Month: November 2014

Categories
Beautiful People Yoga

Himawari Blossoming:)

sunflower

M-san will make a great teacher I know because she’s dedicated, committed and … an Empath, like me. She’s going to teach and I am excited for her. A bouquet of sunflowers for the yogini who will light up the Sun in the hearts of her students. “Uplifting” – That’s the kind of teacher she is to become – I have faith and rooting for her. More yoga teachers to spread the goodness in this world – what could be better?

No, you need not drop everything and go to India (although maybe someday, I would not mind:) in search of high-quality Yoga Teacher programs – There’s probably a guru stones throw away – I can suggest few quality programs if you ever feel that urge to try something new. You may teach right after you get certified or you may teach after some time to digest it all (me for one is still digesting and nourishing while integrating what works into rest of my life…), or never teach but doing it to enrich your life and relationships, deepen your own practice and to delve into finding out more about yourself and life – with Yoga, there’s so many styles, so much history, depth, theories and applications – I could study it for years and still never know all and never get bored – training is only a start but it’s an invaluable experience and a journey.

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Categories
Healthy Living

In need of healing at so many levels…

Latest local Silicon Valley news – told to me by a lovely mom who came to my yoga class last night (her first yoga class ever – SO proud of her! Thank you as I know for many moms, Sunday evenings are hard to leave home that time – sacrificing Family Sunday dinner- thank you again for coming). She tells me after our class that there was a suicide at Gunn High School last week – I have no details but know that Gunn High School is in a relatively affluent community proving that all communities need Sonima Foundation.

Here’s a heart-wrenching plea from one of the students. Parents and teachers – maybe cultivating some empathy would aide in the healing of what’s broken. Give 16-year olds space. Let them be normal high school students enjoying what it means to be “Sweet” 16. And I don’t think I am naive to think that a program from Sonima Foundation would have helped had these vulnerable, sensitive students had a well designed and delivered Health & Wellness education before the 3-7 AP classes they are driven to take and the accompanying sleep deprivation. Which is more important? Straight A’s OR Happy, Healthy and Caring young people who will be our future? Do we want honest, creative, out-of-the box thinking, kind and compassionate people to shape our future or do we want dreadfully competitive, high-achieving, always seeking recognition and dominance, exclusive minded, highly driven “robots” attempting to problem solve and create a better, more peaceful future ?

We don’t know the background enough to blame the high-pressure, high-achievement oriented culture of some schools. Perhaps it was something else BUT if it is the case as this student in the video says, due to the culture of “pressure-cooker” academics spawn by the parental demands – to which she bravely says “CALM DOWN”! I wondered what fuels the parents to demand so much out of their child ? Of course parents want the best for their child – is that what fuels them to set high expectations?

It’s fear. The anxieties – and the kids like osmosis feel it under their skin. They don’t feel all the beautiful things under their skin – they just feel the fear, the anxiety, the stress. As well meaning with all good intentions, fear can “motivate” but …it can also be so toxic. If we change that “fear” that enslaves them to achieve at any cost, to something positive, like “faith” “acceptance” and “love” for life and people – to what’s really important, then the child is going to come out all right. Maybe it’s the parents who need the Health & Wellness program as much as their kids, so that they can give their kids the gift of space and fresh air to grow and develop at their own pace, self-regulation and self-acceptance that relies little from external validation (such as grades, popularity, praises…). I really like the values taught at the local elementary school – to do the right thing even when no-one is looking. To do good even if there’s no recognition. Hope that carries all the way to adulthood.

Here I re-post this as I feel it in my heart:

An Empath found in Rumi…

rosethorns

I will soothe you and heal you.
I will bring you roses.
I too have been covered with thorns.

– Rumi

Categories
Beautiful People

Teachers, the Elders …

Every-movement

If you are looking for inspirations – here it is… Little nuggets of words from the wise to bring about more awareness – for this life you live. Words are gems – Finding words to be more of a pick-me-up than any cup of caffeine … for the classroom, for your laptop, for family, friends and students … little reminders to get out of the auto-pilot living.

Thich Nhat Hanh … I love him. His grace, his words, his actions … his teachings. Children and adults, all can gain so much from his teachings. When we learn to live with mindfulness, we can truly engage in life and take in all this Universe has to offer – In fact, you are that Universe – mind and body, at the cellular level, deep down to every pore of your skin.

“Our greatest fear is that when we die we will become nothing. Many of us believe that our entire existence is only a life span beginning the moment we are born or conceived and ending the moment we die. We believe that we are born from nothing and when we die we become nothing. And so we are filled with fear of annihilation.

The Buddha has a very different understanding of our existence. It is the understanding that birth and death are notions. They are not real. The fact that we think they are true makes a powerful illusion that causes our suffering. The Buddha taught that there is no birth; there is no death; there is no coming; there is no going; there is no same; there is no different; there is no permanent self; there is no annihilation. We only think there is.

When we understand that we cannot be destroyed, we are liberated from fear. It is a great relief.
We can enjoy life and appreciate it in a new way.

Thich… we understand what you are saying in the above quote but can’t help the feeling of annihilation should you leave your body – the feeling of impending parting, the farewell, it’s the clinging we do faced with the “final” sayonara, adios, au revoir, good bye. Are you saying there’s no finality to death? It’s just a bad dream? Is clinging foolish and bad? But we just don’t want you to die. I know you think “88” is an auspicious number and all – we still need you here – I really learned so much from your question and answer sessions. Is this some kind of test to see if we really get it? I would like to learn more from you. Praying you are on the mend, healing so you can live on.

Please live and heal. Sending you love and healing prayers tonight. Day and Night. This reminds me of the time when I lost my father … even though in the end he expressed his wishes to die and end the suffering – how do we honor such a request. We want to cling on and do everything to intervene so that the ultimate departure not take place. Yet everyone has the right to live and die with dignity.

Stripped of dignity, life is not worth living – but as my mother would say, it’s not up to us to decide the time – but by the same divine powers, the miracle that graced this world with you in the first place. The same miracle that brings you here is the same miracle that takes you away … we do not determine and control our fate … and that’s why it’s a … miracle. Miracles at the beginning and the end (and hopefully many in-between should we live in awareness) to be celebrated.