Spring is Springing, time for a challenge….

Hello Pupps!!

I don’t know about where you are, but here in Tahoe it’s pretty spring like these days. I know, I know, you might be thinking “isn’t Tahoe a SKI area??!!”…, it is, and there is still lots of skiing going on. But here in town, there is hardly any snow and the sun has been shining for days on end with nary a cloud in the sky! Everyone is talking about when we are going to get the next big storm (we’re due) and how it could snow for the entire month of March…awesome. 

However…in this moment it is as good as spring for me, and Mexico is right around the corner (32 days!), so it’s Bikini Challenge or Bust!!! The next 30 day challenge starts on Friday (March 1st)…you know how I feel about 30 day challenges…but this is what I have come to discover:

30 day challenges are about honing in on one specific thing or area of my practice and concentrating on that for a month. For instance, we started this year out as “2013 Year of the Locust”…and let me tell you, focussing on working as hard as possible in Locust and Full Locust for the entire month of January this year has changed those postures for me!! As I always say at 30 day challenge time, “they say it takes 30 days to start a new habit”. So, if getting INTO your practice is your goal, great do a challenge….or do a personal challenge of 3 or 4 days per week instead of 1 or 2. Choose a set of postures to work on every day for the month, regardless of if your brain is complaining…get the idea?

MY challenge for this month is water and juice. For anyone who has spent some time with me, you know that I love drinks. Liquids of many flavours and varieties. Water, however, is something I only enjoy for the most part when I’m in or near the yoga room. Last week I wore down my water reserves and I got really dehydrated. Because I am in the yoga room every day, after a few days of not building the water storage back up as well as replenishing the daily loss….well, it leads to getting dehydrated which for me slows everything down, causes back up and body pain and feels generally not awesome. So, my 30 day challenge is to drink more water (specifically, have TWO big glasses first thing in the am rather than just one).  The second challenge is having green juice or a green smoothie every day. I am pretty good with this now, but by making it my challenge and committing to it I will ensure that no matter what else I eat that day at least I’ve had my greens!

So, there you go. Many people at this time of year give things up for Lent. You could think of this as the same idea…only instead of giving something up you are gaining something more! Coolio.

Think of it, puppies, maybe you have a goal or two that would work for you. But remember, whether you decide on a challenge in your practice or in your life, be kind and generous with yourself. If you love you then you will love others too 

I love you.

Love,

How much of what you feel do you think it yours…?

Hello and good evening my loves!! Wow, I think it’s been a while since I have written here…I had some thoughts about doing a “30 challenge” with my writing, but that hasn’t started yet. Writing has always been something that I find very therapeutic, I love to do it, always have. I decided many years ago that one day I am gong to write a book…I tried my hand at screen writing (nope), I have written several monologues, parts of one woman plays, snippets of things here and there….and, of course, this blog 😉

Needless to say, you will know when I start my writing challenge…I will be in your inbox every day!

I just finished teaching Karma class. This is a pretty small studio, so 20 people in my class is a pretty good size. We COULD fit 45 or so in there (I’ve not seen that many)…but 30, to me, is a good full capacity…alas, I digress. Before I taught, I knew I needed to ground myself and center myself for class. I had been running around, doing all sorts of things, and knew I needed to focus myself on teaching….put my teacher hat on, as it were.  I set my alarm, and began my meditation. It was the longest time I have given myself for meditation in a while. Mostly I have been stealing 15 minutes here and there, and taking long savasanas. Today, however, I had almost an hour and it was perfect. On a side note, I never pressure myself into a length of time for meditation…what I have learned is some days I need 45 minutes and somedays 10 is enough. I usually set the alarm for the most time I have, that way I am not worrying about having to be somewhere or anything like that. So…today I had almost an hour and took it! 

I will now get to the gist…something occurred for me that caught my attention. During my meditation, it was like I was standing by an open door and a huge gust of wind came rushing by me and as it passed, it pulled all these people out of me…and I heard the words “all the lost souls”…and the gust of wind took all the lost souls and blew them away…away from me. 

I have been feeling some weird pains in my body the past few days (a couple of them for a couple weeks now) and I have a feeling that many of the aches and pains belonged to these lost souls. I am an  emotionally porous person. I suck up emotions and feelings of people around me…sometimes even when it’s not people I am close to. Teaching yoga and being with all the feeling and emotions of the people in the class, I often have to make sure to brush off whatever I have picked up from others. The way I usually know it’s not mine is if I say “oh, this is WEIRD, I feel pain or emotion, etc”…it’s the WEIRD part that is important. We all have things we feel regularly, or even things we feel irregularly…but when things sneak up or are WEIRD then maybe it isn’t actually ours to claim. 

I know, it sounds weird in itself…but next time you feel something (physical pain, mental anguish, anger, sadness, etc) and it feels weird to have said feeling, ask yourself “is this mine”?…if it is, fine, if not…take a breath, tell yourself “not mine” and allow it to pass. 

Try it. I know, you might not be with me on this one…but you might be surprised when you start to figure out how much stuff you take on from other people!! They are sneaky, the strong ones can handle it, so the not as strong ones let their stuff float every which way and see where it lands…sneaky sneaky.

For me, this is an ongoing every day process and lesson. Sometimes I am able to brush things off immediately, sometimes I hang on to them like they are mine, sometimes I have a harder time letting go…it’s all a work in progress.

OK, kidletts…I am going to get some stuff done and then hit the hay. I am working up to telling you about another thing I have on the go right now…but that will have to wait for the best time…

Big juicy heart shaped kisses and super ruby red hugs,

-Ida x