Words and Their Power

The meanings of words.
Does any one care any more?

Speaking without thinking, and using catch phrases seems to be too many people's way of communicating. Add some sarcasm to that and it's a recipe for the listener to put up their shields.

Television, movies and other sources have been shaping the roles people play. I doubt that too many are aware of this. Becoming self aware is some work, albeit purposeful and valuable. Hence my yogic path, although I am drawn to things that are already me.

If one carelessly responds to another without the intention of, "I will listen consciously and respond with an open mind and heart," then words are wasted, as is time, and there is no connection between the two relating. Well, actually there is not much relating going on. Why spend time with someone if one is not open to see them as they really are, and to be fully who each of us really is?

Next time you are about to give an opinion or add to a conversation, ask yourself, "Does what I am about to say really matter? It is loving? Is it supportive? Have I understood the other? Am I being open and "real' with this person?" etc etc etc.

Sarcasm has no place in society, other than to dismantle and diminish. Why, why be like this? Why accept it from anyone you spend time with? If we each honoured ourselves we would not accept less than loving behaviour from another. We would not accept the disrespect and unconsciousness from another. 

Take the time to measure your words.
Dig into the meanings of words.
Find out if you are saying what you believe you are saying.

Be kind be kind be kind be kind be kind....

It is our one life.
Here.
Now.
What am I doing?
What is the one doing?
How will this bring purpose to my life?
How will it bring purpose to another's life?
How will it bring purpose to this planet, our space ship, our home?

The power of words can destroy.
The power of words can elate, inspire and encourage.

"Out beyond right doing and wrong doing, there is a field. Meet me there."  ~ Rumi

As usual, without editing, I will allow these words to go out into the ethereal internet and see what comes back.
May 2012 bring each of you wondrous joy!

What is it with white wash in Honolulu?

White.
What is it with white?

Looking at photos of homes available on craigslist Honolulu has brought me this conclusion:
There is a fascination with having entire apartments and even houses white. White walls, white floors, white appliances, white drapes, white white white...oi !

It is leaving me longing, craving, seeking a home with hard-wood or bamboo floors, colours on the walls, and maybe even brick walls. And what about windows that one can open that are interesting to look at instead of these easily dirtied slatted style ones.

There are no historic-style homes here with any kind of character. Oh Montreal, how I miss you for that. :)

I haven't been anywhere as long as I have been here in Honolulu for a very long time. Perhaps it is time for a fresh change. Almost two years here and I have witnessed people not being able to afford to live because the cost of rent is higher than salaries allow. The chances of getting a full time or even part-time job with medical benefits is rare, however that may be the same on the continent. Trying to find a place to live without spending more than you make has become seemingly impossible. I was living "rent-free" on a boat and decided to go back to the land because of a long list, and unless something shifts, I will be spending all my savings.

I've been told that everything is white because people are so transient.
I say, people might be less transient if they felt some comfort in their homes.
The white wash feels so sterile and hospital-like setting that it is difficult to sit in such a place and feel cozy and relaxed. A feeling of antiseptic washed over me.

Oh rant rant rant.
Hee, hee!
The positive things are so many, and that will come in a future writing.
Mostly I feel I will only become clearly aware of them after a I have left for a while....just like everything.

And so, I feel my months numbered now, and perhaps as Winter melts away from the continent, I will fly back Eastward to rekindle my relationship with my other peops and connect with vastless possibilities for teaching yoga and freelancing as so many other things as well. Perhaps. 


Happy Solstice to you All, and may Peace reign over you as often as possible.
Breathe.

How to Bring Happiness to Oneself

(a repost from facebook)

The "play therapist" wants to share something with you.

HOW TO BRING HAPPINESS TO ONESELF (in not particular order)

1. Select uplifting music

2. Dance with abandon

3. Get into nature

4. Go to an art gallery/museum

5. Watch a hilarious movie

6. Talk with a trusted friend....ask them to only listen and love

7. Sit & breathe deeply and consciously, only thinking about the path of the breath

8. Read uplifting stories or passages

9. Go to the park and play on the monkey bars, jungle gym or gymnastic bars

10. Play music, even if badly, sing even if badly, create art/draw/paint/glue things even if badly I do not really mean that anything is actually "bad", it is our our nature to put our abilities down at times; everyone starts somewhere)

11. Try something you've never tried before, and have wanted to

A Hard Day's Work for a Hard Day's Pay

What does that mean to you?

When I lived in what is known as The Midwest, that was generally people’s way of being. They couldn’t stand anything that might have a social-type bend to it, i.e. national healthcare, support for the unemployed, shelters, etc. People there would actually get angry if I brought up any of these subjects.

And where does anger come from?
Fear.

The days of "the American Dream" have been long gone. The smoke and mirrors that is pretending to keep that alive will soon dissipate. Unfortunately "the American Nightmare" is upon us. The days of what good capitalism might have been, and the days of finding meaningful employment that paid what it's worth, are practically over. If one is not creating their own work, they may be "left behind". 

Like so many things, good people in government and good ideas in business went awry with either power-hunger or just simply money-driven, forgetting the long term consequences to ourselves and Mother Earth.

As Dr. David Suzuki says, "I'm not interested in a 40 years plan, I'm interested in a 400 year plan."
[I love that man. Read more about his group is up and see his film. I am highly recommending it.]
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

I will digress for a moment to point something out, everything needs to be updated once in a while, yeah? And look just over a hundred years ago I could understand why call that area the Midwest. However that antiquated expression could be revisited and they could just be knows as the Flatlanders or maybe even the Midnorth. 

Of course living for a bit in Flatlander-country, I came to realize why people had limited views. They lived on two dimensions and hence could only be two dimensional thinkers. I'm being only slightly facetious.
I have observed that coastal and mountain dwellers have expansive perceptions. Well at least more so than being landlocked in the prairies.  :)

And so...

Hard work for hard pay.


Wow. 

Talk about a challenging life, a challenging way of being in the world.
What about spinning that over and saying to oneself, I earn money easily for doing what I’m good at and love to do.


For those of you out there that are not into the whole affirmation thing, nor the create-your-reality thing, let me point this out to you: 

if attitude is everything, then what I am saying here has weight.

Ponder that for the week....or month.


That is your homework. :)

Look, I work "hard" too. I just do not see it nor feel it like that.
Know what I mean, jelly bean?

I realize that we are quite blessed here in the West (and even where I am in the middle of the Pacific), to have choices and to have opportunity. 

Yes, it’s getting more and more interesting to uncover opportunities. I for one have had many years of struggle to maintain my head above water, only because my ethics and my ideas of what I would do for work are rather, ahem, picky. 

Hahaha!

As a graphic designer (amongst so many things I am/do) and somewhat good at marketing, I could have worked for a studio or an advertising firm and made tons o’ money. No thanks to that, because if i do not agree with what they’re “selling” then I cannot work there. Work has to align with my beliefs of what is "good" (or at least not "bad") for humanity, and of course me.

In the end, what do I know.
I'm merely a Canadian from a forever lineage of Greek origin. :)

There’s my ramblings for today.


Mahalo for tuning in.

Until the next transmission,
may you look at your choices and know that you are where you have chosen to be.


And believe me when I say this is even for the times I have suffered, I am firm on this outlook.


I welcome all comments and/or critiques.


Unedited as usual.


Hee, hee!

Girls in bikinis doing yoga. Who am I to judge?

Ah yoga, my love....

There I was, thoroughly encouraged and enticed to learn from a “master” visiting Hawai’I for the first time. How exciting! This is of a different style of yoga and I love to add dimensions to my practice as well as my teaching.

It might have been good except...   
he did not teach a single class all weekend!

To say I was disappointed is an understatement.

Time has passed and now I'm just discouraged about this group and their ways.

A closer look has revealed (pun intended) that this particular group no longer is allowed to use the word yoga to describe what they do or who they are. Their website has women and men showing as much skin as legally possible in challenging postures. It is beautiful, and...

That is the one thing I will agree with:
it is not yoga.

There was misinformation during the lectures in that weekend seminar, and never once was the breath cued or body alignment spoken about during the poses practice.

I am comfortable calling it a kind of acrobatics workout. It is pretty. The method of transitioning in between poses resembles something like a martial arts form. Calculated and strong.

I was made to feel "silly" that I would even think the visiting teacher would teach.
That’s okay, lesson learnt.
I will be asking different questions next time a seminar is presented to me.
One like, will the founder be teaching us?

As a long time teacher, I am not interested in spending money I do not have to learn from people that I felt were not of the caliber I am accustomed to. The highest of high caliber teachers are who I wish to spend my time with, regardless of how long they’ve been teaching. I can sense a person’s depth and understanding in an instant.

When the grand master type senseis would visit from Japan, even if they were in their 80s, they taught us all week long. It is their philosophy, their spirit, their method I am interested in, and that is why hundreds of karate-ka (karate practitioners) would show up from all over. It was worth every penny, every sore muscle, every bruise, every drop of sweat. I look back on those days fondly.

So here I sit with these thoughts of what is yoga?
What is the spirit of yoga?
And is there a “right” and “wrong” way to teach it?
These thoughts are nothing new, they just got magnified after last weekend’s seminar.

I spoke with my teacher this morning, and she and I concurred. A website featuring semi-nude people doing acrobatic poses is beautiful, and it is not something she and I are interested in the slightest when doing or teaching yoga.

During this weekend, if one did not do things at precisely the right moment in the way they wanted it one was “reprimanded”. In my classes and in classes I have enjoyed thoroughly, the teacher not only allows for students to be in whatever pose they need to longer and or take child’s pose to rest, I like to take it a step further and exclaim that if …”prana moves you, please flow/go with it and do whatever you wish in class.” I have seen and experienced this at Kripalu Yoga Center and have enjoyed the freedom to just be. It is not only liberating, it is honest, and it takes each student into account. Their needs are the primary focus.

After all, the ancient ones say yoga is 98% about the breath!
2% about everything else.
(Some such huge number. Hee, hee!)

I remember one time giving myself permission to just simply go into savasana (corpse pose) in the middle of a flowing class and in the middle of the classroom. I just had had enough for the day and lay down. The teacher kept teaching even whilst he lay a blankie over me and pulled on my legs to allow me to sink deeper onto my mat. It was the best thing I have ever done in a yoga class. I so get it …since that moment.

{I had been living and working at this massive yoga center and had had a day of much yoga and also of lots of work.)
So this listening to myself in a situation like that was an awakening! 

Well, yoga is my passion.

Life is my passion.

I want to encourage people to live and be who they are a all times. No putting on airs or masking their truths. And if that means you want to do something different from what the teacher is doing, so be it. It is your practice.

As usual, I will not edit this and simply post.
Comment at will.  :)

I hope all is well in your worlds.

Namaste

Leaping in LOVE!

Stardate: December Twenty-fifth, Zero Ten 

Place: Sea level Hawai'i

How do we know it's our heart breaking?

Maybe it's the stomach?

Or maybe even a kidney or the small intestine that feels crushed and aches?

Sometimes, I feel it is the throat. It gets all balled up and tight and feels like no more breath can be delivered anywhere. 

How do we know we love someone?

How do we know they are the person we want to spend the next decade with?
And especially how do those of us that fall in love with everybody know one of those is one to partner up with?

Falling in love with everybody is not what is may appear to be at first. I mean, I tend to love anyone that feels they are cut from the same cloth. We may have a bunch of shtuff in common, We may speak a similar language, and I am not talking about mere English. I mean this on a metaphysical level. We may have lived life full on and can share experiences, share tragedies, share traumas, share hope.


And using the word "falling" is not quite the right word. Falling implies tripping and/or being hurt. To love is simply to love. Let's just say instead of "falling in love", we say "leaping in love".


I have hurt and been hurt.
Who hasn't?
(Oops if that's you, well, maybe you could step outside and meet people! Hahaha!)
And in the being hurt, in the depth of that sadness, when I look over my shoulder and see a tsunami of grief and pain and you know there's no running from it, well I try out a new surfboard and see if I could just stay on top of it for a bit. You have to know this doesn't last and BAM, I'm under...bloobbloobbloob...air air AIR. Gasp!
Need. Bigger. Surfboard.


There's zero point in distractions. The demon waits.
It looms in the shadows and has infinite patience.
May as well get that snorkel fitted because I'm goin' in.
:)


If I did not have humour, and use it on myself; if I did not, absolutely without a doubt, LOVE LIFE, I would be certified insane.


What HSP (highly sensitive person) wouldn't be?

Letting one's guard down around someone with an open heart is what does it. Waterworks galore....just because of that feeling of safety and being understood. Remaining guarded, stand-offish, tough, aloof, any of these things and more is not the path to a real life, an open life, a loving life. 
Compassion. Trust. Vulnerability. Surrender.
phew!!
Huge words, I fought my whole young life. Thank goodness I started figuring things out, or I'd still be some tough city street chick....and nothing more. One dimensional. 
bleh! 

When we are hurt, we can never blame another as we had our role to play, and if we played it with love, there would be less carnage. (I use the term play, not in a way that is meant to demean or downplay. I use it to lighten.) The more we are, the more we can communicate. And doesn't everyone know by now that that communication is the KEY to a relationship; be it lovers, friends, with a parent or sibling, a boss, a client. Anyone.



Back to broken hearts or stomachs or other organs...
Loving and letting go is the most honourable, most respectful, most loving thing a human being can do for another. Loving and possessing, not so much. Hahaha!
To say one is mine, is to claim a human being.
Even a child is not anyone's. They are their own.


It aches to let go.
It aches.
The longing to be with someone when we have connected feels insurmountable.
And then, I remember, it is the love for the self that this derives from. Missing love for the self creates that supreme longing. The one that feels like you will DIE if...
And you know we do get sick. We get physically ill.
We are out of alignment with what we wish we had, and this creates havoc.

Love, O love, real love, is the one that wants to very best for someone, and that may not be (insert own name here). 

Love, O love, real love, is the one that lasts no matter what, because it keeps caring, it keeps checking in, it keeps guiding and assisting in any way that is appropriate and requested by the other.

And where is this broken heart, and how does it mend?
It is the whole body that breaks. Our ego that did not get what it desired makes it hurt.

The heart knows that it cannot break because its capacity to love is immeasurable!

I will post this unedited, and may change my mind and edit it in the morning, in which case I will say i have edited it. I appreciate you reading this, and please feel free to comment.

Authenticity, integrity, compassion...you know, the little things!

Stardate: November Twenty-fifth, Twenty-ten

No amount of yoga philosophy books will teach one to be aware, present, forgiving, accepting, caring and loving from an authentic place. Perhaps this is why there are so many books and so few people with natural integrity. 

Which brings to mind (and heart): what good are self-help books?

Too many just learn to manipulte the language.

They sure sound good, enlightened, progressive...

These words are tossed around enough, huge signs are emblazoned with them, they are in mission and vision statements, and yet...where oh where are these ways of being to be truly found. So much so that the person one is relating to can just stand in the fire of the conversation or the situation and not cower. With such abandonment it leaves one with the feeling of, "I'm not safe". Not safe to express and be oneself.

See I'm far from so evolved, perfect or any such lofty ideals, what I am is always being real, always loving and always open...open to listen, open to see, open to feel. Open.

Also I tend to put my quirks on the table. Why wait? (Hahaha!)

If I had a nickle for every time someone asked me, "Are you always this happy?" Truth is is that I'm not that happy, let alone always happy. I am just being present with whomever I am sharing a moment with, be it a cashier, a house-mate, a stranger, a friend. Everyone gets the same treatment. Same.

This has been and still is quite disconcerting to many people. 
You know, grown ups. 
Kids are into it. They have no use for masks....yet.

Oh and if I had a nickle for every time I met someone that preached compassion et al, and was an absolute..ahem!..well, I'd be quite rich. This used to shock me, and now it shocks me when I met a genuine person. One who is whole and complete. One who is unafraid to speak their heart, and stay with it, with me, with others...


People are magnetized to the joy-full ones and then proceed with the destruction of that unbridled bliss. The cutting down of the dreams, ideas, musings, and high energy. They couldn't handle it! It's not their fault, it's society...as a dear friend used to state often. Hee, hee! 

Well, it is their fault. 

I'm so done with those who pretend to be open, who pretend they have energy, who pretend they accept people as they are. Those that pretend they have integrity are the worst. They talk the talk and cannot (or will not) walk the walk. So busy playing the game of dog eat dog...to get their piece before there's nothing left. What is forgotten is many more pies can be created. I have left many an organization that sure sounded on the up-and-up, and they were no different than most every where. Just as dirty, just as empty.
Incongruent! 


This is crazy-making.


My wise brother once told me, "People are who they were when they were 8." Of course I debated that with him, and he wouldn't budge. So I did what I do. I spent days contemplating it, turning it over, swimming in it, talking to others about it. And then, I realized, he was absolutely right. One's default character, the one when put under stress, is the person one has always been. This is why even humanitarian organizations cannot even get along with each other, let alone be supremely good to their own families and friends.


Oh the things/people I've seen and the experiences I've had.
I will not allow sarcasm and cynicism to infiltrate. Sneaky buggers.
I know that I am okay. :)


May you find you are winning this battle as well.


As usual this comes to you unedited, unfiltred.
Do lend me your thoughts if you feel so inclined.