Time To Make Hay

All the signs are there. I have a cold. I am sitting amongst a fortress of stacked papers. The to-do list isn't consolidated in one place, so I actually have to add, "consolidate to-do lists" on my list of things to do. My taxes are waiting to be done (ugh). I am just now writing emails that I wanted to respond to earlier in the week. The tomato plants need trimming. I haven't done a full workout in two weeks. These are the signs-it's peak season.

It's an abundant time for the seasonal desert community. The weather has shifted out of the winter chill, flowers are in bloom, the streets are crowded and sometimes you have to look around for a parking space. For self-employed people like me, this is the time of year to "make hay while the sun is shining".

But add to that, taking on a new challenge (the Global Seva Challenge India 2012 for me) and trying to socially connect with the seasonal snow birds it makes for quite a hectic time. Hence some things simply don't get tended to. So, how does a yogini with a slight OCD for order go about being OK with it all?

I try these things to maintain an even keel:

1. Keep my sacred time, sacred. I begin each and every day with a morning meditation. No exceptions.

2. Set aside time to attack what is on my to-do list. And stick to it. If it isn't at the top of the list, it can wait. This means prioritizing what needs to be completed today.

3. Sleep. Maintain a regular sleep habit. Bed at the same time, rise at the same time. If I'm feeling really pooped and have a small window it's either a restorative yoga pose or a wee nap for 15-30 minutes.

4. Humor. I'm busy. You're busy. It doesn't mean we need to lose our sense of humor. I take time to either listen to comedians on Pandora or watch my favorite sitcom (I find Modern Family hilarious).

5. Gratitude. I try to keep things in perspective this time of year. I feel blessed to have so much work, such great friends from all over the country that spend time in the desert and a true opportunity to make a difference.

6. Breathe. It's simple. It's available in this very moment. It can calm me down in a matter of three deep conscious breaths.

It's busy and I'm really happy that this is the challenge that I face. I love what I do and will put up with a bit of excess clutter to do so. It's no biggie...I've always got my breath!

How Do You Hear "No"?

This Global Seva Challenge has me doing things that I've never done before. I am undertaking my own process of stepping out of my shadow and into the light of stuff I'm unfamiliar (and uncomfortable) with. Things such as asking for donation prizes for an upcoming raffle. How do I just walk into a local pet store and ask for something for free? I begin by having a conversation with myself in the car on my way..."Ok, so you know this is for a cause that's bigger than you. You know that you'll be helping out people who are less fortunate and have no voice. Be brave. You can do this. The worst is that they'll say "no". Then why do I have this familiar feeling of nausea in the pit of my stomach?".

This is my self-talk. The two Jaynes chatting away before doing something which I don't feel comfortable doing. So, being a yogini who strives to continuously evolve, I decide to delve deeper. I have been asking myself the question, "what is it about asking someone for something that makes you uncomfortable?". The answer I have come up with is hearing the word "no".

There it is. It's out there. The fear of hearing "no" for an answer. I realized that I've held this fear for quite some time. In fact, I have been so fearful of the "NO" answer that I will often not even bother to ask the question, just in case I hear "no". Wow! What a revelation!

Part of my own growth is getting to the root of what holds me back and this journey along the path of raising $20,000 this year is not only about the money. It's about discovery and about truly embracing my own role as a conscious leader. It means I have to take risks and one of those perceived risks is being told "no". Being told I can't do something. That gets to me (obviously as it's held me back from asking in the past!).

Now that my fear of hearing "no" has stepped out of the shadow and into the light, a couple of things have happened. The first is that I'm not taking the "no" answer personally. I just have to wait for the "yes" and trust that the right people will say it. The second is I wonder what else is lurking in my shadow. What else will I uncover as I step not only off my mat, but back onto it again and again.

Now I just feel curious more than fearful. AH! I think that's called a shift or even better...transformation.

What's hiding in your shadow? How will you bring it into the light so that it's no longer scary? I have one suggestion. Know that it's there and know that by stepping onto your mat and into your practice you can make friends.

Let the light shine!

Calm Before the Storm

Have you ever had one of those experiences where things were growing in chaotic intensity and someone standing next to you asks you to do something that you've never done before?

This has happened to me, like the time I was looking after my infant niece whilst my sister (an optometrist) was giving an eye exam to our mother. It was the weekend and we were alone in her office and I was outside of the exam room with my niece whose diaper became soiled. Pinching my nose, I yell through the closed exam door, "Karen...Laura needs to have her diaper changed!". And my sister yells back, "Well...go ahead and change it!". Not having birthed any children of my own, I was in a place of not knowing and had to stumble my way through the task (holding my breath) and praying not to make it a bigger mess than was already in front of me. This was not something I was proficient at doing yet we all got through it (even though my niece was sporting a diaper that was slightly off-center).

This brings me to my thought for the week, that of practice, particularly as it pertains to the breath. Sometimes when I ask a yoga student what they got out of the last session they reply, "Well, I haven't done anything this past week but be more aware of how I'm breathing". To this I reply with great excitement, "Excellent!". Yoga is about the breath. It is the specific practices around breath awareness that differentiate yoga from other endeavors. If we can breathe, we can be fully in our yoga practice. The power of how our breath can alter how we feel, often within seconds, is an undervalued asset until you start to experience its effects.

If the only thing you take away from reading this blog is how to calm down through breathing, then excellent! We undertake breathing practices when we are in a calm place so that we can readily call upon them when we perceive something as a threat or stressful. If we haven't practiced tapping into our breath, there is little chance we will be able to do so in an emergency.

I love sharing the story of when my husband Ed, who had been practicing yoga for a few years, had a heart attack and subsequent open heart surgery. When he was in the hospital and experiencing pain, I could lean down to his ear and say, "slow down your exhale" and voila...he knew exactly how to do that despite being connected to tubes, machines and in an unfamiliar experience.

You can begin now. Sit in a relaxed position. Take a deep inhale over four counts, pause and exhale for six counts. Pause. Repeat. When we make our exhale longer than our inhale, the effects are almost immediate and shift us from overdrive into a lower gear.

And if the need arises where you have to change a dirty diaper remember this tip it will come in handy!

Selfless Service

I loved the movie "Pay It Forward", where the main theme was if somebody did something for somebody, largely unexpectedly, that they in turn did something for somebody else. That the good deed forward was passed along and paid forward. This idea has the potential to create an infinite flow of outpouring that comes from a selfless place. It becomes truly selfess when it arises from a deeply heart-centered place with no strings attached: with no expectations.



It simply feels good to participate in small random acts of kindness. Those times when as you exit the off-ramp and see a hungry homeless person you give them the banana you didn't eat at lunch; when you let someone with two items go before you at Trader Joe's; when you pay the toll for the car behind you; when you help a senior by reaching for an item on the top shelf. You get the idea. The little things that can restore a sense that people are generally good and generous.



But what if you're in a position to do more? What if the acts of kindness perhaps aren't random or small?



As I begin my year of aiming to raise $20,000 for the Global Seva Challenge to India, as part of Off the Mat, Into the World, I am sitting in a place where I have a voice to do more than my small, random acts of kindness. I have become part of an organized cause where not only my efforts count, but they synergize with others participating in the challenge. Collectively, we become a much bigger voice for bringing awareness and support to an often silenced population.



I take my hat off to the many people that I see in my local community who give so much to others. They are performing their own forms of SEVA (selfless service) and although they may not have any association with yoga, they are living part of the yogic philosophy in doing so.



Stepping into my own practice of seva, I realize that I need to ask for help from others. This is not a natural part of my being as I still possess a piece of that stubborn two year old who says, "I can do it myself!". But what I am coming to realize is that when I ask for help, I can do more. When people offer to be part of my seva team, collectively we turn up the volume on the issue. They in turn participate in their own seva by helping a cause greater than themselves. They begin the process of paying it forward.

This seva challenge IS way bigger than me. It reminds me how much one person can do, but also how much more a conscious collective of people can alter the quality of other peoples lives. As my involvement deepens, I step more and more into my own power. It's an exciting challenge that has ignited my passions and I invite anyone who is seeking to have their own spark ignited to join me.

Take A Time Out

I remember being in kindergarten and toting a napping mat with me to school. Mine was red on one side, blue on the other with a white piping around the edges. It wasn't that thick, but I wasn't that big so it didn't really matter. What did matter was that when it was time to rest, it was what dictated my space. When our quiet time finished, we all sat around drinking milk and having graham crackers. What a life!



Unfortunately, that behavior wasn't encouraged much after kindergarten and off we were launched into the ever active, scheduled and goal-oriented world. Nowadays times-out have become a way for parents to manage naughty behavior. When I was a kid, it wasn't called a time-out it was, "Jaynellen! Go to your room!" Once there, I would chill out until I felt it safe to show my face and join back into family life. Mind you, it didn't happen that often :).



In our current cultural realm we navigate our daily lives as though we are guiding a boat over a lake with threatening rocks lurking just below the surface. If we become careless or mindless or move too quickly, we run aground and possibly stop our forward momentum.



My thought for the week is: how much can you slow down in your current life? Do you need to? What happens to you if you overpack your schedule? Do you begin to let go of the things that are supportive of you such as exercise, making healthy food choices, getting sleep or having down time? What do you sacrifice in order to stuff more stuff into your day? At what point is it no longer beneficial to how you intend to live your life?



I ask these questions because I observe and listen to many clients throughout the week who have hectic, full days. They come walking into class and one of the first things they ask is, "Is it time for Savasana?". Savasana (Sha-Vah-Sana) or final relaxation pose, is just that---the final pose at the end of a class. So, when people walk into the studio and ask for a time-out, it's a pretty decent indication that it's time to do less, draw inward and slow down.



One of my teachers, Judith Hanson Lasater asks the question, "What would the world be like if everyone did savasana for 20 minutes a day?". My question to you is, "What would YOU be like if you did 20 minutes of savasana a day?".



I hope this has given you a little inspiration to head into your storage area and dig out your old kindergarten mat. And then, maybe grab some graham crackers and milk. Now that's a worthy time out!

Over Stimulated

Stop for a moment as you read this. How many things are going on in your environment, RIGHT NOW? Is the TV on? Music? A conversation in progress? Are you petting your dog? Baking some gluten free cookies? Or naughty you...are you at a red light? How much is going on in your world at this very moment?



We have become numb to the amount of stimuli present in our everyday lives. If you watch one of the sports or news stations, not only do you have the game or the reporter on screen, but you have one and often two by-lines of subtext scrolling somewhere on the screen as well. In the gym the other day, I noticed a person who was walking on the treadmill, headphones on, TV on and reading the newspaper. I thought, "Wow...can this person add anything else into the mix to completely distract themselves from the actual physical activity?".



It's so common, we don't perceive it as being an issue. We're plugged into our devices, that are smaller and more accessible than ever. We have added another layer onto all else that we do. My question is, why?



Partially, I think it's because this is what most people are doing. It seems normal to be disconnected, so we don't have the awareness that we're participating. Our culture has led us to believe that silence isn't desirable. When we step into an experience where there is little distraction from simply being present, we often find it startling.



When we visited the Baha'i House of Worship, also known as "Lotus Temple" in Delhi, India, people were instructed to remain silent once inside the temple. As we entered and found a seat in one of the many long wooden pews there was a rustle of human activity and once people settled down, we were bathed under a vast dome of relative silence. Even after being thoroughly instructed to remain silent, many people couldn't resist the temptation to whisper something to another person. They would then be signaled to "hush" by a volunteer who would make eye contact and place prayer-like hands at their own mouths as a reminder. We sat for quite some time and we could feel a definite shift away from being over-stimulated by the densely populated city and into a sanctuary of calm.



My thought of the week is to see, even in our own busy lives, if we can peel away some of the extra layers and seek our own sanctuary. If you watch a talented juggler handling multiple balls at one time, they are still only doing one thing. Juggling. If you feel you're juggling too many things at a time, see if there is one thing to let go of in order to point your compass into a direction that is more calm. Letting go of a multi-tasking and distracting mind-set can lead us to a sense of openness and freedom, just as we found within the silent temple.

Is That My Suitcase?

On one of my first around-the-world tickets, I flew from Melbourne, Australia to Bangkok, Thailand. I was prepared for a two-day stopover in Bangkok on my way to Europe and I was excited to be taking my new red and grey backpack on its maiden voyage. It was a long flight and we arrived around 2 AM into the international airport in Bangkok. After clearing customs and immigration, I stood in the baggage claim awaiting the arrival of my new backpack. The carriage circled round and round, and as the time passed, the number of bags cycling became fewer and fewer util it finally stopped with another backpack that looked like my backpack, but wasn't.



Here I was, alone in Bangkok for the first time at 2 AM and wondering where my bag was and what to do next. I headed over to the official lost bags office and as I explained my story, the officials caught the woman who had collected my bag rather than hers. It was a simple case of mistaken bag identity (coupled with fatigue, no doubt). It was just in time for me not to have entered a full blown state of panic and unease, of wondering if the stuff in the other woman's bag would fit me.



This story relates to my thought for the week. Are you picking up and carrying around baggage that isn't yours?



Do you take on issues, dramas, stories and gossip that are about others and, in doing so, distance yourself from owning your own stuff?



Many times in this blog, I speak about looking after our own needs first so that we can hold space not only for our own growth, but so we can better hold space for others. By doing so, we enter into our own selfless service (seva). But if we haven't done the work to look deeper into who we are, how we hold our relationships to the earth and other beings then how can we have the energy to carry someone elses baggage?



Ultimately it all comes down to you owning your own stuff and the space you hold in your heart. Maybe it's time to let go of other peoples baggage.