Thoughts on Yoga
Go Shopping In Your Mind
2008-08-28
Dear Friends,
As Summer winds down, we naturally start to think of the coming Autumn. Each year, I go on vacation in late August. (Just how are these newsletters reaching you? Am I writing from Vacation? HMMM...) On the way home I always find myself full of ideas and enthusiasm about new activities, projects and goals.
Seeing the first touch of color in the trees sends me into a state of excitement and anticipation. Our slogan at Mama Nirvana's going into Labor day is "Make This Fall Your Best One Yet!" And that's a worthy goal.
The change of season is a chance to review one's routines. I like to consciously decide what I'm going to add each fall AND what I'm going to let go of. Choosing activities based on my deepest dreams and desires means I am really living and not just surviving.
Yoga is always at the top of my list. Because I have lived by it for so many years (26 and counting!) I am well aware of the power and necessity of practice. Even for me, finding time is a balancing act. I have to make conscious choices about when I will be taking classes (yes I still do that), what I will study, and when I will practice on my own.
Clients like to think that we yoga teachers live a "pure life", surviving on home-sprouted alfalfa, free from drudgerous demands, engaging in yoga practices whenever the impulse comes over us. Maybe there was a month or two like that when I was in my 20's. I don't remember.
Like most of our clients at Mama Nirvana's, I am juggling many, many responsibilities on a daily basis. Time and energy must be carefully rationed out. About anything I truly want to do: If I don't make a firm commitment ahead of time, it won't happen.
That's what is so fun for me about the long drive home from vacation. Choosing my fall activities is like a shopping spree of the mind. Mentally I look at all the new possibilities, put way too many in my shopping cart, count my money (well, available time really), put most of the stuff back on the shelves and take home just one or two fabulous new things for the new season. Voila--I have "The Best Fall Yet" year after year.
So I do hope yoga makes it into your shopping cart this fall. We at Mama Nirvana's are doing all we can to help folks have their Best Fall Yet.
Enjoy the bittersweet end of Summer.
Peace and Blessings,
Ruth Anne