super tasty delicious & energizing granola bars

Teaching yoga has my schedule all over the place and as a result, there are days when I need a quick, filling, energy snack to tide me over until I can sit down for a proper meal.  I've been meaning to make myself a granola bar type snack for a while now - and finally made the time yesterday to create this little bar of deliciousness.  I was pretty happy with the results, so I thought I'd go out on a limb and share it on my blog.

I'm not a precise person in the kitchen - and so my recipes are, for the most part, general approximations.  I typically just feel out quantities and hope for the best.  I encourage you to be creative with this recipe, it's pretty much impossible to mess this one up.

Recipe:

1 cup thick rolled oats
1 cup of various seeds & dried fruits
   - I used chia, sunflower, sesame, pumpkin seeds plus a serving of hemp protein powder and dried apricot, blueberry & cranberries 
1/2 cup raw local honey 
1/2 cup sugar & salt free peanut butter 
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 
about 14 oz semi sweet or dark chocolate 

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix wet ingredients plus cinnamon & salt into a sauce pan.  Heat the saucepan over medium to low heat stirring constantly until a light boil starts - allow to boil for a few moments longer, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Pour over the dry ingredients and mix well.  Pour into a parchment lined 8X8 pan and press firmly with a spoon (I dip the spoon in warm water to make this part easier).  Melt chocolate in a double boiler and pour over top, spreading thinly over the entire pan.

Pop in the fridge for a couple of hours.  After they have hardened, cut into squares or bars.

If you want to paleofy this recipe, try replacing oats with mixed chopped nuts and sub another nut butter in for the peanut butter.  You may also want to play around with the honey to nut butter ratio.

presence & flow

"Having spent the better part of my life trying to either relive the past or experience the future before it arrives, I have come to believe that in between these two extremes is peace"

- Unknown

Do you ever look forward to something like a vacation?  or an event?  You count down the days, you imagine how it'll be in your head. Essentially, you spend your days living an event that has not yet happened.   Your thoughts are occupied with what might be.

Then the big day(s) come.  And you have a blast.  Then it's over.  But, not without adequate Instagram, Facebook & Twitter feed updates and photos.  

Then life returns to normal, the fun has passed and you find yourself looking back and reminiscing.  Remembering how much fun you had, wishing it had lasted longer, wishing you had enjoyed it more, wishing you remembered more.  Of course, you've got a social media documentation of every fun filled moment.  Because, while you were supposed to be having fun - you were documenting your fun for your followers and friends.  You were planning your next social media update.  

Days pass.  Time passes.  Each moment we move into puts another moment into our past experience.  I often look back and wish I had appreciated things, people, places, events more.  Even the mundane.  

It's because we have forgotten how to be present.  To be fully with each and every moment of our lives.  We communicate to the world through interfaces, and the result is that we've stopped experiencing life as it is with the people who are actually physically with us.  I can't even count how many times I've given up opportunity to talk to or play with my children because I have gotten an "important" text message or someone has posted a funny cat video on facebook.  

This week my classes have been focused on finding presence.  I've used balancing asana to help students practice being fully present.  When you are balancing, the moment you lose presence, is the moment you begin to topple.  There are other factors involved with balancing like body alignment, core engagement & grounding/lifting in the right places.  But, it was the lesson of being present I was hoping to convey to students this week.  That, if we can use the mat to practice this skill - maybe we can find it a little more easily off the mat.  

Sometimes the present moment isn't pleasant though.  Life certainly has a tendency to throw challenges  and curve balls at us from time to time.  This is where we can apply the principle of  "flow".  

"Go with the flow"

-Ken Kesey

The concept of flow is part of the practice of being in the moment.  It's also a practice of  "santosha', or contentment.  Being content with the moment - knowing that it is what it is.  Contentment is not about being complacent.  The Serenity Prayer is a good example of how to practice contentment without being complacent.  

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference"

We flow from one moment to the next, and going with the flow means being present enough to fully experience each moment as it arrives.  Mark Sisson, describes this well in a blog post he wrote about flow.

Flow isn't about doing a particular thing as much as losing ourselves in it.  The rhythm of snow shovelling, the creative inspiration of cooking, the abandon of a good hike or run, the precision or inventiveness of our work can all become fodder to flow.  When we let go of the extraneous commentary in our heads, the resentment of the task at hand, the impatience with ourselves, we bring a new engagement to the moment and in the process be surprised. 

A good yoga practice will demand you shut off the commentary in your head or any resentment of the 60 second plank your core vinyasa teacher is demanding of you - a good practice will allow you to fully experience how your body feels as your are holding your plank.  It will ask you to work at finding the best possible alignment to support yourself as you move through each posture, it will bring you to a balance of effort & ease - sattva.  And the more you do this on the mat - the easier finding flow, presence and contentment will become for you off the mat.  You'll notice the co-worker who used to challenge your last bit of  patience is easily dealt with as you practice tadasana and ujjayi breath - your stillness & softness in the body & mind transcends the mat bringing ease and a centred approach to other aspects of your life.

We feel good after a yoga class because we have stopped multi tasking for an hour or so.  We've created a relationship with our body and with our breath.  We need to do this.  Multi tasking is an over rated skill and it's detrimental to our emotional well being.  How can we focus fully on one one thing if we split our focus between many things?  Single tasking feels good, because it gives us the experience of flow.

I don't write this blog, or teach my classes as someone who is skilled in the things I am writing or teaching about.  My teaching is my practice.  I approach these topics and present them from a position of humility and the recognition that we are in this journey together.  I recognize my own need to find more balance, more stillness, more presence and more flow.  

Spiritualized - "Let it Flow"

Practice

seated ujjayi breath (even inhalation & exhalation)

Supta Padangusthasana

Suyra Namaskar A with lunges from B (focus on flow)

Tadasana (feet together)

Tadasana (one foot directly behind the other - find balance using feet/core/breath/focus)

Virabhadrasana 1 (both feet forward, narrow stance - focus on balance and stability)

Vrksasana 

Trikonasana into Ardha Chandrasana

Reclined Hip openers (agnistambhasana twisting after holding)

Supta baddha konasana

Savasana

Namaste. 

inspired

"Teaching is useless, unless you can learn from your students"

-Martin Dansky

I have a student, Roberta, who has inspired me.  She's inspired me personally, and has also inspired my teaching.  Roberta came to her first Core Vinyasa class a couple of months ago.  I would say that this class is probably the most challenging physical practice that I teach.  The class is 90 minutes of challenging core focused vinyasa.  It's a sweaty practice that often brings students to their physical edge.  It's one of my favourite classes to teach.   Roberta's first class was no exception.  I led the students through the class, and like always, I didn't hold anything back.  The sequencing was challenging, the pace was fast, and the sweat was flowing.  

I know I shouldn't make any assumptions about my students, and in fact, Roberta's story has proven this to me in a very profound way.  After class, I assumed Roberta would not return. She struggled through most of the class, unable to do many of the postures.  I assured Roberta she could take breaks or rest, giving her a few options for modifications.  I had to admit to myself, I was unsure of modifications we could make for Roberta's body type.  With this being her first class, I tried to allow her to find her own pace and maybe if she were to return again, we could look at further modifications.  

Roberta is overweight.  Not just by a few pounds.  By many pounds,  and her size inhibits her ability to practice like most of us.  Most postures need to be modified to work for Roberta's body size.  I didn't expect to see Roberta back in class.  

The next week, she did not return. 

Two weeks later.  Roberta was there.  She walked in, with a friendly "hello" and a big smile.  She went right to our prop room and pulled out a selection of props for herself.  Class started, and I noticed that Roberta was self modifying every single posture on her own.  She made it through class, with a little more ease than the first class.  Yet, it was still clearly a struggle for her.  You could tell she was determined though, and I can tell you that she practised to her edge, without a doubt.  That is more than I can say for myself, sometimes, when I am faced with a challenging class.  

After class, I commented on how awesome it was to see her back in class and asked about the modifications.  Her reply gave me shivers.  Roberta told me that she had spent the last couple of weeks searching the internet and watching you tube videos about modifications of yoga postures for people who were large.  She had come to class prepared.  Wow. 

The following week, Roberta was back.  She took out her props and made her way through another class.  I told her again how inspired I am by her.  And she said, "This is the year that I told myself I am allowed to suck at stuff".  All I could think of to say was "and that alone, makes you not suck at all!".  

I often hear, " I will practice when I lose weight",  " I feel too fat to do yoga properly", "yoga is for thin people".  YES! Asana practice is far more challenging when you are overweight.  I think about how I often feel defeated by certain postures I am working toward accomplishing and how it must feel to find yourself struggling with almost every single posture.  Roberta has shown me, that even though her yoga postures look different to mine, she is still practising a whole lot of yoga.  She is practising contentment with her body, and with her ability.  She is practising determination and self study.  She is practising being here, NOW! She is not prolonging her joy of being on the mat, because the asana practice is difficult for her body.

"We don't use our body to get into a pose, we use our pose to get into our body"

-Bernie Clarke

This week, Roberta was back.  And I saw her do the most lovely looking Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog).  I felt so proud of her, and once again, so inspired by her dedication and willingness to grow as a practitioner.  Roberta could have chosen an easier class to come to - like yin, or even level one.  But, she has stuck with my core vinyasa class Saturday after Saturday.  And to see her walk in to the room with her contagious smile, is really a joy for me.  

My practice is about finding joy.  I want to teach my students to look for joy and seek happiness on and off the mat.  Happiness with the way life is, right now. Postponing happiness because you need to fix something first (ie lose weight) only prolongs unhappiness.  

"The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness" 

-lululemon

This isn't just about yoga.  It is about life.  We only have one shot at this, it seems crazy to waste our time being so caught up in our challenges or shortcomings that we forget to be where we are now.   Each step should be a step forward - a step toward creating and living the life you want and being who you want to be.  Roberta wanted to be a yogini, and she is. 

Late Winter/Early Spring Schedule

Looks like the pace isn't going to slow down anytime soon!  I'm very excited to announce that I'll be teaching hot yoga at Yoga Haven on Broad Street starting in March.  I've long admired Lori Lee, and am so excited to begin teaching in her studio space! Hope to see you there.

And since you all know I am a huge fan of the heat... I'm also thrilled to be adding a Monday evening class for Hot Yoga Regina in their dedicated hot space opening up in spring!

Also excited for the opening of LG Fitness in Regina's exchange district.  This is a fantastic gym with great people!  If you are looking for a place to workout, you definitely need to check this place out. Their yoga space is beautiful, with ample props and room for several students.  The gym is set to open the second week of February, yoga & zumba classes have been running for a few weeks now.  Check out their online scheduler to book yourself into a class.

Bodhi Tree classes are filling quickly these days - if you are interested in attending the Hips & Hamstrings, Core Vinyasa or Hot classes, I would suggest booking your class online prior to attending.  You can do that on the Mind Body scheduler.  

I'm also currently working with Karla from Inner Flow Corporate yoga to offer yoga in the workplace over the lunch hour.  If you are interested in yoga for your workplace, please feel free to contact Karla.  I am also happy to set up classes to work specifically on posture awareness for those who are feeling the effects of sitting at a desk all day! You may contact me directly to arrange a workshop or regular class for your office.

Monday
LG Fitness 12:00 - 1:00 Vinyasa for Core Strength
Bodhi Tree Yoga 4:15 - 5:15 Yoga for Tweens (9-12)
Hot Yoga Regina  5:45 - 7:00 Hot Vinyasa Yoga
Argyle Park Community Center 8:00 - 9:15 Multi Level Hatha Workshop (contact Argyle Park Community Assocation to register)

Tuesday
LG Fitness 9:30 - 10:30 Vinyasa for Core Strength
Corporate Class for Inner Flow Yoga  12:00 - 1:00
Bodhi Tree Yoga 5:45 - 7:15 Core Vinyasa
Argyle Park Community Center 8:00 - 9:00 Beginner Flow Yoga (contact Argyle Park Community Association to Register)

Wednesday
Innovation Place with Inner Flow Yoga 12:00 - 1:00

Thursday
Federal Government Employees with Inner Flow Yoga 12:00 - 1:00
Bodhi Tree Yoga 5:45 - 7:30 Level One (until February 28th)
Yoga Haven 5:30 - 6:45 Hot Flow (starting March 7th)
Yoga Haven 7:30 - 8:45 Hot Flow (starting March 7th)

Friday
Northwest Leisure Center 9:00 - 10:00 Yoga for Balance (until March 29)
Northwest Leisure Center 10:15 - 11:15 Yoga with Babies & Young Children (until March 29)
Bodhi Tree Yoga 4:15 - 5:00 Girls Yoga (ages 4 -10)
Bodhi Tree Yoga 5:15 - 6:15 Warm Yin
Bodhi Tree Yoga 6:30 - 7:30 Hot Yoga

Saturday
Bodhi Tree Yoga 11:45 - 1:15 Core Vinyasa (until March 2nd)
Bodhi Tree Yoga 1:30 - 2:15 Focused Kids (until March 2nd)

Sunday 
Bodhi Tree Yoga 10:00 - 11:30 Hips & Hamstrings
Bodhi Tree Yoga 11:45 - 1:15 Level One
Bodhi Tree Yoga 2:00 - 3:00 YEAH yoga (free class for youth ages 13 - 30)

A Case for a Hot Practice, exploring a yoga trend.

I was speaking with one of the new teacher trainees at the studio recently, asking how her first day of teacher training went.  Her reply deeply resonated with me, bringing me back to my first days encountering the sheer size of the yoga tradition.  She said, "I have just realized how very little I know about yoga".

Oh yes, the realization of how vast yoga really is.  How very little, especially as westerners whose exposure to practice has been primarily asana practice in a studio setting, we know about the tradition of yoga can be overwhelming, exciting, terrifying all at once.  Especially if you've just decided to undertake the role of teaching  this ancient tradition.  How can one possibly learn to teach all of THIS?

And even to this day, I'm struck with the occasional yogic existential crisis. "Am I teaching yoga? Can you even teach yoga?  Am I teaching a fitness class? Am I offering authenticity? Am I being driven by ego to fill this darn space with bodies? Am I even a yogi?"

The classes I have found myself most driven to teach are classes that encourage students to meet their edges, to practice on the periphery of comfort.  One could say I teach fitness or stretching, because,  I do.  I primarily teach vinyasa, hot yoga & yin.  These styles of yoga are currently filling classes, they are trendy, and offer the students a "brand".  Something that allows the student a pretty good idea of what they are getting into before they head to class.

And hot yoga is the trendiest of them all.  Something about a ridiculously hot room, lots of skin, lots of sweat, a challenging vinyasa practice, and a dimly lit room is vastly appealing to yoga practitioners.

But, is this yoga?  Is this "real" authentic yoga?

Well, according to this website - no, it isn't.  I'm willing to admit, in the most traditional sense of the practice,  hot yoga is not real yoga.  Modern consumer culture likes to co-opt traditional spiritual practice.  We dumb it down, and take out bits and pieces that resonate to make something that is marketable, and then sell it as something authentic.  Hot yoga is very much the result of this practice.

One of my favorite quotes from Sharon Gannon, co-founder of the Jivamukti School of yoga has become part of the foundation of my own practice as well as my teaching.  Allowing me to find authenticity amidst the "brand" we currently teach as yoga.

"You cannot do yoga.  Yoga is your natural state.  What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state."

And this is how I reconcile teaching trendy/marketable yoga classes.  I teach my students to look for moments of presence, moments of connection, moments on the edge, moments of humility, and moments of pure joy and then to look at where they are limiting or resisting those moments as well.

Those moments certainly exist within a hot class.  Hot yoga connects the yogi with a profound experience of the senses.  It is difficult to ignore how you feel when you are practising postures in +38 degrees C.  And that connection with the sensory world may be what draws people back to hot yoga classes again & again.   For, it's that very connection that is missing in our modern lives.  We have disconnected with the natural world, and we are becoming fatter, sicker, and depressed because of it.

In a recent  post, "A plea for the body", the Exuberant Animal blog explores the modern human body and how we have disconnected with our natural state, with the sensory world, and have begun to use devices to participate in the world around us.  This is one of those must read blog posts for anyone interested in health & wellness.

Just as cars and chairs cripple our bodies through muscular disuse and atrophy, so too do electronic devices cripple our senses. So-called “smart phones” act as prosthetic devices for the healthy nervous system, leading to sensory atrophy. Just as muscles degenerate with disuse, so too do our primal powers of observation, sight, hearing and touch. Only a couple of generations ago, almost every human on the planet was physically engaged. Today, only athletes, dancers and blue-collar workers experience the world with their bodies. In the space of a few decades, we have gone from being robust, physical animals to disembodied observers, digital voyeurs and data miners.

 Our minds & our bodies are still primal.  We crave the experiences of the sensory world, we crave being on the edge, we crave experiences that unite us with our bodies & the world around us.  Hot yoga provides us with this very real experience but in a safe, controlled & fun way.  It is not a replacement for being in nature and connecting with the earth.  But, it can be a little oasis in our technologically enhanced lives that brings us back into our body & mind in a very obvious way.

It seems that humans have long recognized the value of heat & sweating.  Ritualized ceremonial practices involving sweating are practised cross culturally in Native North American, Baltic, Eastern European and Scandinavian cultures.  The extremity of the sweat is a spiritual practice.  I certainly would never be so bold as to equate my hot yoga class to a ceremonial practice of sweating, but I think that there is clearly precedence in our history of intentionally seeking this experience.  It feels good, it feels cleansing, and in the end we feel rejuvinated.

One thing worth mentioning is the claim that hot yoga detoxifies the body.  After researching the topic a little bit, I've concluded that there is little proof of this claim.  Yes, the skin is an organ and we do remove toxins from our bloodstream through the skin.  There is little evidence that this process is accelerated by increased sweating.  However, yoga in general, can improve lymphatic flow which assists the liver & kidneys in removing toxins from the body through urine & feces.

Given the above reasons why we are drawn to, or may find value in practising yoga in the heat - one might say that the "cleanse" we gain from our practice could be more of an emotional or spiritual nature.  As practitioners, we innately feel this and continue to be drawn back to that sweaty mat, over and over again.  Because, at some point during our hot practice we might find ourselves profoundly in the experience.  Where we are fully immersed in the sensory world, where the everyday chatter of the mind stills, and it's just the breath, the body and our experience of those things.  Perhaps, that moment, is yoga.

And if that moment is yoga (union), then one would have to reason that even the trendiest of yoga classes offers the potential of providing students with an experience of oneness.  In the end, knowing very little about the tradition of yoga is okay if you come to the mat to explore, to practice, and to learn where you are resisting your natural state of oneness. Maybe every once in a while, you'll get a peek at the yoga you hold within.

Doesn't seem quite so overwhelming after all.

A few thoughts on practising yoga.....

If I were to say anything about my yoga practice, I would say that it has been entirely transformative.  It has taken me from being a shy, introverted, socially awkward housemom to an outgoing, expressive, extroverted [fill in the blank - mom, yogi, daughter, friend... etc].  I remember walking into teacher training at Bodhi Tree Yoga on my first day, feeling just a bit out of place and quite nervous about the undertaking I was about to embark upon.

As we sat in the studio, each student was asked to introduce themselves.  Panic.  I was terrified about talking in front of a group of people.  As each trainee introduced themselves, I quietly freaked out and planned my introduction nervously in my head.  At my turn, I managed to fumble my way through the introduction thinking, "How on earth will I ever get up in front of a group of students and teach them yoga?".

Well, sometime between that first day of teacher training and my first class at the YMCA six months later - I found myself able to feel comfortable in a teaching setting.  My ease with the training group became apparent and I was able to participate and express my thoughts and ask questions.

What changed?  Did yoga transform me into something I wasn't?  or did I begin to express who I REALLY am?

It is Patanjoli's (Yoga Sutras) view that yoga is a project that we take on to better ourselves.  The aim of yoga being to make one's thoughts and behaviour reflect their true nature (not harmful, covetous or deceitful)(Raganathan, 2008).  We all come to the mat for a variety of reasons, but it seems that most people undertake the project of yoga in the pursuit of some type of transformation.

That transformation can be anything from stilling the mind, to improving flexibility, getting stronger, losing weight, improving mood, to rehabilitation after injury or illness.  Whenever I start a new session, I ask the class to tell me why they've decided to start practising.  Almost every student is looking to change or improve something in their life.

When I talk to new students about yoga as being something transformative, I often explain my own story of transformation.  Moving from being introverted and shy to being able to teach yoga with ease and comfort.  I also talk about the transformations in my own body, particularly the dramatic changes in posture I've experienced.  That the practice of yoga, has indeed been a tool for change & growth.

After explaining my story, I like to explain my personal approach to practising yoga.  I have several considerations that all play a role in my approach to practice.

1. Know your body.  Know your body's limitations & it's capabilities.  Understand that this is never set in stone, it's fluid and changing.  Take time before every practice to feel where you are on that day, and then practise with that in mind.  Not becoming attached to strength or weakness, pleasure or plain.  Just allow for communication with your body.
2. Know your mind.  Know that your mind cannot always be trusted.  Know if you tend toward self defeating thoughts, or risk taking behaviours.  If you know what your habitual tendencies are, you can begin to challenge them in your practice.
3. Work your edges.  Find edges in your body, edges in your mind.  And be there.  Practice on the edge, that's where all the really cool stuff happens.  Then, step beyond the edge every once in a while.  See where that takes you.
4. Invite adversity and ride it.  Sometimes yoga is hard.  Invite that into your practice, and explore how you react to challenges.
5. Breathe.  Just do it.  Just keep breathing.
6. Have a sense of humour.  I think this is vital.  Don't take yourself so bloody seriously!  Sometimes I look out over my class and everyone is so serious.  I do it myself.  I often forget to smile and have fun while I practice.  Do this.  Do this mindfully.  Express joy in the movement of your body.  Be expressive and full of life, and when you fall over or when you reach your edge and tumble over it into an abyss - just laugh.  So much easier than being self critical or judgemental.
7. Be humble.  If you nail a kick ass pose.  Cool, but keep it in perspective.  I like to keep in mind that no matter where I go with my practice, there is always a vast sea beyond that.  Mastery is not the goal, it's all about the journey and being exactly where you are.  And being content with that.  Not complacent, because it is vital to remember that you are not stuck where you are.
8. Because, of course, yoga is a practice.  Just keep returning to your mat, returning to your body, returning to your breath and returning to the stillness.

Practice
Nadi Shodana - alternate nostril breathing
Balasana
Adho Mukha Svanasana
Uttanasana
Tadasana
Vrksasana
Parsvottanasana
Virabhadrasana 1
Parivrtta Parsvakonasana
Virabhadrasana 2
Parsvakonasana
Prasarita Padottanasana
Bakasana
Ardha Matseyendrasana
Savasana

Goal Setting & Honouring the Process.

I'm pretty sure I've sat at this very space, several times over, several New Year's Days over - blogging.  Resolving to blog.  This year - I did resolve to blog.  Again.  Not daily, not even weekly.  But, to just make sure that I regularly write and share.  Writing is something I enjoy doing, but rarely take the time to do it.  Exception being the numerous hours a day I spend text messaging.

Goals - Resolutions.  January 1 is the time of year for change or the movement to change for many people.  Most often we strive to change something about ourselves that isn't serving us well, that makes us feel dissatisfied or is something that we feel is holding us back from true happiness.  

This morning, I read a wonderful post from Michael Moore on Facebook.  Last year Michael Moore started walking daily, and posted about it on social media.  Many of his fans joined him, virtually, on his nightly walks.  He wasn't walking to lose weight, to get fit or for any other purpose than to simply, walk.  He also wrote about the diet industry and how it is designed to make people feel less whole because they have a few extra pounds on them.  He summed up his post with this:

So, you can see from the photo of me up in the box that something has changed. I have no idea how much weight I've lost and I don't care. I don't care about that or diets or home gym equipment or rules about what I can or cannot eat or anything other than making sure I go on my walk today. That's it. That's the big secret. It costs nothing. I feel great. I can see my feet! There they are! Hello, feet! Wanna go for a walk? The feet say YES! Ask yours right now. And if you want, join me. But do NOT go on that walk with me if you are doing so to "get fit", "be healthy", or "lose weight". You are fine just the way you are. Only walk outside with me right now because you know it might just feel good, because it's a beautiful day, or someone is joining in with you, the fresh air is invigorating, you have to drive down to the drug store but you realize you can walk there, or simply because it's just nice to be alive for one more day. Walk to walk and nothing else -- and the other stuff will take care of itself.

Wow.  He's talking yoga.  "Walk because it might just feel good, because it's a beautiful day, or someone is joining you, the fresh air is invigorating... walk to walk and nothing else".   Experiencing the moment, as it is.  For what it is.  And be fully mindful that that is your purpose - to just experience.  To just BE walking.

Many of us are pondering the year that just passed, and many of us have our sights set on the upcoming year.  Our goals or resolutions might be dancing around in our minds as we embark on 2013.  Maybe we have fitness goals, or lifestyle goals, career goals in mind.  I happen to have plenty.

I have career goals - I look forward to a year of growth as a teacher.  I look forward to working with new & old students as we explore yoga together.  I also have very specific goals on where I would like to be a year from now.  Continue learning & continue sharing, find more people to share with & learn from!  Pretty simple.

I have personal goals - I need to get organized.  Period.

I have financial goals - I need to get organized. Period.

I have health & wellness goals - Be more intuitive in my approach to food. Continue learning & reading & sharing in this field.

I have spiritual goals - Be more present.  With my kids, with my friends.  Get outside more. Meditate. Breathe.

I have fitness goals - One legged Urdva Dhanurasana, you will no longer evade me in 2013.

I think we all want to improve where we are.  Goal setting is vital, in my opinion.  It's not something I've ever really committed to fully.  I have a general idea of what I want to do, where I want to be.  But, for the most part I've just allowed myself to meander down the path that is placed before me.  Diversions and all.

So - one would think that I come to this process of goal setting from a place of discontent.  I think many of us do.  I think about people who are wanting to lose a large amount of fat.  There is an obvious sense of discontent with their body as it is.

But - I think this approach to goal setting is misguided, and is a recipe for unhappiness.  The idea of setting goals because you envision a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  "If I can just do this, then I will be happy" takes your awareness away from your life as it is, now, in this moment.  Like Moore says, if you go on the walk because you want to lose weight, or get fit.  You miss the enjoyment of the walk.

When we set a goal, we need to set it from a place of contentment with where we are now.  We also need to honour the process of achieving the goal - and be fully present in the process.

If we beat ourselves up because we are not on the path we want to be, it's a hell of a lot harder to get to that path.  For example: meditating.  It drives me crazy that I'm a yoga teacher who has an abysmal meditation practice.  Heck, I've got an abysmal home practice.  I can beat myself up about this quite easily, "how can I encourage others to do something I don't practice? how can I even call myself a yogi? I need to start now, today"  etc etc.  Or I can recognize that the path to practice is not cut & dry.  Sometimes it'll be easy to find moments to sit down, or move around a bit.  Other times it'll be difficult.  I can decide to schedule time, I can plan how to achieve this goal.  But a dialogue of discontent will not a meditation practice make.

Instead - I need to decide that this is important to me.  It will be a beneficial thing in my life.  Then, I need to decide how I will achieve this goal.  Perhaps it'll mean setting a reminder on my phone, or prioritizing differently.  Once I decide on how - I need to honour that and just fricking do it!

Weight loss.  If you get caught up in a dialogue of , "I am fat, I am ugly because I am fat, I am not happy because I am fat, others dislike me because of this fat - but they would like me if I was thin - I can't go to yoga because I'm fat - I cant go to the gym because I'm fat" -   You will always be fat.  You are discontent with life, the fat is a symptom of that.

So - you are fat.  You want to be thin.  Why?  Really be honest with yourself.  Then throw out all of the reasons that are dictated by our culture, by others.  What is left?  Probably,  just that you want to be able to move easily and be in your body with ease.

Work on that - start moving your body.  As it is.  Walk! Go to a yoga class.  Go to a Zumba class!
Put on some music and dance in your kitchen!

Then work on being content as you are.  Stop seeing happiness as a thin body.  Or a clean house.  Or a balanced bank statement.  Or a $0 balance on your credit card bill.   Or a one armed pull up.

Then plan your path.  And BE on that path.  If you want to eat healthy - then ENJOY your food.  Learn about food, learn how to cook.  If you want to exercise - then find exercise you LOVE and do it - don't go to the gym and walk on the treadmill because you "should" do it, only do that if it is something that fills your cup as you do it.  If you want to be more present in life - then just be more present.  Find things to do, that you love to do.  If you want to balance your bank account - then make a commitment to yourself to make that a priority, and follow through on it.

And if there are hiccups along the way, understand that it is okay.  Don't beat yourself up.  Know that happiness does not lie in the achievement of your goal - happiness is RIGHT NOW!  Eating an entire box of cookies - doesn't mean you will not achieve your goal.  It just means you were diverted from your path, all you need to do is find your path again.  Don't dwell on the diversion.

"The secret of happiness is to open the crack between the past and the future, and live life in the moment we're in"  - Jinny Ditzler 

Of course, we all need tools to help us achieve our goals.

1. Good friends & family being number one.  People who love you for who you are,  right in this very moment.   Invaluable.
2. Apps - there are apps for everything!  Some of my favourite goal setting apps are "Lift" and "Bloom*" from the apple store.  I also love "The Now" app on my iphone, which sends push notifications reminding me to be present.
3. Yoga  - just get yourself to a class.  Trust me.
4. Books - I cannot suggest "Four Hour Cook" enough as my book of 2013.  Tim Ferriss has goal setting & achieving down to an art.
5. Journaling, Blogging - accountability.  Honour the process by sharing it with others, or recording it for yourself.  See your progress in black and white.

Wishing everyone a stellar 2013 filled with genuine happiness, lots of love, and yoga.!  Post to comments with your thoughts!

Namaste.

Practice.  
Take a bath, go for a walk or run, or just sit and find yourself fully present and aware of who you are.  Take some time to feel "you" - the you that has always been there, that part of you that has been the same since you were a child (since before you were born!), since your earliest memory.  Just be with yourself, as you are.  Recognize that this part of you is unchanged, it never changes.  It is who you REALLY are.  Make a commitment to get to know that part of yourself better, and express it to the world.