January is time to declutter

We have been talking this month in our Teacher Training Program about Non-possessiveness. Each month we have read about and then tried to live one of the Yamas (the restraints) that is talked about in the first limb of yoga. In our culture we think that we own everything in our care. But in reality, we own nothing. If we begin to take care of those things in our life as if we had them for a time and then were to release them back to the world we might do a better job in caring for them while we have them. I love the notion in Feng Shui that everything is energy. Therefore, everything that is in our care currently we have a string of energy tied to. So those boxes in the attic and basement are taking up some of our energy. The same goes for all of those emails in our inbox. They are like a list of “to do’s” that just don’t go away. I am one of those people who love the New Year because it motivates me to clean things out and look up so that I can see the things that I have not been caring for like I should. I have used this month to clean out my closets, my little piles that had accumulated around my house, and finally today my email inbox. Until recently I was not deleting all of those extra emails that come in each day. I was skipping over them but not deleting them. Since early January I have been deleting those emails as they come in to my box but I had not gone back to the months before. It took a long time this morning to go back and get rid of them all but I cannot believe how much lighter my mind feels after doing it!

Our yoga practice does many wonderful things for us. One of those things is that is allows us to create space inside our muscles and our connective tissues so that we can live more freely in our body. Our body will continue to contract if we do not go out of our way to stretch our muscles and facia frequently. Our surroundings work the same way. If we do not purposefully create space in our surroundings, it will fill up with clutter. I challenge you to de-clutter something today. Maybe it is your purse, your car, your in-box, or your closet. Think about non-possessiveness. Won’t you feel lighter if you create space inside and outside of yourself. By the way, thank you Lisa for reminding me it had been awhile since I posted.

Living our yoga

The teachers at HeartWork Yoga Studio are meeting monthly right now to discuss applying the Yamas and Niyamas into our everyday life. Our teacher training group is doing this also. The first Yama (restraints) is Ahimsa, non-violence. To begin living our yoga we are to try to be non-violent in our life. At first this seems so simple, it sounds like being non-violent means to not fight with others. But actually to be non-violent in your life is hard! Isn’t thinking bad thoughts about yourself violent to you? Isn’t it violent to roll your eyes at the comment your mate just made? Is it violent to eat meat from chickens that never had a pleasant day in their lives while they lived in tiny cages where they couldn’t run around and be chickens?

As a group we discussed all the ways violence shows up in our lives. This month we are trying to pay attention when these things show up in our life. Can we be more patient with those people in our life that challenge us? Can you eat less meat in order to afford one great free range chicken from your local farmer? Can you re-phrase the little voice in your head when it says something that is not kind to you?

Try it. Try to be kind to you, and be kind to others. Try to live in a non-violent manner. That does not mean to be passive. It means to think about what you are doing and how you are going about living. We are reading the fantastic book The Yamas and Niyamas by Deb Adele. It is a fantastic book. Read it if you have not. HeartWork Yoga Studio carries the book in our yoga shop.

Namaste friends,

Amy

Kindness ripples out into the world

We finished this years’ yoga teacher training program today and I am so struck with how truely KIND people are! Someone said today during our closing ceremony something like “you can take a group of strangers and in just a few months they become like a family”. The countless acts of kindness that were happening in this group of people was humbling. Everything from gifts that were made or purchased, words of kindness, beautiful gestures, notes written to each other, the list goes on and on. These strangers had become each others inner circle. They had begun acting with love and kindness to each other.

You take all of this kindness and then you see these people turn around and spread this out into the world. Two of the women in the group started a local Karma Yoga Project where they have a yoga teacher come in once a month to teach a class for free. The participants are asked to bring toiletries, donations, etc. for a needy organization. The goods are then given to help people in need. That is so cool, doing yoga asana ends up helping needy people!

Another woman from the group lives in a small town in Wisconsin and she is going around that town encouraging local men to start doing yoga. The guys are feeling great about starting because there are other men doing it.

Others are volunteering to help elderly people do yoga in their assisted living environments. These people are taking kindness that they received and passing it on.

In addition to these things, everyone is just simply spreading joy around! Smiles, kind touches, thoughtful gestures. We can do this too. Who can you be extra kind to today? Who do you know that needs a little word of encouragement? Spread a little kindness and joy today, and know that it will ripple out into the world.

If we all do it, the world will continue to change and be an even better place to live.
Namaste,
Amy

Its Earth Day! What can you do?

Its the 40th celebration of Earth Day today. I am so glad that people went out of their way 40 years ago to start increasing awareness about taking care of the earth. I loved this morning when I heard a reporter say that it started out as a “hippie event”. Don’t you love that what started out as a fringe topic today will be observed by a BILLION people! That is amazing growth! What are you doing for Earth Day? I read recently that Americans are wasting nearly half their food. I think that is crazy, but probably very true. I know that frequently I take more food than I end up eating. What I am proposing this week to my family (and you) is to be aware of how much food you take/cook/serve and see if you can cut it down to get less waste. I am not talking about being a member of “the clean plate club”. I think that mindset has not helped our obesity problem in this country. But rather what I am saying is for us to think about the amount of food we take, we eat, and we dispose of. Two weeks ago we had our group of yoga teacher trainees at the studio for a weekend of training, I was cleaning up the first night after they left and I found a beautiful little ceramic cup on the counter. It was a little cup that one of the people used for their dinner. I was thinking about how we tend to supersize everything these days, and this person was instead putting their meal into a special little cup that they could focus on and appreciate. That is what I want to work on for me. I challenge you to pay attention for the next couple of days and see if you can waste less, and be more aware in the process of what and how you are eating. Enjoy this beautiful Earth Day everyone!

We all have our strengths!

This week I am at a conference about how to use our software program to its maximum ability. I think I am driving these IT guys to roll their eyes about every 5 minutes! It reminds me that we all have our strengths, and if something is not our natural strength, there is no need to think negatively about it. I am happy that there are people that love computers, I depend on these people. I am happy that there are people that love accounting, I depend on these people. My strengths are in creating yoga classes and running a business. At the end of the day, we all need each other. When we put the pressure on ourselves to try to do too much we end up exhausted. Let’s just try to focus- try to do those things that we are drawn to naturally really well. And for the rest, lets lean on others. Together, we make the world run beautifully. Namaste.

Yoga helps calm an active mind.

I am reminded this week how effective yoga is to calm an over-active mind. It seems like there are times each year where lots of people feel frazzled and anxious. Maybe its the awesome energy that spring brings, maybe its the “to do” list that suddenly grows when we can get outside; whatever it is, I have talked to a lot of people this past week who feel anxious. We need to remember how calming it is to just pay attention to one breath at a time. When you feel a bit crazed, try it. Just pay attention to THIS breath. When it is fully exhaled away, now pay attention to THIS breath. Letting go- that is harder for us than we may realize. But that in a nut shell is what Spring is about. Paying attention to the moment we are in- while letting go of what no longer serves you. That way you create space in your life for something new to grow. You might let go of old thoughts, old opinions, or old stuff. Whatever it is, let it go and see how much lighter you feel. Namaste my friends.

Spring Is Finally Here!

Hello HeartWork Community! Welcome to our new studio blog. Visit here to check in with yoga thoughts and studio happenings. My plan is to blog every other week or so. I would like to write about yogic theory and living our yoga. -Amy Etzell