Mindful Monday: Go With The Flow

Does anyone ever feel like the drowning chick on the left? If you’re anything of a control freak like myself, you probably find yourself in rocky water more often than not. You’d think becoming a yoga teacher would send you right into the water that’s more serene and lazy-river-like, but we’re all human. We like what we like.

I believe we’re conditioned to this type of control from the moment we start asking to pick out our own outfits for the day. Or when we insist on shaving our legs before our moms approve. Or when we declare our complete and utter distaste for broccoli.

I’m not saying we should all start wearing a “Citizens of the United States” uniform, grow out our leg hair, and eat the broccoli. But, I do think there’s something to be said about our attachments, our way, our stubbornness, and what we truly and innocently believe is just us being uniquely independent. Sure, we need to be certain of who we are and what we want, and then take the necessary steps to chasing our dharma. But what happens when we try to control too much?

Enter the drowning chick on the left. Yes, the law of attraction is real. Creating a vision is healthy. There’s a certain peace and even a motivational drive to act when you’re sure of what it is that you want. If we begin to operate from a sincere space of gratitude, and if we’re sure on a soul level that what we deeply desire is coming, all we have to do is sit back and watch how quickly it comes. We have some control over these things.

What we don’t have control over is time & means. If we can just be grounded in reality about our complete inability to force things into existence when the timing is off, and then admit that there’s an actual possibility that there are multiple roads to the same destination and that we might just be on the wrong street, we can start calming the water.

Today’s morning affirmations: I will trust in a timing that’s not my own. I am open to re-routing if ever I find that my way is the wrong one. I will not resist. I will go with the flow.

Mindful Monday: Make Time For Peace

On days when it’s snowy, rainy, dark, and there’s no sun to be found…

When you wake up to your sweet crying infant in the middle of the night and you’re too exhausted to even cry yourself…

When your teenage son gets benched in the game you know means the entire world…

When you open the fridge and you’re out of yogurt…

When you’re trying to be punctual and you get stopped at every single red light on your way…

When you receive a frightening diagnosis…

When you can’t understand how you got here…

When you’re deeply in love and (s)he just wants to be friends…

When all the stars don’t align…

When the tray of appetizers you’ve just spent so long making falls on the floor as you’re setting it out…

When you don’t get into your first-choice college…

When you make plans with someone for the third time and they cancel and reschedule again…

When it feels like you can’t go on…

When you’re dusting the bookshelves and your great-grandmother’s vase falls to the ground and shatters…

When you can’t find your wedding ring…

When you’re putting anything together from IKEA…

When you can’t figure out which bulb needs to be replaced to get the Christmas lights to turn on…

When you get a flat tire…

When you get a flat tire in the rain…

When you get a flat tire in the rain on the highway while you’re alone…

When you have to put one of your parents in a nursing home…

When you make the B team…

When you don’t make the team at all…

When you have to ask someone to the school dance…

When you run a business and your favorite employee who you really like and value misses a deadline, fakes sick, and you have to do your job…

When you lose a pet…

When your spouse cheats…

When you hit your funny bone and nothing about it is funny at all…

We’ve all been in one of these stories before, or maybe we’ve been in many. Wherever you’re reading this, think of a memory that brings you peace & close your eyes. What does it look like? Who was there? What do you smell? What does it sound like?

When you’re on a page or in a season or living a story where life happens, and it’s hard. When you feel hurt, and shamed, and betrayed. When you’re frustrated at even the silly and stupid things. When you need to shake your head or sigh it out in disbelief. When you’re scared. When you feel like no one understands, and you just want to hit pause…

Go back to your peace memory. Make time for peace. Make MORE peace. Your peace is yours, angel.

Mindful Monday: It’s If You Will Or Won’t

Happiest Monday!

Have you ever found yourself contributing to this culture of complaining? I’m too tired. I can’t. It’s so hard. I can’t. But then I’d actually have to put myself out there. I can’t. I honestly can’t think of anything nice to say. I’d love to, but I can’t.

I hear these can’ts on an every day basis, and you can surely believe that some of them are coming out of my own mouth. Is it just conditioning? A slippery slope? One person starts, and we just have to chime in with more? The word “can’t” is hands down the biggest catalyst for a storm of excuses. If you break it down though, can’t just translates to not able. And so then it just becomes this little white lie that we’re perpetuating. Because the truth is, it’s not that you aren’t able. Because actually, you CAN. If you get to the root of it, can’t actually equals: I’m scared. It’s risky. I might fail.

It’s not if you can or can’t, it’s if you will or won’t. Pretty profound, huh? This week, be mindful. Catch yourself when you’re slipping into your slew of can’t-like complaints, and maybe begin to change your language to a more authentic approach: I just said can’t. Is it truly because I’m not able, or is it just because I won’t? And if you won’t, what’s behind it? Fear? Discomfort? Stubbornness?

Your awareness is everything. Start to become acutely aware of when you’re using can’t inappropriately. Boldly exit the all-too-easy-to-contribute-to culture of complaining by deciphering once and for all between can’t and won’t. Remember, it’s not if you can or can’t, it’s if you will or won’t. Take a deep breath, and start your Monday with a very loud: I WILL!

Be Who & Where You Are

Happy Monday, missionaries of consciousness! I’m so glad that we’re all still on this journey together, committed to filling our souls up with little cookies of inspiration each week!

Lately I’ve been on a Santosha kick. On this personal journey of trying to live my most authentic life, I’ve tried to be open + honest when the struggle is real. And, as it turns out, this idea of “contentment” is something that surely isn’t a lone battle. If you’re disciplined with your weekly yoga routine and surround yourself with fellow Lightworkers, you’re probably reminded constantly to bring yourself back to the present, right? We come to class and our teachers sweetly encourage us to be a witness to our own thoughts, and to be gentle with ourselves when our busy minds propel us somewhere other than right here and right now.

Maybe we’ve trained ourselves to become acutely aware when we’re focusing more on what’s missing and what we want instead of what we already have right now. And maybe we’re even getting pretty good at drawing ourselves back to a space that’s rooted in gratitude. We buy bracelets and T-Shirts and coffee mugs that remind us to stay present and content, and when that isn’t enough, we find ourselves staring at rows of books under “Self-Development” at Barnes & Noble. We *know* that being at peace with the many blessings we have currently is what brings more and more abundance. So, why is it so flippin’ hard to enjoy each and every season, including the ones that are cold, dark, emotional, full of tension, overflowing with stress, and full of people who already have the things that we so deeply desire? Oh yeah, there’s that whole comparison thing too.

Enter Santosha. Making peace with contentment doesn’t mean that you’re all of a sudden going to be living the life of Mother Teresa. This is real life. We still like to run fast. We still put the cart in front of the horse. We still look at our vision boards and list of to-dos and find guilty pleasure in checking each of our goals off of the list. Check. Done. On to the next.

It’s just life. We’re on a timeline. Every day that we wake up, we’re also a day older. And we aren’t going to live forever. So, do this: Make space for your ambitions. Be creative. Have a vision. Aim high. Aim true. Keep following your dharma. But also, do this: Notice when you’re exclusively wanting, yearning, and dreaming. Sure, sometimes it’s time to fly. But, even airplanes have to land. Find your balance by being honest about what you’re missing when you only care about what you still need to do and who you have yet to become. And what exactly do you miss when you’re always bee-lining toward the next thing?

Only everything. The joy of being a beginner, the butterflies that come with a promising new love, the ability to be vulnerable, the choice to live and trust and breathe through not having a clue in the world how things are going to unfold. What I’m learning: Stay present for each step of your journey. We don’t go from one place to another in a gigantic leap. We get there in tiny increments, by going through each feeling, each belief, and every experience one step at a time.

Sometimes when we pray for miracles, what we’re really praying for is help in skipping steps, for shortcuts. But the truth is that the simple act of acceptance & contentment, of returning to and truly living in each step of our path, can often bring us the very miracle that we need. We can go ANYWHERE we want to go, one step at a time. Stay present for each step of the journey. Trust every season. Many things are possible for you if you accept that the fastest way is one step at a time. Surrender to that.

Yoga Photographer: Sarah Pogorzelski

 

Meet Sarah, YBD Teacher of the Month

We love and honor Sarah P, as YBD Teacher of the Month – December! We want to thank you for your nurturing, kind and calm demeanor. Sarah will sweet talk you into difficult asana and help you realize your potential. It feels like she is hugging you with her words and energy. Sarah is a gentle leader for her all of her students and Teacher Training mentees. We are so grateful for your dedication, compassion and for sharing your gifts with our community.

Check out Sarah’s class schedule and get to know her better below:

Saturdays – 10am YBD1 and 12pm YBD2 – Wheaton

Sundays – 12pm YBD2 and 1:30pm YBD Restorative – Downers Grove

Mondays – 8pm YBD2 – Western Springs

 

When and how did you come to yoga?

I started doing yoga in 2011 as a part of my regular workout routine.  Just a way to cross train from some more intense workouts that I was doing at the time.  I started with sculpt but also incorporated vinyasa and something about vinyasa really resonated with me.  I lost a family member to gun violence about 10 years prior to starting yoga and I was living my life in complete fear.  When I started doing yoga I had no idea that it would help me through the fear that I felt.  We always talk about how when we start yoga we don’t really understand what it is that keeps us coming back, and I felt that way, I kept coming back but didn’t fully understand what was happening.  4 years later and I can say that yoga saved my life.  Truly.  I no longer live my life from a place of fear.  Of course there are things that take me right back to that place but it’s short lived because now I have the tools that I need to breathe through it.

Why did you start teaching yoga?

I signed up for teacher training on a whim, to be honest.  My husband encouraged me to do it, had it not been for him I would not be teaching today.  He gave me that little nudge I needed to pursue what has been such an amazing part of my life.  During training I realized that I wanted to give my students the same thing that I had been given.  A place to heal.  I’ve discovered so much about myself through my own personal practice and I’m so incredibly grateful to my teachers that led me through my healing; I consider my own teaching to be a way to pay it forward so to speak.  We all have something that we’re going through so I want to provide a safe space for healing to happen, to somehow introduce the idea of peace to those that walk into the studio.

What is your favorite pose?

I joke all the time about this but honestly my favorite pose is savasana.  I remember when I first started doing yoga and thought, are you serious, laying down is built into this??  Best idea ever.  It wasn’t always savasana but I’ve found so much peace in just taking the few minutes at the end of my practice to ground myself.

Who inspires your teaching?

There are so many things and people that inspire my teaching but my biggest inspiration is my students.  I love seeing my students working through something on their mats, coming to their safe space and just breathing through things.  Getting to know the people that take time out of their day to come to class and move their bodies.  I love to hear the stories of what everyone is going through, we’re so similar but I think we forget that from time to time.  Seeing a group of people, who don’t necessarily know each other, come together and lift each other up, well it’s just the best part of this job.

Tips for beginners…

I tell all of my new students don’t be afraid to look around if you don’t know what the pose is.  But there is another side to that coin, don’t compare yourself to the person next to you that seems to be ultra flexible.  All of our bodies are different so everyone is going to look different as we’re all searching for our own expression of a pose.  Just keep coming back, you’ll get to know the poses and you’ll be amazed at the things you learn about yourself.

What’s your favorite quote?

Breathe deeply, until sweet air extinguishes the burn of fear in your lungs and every breath is a beautiful refusal to become anything less than infinite.  – d. antoinette foy

December Pose of the Month

Oh hey, December! It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As we’re approaching the new year, anticipating new beginnings, and preparing our hearts and our bodies for a fresh start, this month becomes the perfect time to reach back, go back, way back. Before we float into the unknown and continue to move forward, take some time to go back & inward to reflect. Appropriately then, we bring you (or rather, beautiful instructor Sarah Pogorzelski brings you): Reverse Warrior.

• From Warrior II, flip your front palm up toward the sky

• Sweep energy up and reach back, allowing your opposite arm to rest gently with little to no weight on your back leg

• Maintain a commitment to your front lunge by bending deep into your front knee and stacking your knee directly over your ankle

• Energetically pull your knee open and back over your pinky toe to open your hip

• Sink your hips toward the floor and relax your shoulders

Benefits of Reverse Warrior:

• Challenges balance

• Lengthens and elongates your side body

• Stretches and strengthens front quadricep

• Builds lower body strength

Give it a go! Option to reach behind with your bottom arm to grab for your front thigh for a half bind.