Reading: Fear as guide

“Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do.

Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance.  If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance.” — Steven Pressfield

From the important and inspiring book The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.

This resonates very strongly with me as fear and resistance serve as frustratingly useful inspirations and guides towards “right action”.  Some of the most important decisions I have made have been met with overwhelming resistance.  The decision to teach yoga was blocked by tremendous resistance and fear, even though it felt right at a deeper layer.   After years of letting “great excuses” win out…I am so grateful to be in the middle of co-leading Teacher training.

Imperfectly moving forward.

Reading: Perspective by Proust

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Credit: Patch NYC Needlepoint by Carmella Carney

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust

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Credit: Patch NYC Needlepoint by Carmella Carney

 

One of the aspects I love about this quote in relation to Yoga is in how we practice.  The more present we are, the greater opportunity for openness…and new eyes.  Allowing for curiosity in practice…allowing room for play in how we investigate or approach actions and/or poses, can provide new insights, awareness and possibilities.  Depending on your lineage…there are finite and infinite poses that we practice.  Perspective and intention allows for the infinite…even within any finite syllabus of poses.

 

Artwork Credit:
Patch NYC Needlepoint by Carmella Carney
Courtesy of the most talented Don Carney of Patch NYC and his Mom!

Thanks so much Don!

Reading: more T.S. Eliot inspiration

“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.” — T. S. Eliot

Inspired by the last quote from T.S. Eliot.  I love how practice, presence, intention, discernment and right action and vulnerability makes enough possible.  From his book The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism.

 

Reading: T.S. Eliot

Was reminded of this as I prepared for my current Teacher Training — such a beautiful reflection for Yoga and life.
“We shall not cease from exploration 
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time”  — T.S. Eliot
I first recall hearing this from one of my favorite teachers Tias Little a few years ago.  This is from T.S. Eliot‘s poem “Four Quartets.”

Reading: Metamorphosis — Happy Fall!

Gil Hedley, Integral Anatomy posted on Facebook 9/1/2016:

“Sometimes we need to re-tool ourselves. The way you have operated no longer serves you or those around you. How you will function without those old ways you haven’t a clue. Still, any more action based on that dated operating system is untenable, grating. It takes a serious dollop of trust and patience to allow space for something new to emerge. I believe it is worth the wait. Though great intelligence is often crammed into one earthly skull, there are intelligences of heart and spirit whose directive powers can only unfurl to new standing in the permitted pauses we so rarely welcome or endure.” — Gil Hedley

Reading: Why aren’t you meditating yet?

Great read and meditation inspiration:

“Neuroscience of Meditation: How To Make Your Mind Awesome”

“A good quick way to see it from a neuroscience perspective is as “attention training.” (You know, attention. That thing none of us has anymore.)” 

how-to-meditate

 

Reading: Stumblers

“… in a culture that consistently mistakes perfection for wholeness, we are discouraged from dancing with the brokenness, messiness, and imperfection of our interior lives — and yet only when do so can we begin to feel whole and measure our lives in terms of deep meaning rather than superficial success.” – Maria Popova

This is from her writing of David Brooks’ The Road to Character in a post entitled “The Road to Character: David Brooks on the Art of Stumbling, “Résumé Virtues” vs. “Eulogy Virtues,” and the Humility Code of Living a Meaningful Life.“  I am overwhelmingly impressed and grateful for her brilliant weaving, writing and sharing on brainpickings.org.

Reading: Fearlessness

From  The Sacred Path of the Warrior:

“For the warrior, the experience of sad and tender heart is what gives birth to fearlessness. Conventionally, being fearless means that you are not afraid or that, if someone hits you, you will hit him back. However, we are not talking about that street-fighter level of fearlessness. Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others.”- Chögyam Trungpa