the profound understanding that thoughts and feelings (including negative ones) are transient. They come and they go, and ultimately, you have a choice about whether to act on them.
Mindfulness is about observation without criticism and being compassionate with yourself. With unhappiness or with stress, rather than taking it personally, treat it as if it was a dark cloud in the sky, observing it with friendly curiosity as it drifts past.
Scientific studies have shown that mindfulness not only prevents depression, but it also positively affects the brain patterns underlying day-to-day anxiety, stress, depression and irritability. When these negative thoughts arise, they dissolve again more easily. Those who regularly meditate see their doctors less often and are generally healthier. Memory improves, creativity increases and reaction times become faster.
No matter how powerless you may feel in the face of stress, you still have control over your lifestyle, thoughts, emotions and the way you deal with problems. Managing stress involves changing the stressful situation when you can, changing your reaction when you can’t, taking care of yourself, and making time for yoga, meditation, rest and relaxation.
Dr. Wayne Dyer
“We are not our bodies, our possessions or our careers. Who we are is divine love and that is infinite.”
Dr. Wayne Dyer 1940-2015
It is with much admiration of a gentle soul, who shared with the world such inspiration by his wisdom, that we say good bye to a man who knew we all can create the successes in our lives through the action of love. Let us continue to have love and peace toward others. Let the music inside of you shine brightly for all the world to see!
Sending much love and light to all! Kristi
Learning to Embody Yoga
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” ~Patanjali
As the Father of Yoga, Patanjali writes we can begin to understand how Yoga can be the avenue for clarity, self-acceptance, compassion and awareness toward practicing radiant life.
Yoga is about the shape of your life, not of your body, allowing every cell to be awake and alive. As our practice evolves on the mat, we discover we are more loving, compassionate, relaxed, joyful and more connected with the innermost balance. The body enjoys better health and more energy. The rested mind is free from the burdens of the past. Perception is restored to primal clarity. Life is more fulfilling. Our connection to all around us expands. We can then make the world a better place.
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When did I begin with Yoga?
I am often asked how I started doing Yoga. I must say that I credit my Father. When I was about 5 years of age, I knew my Father was exercising in the early morning every day. He was very disciplined with it. Since he was exercising in the dining room and my bedroom was nearby, I could hear him, especially with his deep breathing practice. It was not long before I was asking questions about the exercises. Then I asked about exercising with him. I did all of the exercises he did, loving the mimicking of whatever he would do. He was so happy to show all of his routine. It felt good to my body. It was a way that I felt connected to myself and to him. My gratitude to him and to my practice today has never disminished.