Winnie the Pooh and KBuddah, too! Namaste!

I've had some of the best teachers! I learn things all the time from them and their lessons come back again and again. This week the lessons did a nice little smash up. Things from all of my teachers came together.

Khris has always challenged me in a variety of ways. The challenges are never meant to be challenges just for the sake of challenge, as in to do something that looks hard or seems advanced. There's a reason for the challenge. In Nadja's hot yoga this week, we did a super challenging sequence that I did as best as I could.

It was just like when I do something super challenging with Khris. I loved it because it made me focus and really think about what I was doing. I was really in it the whole time. I didn't care that I couldn't do some of it. I felt really good about giving it my all and trying it.

Heather talked about the idea that Level 2 yoga is about subtle improvements. Khris works on that all the time. We take squats or push ups or basic exercises and focus on small adjustments. It's the same way in yoga. We know what Warrior 2 is and now we focus on tiny adjustments in alignment and creating space or making small changes to progress.

Sometimes you can't even see the changes, but you feel them in your body. I know when Khris breaks down a familiar exercise and focuses on tiny adjustments, you can feel it in your body. It's not about doing more; it's about doing better.

Nadja always makes me think about things when she's not even trying. She talks about saying I'm breathing in and I'm breathing out when trying to relax during restorative yoga to bring your attention back to the breath. She gives other mantras like Inhale Let; Exhale Go. But I like I'm breathing in. I'm breathing out.

I'm not a good visualizer and I don't like abstract things when doing yoga. When thinking about relaxing and meditation, it's common to think we're supposed to clear our minds and not think at all. Or get out of our bodies and minds. But Nadja made me see things differently when she said, we want to focus on what will bring us back to our bodies. We want to ground ourselves in reality.

That changed the way I look at meditation. I want to be in my body. I want to be in the moment. In the now. Khris did that for me when he told me to use Inhale. Brace. Exhale. I use that all the time in training even when he doesn't tell me to. It keeps me focused on being in my body and in the movement.

Being in reality reminded me of Winnie the Pooh's Say What You See game. It keeps you in the moment. It's a simple meditation. Your mind can't really wander or worry, if it's focused on naming what you see.

Alisa's intention for us this week was observing without judging. That's exactly what Pooh is doing when he plays his game. A funny way of seeing how you can get caught up in making stories around what you see instead of just observing is watching what happens when Pooh's friends try to play his game. 

And finally, Heather's topic for the week was magic. The simplicity of all of these things creates the magic that is yoga. That is training. That is meditation. That just is. 

Christopher Robin: What are you doing, Pooh?
Winnie the Pooh: Sometimes when I’m going somewhere and I wait, a somewhere comes to me.

Rocketman

Watching Rocketman gets more enjoyable each time. The music is the best part, of course, but it's really fun to see lessons and interesting comparisons between me and the people in the movie and to relive lots of things from that time period. I was a child of the 70s. My grade school years mirrored the 70s. I graduated 8th grade in 1978. So I was in 1st grade in 71, second grade in 72, etc.

I did get to experience the magic and freedom of the 70s, but as a kid instead of a teenager or adult. It was a great time to be alive! I distinctly remember listening to Elton John on 45s, and on the radio. I also remember that the older sister of my friend down the street had the Yellow Brick Road ALBUM! I remember the flamboyance of Elton. And I remember my name being in Crocodile Rock!

Something I noticed watching the film again at home is how much I relate to characters or people who are introverted and sensitive and yet have inner performers, artist and creators, and long for connection. I always thought I connected deeply to the Bernies, but I realize I also connect to the Eltons.

Those whom movies are made about tend to be very dramatic in the ways that those things manifested. For me, my subtle inner performer and creator came out in my classroom. I connected with my students through my creativity, art, music, and lots of different and somewhat flamboyant ways.

Something that really hit me this time watching Rocketman is that it's a good thing for me that I am not attracted to drinking or drugs as a coping mechanism, even though there is a strong genetic likelihood that I might be and I'm sure I used food as a drug from an early age.

Watching Elton connect with himself and forgive himself and love himself in the creative and surreal ending scene in the circle, I was struck by the words that he 'gave everything to keep something he never had in the first place' when referring to John. It was a very enlightened way of taking responsibility for everything he had not seen when it was happening.

And if only everyone could have a Bernie in their lives, the world would be a better place.

Throat Chakra

Our restorative yoga class today focused on the throat chakra. A little over a year ago, Khris gave me a stone that he picked for me and it was supposed to be helpful in balancing and opening the throat chakra.

At that time, I thought it was to help me open up and speak up more. I looked for signs about that in the last year. But I was looking for the wrong signs. I had the idea that the throat chakra was about speaking. Unconsciously, subconsciously or somewhere in me I was looking to open up in the wrong way.

When we think about using our voice more there is a misconception about getting louder. Telling people what we really think. Telling people off. Getting things off our chests. Not taking any shit. But that's not using our voice. That's misusing our voice.

If people used their voice like that with us, it wouldn't help us. We wouldn't understand them any better. We wouldn't want to listen to them. It wouldn't open communication.

We have to use our voice the way we would want to receive someone else's voice. With compassion. With love. With clarity.

Opening the throat chakra comes with breath. Breathing and speaking come from the same place. They help each other. Slow your breath and your speech slows as well. Your thoughts slow. Your heart and mind have time to express what you really want to express. Not what your emotions are tricking you into expressing to cloak your body for the moment.

Let the throat chakra remind me to breathe before I speak. To remember that the mind, the voice and the body all speak to me with words and without words. I need to listen. To listen to myself with compassion first and always speak to others the way I would want them to speak to me.

Slowing Down

I've had signs coming at me from everywhere lately telling me I need to slow down. Slow down? You don't do shit, Susie! No, no, no! That's not what slowing down means!!

I've been listening to the signs and slowing down and I am feeling the benefits!

As the song from the 70s said, sign, sign everywhere a sign!! (that song had a different meaning about the signs, but I'm choosing my meaning!)

I've been slowing down. Getting back to routine. Training in the morning. Going to bed a little earlier. Making my bed. Doing restorative yoga. Reading. Noticing. Pausing.

Slowing down is not just in actions, it's in reactions. It's in the in between. It's in the mundane. The routine. The daily life. Slowing down isn't for vacation. It's for pacing.

It's like Curly from City Slickers said....you spend 50 weeks getting knots in your rope and then you expect two weeks up here will untie them. Slowing down unties the knots as you make them. I've seen how knotted rope has hurt me in my past--growing up, as a teacher and even now.

Most importantly, slowing down has helped me reflect and feel gratitude for the ability to be able to keep a routine that will help me.

My routine is much slower than what is normal for most people and what is culturally acceptable and valuable. But I am in a place where I can thrive with it and even move into a new and exciting life with it.

I can slow down for huge gains in mind, body and soul. Thank you for all the signs!

Simple or Profound? Change Your Mindset!

I've been thinking a lot about the simplicity of some sayings and some things I've read and how they seem so simple. Keep calm. Don't take yourself so seriously. Laugh more. Pause. Breathe. Change your mindset.

Ironically, I applied the simple mantra of my trainer to think about it: Change your mindset.

It's all about mindset. Is it simple so it's cliche and irrelevant? Or is it simple so that it's profound and highly relevant? That's up to you. I've read reviews of books that say things like...good book, but nothing new here just the same stuff. I understand that, but sometimes the same stuff is what we need.

The same stuff at a different time in our lives so it sinks in differently because we can receive it differently. The same stuff as a reminder. The same stuff that we can interpret with new eyes. The same stuff that we can peel off another layer of what we never realized had layers in the first place.

Something as simple as Khris's change your mindset has taken on so many layers over time. I just realized this morning as I was thinking about things that back when I was teaching, I used change your mindset without naming it that every summer when I examined all of my teaching strategies and attitudes to try to improve things.

Something as simple as if I was going to give students pens or pencils if they forgot them was a matter of mindset. I thought about all of those things beforehand. Some teachers were of the mindset that they needed to teach students responsibility and never gave students pens or pencils. They even went so far as to have certain punishments attached to forgetting them.

I decided that my mindset about that particular issue was that I loved my students and that everyone forgets things. I remember how I felt as a student when I would be in class and I had no pencil. I would feel panic. I didn't want my students to feel that. I didn't want to add to that feeling by punishing them. So I always had pencils in my drawer for them. I went so far as to give them a pencil with a smile and sharpen it for them if they asked for one.

I didn't leave a cup of pencils out on the shelf. I tried that one year and they just disappeared and I was constantly replenishing them. But when I kept them in my drawer and they had to ask me for one and I said, sure and handed them one with a smile, I felt a connection to the kid. I made them feel like they could be safe at school even if they made a mistake. And I didn't care if they forgot to give it back. Usually I told them to keep it for their other classes.

That mindset made things so much nicer for me and for my students.

Things we learn in meditation and yoga and in lots of the books related to those types of things seem simple. But are they just simple or are they profound as well? When I have read the same quotes or books at different times in my life, I have understood them in different ways.

I may have been in a different emotional state or I may have revealed or uncovered an additional meaning to it.

Recently in a yoga class, the teacher was talking about the mantras and about breathing and she gave us the mantra of inhale let, exhale go. She kept talking about the mind wandering and all the stuff that yoga teachers always talk about with meditation and at some point she said something like the idea is to bring yourself back to the breath or whatever keeps you grounded in reality.

Grounded in reality. That hit me like a yoga brick! Nobody every said it like that. Or I never heard it like that before. It's not about clearing your mind and letting go so much that everything is gone. You're clearing your mind and letting go so that you're HERE!!! You only focus on the breath and the mantra to be here NOW! IN YOUR BODY!

When Khris talks about emotion and logic, I think we can have both if we are in our body. If we stay calm and feel. When I let my emotion take me out of my body and do and say things that I don't have control over is when I get in trouble. I'm not grounded.

When I recently read to pause and feel what your body is telling you, that is a way to ground yourself. You are in your body. Listening to your body. You being here now. Experiencing the emotion or feeling and letting your body tell you things.

But you are also letting your mind (logic) work. You are bringing yourself back to reality. Calming yourself. Not letting those crazy wandering thoughts (emotions) take over.

Logic and emotion are living together. One is not taking over so the other doesn't exist. They are existing together so that logic helps you understand what your emotion is telling you or how it is fooling you or protecting you, so that you can feel it and use it and respond to it or not respond to it yet.

It's a meditation of sorts. It's simple and profound. It's not just simply pause. There's work to do. Just like with my pencils. I had to decide to give pencils to my students with love. But that wasn't the end of it. I had to do that every time.

I couldn't get frustrated if 7 people asked for a pencil during one class. Or if the same kid asked for a pencil day after day.  I had to smile every time. I couldn't slip and give a mini-lecture and say, try to remember your pencil tomorrow. I had to smile and give it with love. EVERY TIME!

Simple isn't always easy. Profound is deep for a reason. Change your mindset!

Don't worry. The simple lessons will keep showing up and giving you more chances to dig deeper!

P.S. When you dig deep in the mud, you just dig farther. The mud is still mud. You just keep digging. So when people say something is deep, people expect the lesson to be different somehow the more you dig. But it's not, it's the same mud or dirt. You're just digging deeper. So don't always look for something new when you're looking for a deep concept. It's just mud. You just need to keep at it and dig more. It's more beautiful mud. Not necessarily different mud.

Signs

I've been doing some interesting things lately. Zen tarot card readings, New Moon Astrology reading, Ayurvedic medicine reading. It all sounds like stuff many people would say is crazy stuff that is just made up. For the purpose of what I'm writing about it's irrelevant if it's real or made up. It's helpful to take the signs you get and work with them.

In Ayurvedic medicine, I am Pitta dosha and I had read about that idea years ago and about the foods I should eat and avoid, etc. to balance that dosha. But I only just recently understood some things that can really help me to use that concept to help me practically in my life.

I was told by someone whom I just met that I was wearing a bracelet that had lava stones and I should be careful with that because I was already a fiery person. I had never thought of myself as fiery. It seems such a negative thing. But I am. I only got the lava stones because they are porous and I could put essential oils in them. She told me to get watery stones like pearls to balance my fire.

When you read about the doshas, your qualities can seem negative. But that's not the point. The negatives are only when your dosha is out of balance. If you avoid some of the foods and try to do some of the things that it recommends, you are in balance and it's not a bad thing.

For me, I think I've always naturally balanced my diet by avoiding spicy foods because my stomach can't handle them. But my digestive problems came from other things like greasy, heavy foods that put me out of balance.

Something I found in my most recent search about Pitta dosha is routine. I've found that when I don't have a good routine, especially for long periods of time, the fire comes out. I get crabby and irritable and emotional and exhausted. When I think about my childhood, I was fire then, too. I was a stomper. I stomped up the stairs all the time. I was probably overstimulated and exhausted.

In a moon energy astrology article, it talked about things happening in January having an effect on what's going on now. I looked back at my January blog and I wrote about craving routine and needing to focus on the process and living in the present again.

It talked about events from mid April to mid-may being important. That was a huge time of turmoil for me. I'm still dealing with the aftermath of that and figuring things out. Now I'm not saying that as a way to "prove" that it's correct. We can always fit our lives into the astrology. I'm saying who cares if it's correct or not. Why not use it to help us organize and determine ways to help ourselves?

Why not let the signs we find in the world around us help us use our own intuition to take steps to take care of ourselves in the ways we know we need to in order to best honor ourselves so we can experience more joy and gratitude and take more action to be more compassionate with ourselves and others.

Why fight everything? Why not balance it instead? I am fire! There's nothing wrong with fire. I just need lots of water to balance me. Fire is beautiful and so is water. I need to embrace them both. Find the balance so I don't burn up or drown. That's all.

Emotional Intelligence

Khris and I have had many conversations about emotion and logic. We agree and disagree about a lot of it. In general we agree about some things but use different words to express it so it seems like we disagree. In English sometimes we have too many words with many different connotations. In the case of the words emotion and logic, I think we have too few and therein lies some of the problems when discussing this topic.

The Buddhists tell us that compassionate listening is meant to help us understand people so we can help them suffer less.

Emotions and logic. Why does it have to be one or the other? Why can't it be both? I think it can. That is emotional intelligence. That's where feeling comes in. That's where thinking comes in. That's where Buddhist philosophy comes in.

Emotions exist. If we didn't have them at all, we would be robots. We wouldn't need compassion.

But it's true, emotions can get us into a lot of trouble. People use emotions to manipulate. People get manipulated by emotions.

Emotions can lead to poor decision making. We can make decisions when we're in highly emotional states, either positive or negative. We can make rash decisions when we're excited or not take chances when our confidence is low.

We can bury our own emotions and not face them. Those emotions won't go away. They will get ugly. They will come out in ways sometimes where we don't even know what's happening. Emotions affect our health as well.

If we don't use our intelligence to face our own emotions and take care of ourselves, we will be less and less able to be compassionate with others. We will be less and less able to express gratitude. To share joy.

If we want to understand others, we need to understand ourselves. Empathy requires that we use our own experiences to imagine the experiences of others and how they must feel.

Emotions teach us things. They also allow us to feel things. I want to experience joy and gratitude and love and peace. There is suffering and injustice in the world. I will experience sadness and loneliness and anger and frustration.

I've learned recently, that I can pause and breathe and that my body will tell me what I'm feeling. What my emotion is teaching me. What is under that emotion.

Instead of lashing out or talking fast or pacing or whatever my body wanted to do, I need to pause. I need to breathe.

What is my body telling me? Can I listen to it with compassion? Am I afraid? Am I tired? Am I angry? Why am I angry? What am I afraid of? What's going on?

Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! My body will tell me what that emotion is all about. What am I protecting myself from by reacting so quickly? That anger is processing to protect me from something. That's combining logic and emotions to become feelings. I can express my feelings intelligently. Calmly.

I hope to remember to use more logic and intelligence to temper my emotions so they can become the way I feel and not act on them in ways that hurt me or others. That way I can listen to myself and others more compassionately to help us suffer less.