Sunie Yoga

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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Slow Down and Breathe



It is August and for those of you that don't know, August to a local Cape Codder tends to be absolutely out of hand crazy busy.  We call this Augustitis (but it's not lazy, it's crazy).  I will admit, I had Augustitis a little early this year, around the last week in July, and I was ready for the busy part of the summer to be over.  If you put yourself in my position, you'll have a better idea...

Imagine you're walking, no stumbling, through Times Square for your first time ever.  There are a million people in just a few blocks that are often oversized and looking up not foward.  They stop when they see what they want and they go when they're unsure this is the right spot.  It is summer, the weather is hot and beautiful.  Everyone is headed to the same place -- food then Broadway (that would be our beaches).  They don't stop until they get their fill.  We are in gridlock, there is no way out as their are rivers running along both sides of the island.  The only difference?  We live on Cape Cod and the tourists are driving (scary!).  Times Square is the entire Cape and we're a little peninsula turned island that has no way out other than 2 tiny bridges.
The accidents have been extreme, the amount of times I've been sitting in my car in fully stopped traffic has been countless (I work 35 miles from my home) and the lines seem endless.  Everyone is sunburned, dazed and a little bit dehydrated.  People don't make much sense.  All they want to do is hurry up and relax.  How does that work, I find myself often wondering?

Actually, I'm having a delightful time!

You ask, how do I keep my sanity through all of this hurrying?  I breathe long and full. I accept wherever I am and do my best to reconnect with my body.  I listen.  Somehow, somewhere recently I learned to accept my present situation and appreciate it for what it is.  I got myself there.  I can change it if I want to.



Remember, you are in control of your life.  You choose to respond the way you do.  You think the thoughts that go through your head.  Don't like it?  Change it.  Want to get a good start: slow down and breathe.  Evaluate your life on a daily basis.  Check in with your body and your mind.  Are you experiencing enough joy to stay with you present situation?  Are you able to take the time to sit back and enjoy your life?

I am so graetful for my life, for how I live and I know it has everything to do with my breath.

Thank you, Yoga.
Namaste.


Breathe. Nourish. Move. Heal.
SunieYoga

Monday, August 18, 2014

The Human Capacity to Experience Joy

We are the luckiest creatures on the planet.  Somewhere along human evolution, we were given the greatest gift: the experience of joy.  I believe your joy, happiness, bliss, pleasure, whatever you may call it, is the ultimate reason you live.  If life is just a constant struggle full of unhappiness and negativity, why bother?  Certainly humans go through bouts of struggle and sadness, but the pendulum will swing back again.  Seek the brighter side in life; it is there for you.

To attain pure joy, I believe humans must remove the ego, live in the present moment and define their values and dreams.  Humans must learn how to balance their lives, to decrease the swing of the pendulum, bringing the self into a more stable and trusting environment. And, most importantly, humans need one another.  Humans need to be in the presence of people that they love and people that love them on a regular basis.  As I gather the wisdom of living, I realize how vital this is in order to attain the ultimate objective: joy.

Living with a loving partner or your child, living near family or within a strongly bonded community will give you a sense of being home, a sense of peace, a sense of comfort, and, in short, a true experience of joy.  Open yourself to as many people as you can that give you love and support and you can love and support in return.

In the end of living, everything else fades, but your bliss will never leave you.  Pure joy creates the soul.
"Joy," Karl Jensen

"Moksha is a final release from one's worldly conception of self, the loosening of the shackle of experiential duality and a realization of one's own fundamental nature which is true being, pure consciousness and bliss, an experience which is ineffable and beyond sensation."

"If you build it, they will come."