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Appreciation

Hello, blog world.

I’ve been quiet of late. Partly this is because I’ve been up on a mountain without a strong or reliable internet connection. This time was nice. It consisted of reconnecting with old friends and making new friends — many of whom felt as though they were old friends I’d only forgotten. It also consisted of cold nights and bright moons, too many dog fights, and some amazing food made in outdoor kitchens. I was enjoying the time so much that I called my little brother in Connecticut to see if he’d be able to come out and join me. Not this year, but for sure next year — that was the plan.

Then, I came out of the forest and a girlfriend said she had a note on her facebook from one of my aunts that my family was trying to contact me. Worry swelled — I wasn’t sure which family. (I’m blessed to have many.) On reconnecting online I learned the devastating news that my little brother had died.

The first day I met my little brother. He was 6 and I was 18. — The first day I met my little brother. He was 6 & I was 18.

I was blessed to know my brother for 16 years. Continue reading “Appreciation”

Happiness is Already There

Perspective is everything. It’s well known within the yoga world that five minutes in a headstand will shake up your bad day and improve your mood. Yoga inversions move the physical body up side down, sending our feet reaching towards the sky and our heads rooting towards the earth. This change in our physical bodies gets our blood flowing to the heart, drains the lymph system, and invigorates our energetic body. It also uproots the emotional and thought bodies, subtly shifting persistent thought patterns to allow us to see through the illusion that is unhappiness and connect to shri, the true joy of the present moment.

Moving to Central America has created a change in how I define happiness. Our Western culture often teaches us that happiness equates to acquisition. Read: get happy by chasing your desires. I spoke here about how corporations launched a successful campaign on the public to convince them to buy what they don’t need. The reason that campaign had so much impact is that jumping from desire to desire is part of the One Human Condition. Continue reading “Happiness is Already There”

Holiday Reflections

The world around us reflects the world within. We see what we expect to see, people reflect back to us our histories, habits, and ways of being. Alcoholics Anonymous has a saying, “water seeks its own level.” In life, we gravitate to people and situations vibrating at the same frequency as the energy within us.

When we gather together with family for the holidays, we are often faced with deeply ingrained habits and ways of being reflected back to us by our family members. Perhaps these habits are buried deep within our subconscious and we are unaware of them. Continue reading “Holiday Reflections”

Una Oportunidad para el Silencio

When we want to dive into a deeper, more meditative practice of yoga and listening to the mind, our modern lives require that we consciously create that space. That might mean creating an area for meditation in your home – a room or corner dedicated to deep thought or introspection. It might mean that you find a group of people meeting regularly at your local yoga studio, zen buddha center, or something similar, and show up for class. Or, it might mean that you take a length of time to retreat, to an organized event like a 10 Vipassana Meditation Center, or simply to the wilderness. In my life, I have always, always, always found a deep heart connection simply by surrounding myself with trees. I have sweet memories from my childhood when I would trek off to the small woods behind my elementary school and spend hours taking in the loamy scent of decaying leaves and swampy mud and stare up at the tree tops and the sky beyond, feeling connected to all those trees growing tall over my head with roots intertwining under the earth beneath me. One of my favorite hiding spots as a young girl was a tremendous pine tree with boughs that spread out wide but a quiet, clear space in the center. I would soften enter that tree and stay under it’s cool, green protection for hours, and would seek it out specifically when I was upset about something. I always found that quiet space with the scent of time cooling and calming. That said, I find myself ready now to move on from Granada and towards the wilderness. As I prepare to make this change, I”m also finding my practice move away from a strongly physical practice and more towards a yin yoga, Kundalini yoga, pranayama, and meditative practice.

Granada has been the perfect place to transition to life in Central America. Being the wealthiest city in Nicaragua, it offers many niceties to extranjeros such as opportunities for western food, a lively and active Calzada where the cerveza flows and the conversation raps all night, and opportunities to escape the oppressive heat in cool blue pools. Continue reading “Una Oportunidad para el Silencio”