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| With arms outstretched I thank. With heart beating gratefully I love. With body in health I jump for joy. With spirit full I live. ~Terri Guillemets |
Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts
Friday, January 25, 2013
Yoga Inspiration
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
Gratitudes
It's been a few weeks since I was grateful. Not really I've actually
been very grateful I just haven't blogged about it. So were are my 5
Gratitudes for this week:
1. My amazing Mother came to help me (ok she really did all) paint the apartment I just moved into. After all that time working on the studio the thought of picking up yet another paint brush or do anything that resembles renovation gave me the shakes. So Mom swooped in from Alabama and is currently spray painting the gnarliest kitchen hardware ever!
2. THE HEAT BROKE! It actually feels like Wisconsin again.
3. Happier about the weather than I am, my dog! She is even feeling a little frisky and instigating play with other dogs, you have to kow how stoic my dog is to be grateful for this so just take my word.
4. I am reading a great book. The Four Desires by Rob Stryker. Its really helping me keep perceptive during all this transition. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking more clarity about their life's future.
5. Prayer. No, no, no don't worry I'm not going to get all weird on you! It's My sanskrit teacher's fault really, she gave us an challenge to chant everyday for 10 days. I had completely forgotten how much I love this practice. I've been reciting mantras on walks, when I'm cooking, at the studio, before I go to bed, I've prayed more in the past 4 weeks than I ever did growing up in Catholic school.
Some of the prayers I've been reciting as mantra:
The Gayatri Mantra:
OM BHOOR BHUWAH SWAHA,
TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
BHARGO DEVASAYA DHEEMAHI
DHIYO YO NAHA PRACHODAYAT.
This Mantra has many translations here is one:
Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life,
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.
The Santi Mantra (This is the one I painted in the studio)
1. My amazing Mother came to help me (ok she really did all) paint the apartment I just moved into. After all that time working on the studio the thought of picking up yet another paint brush or do anything that resembles renovation gave me the shakes. So Mom swooped in from Alabama and is currently spray painting the gnarliest kitchen hardware ever!
2. THE HEAT BROKE! It actually feels like Wisconsin again.
3. Happier about the weather than I am, my dog! She is even feeling a little frisky and instigating play with other dogs, you have to kow how stoic my dog is to be grateful for this so just take my word.
4. I am reading a great book. The Four Desires by Rob Stryker. Its really helping me keep perceptive during all this transition. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking more clarity about their life's future.
5. Prayer. No, no, no don't worry I'm not going to get all weird on you! It's My sanskrit teacher's fault really, she gave us an challenge to chant everyday for 10 days. I had completely forgotten how much I love this practice. I've been reciting mantras on walks, when I'm cooking, at the studio, before I go to bed, I've prayed more in the past 4 weeks than I ever did growing up in Catholic school.
Some of the prayers I've been reciting as mantra:
The Gayatri Mantra:
OM BHOOR BHUWAH SWAHA,
TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
BHARGO DEVASAYA DHEEMAHI
DHIYO YO NAHA PRACHODAYAT.
This Mantra has many translations here is one:
Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life,
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.
The Santi Mantra (This is the one I painted in the studio)
The Serenity Prayer
Dear God,
Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change
The Courage to change the things I can
And the Wisdom to know the difference
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Blessing.
Just as I was posting this blog the other day a gentleman stopped by the studio. I met him at the General Store in town the day I closed the studio, he seemed genuinely upset but very understanding. A few days ago was the first cool morning we've had in weeks so I had the studio door open as I worked on the computer (blogging) and this gentleman pulls up and starts to walk in, I don't remember his name but he hands me an envelope and says, "keep the dream alive." Then he turns to go so I stop him and say thank you as graciously as I can and I give him a hug.
Inside the envelope was this article about yoga.
And this note.
Inside the note were 2 hundred dollar bills. I cried. At this point I couldn't squeeze $200 out of my bank account if I had the World Arm Wrestling Champion helping me! So that seems like quite a gift to me, the article and the hug would have been enough of a gift to me but to for this gentleman to make an offer like that, well it was almost too much for me.
Here's the thing, this man will never do yoga. He has some disabilities that will forever keep him off the mat but he believes in me and in what I am trying to create even if he can't reap the benifts himself.
I am humbled by such a gift and this gentleman is a blessing to me.
Inside the envelope was this article about yoga.
And this note.
Here's the thing, this man will never do yoga. He has some disabilities that will forever keep him off the mat but he believes in me and in what I am trying to create even if he can't reap the benifts himself.
I am humbled by such a gift and this gentleman is a blessing to me.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Greetings From Rock Bottom a.k.a. Gratitudes
When everything falls apart and you have nothing to hold onto, I guess there is nothing left to do but be grateful. Counter intuitive, yes. Counterproductive, no. See here is the thing, when you struggle with depression mild or other wise, or heck even if you are just plan human, our minds have a tendency to focus on the negative. So while I'm rolling around down here in the mire of rock bottom I was trying to figure out how to get a leg up and start pulling myself out. Not easy, because my sad little brain only sees all the things I don't have around me. My sad little body only feels how tired it is from all the effort (seemingly in vain). And my sad little heart is just plain broken. Now seems like the perfect time for gratitude, I shall elaborate.
This is a little practice I have done throughout my life when I was feeling overwhelmed or just plain unmotivated and sad. It's a tool to help teach our brains to stop focusing on the negative parts of a situation and be thankful for the good things in our lives. Good things don't have to be directly linked to the situation at hand because once you start finding good thing somewhere then you can start seeing them everywhere. Basically you are training your brain not to slide into depression (which for some of us we are simply genetically more susceptible to), you are actually breaking down old "negative" neural pathways and rebuilding more positive ones. It's science, it's faith, it's whatever, it's really really cool. It can also be really easy, easier than making a grocery list, just list 5 things. My 5:
1. My dog is happy and healthy and did the best happy "i thought you were dead but you came back!" dance EVER yesterday when I got back from Chicago.
2. I took a really fantastic yoga class Sunday.
3. My car is still getting almost 30mpg on the highway!
4. I got to hang out with my cousins kids yesterday morning, 16months and 4years old, both boys in my lap, coloring, and cooing, le sigh.
5. I have a pretty stunning family of friends.
So those are my 5 right now. In the past they've even be so mundane as "I could afford to make my car payment this month!" or "the homeless guy didn't harass me on the way to the train today." I think my dog is always number 1 though. Also, you don't have to write them down, at one point I had a gratitude journal and ever Sunday I would write my list down, that way I could see my progression of thought. But these days I just make a quick mental list of 5 things to remind me that no matter how dark it is out there I can see at least 5 little twinkles to keep me moving forward.
This is a little practice I have done throughout my life when I was feeling overwhelmed or just plain unmotivated and sad. It's a tool to help teach our brains to stop focusing on the negative parts of a situation and be thankful for the good things in our lives. Good things don't have to be directly linked to the situation at hand because once you start finding good thing somewhere then you can start seeing them everywhere. Basically you are training your brain not to slide into depression (which for some of us we are simply genetically more susceptible to), you are actually breaking down old "negative" neural pathways and rebuilding more positive ones. It's science, it's faith, it's whatever, it's really really cool. It can also be really easy, easier than making a grocery list, just list 5 things. My 5:
1. My dog is happy and healthy and did the best happy "i thought you were dead but you came back!" dance EVER yesterday when I got back from Chicago.
2. I took a really fantastic yoga class Sunday.
3. My car is still getting almost 30mpg on the highway!
4. I got to hang out with my cousins kids yesterday morning, 16months and 4years old, both boys in my lap, coloring, and cooing, le sigh.
5. I have a pretty stunning family of friends.
So those are my 5 right now. In the past they've even be so mundane as "I could afford to make my car payment this month!" or "the homeless guy didn't harass me on the way to the train today." I think my dog is always number 1 though. Also, you don't have to write them down, at one point I had a gratitude journal and ever Sunday I would write my list down, that way I could see my progression of thought. But these days I just make a quick mental list of 5 things to remind me that no matter how dark it is out there I can see at least 5 little twinkles to keep me moving forward.
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