wishing tree

A dear friend hosted an 11/11/11 party over the weekend to celebrate the interconnectedness and the oneness of our community.  The date lends itself to auspiciousness in numerology, binary, (computer nerds eat your heart out!),  links with the Mayan Calendar, Remembrance Day, Veterans Day and as if that weren't enough it also synched up with the full moon!  If there ever was a powerful time to set forth some fierce intentions into the universe this was it!

The aim of the gathering was to inject some divine and loving energy out into the ether and allow it to multiply and return to us to manifest with loving abundance.  Upon arrival at the par-tay, (after downing the celebratory shooter), guests were instructed to inscribe their wish for the coming year onto a small card and hang it on the tree in the front yard - a Wishing Tree!

Now the shooter and the wish were awesome.  However, what was particularly cool about the whole thing was what was written on those cards and cast out into the crisp autumn night.  Cards were thoughtfully handwritten by each guest as they arrived. And unbeknown to all the guests, a common thread became quickly apparent among the wishes.

They were all the same.

Different words yes.  Some short and concise.  Some with drawings.  Some swirly calligraphied essays requiring multiple cards.  Same wish.

My small mind perked up and asked "But how could all these strong, beautiful, powerful women be wishing for the same thing as little old me?"  The deeper seated wisdom of my big mind replied: "Because you are one and the same."  Whoa?  Is it possible that all these fabulous, successful women who in my eyes 'had it all figured out', were in fact meandering on the same journey from fear and doubt towards all encompassing self love, much as I was?  (Big Mind: "Duh.")

Miraculous things have started to shift in the universe since that auspicious night.  Women stepped into their power.  Others had the courage to change their job.  Some released the pain of losing a loved one.  One special women had a pivotal shift in how she perceived her relationship.  Game changing stuff.

Miracles.

The cool thing is that miracles are available to us all the time.  They're happening all the time.  Simply put - a miracle is a shift in perception.  It's the moment you start choosing to perceive your life with love instead of fear. (Gabrielle Bernstein)

So - what kind of miracles will be called to action today?  Chocolate or vanilla?  You choose.





Love this post?  Share it!  Check us out on Facebook and connect with the rest of the awesomasana tribe.

revolution (aka miracles) are in the air

Is it just me or is anyone else sensing an imminent and exciting shift bubbling below the surface.  An energetic vibration beginning to buzz on an increasingly perceptible level.  Like we're approaching the edge of a cliff of our own making.

"Come to the edge we said.  And they said no - it's too high.
Come to the edge we said.  And they said no - we're gonna fall.
Come to the edge we said.  And they very reluctantly came.
And we pushed.  And they flew."  (From the film 'One Giant Leap')

Now I'm not talking just a personal breakthrough - not to demean the value of this towards the global good, but I'm talking here about something much, much greater.  Like the accumulation of personal shifts of masses of people all around the world. A global restlessness is brewing and the impending shifts this inspires is fast approaching.

Think about it.  In the past 6 months we've seen:

• 2 major riots in Vancouver and London.  This widespread energetic release of stress or discontent is much like a bird flapping it's wings after a fright to relieve stored stressful energy.  (Oh and just to point out another meaningful coincidence, the Vancouver riot fell on the eve of a full moon!) 
• We've seen Libia AND Syria come out of major civial political unrest and are at the crest of creating a whole new possibility for their people.  
• We've seen the Occupy movement spread not just across America but to build tent cities in major centers around the world with protesters peacefully standing for global transformation.  

Thanks to public icons like Oprah and Guru to the Stars Deepak Chopra, pop culture has seen an increasing focus on spirituality.  And I don't mean your old school Ma 'n Pa churchies.  I mean hip, young Spiritual Gangsters.  The current yoga participation rate is increasing by the minute. The number of minutes spent in peaceful meditation is growing daily thanks to groups like the Art of Living and an abundance of online challenges making guided meditations accessible and easy.  With the auspiciousness of 11.11.11 (meaningfully, also another full moon) just around the corner and the unknown projections of the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 it certainly does feel like we are 'coming to the edge' of a major shift in how the world as we know it works.

So raise your vibration.  Spread your wings.  It's time to fly.

It's time to wake up.



www.vibeyoga.com
www.facebook.com/vibeyoga

Life is Meant to be Joyful

"Life is meant to be joyful."  She spoke these words to both open and close the most epic kundalini yoga class at lululemon athletica last night.  Seriously - we were rocking out to "Party Rock Anthem" like you've never seen.  Yoga traditionalist wouldn't have cringed at our awesome asanas us we seriously got our groove on looking more like a dance hall than a yoga studio.  Smiling.  Sweating.  Freeing energy.  Laughing. Playing.  "Life is meant to be joyful."

Contrast this to the capoeira class that I just returned from this afternoon.  What is it?  Well let's just say Papa Martial Arts met Mama Brazilian Music and.. boom boom POW!  Capoeira was their darling lovechild.  This dynamic artform weaves together music, drumming, acrobats and self defense.  What's not to love right?!

Well in all fairness to Baby Cap, it was only my 3rd class.  I like the idea of Capoeira.  I like the playful acrobatics of one handed cartwheels and walking on my hands.  I like the strength and power of the combative dance-like martial artsiness.  I like the idea of having the core strength (and rockin' bod) of a Capoeira chick. 

So in spite of my efforts to embrace a 'beginner's mind' and enjoy the unknown of my new found activity, I found my mind (and gut) racing back to grade 3 gym class.  Good ol' Canada Fitness Testing and I was the slowest girl around the track for the endurance test.  (OK not dead last but let's just say I got a 'Participation' badge in the event.)  There was nothing joyful about this instructors' barking words.  There was nothing joyful about having to do pushups because someone else in class couldn't name the correct Portuguese word for the drumming beat we were listening to.  There was no smiling or laughing or playing. 

And so I weighed my options.  (1) Stay and sit outside my comfort zone (aka - grow).  Or (2) pursue something more joyful.  With a mounting sense of 'igottagetouttahere' filling up my belly,  and the class paused for a water break, I seized my opportunity, my backpack and kindly thanked the instructor as I opted for option two (or dues as they say in Portuguese). 

I know what you're thinking and part of me is thinking it too.  Growth is achieved outside our comfort zones.  If we don't grow we die.  Think about it.  Nothing in nature is stagnant.  We're either growing, blossoming, shining, expanding or we're receding, retracting sinking, sulking, not to mention boring. Just because something motivates growth doesn't mean it's necessarily joyful.  (I can't say I enjoyed memorizing all 206 bones in the human body but I was damn well chuffed with myself when I ultimately rocked a Masters degree.)  Conversely, joyful activities don't necessarily inspire growth. (I feel joy when Presidents Choice Candy Cane icecream hits my freezer every Christmas but it doesn't often spawn personal growth.. other than that of my waistline.) 

But the two aren't mutually exclusive either.  " 'William Butler Yeats wrote that happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth.  We are happy when we are growing.'  Contemporary researchers make the same argument: that it isn't goal attainment but the process of striving after goals - that is, growth - that brings happiness."  -  Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project

The key is finding the optimal combination of joy and growth in an activity that keeps us coming back for more.  A balance that is as unique and personal as each and every one of us.  To complicate it further, because we're so adaptable, we become accustomed to activities, in turn causing them to lose their luster (like the excitement of driving your Toyota Matrix that wears off over time).  And so, we seek out new more exciting ones - in essence to maintain an environment of growth. 

So just trying capoeira was enough to satisfy my need for growth.  (I can now confidently do one handed cartwheels in both directions thank you very much!) But the lack of joy it brought me wasn't the right recipe to keep me coming back for more.  Instead, walking home with the warm sun on my back,  relishing in finding a new recipe, cooking it for dinner and then sitting down to write this blog inspired the optimal happiness : growth ration for this gal. 

After all, Life is meant to be joyful.


*Check out the Party Rock Anthem video for some crazy yoga-inspired break-dancing at the end.  And a dancing Jesus.  Enough said.

** For a rockin' yoga class to inspire joy and challenge growth visit www.vibeyoga.ca

Paus: Swedish for playing hooky.

Paus (pronounced pows) is the Swedish word for "on a break", "timeout", or quite obviously "pause". (It's just way more fun to say in a Swedish accent though right?)

Today I played hooky.  Yup.  After a season of repeatedly over-booking myself, over-committing my time and stretching my balance to within an inch of it's life I finally decided to press 'paus'.  And while yes, yoga does teach one balance - it is a practice. Imagine that if we could all just do enough vrikshasana (tree pose), our life balance would just sort itself out?!  Balance is a choice and I choose balance.   The balance pendulum continues to swing back and forth back and forth like tree's blowing in the wind. 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm in no way out of the ordinary in the hooky department.  As it turns out,  just over half of Canadians (52%) have called in sick to work when in fact they're not actually ill.  Personally I can't believe the stat is so low.  People carry on for most of their lives working 50 out of 52 weeks a year.  Just when two weeks of vacation per year was ever supportive to work/life balance is beyond me. 

With North Americans ringing in with some of the least vacation time and the worst work place productivity globally it's baffling that the Leaders of the Free World haven't clued in to simple work life balance protocol that has been around for centuries.  What ever happened to the simple siesta?  The long lunch?  No wonder more and more peeps are calling in and passing off their groggy morning voices as the flu.

Lucky for moi I work in a forward thinking industry.  Or shall we say backwards thinking?  Yoga philosophy dates back to the vedic ages and the concept of ahimsa so appropriately translates the sanskrit practice of 'non-violence' or 'non-injury'.  This yama (sanskrit word for moral restraint) encompasses the practice of compassion and consideration for all living beings.  Overworking your body both physically or mentally is neglecting to take care and, as such, is a form of misuse. 

Interestingly, my boss renamed our 'sick' days to 'health & wellness' days earlier this year so that they better reflect a supportive and all encompassing personal health approach.  Sometimes we just need to take a day to nurture ourselves and press 'paus'.  In a conventional work environment I would have been in a position to lie about my personal health in order to 'chuck a sicky'.  Instead the space was created for me to be totally honest about feeling that I just needed to take an extra day for my personal well being.  (Which in turn fascilitates my practice of satya, the sanskrit word for truthfulness.) 

Preconditioned feelings of guilt and not-enough-ness bubbled up as I confessed I needed to take the day.  Magically these disappeared almost as quickly as they surfaced when my request was smothered with my boss' blessings.  And so I went about my day.  Meditation.  Skype date with mom and sister.  Retail therapy.  Baking.  Blogging.  Nurturing.  Relaxing.  Not worrying.  Enjoying.  Reconnecting with Balance.  Refilling the tank.  Being Present.




Press 'paus' and visit www.vibeyoga.ca

Fear's annoying little sister...

Doubt and fear.  Fear and doubt.  Oh how these two little doozies just keep rearing their ugly heads at me this week.  Especially big "Dizzy-D".  Doubt.  It seems Big D just keeps bullying her way into all facets of my life.  (Note the lack of personal responsibility here.)  I doubt my ability to teach a good class...  I worry about what my students think...  I doubt that they like me...  I doubt that I'm worthy to teach...  I doubt I'm good enough...  Ahhh - you've heard that one before. Those two, infamous words that so many of us hold so close to our hearts that we might as well just get them tattooed there.  We surrender so much of the Power of Living our Best Lives to the toxicity of Doubt.  Yup - self sabotage at it's finest.  I know I'm not alone in this one - we really are our worst enemies aren't we?

But where does Doubt come from? Why did we invite her in?  She's like your best friends annoying little sister who was 2 years younger than you. Remember her?  Remember how you just didn't want to play with her but your mom told you to 'play nice' so you kept her around but instead (sneakily) changed the rules so that instead of playing with her, you would constantly be running away from her?  Isn't that essentially what we're still doing though - running away from 'her'?  And where is that getting us other then to feed that belt of anxiety we sport like a life preserver around our solar plexus?  Oh sigh - to think that we could be Free.

Let's stand in possibility for a moment.  What if... you heeded your mothers advice (for once.)  What if you made friends with your best friends annoying little sister?  (I know - I can hear the whiny "But Mommmm" hanging in the air now.)  What if instead of running away from Doubt we befriended her?  What if she's just like us?  Full of hopes and fears and annoying little sibblings of her own?  Is it possible that instead of covering Doubt with mantras of:  "I think I can.  I like myself.  I am good enough." we harnessed her power on our side.  As our friend.  So instead of working against us, she worked with us.  As part of us.  Enabling us to be more authentic.  More real.  More ME.  Not to give into her, but to befriend her.

And that's really how you make friends and get people to like us anyways isn't it?  The vulnerability of being authentic.

"The greatest fear in the world is of the opinions of others.  And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion.  A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom"  -Osho 'Courage The Joy of Living Dangerously'

a trying 8 days 8 nights.

"Trying" are the days of the modern family.  Or are they?  My in-laws are on the west coast visiting us this week.  After forking over big bucks on flights to get here, to save on dough, they're shackin' up with us in our teeny 1 bedroom apartment for 8 days and 8 nights.  Before you question my judgement let me preface this with the fact that I get on famously with my in-laws.  They're awesome and I really couldn't manifest in-laws more fun or more loving to click with.  (And I'm fully sick at manifesting bru.) While on the surface, I was totally stoked to show them a great time in our new city, deep down I was secretly dreading the whole thing.  Don't get me wrong,  I'm no sissy-pants and am happy to give up my cushy queen sized for the Canadian Tire Special inflata-bed for 8 precious sleeps.  It's just, you know, the close-quarters.. the living on top of one-another like crabs in a bucket.. the no quiet time.  (Sorry Mr. Chopra, our 21 day meditation challenge just became the sacrificial lamb.)

My last night in my own bed leading up to their visit was spent tossing and turning restlessly resulting in an exhausted meltdown the morning of their arrival.  (Insert the visual of a tantrum tossing 32 year old here.)  I was already feeling so tired when all I really wanted to do was be fully gung-ho, fully engaged and fully switched "on" to show them the best time.. you know - for them.  That dangerous Dame Resentment began to trickle in...

After a long day at the office, (it's a yoga studio and I sit on bolsters and type on a laptop rough - I know.), I dragged my feet home repeating sweet sweet revitalizing mantras in my mind (but really not buying into their hippy voodoo bullshit).  But as I stepped through the doorway the strangest thing happened.  Instead of morphing into a fake enthusiastic hostess (the image of a robotic Stepford Wife springs to mind) I was warmly welcomed with hugs and kisses and such loving energy into my own home by my Sangha (yoga word for community) - my Family.

Their love filled me up.  It energized me.  I was excited even elated to see them.  I was instantly washed clean of all my "trying" to be anything other than myself.  How had I forgotten to just be me?  A forgetfulness of ourselves that seems to permeate all facets of our lives - into all our roles.  When else do we become Stepford Wives (or Stepford hubbies.. sisters or brothers for that matter?)  Where in our lives are we trying to be something else, someone else, to change ourselves to fulfill our preconceived expectations of what other people "expect" of us.  (My yoga "teacher voice" suddenly pops into my head.)

When we are surrounded by sangha, by family, by those we love and who love us - all that trying melts away.  It dissolves into the Universe.  Whats left is us.  Pure you.  Naked of all that effort.  All that trying.  And you're loved just for that.  Just.  You.

Such is the importance of the modern family.  The Sangha.  The community.  The support of those who Love us is paramount to us being our authentic selves.  Connect with yours and quit your trying.

dreamasana...

 manifesting this as my future lululemon athletica ambassador photo - photo courtesy of tiny devotions