Reality Yogi Aims True: Habits

February is almost over! My birthday is on Monday, February 27, which is fun, but what is even MORE exciting is that on Wednesday it's FEBRUARY 29TH! I love, love, love, love LEAP YEARS! I'm really excited that it's a Wednesday, too, because that means I lead my meditation group on the EXTRA, SPECIAL DAY we only get once every four years. It's gonna have to be a special one. =)

So the second month of 2012, and you might think I've TOTALLY failed at my Aim True challenge. Well, I haven't. (Have I struggled feeling as though I failed because I needed a break from vigorous vinyasa with Kathryn Budig? Yes.) But the reality is, I actually feel as though I'm starting to aim more and MORE true. I've still been practicing and teaching a LOT of yoga. But I've moved back toward the power of KRIPALU yoga these days, and it's incredibly therapeutic and personal. I know I'll start to work some more of Kathryn's classes into my practice, but maybe just one or two a week. I still want to finish all of her classes by the end of 2012.

In other news, but totally related, here are two habits I am starting to get a firm grasp on:

Sadhana every morning. This doesn't have to be yoga practice, although it could be. Any combination of asana, meditation, pranayama, music and silence for at least 30 minutes. I have my own little 6-motions of the spine practice/warm-up that I do (almost) every morning, which developed out of both my personal practice and my teaching, that takes all of two minutes. I try to do at least 8 to 10 minutes of some pranayama, which could be as simple as soft-belly breathing, but is usually some combination of Dirgha, Ujjayi and Nadi Shodhana. I also do a 20 minute seated breath, mala bead, or mantra meditation every morning. Right now I've gotten really into metta meditation - sending positive energy out into the world, usually toward someone specific. I was completely taken by this passage in the book The Wisdom of Yoga by Stephen Cope:

This photo has nothing to do with the passage, but was a yummy dinner.

Jake was holding the most intriguing piece for last. "Here's the most amazing thing. I discovered that there were tracks coming back the other way."

Susan knit her brow. "What?"

Rudi got it. "It means that Fiona had been praying for Jake, too. Jake found the tracks of Fiona's prayers coming back toward him."

"She has been praying for me. Praying for me for years." said Jake.

"Of course, she hasn't been praying for the right things, exactly. I mean she's been praying, I assume, that I'll get married, give up yoga. Whatever. Be a good dog. Get the Devil outta me. But I don't think it matters. It's the spirit of well-wishing itself that makes the tracks."

Jake later discovered that, indeed, Fiona had her own prayer group of Catholic ladies: the St. Mary Society. They had all been praying for Jake for years."

For some reason, perhaps oddly, this calls to mind my favorite E.E. Cummings poem.

(Oh, and I hope you ALL can feel my well wishes for you. =)

Ginger tea while I blog. =)

Ginger tea every night after supper. Signifying the end of eating for the day. This was ritualistic for me at Kripalu. There is really no snacking at Kripalu, unless you buy goodies at the little shop during the day. And I didn't. I stuck with the cafeteria food - which is pretty EXTRAORDINARY. (Okay, except for OCCASIONAL afternoon coconut waters and ginger chews. Sheesh).

Also trying to:

• Limit snacking
• Continue drinking lots of water (about 100 oz a day on a good day, um, ESPECIALLY if you include La Croix!)
• Drink a little bit LESS La Croix (just as an experiment...I was drinking at least six a day).
• Read a BOOK at least two hours a day.

Wanna know the one habit I cannot seem to get a grasp on? GOING TO BED AT A DECENT HOUR. Another one? WATCHING LESS REALITY TV. Housewives, Kardashians, Top Chef... I even got sucked into ICE LOVES FREAKIN' COCO THIS PAST WEEK! Come ON, Hilary. ;)

Tell me, tell me...what habits are YOU working on these days??

Aim True - First Month Wrap-Up

Jai! Jai! Jai!

Aiming true with more green smoothies!

The first month of my Aim True Challenge 2012 is almost done. In fact, it's been exactly four weeks today since 2012 began, and there are only two days left in January. What a different experience this January has been for me than those of the past. In some ways it has still been a tough month for me, but not quite in the same ways that it has been in prior years, and this time around having the focus of my yoga practice with specific plans and goals (including writing about it in this very blog!) really changed the way it felt, all for the better.

Sitting here with a space heater, fuzzy socks and ginger tea to warm me, I present my January stats! (My heat isn't working and won't be fixed until tomorrow. I'm going to be under 10,000 blankets watching movies soon.) 

January, 2012

• 16/87 Kathryn Budig YogaGlo classes completed.
• 9/16 I had taken at least once before.
• Favorite Aim True (Kathryn Budig) practices so far:  
• Calm Your Monkey Mind and Master Hanumanasana
• Find the Connection to Your Core
• Morning Yoga Flow with Kathryn Budig
• Yoga to Change Your Perspective with Kathryn Budig
• 21 total personal yoga practices completed.
• Additional yoga practices this year: 
• Felicia Tomasko's Wipe The Slate Clean Yin class 
• Kripalu Restorative Yoga class 
• Public Hatha class at the YMCA with Beverly
• Kripalu Moderate Flow Yoga audio practice
• Danny Arguetty Moderate Kripalu Yoga Audio Practice
• Professionally: have taught 37 yoga classes and four meditation classes in 2012 as a Kripalu-certified RYT.

Aiming true with glorious steamed artichokes!

I remain convinced that a strong personal practice of yoga is a stepping stone to wonderful things - transformation in your life for the better in ways you didn't necessarily realize you wanted and needed. This is the magic of yoga and this is why it works in a way that other fitness practices do not (at least for me!) - it's truly something you do on the mat as a launching pad for your life off the mat. Maybe this is what makes it a spiritual practice. I have the experience in other forms of physical activity to back this comparison up, too. I have been a cardio-junkie, a regular at both Jazzercise and step aerobics back in the early 90s, a walker, even training for (and walking in) the 39-mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I spent many an afternoon in the spinning room, have done all the machines at the gym,, been at Bikram five times a week, followed a very regimented and intense strength and interval training program called Turbulence Training, been the queen of Tae-Bo, and put Jillian's 30-day shred in my DVD player numerous times. Through it all, what I've come back to again and again is my practice of yoga - this beautiful balance of strength, cardio and flexibility. And when I commit to my sadhana of  yoga, I start to see positive changes in my life that I didn't even plan for or have to force to happen. Life just starts to blossom. I start to make better choices. I start to take better care of myself. I become activity engaged - in a soft, safe way - with this overwhelming, confusing reality of being ALIVE.

Aiming true with a focus on fruits and veggies!

The most obvious and measurable step I've taken as an outgrowth of my practice so far is to join Weight Watchers online, a decision that has provided me a lot of comfort and stability this week. Being able to count points and make good food choices gives me a sense of control that I really value. I'd like to lose some more weight, and I want to do it in a compassionate, reasonable way. It isn't that I was making lots of bad food choices as much as I was choosing to eat too much. I read a great quote the other day that said "If hunger isn't the problem, food isn't the solution." Amen and amen. I don't know exactly when it happened, but my practice led me to taking action toward this goal of healthy, compassionate weight loss. I've become reinvigorated and excited about healthy cooking, revisited my love affair with vegetables (yesterday I roasted beets, carrots and broccoli and steamed artichokes, all to have on hand for quick, healthy meals) and have been paying a lot of attention to keeping up on the latest information on nutrition and health. I've cut down my caffeine to one cup of coffee or latte a day (Nick would be so proud!) and quit doing things that have a negative impact on my health and well-being. And I've actually managed to get almost eight hours of sleep a night this past week! (Something else Nick would be proud of!)

Aiming true with Artemis!

It's fitting. This entire Aim True challenge slowly presented itself to me because of how much Kathryn Budig's story of how she found strength through the Greek goddess, Artemis, resonated with me. You should read it. I love the first line of the prayer to Artemis that Kathryn found, and I've had it as my "info" on Facebook for months: Artemis, huntress of the moon, make my aim true. Give me goals to seek and the constant determination to achieve them.

I joke with my students all of the time that they can set an intention to have intention, and that's perfectly okay. Your intention in yoga practice, if you have one, doesn't have to be something lofty or profound. It can be as simple as having intention. I can't tell you the number of times in class, when directed to set an intention for my practice, I have thought "my intention is just to find some freakin' intention!" (it's second only to "My intention is my breath. Focus on the breath. Nothing more or less. Breath.") It's not so much that I lack things I want to do, see, achieve, accomplish, and check off an imaginary list. It's that I have TOO many things on too many lists, and I get overwhelmed and start feeling paralyzed. I need help discerning which goals I should seek. And after one full month of this focus, I know my first goal is the inquiry of optimal living, and specifically how good health supports optimal living, and how my choices support good health.

So, Jai! Jai! Jai! to you, to me, to all beings. As I continue to choose to be actively engaged in my life, I wish you the aim to be actively engaged in yours. And peace. I wish myself and you and all beings peace. Om. Shanti. Shanti. Shanti.

*photo of Artemis from Kathryn Budig's Elephant Journal article.