“This is where tenderness comes in. When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something. We might realize this is a very vulnerable and tender place, and that tenderness can go either way. We can shut down and feel resentful or we can touch in on that throbbing quality. There is definitely something tender and throbbing about groundlessness.”

– From When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

While I was away for a month this past summer, my father had many health complications at home. Upon seeing him for the first time, I was shocked by the frail, weak, old and tired man who stood before me. The tears welled up in my eyes almost immediately. In the past, my response would have been to suck it in, to grip my breath and tell myself “No, no, he’s not going to die.” Losing my father would surely mean becoming groundless and that would be too scary to accept. But this time, thinking of Chodron, I let the breath go, actually breathed INTO the fear and the pain and accepted the “throbbing.” It felt great. “Yes, eventually, my father IS going to die.” Every interaction with him since has been infinitely more meaningful because I stopped retreating from this edge.

We often retreat in our asana practice as well. When we come to our edge in a posture, we tend to play it safe. We pull back, we grip and hold the breath. This, too, is a vulnerable and tender place. If we go just past our edge, will we lose our balance, fall, embarrass or hurt ourselves? Or will we find out something about ourselves we’re not yet ready to know?

Perhaps we retreat because feeling things too deeply makes us nervous. I am reminded of one of my students, Alex, a six year old boy who some might describe as highly sensitive. Alex always had a keen sense of the energy in the room and could be easily upset. After an upsetting episode in class one day, Alex’s mother came to me for advice. She wanted to know how she could make Alex stronger and less sensitive, how she could, in a sense, “thicken his skin”.

Alex’s mother’s intent was, of course, a good one. She wanted to protect her son so he wouldn’t hurt so much. I began to wonder, however, why a “thick skin” is considered a good thing in our society. We are told to toughen up, to be strong, to shield or harden our hearts lest we feel sadness, pain, and fear too deeply. This is the only way we’ll be able to navigate this cruel world. If we do this, however, will the feelings of joy, compassion, wonder and excitement be lessened as well?

Several years ago in a prenatal yoga class, Sarah Halweil had some excellent advice. “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable” she said. This is indeed great advice to a group of women preparing for childbirth, but it is no less pertinent in our everyday lives.

So let’s experiment with being groundless and uncomfortable. Let’s be vulnerable, feel deeply and learn to love our thin skins.

I recently heard an interview with author, William Powers, about his new book Hamlet’s Blackberry. He researched historical innovations such as the printing press that disseminated information and connected people but at the same time lessoned the amount of time spent in introspection, reflection and thought. The most recent innovations in this category—the Internet and smart phones.

In response, Powers’ family takes a weekend “electronic Sabbath”: they turn off the house modem (they do not have smart phones). This move was inspired by the “disappearing family phenomenon” that inevitably happened as each member peeled away from the family room ending up in front of a computer. Powers does not eschew new technology but talked about finding a balance. For instance, his family feels that disconnecting for a couple of days actually helps them connect throughout the rest of the week.

It is not uncommon to look around and see almost everyone using some sort of electronic device no matter where they are. My 13 month old and 2+ year old know what texting is (I now try to isolate and decrease my own frequency of use and I do feel a sense of calm which may be from this shift). And, it is astounding how much information or thought one can disseminate and receive without actually processing it. Our email contacts, Facebook friends and Twitter followers, many be extensive but what are the quality of the relationships? How much “junk” is occupying space in our minds and bodies?

As reflective time and meditation time seems harder to come by these days (I have heard at least 5 people say this in the last 24 hours), I have realized that the time I spend on my yoga mat feels like a sabbatical. It can be 10 minutes or an hour and a half. I always feel revived, reset, and clearer. I feel more spacious. I can breathe, move and act better.

Connection cannot exist without disconnection and one inevitably leads to another. But, there is an infinite amount of distraction and clutter that pushes us away from what seems like a clearer, richer existence. Regardless of the technology we use, is what we are doing at any given time disconnecting us from or connecting us to the world around us, the present moment, the completeness of our lives?

Balance: in harmony or proportion. This is the Goal. It has been said in many scriptures that the goal of yoga is to reach Enlightenment. A person who is ‘enlightened’ is a being who is at One with all other beings, and is ALWAYS present. We work towards this, but we know and discover over and over how challenging this is, especially in today’s world where we are ‘plugged in’—often to a fault. Although the way of the world and business now, the act of plugging in—be it to the tube, the computer, blackberry, cell phone, gossip magazines, twitter, facebook—takes us further and further from the Truth. They are distractions; the one thing the Enlightened being is not is distracted. We ‘fall off the wagon’, lose our focus, and get sidetracked off the path from time to time.

Technology is a great tool as we all know for increasing sales in our business’, promoting ourselves, and for research among many things, but we must be careful that it doesn’t act as a time-wasting tool. Luckily, we can catch ourselves when we are out of balance in this regard; we have the strength in ourselves to get back up when we fall off the wagon, wipe ourselves off and plug away—on the path, the journey. The goal is to reach for balance, rather than trying to hold it, freeze it and make everything flawless and just right. Instead we flow in and out of what life gives us and try our best to maintain an equanimity of mind in the midst of the chaos and limitless distractions. There are many ways to express this balance—Yin & Yang, Ha (sun) Tha (moon), or Sun & Moon, Shiva & Shakti, or just simply Masculine & Feminine.

We are trying to reach for this balance on and off the sticky mat. Strong, assertive, and with a healthy ego so that we can achieve our life’s propose, but not aggressive, arrogant or selfish. Soft, feminine, and elegant, without being dull and boring. On the mat, you try to find this strong/soft balance so that your practice has technique and ground, but also has a certain style about it that is full of fluidity and grace. At times (sometimes it feels more often than not), we are out of balance, and all the ‘ducks are not in a row’. The Yogi observes this without judgement and gets right back to work—plugging away—reaching for the balance, the harmony, and whatever is happening, the inner world works on remaining still, not labeling things as good and bad.

Stillness comes when we have been taking care of our bodies and nurturing our spirits with art, spending time with loved ones, dance, creating, laughter, yoga—and from that stillness comes wisdom. You cannot hear what you need to hear—the Truth—if you are surrounded (inwardly and outwardly) by noise, and distractions. That balance within our own selves—equal parts of masculine and feminine—is what gives us a groundedness that others notice and want to copy. You teach others by your example of making your own balance a priority. When you are out of it, when you fall off the wagon, you cannot be that example so gracefully.

That is another goal of Yoga- to be of service to others. So we keep reaching for this complete feeling, and we embrace it and get better and better at it, but we don’t hold it or suddenly decide ‘I got it’. It is then when we hold too tightly that things change. Be present with whatever is but continuing the reaching while you flow. Know you have all that you already need—it is all inside of you. Once you realize that then you know you are your own best doctor, your own best therapist, your own best friend.

“During the time I was actually focused on drawing… I wasn’t conscious of feeling “happy,” or of feeling anything at all. I was in the closest approximation to happiness that we can consistently achieve by any kind of deliberate effort: the condition of absorption… an absorption in the immediate so intense and complete that the idiot chatter of your brain shuts up for once and you temporarily lose yourself, to your relief.”
—Cartoonist and NY Times writer, Tim Kreider, article “Averted Vision”

One of the main goals of the yoga practice is to develop ones concentration, known in Sanskrit as dharana. Through a keen narrowing in on a single point of focus, the fluctuating ripples of the mind are lassoed into one giant wave. As all the desires spiraling around in our consciousness weave together, anchoring lightly on one object, we enter the sweet state of dharana. Everything settles inside and we aren’t fidgeting or jumping away from where we are. There is a sense of fulfillment and contentment. It is the state of missing nothing, the state of yoga.

There’s no real trick to concentration, you just have to do it. It isn’t about trying or setting up all the right conditions (certain conditions can help, though they won’t take away the work of landing the mind on one point). Dharana doesn’t come through force, it comes when we take what is in front of us and soak it up gradually and fully, like a sponge. It is the result of falling in love with the present moment, the result of loving what is before you and seeing it as it is. It requires having the willingness to look at one thing and trust it is enough.

Then, when we have sat with one object for enough time, we slip into an effortless state of absorption. Absorption is another word for dhyana, also known as meditation. The breath becomes even and there is an ease of being untainted by the fear of losing the thing that was responsible for our happiness because no matter what the outer circumstances we can always practice concentration. As we delve deeper into the joyous state of absorption, we will eventually flop over into the state of Samadhi, or perfect happiness, perfect meditation. Samadhi, or this deeply grounded and untainted state of happiness is the result of concentration and absorption, not the object before us. As we narrow in, the narrowing in makes us vast, big enough to see what is divine and profound with whatever it is that is right in front of us.

Mr. Krieder describes it well:

“We do each have a handful of those moments, the ones we only take out to treasure rarely, like jewels, when we looked up from our lives and realized: “I’m happy.” One of the last times this happened to me, inexplicably, I was driving on Maryland’s unsublime Route 40 with the window down, looking at a peeling Burger King billboard while Van Halen played on the radio. But this kind of intense and present happiness is heartbreakingly ephemeral; as soon as you notice it you dispel it, like blocking yourself from remembering a word by trying too hard to retrieve it. And our attempts to contrive this feeling through any kind of replicable method — with drinking or drugs or sexual seduction, buying new stuff, listening to the same old songs that reliably give us shivers — never quite recapture the spontaneous, profligate joy of the real thing. In other words be advised that Burger King billboards and Van Halen are not a sure-fire combination, any more than are scotch and cigars”.

What we need is to start getting interested in concentration! If we could become infatuated with a concentrated mind, rather than the object we seem to be zoomed in on, then we will find more contentment with more people, more objects, more places.

Being is relaxed. Our deepest self, highest self, essential self, however you want to say it, is relaxed. Not collapsed. Relaxed, open, flowing with life force. All the benefits of yoga practice come by aligning with this essential beingness. Many yoga classes begin with a few moments of meditation and breath awareness. It’s a time to empty our minds and focus on the present. All too quickly most of us turn to concepts of right and wrong to organize our posture. In doing so we rely on accumulated knowledge from the past to adjust alignment, rather than what is arising that very moment in our bodies.

How often I have had an “ah-ha” moment, made a discovery that eases up a posture only to end up losing it for another favorite discovery down the road. I think this is a natural part of the process and certainly has kept my interest along the yogic journey, but I also sense it’s superficial nature.

Lately I’ve been playing with a different approach and I offer this experiment for your perusal:
Choose a posture that you can stay in for a few minutes. Set the pose to the best of your ability, back away from the “edge” a bit and stay. Breathe and observe how the pose begins to shift. Allow yourself to let go of the mental concepts that could be confining the flow of energy. Instead, ride the energetic currents inside the form. Relax into it. Then take this experiment into your normal practice.

In my experience I often hear voices of my past teachers, verbal cues for refining a posture that worked for them that I hadn’t fully integrated or hadn’t understood. Not only will you have an authentic yoga experience but you can connect to the generosity of your teachers and the entire lineage of this art form.

The very first line in the first book of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is “Atha-Yoganusasanum”, which translates as “Now the discipline of Yoga is explained.” The first word of the Sutra, “Atha” means “now.” Another way of interpreting this verse is that Yoga IS now. In other words, Yoga is the practice of being in the present moment.

For most of us our practice began with Asana, the physical practice. This is a great place to start because it gives us something concrete on which to focus.

There are many paths of Yoga. Personally, I have started down the path of Ashtanga Yoga. This method gives us specific tools to practice focusing the mind. The tools are: postures, a breathing system, and drishti, or gazing point. The three together are called Tristhana. As I am practicing, I notice I can become distracted. I might think about work I have to do, or phone calls I need to make. I like to look to see who else is practicing and what pose they are doing. When this happens, I can remind myself (hopefully without judgment) to come back to Trishtana.

I have had glimpses of how this practice helps me come into the present moment. After all, if I’m doing a pose, and I’m breathing properly, and I’m looking in the right place, isn’t that enough to think about? But it doesn’t come naturally, so I keep practicing.

I was enthralled with watching the Olympics. No matter what the event, I could watch the competition all night long. There is no better example of being in the present moment than those athletes. I marvel at how much focus it must take to perform like they do. What kind of concentration does it take to spin around on skates so fast that you get a nose bleed, or slide down an icy hill at 90 miles per hour, head first? I can’t imagine that someone who goes skiing off a jump and travels through the air more than 100 meters, with skis on, is thinking about anything other than what he or she is doing in that very moment.

I recently took a break from my Yoga practice to go surfing. It is a new activity for me. I’m not great at it, but I have a great time doing it. I have to really focus in order to actually do it. The tools of Trishtana help. I have to be breathing, or I would sink. My body has to be in the right place on the board to catch a wave. When I stand up, my feet have to land in the exact right position in order to be balanced on the board. And I better look where I’m going, or I’m just going down. Surfing, doesn’t come naturally to me, but I keep practicing.

I’m not saying that surfing will replace my Yoga practice. It is more that my practice can be applied to other parts of my life. When I’m feeling distracted, or challenged in some way, I can breathe, look at the task at hand, and focus. I use the tools I have been practicing to come into the present moment. And then, Yoga.

Bhakti Yoga is one of the six branches of yoga. Six different paths, all with the same destination: unification of the individual self with the divine. Of all the paths, bhakti is unique in its alleged accessibility. All that is required is unwavering devotion to the divine. The Bhagavad Gita suggest that a pure practice of bhakti is so earnest that every thought, word, deed is carried out as worship. Through this, the ardent practitioner is absorbed into the divine. “Keep your mind on Me alone, your intellect on Me. Thus you shall dwell in Me hereafter. There is no doubt of this.” —Bhagavad Gita, C:12 V: 8.

At first glance, the loftiness of bhakti can seem overwhelming. However, at its base, bhakti is simply devotion initiated by and steeped in love. Bhakti’s loved fueled devotion is steadfast, engaged, mindful and compassionate. This love is modeled after relationships within our realm of understanding and experience. For example, the love between parent and child, friends or lover and beloved. Because these exchanges of love are conducted within the worldly plane they are subject to the corporeal laws of impermanence and duality. Effectively ensnaring us more thoroughly in the material. Take heart, as this is not inherently bad. Thich Nhat Hanh writes that, “There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.” We can utilize bhakti to engage deeply with the tangible reality of our lives. Even through unsophisticated expressions of bhakti, our understanding of yoga expands and seeds of interconnectedness are sown. Think of Thich Nhat Hanh’s beautiful writings on the miracle of mindfully washing the dishes or eating a tangerine.

Infusing our practice with bhakti props us up with the courage to move out of our habitual emotional, physical or mental patterns and then sustain us in that uncharted and raw territory. Bhakti’s love does not make us blind, rather it clarifies our sight and wakes us up. So be brave and infuse your life with some bhakti! Act with heartfelt awareness, stay present and engaged with those you love and revel in your connection to the divine nature of all things.

Washing Dishes

Thich Nhat Hanh

To my mind, the idea that doing dishes is unpleasant can occur only when you aren’t doing them. Once you are standing in front of the sink with your sleeves rolled up and your hands in the warm water, it is really quite pleasant. I enjoy taking my time with each dish, being fully aware of the dish, the water, and each movement of my hands. I know that if I hurry in order to eat dessert sooner, the time of washing dishes will be unpleasant and not worth living. That would be a pity, for each minute, each second of life is a miracle. The dishes themselves and the fact that I am here washing them is a miracle!

If I am incapable of washing dishes joyfully, if I want to finish them quickly so I can go and have dessert, I will be equally incapable of enjoying my dessert. With the fork in my hand, I will be thinking about what to do next, and the texture and the flavor of the dessert, together with the pleasure of eating it, will be lost. I will always be dragged into the future, never able to live in the present moment.

Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. In this light, no boundary exists between the sacred and the profane. I must confess it takes me a bit longer to do the dishes, but I live fully in every moment, and I am happy. Washing the dishes is at the same time a means and an end- that is, not only do we do the dishes in order to have clean dishes, we also do the dishes just to do the dishes, to live fully in each moment while washing them.

Tangerine Meditation

Thich Nhat Hanh

If I offer you a freshly picked tangerine to enjoy, I think the degree to which you enjoy it will depend on your mindfulness. If you are free of worries and anxiety, you will enjoy it more. If you are possessed by anger and fear, the tangerine may not be very real to you.

One day, I offered a number of children a basket filled with tangerines. The basket was passed around, and each child took one tangerine and put in his or her palm. We each looked at our tangerine, and the children were invited to meditate on its origins. They saw not only their tangerine, but also its mother, the tangerine tree. With some guidance, they began to visualize the blossoms in the sunshine and in the rain. Then they saw petals falling down and the tiny green fruit appear. The sunshine and the rain continued, and the tiny tangerine grew. Now someone has picked it, and the tangerine is here. After seeing this, each child was invited to peel the tangerine slowly, noticing the mist and the fragrance of the tangerine, and then bring it up to his or her mouth and have a mindful bite, in full awareness of the texture and taste of the fruit and the juice coming out. We ate slowly like that.

Each time you look at a tangerine, you can see deeply into it. You can see everything in the universe in one tangerine. When you peel it and smell it, it’s wonderful. You can take your time eating a tangerine and be very happy.

Happy New Year fellow yogis! As 2009 comes to a close, I am remembering what Pema Chodron says, and that is:

“At the beginning of every day, reflect on the day ahead and aspire to use it to keep a wide-open heart and mind. At the end of the day before going to sleep, think over what you have done. If you fulfilled your aspiration even once, rejoice in that. If you went against your aspiration, rejoice that you are able to see what you did and are no longer living in ignorance. This way you will be inspired to go forward with increasing clarity, confidence and compassion in the days that follow.”

I have always been against New Years resolutions because they build up expectations and are another way in which we can feel as though we have let ourselves and others down. But as we close out 2009, and sit reflecting on a year that presented challenges and loss for a lot of us, is it possible to rejoice in the times that we were able to keep our hearts and minds wide-open and rejoice in the times that we weren’t. Ignorance is said by many great masters to be the only real obstacle, and by knowing when we act or react with a closed heart and mind, we are no longer living with blinders on.

So lets all rejoice and aspire to keep our hearts and minds wide open as we open the doors and the windows and invite in 2010. Lets hold hands and skip into the new year with clarity, confidence and compassion.

It is a great comfort to be on this path with you all.
The breath within my breath bows to the breath within your breath.
May we live in harmony.
Happy New Year!

Love, Colleen

Change the world by changing yourself.
Heal the world by healing yourself.
Find a need and fulfill it.
Service is the greatest form of spiritual practice.

Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.
You don’t have to have a college degree to serve,
You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace.
A soul generated by love.

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Today I received a gift of service. My guinea pig Butterscotch just had a major surgery (I am not kidding) and I didn’t know how to care for him when leaving on a trip. Just today, my neighbor who cleans the house was here. She is also an EMT and helped when my son got into an accident. However, I never ask anything extra from her, as she works for three hours, does the same thing every week and then gets onto her other jobs. I never dare disturb her routine. Today she saw me tending the animal and asked if I needed her to come in to give him medicine and food during the vacation. I was very touched, and accepted the offer. That gesture healed ten years of distance that I have had with this woman, and suddenly we were two people caring for an animal. There was no thought of reward. It was the simplest act, but changed an entire relationship.  I went through my day believing more in humanity and what we can do for each other in a single turn.

I grew up with two philosophies about service: First, from my mother’s Quaker side:  It was about living simply, never taking more than you need so that someone else won’t be without. The purpose of life is to find a need and fulfill it, to do work that makes a difference and makes the world a better place. My parents live as an example of this. My father a university professor, author and philanthropist, my mother a social worker, teacher and consultant to schools. In addition to their family, they have a huge network of friends and colleagues, people in their life who they have helped, guide, and inspire.

The second philosophy, which comes from growing up in a capitalist consumer society, measures success by possessing things.  “Service” is to do something the best you can so you can get something in return. We succeed in school, job, serving an employer or an institution, fit into standards that are acceptable. We are often owned by these institutions, though we may have secure jobs and careers and get money in return, there is a price. This supports the idea of individual self, separate from the collective. We make decisions that are for our own good, and not how it affects others. This has led to global crisis in the economy, environment, politics and culture.

Finding yoga as a teenager helped unite these two messages. For me, yoga was a place to discover myself, to be accepted completely as I am with no conditions attached. The teachers I had were serving, and gave to me in a way that helped me to make my life one of service.  I also loved serving them, with the focus of my work and honoring all they were teaching me.  At times I thought yoga might be a selfish thing, bringing me to a state of harmony and balance and joy that was “my” state, and separate from others. But most of the time it felt selfless, giving me clarity and strength to be more open to give fully to any situation I found myself in. It was changing the world by changing myself.

Being a teacher now is a direct way to serve, give back to others what has been given to me. Teaching yoga and art to children in school gives them different tools than all the mental learning they do sitting at desks and listening to words. Teaching adults in a studio provides a sacred space away from everyday life where people can deepen into themselves and find their center again.

Being a parent is service. As my parents are for me, I am a role model for my children. The integrity with which I live affects them.  What values and ideas I have they may choose or challenge. How can I support them in every way possible? When I am full, balanced and healthy, I impart that to them and can give them more. I realize that as fast as they are growing (age 10 and 12) I must also grow, whether I want to or not. I am serving their evolution.

The sanskrit word for service is seva. Seva means selfless service. “Sev” to serve, wait, attend, honor, worship. It is to perform an act with no intent for personal gain or even acknowledgement. It is a devotional practice. In the Bhakti (devotional) tradition of yoga, the Guru (teacher) will instruct a disciple to perform seva to get closer to God.  This may be sweeping the temple, preparing for a puja (ceremony) or feeding people.

In this tradition, feeding people is the greatest service you can do. Neem Karoli Baba (Ram Dass’ Guru) said “you should serve everything, every creature. It is all God’s creation. Serve everyone, whether he be a thief or anything else. If he comes to you hungry, give him food. Everyone has a right to be fed. Making food is a service to god. People need food to stay alive.”

I learned about another form of seva from Shyam Das. He also met Neem Karoli Baba 35 years ago, and stayed in India living as a musician, a sanskrit scholar and devotee of Krishna. In the practice of devotion to Krishna, one does “seva” every day. Shyam Das’ seva is a practice where you chant, meditate and cook for Krishna. I am admiring of this practice, as it exemplifies selflessness. Practice is not for one’s self and perfection of state, but an offering, a transformation.  He says “seva has no sense of getting anything out of it, it is the true dharma of the heart. It is different than charity or good deed doing. Seva increases pure devotion”

The spiritual practice of seva is karma yoga, the yoga of action that brings together service with devotion to God. As expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, the great conversation between Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield [of life], the key is to surrender to God the fruits of your service, to give up any expectation of rewards or attachment to the results and allow your human will to become part of the Divine Will. Then it’s not up to you how it comes out, so no worries, no anxiety. Work done with utmost love and integrity with no thought of the result is yoga, it’s a path toward the One, toward liberation.

From the Bhagavad Gita:

“The science of transcendental knowledge has been im­parted to you, O Arjuna.
Now listen to the science of God-dedicated, selfless action (Seva), en­dowed with which you will free yourself from all Karmic bondage, or sin. (2.39)

No effort ever goes to waste in selfless service, and there is no adverse effect.
Even a lit­tle practice of this discipline protects one from the cycle of repeated birth and death”

A quote from George Bernard Shaw (Upaya Zen Center newsletter):

“this is the true joy in life: being used for a purpose, recognized by yourself as a mighty one: being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown out on the scrap heap. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy”

There is always an opportunity to serve, and there is always time. In community, feeding each other, caring when sick, attending to emergencies, lending a hand, joining an organization, helping people in need. In one’s work and personal practice service can be in any form. It can be teaching yoga, or being an artist, a cook, a teacher, doctor, lawyer, politician, car mechanic, or janitor. As Krishna says in the Gita, do what you do, but offer the fruits to God and you will be free.

If I can stop one heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool the pain
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his next again,
I shall not live in vain

Emily Dickenson

It is essential in life to notice the abundance all around you for it is your awareness of and gratitude for this abundance that attracts more of the same. I remember when the economy “crashed” last year and the fear whirling about it was palpable. In class I was teaching a lot about taking notice of all the abundance in our lives encouraging students to make lists. I then had an encounter with a fellow yogi at Springs General Store in which I was recounting my teaching on abundance to him and he looked right at me without a pause or blink of an eye and said “GRATITUDE” that was it the word that would become my mantra for many months to come. Just saying thank you can make you feel better. So ok it’s easy to be grateful when things are going well, but what about when life is throwing you a curve ball like losing your job, a parking ticket or you catch a cold, how then do we stay grateful? So here are some practical ideas. First you are what you think so if you think gratitude that is what you see, attract and become. Second make a mental list of all the things going well and repeat it when ever you get the chance, doing dishes, laundry, driving etc. Third and I think the funniest and most potent is saying thank you as many times a day even when things aren’t going your way, set a goal, today I will say thank you 30x. Example: Ouch! I just stubbed my toe THANK YOU! It’s that easy. Let me know how it goes. Thank you Yoga Shanti for this opportunity.

Namaste. Jenna

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life.
Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.
~ Margaret Cousins

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson