retinal perspectives

yoga

I started yoga this past winter. It never really interested me - I thought pilates was more my style - but I was reading Gorgeously Green and she had instructions for a couple of sun salutation sequences. The instructions actually made sense to me, so I tried it. And I loved it! I could tell that it was just what my body needed.

I started out doing sun salutations every morning and eventually added other poses into the mix. I went to an anusara yoga class, which I loved. I bought a couple of yoga DVDs and added them in. Whenever I start something new, I am usually gung-ho on it for a few weeks or months and then my interest fizzles, but I have somehow managed to keep up my near-daily practice. It is something I get to do and that I very much look forward to doing. I even began getting up earlier so that I could fit in a practice before work.

The benefits I've noticed so far: strength (legs and arms in particular), flexibility (I can touch my toes!), I can sit cross-legged (for over an hour - I couldn't even sit cross-legged for seconds!), balance (I am less wobbly in the tree pose), mindfulness (during practice and then it carries over into the rest of my day), pain relief (back and shoulders from sitting at a computer), stress relief (practice is very calming), better breathing, I feel more at home in my body and appreciative of what it can do .. I'm sure there are more benefits, but those are the ones that come to mind immediately. Oh - and sometimes, during the bridge pose, I can feel the energy begin to run up my spine. It is the most incredible feeling.

While I am still (very much) a beginner, I love yoga enough that I would love to become a yoga instructor someday.

If you've never tried yoga, I highly recommend it. There are a ton of different styles, so it seems like there must be a style for everyone. If you have tried yoga, do you have any good DVD recommendations, or is there a particular style that you like?

faith ..

eta: It was pointed out to me that the article was disrespectful of someone, and I can see where that might be true, so I am removing the content.

I am replacing it with one of my favorite quotes, which says something similar, only more eloquently:

"I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit."- Kahlil Gibran

my mirror

I have read many books and articles that posit that pets will mirror their owners' physical and emotional issues - either existing conditions, or future/possible conditions. It seemed like an interesting idea, but I figured it didn't really apply to me.

I took Atlas for an AnimalTalk session a few weeks back and was commenting that he doesn't drink water. Almost ever. It drives me batty because I feel sure he needs more than he is getting - but while you can lead a dog to water, you can't make him drink - and believe me, I've tried. "Didn't you tell me that you don't like water and don't drink enough?" she asked. Why yes, I had.

I had an energy alignment done on him because his neck is always going out of alignment, which tend to result in a limp on the right front leg. I get pain in my right shoulder a lot.

He is a very anxious dog - worried that I will leave him or won't be able to get back to him or that something is wrong with me. I worry about something happening to him and tend to over-worry when something does go wrong.

He has allergies that flare up in the spring. So do mine.

Hmmmmm .. when I start to run down the list of similarities (this is just a few), it occurs to me that perhaps he really is my mirror. I have noticed that as I have been healing over the past six months, he has been getting sick less often and is less anxious.

He developed a heart murmur very suddenly last summer. Now I am very curious what this means ..

your normal

"How do you react when you believe that what is isn't normal for you? Shame, sadness, despair. Who would you be without that thought? At ease with your condition and loving it, whatever it is, because you would realize that it is completely normal, for you. Even if 99 percent of other people look a different way, their normal isn't your normal: this is your normal ..

Give us permission, through you, to have a flaw, because flaws are the norm. When you hide your flaws, you teach us to hide ours. I love to say that we are just waiting for one teacher, just one, to give us permission to be who we are now. You appear as this, big or small, straight or bent. That's such a gift to give. The pain is in withholding it."

I read this passage in A Thousand Names for Joy by Bryon Katie the other day and it hit home. My scar is my normal. It has been for 20-plus years. And I spent all of that time trying to hide it. It was/is very tiring to argue with reality for that long. At the same time, I would never tell someone else to hide their "flaws". I would tell them to embrace them - that they're beautiful. And I would mean it. Seriously. How on earth does our own thinking get so crazy?!

a water update

Remember how I asked for suggestions on how to make water palatable? Well, I have found a trick!

I was wandering around our company's cafe the other day when I found myself by the coffee and tea (I don't drink either so never paid it much attention). Next to it, I saw a giant glass pitcher of water with cut up fruit and ice floating on top. I had a glass. It was delicious! Just the perfect hint of fruity flavor.

It is very easy to drink water when served this way. I plan on cutting up fruit so I can keep a pitcher in my own frig. Think of all the delicious possibilities: apples, pears, strawberries, raspberries, melon, cucumber and mint, peaches ..

If you try this, let me know what you think - and if you come up with any fantastic ideas of your own!