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Are You Ready? Are You Ready…to Kiss My Asana? April 1, 2017

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 31-Day Challenge, Art, Books, Changing Perspectives, Confessions, Depression, Dharma, Donate, Faith, Fitness, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Karma, Karma Yoga, Life, Loss, Love, Mathematics, Meditation, Men, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Movies, Music, Mysticism, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Science, Suffering, Super Heroes, Tantra, Texas, TV, Twin Cities, Vipassana, Volunteer, Wisdom, Women, Writing, Yoga.
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“Are you ready? Are you ready? / For what’s to come…Oh, I said Are you ready? / Are you ready? For what’s to come / Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one / Count down to…”

– Are You Ready by Creed

It’s that time again! Spring? Yes, but also it’s time for Kiss My Asana. For the fourth year in a row, I am joining joyful yogis everywhere to raise awareness and resources for Mind Body Solutions and their adaptive yoga programs.

Matthew Sanford and the other teachers at Mind Body Solutions are committed to a yoga practice which “transcends ability and disability, opens people’s lives to new possibilities, and transforms the delivery of health care.” The annual yogathon is a virtual four-week challenge open to anyone, anywhere, and it’s pretty much open to any way you want to do more yoga, learn more about yoga, and share more yoga.

“Are you ready? For what’s to come?”

Then let’s get started. There are a lot of ways to help raise awareness and resources during the month of April. Here are just a few suggestions.

Erika teaches a Vin-Yin class at Nokomis, and her KMA class will be a Slow Flow Vinyasa. The classes I host (or co-host) will be inspired by the practice principles featured in the adaptive yoga DVD “Beyond Disability” as led by Matthew Sanford. (Please RSVP using the links above if you would like to join one of these donation-based classes.)

  • You can challenge yourself by practicing one thing (an asana, pranayama, or a meditation) every day for 30 days.
  • You can use yoga to embody your favorite story, song, emotion, poem, prayer, visual art, person, or moment in time.
  • You can blog, tweet, instagram, or Facebook link about how your yoga practice on the mat transforms your experiences off the mat.

This is all good, but “What,” you might ask, “are you (Myra) doing as the virtual part of this year’s Kiss My Asana?”

Good question. As you may have noticed (especially after last year), I love questions. I’ve fallen for “Questions” by R. S. Thomas and, like the Creed song quoted above, my personal playlist currently features question-centered songs by Fink, X Ambassadors, Ed Sheeran, Cole Swindell, and Garth Brooks (naturally)!

In my favorite “Letters To A Young Poet” passage, Rainer Maria Rilke urges Franz Kappus: “… try to love the questions themselves…. the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.”

Oh, and did I mention that questions led me to yoga teacher training?

When I started practicing in Texas, I often encountered people whose only intersection with yoga was me. These people had questions – lots and lots of questions. I, unfortunately, had no answers…other than telling people they could come with me to practice. When some of my teachers suggested teacher training, I thought, “Sure, someday. Then I’ll know some answers – or, at least, know a resource where someone could live (or practice) their way into their own answers.” Flash forward to “someday” and I’m in Minneapolis attending a teacher training focused on teaching people how to teach – and everybody had to teach.

So, last year I asked people questions. This year, you get to ask me questions. Answer word count will be divisible by 108.

Want to ask me a question? You can make a comment below, ask me before or after a class, or send an email to myra at ajoyfulpractice.com. Subscribers to ajoyfulpractice.com will receive my answers as they are posted – or, you can check back here throughout April.

### Peace In, Peace Out ###

Changing Loss Into…. March 11, 2015

Posted by ajoyfulpractice in Buddhism, Changing Perspectives, Depression, Faith, Healing Stories, Health, Hope, Japa, Japa-Ajapa, Karma, Loss, Mala, Mantra, Meditation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Music, Pain, Peace, Philosophy, Religion, Science, Suffering, Tragedy, Twin Cities, Yoga.
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 “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. ”

– Maya Angelou


“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.”

– Jim Rohn

 

Knowing that change is constant doesn’t always make it easier to accept. Change is especially hard when you don’t feel ready for it and/or it is thrust upon you unexpectedly. And sometimes the worst part about the latter kind of change is the scary feeling which comes from not knowing what comes next.

I’ve been there. I get it. On a certain level, we’ve all been there. But, even if you lose your job, lose a loved one, or lose both in close proximity, don’t lose hope.

Easier said than done (that not losing hope thing) – especially when we define hope as “feeling expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” But, what happens if we let go of our attachment to things being a certain way and looking a certain way? What happens if we have the old fashioned kind of hope?

Trust is implied in the modern definition of hope, and it is also an archaic definition of hope.

Again, I get it: It is hard to know what or who to trust when the rug has been pulled out from under you. So, start with what is inside of you. Trust that if you can take a deep breath in, you can take a deeper breath out. Have faith that if you take that deeper breath out, and follow it with a deeper breath in, you can look forward to that even deeper breath out. Keep going and feelings of hopelessness will (slowly, but surely) dissipate.

This is not a quick fix or a miracle cure. Neither is it a medical treatment. It’s a practice. Interested in taking the practice deeper? Close your eyes and imagine your breath as light – moving down your spine as you inhale, back up your spine as you exhale. Want to kick it up another notch? Focus on your breath while listening to one of the following mantras (see first links for translations) focused on removing obstacles and darkness:

“Gayatri Mantra“

“Baba Hanuman“

 

Above and beyond everything else, reach out to others. You are not alone; so, there is no need to suffer alone: Ask for help.

~ Om Shanti Shanti Shanthi Om ~