We all get crazy busy with the holidays, right?  Remember this:

Just do your best to keep yourself in balance. One of the first things that causes Energy misalignment, is asking or demanding too much of yourself in terms of time and effort. In other words, you just cannot burn the candle at both ends, so that you are physically tired, and then expect yourself to have a cheerful attitude. So, the rule of thumb has to be: “I’m going to be very, very, very happy, and then do everything I have time to do after that.”

This is from Abraham (Ester & Jerry Hicks) at an LOA workshop in 2005.

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This is such a great affirmation.  The entire thing is probably a bit too long to memorize, but just the beginning of it is pure greatness!  This is by Ester & Jerry Hicks.

Life Will Always Be Working Out For Me. . .

I like understanding that things are always evolving, and while there are many things that could be better where I am, it is not really a problem because “where I am” is constantly changing to something better. I like knowing that as I look for the best things around me where I am, those things become more prevalent in my experience.  It is fun to know that things are always working out for me, and as I watch for the evidence of that . . . I see more evidence of that every day.

Life Will Always Be Working Out For Me!

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Both my boys have asthma, and over the past couple of days they’ve both been having some pretty serious issues with it.  If you’ve never experienced asthma, or don’t have kids with it – it can be scary!  I don’t have asthma, but I can tell you that with kids you know they’re experiencing difficulties breathing because they start coughing, and coughing, and coughing, and more coughing.  They are truly amazing because as adults if we were coughing as much as my kids have been coughing…we would have taken ourselves to the emergency room!  Kids are just so awesome.  They don’t know to panic or to be scared, which allows them to be so resilient.

In listening to my children cough and wheeze it makes me think how much we take our breath for granted.  We breathe automatically.  It just happens.  And when we take a deep breath, the heart rate increases.  When we exhale, the heart rate drops.  It just happens.  We don’t have to think about it.  There’s no effort involved.  It’s such an amazing God made machine.

So why do we take it for granted?  Because it just happens?  Because we don’t have to think about it?

Our breath is the most valuable thing we have.  Let’s give it the attention it deserves.  Inhale.  Exhale.  In that one conscious breath, don’t you feel better?  In that one conscious breath, our mind is focused and not running rampid.  In that one conscious breath, we are completely in the moment.  We’re not stressed, not worried, not negative…OMG, we actually feel good!

So what if we paid more attention to the breath?  What if we took 5 conscious breaths in a row?  Or even 1 conscious breath every hour?  It doesn’t take much.  All we have to do is pay attention to something that is already happening.  All we have to do is connect to something that is so amazing and effortless, and in doing so maybe we learn that our lives can be this way too…amazing and effortless.

Inhale – Exhale

The more we pay attention to the breath, the more natural it becomes.  It won’t be something that we have to remind ourselves to do.  We’ll just be doing the dishes and connect to the breath.  We’ll be at our desk working and feel the inhale and exhale.  It’s a beautiful thing.  We’ll be stressing over something and then remember that our breath will help get us through it.

Thank you breath!  I promise to pay more attention to you…you literally mean the world to me!

If you want some help remembering to breath, CLICK HERE!

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One of the things that yoga has taught me is to be nonreactive.  I’ve learned, and am still practicing, that if my body is in an uncomfortable or stressful position that I should take a deep breath and relax into the sensation rather than freak out!  I practice developing a calm, nonreactive mind, and in doing so I feel confident, strong & peaceful.  In this confident, strong & peaceful state I realize that I can handle anything.  I realize that I have more power in letting go, than in fighting.  I realize that my yoga practice is just as much mental as it is physical.  I can do this.

Nope...not me!

I’m sure we’ve all had thoughts like this:  “Yea, you better get out of that pose, you’re going to hurt yourself”.  “How much longer are we going to hold this, I’m about to die!”.  Or, “I can’t do this any longer.  Why is this crazy ass teacher making us hold so long?  She’s not doing this pose, so she has no idea what we’re going through.  I can’t do this”.

I’ve noticed that when thoughts like this go through my head it just makes the pose so much worse.  Taking a deep breath and just allowing the sensations to be there, without judgment, opens me up to a more peaceful world.  It takes me deeper within myself and I begin to feel a sense of calmness.  When I get to this calm state, then I find this intelligence and it guides me.  That’s what tells me if I really need to come out of the pose because I may injure myself, not my mind.  My mind will make up all kinds of things!

So I’ve learned this and continually practice it on my mat, but what’s really cool is that I can take what I’ve learned on my mat and use the same principals in my normal everyday life.  When life throws me an unexpected curve ball, how am I going to react?  What am I thinking?  Am I dwelling in how awful things are (or could get)?  Do I want to bail out or hide and ignore the situation?

When that curve ball first appears my immediate reaction might be to cuss, pout, be bitter, mad, or sad, but soon (if not immediately) I remember my yoga practice.  I remember that I have more power in my peace, than in my rage.  I remember that no matter what is going on around me, my strong, positive mind will make it all better.  I remember that if I can just connect to my inner intelligence, I’ll know what to do.  I shift my perspective and look for the bright side in the situation, or if I don’t see a bright side at that particular moment, I realize that regardless everything will be okay.   Just like on my mat, my hip isn’t going to fall off…Everything will be okay.

**Hell no, that’s not me in the photo!**

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