Making Change...One Moment at a Time

One of my yoga teachers, Jennilee Toner always says something like, "go make change in the world," after every class she has taught me. It is a very powerful statement. Its kind of like the phrase, "Think Globally, Act Locally."

But before you can make a change in the world, you need to make changes with yourself. This is something I've been working on for awhile. The words,
"daily meditation," are often enough to make most run for the hills. I'm one of them. For years, I was meditating incorrectly. I thought savasana was how and when I was to meditate. Boy was I in for a shock when I arrived at my Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) at Frog Lotus Yoga when I found out I had to SIT for my meditation. There is no reason to sit in lotus pose, (padmasana) but it is important to sit upright with an elongated spine. Maybe try hero pose (verasana). Rodney Yee says this about the importance of the "setup" when it comes to meditation:

"But complete ease in your position is very important to achieve when just starting out with meditation, because it will encourage you to meditate more frequently.

Hero pose and crossed-legs pose both facilitate the movement of energy in the body. You get a lot of grounding just by doing them. There’s already a connection to the Earth that you don’t get in a chair. It sets up a neurological pattern in the legs in relation to the spine."

So why do so many not simply sit and meditate? Oh yeah...because it takes for ever...right? Well, during my YTT at Frog Lotus Yoga, 27-34 of us would come together at 6AM and meditate for 30 minutes...six days a week. That is a lot of change! Of course, we all cleared our schedules to make time for us to make that change. The good news is....you don't need 30-minutes a day, 6-days a week to make change. You can...in fact...Make Change...One Moment at a Time. Check out this video it tells you how:

ONE-MOMENT MEDITATION!

Take some time for YOU...so you can make time for others! Make change within you...so you can make change for others. Even if it is only One-Moment at a time. ---Go with ease.

Be The Observer Of Your Mind

When I finally picked a place to land and earn my 200 YTT (Yoga Teacher Training), I picked a place that had a good balance of asana practice (poses), anatomy, history, theory, meditation...and light on the chanting. There were several place some of my yoga friends suggested that were heavy on chanting and meditation...I wanted to avoid those places.

So far on my yoga journey, I've been more concerned with building strength and quieting the mind. (I have since learned that these are Koshas.) Of course having a stronger grasp of anatomy and some history/theory will make me a better yoga instructor...but come on! Really? Chanting and 30-minutes of meditation? Can't I slow my mind's activity with asana practice and the beloved Savasana?

When I arrived at Frog Lotus Yoga...I wanted to spend as much time as possible on the mat...working and as little time meditating and chanting. Until...I learned how to meditate. In the beginning, I had massive amounts of random thoughts coming and going...of which I remembered about half of them even after 2 hours of asana practice. My yoga instructor has been telling me to be an observer of my mind. Let the thoughts come and go, and still remain present as an observer.

Well today...I actually was able to be an observer of my mind. The past several days I have had very few thoughts during meditation; not sure if this is good or bad...or just is! Today, I had many intense thoughts. Thoughts and tasks of things I have to accomplish. MAJOR THINGS! So important at the time I really thought about stopping my meditation and writing them down. Instead, I resisted the urge, brought myself back with a mantra and focused on my breath. (prana...the life force of energy) Funny thing is...after my 2 hour asana practice...and even now hours later...I can't remember a thing that was so important in the early hours and early minutes of my meditation.

So...if you ever feel like trying on Mediation, remember to be an observer of your mind...don't be in your mind. Let thoughts come and go. Honor them, but let them go. Chances are, they are just random thoughts.

Yoga Camp Day 1

Well...it was very stressful getting here...but I made it. At 50-miles in, my check engine light came on. Every time I went through a toll booth, or stopped, the car would stall. UGH! Then, I lost GPS signal in the middle of what felt like Nowheresville, Massachusetts. But I made it!

Frog Lotus Yoga is an amazing place. It is an old wood mill turned yoga/art studio. The place is MASSIVE! The furnishings are a perfect balance of eclectic and Ikea. The students are equally mixed. The age range is 20-60. They have traveled far and wide too. There is a student who was teaching in Kuwait, left there and spent the past month working on a sustainable yoga farm in Costa Rica. There is a student from the Netherlands, one from Milan Italy...and one who drove from Seattle. Right now I'm enjoying a cup a coffee with a student who has been practicing yoga as long as I've been alive.

I think this is going to be a good experience....now to work on calming the mind.