Reflections on Living Consciously

For the past 5 months, I've been posting about living with more attention on things like: breath, thoughts, body, emotions, the ego. I noticed when I began practicing living this way, my life didn't necessarily get any better. That's okay, because that wasn't my goal. My goal was to live more consciously, which includes the pain and the sorrow, the ease and the discomfort, and acceptance and the resistance. 

As I reflect on the year so far, I see that I've been uncomfortable a lot. I've broken down a lot. I've done and said and thought things that were "wrong"... And, I've experienced moments of humility and tenderness with myself far beyond anything I've felt in my life so far. Being aware is not easy. It's a moment by moment practice of tuning in, checking thoughts and breath and physical sensation and emotions and opinions. Any time I thought I had it figured out, any time when I felt I got myself reassured and grounded again, my circumstances changed and I went back to the start. 

Do we ever stop this process? Do we ever find solid ground, truly? Or do we learn to ride the waves of change and impermanence? I've had an image in my mind this past week of being on a sinking boat in the middle of the ocean during a raging storm, and my only companion in this boat is my inner critic, telling me over and over about how I got us into this mess; after hours of trying to stifle the cruel things my critic tells me, I've decided to embrace her, to hold onto her with love and affection. The storm doesn't ebb, the boat continues to leak, but I now have a loving companion to ride it out with.

Updates

Welcome to the new look for my website! As my teaching has evolved, I felt it was time for my website to reflect my focus. (If you notice anything missing or needing change, please let me know.)

Along with the new look of my website, I am pleased to announce another new class at a brand-new studio! Welcome, Worlds Yoga to the neighborhood. It is located in Saratoga in the Argonaut Shopping Center, and I will be teaching a class called PREP Therapy there. If you'd like a sneak preview of what the space looks like and what my class will be, join is this weekend for the grand opening free class offering. Pre-registration is recommended. You can do this by going to the Worlds Yoga website and signing up; click HERE to go there.

There are several other special events that I will be a part of over the next 3 months, so please check out the Special Events page for more info on: Kaiser's Cancer Survivor Day, Restorative Yoga teacher training and Yoga for Cancer Survivorship workshop.

As always, check my Schedule page for the latest in class updates.