My favorite excerpts from Meditations from the Mat, Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga written by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison:
“Whatever you do, even if you help somebody cross the road, you do it to Jesus. Even giving somebody a glass of water, you do it to Jesus. Such a simple little teaching, but it is more and more important.”
- Mother Teresa, page 246
Allowing our actions to be focused outwardly releases us from thinking that we are at the center of the Universe. The smallest gesture of kindness or a simple smile holds the power to transform. The infinite is living within all of us, whether we call it Jesus, Buddha, Brahmin, the higher source, or whatever. Extending love and energy to others connects us to each other, which connects us to the higher source, allowing the interconnectedness to free us from the ego.
I have seen what very small gestures of caring can do for someone experiencing grief or pain, or just a dull Monday morning. I have been hugged by countless strangers because I have been willing to connect to them rather than view them as separate from me. These kind of interactions ease the pain of the world because they are seeds planted from one human to another, one seed at a time.
Being sensitive to others and letting our heart and inner love be our guide makes connecting to others easier and easier over time.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
What Does It Take To Run A Yoga Studio/Wellness Business?
July 16
We live in a capitalist society. I don’t favor the model of capitalism, but I chose to live under its rule. Running a yoga studio should be run as any other business, if one chooses to do so. If I had unlimited resources and ran my own studio, I could offer all free classes, but it would still be run as a business. The money issue will always be there and people need to be paid for their services.
I used to practice at a non-profit yoga and wellness center that offered several sliding scale and donation classes so that limited and no income people were never turned away. Unfortunately they had to convert to for-profit because there just wasn’t enough money to rent the space and keep the building heated. The place is thriving again and sliding scale/free classes are still available.
Somethings I thought of that has had great social significance that were not businesses are Food Not Bombs, The Diggers, and The Black Panthers. But can you imagine trying to bring yoga to the people by these methods? I’m just not sure how one separates offering yoga from running it as a business in America.
What I see as the pros of running a yoga/wellness business: offering a way to healthier lives, walking the walk, making your own hours, create the working environment as you wish, financial gain, an amazing community.
And the cons: staying in the red, always being connected to the phone, extra hours, uncertainty, increased responsibility, no guarantees.
There has to be a market for a yoga studio. If I open a studio in a neighborhood/location where the population isn’t interested in fitness or yoga was thought of as esoteric, I’m not going to draw many people to my business. Location, for this reason, is critical.
Dedication and commitment to your practice, to learning and to teaching are tantamount to running an effective studio, as well as having an open heart, a strong spirit, a sense of humor, and excellent instructors.
It’s 2011, what can’t be commodified? People want to learn so they seek out teachers. Teachers need to eat and should absolutely be compensated for their time. Everyone has a right to earn their own living. If you want to offer free yoga and not call it a business, I won’t try to stop you.
Conflicts I see running a yoga/wellness business: money management, capability of fulfilling all the roles necessary to achieve success, problematic students and/or staff, time, business partner. Conflict can come from anywhere. Staying calm and level-headed is the key to managing whatever comes up. Stick to the facts!
We live in a capitalist society. I don’t favor the model of capitalism, but I chose to live under its rule. Running a yoga studio should be run as any other business, if one chooses to do so. If I had unlimited resources and ran my own studio, I could offer all free classes, but it would still be run as a business. The money issue will always be there and people need to be paid for their services.
I used to practice at a non-profit yoga and wellness center that offered several sliding scale and donation classes so that limited and no income people were never turned away. Unfortunately they had to convert to for-profit because there just wasn’t enough money to rent the space and keep the building heated. The place is thriving again and sliding scale/free classes are still available.
Somethings I thought of that has had great social significance that were not businesses are Food Not Bombs, The Diggers, and The Black Panthers. But can you imagine trying to bring yoga to the people by these methods? I’m just not sure how one separates offering yoga from running it as a business in America.
What I see as the pros of running a yoga/wellness business: offering a way to healthier lives, walking the walk, making your own hours, create the working environment as you wish, financial gain, an amazing community.
And the cons: staying in the red, always being connected to the phone, extra hours, uncertainty, increased responsibility, no guarantees.
There has to be a market for a yoga studio. If I open a studio in a neighborhood/location where the population isn’t interested in fitness or yoga was thought of as esoteric, I’m not going to draw many people to my business. Location, for this reason, is critical.
Dedication and commitment to your practice, to learning and to teaching are tantamount to running an effective studio, as well as having an open heart, a strong spirit, a sense of humor, and excellent instructors.
It’s 2011, what can’t be commodified? People want to learn so they seek out teachers. Teachers need to eat and should absolutely be compensated for their time. Everyone has a right to earn their own living. If you want to offer free yoga and not call it a business, I won’t try to stop you.
Conflicts I see running a yoga/wellness business: money management, capability of fulfilling all the roles necessary to achieve success, problematic students and/or staff, time, business partner. Conflict can come from anywhere. Staying calm and level-headed is the key to managing whatever comes up. Stick to the facts!
Minimalist Thoughts On Hinduism
July 15
Hinduism is neither a religion nor a philosophy, but it is also both. It does not just for into a box or label. Hinduism may be a called a “language” of describing the Universe in order to understand it.
At its core is Brahman, which is everything in the Universe, the nature of sound itself, the absolute. Atman, a proponent of Hinduism, is in reference to the “Self.” Brahman and Atman are always separate as long as there is karma.
Karma accumulates and the more karma one has, the further away one is from Brahman.
Hinduism is neither a religion nor a philosophy, but it is also both. It does not just for into a box or label. Hinduism may be a called a “language” of describing the Universe in order to understand it.
At its core is Brahman, which is everything in the Universe, the nature of sound itself, the absolute. Atman, a proponent of Hinduism, is in reference to the “Self.” Brahman and Atman are always separate as long as there is karma.
Karma accumulates and the more karma one has, the further away one is from Brahman.
What Is the Body?
July 15
What is “the body” in classical yogic and tantric philosophy? How is it used? What is its benefit or its liability? Is yoga philosophical, aesthetic, religious?
The body is what weighs you down, literally and figuratively. Is is to be understood and then let go of, in order to separate consciousness from matter, to get right to moksha. Normal human capacities can be transcended by yoga but the body keeps one in the on-going build up of karma which can be burned away by practicing yoga.
Yoga is the internalization of the universe.
What is “the body” in classical yogic and tantric philosophy? How is it used? What is its benefit or its liability? Is yoga philosophical, aesthetic, religious?
The body is what weighs you down, literally and figuratively. Is is to be understood and then let go of, in order to separate consciousness from matter, to get right to moksha. Normal human capacities can be transcended by yoga but the body keeps one in the on-going build up of karma which can be burned away by practicing yoga.
Yoga is the internalization of the universe.
Raw Food & Ayurveda
July 11
Properly metabolizing the food we put into our bodies is the common theme of raw food and eating Ayurvedic-ly. If we’re just filling our bodies with food, even seemingly healthy food, if the metabolism and digestion are less than optimal, problems can arise.
Following Ayurveda, we see that many foods are cooked so digestion needs to be strong. Eating within your dosha will support a healthy digestive process. Many traditional peoples ate meats raw and the communities thrived. The digestive strength of these people are genetically designed to break down the protein and be metabolized perfectly. Some threw their catch on the fire and eventually we began to see a shift in the health of the population. Since heat is not introduced, or is severely limited, in the raw food diet, the enzymes are intact and the body can assimilate the nutrients with little build up of internal waste.
A raw food diet seems great for an internal cleanse during a change of the seasons or periodically, but I feel like eating cooked food isn’t as badly cracked up as raw-foodists claim it to be. It’s just not black and white. How do we get more lycopene from our tomatoes? We cook them.
It makes sense to learn what I can about different styles or schools of eating for health and try them out for a period of time that seems appropriate. Not in a forceful way, but rather in an exploratory way with awareness and intention. Maybe macrobiotics is better for my constitution than a raw diet. The point is to learn and give it your body a chance to see if there is improvement with energy, complexion, vibrancy, etc.
Ayurveda eating makes sense to me, but at the same time, it seems overwhelmingly complicated after reading Morrison’s The Book of Ayurveda.
I think that Mr Pollan’s continued work on educating us about the loss of connection to our food is an eye opener to the fact that people are dying to find an answer to our food issues. A large part of the problem is that food-things are created to benefit a corporation, not the body.
When we start looking in our cabinets, we might see that there are products that no longer resemble anything that grows. Cracker and cheese bites, mac and cheese, chips, canned gray beans, etc. Where’s the food?
We can see that corn rules the American diet. By allowing our diets to become reduced to just a few main crops, imbalance is all we have in store for our bodies. The processed food-things were never developed to maintain health, let alone support or even help it.
Our connection to what sustains us and brings us radiance has been pushed aside for too many of the wrong reasons. Here is an excellent opportunity to practice brahmacayra, or personal responsibility.
Properly metabolizing the food we put into our bodies is the common theme of raw food and eating Ayurvedic-ly. If we’re just filling our bodies with food, even seemingly healthy food, if the metabolism and digestion are less than optimal, problems can arise.
Following Ayurveda, we see that many foods are cooked so digestion needs to be strong. Eating within your dosha will support a healthy digestive process. Many traditional peoples ate meats raw and the communities thrived. The digestive strength of these people are genetically designed to break down the protein and be metabolized perfectly. Some threw their catch on the fire and eventually we began to see a shift in the health of the population. Since heat is not introduced, or is severely limited, in the raw food diet, the enzymes are intact and the body can assimilate the nutrients with little build up of internal waste.
A raw food diet seems great for an internal cleanse during a change of the seasons or periodically, but I feel like eating cooked food isn’t as badly cracked up as raw-foodists claim it to be. It’s just not black and white. How do we get more lycopene from our tomatoes? We cook them.
It makes sense to learn what I can about different styles or schools of eating for health and try them out for a period of time that seems appropriate. Not in a forceful way, but rather in an exploratory way with awareness and intention. Maybe macrobiotics is better for my constitution than a raw diet. The point is to learn and give it your body a chance to see if there is improvement with energy, complexion, vibrancy, etc.
Ayurveda eating makes sense to me, but at the same time, it seems overwhelmingly complicated after reading Morrison’s The Book of Ayurveda.
I think that Mr Pollan’s continued work on educating us about the loss of connection to our food is an eye opener to the fact that people are dying to find an answer to our food issues. A large part of the problem is that food-things are created to benefit a corporation, not the body.
When we start looking in our cabinets, we might see that there are products that no longer resemble anything that grows. Cracker and cheese bites, mac and cheese, chips, canned gray beans, etc. Where’s the food?
We can see that corn rules the American diet. By allowing our diets to become reduced to just a few main crops, imbalance is all we have in store for our bodies. The processed food-things were never developed to maintain health, let alone support or even help it.
Our connection to what sustains us and brings us radiance has been pushed aside for too many of the wrong reasons. Here is an excellent opportunity to practice brahmacayra, or personal responsibility.
Energy Shift
July 10
The basic foundations of yoga, a healthy life style and feng shui were characterized so succinctly by Gina Lazenby when she noted that the shifts of energy just before and just after a thunder storm are the most obvious because there is tension, a release, and then it feels different afterward. What is not so obvious is that everything is vibrating and energy can be manipulated. Why do we practice yoga? To move our muscles (tension), to calm our nerves (release), to change (feel different). What are we changing? Our energy, our chi. Why eat healthy food? Why bring healthy plants to our environment? To balance the energy that gets out of whack so easily in these modern times. We can manipulate the energy in our bodies and we can do the same with the energy in our homes.
Traditional People/Ancient Wisdom understood their environments and the use of energy. They worked, played and lived with nature as their guide. Our techno-paced lifestyles disengage us from the natural rhythm of life and so we live terribly out of balance. By shifting toward the inner self, which is still in synch with the moon, we may come to realize that what we want is a way to get the nature balance and energies flowing so we can change our lives.
Changes we make in our homes and environs, and those we make in our bodies (through yoga, meditation, healthy living) increase the chi, the life force, and we can experience that the spiritual gain is quite affordable in comparison to feeling dull, depressed and unhappy. Is my house unhappy when she can’t breath well because there are things obstructing the flow of chi? Yes. Is my house comforting and relaxed when the air is circulating and everything seems to be in just the right place? Yes. In this way, we can see that both yoga and feng shui support healthier lifestyles.
If we want to live in harmony with our bodies, our families, our communities, our world, it is our personal responsibility to work on balancing the inner self, because that is where all healing begins.
www.thehealthyhome.com/gina.htm
The basic foundations of yoga, a healthy life style and feng shui were characterized so succinctly by Gina Lazenby when she noted that the shifts of energy just before and just after a thunder storm are the most obvious because there is tension, a release, and then it feels different afterward. What is not so obvious is that everything is vibrating and energy can be manipulated. Why do we practice yoga? To move our muscles (tension), to calm our nerves (release), to change (feel different). What are we changing? Our energy, our chi. Why eat healthy food? Why bring healthy plants to our environment? To balance the energy that gets out of whack so easily in these modern times. We can manipulate the energy in our bodies and we can do the same with the energy in our homes.
Traditional People/Ancient Wisdom understood their environments and the use of energy. They worked, played and lived with nature as their guide. Our techno-paced lifestyles disengage us from the natural rhythm of life and so we live terribly out of balance. By shifting toward the inner self, which is still in synch with the moon, we may come to realize that what we want is a way to get the nature balance and energies flowing so we can change our lives.
Changes we make in our homes and environs, and those we make in our bodies (through yoga, meditation, healthy living) increase the chi, the life force, and we can experience that the spiritual gain is quite affordable in comparison to feeling dull, depressed and unhappy. Is my house unhappy when she can’t breath well because there are things obstructing the flow of chi? Yes. Is my house comforting and relaxed when the air is circulating and everything seems to be in just the right place? Yes. In this way, we can see that both yoga and feng shui support healthier lifestyles.
If we want to live in harmony with our bodies, our families, our communities, our world, it is our personal responsibility to work on balancing the inner self, because that is where all healing begins.
www.thehealthyhome.com/gina.htm
Principles of Ayurveda, pH & Feng Shui
July 10
Imbalances can be corrected by modifying the diet and behavior. Dosha (constitutional type) deficiencies can result in poor health. When digestive energy has been compromised, undigested food waste clogs the body.
It’s all about balance!
My dosha, lifestyle and practice are amazingly linked: fiery, thrives on intensity, needs to chill out. I love spicy food, I enjoy salt, I can work for hours without eating, and then crash suddenly and have a freak-out. And where has that gotten me? Out of balance. I thought I’d been eating healthy food but I’m not eating what my body needs to be optimally balanced. Even hearing that some of my favorite foods are ones that I should avoid makes me angry! Could there be a more loud message? As a Pitta, I would do better to avoid or limit the heat of my current practice and favor a slow-flowing practice. I need active rest.
We fill our bodies with food. We fill the home with objects. If the food is unnatural, ugly, unsupportive of health, there will be imbalances, disease, possibly constipation, or worse. If the objects we surround our bodies with at home are broken, ugly, or useless, there again will be imbalance, constipation, dis-ease. When we put balanced energy into the mouth and in through the front door, chi can flow.
Imbalances can be corrected by modifying the diet and behavior. Dosha (constitutional type) deficiencies can result in poor health. When digestive energy has been compromised, undigested food waste clogs the body.
It’s all about balance!
My dosha, lifestyle and practice are amazingly linked: fiery, thrives on intensity, needs to chill out. I love spicy food, I enjoy salt, I can work for hours without eating, and then crash suddenly and have a freak-out. And where has that gotten me? Out of balance. I thought I’d been eating healthy food but I’m not eating what my body needs to be optimally balanced. Even hearing that some of my favorite foods are ones that I should avoid makes me angry! Could there be a more loud message? As a Pitta, I would do better to avoid or limit the heat of my current practice and favor a slow-flowing practice. I need active rest.
We fill our bodies with food. We fill the home with objects. If the food is unnatural, ugly, unsupportive of health, there will be imbalances, disease, possibly constipation, or worse. If the objects we surround our bodies with at home are broken, ugly, or useless, there again will be imbalance, constipation, dis-ease. When we put balanced energy into the mouth and in through the front door, chi can flow.
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