Karuna - Compassion

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. 
~Dalai Lama

I would have to say my cat practiced compassion in letting the squirrel eat his food while he sat by and watched ;)

I would also say I practiced compassion this morning when my body decided it wanted an extra hour of sleep, a salt water gargle and a honey lemon tea to soothe a sore throat and what could have turned into something more had I pushed myself to go to the yoga class I had planned on attending. My friend practiced compassion in understanding and being open to me visiting with her later in the day when I felt more up to it. She's a fellow yoga teacher and I love her.

Compassion is definitely a practice. Like yoga. The mat can be a great place to practice both. Meaning "co-suffering," there is love in compassion. Not that we literally suffer with another (although perhaps in some way), but that we feel empathy for their suffering and wish to alleviate it in some way. Sometimes that is in simply being with them in their suffering until they alleviate it. Same goes for ourselves. I find compassion for myself by giving myself room to heal, rest, breathe, experience, feel and live... all the while being there for myself. Compassion for another would be holding that same space for them. So, though I may want to alleviate their suffering, in certain instances it is only them who can truly do so and be empowered in that doing. I feel that holding a space for that is often the best that I can offer rather than thinking I know what is best for them or how to alleviate their suffering. Of course, if it were someone needing to be fed or there was something I could share that would benefit them or they simply needed someone to listen to them, I could offer  that with compassion as well.  


It seems we all suffer at some time or another in our lives (sometimes by our own hands or mind) and so the more I find or practice compassion for myself, the more I can find or practice it for another and vice versa. 


How would you practice compassion for yourself or another?


Core asset... compassion and knowing the difference between that and care-taking in a way that takes someones power or acts as if they don't have the capacity to care for themselves (unless they actually don't).

I Love You!

Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

I love you! Yes you! Whoever you are, reading this, and everyone else for that matter. This may sound strange and it may be judged and I love you for that. My mantra lately (word or phrase repeated, internally or out loud, as if a prayer) has been "I love you." The idea for this stemmed from a video by Tommy Rosen that I had the pleasure of watching the other day. He had a different mantra and I played with it for a day and started losing the words after a while and questioning if I was saying it right (I had achieved my first concussion a couple days before while practicing yoga too close to a table lol and so I think I may have still be shaking that one off). Instead of going back to the video to check, I changed my mantra to something that I knew. I love you! I was internally repeating it to myself and to everyone and everything. I played with it in a few classes that I taught, offering it to others to try on, and it continues to feel stronger and stronger for me as I breathe it in and out. 

It feels good to say it. I love you! If you don't agree, try it. Comment all you want. I love you! I want everyone in my life to know... I love you! Sure I sound sappy and any number of things you can think of to call me, but I don't care... I just love you and I'm happy to hear what you have to say.

To everyone who loves me... I love you! To everyone who dislikes me... I love you! To everyone from my past... I love you! To everyone in my present... I love you! To anyone in my future... I love you! To anyone I felt hurt me at some time... I love you! To anyone I hurt... I love you! To anyone I passed on the street... I love you! To anyone who has ever smiled at me... I love you! To anyone who has ever frowned or made any kind of face at me... I love you! To the guy who insulted for me for no apparent reason as a teen... I love you! To anyone who has complimented me... I love you! To anyone who feels less special because I love everyone else... I love you! To anyone who would rather I didn't... I love you! To anyone who has ever made eye contact with me... I love you! To anyone who has avoided eye contact with me... I love you! To those who know it already and those who don't... I love you! To the deer that just walked through my yard... I love you! To the cat asleep in the other room... I love you! To the earth and all inhabitants... I love you! I really could go on, but I'll keep that to my mantra practice.

I want you all to know this is not the romantic or the conditional kind of love we may know. This is the unconditional, universal kind of love that has me realizing our shared qualities, our uniqueness and all the complexities that come with life. For judging me, I love you for being human. For smiling while reading this, I love you for letting it touch you. For not reading past the first paragraph, I love you for having your own mind and ability to choose. For deciding you want to read more, I love you for your spirit. For arguing with me, I love you for your ability to speak up. For agreeing with me, I love you for your ability to open up. For laughing at me, I love your humor lol. For shedding a tear, I love your sensitivity. For any reaction you find, I love your ability to feel and experience. For deciding you know why I may do this or anything I do, I love your ego or your ability to reason or make assumptions. For leaving it up to my interpretation or questioning it, I love your curiosity and wonder. For thinking I'm on some kind of good drug right now, I love your ability to fantasize and create stories ;) (I may be high on this love mantra, but that's all). For believing me, I love your faith. For giving me the benefit of a doubt, I love your compassion and understanding. For thinking me a goody-goody I love your ability to categorize and label. For seeing that I'm human, I love your clarity. 

I love our shared humanity. I love our ability to love and our ability to fear. I love that we can share "good" and "bad." I love that we hide and that we expose. I love what we share and what we don't. I love that we trust or that we doubt. I love that we are all one whether it seems so or not. 

Core assets.... Love. I love you!

PS. I'm nervous as I go to post this and so I love me for my comfort zone lol

Best Intentions

It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid and say the opposite.

~Sam Levenson

The picture above is of a sign that was outside of the yoga room  at Maya Tulum Resort while taking my latest teacher training with Amazing Yoga. I found it funny after we had a "dance party" inside the yoga room and even more so when I heard from someone in the other yoga room that they heard us while they were practicing... oops lol. 


Anyway... best intentions... I love playing with intentions in yoga... both in my own practice and in my teaching. One I've been enjoying lately is Simplicity. This stems from Saucha - Purity (the first Niyama in the eight limbs of yoga). I love finding many meanings for Sanskrit words and intentions or ideas. Many of us would translate or define words differently anyway, so why not play with many meanings and see what feels good. Saucha is often translated as Purity as in cleanliness of mind, body and surroundings. I love the idea of this being simplicity because it's a breaking down to the basics. Cleaning out the clutter, so to speak, not only externally but of the body, the mind, emotions and spirit. 


When I play with this as an intention, I get to simplify. Simply breathe. Simply feel sensations. Simply make a shape with my body and see what happens. No need to analyze, over instruct myself or others or take things too seriously.  Simply experience. Simply Be.

Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway.

Mary Kay Ash

How easy it can be to complicate things. How often do I over-think, want something to be a certain way or strive for perfection. How much easier it is to simplify. Easier is relative. This can also be challenging. My mind may want to tell stories about everything that may be going on in the moment, in the last moment, what may happen in the next moment. When I simplify, there is only now. Only this breath. Only movement, sensation or stillness. Maybe all of those, but I do not need to add my opinion of them or conjure up some reason for why or how something may be in the moment.

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. 

Chinese Proverb
  

I often close my eyes for most of my practice because it helps me simplify down to me on my mat breathing and feeling. I get to turn off distractions around me and really be present in each posture, each breath, each sensation. Especially since becoming a teacher, closing my eyes benefits my practice. Then my mind does not need to concern itself with what anyone else is doing or not doing. When I close my eyes it turns up my other senses. I hear and feel my breath. I feel sensations in my body. I notice my thoughts and get a chance to let them go. I can step into the flow. I can feel each posture rather than make each posture look a certain way. I get to explore a little deeper and simpler. I can move into a posture from the way my body feels rather than how it looks and really get to know my body.

 A story about keeping it simple...

Someone asked a Zen Master, "How do you practice Zen?"

The master said, "When you are hungry, eat; when you are tired, sleep."

"Isn't that what everyone does anyway?"

The master replied, "No, No. Most people entertains a thousand desires when they eat and scheme over a thousand plans when they sleep." 

While in yoga, simply yoga. Notice when you breathe. Notice when you move. Notice when your thoughts plan, reminisce, and create stories and come back to the moment. Clear out the clutter. Cleanse and simplify. See what happens. Perhaps try eyes closed once in a while and watch from inside. What starts on your mat can radiate out to your life. Enjoy :)

Core assets... purity, simplicity, clearing clutter.