Gratitude to the MAX

I'm so grateful for all the birthday wishes I got yesterday. I really love facebook for that! It really makes you feel so special and popular when all the people you know in your life write wonderful things on your personal wall. It really made my day.

I'm also grateful for my husband, and all that I have: an apartment near Golden Gate Park, a great job, my cats, my car, my family. I was reading a post from one of the blogs I follow this morning and it was about loving everything that you have already in your life, and focusing on the good things. It was a great reminder, even though everyday I focus on at least one thing going well, I can find myself focusing on what I don't have or what's bad on some days. At least I can catch myself now when it happens. I can refocus and redirect my attention, and if it's difficult I get support from my wonderful community. We all fall into that every now and then, and it's okay! Sometimes we have to be in the funky feelings to get to the more joyous feelings. Allow yourself the space and time, but also be aware of how long the funky ones last.

What are you grateful for in your life?

When things are good....

when things are good, we try and find something that's bad. why do we do this? you could drive yourself crazy asking yourself that question. i know things are good because i have all my basic needs met. then there are those old things that may be appear that trigger those old emotions. it's like the body's memory kicks when someone or something triggers those old files that are stored deep within us. lately, i just observe. i observe when things are good and when they are not so good. but are there things that are bad? aren't they just an experience that falls within our path for a reason? can we be grateful in the moment or bitter to the end? it really is hard. it really is choice. working on yourself is no picnic in the park. this is something that i've been doing for the past ten years, since i started studying yoga, massage, energywork, and the movement arts. i've gotten deeper into it and within myself. but what i find hard, along with other people, is to find the good in everything that happens. initially, we automatically go into the "bad" mode about whatever just happened, instead of taking a moment to breathe, and look at the situation from a distance.

so i try to acknowledge the good in everything and everyone, no matter how much i want to go into judgment or blame. because essentially those judgments we're putting on others are really onto yourself. blaming others is really blaming yourself. this can be hard to hear and i feel my stomach cringe just a little writing it. i know if i love and accept myself i can love and accept others. again. it's hard. it's a process. it's a journey.

i say start small. take a moment when you wake up every morning and name one thing you're grateful for. something that really is "good" in your life. then breathe deeply into it.

I am Celebration (revisited)

So I wrote the entry below in October of 2009.  Its contents visited me yesterday morning as I was driving to teach my Sunday morning yoga class.  In fact, it was the main theme for the day, and I shared it with my students.  I talked about celebration. That it's not just for the big things, but the little things as well.  I found this old post I wrote and how I was celebrating the fact that I completed clinic hours in just one of my modules for massage school. 

It's the little things that really matter.  Those things that we may oversee or take for granted.  I see how celebrating gets you closer to what you want. I want to celebrate the Human Resources dept at my work for giving me the support I needed recently.  I had many dates of un-reimbursed medical claims (money that I paid out of my pocket) that I'm getting back! For whatever reason, the insurance company wasn't reimbursing me, and kept saying they needed to resubmit this or that claim again, and it was going to take up to 30 days to process! I cried over this twice; and finally, I decided I'm not going to worry about this anymore. I'm not going to put my energy (my vibration and attention) to this anymore.  Instead, I sought help from HR/Benefits at my job, and within a few weeks, mission accomplished! I trusted that it would all work out, and conveyed my patience in the most constructive way possible.  I "kept my cool." My intentions and goals were to receive more understanding, consideration and respect out of this.  I wanted to be heard, and I was. I received all of the above.

I know I should celebrate my proactivity in contacting HR, but I'm so grateful for having the person I had.  HR depts really get a bad rep sometimes and, yes, I have definitely contributed to that bashing in the past. But I honestly am so grateful for them right now and I want to CELEBRATE!  I told HR how much I appreciated their help and support through this, as it was so confusing and frustrating.  I want to celebrate my job for providing the health care plans.  

 I am gratitude and celebration! Now, it's time to get that pedicure I've been talking about....

 From October 2009

I am celebration!

I have to celebrate that I completed my massage clinic hours for one of my modules! Yaayyy! It gives me a sense of accomplishment and validity, that, Wow! I can really get through this program! Yes I have had mind chatter and negative self-talk about completing the massage program I'm enrolled in, but seeing results is so invigorating to my whole being! Bodywork is connection. Connection to everything in the body, mind, spirit and soul. During my holistic health program last year, we had to write our life's purpose. My life purpose was (is) "I am love and acceptance". I want to expand on that, "I am love, acceptance and celebration". I want to put the energy out into the universe that I will receive, love and accept everything in my path, regardless of positive or negative. Wow, this feels great in my belly right now!

I've realized that you can celebrate anything--waking up in the morning, getting out of bed, eating a meal, tying your shoe, etc. It doesn't have to be this huge thing. Whatever it is to you is what matters.

What do you want to celebrate?

The New Year

The new year has me dazzled! I love the fact that I get to start fresh. I don't really plan anything on the eve of the new year, but last year my life coach had me acknowledge and write down 10 things I am grateful and/or appreciate about the past year. I made this into a regular routine, of course, but it really gave me a sense of peace with myself. I had my husband participate as well. I hope to do more workshops, whether it be yoga, movement or with my support group. I already have an opportunity coming up for February through 24 hr Fitness where I teach yoga, so it's already happening! I hope to pay off debt which is already in progress, but I hope to see a CHUNK come off of that. Also, completion with my massage program so I can begin to really transition my careers. This has me feeling both excited and nervous, but I feel it's time to take the plunge. the next step.

Let's be excited about the new year! joyful, joyous, happy, dazzled, peaceful, surprised, reflective, appreciated, appreciation, supportive....continue to add on whatever feeling comes into your body. Feel it and then express it. Be present to what's happening inside of you so you can be with others.

Happy New Year!

What are you grateful for right now?

This is definitely the time to think about that. What am I grateful for right now? It doesn't have to be a special holiday. You can do it whenever you want. Everyday. Every minute. Every second. I am grateful right now for my husband for being so loving and accepting of my being. No matter what I do or what I say, he's so open and accepting. I can't think of another gift to have. To add on to that, I'm grateful for my job, the chair I'm sitting in as I write this, my friends, family, the community of amazing beings that I surround myself with everyday of my life, the person who prepared my soy chai latte this morning, the air I breath, the body that allows me to what I'm passionate about--dancing, yoga, moving, what else? I could go on and on! So I definitely have learned and appreciated that these things we're grateful for don't have to be these huge, in-depth declarations. They can be simple and small which I feel are so huge anyway.

So what you grateful for RIGHT NOW???!!!!!

Stay-cation appreciation

Another alternative to vacation: stay-cation. I just learned this term yesterday. Sometimes just staying home for a week can be just as relaxing and replenishing as going away somewhere. I have found that, for me, it's truly a vacation. Last week, my mother came to visit. Since she's been to San Francisco before, we didn't have to do all those touristy things that you would normally do when visiting a new city. We would wake up whenever; have coffee, tea and breakfast; and then either go shopping, walking, visiting her brother in hayward, museum, or just lounge around. I'm very close with my mother these days than I have ever been in my life. I appreciate everything she has done right down to giving birth to me. I feel all the work I have done (and still doing) on myself has really made a difference in the people in my life, even those who would push my buttons or drive me crazy! This stay-cation really allowed me to appreciate everyone and everything around me--my apartment, the materials in my apartment, my job, my health, my husband, my family, my cats, the sunshine and sky!

So I decided to start a meditation practice for myself. Since I'm really busy at this time in my life, I decided to meditate for up to 10 minutes when I can. Focusing on what I'm grateful for and what I want to create for myself--career, life, with my husband, etc. This is something that my therapist recommended to me and I have found such wonderful value with it. I have experienced the joy and grateful-ness through my whole body and being and I want others to experience it too. Down the road, I want to build up my practice to a daily exercise. That's my goal and declaration.

Nothing to Envy

Something that I catch myself doing these days. I've always had that mind chatter, "You're not good enough" or "You don't deserve it". It's bullshit! I remember in the past envying what others in my life would have and it would get me down for good couple of hours (or days!). It's amazing what awarenesses come into view about yourself you thought didn't exist. Instead, I try to be grateful for what I have and be joyful for those who have what they have. The more I do this, the more I feel joy in my life.
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(From yogajournal.com daily insight)

Because we want to keep it hidden, envy can be particularly difficult to deal with. How many of us are willing to cop to the heart-twisting feeling that pops up when a friend calls to tell you she's just received a fellowship, or the sense of injustice that clouds your first glimpse of your wealthy friend's fabulous new apartment?

Envy so often looks like something else—resentment, perhaps, or a sense of dissatisfaction with your own life, your own income, your own family. For many people, envy simply merges with an overall feeling of not being quite good enough. Because envy is rooted in the feeling of lack or deficiency, the assumption that there's not enough to go around, its best antidotes will be practices that activate your own feelings of natural abundance.

Forget about the person you envy. Forget about what she has that you wish were yours. Look instead at the energy that feeling is made of, and you'll notice that nothing in the feeling has any real solidity. Perhaps, at that moment, you might open to the insight that the energy forming and dissolving within your mind and heart is not really separate from the energy around you. Perhaps, at that moment, you might realize that the person you envy is not really someone separate from you; that you lack nothing because you are, at your deepest core, part of a vast field of energy that contains potentially everything you could ever want or need.

IN THIS ISSUE
Nothing to Envy

http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/2545
The Wellspring of Joy

http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/1157
Think Pieces

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1106

Find Contentment

I find this so true with my life and what I see in others. For instance, my money projects have definitely gotten me down and I'm in the middle of one again. But I'm so aware now of how I get around money, it's really no big deal anymore, because I know now that it's going to be okay. I direct my attention to what brings me joy in my life--my husband, family, my cats, massage school. Yes! I would rather go with joy. It feels better and is more in alignment with who I truly am.

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(From yogajournal.com daily insight)


Yoga is much more than a physical practice. It is also a philosophy about the way we should live. According to yogic philosophy, we cause ourselves pain by desiring things we don't have, but think that we need. In other words, we hurt ourselves by yearning after what's out of reach.

Santosa is a niyama, or guiding principle of yoga. This principle encourages us to develop contentment. It prescribes the merit of striving to be grateful for what we have rather than yearning for new and different things. The word "santosa" is also sometimes translated as happiness, because, by finding contentment with what we have, we also find joy, relaxation, and peace.

You can practice santosa in all aspects of your life-toward your family, friends, and your career.



IN THIS ISSUE
Cultivate Your Connections
http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/455