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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Day 21.

I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since I started this challenge.  Life goes by way too fast, which is why there’s no point in stressing, worrying, doubting, complaining, etc.  It’s all a complete waste of time.  Just think how different your life would be without doing all those things.  How different would your life be if you enjoyed every moment…if you took in all the little things that life offers you at that moment (good and “bad”) and were just totally grateful for it?  That’s what this challenge has helped me realize.

I’m understanding that what I consider problems or issues or stress or crazy situations is just my perspective of it.  When I shift my perspective to a more positive one, I get different results.  If I just shift my perspective to a grateful one, it changes the entire circumstance.

This challenge has made me feel better, and I’m so grateful for that because I know that feeling good is what it’s all about.  Don’t we all just want to feel good?  Doesn’t our life basically boil down to that one statement…I want to feel good!

When I would get irritated with toys strung all over the house, I would think how grateful we are to have all these toys.  When I want to honk & cuss at the car in front of me for not going fast enough, I would think how grateful I am for being safe and how grateful I am that I get to go wherever it is that I was headed.  When I had to make a choice, I was grateful that I get to make a choice and that I have options.  When I didn’t feel like making dinner, I was grateful that I had food to make, that I had a house to cook it in and clean dishes and gas to heat it.

This feels good!

This gratitude challenge has made me stop, take the time, and write about my gratitude.  I’m so thankful I did.  It puts things in perspective.  I realize more and more everyday just how great I have it, just how great my life is.  It has given me peace, and allows me to just relax and take it all in…to enjoy the now moment.

This feels good!

As you know (or maybe you don’t), I’m a HUGE believer in the Law of Attraction, where like attracts like.  When I have a feeling of appreciation it’s an energy that I radiate.  That energy is drawing to itself more energy of the same quality, so more things are coming into my experience for me to be appreciative of.

This feels good!

The challenge ends today, but I will never stop being grateful.  I will continue to write in my gratitude journal, and I will continue to be open to receive more good things in my life.

WOW – THIS FEELS GOOD!

(And thank you so, so much to everyone that reads my blog!)

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One of the things I’ve learned, and still practice, in yoga is to be nonreactive.  As I practice breathing, relaxing, and letting go while my shoulders are burning and my thigh is yelling at me, I become aware that my mind is more calm and I get a sense of ease, strength, and peace.  It can be so easy to have a negative reaction when the teacher calls out a pose I don’t like, or when a sub walks in that I wasn’t expecting, but all that does is make the situation worse.  If I change my reaction to these things and make them more positive, or don’t react at all then my outcome is way better.

You choose how you want to respond.

As I take what I’ve learned on my yoga mat and apply it to real life, I realize that everything we experience (good or bad) is because of our reaction or response to it.  This same nonreactive principal that I’ve learned in yoga can also be applied to our life.  Jack Canfield has a formula that he teaches:

E + R = O  (Events + Responses = Outcome)

The idea is that everything you experience is because of how you responded to an earlier event in your life.  If you aren’t enjoying the outcomes that you are experiencing right now, there are basically two choices you can make.

1.  You can blame the event for the outcome.

There’s a ton of external factors that we can blame.  We can blame the economy for not having a job.  We can blame our boss or our clients for having a bad day.  We can blame the rain for not working out.  We can blame our lack of money for not starting our dream business.  We can blame a lack of time for eating fast food.  Excuses.  Excuses.  Excuses.

We’ve all done this right?  I know I have.  Going back to yoga…I was in a workshop last week and I noticed I was making excuses for why I wasn’t getting into a pose.

There’s no doubt that these blame factors exist, but it’s up to us to overcome them.  There are tons of people who are still employed and very successful.  I see people out walking in the rain all the time.  For every impossible thought we have, there are many out there that think it is possible.

OR

2.  You can change your responses to the events until you get the outcomes you want.

Can we respond differently to the events that happen?  If we get fired, maybe we take the time to educate ourselves and learn a new skill.  If the boss is being a hard ass, maybe we have some compassion for him rather than gossiping with other coworkers about how awful he is.  He may be having a lot of personal issues at home, or had a father that was hard on him.

We can change our thinking, the way we communicate, and our behavior because really that’s all that we have control over anyway.  We don’t necessarily have control over any extremal event.  All we have control over is our responses to them!

We tend to get stuck in our habits and the way we respond  to our children, our spouses, the traffic, and our bosses.  So we must gain control of our thoughts, our behavior, the images we hold in our head, and our dreams.

We need to know what we want, and then everything we think, say, and do needs to align with our goals, our intentions, and our values.

In the words of Jack Canfield: If we all experience the same EVENT, the OUTCOME you get will be totally dependent upon your RESPONSE to the situation.

If you don’t like your outcomes, you must change your responses.  It’s that simple!

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