Yoga & the Social Media Circle of Life

Social Media is a very interesting medium to me. Growing up we just had regular telephones, mail and face to face social gathering to keep you in touch, in tuned and involved. Today, you never ever have to see or hear a person if you don’t want to. Or if you do, you don’t ever have to come in physical contact with the people, yet know everything about them.

So for me, I didn’t know if I liked social media.  I want to see, touch, feel and smell people (hope they smell good). I need physical interaction, as I spend enough time alone writing, planning, art or whatever I feel I need to be completely in sync with.

I felt like social media was more of barrier rather than a connector for me. Sure there is online dating, but that’s not my speed. While you can Skype, I like to see my people face to face. And there’s Facebook where most people are voyeurs into other people’s life, I’d rather talk to you on the phone to find out what’s happening with you. 

My perception of social media has changed from one small event that took place and made my yoga program a success.

Social Event: Being new to the Phoenix Metropolitan area, I decided I would go on a food tour. I could hang out with some new people for a few hours. If I made a connection with one or none past the social event, it was a way to have some physical interaction.

Connection: I overheard a conversation had by a young lady, Jordan Johnson, regarding her social media expertise. For some reason I knew in that exact moment that conversation was meant for me, so I asked for her card. Jordan is also the daughter of the owner of the first restaurant on the food tour, Squash Blossom.

I called Jordan regarding web design and social media assistance for my business and upcoming yoga program I was introducing at a yoga studio. However, by the time we met, the yoga studio unfortunately had to close. No studio to host my yoga program, but I believe that one should always keep moving forward with the plan because you never know what’s around the corner. So I met with Jordan anyway.

Well the meeting was just the thing around the corner. Not only did the beginnings of a web design & social media assistance take place, but a space to host my yoga program was created. That’s right my program would be delayed a month, but had a new home, Squash Blossom.

Now I had to find an audience. I was going to use the yoga studio’s members as the people I marketed the program to. No one else, well the social media circle of life had other plans.

After much effort of face to face passing out flyers, setting flyers in businesses, I turned to social media since I hadn’t gotten any face to face responses. I signed up for Meetup.com, which I got registrants from. But it was a connection made on Twitter that created the most unusual and interesting relationship for me and my yoga program.

Social Media: Anel Arriola decided she would take a break from Facebook’s social media scene. She didn’t feel like she was utilizing and connecting with people the way she wanted. So Anel turned to Twitter to see if she would have better luck there.

A resident of downtown Phoenix, she became a follower of Squash Blossom.  Unaware of my social media actions, I somehow followed Anel on Twitter. She looked more into my program and thought it would be a great fit for achieving the goals and dreams she has in her life.

Having been away from Facebook for over a month, she got back on and connected with her friend that she hadn’t seen in two years. While they had not seen each other, Facebook had been their way of keeping in touch. But since Anel had been gone for so long, the friends decided to meet in person.

During their face to face meeting, Anel told her friend of the program she had planned to register for. The friend thought it would be fitting for her life and decided that it would be great for her boyfriend to attend as well. So they all signed up and the program began.

Yoga: While in a yoga class, in which we were supposed to be practicing yoga, somehow it took a turn and we decided to talk about other aspects of yoga, not just practicing asanas (poses). Our conversation revealed the synchronicity of the universe and how it assist you in fulfilling your goals, dreams and desires if you allow it. We went on to discuss how we are each a universe of our own and we each affect one another’s universe by drawing people, places or things to support our goals and dreams.

I shared with them my story of how I came to Squash Blossom. And my belief that I had drawn this place into my universe to support me in allowing my yoga program to be introduced to other people to benefit from. Anel saw the connection of how I also drew her into my universe and told the above mentioned story.

Needless to say, I was amazed at this social media circle of life. This made me a believer that social media was a great tool to connect people face to face, a capability I didn’t see before. I thought it was just one more way to disconnect. 

Social Media, like yoga is a tool meant to unit and bring together. To have a oneness, holistic approach to living. There was a lesson taught for me that social media is meant to bring us together in every aspect of our life.

Liv your truth!

You & Me

My aunt observed a t-shirt I was wearing from pictures I had on during my yoga photo shoot. The t-shirt is white and says “You&Me.” She told me she liked it and wanted one. I said, “sure, no problem.”

Every time a picture of me was posted on Facebook wearing the You&Me t-shirt, she would remind me that she was still waiting for her t-shirt to arrive. I admit, I procrastinated and didn’t go look to see if the store I purchased the shirt from still had any in stock. A month or so passed.

Still pictures of me in the You&Me t-shirt doing various yoga poses are continually being circulated through my social media feeds. My aunt inquires even more about the t-shirt. I say, “Okay, I will go look for the t-shirt. If I don’t find it, I will send you mine.”

Of course, the t-shirt was no longer to be found. I am a woman of my word and sincerely work to honor all commitments. But I liked my t-shirt! I really wasn’t ready to part with it just yet! I just got it!

It was a great statement when teaching my yoga classes, You&Me.

I packed up the t-shirt and mailed it off. Bye, bye t-shirt! It was fun while it lasted!

You&Me have a responsibility to one another.  I recognize that we are the same - Namaste. That’s what the shirt represented to me.

My aunt made me hold true to the very personal meaning of this t-shirt to me.  As she has, does and will do anything for me and the rest of our family. She married a man that understood that and brought the same quality to our family.

You & Me, my aunt and I are a lot alike. We are both Aries. We have both experienced Ulcerative Colitis. And we both love to have fun with our family & friends, valuing them very.  I guess it was fitting for her to have the t-shirt, the representation of You&Me.

Would you give someone the shirt off your back, out your closet or from your drawer to take care of them? Or even simply to make them happy because it isn’t always a need. Can you give away something that you want to keep?

Liv your truth!

Creative Management

Your creative juices have begun to flow.  Watch out because a flood of thoughts and ideas are rushing through your brain.  You may have started a project and needed ideas to help you along the way to see that project through. 

Then another great idea comes along that may not look like it has any relatedness to the project you are trying to complete.  But your creative juices have been so slow to flow for so long that you feel the need to take on another project.  Ideas are flowing for that project.  You are and overflowing source of creative lava. 

Project number 2 is now getting all of your creative attention.  You begin to neglect project 1.  You recognize the neglect and decide you can manage both.  Just then, creative thought produces ideas for your best project yet! 

Project number 3 is born.  Because it is your best thought ever, you become solely consumed.  You are experiencing creativity begetting creativity begetting creativity. 

This can be a wonderful time as your creative juices are on fire.  You are inspired!  You are highly productive.

Completing all your creative endeavors may become challenging in the mist of it all.   They each have a place in your heart and in this world where you feel will be beneficial.  They are all important.

Take a step back and breathe!

Managing your creativity is a process that will allow you to utilize your creative abundance experience in a manner that will work for you.  You need to begin with the following steps:

·         Organize your current projects.  Identify the need base for the project.  Categorize and place your efforts to the one that will bring the most benefit of service.

·         Write down other ideas that come to mind.  Jot down notes as other ideas for those projects come to mind.  This will assist you in capturing the idea and its creative path without overloading yourself with more projects you can handle at the present time.

·         Overlap each project.  Identify where you can use the simultaneously in conjunction with one another.  For example: I teach yoga and I have new interest in expressing myself through painting, my first pictures are of yoga poses.

There’s no reason why creativity should go to waste.  We just need ways to manage our creativity to produce the results we want.  Liv Your Truth!

Were You Missed Today?

Daily there are 4 things I look forward to, a “Good morning” text from a friend, Seth Godin’s blog feed, John F. Groom’s positive quote and words of inspiration from a friend recovering from being paralyzed.

The funny thing is that only one of them is personal to me, I think (the “Good morning” text). Even if they aren’t personal to me, my day isn’t the same when I haven’t received this content. And I bet they don’t even know how much it all means to me that I am thought of enough to be included in their outreach even if two of the content feeds I subscribe to (lol).

So yesterday I didn’t receive my daily words of inspiration from my friend. My first thought was did I overlook it. Once I saw that I didn’t, I thought about how I needed my content from her. Then it hit me, what if she was having a bad recovery day. I reached out to her and she was fine, but I wasn’t until then because I missed her presence as part of my day.

After my world was back to normal, I started thinking about how caught up we can become in our own experiences and don’t even realize that we affect other people when we don’t send out that “Good morning,” that positive quote (sometimes John F. Groom forgets), that blog (Seth Godin sends his faithfully) or daily inspiration. And what is it that each of us give out daily that if someone didn’t get it from us would be missed? Is it a smile, a hello, a coffee, a joke, a conversation, or an I love you.

Experience your day, however it may come, but don’t forget in the middle of it all to give someone that little something something that would be missed of you if they didn’t receive it.

Liv your truth!

Life Without Limits

“You never asked us if we were beginners?” said Ileana Salinas.  She is one of the participants in the Live Project 12 week – achieve your goals/dreams through yoga.  She continued to tell the group that she liked that she wasn't given basic yoga instruction as if she were in a beginning yoga class, even if she was still new to incorporating a yoga practice into her routine.  Ileana enjoyed being pushed passed her perceived limits.

We’re in our 4^th week of yoga and our group goal support sessions.  And what I teach in the yoga classes are meant to be used off the mat in their everyday life.  I don’t teach super challenging poses, but I do lead them to poses that encourage balance, confidence, courage, flexibility and strength…all the tools that we need in our everyday life to achieve our goals/dreams.

During the Live Project Group Goal Support Sessions, the participants discuss the feelings they had before, during and after asanas (poses).  To date they have shared feelings of stress prior to yoga, feelings during yoga from relaxation to rebellion, and calmness, achievement and confidence after yoga.  And learning to use conscious breathing as the most chosen method to regroup and refocus on and off the mat.

Also in the Live Project Group Goal Support Sessions, they've been required to journal their dreams/goals, organize, and visualize them.  Using the tools they are learning from the yoga classes, they are really beginning to reshape their perceived vision of what they thought they could accomplish to what they know they can achieve.  They are seeing our connection with one another in our goals/dreams - we all want to make a living doing what we enjoy, have loving relationships with friend/family and make a difference in the world.

There aren't limits to the dreams/goals we set out to achieve for ourselves.  So we shouldn't allow our perceived vision of a pose, a situation or circumstance limit us either.  Know that there is always a work around over, through and under as long as you remain balanced, confident, courageous, flexible, strong and keep breathing along the way!

To learn more about the Live Project or get involved (click here).

Liv your truth!

Writing Your Life’s Best Work

Writing is a skill, a talent, an innate gift…you posses it!

You begin to write…you stop, you start over, you delete.

Writing is creative, revealing, healing...for your life!

Journaling your thoughts, feelings and dreams can lead you to writing your life’s best work.  

Here are 3 ways to begin your journaling process of achieving your dreams and goals.

1. Understanding yourself through self exploration and asking questions - 6 Ways Journaling Will Change Your Life (click here).

                                                                                                                 

2. A creative approach to expressing your words with Art Journaling (click here).

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                          3. 10 Journaling Tips to Help You Heal, Grow and Thrive (click here)

                                                                                                                                                             May you write all of your dreams true. Liv your truth!

Stress Quotes: 8 Celebrities On How They De-Stress

With yoga and Transcendental Meditation becoming popular Hollywood trends, more and more stars are opening up about what stresses them out -- and, most importantly, how they calm down, whether it's meditation, breathing exercises or just a little time at home alone.

From Michelle Obama's go-to advice for decompressing to Brad Pitt's secret stress remedy, click through the slideshow below to see what 8 celebrities have to say about stress.

[Via http://huff.to/11ZvAOA]

Putting the Pieces Together

Every day is a chance for us to recreate the person we want to be. A life that we fully create! So how do we create something from scratch?

By seeing the bigger picture at the end. Because it’s the starting point that sometimes become overwhelming. But then I think about a puzzle.

Puzzles come in all these little pieces and you don’t know exactly which pieces fit where. Like life, you don’t always nowhere to start and you try different combination's of pieces that you think will match until you get two fitting pieces. And just that little win, can give you the encouragement to keep working that puzzle. Some puzzles are so intricate that it takes days on end to put it together to completion.

Creating life can bring about those same challenges, keep going, work it every day. Know that even when you don’t see how the pieces will fit together that there is a bigger picture that is just waiting for you to complete it.

Forrest Gump said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.” And while I definitely think it’s true, I also think life is just like a puzzle. There’s a big picture that you can look from the end and start with little matching pieces to create it. Liv your truth!

Challenges Exist, Can You Overcome Them?

There will always be a new challenge or the same ole challenge that reoccurs in our lives. No one is immune to them. The movie Groundhogs Day plays in my mind repeatedly, as I am all too aware when I can see situation in my life that resembles that of one I had faced before. And normally it’s a situation that I didn’t handle well or didn’t have the courage to commit to seeing the outcome through.

Facing our fears and obstacles one by one can give us the strengthen to face the next challenge and see us through. Problems don’t exist unless you recognize them. Ignoring them doesn’t mean that they don’t exits, it just minimizes the affect they have on us. Liv your truth!

A Leisurely Life

How many of us can say that we live a leisurely life? A life that entails us the ability to do exactly what we want to do when we want to do it. Oh, this is what we commonly refer to as retirement!

What if we have retirement figured out all wrong? Why do we have to wait until we have worked a lifetime to then rest and enjoy life? What if we could incorporate retirement into our daily everyday life?

As retirement is defined as the point where people stop employment completely, leisure is the point where time is taken away from activities we don’t want to do. In our society, it’s generally employment that we want to retire from to enjoy a leisurely life. But what if employment could be a part of a leisurely life?

Timothy Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Work Week, suggest how it can be done based off of his real life experiences. In his book, some of the things he teaches is:
• How to outsource your life and do whatever you want for a year, only to return to a bank account 50% larger than before you left
• How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it's beyond repair
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”
• How to fill the void and creating meaning after removing work and the office

Today, more and more, without having read this book or even knowing that it exist, many of my family and friends have begun changing the course of their life from future retirement to leisurely life now. Leisurely life for them includes having retired from a job at the age of 50, quitting their jobs to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams or part time enjoyable work. For me it’s focusing on activities I love to earn a living, writing, speaking and teaching yoga. What does your leisurely life look like? Liv your truth!

45 Days to Change

On March 1st, I decided I would begin 45 days of yoga. I was to commit to 45 days without missing, if I missed a day, I would have to start over. It was an important day to me because it would have been the birthday of my deceased uncle whom was extremely overweight at death.

March 1st became even more significant, as we found out my father was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. At the time of diagnoses, the cancer had already spread to his liver, lungs and lymph nodes. With little else to do for him, chemotherapy was the only treatment that could be offered to possibly extend his life another 3 to 5 years.

While I was committing to a challenge that would add something to my life, my father was facing a challenge that would be taking something from him. But we were both optimistic in our individual challenges. We were both committed to the path, mine being yoga everyday and his being strong enough for chemo, and had faith in our abilities to see our goals through.

By March 5th, I knew there was no turning back for me. I had 4 full days under my belt and knew that if I missed a day and had to start over that I would be upset to miss out on the 4 days I had already completed. And heaven forbid if I missed again making it a habit of starting over, I would be livid. So I decided I was committed no matter what, snow, sleet, rain or shine. No matter what happened in the world, I was doing yoga!

My father had the same outlook as me. He was committed to preparing his body for chemotherapy. His energy was low and body was weak, so over the course of a few weeks he experienced several blood transfusions that would only bring his blood levels up for a few days, but then would go back down.

His blood levels had decreased so bad, he had to be admitted again to the hospital. Still optimistic, he hoped his stay would better prepare him for his scheduled chemotherapy session at the end of the week. No such event took place.

The end of the week, chemo was no longer an option for him at this time. A new change of events revealed that my father’s liver and kidneys had stopped functioning. If over the weekend they didn’t improve, he would have to go into a hospice stage of care.

A few days later, on April 3rd, my dad passed away. It was 34 days from the time of his diagnoses on March 1st. Every day, no matter what, I continued with my practice.

On Saturday, April 14th, I completed my 45th day of continuous yoga. I started out just wanting to see if I could commit to making a change in my life by adding a daily yoga routine to it without giving up on my stated goal. I didn’t give up, I was committed, but I learned so much more.

I was grateful for my 45 days, as it prepared me for change. I found myself learning that my 45 days of yoga was my path to peace and strength that I didn’t know that I could experience in such circumstances experienced with my father with his health and his death. Liv your truth!

Expiration Date

We have an expiration date on everything, there is no thing that last forever. Food goes bad, businesses go out of business, and cars are no longer built to last. Even people have expiration dates since we kind of expire when our time here is up.

I would really love for certain things to last through my forever, like my cell phone, my laptop or my car. I’m not a big techie. I don’t really get excited when new things come out making my “old” things out dated and no longer able to work properly. I’d rather stick with what works and don’t fix it.

I don’t know that my life is really any better because the new iPhone is out, just using this as an example. Yes, I plan on getting it because my 2009 Blackberry no longer behaves properly. Maybe because it was never meant to last for 2 years, I pushed it. Don’t get me wrong I’m excited as all get up that Sprint finally has the iPhone. I can’t wait to play with the all the bells and whistles, but I’m sure I will still just use it basically to call and text. And maybe use facebook, twitter and my blog a little bit more since it may be easier to post with an updated phone using the latest operating system.

While there are plenty of creative geniuses that get to use their mind by creating new technology, is the majority of the population stimulating their brains to create what they love by using this ever updated technology? Or are we just blinded by the latest new thing that we don’t have time to be creative before we expire?

I want an iPhone because I think it will enhance my creative endeavors, allowing me to enhance my accessibility so I can profit from what I love. Instead of a company simply profiting from what they want me to love. Don’t expire before you have a chance to create what you love (thank you Steve Jobs for living your truth). Liv your truth!

Did I Say That?

We spend a lot of time regretting what we said. Try changing it up by being grateful we didn’t say that.

We all say what we don’t mean sometimes, as we lash out in anger or in jest. Or maybe we do mean it. In any case when the receiver of our words is hurt we may feel bad or regret the consequences from our actions. And it’s too late! The person that heard the words is forever affected even if they do forgive you.

How about try not saying anything. Practice silence in the midst of a disagreement, a potential accusation or a funny at someone else’s expense. Words carry power, use yours with love.

Liv your truth!

Expert of My Day

There are many things that we have the ability to become experts in money matter, tennis, knitting, you name it. Some experts say it can take 10,000 hours or 10 years to become an expert in your desired field of interest. That’s a lot of time, I’m just saying.

Becoming an expert can apparently take a lot of time. So where do we find this time to dedicate to becoming an expert in your noted interested? This is where time management comes in to play.

You have a day job, but you really want to be an artist (jewelry, painter, writing, musician, etc). How do you make this work when there is a laundry list of exercise, eat well, work, pick up kids, homework, pay bills, make money, clean up, make dinner, friends/family social time and blah, blah, blah? At the end of that one can feel like there is no hope for them to take on an additional project to invest into the 10,000 hours to become an expert.

So don’t become an expert in your field of interest, become an expert in managing your day. Given a routine in any one’s day, work, eat, sleep, there is always the unexpected that creeps up into our day. Your day can’t be controlled due to the unexpected, but maybe you can step out in front of it to beat it, before it beats you.

Finding some time in our day that’s quiet, for me, it’s the early morning. No one I know, well one person, is up and I don’t have to worry about anyone or anything interrupting my time. If I wait until after 8am or 9am, people are stirring and the unexpected has become the expected.

Managing my day is committing to creating the time to actively practice my area of interest (writing and wellness), I make it part of my lifestyle. If I don’t commit to it, it won’t commit to me. Then I schedule the rest of my obligations around my areas of interest to fulfill to the best of my ability.

Committing to your area of interest may require you to actively practice it for only 1 hour or it may be more. Whichever the case, I know it may sound silly to reschedule your entire day around an hour, but to transform to what you want to be isn’t. Liv your truth!

Divorce Court

Divorce is the classic piece in society’s closet that never goes out of style. In less than one week three people have told me that they are divorced or divorcing. Out of the three, only one of them kind of took me off guard, but really nothing surprises me.

Having been officially divorced since January 2010, I guess I’m an expert to them and so they call me for my counsel. As the saying goes, “been there, done that,” I tell them to chalk it up t yet another one of life’s experience. And the experience was meant for personal growth and development. Then my question to them is…What is your accountability /ownership in the process of the marriage not working out? Human nature dictates that we like to place blame, but we shouldn’t place blame, we should accept responsibility for actions.

We choose that person for one to many reasons. We get married for the wedding event, companionship, financial support, “love”, arrangements (paying for someone to go to school on a GI bill), etc. Whatever the reason you entered the marriage won’t necessarily be the glue that keeps the marriage going, it might be the thorn in your side that makes it fall apart.

Next I ask them to be really, really, really honest with themselves, “did you change during the marriage or did you try to get them to change?” Most responses are normally, the same, they spent most of the time trying to convince the other of their view point (been there, done that!). But really if we haven’t changed much, should we really expect for the other person too? Crazy people think others should change and never themselves. And yes it’s true, we all have the ability to change, however it comes when one is ready, not when we are ready for another to change. The only person you have that type of control over is you!

Change comes in many forms and often times when we face difficult situations, like divorce, to propel us to another state of being. Divorce can sometimes feel like experience death, as you are losing someone. This experience can lead you to better or worse, a statement you may have expressed in your vowels. Choose better and divorce can actually do that for you if you allow it. And understand you will continue to heal way after the divorce. Make sure you find your peace from within so that you will not attract the same type of person you left behind.

Will I get married again? I’m open. Life is an adventure, who knows what I will learn from the next marriage experience. My aunt said, “You haven’t been married unless you’ve been married twice, the first one is just a trial.” I know I just don’t plan to do a repeat course. I will be different, as I only have the power to change me. I won’t expect the other person to change. Liv your truth!

My Yoga Journey

Currently, I'm only teaching yoga on an occasion, by occasion bases, more like small yoga parties. This summer, I was teaching at multiple locations around the Chicagoland area and it was draining me. It was more tiring than working full-time and doing yoga teaching training, which was like a 60+ hour a week commitment for the two.

I listened to my body as I felt like I was expending more energy than I was receiving. I also began to realize that I may have been trying to do too much too soon. And upon more soul searching, I discovered the original reason I went to yoga teacher training wasn't the same.

Originally, I wanted to be certified so I can teach. Although I love teaching, I started feeling like I needed this knowledge to work with my own healing for now. You know raise my energy level with it, instead of depleting it.

I was working at a few places that used yoga a secondary stream of income and didn't put the same type of commitment in the yoga classes as the main business. That got me thinking a lot as well, I see yoga as first, so why would I spend my energy and efforts with facilities that don't have the same interest.

I'm a lot happier with that decision I made to continue my healing with yoga. This path has really help me look at things in a different perspective, from how I feel as opposed to what I think I should do or how other people feel about my decisions. Liv your truth!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 34

Life presents us with a series of events. We develop thoughts around how we perceive our life’s events. These thoughts become stored as memories in our bodies.

The body represents the most physical form of identification of who we think ourselves to be. We could suppose that our bodies are the manifested and the thoughts are the unmanifested actions that make up who we are. Through our body is where we are allowed to take external action of the internal thoughts that run through us.

Our body being a reflection of thought, when we look in a mirror or observe how our bodies feel, can tell us a story about the thoughts that reside inside of us. The reflection may be one which you are satisfied with or one you are not. By the way society is so image conscious could be a good representation that we are not very satisfied with what we see or really what we think.

As a society we are in a constant continuum to change our outside, the body. We rarely spend the same effort to change the inside, the thoughts of our mind. I would ask you to consider the idea, if you worked to change the thoughts inside, that it could have a tremendous affect on how the body will change on the outside.

The Tao Te Ching is a manual that attempts to provide guidance on a way of living that is harmoniously beneficial to you, your loved ones, your enemies and the entire community as a whole. A document that expresses a manner which we can all have without wanting more or taking from another to have it. This is a confusing concept since we live in a society where we are taught that I need more to be better and in order for me to have, someone else can’t have.

As the Tao Te Ching contains many antidotes to personal and societal life challenges summed up in eighty-one very short chapters, I would like to explore Chapter 34 to bring awareness to some of the great words of its teachings:

The great Tao flows everywhere.
All things are born from it, yet it doesn’t create them.
It pours itself into its work, yet it makes no claim.
It nourishes infinite worlds, yet it doesn’t hold on to them.
Since it is merged with all things and hidden in their hearts, it can be called humble.
Since all things vanish into it and it alone endures, it can be called great.
It isn’t aware of its greatness; thus it is truly great.

We can spend a good eighteen or more years of our lives learning reading, writing and arithmetic. While this is definitely useful information, what if the skill of living were taught to us, how much better could we be? Liv your truth!

Living Life on Your Terms

Today I received an email from a former Yoga Teacher Trainee (YTT) classmate. It was a goodbye email to his colleagues, friends and family announcing his last day of work at the fitness club he was a facilities manager. He had just completed getting his Master’s Degree in Engineering, so of course the thought was he got some new fabulous job.

Living Life on Your Terms
Instead of this new job in the same field, his announcement was he was leaving his current job to pursue his dream of becoming a chiropractor. What??!!!....my first thought. He didn’t mention that during YTT. My second thought, YTT changed us. Changed us from what life has been for us to creating the possibilities of what life could be for us living life on our own terms.

I am so excited for my dear friend! I wish him all the best in his new endeavor. He was such an amazing yoga teacher trainee. So I know he is going to be an amazing chiropractor.

Purpose of Your Being
There’s a voice inside of all of us that talks all the time. There’s also a feeling we feel that creates an interest, attraction or desire inside of us. We may hear the voice or feel the feeling calling us to the purpose for our being.

Some of us pay attention to it and some of never give in. Our purpose for being is simply that, our purpose for being! And our purpose for being is to express something of ourselves that will deliver more happiness and joy to others, but especially to ourselves.

Joy & Happiness
Three words sum joy & happiness all up, be, do and have. We have to be the dream we want for ourselves. Being it will help us do whatever it takes to create the unmanifested to the manifested. And finally the have. We want to have it all, money, fame, but most of all we want the happiness and freedom that living life on our terms can bring. Liv your truth!

Creating Your Picture

I know a young lady who is bright, funny and charismatic. Her conversation says that she is a secure, take charge, no non-sense type of woman. She is wise beyond her 24 years of age, yet she is totally frustrated with her personal and professional life.

Living in the Shadows of her older brother, 15 years her senior, she is having a hard time living her truth. While she was a dynamic athlete in high school, she struggled with gaining the attention and approval of her older brother/father figure of her life. She couldn’t understand why the success he was experiencing, which helped to financially provide for their family, had to get in the way of the love she wanted from.

From a young age, she has always seen her male role model in business for himself. He was a barber owning barbershop, then owning clothing boutiques and cleaners, to restaurants. He is black belt in martial arts, accomplished painter and saxophonist. He showed her everything was possible to be in this life.

Possibilities became impossible for the for this young lady to achieve. He encourage her work ethic by having her work in all the business he has ever had. She has firsthand knowledge of success and failure of how to run and operate a variety of businesses in various industries. And yet because none of these business ideas were of her own accord, she never bonded with them.

She only showed up because it was easy. She didn’t have to work at getting in the door, the door was open for her. No matter how many times she messed up, it was due to her youth and relationship that they were always overlooked.

Creating her own picture is something she has never had to do. Therefore, at the young age of 24, she has no idea of what she likes, except for the pictures her brother created for his life. Now while there is nothing wrong with entering the family business, if it’s not what you really want to do with your life, it becomes a serious problem.

Being frustrated with her life has causes many issues within her personal and professional relationships. Yet she seems to be very afraid of creating a life that she wants to live for herself. She is afraid of walking out from the known to the unknown.
Taking simple steps like writing down what she enjoys would help her see a clearer picture of what brings her joy. Acting on at least one thing that she enjoys would give her confidence that she is good at something she has created in her space. Acting on other joy fulfilling things, one at a time, would begin to bring into existence the type of life she wishes to create for herself, instead of living in the pictures her brother created for himself.

Stepping into the picture of our own creation is sometimes very challenging. But if we work at it little by little, we grow into the picture with little effort. Begin your journey today. Liv your truth!

Fear of Success

Often as a teenager and young adult, I would hear my mother ask me, “Why are you afraid of success?” I would often reply, in anger, “I’m not afraid of anything!” Typical response from a young person who feels they have no fears and that they can conquer anything.

The reality is that I was afraid. But I didn’t know this consciously. All I knew was that I didn’t want to fail, which by the way is the opposite of success.

My mother knew me better than I knew myself. Not only did she know me, as a product of her, but also she had been around for a while. She had had her own experiences with successes and failures, and was clearly able to see my fear of success characteristics better than I could.

Knowing Thyself
I always had some creative idea that I would start and not complete. There was a test that I might have the next day and if I didn’t feel confident that I could master and retain all of the information from the test, I just wouldn’t study. I was starting many things in my life and not finishing.

However, in my mind, I wasn’t quitting because I was afraid. I was quitting because I was tired, I didn’t have enough time, or what if I didn’t do well enough. I fooled myself into believing that it wasn’t fear at all. It was just that…

The truth was I was sabotaging myself. Was I really that afraid to do well? What would happen if that creative idea turned into some moneymaking fortune? Or, I was a straight A student, instead of settling for being a B student?

An incomplete life was starting to trail me. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t born to fail or be mediocre. I was born for success.

Steps to Success
Therefore, to get over my fear, first I began to complete small projects that could be completed in a day or less. Next, I started working on old outstanding projects rather they could currently benefit me then or not. Then I started to tackle the hard stuff, facing my fears dead on.

I wrote out my goals and steps it would take to accomplish them. I broke them down in to small bits. I found that I could better digest handling small projects at a time.

I actually started aligning my goals with my actions. Something I hadn’t done before. Before I just said I wanted to be rich, wanted to have the best grades, or wanted to be an entrepreneur in my early twenties. But the reality was, I wasn’t doing anything to make that happen. My plans, goals and dreams were not successful.

However, when I stopped being afraid to succeed, I accomplish more. I began to feel good about myself, and began to accomplish a lot more. Then one day, I looked back and saw trail of success.