Wanderlust

I think my desire to explore the world was all set in motion when I was in utero.  My family boarded a ship to England where my father was going to be undertaking his post-doctoral dissertation at Leeds University.  My mother was pregnant with me on this journey and perhaps it was the rocking of the ocean currents that unlocked my travelers curiosity gene.  

 

From a young age I traveled around the United States on family camping trips.  We would pitch our tent and head out to explore the many state and national parks that are a true treasure of this country.  Getting on an airplane was a luxury and offered an exciting feeling of adventure-in-waiting and was a much rarer experience than a car camping trip. 

 

My biggest adventure was two days before my 17th birthday as I boarded a plane to Australia on a year long exchange.  And in 1986, I bought my first around-the-world ticket that took me through Bangkok, to Europe for the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, onto the States and back to Australia.  The drive to explore kept getting stronger and stronger, longing and looking for that "off-the beaten-path" experience.  I embarked on a 20-month journey where I traveled for 12 straight months...Greece, Europe and onto a 6-month epic exploration of Africa.  I eventually landed back in the States so I could work, earn money and keep travelling.  The final phase of that journey went through Canada, Hawaii, onto Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia.  Fatigue and the longing to no longer live out of a backpack brought me back to Australia where I began to focus on re-igniting my career.

 

But the wanderlust has never left.  I'm still curious and still excited to pack my bags and head out the door.

 

As you receive this, I will be in Squaw Valley (Lake Tahoe in Northern California) attending a yoga festival appropriately named "Wanderlust".  I return home for a couple of days then head to South America where the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu and the Galapagos await.

 

My world exploration has taught many lessons which include patience, planning, acceptance, trust and letting go of control. One of the most potent lessons has been that of independence and self-reliance, a sense that we all have the potential to step out of our own backyard and enjoy what the world has to offer.  It opens our eyes, offers a perspective that might be completely opposite to the beliefs we hold.  It allows us to come face to face with humanity in not only its rich beauty but its terrible tragedy.

 

I've once again got that feeling in my belly that an adventure is about to unfold and I look forward to sharing it with you upon my return.

Adiós mis amigos!

Consciousness

This past week I've been thinking about consciousness and what it means to become more conscious.  This was partly inspired by attending a Krishna Das concert in Los Angeles where we sat with a packed house of high energy and seemingly like-minded people with a common intention to listen, chant and go deeper inside ourselves.  This was one of those occasions where you could "feel the love" in the room and the energy that was emitted from such a collective is a powerful experience.

What does it mean to become conscious?  We can travel through our entire lives and remain completely unconscious about things such as how we breathe, the impact we make upon the planet or how our communication touches others.  So why do we need to raise our awareness?  Am I not aware enough just through my human experience of walking through my own life?

One of the main tenets of yoga philosophy is to become more connected to ourselves so that we can eventually see that we are not separate from everything else.  As long as we have the "us and them" mentality, we are separate and not in union with each other.  I see consciousness in many layers.  It's not as though I am either conscious or unconscious, aware or unaware.  As I work on raising my own consciousness I begin to uncover the layers that lead me deeper toward my authentic self.  I begin to see that if I say something that is hurtful or mean, if I act violently towards somebody else or toss a plastic bag out my car window as I'm tooling down the highway, I begin to notice that it's not an act against something or someone else, but an act against myself.  

My awareness grows when I begin to realize that what I say, how I act and how I treat this aching planet affects not only the outward flow of that act but is rebounded directly back to me and I am then put in a place of choice.  I can choose to ignore my impact or I can alter what I put out there and therefore receive back.  If I act in a loving, compassionate and peaceful way, that is what will come back to me.  When I see you acting the same way it will be reciprocated. The conscious connection to being radically present with ourselves is one of the main reasons we step into our yoga practice.  We come face-to-face with our thoughts when we step onto our yoga mats.  We are given quiet interludes as well as an opportunity to notice what thoughts arise.  The deeper we go the more subtle our connection to our physical selves becomes as well as what's happening in our breath.

How can I expect a peaceful world if I myself am not at peace?

How can I expect unconditional love from others if I am unable to love myself unconditionally?

When we catch ourselves acting in a way that we are trying to shift it is at that moment that our consciousness changes.  We come more into the present moment and from that place we can act in accordance with our highest intentions.

One way to bring our attention inward is to slow down and take a deep breath.  Another way is to gather with a bunch of like-minds seeking to raise their own vibration and perhaps belt out a few lines of a Sanskrit mantra.

Om shanti, shanti, shantihi to that!

Choice

With Independence Day here in the United States, I was reflecting on what the 4th of July means to me. What came up was having the ability to choose. 

I remember an experience I had when I returned to western culture after spending 6-months in Africa. I was in London and headed to the supermarket to buy some basics. As I stood in the brightly lit and wide aisled store, looking at the enormous selection of cereals all I experienced was the feeling of being completely overwhelmed. There was just simply too much to choose from and my next reaction was to leave. 

Yet at the same time, I was struck by how much we take for granted, particularly as it relates to the number of opportunities we have to choose from. In less fortunate countries, there may be only one cereal choice, if any at all. You might go for days and only subsist on bananas and maize meal. In the developed Western countries, we have created abundance and much of this began when people left their countries seeking other places in which they had more choice, more opportunity to live as they wanted and not as they were told.

The Fourth of July reminds us that we wanted to be able to create our own utopia with freedom to practice speaking, praying and expressing ourselves without oppressive censorship. It took a collective courage to realize the need and seek a path of creating a way of life that supported this ideal.

Our yoga practice is a way of seeking our own liberation and manifesting it into something that is greater than ourselves. But, we must first know what it is that we need to connect to, our own inner freedom and then trust the ancient methods that have been passed down through generations.

The Buddha said that suffering is a given in life and through making particular choices about how we undergo our daily existence we can move further away from this suffering to liberation. Brené Brown, Ph.D., L.M.S.W a research professor of Social Work (author of the book, "The Gifts of Imperfection") found that we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Thus, if we have difficulty in tapping into our own hearts, how can we fully connect into the heart of others? By uncovering our own deeper need, one of which is love, we can begin to not only better our own lives, but more fully engage in other peoples lives...you know...spread the love from the inside out.

As we engage in the process of discovering what we need more of in our lives (peace, knowledge, freedom or socks), we can then begin to set in motion our plan of striving to reach it. Just as our forefathers knew they were suffering and sought freedom, we too can look at our own lives from a similar perspective. 

This brings me back to cereal. We have so much opportunity sitting within reach. We have so much (sometimes way too much) to choose from that we often forget that having choices is a result of having freedom. For those less fortunate, they can still find freedom in their hearts and spirits. For us, we have the chance to not only choose between the high fiber/gluten-free granola or Captain Crunch but also how we choose to be in a relationship with ourselves, other beings and our planet.

I am grateful for being able to live in a country where I have the power to choose. Happy Independence Day to all!