{"id":13927,"date":"2016-04-05T15:19:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T22:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/?p=13927"},"modified":"2016-04-10T20:55:13","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T03:55:13","slug":"tax-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/beautiful-places\/tax-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax time &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What does this have to do with Yoga? \u00a0It&#8217;s about yoga off the mat &#8211; read on.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/slumpedover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13937\" src=\"http:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/slumpedover.jpg\" alt=\"slumpedover\" width=\"652\" height=\"435\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/slumpedover.jpg 652w, https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/slumpedover-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/slumpedover-450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(a woman slumped over resembling me &#8211; lol &#8211; not so horrible with softwares nowadays- but still. \u00a0Photo credit to US News &amp; World Report\/Money section dtd 2\/23\/2016)<\/p>\n<p>Immediately faced with reality upon return from the &#8230; forest &#8230;Spring Break, ironically in Snow Country (Kawabata-ish? not) &#8211; but soooo cleansing to the system. \u00a0It was quite dream-like&#8230;<a href=\"http:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2753.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13934\" src=\"http:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2753.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_2753\" width=\"524\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2753.jpg 524w, https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2753-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2753-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 524px) 100vw, 524px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Spring time may be about engaging in dietary cleanse and energy renewal but for many, we have to face the more secular realities of filing &#8230; taxes. \u00a0Rather than dreading the headache, relying on humor to get through &#8211; what was it that someone famous said?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In this world nothing can be said to be certain,<\/p>\n<p>except death and taxes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Benjamin Franklin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yes, even for yogis &#8230; we cannot escape this deadline. \u00a0As a reference, fiscal year end in Japan is March 31st; Tax filing deadline here in US is April 18th &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>If this blog was about mind-body-spirit, this is to bring you more peace of &#8220;mind&#8221; by taking care of these demands so that we can refocus on what brings us joy.<\/p>\n<p>Many families with children all have to think about the most valuable gift we can give our children &#8211; that of education and<a href=\"\u00a0http:\/\/www.savingforcollege.com\/family-guide\/\"> here&#8217;s a good site<\/a> to read up &#8230; as thoughts of finances may be in the minds of many when we are forced to face it.<\/p>\n<p>Oddly, this is probably the time to do even more yoga? \u00a0 Here is a story I heard about this famous spiritual leader, a karma yogi, \u00a0we so respect:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>During his insanely busy schedule, Gandhi said to a group of his backers, \u201cI need to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">set aside one hour a day<\/span> to do meditation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the influential backers said, \u201cno, you can\u2019t do that ! You are too busy to take time off like that, We need you Gandhi !\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gandhi said, \u201cWell, then, in that case, I now need to<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> set aside two hours a day<\/span> to do meditation.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>ohhhhh, no wonder, even a less mortal like me need to yoga and clear my busy mind so I can get though this busywork and real work faster &#8230;The postural yoga is done to banish the kinks, tightness, tensions out of your BODY so that you can address the MIND through practice of meditation. \u00a0It is hard to sit in stillness for meditation if your body feels the cramps&#8230;the soreness &#8230; the KNOTS, the pain &#8230; and once you start fidgeting, it&#8217;s over &#8211; your mind is unable to get to the quiet place and back to thinking about &#8230;that tax filing due around the corner. \u00a0So much for neuroplasticity &#8211; rewiring the brain through this kind of a discipline &#8230; This is probably when I need a monk to give me a light tap with a stick as in the zazen practice of my home county &#8211; there&#8217;s a lot of sitting with most traditional rituals &#8211; tea ceremony, flower arrangement, incense burning &#8230; with beautiful posture and forms held, exercising centering and grounding to bring one back to the present moment. \u00a0All without the postural yoga &#8211; I don&#8217;t know how my grandmother did all that and lived a long fulfilling life. \u00a0It&#8217;s probably all about focus &#8230; one pointed concentration. We need that more than ever &#8230; to live this life we were meant to have.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2749.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13935\" src=\"http:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2749.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_2749\" width=\"524\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2749.jpg 524w, https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2749-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_2749-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 524px) 100vw, 524px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does this have to do with Yoga? \u00a0It&#8217;s about yoga off the mat &#8211; read on. (a woman slumped over resembling me &#8211; lol &#8211; not so horrible with softwares nowadays- but still. \u00a0Photo credit to US News &amp; World Report\/Money section dtd 2\/23\/2016) Immediately faced with reality upon return from the &#8230; forest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13927"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13962,"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13927\/revisions\/13962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}