talkin' gratitude

I have a little nephew on the way, and woke up this morning feeling full of love and gratitude.  Using my classes as my platform, I gushed on and on about what a proud auntie I am and how excited I am to have another little man on the run.  This turned into a talk on gratitude.

I'm reading Brene Brown's The Gifts of Imperfections and one of her ten Guideposts is cultivating joy.  She talks about joy vs happiness and says that happiness is an emotion that we feel and is fleeting based on external situations that come and go.  Joy. on the other hand is an attitude that we cultivate. 

We are not born joyful, nor do we achieve joy and stay in a state of it, but we work towards it moment by moment, situation to situation.  She goes on to say that one of the things that  joyful people share is that they all practice gratitude.  And that gratitude, like joy, is something that you choose.  It's something that you practice.

Here is my practice:

Today I am grateful for all the people that come out to my classes week after week and let me ramble on and play with them as we work to crack each other open bit by bit. 

Today I am grateful for those who came out to practice with  me in the park despite the scary storm clouds that filled the sky.  Through breathing and love and gratitude, we brought out the sun.

Today I am grateful for my gramma - the ultimate yoga cheerleader - who came out to practice tonight and cheered us on and breathed with us.

Try this: 

1. Come into savasana.  If you have props, use them.  Laying on a bolster or blocks - something to open up your heart will help.
2. Tune into your breath.  Breathe from the center of your chest.
3. Say "I'm grateful for ____".  Bring an image to mind - let it fill you up, the sound of it, the smell, the way it makes you feel.  Fill yourself completely.
4. Stay here for a few minutes sending out your love and gratitude into the universe.
5. With palms facing up, crack open the space in the center of your chest and receive all the love and gratitude that is coming to you.
6. Go out and love.

Gratitude Photo Journal

Beach days

Nature Walks

 

Elivs Weekend

Vintage Jewellery

Yoga Play with my homeboy



Book shares from yoga pals

 



What are you grateful for???
      

the truth of it

The truth of it is, I live in a place of fear.  Fear of not being enough.  Of not being smart enough, or funny enough, or good enough.  And it's exhausting, but it also makes me sad.  Take this blog for example:  I started this blog with the intention of just writing.  Not writing to be read, but just writing to get my thoughts out.  And in the beginning this blog served me really well.  And then all of a sudden I had a comment and it was like "holy shit, it's not just me anymore, someone is actually reading this."  And then everything changed.  I stopped writing for me and I started writing for an audience.  My voice changed.  I started re-reading and editing my work as though I was writing for a publication.  Although I was being honest in my writing, I wasn't really being authentic.  I'm reading Brene Brown, and she talks a  lot about authenticity and the way she describes it is that people aren't necessarily authentic or not authentic, but that in every situation, every moment throughout the day you can either be authentic or not.  It's a choice by choice, moment by moment sort of thing.  And over time my writing lost it's authenticity.  As I read over past blogs, I can see the real me poking through but under a bit of a lens.  I'm tired of this.  I changed the blog's name thinking that it was catchy and would get me more readers...then I changed the url thinking that surely I should have my blog under my own name just like the big-wigs do.  I'm done with this.  'a side of yoga' is back.  And I'm pledging to myself to bring back the true intention of this blog.  Which is to write...for me.  And to provide a place to gather and store my thoughts and my studies.  So that's it.  I'm back.  Because I love to write.  And I'm choosing not to care if other people think that I'm smart enough, or funny enough or good enough...because the thing is...it doesn't matter so long as I believe that I'm enough.
Back to the basics. 
Love.