5 Ways to Advance Your Yoga Practice

Read on in this enlightening post from Yoga International:

Five Ways to Advance Your Practice (Hint: NONE of these are yoga poses)

JULY 14, 2016    BY BRITT B. STEELE

 
 
 

As yogis mature from beginning and intermediate practitioners, becoming more advanced in their understanding and application of the deeper and more sophisticated yoga techniques, asana practice becomes less about the poses and more about what happens within the poses. In this way, yoga as we know it can not only contain our asana practice but can also serve as a container for our entire lives. With study and practice, one begins to understand that there are many ways to both enhance a simple mat practice and to bring the “state” of yoga into all aspects of life. That being said, sometimes it can be a challenge to know just what practices will have the most potent impact when integrated into our lives.  

1. Set a Devotional Intention

This is a tiny practice with big potential. At the beginning of every yoga session, whether you start standing, sitting, bowing down, or lying on your back, bring your attention to your breath and set a devotional intention. I call this a devotional intention because it requires deciding how you want to devote your time and energy on the mat so that you can step back into your life a little brighter and a little lighter. The intention can be very simple—and is often most potent when it is. One such devotional intention might be “May I be a gentle source of power.” Another example might be “May I awaken into my potential.”

2. Rise and Set with the Sun

Relatively early in a yoga session, let your energy begin to rise and heat up your body. This type of energy may be likened to the brightness of a candle flame—as you feel yourself become more brilliant, expansive, radiant, and potent, you are tapping into the energy we call prana. In the morning, this can be done throughsun salutations, and later in the day, it can be accomplished through any flowing pose sequence that challenges you. Kindling your inner fire in this way lets you see how the heat is affecting your body, mind, and heart (just as a light illuminates the area surrounding it). Once you see this, you can use that information to determine if you are going to keep heating up or not; you may get messages from your body to shift into a practice of ease,balance, inversion, or stillness.

Raising the fire is the “rise with the sun” part of this practice’s name. “Set with the sun” refers to the willingness to titrate the heat, and decrease it when fire-building practices may be detrimental. This is about being willing to not make every single practice hard and hot but to instead use the fire to remove blockages and ease tension (for example, a focused practice to relieve headache, anger, or even constipation). Just as the flame in a candle illuminates and softens the surrounding wax, the heat within your practice can help you illuminate your internal environment and make undesirable physical or emotional symptoms softer and easier to remove or resolve when titrated. Fire is very powerful and is best kept at a slow burn to glean the benefits.

3. Bring on the Moon

Connecting to moon energy is about finding ease, grace, nourishment, and any insights that will result in your practice being the catalyst for making everything in life feel more integrated. Discovering these requires self-awareness of your current needs. So, when you practice yoga on your own at home, consider letting go of all restrictions, such as the idea that absolutely everything that happens on the right side of the body needs to happen on the left side and the idea that you must adhere to a particular routine or agenda. Sometimes you will come to the mat and have high aspirations to a strong practice, only to find five minutes into it (as a result of paying attention to how heat is affecting you in that moment) that you actually need, more than ever, to sit in meditation for 20 minutes, then do 20 minutes of breathing exercises (pranayama), and then finish up on your back with 20 minutes of savasana (corpse pose).   

4. Follow the Three Precepts

The Three Precepts, presented here as three questions to ask yourself, can always, always, always be applied in your life off the mat.  

1. Right here, right now, is my breath free and easy? 
If it is not, ask yourself what you need to do, stop doing, shift, or change to allow the breath to be free and easy. Then adapt accordingly.

2. Is my spine long and neutral? 
Extension and flexion are a natural part of life. Therefore, the purpose of this precept is not to keep the spine “straight” all of the time but to seek the “sacred neutral”—a position with no offensive or defensive posturing. Sacred neutral is different than the “spinal neutral” about which we speak in biomechanics. Sacred neutral is that position, in a pose or in life, where one is not bearing down, pushing, or forcing things to be a certain way, nor is one’s sacred neutral in a pose or life circumstance filled with retracting, freezing, or startling back. Instead, sacred neutral is a central, open position, in which one might be contracting or expanding and completely at peace with what is being revealed, even if it is challenging or difficult. It is a harmonious state of being able to relax into what is happening without expectation that anything be different than it is right here, right now.

3. Is my body relaxed? 
In your asana practice, when you move into any more advanced asana, do so gradually so as to find your way into the pose gracefully and ease-fully; if you are not relaxed as you enter (for example, a backbend, a headstand, or an arm balance), then go back to the basic stages of the pose and forego the more advanced version. In general, any time you are not relaxed, ask yourself what can be done that will allow you to relax and then try to do that. (Sometimes this means foregoing the advanced expression of an asana and finding fullness in a more gentle variation of a pose.) To fully experience the good things in life, one needs to be relaxed; stress can prevent us from recognizing and appreciating the positive. To put it another way, all good things need a relaxed body to enter and move through, so invite relaxation in and request that it be the escort and the container to guide and hold every pose you enter—in life or on the mat.

5. Enjoy a Long, Luscious, Focused Savasana

Savasana (corpse pose, or "final relaxation pose") is not the easy pose it may seem. In fact, it may be one of the most challenging of all. It is the pinnacle of a yoga session during which you can assimilate everything you’ve done, bringing it all together so it will be relevant and beneficial to every aspect of your life. To fully achieve this assimilation, give yourself plenty of time in savasana rather than jumping abruptly out of your practice and back into your day. We could all benefit from spending a longer time in savasana rather than limiting ourselves to yoga sessions that are always relentlessly physically challenging. To ensure that your savasana will be not just “long” but also “luscious,” allow your internal energy to move as it wants to move—sometimes flowing, sometimes pulsing or twitching as you relax in savasana.

To be “focused,” aspire to be completely attentive even while completely relaxed. In other words, avoid mentally spinning off to some far away place. You may find that practicing a guided relaxation in savasana helps you to remain present and aware. Gently call yourself back to your savasana if you find yourself starting a grocery list or revisiting a conversation you had or wish you had had. Instead, stay fully present in your body and in the moment to feel how the entire universe enters you, moves through you, and is available to allow you to manifest whatever you wish.  

So there you have it: five practices that have the power to transform your yoga practice and bring the benefits of yoga easefully into your day-to-day activities. They are so subtle that you can do them without anyone else ever knowing, but they are powerful enough to truly transform your life!  

Victorious Breath

Let this blogpost from Yoganonymous, written by Zuzu Perkal deepen your Yoga Practice and Experience on the mat . . . Namaste

Prana Power: Ujjayi Pranayama, The Victorious Breath

 

 As T.K.V Desikachar states, "The quality of our breath is extremely important because it expresses our inner feelings."

If you've  ever been to a yoga class, you've probably  heard something along the lines of, "take deep Ujjayi breaths" or "let your breath sound like an ocean wave."
Ujjayi Pranayama is a type of breath work that is commonly used in various styles of yoga but is rarely explained thoroughly enough for practitioners to truly understand.
It is an ancient yogic breathing technique that is used as a powerful tool to advance your yoga practice. When done correctly, it calms the mind and inspires deep inward exploration. Like all elements of yoga, it requires practice, patience, and an open mind and heart.

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Ujjayi Pranayama, The Victorious Breath

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Pronounced: ooh-JAH-yee prah-nah-YAH-mah
Ujjayi: Sanskrit  prefix "ud"  and the root "ji",  combined together as, "ujji",  which means "one who is victorious." Ujjayi breath is translated as the "victorious breath."
Pranayama: Sanskrit "prana" meaning "life force"  or "vital energy" and "ayama" which is to "control" or "extend." Therefore, pranayama is to "control the breath."
Type of Yoga Practiced In: Hatha, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and Power Yoga
Benefits: Ujjayi Pranayama is both energizing and relaxing as it sends fresh oxygen throughout the body. When practiced correctly it will create internal heat and give you an uplifting boost of energy. It's also used to increase the flow of prana (life force energy) in the physical body. This form of pranayama (breathwork) creates friction in the throat which causes the breath to sound like ocean waves crashing on the beach.
Why is the breath being audible so important? It serves as a focal point during your practice, settling the fluctuations of the mind and bringing more awareness to the internal body, mind, and spirit. Thus, Ujjayi increases concentration while reminding one to surrender and find ease throughout the practice.
Ujjayi breath can be practiced both on and off the mat. Next time you're feeling stressed or uneasy, practice your Ujjayi breath for a few minutes to calm both the physical and emotional bodies.
Get Started:

1. Sit in a comfortable seat and close the eyes for a few slow deep breaths. Take a few moments to deepen the breath and find an even length inhalation and exhalation.
2. Bring your awareness to where the breath goes as it enters the body. Ujjayi breath is a diaphragmatic breath, filling the belly and then lungs on the inhale. Practice filling the belly, then lungs, taking a brief pause at the top of the inhale, and emptying the lungs and then slightly  contracting the belly to release air from the belly. Notice  the slight pause again at the bottom of the exhale.
3. Maintaining this diaphragmatic breathing, begin deep breaths in through the nose and exhale out the mouth, as you imagine you were fogging  up a mirror with your breath. Your exhale should make the sound "haaaaah." Practice this a few times.
4. Continue  this breath, but this time, seal the lips and create the same "haaaaah" sound with the mouth closed. You should notice  the slight constriction in the back of the throat, which narrows  the passage of air for longer and slower breath cycles.
5. Keep the mouth sealed as you breathe in and out cultivating an oceanic sounding breath, in and out through the nose. This is Ujjayi Pranayama!

Length of Practice: Ujjayi Pranayama can be used throughout the duration of your yoga asana practice. Begin the warming breath in your meditation at the beginning of class. As you move from pose to pose, keep the awareness on the even breath cycles to keep the mind clear. When it comes time to rest in Savasana, return to normal breathing in and out the nose.
Speed of Practice: The length of inhalations and exhalations should be even in length and speed. Ujjayi breath is a slower form of pranayama due to the constriction in the back of the throat. Try to keep the breath on a continuous cycle of five-seven counts in and five-seven counts out.
Recommended Asana: Explore various poses and styles of yoga using Ujjayi pranayama. All yogis are different and each time we step on our mat is an opportunity to explore our breath and body. Always honor your body while practicing. Ujjayi pranayama can be practiced during all poses until Savasana.
Fun Facts: Ujjayi Pranayama is often referred to as the "Darth Vader breath," due to the sound it makes.
The breath is a direct response to how you feel and think. When you're  nervous, scared, stressed, or sad, the breath will reflect this by being shallow,  shaky, and uneven. When you're calm, happy, and balanced, the breath will mimic these qualities.
The resistance of airflow when using Ujjayi helps maintain the elasticity of the lungs.

Go to this URL and watch the YouTube video on how to find your Victorious Breath:

https://youtu.be/82Qq1qwJ77I

May There Be Peace

“You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.”
  -  Brené Brown

I believe we all choose the family and the life we are born into so that we may learn the lessons we most need to be our best, most authentic selves . . . in order to create life with less struggle, more happiness - real happiness - and offer up the best of who we are to honour our spirits and those whom grace our lives, and to the universe in its totality.  

Along the way, we meet struggle, head on . . . sometimes we invite it in . . . and even though it sucks ass . . . it belongs to us so that we can mould it into the strong, incredible potential that lives and breathes in us all.  

I truly believe that all things in life come to us in forms that both feel terrible and feel incredible to allow our souls to transform . . . to come up from the depths of this wired struggle to a place where we truly believe that we are worthy of amazing, unconditional love and acceptance in this universe.  

When you feel down, alone, ungrateful, and stomach-wrenching anger . . . that too is your path to bliss in this life.  If you practice Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness and you believe that your life can be transformed by that path . . . or if your spiritual realm and belief comes from some other higher power, activity or belief . . . there can be no expectation that you will be in total bliss every day of your life.  The mud exists for the lotus flower to grow and blossom in all its glory, just as it exists for your human spirit to reach its greatest potential. 

Any time you feel heavy from whatever struggle that faces you, remember, with time, love and nurturing of spirit, mind and body - however that looks for you - you will find gratitude, peace and be stronger for it all. 

Always grow . . . practice gratitude . . . love purely. 

May there be peace . . .

Namaste 

Jen

The Life Altering Capacity of Yoga

Each person comes to Yoga for their own reason; we all have our Story, our purpose in life, our struggle; what brings us to the mat for the first time.  Read Vanessa Lee's story from a Yoganonymous article and how something as 'simple' as a Selfish inspired and moulded her life ...

Vanessa'se story inspired me.  I hope you find your own inspiration from it as well xo

This post was submitted by a member of our community.

I’ve read a few articles bashing the "yoga selfie" as of late.

If you’re not sure what a yoga selfie is, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a selfie in a yoga pose—and they’re all over Instagram and probably everywhere else in social media land.

There’s quite a bit of controversy suggesting that those who partake in yoga selfies and the social media-based yoga challenges are not “real yogis.” It’s been said that yoga selfies are no more than self-indulgence and that they completely minimize what yoga is supposed to symbolize: A private and inward journey. It's even been said that yoga selfies are narcissistic.

While some can certainly argue all of those points quite well, yoga selfies changed my life for the better. In fact, I owe my entire yoga journey to the yoga selfie.

I’ve been doing yoga since 2007. I use that phrase loosely, because for approximately the first seven years of my stint, I didn’t really "do" yoga. I knew the basics, I attended gym yoga classes, and I knew I liked it. I attended what I now know were Vinyasa flow classes but in my small town yoga just wasn’t a thing. There weren’t any dedicated yoga studios at the time, and in the random event that one would pop up on a downtown corner, it was closed a month or two later. I was fortunate that the teacher I had was really great. She held my interest. When she left teaching, I kind of bailed on yoga. My relationship with it was intermittent and I didn't have a clue as to what a dedicated practice was.

In late 2013, I realized I really needed some form of consistent exercise in my life. I had gained a few pounds and since I’ve always lived with generalized anxiety, it was time to put some work into my physical and emotional self. It only made sense that I reincorporated yoga into my life.

Again, just the basics: some Sun Salutations, stretching, and breathing.

I have been in love with Instagram since it began, so one evening on a business trip in early 2014, I came upon this amazing gallery of someone’s yoga poses. Extremely advanced yoga poses. I was absolutely intrigued and had an immediate desire to imitate the poses.

(Stay with me here because I know this is where the controversy comes in.)

Yes, I wanted to imitate the poses. I wanted tostand on my head. This woman was fit and awesome. She was balanced and was so inspirational in her posts. I wanted to hashtag #inversionsmakeyouhot and radiate this beautiful art form that I saw. I didn’t even know yoga could get this advanced, this intense, this beautiful. I was beyond inspired.

I quickly learned that—surprise, surprise—it wasn’t that easy to imitate the poses or the lifestyle she portrayed. Apparently standing on your headrequired work. Physical work, sure, but emotional work as well. In my case, fear was a huge factor. I wanted to face my fears, but it also made me hide deeper. I wanted to understand the poses—the asanas—and I wanted to understand why they were beneficial. It sparked a need in me to understand, research, and learn abot yoga... In its truest form.

I soon started to follow every yoga Instagram superstar I could find, as well as other amateurs like myself. I could not believe the community I found in the space of social media. All of the yoga challenges became a part of my daily routine, which had actual prizes at the end of the month—but I didn’t participate in them for tangible things: I just wanted to learn, I wanted to be inspired, I wanted to be motivated by others, and possibly inspire others.

I found myself so inspired that I would go to the local bookstore to read about the history of yoga, chakras, different styles of yoga, different teachers, and all of the benefits yoga has on the mind, body, and spirit. I hadn’t felt so passionate about anything in my life, as far back as I could remember. It felt so incredible to have this connection with yoga.

With a new life.

This year also coincided with the worst year of my personal life, so all of this newfound knowledge about yoga could not have come at a better time. Yoga saw me through a divorce and major family illnesses. Yoga helped me through navigating becoming a single mom and through a broken heart. Through career upheavals and through soul searching. I turned to yoga every single day for solitude and healing. Who knew that yoga could do all of this if you did it correctly?

And speaking of correctly, I may be an unorthodox yogi: I truly don’t believe that yoga can be done wrong. I’m not vegan. I don’t meditate as much as I’d like to. I don’t practice for 90 minutes a day. I don’t love some of the yoga styles. I don’t know about every chakra or even every asana's Sanskrit name.

What I do know is that yoga is when I breathe through life. It’s when I feel the most connected with myself and when I can get my mind to settle down. It’s when I feel good about my body and all its imperfections and its limitations. It’s when I accept that backbends may never be my thing and my shoulders and hamstrings are much too tight. It’s just… Practice. Of so many things.

It’s a journey. And yoga selfies started all of it for me.

I never reached any kind of Instagram popularity with my own yoga selfies, nor did I aspire to. I don’t participate in challenges much anymore or even post many yoga selfies. Yoga selfies were just a starting point for me into something much deeper and more meaningful, and, for that, I am forever grateful.

Respect others' journeys into yoga. Try not to judge. That yogi that you’re dismissing as narcissistic on Instagram may just be changing someone’s life.

They changed mine.

The Yoga of Darkness Written by Return Yoga

Read on ... Find your honesty ...

The Yoga of Darkness

By Return Yoga on Monday March 7th, 2016

2883



By allowing our fears to arise we create an opportunity for healing

Emotion is the chief source of all becoming-conscious. There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion. – Carl Jung

I once had a student who started to drift away and began to look sheepishly apologetic when she did come to class. She avoided my eyes and had an invisible wall around her mat. She used to ask questions or chat after class; now she was the first out of the room and gone from the studio by the time I’d left my mat. Eventually, though, we did talk a little. She told me things were busy. She talked about her kids. Then she looked somewhere into the middle distance and said she didn’t know, really; yoga just wasn’t working any more.

Sometimes, she said, all I feel in child’s pose is anger and disappointment.

Sometimes we feel anger and disappointment during our practice

Negativity is part of the path

Yoga has a corner market on feel good words. I recently had a massage therapist tell me we were both in the ‘feel good industry’. The promise of ‘enlightenment’ tends to make us think we will be more spiritual, and this somehow means we’ll be a little less freakish about time, our kids, our money. There is truth to this. Yoga can show us how good it feels to be alive.

But yoga will also show us exactly how badly we feel. Usually, when honest emotion starts to come up, students leave. They skip class or decide yoga wasn’t what they wanted. They say ‘it’s not working any longer’. The emotion itself keeps them away; they’re ‘not in the mood’, ‘too busy’, or ‘too depressed to move’. They will – trust me, this is real – feel guilty for feeling so crummy when others are just trying to get their savasana on.

This doesn’t indicate that the yoga isn’t working, but that it IS. The end isn’t this negativity, this disappointment. But negativity is part of the path, and it has to be gone through if you want to understand it, to understand yourself, at all. If you don’t, you’ll be shutting down half of your experience of life, and probably the best strengths you’ll ever find. If you don’t, you’ll continue to skip, overcompensate, repeat, and lull. You’ll segue irritation into nicety, stuff it, and it will erupt later as rage toward an intimate or yourself.

Many students give up on class when honest emotions arise

Yoga is about honesty, not bliss

Most of us have spent the majority of our lives stuffing and repressing our feelings, rationalizing them, avoiding them, or sublimating them into exercise, food, cigarettes, television, shallow relationships. Women are taught not to feel anger because it’s not nice, not feminine (or too feminine and bitchy, emotional, hormonal and out of control). Men are supposed to feel competence, all the time. In our efforts to feel better, many of us start shutting it off, wholesale, in favor of pop psychology or easy spirituality. It’s called spiritual bypass. It’s an attempt to avoid painful feelings, unresolved issues, or truthful developmental needs with such words as ‘Everything happens for a reason’, ‘God’s ways are not our ways’, or ‘Choose happiness’.

There will be a yoga class, someday, online or at your local studio, where your teacher will start singing. She’ll say ‘exhale’ as if there’s something orgasmic about it. She might allude to the goodness of your heart, your hamstrings, or the light inside.

If you are like me, this may make you clench your bandhas like a fist. There may come a day you lower down into child’s pose, “sweet, receptive, safe” child’s pose and feel nothing but boredom, irritability, and dis-ease. You keep lifting your head off the mat, looking at the clock. There may come a day your brain starts swearing at the lovely yoga teacher saying something vapid about love in your newly blossomed chakra.

Yoga is about honesty not bliss

Here is the thing. Yoga is not about bliss, but about honesty. Spirituality is not certainty, but the longing of the heart. Enlightenment is not ‘letting go’ of bad feelings, but understanding them, what they’re doing to us, and how they are expressed in the body. Non-harming and forgiveness are not about feeling generous or big enough (bigger than and condescending), but knowing the difficulty of right actions and assuming responsibility for the difficult. Forgiveness often comes directly out of acknowledging how bloody bitter we are. Love is not joy, all the time. Sometimes, love hurts. Love is raw.

Yoga is a love story. Not the fluffy, romanticized love story, but the real one. The kind that leaves you changed.

Emotions are doorways, ways in. The goal is not to exist without shadows, to become so spiritual we no longer feel fat, bored, envious, or impatient. The goal is to swallow hard as we take on willingness to go into the dark.

Being brave enough to walk through the darkness to get to the light

Passing through the shadows

Because yoga asks you to work with both your body and your mind, the inevitable result is going to be messy. There will be times the body itself will start in on anger, hot and fast, trembly, without the reasoning mind having a clue what is going on. There will be days the boredom or loneliness seem so sharp they may actually wound. There will be five thousand ways your mind will tell you it isn’t worth it, it won’t work, that love is not real.

Yet, yoga has probably already given you a clue to this. You’ve probably already felt how love – whether it be romantic or ethical, compassion, right living, making a solidity of your name – is the only thing that is real. The highest and best in human beings is subtle, mysterious, and tied directly to the shadows. Life is both unbearably cruel and devastatingly sweet, often at the same time.

The shadows will show up. Go there. Apathy, acedia, what Christian mystics called desolation, existentials call despair, moves when we move toward it. It isn’t the passage of time that heals us, but the passing through experiences.

Pushing through the fears and giving yourself a chance to release

Watching things fall away

There are hundreds of things telling us to ‘get over it’, to ‘think positively’, or to ‘let it go’. Be wary of these as the roadside distractions that they are.

Yoga is the love story where in things fall apart. God moves away, often at the same time he takes away the ground. First goes this, then goes that. Gone are the thrill of the first months of yoga class, the ease of learning something new every time you walked in the door. Gone is the schedule that allowed you class three times a week. Gone is the strength in your shoulders, the ability to keep on a diet. Gone is the confidence of conversion.

And then a small movement in the heart. And then two
.

Good Vibe TRIBE

Photo from Google Images

I never realized the immense importance of TRIBE until I moved half way across the country from my home town; where I lived and formed my TRIBE for 45 years.  It's not that I took my tribe for granted, it's more that I never knew what it felt like NOT to have physical contact with them whenever the opportunity presented itself.  If I had time, I could call any one of my tribe and ask if they were available for coffee, a walk, a run, a bike ride or simply to hang out.  That contact has become asking when they have time for a phone call or Skype video chat.  Even though I've lived away from home the last 1.5 years, not a day goes by that I don't think about my beautiful TRIBE back in my Manitoba home.  I continue to make great efforts to stay connected because I value them all so greatly.

Even though my husband and I moved to our dream province, British Columbia, it didn't feel the way I thought it would.  It was compounded by the fact that we moved to a very small town, and were surrounded by many people who already had a tribe of their own.

I so enjoyed being immersed in everything that the nature of British Columbia was providing; all the things we took a chance and journeyed here for: hikes, biking, downhill and cross country skiing, kayaking, river floats; in climates that were enjoyable no matter the time of year.  But I missed my TRIBE.  I had made some friends in my new home but there's never a comparison to the people who you call FAMILY, even if they aren't related by blood.  I didn't expect it to feel the same, but it was more different than I anticipated.

My Gorgeous Manitoba TRIBE

My Gorgeous Manitoba TRIBE

I'm a person who NEEDS a tribe.  Some people are happy to fly solo but I am not one of those people.  I almost feel as though I relate to who I am through my tribe.  They say you are who you surround yourself with.  I felt the sting of a sadness so great that during the quiet times, even surrounded by beauty and my best friend, my husband, made life less enjoyable.  It was compounded by the fact that I felt I had started to make enough friends that I shouldn't have felt so lonely . . . why did they not seem as meaningful?  And even though I had made some friends, my husband and I weren't receiving invitations to evening gatherings or outdoor activities.  It was hard not to question why those invitations weren't coming when I felt like we were developing meaningful relationships.

I spent some time feeling sorry for myself and even shed some tears and then I decided I could either waste time wallowing in self pity or I could create opportunities for those relationships to become meaningful, or even better, create opportunity to put myself out there and make those moments happen.

I took ski lessons, started teaching at the local yoga studio, and continued to put out invites as a means of nurturing the relationships we were already building.  I also cut myself and the people I met some slack; Rome was not created in a day and relationships don't just happen, they are massaged and built over time, and if they are genuine and mutual, they will blossom.  My tribe in Manitoba occurred over my lifetime and grew to the beauty they are today over time, moments and life shared.  I decided to stop wondering what was missing and put my energy into being happy and grateful for what I already had.

I got an idea from social media to start a gratitude journal.  The intention of this journal was to become more present in my day-to-day life, in the moments I shared with each person, each day, and to find gratitude for something every single day, no matter how big or small, so that at the end of my 2nd year of life in my new home, I could look back and realize just how incredible it had been.  Real happiness is not a place, a person or a thing, it's the journey to get there . . . it's the journey in nurturing the relationships with other human beings.  We all have unique qualities that make us who we are.

I've learned more about myself in this last year and a half than I have over my lifetime.  Some of those things were difficult to swallow.  I honestly believe the reason it took moving here to find my true, authentic self was because I didn't have the "distraction" of TRIBE.  What I had was a lot of quiet, spare time, while exploring the beauty that surrounded me, missing my tribe, to look into the window of my life.  Who am I really?  I also had to reinvent the way I responded and nurtured some of my longest relationships, including how to parent from a distance.

The most valuable thing I've learned in this last year and a half is acceptance; acceptance that my relationships with my Manitoba TRIBE will continue to grow and be meaningful because I love and cherish them, and the feeling is mutual; acceptance that I am a great mom and my children are the most important thing in my life, and moving away doesn't change that; acceptance in realizing that life involves constant change and learning how to roll with those changes, including how we relate the people in our tribe (especially our children who are now adults); acceptance that I cannot control the outcomes of other people's lives and that I am not responsible for their choices or outcomes; acceptance that I have the rest of my life to continue growing my TRIBE and that distance and time does not equate the value of any of the members of my TRIBE; and most importantly . . . GRATITUDE . . .  that I have life and health to enjoy my TRIBE.

Since finding this acceptance and gratitude for the woman I am discovering, I have come to see that I am RICH.  When I look back at the past 144 days so far of my 365 days of gratitude journal, I see so clearly that I haven't "left behind" anyone, and the new relationships I've formed in the last 1.5 years are immense blessings.  I have realized just how fortunate I am that I had the courage to put myself out there, make it important, and have been blessed with others who were willing to open themselves and their hearts up to my husband and I.

My Beautiful Kootenay TRIBE

Life is a journey and throughout that journey we grow our TRIBE . . . and mine is a GOOD VIBE TRIBE.  I love you all :)

Self Love Tips

I love reading great articles by great Yogis/Yoginis.  Every day I read something about the topic that I'm most passionate about . . . The PRACTICE of Yoga.  I love being so inspired by someone else's words and then being able to share those words with my readers.  Here's a great one from the YogiTimes written by Anne Soffer . . . Enjoy!

by anne soffer

Be Spiritual | Self Development

we could see a yoga class as therapy, and we could see the breath as our therapist

Last week I did some ground work on the state of my relationship with my partner. And thanks to the internet, I got overcharged with all kinds of characteristics my relationship had to cover, in order for it to be a healthy one.
Some of those signs were a bit awkward. Some even surprising. But most of them were quite the cliche. I made a small selection of these significant signs:
You are playful together.You see your partner as trustworthy.You enjoy the way your partner has changed and grown.You view your partner a little bit more positively than most others do.You kiss every day.
You have fun together.
When practicing yoga, we are not practicing to dive into the depths of our relationship--at least, not those that include someone else. When practicing yoga, we are diving into the depths of the relationship we have with our own self, our own physical, mental, and emotional bodies. I noticed that the so-called signs of having a healthy relationship with our partners were also good pointers for a healthy relationship with ourselves:
Are you playful?Do you see your body as trustworthy?Do you enjoy the way your body has changed and grown?Do you view your body a bit more positively than most others would?Do you have fun together?Do you kiss every day?
We could see a yoga class as therapy. In a yoga class we create movement, shape-changing movements. And by creating those movements we try to connect to our bodies on a deeper level, therefore we invest in a healthy body and mind. We could see the breath as our therapist, as our breath deals with tension. Tension created by those movements, or tension that we were unaware of before practicing. We are trying to listen, really listen, to what our body is trying to tell us.
I made a small self inquiry using those hints as my guide. So for a moment don’t worry about your partner (and all of the questions that run through your mind: does he or she still love me? Does he or she still find me attractive? Does his or her best memory include me? Do we bring the average of how many times couples have sex on a weekly basis up? (oh please yes!) Do we bring it down? (oh please no!)). Worry about you! Consider yourself as the one. You will be "together" until death do you part.
Are you playful?
Most likely you’ve seen a kitten play. Kittens have these crazy fifteen minutes every day, mostly when twilight comes. They just go crazy!
They jump up and down, they climb into the curtains, they run from one side of the room to the other--it’s not even running, it’s blasting!
Kittens do this in order to release energy. Be like a kitten, every day, for at least fifteen minutes. Bounce, jump, sing, scream, dance, boogie...Go crazy, and not a little bit. Go crazy a lot! Release tension, laugh, cry, do whatever needs to be done in order to discharge and recharge.
Do you see your body as trustworthy?
You should! Our bodies are beautifully constructed pieces of art, and
nature's result to the issue of sthira and sukha. Sthira means stability, solidness, and steadiness, that which gives us solidness. Sukha means permeability, softness, and ease, that which allows us to move. If you take a close look at one cell from our body, you will find that it is semi-permeable. It takes in what it needs and it gets rid of what is harmful; a very clever system.
If you look at the spine you will find a beautiful and dependable structure. 
The anterior column (the front of our spine) is mostly solid, as it deals with weight bearing. The posterior column (the back of our spine) is shaped with bows, leaving more spaces and allowing us to move.
It's OK to have some confidence and trust in our bodies. It has been--and still is--serving us in the best possible way since the day we were born.
Do you enjoy the way your body has grown and changed?
Most of us don’t, I guess. We all want to be young, “good” looking, and “fresh." But each and every one of us will have to deal with aging, as everybody is dealing with time.
I think time is an Ishvara Pranidhana thing, Ishvara Pranidhana meaning surrender. We have to surrender to time. Have to, implies of course that indeed we have to “do” something. Surrendering to something can still be an act of will.
If we can surrender to time, if we can surrender to the reality of becoming older and grayer and wrinklier and less flexible, we will most likely suffer less. We might even find beauty in this proces, enriching our lives and broadening our view.
Do you view your body a bit more positively than others would
I sometimes spot people who are deeply in love with their own body:
Honoring it, enjoying it, embracing it. For me it is so inspiring to look at those people. There is this deep contentment inside of them.
I even think that it is one of the most attractive qualities one can have.
For some of us, me included, this is a difficult thing to feel; seeing yourself more positively than others would.
On some days I’m OK with myself, on other days far from it. Maybe we can embrace this. This movement, moving from OK to far from OK.
How could we experience appreciation if it was all there was?
Take time for our bodies. Practice yoga. Give yourself a massage every once in a while. You know what you like most. Try to relate with attention to yourself. Remember, the grass is greener where you water it.
Do you have fun together?
As said, our body is a beautiful vehicle. Allowing us to move, taste, feel, see, hear, and smell. We can have so much fun with those senses! We can listen to music. We can smell the aroma of fresh herbs. We can see the sunlight show. We can taste the full body of a beautiful glass of wine. We can move. And we can feel, feel ourselves, feel our loved ones. Do we need more privileges to enjoy ourselves?
Do you kiss every day?
Don’t forget to kiss! Kiss whatever you can kiss. Practicing yoga will most probably enable you to kiss more and more parts of your body, which is a nice side effect.
And after doing this little self inquiry, you might notice that your relationship with your partner is even better than the one you have with you!