Saturday morning dharma-piphany

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” - Rumi

Not just romantic love, all love... friends, family, fellow man. What barriers do you have within yourself against love? Are they restricted to certain people? 

Epiphany: Total unconditional love and acceptance = no expectations. 

I've seen this with multiple friendships. Do I totally unconditionally love people because I have no expectations or do I have no expectations because I totally unconditionally love them? It's like the old chicken vs egg question... in terms of total unconditional acceptance and non-expectation, I think they happen at the same time. The acceptance removes expectations and the lack of expectation invites acceptance.  

I have found an incredible amount of acceptance within the community at the studio I go to and I think it is because this particular studio draws people who can leave their egos at the door and just be raw and authentic in themselves. The feeling of coming home and being accepted by a community of people I don't necessarily know is incredibly liberating. Almost an addictive feeling. Which may be why some days I go for one class and then just hang out for a while. Just being in that energy is fantastic. They don't care if I can touch my toes in Standing Forward Bend or whether I can kick up to a Handstand. They don't care about my past. They are happy to be in the present and enjoy it as much as possible because the future is uncertain. It is a beautiful thing to be apart of . 

These realizations and feeling the truth in them down to my bones is starting to carry over from my yoga practice to other areas of my life. Feelings of authenticity and love and acceptance are not left on my mat... they follow me out of the studio. And my ego gets left somewhere in the past as a result. Things that no longer serve me fall into the abyss between my yoga practice and life. In times of distress, I return to my breath and realize how blessed I am. Faith is found in taking baby steps and giant leaps. It is found in the knowledge that in acceptance, answers can be revealed. Everything is far more connected than we realize. 

Namaste my loves. 

I found this while looking for a cool picture to show everything is connected. Everything is definitely connected in love. 

Day 61... How intense is too intense?

So I had it on my calendar to go to a Vinyasa class this morning and, while I think it would have been a good class, I have done A LOT of Vinyasa classes in the last month or so and I mean A LOT. Plus I wanted to see my nephew... so I decided to take a Yin class in the afternoon. I am so glad I did. I got baby time and took a much needed, less intense class. 

After class I started thinking about the challenge that just finished up (30 classes in 45 days)... and the intensity with which I approached it (I did WAY more than 30... like 40 more than 30). Approached may not be the right word because I actually attacked that challenge with the fervor of a starving person at an all-you-can-eat banquet. And the classes I took reflected that... Lots of Outlaw, lots of Vinyasa, some Kind Hot, a few Restorative, a couple Nidra, one Yin and one Hatha. Intense classes for an intense challenge. 

How you do one thing is how you do everything... so you would think that the lack of inhibition I showed during this challenge might cross over into other parts of my life. No, not so much. In fact, I think I have been using yoga as an avoidance tactic. Like "oh, I'm having a bad day... I don't feel like doing anything so I'll go to yoga because it will make me more present and I'll feel better and then I can get my work done." Right... That didn't work nearly as well as I thought it would. Part of yoga is finding balance and that has not been carried over from the mat just yet. There has actually been very little balance in my life lately. So now that the challenge is over... I'm going to start cultivating a BALANCED yoga practice. Do as much of the less intense classes as I do the more intense classes. Actually, next week may be mostly less intense classes to give my body a good chance to recover. One thing I have gotten good at is listening to my body... and it has been requesting that I take it down a notch or two. Sometimes the bold choice is to step back and dial down. I don't have anything to prove to anyone. My responsibility is to take care of myself. And it is my yoga practice, not someone else's. So that is what the next week of yoga will be focused on... taking care of myself and having the courage to dial back when I need to. 

Namaste. 

More of this... 

Less of this.