Month: September 2016

Categories
Beautiful People Beautiful Rituals

Om Mani Padme Hum

* adding this as someone asked – good question. As I am no authority, Dalai Lama to the rescue… who by the way, reminds me of someone’s uncle.

Mantra … prayers … it’s all good because of good intentions in which the process quiets the mind. What does it mean though, all those mantras said to have this or that benefits? When you pray – does it not have a tendency to go into “Dear God, May I pass this test.” or “Dear God, I will be good but in exchange, can you make me win or this or that” “Dear God, please I want this I want that” etc. It’s a pure mirror of our desires, struggles and how we wish for stroke of good luck and miracles. Prayers reflect desires. Mantra is perhaps a little different. It seems more about purifying ourselves, to be less attached to desires and greed, to liberate from the shackles of endless desires to be less stuck with burdens of possessions that take hold on us. This is so cute … Love this.
lotus

September is a Childhood Cancer Awareness month.
Here’s a piece I wrote a while back – I am praying that the kids undergoing such a diagnosis survive though – That’s what I pray for – that each living person has the opportunity to come into his/her own and live out the given life to the fullest to the end …My thoughts are kind of like this having attended a funeral/memorial Sunday of my former boss. Youngest of 7 children (!), lost his father at age 14, still managed to graduate college and … he came to this country from Japan with just $7 he can call his own; he leaves this life with good fortune of being surrounded by his loving wife of 50 + years, 3 successful children; 6+ grandchildren – He lived a full life. In the end, it’s all about relationships, isn’t it? Relationship with Self to establish first and then relationships with all. It’s a bit early (I hope!) but makes you think about how you want your funeral & memorial to look like – do hope it will be a CELEBRATION of a life well lived!

As Judith recites –

May we live like the lotus
at home in muddy water.

& Oh, boy, is it muddy!

And some would say – No Mud, No Lotus.

Categories
Yoga

img_9971_smallSubbed for a lovely Yogini this Friday morning. The old me would not have liked subbing but today, I love subbing – it’s so freeing – yes, I am fearless lately. There’s so much you can do with 90 minutes (actually must have been a 70 min. class but the students wanted to hang out longer – so a bonus time:)

Had so much on my plate, kind of upset with myself for taking this on when there’s so many other things I am behind on – anxieties bringing on the stress – and then all that stress melts because yoga … works … you just forget about those other things – love teaching as I had a wonderful time especially because students said how much better they felt at the end … it was a mixed class of about 12 with one student doing yoga for the FIRST time ever in her life !!! Felt a bit of a responsibility that she’d be turned on by yoga and come back for the regular teacher. What an honor. So fun teaching someone who is totally fresh and open – Lovely energy. Thank you for the opportunity – I love babies !!! So innocent and curious … reminded:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,
but in the expert’s there are few”

Thank you for the honor to be the very first yoga teacher for this lady – hope she feels better about her body – mind – life. As our teacher from my Yoga Therapist Teacher Training module says –

Yoga has a sly, clever way of short circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety.

– Baxter Bell MD/RYT

No, no, I wasn’t the sly nor clever one – it’s YOGA.

Categories
Healthy Food

Relationship Feeds You? May it be Yummy:)

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“What we learned about love and relationships from our childhood feels normal. But just because something feels familiar doesn’t mean it is healthy. Spend five minutes today quietly reflecting on one of your relationships. Does it enrich your life? If you find that it doesn’t, consider what changes you need to make so the relationship feeds you.”
― Judith Hanson Lasater

img_9643_small Salad with Okinawa veggies and salmon…
Invited to Tokyo International House …Felt like 100 degrees outside but … heaven inside with divine light fare. Thank goodness to this relationship – a lasting friendship is a treasure.
img_9650_small fresh fruits compote in earl grey tea kanten jello… bubbles are sparkly. Cooling to the senses fried by dizzying hot heat outside – it’s not California where breathing comes easily.