Living Your Dreams...

Imagine living in a world where you love what you do and you seek life in the very breath that you breath.  There is a difference in breathing because you are alive and actually seeking life with each breath. Becoming a seeker of that life is what led me to a yoga studio.  It felt like there was something missing and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it yet.  

Then…

I walked into Yoga Story one day with the idea to check out a class and left knowing exactly what it was that brought the missing pieces of my life together.  Actually, what I found out is that there was nothing missing at all.  I had all the pieces and every corner of the puzzle inside myself all this time, I just didn't know it.  It’s been a little over two years since that class and every practice since has just added fuel to a fire that sparked inside me that day.  

In yoga there is fluid movements with your breath that brings everything in sync making it a beautiful dance for your soul.  Now, if you have ever been in a yoga class with me, you know that it doesn’t look that way from the outside.  I saw a post about a baby giraffe learning to use its legs and that would probably better describe what is going on outside my body.  But, if you do yoga then you also know that isn’t what the practice is about anyway. It's about unlocking those things that keep you stuck whether it's your body, your mind, your direction in life. The practice itself opens you up to yourself and helps you find stillness in the chaotic world that surrounds us.

It seems only natural to pursue the Yoga Teacher Training with Yoga Story in Downtown Bentonville. The YTT begins in January of 2017 and I'm incredibly excited to bring my dream to a reality and join their program to become an instructor. Yoga Story, in my opinion, is the best studio on the planet.  I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a few different places both here in NWA and in other states while traveling.  I keep coming back to Yoga Story because it just feels right.  It’s a wonderful place where ALL are welcome and there is space for everyone.  I don’t mean that there is floor space (although, there is) I mean there is a place for every single person to be exactly where they are in their practice. Every class is accessible and a beginner can practice along side an advanced yogi.  Yoga is a very personal practice and having a studio that meets you exactly where you are makes it a safe place to be vulnerable in order to grow into your authentic self.  After all, that is what this life journey is all about...becoming who you are meant to be!  

When you wake up every single day with the realization that you know exactly what it is that your heart is telling you to do, you have found a gift that not everyone unwraps in their lifetime. Allow yourself to open the box my friend. I promise, it is worth the effort! 

Namaste

Stillness...

Stillness.

Last week my intention with my practice was to create space. It was productive to spend an entire week with the same intention for every practice. So, I decided to do it again this week with my focus being on "stillness."

It’s so important to find stillness when we have such a busy world swirling around us.  This morning’s yoga practice lasted for an hour and a half which is something that rarely happens.  It was so wonderful to just flow through movements while allowing stillness to continuously reside at my core.  

I’ve been on this journey as of late to get back to the basics of the important things in my life.  My spiritual concerns are reaching further and further causing me to forget the very foundation on which I live my life. My yoga practice has followed suit.  In my effort to get better and do more difficult asanas, I seem to have skimmed over the basic foundation of form and purpose of the practice.    

Creating space for growth is a good thing and absolutely necessary to keep moving forward, but we can’t move ahead so quickly that it comes at the expense of forgetting the basics of what is really important.  

The music that accompanied my practice this morning was Sanctuary and it was a perfect fit to bring me to stillness and continue creating space for growth.  

Creating Space...

Hello again!!!

It's been a while so I will just jump right back in where I am today.

Space…

Space to feel, space to breath, space for change, space to grow and even space for fear

My intention this morning was solely to create “Space.” Since beginning a regular yoga practice, I have been running toward the difficult asanas because they look really good, and that proves I am a yogi, right?  Don’t get me wrong, I have also learned so much about how it balances the mind and allows you to settle and take inventory of where you are mentally.  That’s very important to me because it is an integral part of my treatment for Bipolar.  I need this so that I can come to stillness and know what is real and what is perceived in the world of my own mental illness.

However, since really focusing on my practice in anticipation for my upcoming YTT, I have learned so much more about what yoga really is and that what you see is only one dimension of the practice.  

Today’s intention was focused solely on creating space…

Space to feel

Space to breath

Space for change

Space to grow

When we create space, we also create room for fear.  I keep trying to change the subject when fear creeps in, but today I just let it stay for a while.  Fear of change, fear of not knowing what lies ahead, fear of feeling things that are not always good. That’s a little tricky when you are Bipolar because I am unpredictable sometimes and if everything else is the same, I function better and my world runs a little smoother.    

I realized that when I shut out the fear, I am shutting out all the things I want to create space for as well.  So, today, I felt the fear and even created space for it on the mat.  I felt it, let it sink in, breathed through it and let it go.  When I finished, I feel like I have created a little more space for all those things that I want so desperately to make room for because it is only when we do that, will we grow.  

Namaste!