Ooroo Guru

In celebration of World yoga day on 21 June this blog is a reflection on the Gurus who teach me even when my mind / body/ soul resists.  Guru in this context refers to teacher / guide.

 

Daily Practice

BEEP BEEP BEEP Exhale  hand reachs for alarm – the first conscious breath of the day, blessed to be able to do this autonomously and automatically.  Pranayama conscious awareness of breathing, I take this for granted until I am gasping for air.

Yoga translates to yoke, to unite with the divine  bringing a sleepy form to a bright mind engaging with a body to move as my soul wishs.

Feet on earth:  My foundation, my sole connection to earth energy. Toes not bound by shoes able to extend find space an arch to hold my weight with a pivoting ankle joint.  Pushing down onto the bed with my hands holding my weight first lift of the day.  Engaging the core bundha lock to levitate upward.

Tadasana the mountain pose my first asana standing with an erect spine on top of my mountain summit beginning of a new day on my journey. According to Simon Borg Olivier :

“the journey of yoga is to reunite the individual with his or her True Self or true nature, a state of unchanging happiness.”  Redirect to rediscover true being atma.

Cindy my dog greets me with her original dog pose stretching her spine.

Throughout the day opportunities present for a quick forward bend while tying shoe laces, triangle in a cue and lotus on a chair at the dinner table.  Yoga creeps into your life inadvertently with a shift in perspective as you discover new muscle groups, catch your thought processes and find your breath.

  8 fold path in my life

Over 2000 years ago the great sage Patanjali documented the 8 fold path of yoga.  Following is how this path is practiced in living.

The most well known stage of the path are the asana or physical poses followed by pranayama breath awareness. Babes lying on their stomach lifting their heads with hands under their shoulders – cobra asana lead by a newborn.  Watching a babe coordinate breath, suck, swallow during a feed is an example of pranayama in action.  Children show me their new yoga moves named after a space droid.

“You’ve had too much” a call to practice yama restraint as I reach for another delicious dessert my eyes bigger than my stomach.

The reminder postcard from the dentist  a niyama in the mail to look at what I should do.

Hand on the volume dial / light switch examples of pratyahara sensory control of my environment and what I seek.

Focusing and concentrating on the job – dharana in progress.

Finally Samadhi the total bliss moments the high of  an ecstatic state – remember these.

 

Grazie to the Gurus

Thanks to all who have shared a yoga class with me

To my teachers for your patience and guidance

For those moments in the day that remind me of our mind, body, soul connection

Circuit  Breaking

Busy busy like ants we be: rushing, working, gathering supplies, feeding and caring for family. Operating in flight or fright – sympathetic nervous system mode pumped with cortisol, adrenalin and noradrenaline.  Then along comes a circuit breaker moment prompted by a turn in life’s routine.

A circuit breaker is an automatic switch that stops the flow of electric current in a suddenly overloaded or otherwise abnormally stressed electric current.  This is how an electrician describes a circuit breaker. I have taken liberty to extend the description to apply it to people.  There being an internal circuit and an external circuit breaker.

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Easter Feaster

 

The Bilby surpassed the Easter rabbit a few years ago now the Numbat is on the scene.  Easter or Istar is a celebration of new life, resurrection, fertility.  The date of when we celebrate Easter is in flux, it changes even within the Christian Creeds. It adds to the mystery but as Nikki Gemmell discussed this could become uniform. Do I need this predictability?

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Festive JOMO

 

FOMO fear of missing out!  Ahhh  the race to the sales, gathering of produce, attending parties and working to get it all done in time.    Fear of missing out has existed for a long time, though it was defined in the 2013 Oxford dictionary.  FOMO is defined as anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere .

Did Mary and Joseph encounter FOMO when racing to Bethlhem?  Was the stable a downgrade on the resort accomadation?  Did they have the latest trend and compete with the Jones?

 

 

Letting go of FOMO

What the Holy family did not encounter was our modern technology capacity to tap into others lives with the push of an app.  Stuart Luman suggests these measures to bring balance:

1. Relish feeling out of the loop. JOMO the joy of missing out being present to where you are and savouring this;
2. Seasonal holiday from social media checking out from clicking onto others adventures,
3. Employing software to avoid succumbing to habitual social media haunts.  Apps such as BreakFree or Moment stop FOMO like roundup,
4. Delete social media apps from mobile devices – this has slashed my phone bills,
5. DIGITAL  DETOX the intervention where you are out of range from social media and in contact with the person in front of you.

 

Joy of Missing Out

Joy the word we see, hear and sing at this time of year.  Joy of missing out is the antidote to FOMO as we let go of the need to know what others are doing and unplug.   JOMO is letting myself enjoy the here and now and being grateful for this.  Its not that I don’t care about others live.  Its the joy of being in the now, not rushing to see the next big thing.

Recently I challenged myself to turning the mobile to silent when meeting people.  I previously worked on call. The mobile and responding to it was equivalent to a umbilical cord connecting me to the external that I attended to 24 /7.  This while a necessity for my work stopped me from being 100% present to family and friends.  The week of a silent phone revealed to me the habit of hooking in.  I wish to continue the challenge of connecting uninterrupted by this tone that pulls my head space out of the context I am in.

Christina Cook a Canadian mother documented her month without internet to pen the book: The Joy of Missing Out Finding Balance in a Wired World.  The 3 gifts she found were presentness, intentionality and limited connections.

Here is the TEDX Talk she presented in Toronto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q3rhVna7yo

The Colours of Christmas

At this time of year there are those that remember a White Christmas cold with snow and hot food to warm the soul.  Australia has more of Red Christmas particularly if you live in the bush were the dirt is red and the sun makes you red.  My darkside Grinch Green Christmas is when I compare myself, don’t see what abundance I have and become jealous.

Tucked away from the raucous celebrations sit those in a Blue Christmas where loved ones lost are missed, circumstances are stressful and the colour of life is drained.  At our Christmas table there will be two settings where the remembered grace us with their invisible presence.  A smile, a hello is appreciated when you are in a Blue Christmas as this is when connection is craved but sometimes shunned.

 

 

Your Reason for your Season

Advertising on internet, television, radio and print bombard us at this time of year with promises and pressure to buy, buy, maintain the debt, look beautiful and be there.

Tuning out of the retail hype and coming home to what you value is like taking off the pressure valve sinking into your reality.

Find your reason for this season:

Is it a time to reboot?

Is it family time?

An opportunity to go bush and ride a horse?

Is it a celebration of the present or the past?

Is it Jesus Birthday or Hanukkah or Paneha Ganapali?

Thank you Gwelup Flower shop for this sign

www.gwelupflowershop.com.au

References

Stuart Luman found at www.niraandfar.com/2015/01/fomo.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thunk Funk

Rene Descartes stated “I think therefore I am” .

Thinking the dimension that sculpts our realities and experiences.   The Mind your step sign reminds us to stop and observe our thinking.  Personal energy consumption is taxed by thinking habits – conservation is possible with deconstructing funky thinking patterns.  Like the last frontier of outer space there is terrain that is untouched and available for the brave.

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