Composting

I have wanted to compost for a long time. More and more I find people who are doing it. I just found this on the Chittenden Solid Waste District Web site: http://www.cswd.net/composting/

An affordable composting system! And lots of great info on Composting.

Eating is Yoga

Satchidananda's Words recently were not particularly eye-opening...but struck a (good) chord with me. I have always thought about how I eat. I notice that I eat rather fast, and I find myself hurrying my children. Since my journey into yoga, I have tried to be a better example for my kids.

Instead of standing to eat (which I did often) I remind myself to sit at the table with them. I try to always eat WITH them and not after. I encourage them to try everything, and if they do not like it, they do not have to eat it. I do not encourage a "clean plate" but they do have to eat the dinner if they feel hungry later. I provide small portions. I provide healthy food often. And although I want them to enjoy eating and eat within a reasonable amount of time, I try not to rush them.

Sometimes I find myself inhaling my meal. I have let my mind wander so much that I forget to feed my body, to the point that it is lusting for food. Then, it does not taste the food, but suck it down and give me a stomach ache.

As Satchidananda said, "God gives us thirty-two teeth. Why? To chew well."

Control your Happiness

Another weekly words from Satchidananda...on the vein of linking happiness and detachment. He talks about how you should just accept things that happen to you and do not complain. It is "God's Will" so to speak. It's a very interesting thought. Where do we learn how to complain? Right from birth...complain about a diaper, gas pain...basic needs! But once they are satisfied, we are happy.

But then we learn to complain about unnecessary things. My purse does not match. My car's not new. Then we learn to be unhappy. Once we become attached to things, our unhappiness begins. Satchidananda says to stop complaining and start accepting. "The simple way to be always happy is to accept everything: profit or loss, pain or pleasure, praise or blame. Nobody needs to give you happiness. It is your own. You are happy, but if you want to make yourself unhappy, go ahead until you learn to be happy."

The Company you Keep

It is easy for us to veer off course when striving to find our True Self. Desires and attachments bombard us, layering thick upon our koshas throughout our daily lives. But even if we can not keep the path clear, reading inspiring words or seeking advice from those that have attained spiritual transcendence or wisdom through Divine study can help boost our own spiritual transformation.

The Weekly Words this week touch on keeping holy company. "The first foundation of spiritual practice is satsanga, or good company. Through satsanga, your mind will dwell on good ideas and, slowly, you will be transformed. Your bad habits and all that is undesirable will slowly go away and give place to new, holy ideas."

When you listen to negativity everyday, you fill up with this, and it leaks out of you. If you find yourself in a bad place, change scenes. Seek to find something more divine to surround you and absorb. Imbibe happiness and exude bliss.

Getting harder to keep up

It is getting harder to keep up with the yoga blog. As my training winds down, and my teaching schedule ramps up, I'm already finding that I've stopped thinking and started doing. Less thought, less "meditation" on ideas. And I have to get cranking on my research project.

We're also coming to the half-way mark on the year. 6 months and have I kept with my resolutions? Time to check in and get it going. Still practicing nauli often and neti as needed. Like now with my nasty cold.

Serving humanity

I'm thankful to have the weekly words from Satchidananda coming to my inbox once a week because it reminds me to write in my yoga blog!

This week the newsletter talks about being prepared and finding opportunities to serve. The service is not just to God, but to Humanity, to Nature. By serving everything, you serve God. Satchidananda's words add that it can be as simple as picking up a banana peel...you may be saving someone's head. "You can serve not only people. Serve the road, for example. If you see a piece of glass on the road, pick it up and put it in the right place."

And put effort into serving. For example, if you borrow something, and it is not working properly, serve it by fixing it. Even though you did not break it, fixing something makes it better for everyone. It's a kind payment for borrowing.

I think Satchidanada would also agree that when you serve, serve without expectations. You serve from your heart without attachment of recognition. Not with the thought that you will receive gratitude or payment for serving.

Veni, Vidi, Vinyasa

I came, I saw, I practiced yoga. I gentle twist to Ceasar's famous quote.

I held vinyasa this evening to 4 young women who I think enjoyed the class. For me, It felt wonderful teaching a harder class and playing around with more poses.

Bio at YVT

My Bio is also available on the Yoga Vermont instructor directory.

Mommy duck is at Yoga

I have not written in a while. But this morning my son had a conversation with himself that made me smile. He was in the bathtub with his rubber duckies: mommy duck, daddy duck and baby duck.
Baby duck asked, "Mommy Duck! Where are you?"
"I'm going to yoga."
"Oh! Can I come with you?"
"Yes."
"Daddy duck, we are going to yoga. Bye!"

Mourning

This week's Weekly Words of Wisdom states "Do Not Mourn". Satchidananda says that by grieving, "the soul becomes unhappy. It feels: ‘I am free. I am moving freely. I am happy; but, in my name, he or she is sad.’ You make that soul sad by your feeling sad." He suggests that we instead be happy for that person and recognize that death is a liberation from the body.

I understand his rationalization, and the concept that death ("maha samadhi") frees our soul from the constraints of the physical body. But I disagree that we, the souls in bodies still in Earthly form, should not mourn. I think mourning is a natural response to losing a loved one. People should let themselves experience grief. It is only through knowing sorrow that we know what is happiness! It is the same as feeling love for another human...only through love can we know true love of our True Self.

If someone lived a full life, and they have a terminal illness causing them pain, then when they die, accepting their "release" is easier for others. A loved one of that person has watched the pain and felt the pain of that illness and may be able to find happiness in their loved one's death. But if someone dies in quick accident, ripped suddenly from the many lives of people around them, then a period of mourning is a fundamental rite to allow for healing.

I also disagree with Satchidananda's explanation that our sadness causes the dead soul to be sad. If the soul is dead, they are free from emotions. Once dead, a soul ceases these feelings...so mourn all you want without guilt!

Vinyasa

Taught my first vinyasa class for YVT today. One person, a friend, participated. Thank you Mike!

Communion

Satchidananda's Weekly Words this week are about how to find real communion with God. He basically says that to find true communion with the Divine, one must first seek communion with others on Earth. It is by seeking fellowship with other humans, other beings and everything in Nature, that we can find a way to communicate with and be closer to our Universal Self. If you can not love others, how can you love your True Self?

Teaching at Yoga Vermont

I'm finally on the schedule, officially! The Summer 2009 Yoga Vermont schedule is firming up and my name is listed not once, but twice!

Kindergarten Yoga

I taught yoga to kindergartners at the school that my son will be going. I had a plan...which was immediately thrown out the window when the fire drill occurred. *sigh*. But then we got them back in and settled and began again. Then I realized in the movement, I lost my "outline" that also had the story on it. Luckily, I found it halfway through and I finished will a little more confidence. I did forget to do a breathing exercise, but in retrospect, that would have disrupted the flow. This is what we did...

Took a deep breath (through the mouth)
Deep breath through the nose. Reminded them to keep breathing through the nose while we did yoga.
Hands on ribs, felt rib cage open and close.
Coordinated head movement to breath
Standing poses: mountain, crescent moon, tree, eagle
Transition poses: cat, dog, gate, arm/leg balance
Seated poses: butterfly, turtle, frog, boat, bridge, relaxed
Flight of the arrow sequence: warrior 2, 1, 3
Read a story with poses, children did the poses when I came to it in the story.
In relaxed pose, a mom brought ducks. Put ducks on their chest so they could see them rise and fall with their breath.
Q&A

The activity that I wanted to do but forgot, was to blow a cotton ball around using a straw. Oh well. The kids were giddy enough, this would have not been a "relaxing" exercise.

The Return of Weekly Words

For a while, I lost the Weekly Words newsletter by Satchidananda in my inbox. I thought it may have been cancelled. I accidentally clicked on my spam folder last week; I saw one there! For some reason, I had a spam filter on it. I removed the filter, and now here is the return of Satchidanada's Weekly Words to my inbox. I am complete again.

The Best Form of Meditation
“Some people meditate on food, constantly. Even as they are eating their breakfast, they meditate on their lunch. And while eating their lunch, they think of dinner. They have nothing else to meditate upon. Some people meditate on money: how to make money, money, money. Some people think of the body: beauty, beauty, beauty, how to make the body more beautiful, day and night. That’s also one form of meditation. But the better level of meditation is to think: Who am I? Meditate on that. That is the best form of meditation. Try to know your Self. Meditate on that. Find your Self—who you really are."