Yoga pose of the day: Happy Baby Pose (Ananda Balasana in Sanskrit) or as I prefer to call it “Happy Boyfriend Pose”
I really love this pose, it is really great for opening your hips and also just has this really great calming effect and even energizing as you stretch you back, spine, thighs, and groin. If a baby can do it, so can you!
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
If you are like me in southern California, you are probably wondering where yesterday’s record breaking heat was this summer! With a cooler morning I took a run, which is one of the fitness tips for the coming autumn season. The days are going to seem a bit shorter, and one way to keep with your fitness is to move your workouts to the morning. Even though here in San Diego we do not experience too much of a weather change, I thought there were some great tips!
Don’t let the fear of shocking someone stop you from taking the jump
who cares if you can touch your toes if you can’t touch your heart?
Many successful people are successful because of the goals they set and work towards. Setting goals and having the ability to work towards in order to achieve them is a valuable skill set. At the start of most yoga sessions, the instructor will invite you to set intentions for your yoga practice. This is an opportunity to set goals for yourself in your physical practice, your mind set, or to dedicate your practice to a particular emotion you are feeling or even a negative emotion which you would like to eliminate or lessen. Now, there is a difference between setting goals and setting intentions. While goals are more future oriented, intentions are more about making a commitment to living in a way that aligns with your inner values. Setting intentions allows you to gain a sort of mental footing that allows you to establish a frame of reference that is more meaningful that simple goal-oriented activity. The goals may still guide you and help in your effectiveness, but the intentions provide the unity in your actions and thus increasing your ability to be effective.
I am returning to my practice and this blog after a bit of a break. With this has come the new design implementation. For me yoga is about creating a strong foundation for myself and I wanted the redesign to reflect the feeling of vitality that yoga gives me. What better way to represent that than with fresh, living grass. Also, with my return, I am bringing a greater focus to what the difference is between my intentions and my goals. I will be starting a new job in a week, which represents an exciting career change, so it will be more important than ever to stay grounded and focused on both my intentions and goals. I will admit the difference between intentions and goals still remains a little fuzzy, but perhaps we can explore this together. Here are some intentions and goals for the next month as well as a couple more long term goals:
Intentions
Goals
Long term goals
While some of my goals and intentions are a bit vague for my own privacy, I think it is best to be as specific as possible in goals while the intentions may be a bit more qualitative. What sorts of intentions do you set for yourself? Do you use goals to focus your actions? How do you feel about the difference between setting intentions and setting goals? I would love to hear your thoughts and any feedback you might have!
The Cambridge parking tickets now include some calming yoga poses. This made me laugh, but it also is an interesting view into how yoga is integrating itself into popular culture. Also that people are starting to recognize that we are a stressed out culture! We should be stopping to smell the roses, stopping to do a little stretch, and stopping to breathe out that frustration.
I was sent this article a couple days ago and I thought it was a nice article. I often wonder why women are so mean to each other because it can be so counterproductive. But, this also goes for people in general. What is the use in being mean to other people. I have felt really lucky to be surrounded by so many great and supportive friends! Here is the content and I hope you enjoy it:
There are many ways and myriad reasons for women to honor and embrace all that they are. And when any individual woman chooses to do so, all women collectively move closer to becoming what they are truly capable of being. By honoring her experience and being willing to share it with others—both male and female—she teaches as she learns. When she can trust herself and her inner voice, she teaches those around her to trust her as well. Clasping hands with family members and friends, coworkers and strangers in a shared walk through the journey of life, she allows all to see the self-respect she possesses and accepts their respect, too, that is offered through look, word, and deed.
When a woman can look back into her past, doing so without regret and instead seeing only lessons that brought her to her current strength and wisdom, she embraces the fullness of her experience. She helps those around her to build upon the past as she does. And when she chooses to create her desires, she places her power in the present and moves forward with life into the future.
Seeing her own divinity, a woman learns to recognize the divinity in all women. She then can see her body as a temple, appreciating its feminine form and function, regardless of what age or stage of life she finds herself. She can enjoy all that it brings to her experience and appreciate other women and their experiences as well. Rather than seeing other women as competition, she can look around her to see the cycle of life reflected in the beauty of her sisters, reminding her of her own radiance should she ever forget. She can then celebrate all the many aspects that make her a being worthy of praise, dancing to express the physical, speaking proudly to express her intellect, sharing her emotions, and leading the way with her spiritual guidance. Embracing her womanhood, she reveals the facets that allow her to shine with the beauty and strength of a diamond to illuminate her world.
It has been just over a week since I have gone to a class. I was traveling to Bethesda, Maryland and Chicago/Michigan. Now that I am back in San Diego, my schedule has just been too hectic. I am hoping to get back to yoga tomorrow and end the neglect of both my practice and this blog!
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