Happy Holidays... Okay, so Be Here Now!

During my first few years as a yoga teacher, I focused much of my time and energy on preparing themes and finding quotes to deliver in class. I have stacks of books and journals in my office filled with highlighted text, comments written in red, and ideas for future themes. I understand that all that work was necessary to bring me to the point where I am now. As I continue my personal journey inward, my studies and my teachings have been narrowed down to this simple message … Be Here Now.

Be Here Now is the title of a 1971 book on spirituality by Ram Dass. It was a revolutionary book bringing eastern studies and practices to American soil. Its title, now a coined phrase, has been repeated by spiritual teachers throughout the world.

Be here now. Show up fully. Pay attention to what you are doing. While growing up, we heard it from our parents and teachers. As adults, we are reminded of the importance of paying attention on our busy roads, at our fast-paced computers and on our yoga mats.

Woody Allen said, “80% of success is showing up”. Just show up! It is so simple yet so challenging with a list of things to-do a mile long and a calendar that is busting at the seams. Why can’t I drive to work, text my friend, look at my GPS and listen to the news at the same time. Why not?

The answer is painfully simple. Overdoing and over thinking creates stress in the mind and body. Paying attention and focusing on the moment as it arises, cultivates peace.

So over these next few days and into New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, start with the small (yet huge) reminder to “Be Here Now”. You can write the phrase on several sticky notes and put them on your steering wheel and on your computer screen. Over the next few months, in this blog, on our yoga mats and meditation cushions, in our cars and at our jobs, we will explore tools and techniques that will help us cultivate this simple message.

Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch

Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch

This is one of my all time favorite books. I was just reminded about this delightful paragraph while taking a beautiful moonlit walk around Goose Pond in Keene, NH.

There is an old Sanskrit word, lila, which means play. Richer than our word, it means divine play, the play of creation, destruction, and re-creation, the folding and unfolding of the cosmos. Lila, free and deep, is both the delight and enjoyment of this moment, and the play of God. It also means love.

Lila may be the simplest thing there is - spontaneous, childish, disarming. But as we grow and experience the complexities of life, it may also be the most difficult and hard-won achievement imaginable, and its coming to fruition is a kind of homecoming to our true selves.

Cognitive Yoga by Tony Chase

"I believe that an experience is not even possible without reflection..."

- C. G. Jung, MD, Terry Lecture, New Haven, 1937

Is it easy? Yes.

Is it difficult? Yes.

Is it social? Yes.

Is it solitary? Yes

Is it sweaty and gross? Yes.

Is it cleansing and purifying? Yes.

Do the muscles contract? Yes.

Do the muscles stretch? Yes.

Is it spiritual? Yes.

Is it sensual? Yes.

Is it austere? Yes.

Is it aesthetically rich? Yes.

It is hard to think of another human activity which is such a whorl of contradiction...well, there is marriage, of course. And raising the tormented teen. And gardening. Politics. Reading ancient philosophical texts in a frozen hut.

Perhaps yoga's effectiveness has to do with the fact that it is grounded in reality. We are at once the scientist and the lab rat, the experiment and the researcher. We take nothing for granted because it happens to us.

Yoga is absolutely grounded in reality. It is one with the rest of the real world: the one with hot summers and frozen winters, drought and flood, aging parents and premature babies, war and peace, boom and bust.

The practitioner is toned, but also tuned, The deeper the practice, the more satisfying this world seems to be.

Verge Yoga students and writer, Tony Chase, has studied at Brown and Yale and the University of Paris and has taught at the Univesity of Delaware and Haverford College. As a nature and adventure writer for Conde Nast Traveler he's visited five continents and the Arctic Ocean and his work has been translated into several foreign languages.

Creating Space – Part 2

In order to create space in our lives, we need to learn to manage our clutter. Most of us have cluttered minds, bodies, homes and offices. Living with clutter, I believe, blocks our potential. According to Wikipedia, clutter is: a confusing or disorderly state of collection. We collect and store physical and emotional “stuff” and it weighs us down and holds us back.

I continue my thoughts on creating space from my last blog by looking at clutter.

Our physical space can be cluttered, i.e. office, home, car. Our physical being can be cluttered, i.e. toxic, imbalanced, stressed and/or tense. Our mental state can be cluttered, i.e. busy, frantic, distracted and our emotional state can be cluttered, i.e. nervous, worried, doubtful, fearful. There are, undoubtedly, many more parameters where can clutter set in. For this blog, we’ll stick with just four of the many: physical space, physical body, mental body, emotional body.

We have all experienced how clearing space in one area of our lives immediately affects us in another. I feel calmer and more relaxed when my home and office are clean. I feel mentally clearer after a vigorous yoga practice that has cleansed my body. I feel more emotionally accepting of myself after a meditation practice that stabilized my mind.

Clearing clutter and creating space is about throwing stuff away (mentally, physically and emotionally). Try taking baby steps for they will lead us to the big leaps.

Feeling crowded mentally? How about drinking a big glass of water to cleanse the body. Feeling disorganized at work? How about a ten-minute breathing meditation to clear and organize the mind. Feeling physically cluttered? How about cleaning up your car or desk?

I would like to call this Creating Space Therapy. It is simple, easy to do and best of all it’s free!

For more info on “de-stuffing” your life, check out the 100-Thing Challenge http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge.html

Creating Space

Setting a seasonal intention can change one’s life. I have setting them for a few years now. Some of you may recall that my intention for this past summer was to try to Live More Simply. It was an eye opening process and I give myself a B+ for effort. As I now stand on the doorstep of the fall season, I offer myself a new challenge. My Fall intention is to create space.

I feel better when there is more space in me and around me. Having a clear and steady mindset, a strong and supple body and a clean house sounds like bliss to me. When I am in space, I feel lighter and happier and I want to cultivate living in this state more often in my daily life.

The yogis have been talking about this concept for thousands of year. They call my intention of creating space, aparigraha, or non-hoarding. This is the practice of letting go of old stuff, old habits and old thoughts.

There are many simple ways to practice aparigraha over the next few months. The easiest place to start is in one’s physical surroundings. De-cluttering is one of my most favorite pastimes and I have already set out two bins in my garage for Goodwill donations and library donations. Clutter be gone!

The physical body needs to be kept spacious as well. Yoga is the perfect tool and I feel extremely blessed to be able to practice yoga several times per week. By moving my body in many different ways, I am able to clean out pockets of tension and tightness, detoxify and basically de-clutter my vehicle. Ahhh!

Next and much more challenging, is the emotional house cleaning (I am due for some hardcore work here). Thankfully, I look to my daily meditation practice to help me with the huge process of letting go of thoughts and attachments that clutter my mind and drain me of energy.

Rolf Gates writes in Meditations from the Mat, Aparigraha applies to our own thinking as well. Aparigraha is about letting go of our most cherished pain-producing beliefs. It is about the end of all attachment: letting go of our fears, letting go of our desires, becoming free.

I recognize the scale of my Fall intention but I feel that I am ready for the challenge. I will keep you all posted on my progress and invite you all to comment and share your Fall intention or how you find ways to practice Creating Space. Namaste

The Art of Adapting

Adaptation: An alteration or adjustment in structure or habits by which a species or individual improves its condition in relationship to its environment.

I write this blog while sitting in a hot dorm room at Penn State. I am here for a few days as I chaperone a camp for my daughter’s soccer team. The scene is a step back in time for me. The rooms are small and stuffy and the dining hall smells the same way mine did over 25 years ago.

This experience has been a great practice for me as I observe how quickly my mind wants to whine and complain about my environment. As with most of you, I am used to living with the comforts of air conditioning, privacy and my own kitchen.

Stepping out of my comfort zone for a few days has tested my ability to adapt to the moment and the environment at hand. I have challenged myself to consciously rise above the discomfort of the situation and take a deep breath just as I have learned to do in my yoga practice.

This too shall pass of course and I know that I will soon be going home. Luckily, I don’t need to spend the semester here and I don’t need to take finals. I will soon be back in air conditioning and the comforts of my home.

This is, of course, “small potatoes” on the scale of discomfort. I recognize the size of the issue but I also acknowledge that it is an opportunity to practice mindfulness. As I have learned from my teachers, as we become more mindful we are able to adjust more gracefully to our environment. In other words, we become much more adaptable and much nicer to be around.

Play Simple

You may have heard me talk about my "summer intention" in one of my classes recently. If you haven't, I have firmly set an intention to "play simple" this summer. This means that I need to stay super mindful about slowing down and not doing. My plan is to discard what is non-essential, excessive and just plain ole busy.

"Play simple" is a command that I hear often and loud coming from soccer coaches standing on the side of the fields. "Don't complicate your play trying to be fancy." "One pass at a time". "Slow down and keep your head up". Does this sound familiar?

This process has been really fun I must say. There is definitely something to simplifying and I highly recommend it. As of late, this intention has been really coming out in my classes. I’ve been teaching simple breath with simple words with simple transitions. The atmosphere has been profoundly steady and calm. Wow.

I believe that simplicity creates the space from which we can create an extraordinary life. One step at a time. One chore. One class. One breath.

Be Here Now... and now... and now.

Be Here Now is the title of a 1971 book on spirituality by Ram Dass. It was a revolutionary book bringing eastern studies and practices to American soil. Its title, now a coined phrase, has been repeated by spiritual teachers throughout the world.

Be here now. Show up fully. Pay attention to what you are doing. While growing up, we heard it from our parents and teachers. As adults, we are reminded of the importance of paying attention on our busy roads, at our fast-paced computers and on our yoga mats.

Woody Allen said, “80% of success is showing up”. Just show up! It is so simple yet so challenging with a list of things to-do a mile long and a calendar that is busting at the seams. Why can’t I drive to work, text my friend, look at my GPS and listen to the news at the same time. Why not?

The answer is painfully simple. Overdoing and over thinking creates stress in the mind and body. Paying attention and focusing on the moment as it arises, cultivates peace.

Excitement or Happiness?

Many people think of excitement as happiness. But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace. ~ The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh

Reading this passage a few days ago literally took my breath away. How many times per week do I mistake excitement for happiness? I would answer hundreds of times.

Our society craves excitement because we mistake it for happiness. We are excitement seekers searching for a thrill to quench our thirst. We thrive on experiencing the fast roller coaster, the thrill of purchasing a new car, the last minute of a championship game. Those moments are fleeting. The excitement wears off, the hangover begins and we find ourselves searching for the next big thrill. In the process, we exhaust ourselves both emotionally and physically.

“When you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.” “True happiness”, says TNH, “cannot be purchased, it must be cultivated.”
This master teaches us how to cultivate happiness. It begins with conscious breathing and focus on the moment at hand. In other words, “be here now!” It continues with conscious movement such as yoga or walking meditation. Our peacefulness is then strengthened through seated meditation practice.

No rollercoaster, no last second touchdown, no Porsche will ever “make” us happy. Think about this. Notice if you too confuse excitement with happiness. I believe that observation will help us break free from the delusional search for excitement. I would love to hear your comments.

In peace.

Practicing the Power of Now

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life. Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the Now, have your dwelling place in the Now and pay brief visits to past and future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life. Always say "yes" to the present moment. -Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

The words of Tolle are simple. It’s really about being fully engaged in life. Living every moment completely and being a part of 100% of the Now. The bottom line is that you are most powerful, most intuitive when you are present. When you learn to disengage from your mind, your thoughts, your worries and focus fully on the Now you find stillness. You find peace. You know what you need. You know what to do.

Focusing on the Now disconnects you from the mental chatter that controls your emotions and drains your energy. Mental chatter and worry is the cause of stress. Disconnect from incessant thinking and you will no longer create stress in your mind and body.

Children and animals are the best teachers of how to live in the present. They are not controlled by thought. Observe them as go in and out of moments in their lives. They show up fully for whatever situations arise. Watch them play and notice their authentic power shine through. They are luminous. Children and animals spend their days disengaged from their minds and fully engaged in the Now. They know of no other way to be. They don’t live in the “yesterdays” and they don't care about the “tomorrows”.

How does one stay present in the moment? Tolle suggests that you, “"Be the ever alert guardian of your thoughts". Guarding your thoughts is the first step. Make a commitment to “check-in” mentally every 10 minutes. Notice when you leave the Now. Notice when your mind flutters away to past or future stories. Catch yourself and reel yourself back in to what you are doing. Ask yourself throughout the day, "Where am I right now?” “Where did I go?” And then with a smile and without judging guide your mind back to the moment.

Practicing yoga and meditation is an ideal way to experience the power of Now. These disciplines allow you the time to observe mental chatter. On your mat or cushion you have the space to observe your mental trips to the past and the future.

Learning to live in the present moment is a life long journey. It starts right now.

Welcome to Your Life!

Last Thursday my mom had her second knee replacement in three months. At 72, her joints had failed her to the point that she was just about considered disabled. Her first knee replacement in January had gone so well that she pushed up the date for her second one by six months.

So on Thursday, only a few hours after my mom’s surgery, my 15-year old daughter called her to see how she was feeling. In her usual infectiously enthusiastic manner, my daughter blurted out, “Grandma, welcome to your life!”

Her words took my breath away. They were perfectly timed, perfectly delivered and incredibly empowering. Here was a 15 year-old, reminding a senior that at any moment we have the opportunity to start anew. “Grandma”, she said, “now you have two new knees and now you will be able to do all those things that you couldn’t do before”.

What an invitation. Welcome to your life.

The Buddhists teach us about the “fresh start”, and that at any moment we can choose to begin again. They teach us that with each breath we have an opportunity to start over. Our yoga practice teaches us that each pose can be compared to a little life and when the pose is over we begin again we new focus and new breath. The final and arguably most important pose of our yoga practice, savasana or final rest, reminds us to “die” to who we were when we started our practice and to begin anew. We rise from our mats, fully renewed and refreshed and as some will say with new eyes and a fresh start.

So I invite you all to do as I have done in the past few days. That is to adopt my daughter’s words as my new daily mantra. Chant them when you arise in the morning. Remind yourself of them when you transition from home to work. Go to sleep with them as a reminder of how blessed you were to have experienced another day.

Whether you have new knees or just a new outlook, welcome to your life.

On Finding My Feet

We talk about feet all the time at Verge Yoga. If you’ve ever taken class with us you have probably heard your teachers say, “press into your big toe’ or “anchor into your inner heel”.

For years I have been listening to my teachers and observing my body. And for years I have been trying to communicate with my feet. I have backed off of poses and modified with the intention of understanding how my foot works in the pose. I have studied my feet without much reward. I’ve walked barefoot and brushed my teeth on one leg for years. The process has been long and sometimes painful……

Well, I am happy to announce that the connection is finally being made. My feet are coming alive in my poses and I feel more grounded and much more stable in my practice than ever before. I certainly am not the master of my feet yet but these days I can feel little light bulbs turning on in my feet. It is very exciting. (scary, but true)

As I write this, I recognize how silly this all may sound (to a non-yogi that is). However, most of us that have been practicing Hatha Yoga for more than a year get how important the feet are to the health of not only our bodies but also our minds.

Our feet are our foundation. They are our connection to the earth. If you have weak feet, you have a weak foundation. If you have strong, functional feet, you will have a strong, stable foundation. Let me tell you, having just found a small portion of my feet in my practice, it is worth the work.

The easiest and the best way for us to continue to work the muscles in our feet is by walking barefoot as much as possible. Stand in Tip Toe pose when you are at your kitchen counter. Press into your big toes while standing in line and yes, brush your teeth on one leg.

You may not feel anything right away. Perhaps you’ll turn on a small light bulb here and there. Perhaps you will feel more stable mentally or emotionally in a tense situation. Perhaps you will have spring to your step. Perhaps you will feel as sturdy as a mountain.

It’s all possible. Don’t stop trying. It is worth the ride.

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The Drain of Dwelling

Caution: Graphic content included!

After spending an hour in my yard doing spring cleanup yesterday, I headed inside for a drink of water. I grabbed my sturdy uncapped SIGG water bottle and took a swig. Gulp, gulp, gulp….

I felt something tickle my inner lip and in an instant I sprayed water out of my mouth and across the kitchen. There, in a puddle of water, sat the culprit. A disgusting, crunchy Stink Bug!

I groaned and gasped for a moment and then I ran to tell my daughters. Can you believe it? How gross! When my husband called I had to tell him right away. Can you believe it? I am traumatized!

I re-lived my epic Stink Bug story at least 20 times during the course of the evening. Each time groaning and gasping. I dwelled and dwelled over and over again.

By the time I went to bed, I was drained of reliving the Stink Bug story. “Enough already!”, I said to myself. “Just let it go and stop wasting your precious energy.” As I reflected on my silliness, I recognized just how often I dwell on my stories and dramas. There are stories from 25 years ago that I will often relive just for the pure sport of it.

Buddha said, “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”

He was right of course. It’s much healthier to just drop the drama and get on with your life. But did he ever have a Stink Bug crawl in his mouth?

So the moral of the day… check your water bottles before you drink! (oh yeh, and “be here now” and all that stuff too)

The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

There is no doubt in my mind that the Olympics are a two week bag of emotions. The buildup to this event is huge for every athlete that participates and it is four years in the making. When their moment to compete finally comes, these athletes are literally “on the verge” of huge emotion. They have prepared themselves for the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.

Olympic athletes or elite athletes of any sort voluntarily put themselves “at risk” to experience big emotion, scary emotion if you will. They certainly did not reach a high level of success because they played it safe.

Most of us play it safe in life. We will do just about anything to avoid the risk of feeling pain or the agony of defeat that we also shut ourselves off from the potential to experience the thrill of victory. Then we wonder why. Why doesn’t opportunity come my way? Why can’t I make more money? Why can’t I find my soul mate?

As with everything in life, there are two sides of the coin. When an athlete steps onto the field it is with the understanding that he or she may win or lose. They know that there are no guarantees. They are willing to risk it all to win with the understanding that they may not. It seems, however, that our society has tried to change the rules. We have been conditioned to want a guarantee of winning without experiencing any discomfort. On a whole, we are not willing to risk much but expect a lot in return. Life just doesn’t work that way and these past two weeks our Olympians have reminded us of that.

So once again, it comes back to our yoga mats. Patanjali, who wrote the yoga sutras thousands of years ago, said that every time we practice yoga you experience what he calls a “short life”. You will encounter the ecstasy and the disappointment that you may feel in your daily lives if you dare to. You face fear, doubt and joy. You feel the thrill of holding a challenging warrior pose and the agony of trembling in a balance pose.

As your practice becomes consistent, you will find the courage to risk experiencing deeper emotion both on and off the mat. You will learn to step toward discomfort more often than backing away from it. In a sense, when you practice hatha yoga, you are training for your own Olympic event, that being your daily life.

Intend to Rest

One day about two years ago I surrendered. I was practicing Flow and I just let go! (Sorry, couldn’t resist the rhyme).

There I was on my mat, moving through my practice when all of a sudden the silliness of my controlling mind became crystal clear to me. I recognized in that moment that my habit of pushing my body in my asana practice had actually been draining my energy. In that moment, I chose to enjoy the practice and to allow myself to be refueled instead of drained.

Interestingly enough, pushing my body for many years had actually been counterproductive. When I finally let go and allowed my breath to guide me in and out of poses I found that was I able to get a good rest while on my mat. I found that by backing off a pose when I lost my rhythmic breathing, I was able to relax and find new places to play in the pose. The wonderful result of surrendering on my mat was that my practice deepened tenfold.

Almost all new yoga students will over-try and over-struggle in their practice. We start out wanting to “be good” at yoga. As I often say in class at Verge Yoga, there is nothing to achieve and there is no perfect pose. Of course, I know that when I say those words, most students are thinking, “yeh right, okay, whatever Cara”. Please trust me that it took me 10 years of committed practice to finally “get it”.

I recognize that it is paradoxical to intend to rest when you come to your “power yoga” practice and I also recognize that most yoga students come to the practice for the physical work out. The good news is that you can rest, sweat, strengthen and re-energize all at the same time!
So next time you step upon your yoga mat whether at Verge Yoga or somewhere else, set your intention to “rest” during your practice. Keenly observe yourself when you begin to force your way into a pose. If your breathing becomes labored or imbalanced then back off the pose physically until you find the precise place where the breathing is rhythmic and unforced.

Enjoy the ride and enjoy the most peaceful savasana you have ever had. Please let me know how you do.

Smile

If we are not able to smile then the world will not have peace. ~ Thich Nat Hanh

I came upon this quote just a few days after the earthquake in Haiti. Just reading this master’s quote made me smile and reflect on how blessed my life is. Sure it was easy for me to smile as I sat in my cozy house in suburban Philadelphia. What about those around the world who were not reading in their cozy house? What about those in Haiti without homes? How do they manage to muster up a smile in the midst of their own poverty and tragedy?

While I don’t have the answer to that question, I believe that we find our ability to smile in hard times when we are filled with faith. Perhaps it is faith in God or in a higher power that assists us. Our faith is our foundation, it is the “rock upon which we build our house” as I referred to in my last blog entry.

My faith is strengthened from my daily practice which includes yoga, meditation and prayer. I believe that this foundation is built one day at a time and I mindfully prepare myself for those days to come when it may not be easy to smile.

For now I feel that I must continue to smile and to pray for those who are having trouble smiling themselves. In the words of the Great Buddhist Peace Prayer:

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all beings find happiness and the root of happiness.

Our smiles can help so keep smiling. :)

How Do I Help?

The recent earthquake in Haiti has literally shaken me off my footing. The images and stories are almost too raw and too graphic for me to swallow. Personally, I am overwhelmed. Sure, the $100 sent to the Red Cross will help a bit. Of course, the daily prayers sent to those suffering around the globe and especially to those touched by this tragedy will help a bit. But honesty I am still left feeling “helpless”.

There are yoga studios all around Philadelphia that have already had benefit classes to raise money for the relief effort in Haiti. I commend them for their effort. We are considering holding a benefit class at Verge Yoga. I know that it is a great way to raise money. A few years back, Verge Yoga raised a few thousand dollars in this manner for the relief effort for tsunami victims. Honestly, there is something tugging at my consciousness urging me do more. For some reason I am still resisting the obvious avenues to helping the millions of victims affected by this tragedy. As I said before, I am overwhelmed by totality of this tragedy.

The question I ask is how does one help a country that is lacking infrastructure and has been suffocated by corruption for years? There is nothing left in Haiti but a pile of rubble and many souls that suffer yet hope for literally a more stable future.

The only answer that comes to mind is that we need to start by helping to rebuild the foundation of Haiti. My Hatha yoga practice has taught me this truth. By building a strong stable base physically, emotionally and mentally through the practice of yoga, we the ground upon which we can expand upon.

In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus says the following:
"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

I believe that this is true on a yoga mat, in a family and in a nation. The Haitians have been living on a sandy foundation for too long and I pray that we can help them. The earth shaking beneath that small Caribbean island has exposed just how weak their foundation has been.

So my question to you all is how do we help Haiti build a stable foundation? Money, yes, is necessary. Prayers are necessary. An interim government led by perhaps the United Nations. I also believe, however, that setting a strong example is also necessary. We must solidify our own ground first before we can help others do so. Once again, it begins with us. It begins with taking personal responsibility for our state of being.

So I guess that I have sort of answered my own question. I am still, however, left overwhelmed. I would love any support that you could share with me. If you know of an organization that you believe can make a difference in building Haiti’s foundation, please let me know. Perhaps then the benefit class will make more sense to me. Perhaps it will help me feel less overwhelmed and more confident that we truly can make a difference.

Thank you.

National Champions!

On December 18, 2009, the Villanova University Football team won the FSC National Football Championship. Since August these Wildcats have been fierce, focused and committed to each other. I am honored to have been able to train them this year. They are true yogis.