Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Why do I do Yoga?




I think it is a good idea for everybody to every now and then take a good look at oneself and question one’s lifestyle, choices and preoccupations.
And thus I asked myself Why do I do yoga?
I practice by myself more or less every day and I teach on a regular basis since a few years after completing a teacher training.
Because I like it. Of course. I like it a lot. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel relaxed, alert, alive, centered, grounded, strong and balanced. But more than that: Yoga has become the platform that currently works best for me to play my role in this game called life. Yoga is like a playground where we explore what it means to be human. And yoga is a great way to expand our consciousness and presence in the here and now.

We can say that Yoga is a practice of self-discovery, of exploring and challenging our abilities and to move beyond our comfort zone. Moreover Yoga teaches us to relax during that winding road of exploring and challenging. To relax in our bodies but also in our mind, no matter what we discover in every moment. In deep relaxation we have to let go of tension, control and judgments and instead invite an attitude of acceptance and loving kindness.

Somebody said: “Yoga is a controlled way to put ourselves in difficult positions.”
Yes, the body postures can be very challenging sometimes, and that gives us an opportunity to investigate our limits, not only in the body but in the mind as well. To know our limits and with respect and gentleness go beyond them - if and when we are ready for that - prepare us for the challenges in our everyday lives. To know ourselves, our limits as well as our potentials, makes us more relaxed, more grounded and centered, more at ease in the midst of the turbulence of life. To know ourselves brings us in touch with the essence of our being, with the flow of Life and that means fulfillment, contentment and true happiness.
Elizabeth Gilbert writes in her book Eat Pray Love:
“…all the sorrow and trouble of this world is caused by unhappy people. The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out all your misery gets you out of the way. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people.”

There are many kinds and branches of yoga. Here I have been referring to Hatha Yoga, which is the physical branch including the asanas (body postures) which, in turn, has many smaller branches (ashtanga, vinyasa, yin, anusara to mention a few). What differentiate Hatha Yoga from gymnastics or stretching is that it is not ONLY a physical practice: It includes also the very essential aspect of awareness. Awareness of body, breath, mind and spirit.
A Hatha Yoga class can be very soft or very dynamic. When I teach drop-in yoga here on Amorgos the experiences of the students can vary a lot so I need to keep it on a level which fits everybody. That means that even the total beginner should be able to participate, sometimes with a little help from props or by modifications of the postures, there is always a solution. And a more advanced student will always get something new out of any class. Or he/she will just use the platform that the class offers to deepen his/her own practice. When I travel to other places I most often look for a yoga studio and participate in whatever class is on their schedule. I always learn something, thankful to be able to practice with other people.

With Awareness as an essential ingredient of yoga there is always something going on: The body moves, stretches, bends and balances using all kinds of muscles, the breath brings me deeper into the postures and into my own being and also tells me when I go too far. The mind can be tricky; trying to find all kinds of reasons to stop the practice or to cheat a little or it judges my inability to perform a certain pose in a perfect way or questions what is the meaning of it all ANYWAY? When I can smile at myself and my own mind and just surrender to whatever is going on in the present moment, even if I am in a really difficult position, then there is that deep sensation of something else taking over. Something big and blissful, call it spirit, divine force, source, life or whatever you like, but at the bottom line, that’s the reason I do yoga :-)



Sunday, June 23, 2013

Soulful success


 



The soulfulness you embody and express from moment to moment
is the single greatest measure of your success as a human being.”
  • Rob Brezsny


If you're not in it for the money you're often called idealist and not really taken seriously. 
It's clear that the more money one makes the more respect and admiration he/she will recieve, looked upon as one who has made it, who is really successful. Even if the money making cause big damage to the environment and/or comes from producing a useless, unhealthy and maybe even dangerous product. And even if the so called successful person is totally stressed out, burned out and worn-out along the way to his/her so called success. 
The current definition of success is mirroring the values of our society: Profit, material standard and consumerism
Maybe it is time to change that definition? I definitely think so, and that's for two good reasons: One; To restore the environment and Two;  to uplift the human experience, our health and sense of connection. 

“You have the need and the right to spend part of your life caring for your soul. It is not easy. You have to resist the demands of the work-oriented, often defensive, element in your psyche that measures life only in terms of output -- how much you produce -- not in terms of the quality of your life experiences. To be a soulful person means to go against all the pervasive, prove-yourself values of our culture and instead treasure what is unique and internal and valuable in yourself and your own personal evolution.”                        - Jean Shinoda Bolen
 
 Don't let a mad world tell you
that success is anything other
than a successful present moment
~ Eckhart Tolle





Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Mind the gap


I call them gap days. You know these days when you are inbetween two projects, or you are in the middle of a project and suddenly interrupted by something, it can be the weather if it's an outdoor project, it can be something else coming up that needs your attention or something upsets you or hurts you and you are just not able to focus on work.
The gap days often brings with them some kind of frustration. You are not able to continue your project and you were in such a good flow or you just can't focus on your next step; what to do next? Which project to focus on now? Restlessness and frustration. It can be that restlessness and frustration set the tone for the rest of the day
In the metro in Athens the voice in the loudspeakers says at some of the stops “mind the gap between the train and the platform”.
And yes, let's mind the gap. Not in order to jump safely over it into the doing of another project, but let's mind the gap as a gap, an opening, an empty space inbetween things and stay there, listen to what it has to say. See it as a call from the soul saying hey, stop the doing for a moment and listen here, got something to tell you.
For me when I do this, when I am alert enough to hear that message, I understand the frustration and why nothing seemed to work that day; it wasn't meant to work! Or rather: I wasn't meant to work. It was time to stop the doing and the mental activity for a moment (or a day).
I am not living and working in a very stressful environment, nor have I a demanding boss giving me tight deadlines, but I can still loose connection and get caught up in musts and shoulds. Things might be flowing but if I'm not paying attention I can easily drop out of the flow if I'm attached to my thoughts, to the outcome of my actions or in any other way not present in what I'm doing in the moment.
Then I need a break. I need to stop and listen. And it seems like Life takes care of that by putting something inbetween me and the work I believe has to be done, now. And so there is a gap. A Gap is a Gift from the Soul. When I can accept the gift I stop and ask:
What is going on inside me? What needs to be seen and taken care of? And usually these are the moments of my most profound insights. These are the moments when I get in touch with something inside myself that is vulnerability, gratitude and bliss in the same time. And these are the moments when something else kind of takes over and sometimes guides me into another new project that was not at all on my schedule that day but gives me the nourishment and fulfillment I actually needed.

Do you have gap days?


A gap day
An inbetween day
A day that takes a break from doing and producing
A day when there is storm outside
and thunder inside
A day when the soul invites me to the moment that is and is the only thing there is
The lightning of that realization
cracks my heart open

Monday, April 8, 2013

Yoga and Intimacy


What does yoga and intimacy have to do with each other? Everything! Yoga is about connection, oneness, unity. The word yoga itself means to unite in Sanskrit.
It can look like a very individual practice; everyone on his or her mat, concentrating, doing his or her own yoga. And yes, because first we are cultivating an intimacy with ourselves. We get to know all the aspects of our own being through the awareness that yoga is all about and which differences it from other gymnastics or workouts. We become aware of our bodies, its limits, its joys, its needs and desires. Through all the stretching and bending and twisting and breathing we get to know all the corners and pieces and parts we didn't even know we had. Absolutely essential for a good yoga practice is to cultivate respect for the body, which comes naturally when we start to pay attention, to listen , to be aware.
The breath and the body work in deep connection in the hatha yoga practice and the breath also works as a bridge between the body and our innermost being. Becoming connected and intimate with that part of ourselves opens the door to intimacy with other people and the world around us. We realize that we are part of it all, that we are part of a huge ecosystem called the universe. Out of that insight comes respect, compassion and love for our fellow human beings, for the animals, for the nature and the whole planet.

Yoga can guide you to a full experience of being you in your body, relaxed and grounded in consciousness. Your body's movements emerge from deep inside and are brought forth by the breath. That body-breath-soul connection is the very first intimate relationship one has. (I am not saying that yoga is the only way to find this connection but it is a good way. And maybe that's the reason why yoga is so popular these days; it fills a gap, giving people something they miss in their lives; that intimate connection with ones inner being.) In the beginning it can be challenging to drop images and ideas of perfection and goals to reach. But after a while we learn to relax and accept every moment as it unfolds, starting with our own bodies as we move with awareness exploring its limitations and needs.
When we can relax, rest and just be in ourselves, without the need to control or change things, the same will effortlessly happen in our relationships. When our yoga practice has become profoundly integrated in our whole being, a desire is born. A desire to embrace life in all its aspects.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Ecologist?


In the supermarket I was asked when I said I don’t want a plastic bag but prefer to use my own bag, if I am an ecologist. 

Of course, I said.

Afterwards I thought: How can someone not be an ecologist? The whole planet and every living thing upon it is part of an ecology in wondrous harmoniously created ecosystems. That is what life on earth is built on. So to not be part of that is to be against life. And, after thinking closer about it, that is exactly what our western life style and systems are; against life, destroying life by destroying the harmony of the ecosystems we are all part of.


We are part of a huge ecosystem called the universe. This is the only system we need to be faithful to, to respect and protect, because we are so intertwined with it as a baby in the mothers womb. In contrast to the political and economical systems, which are mainly looking for profit, power and private property for a few, the ecological system will always support and feed us, as long as we don't deny it and turn it our back, seduced by the other systems' false promises of security and happiness. 

Political and economical systems could also be a part of the ecosystem of course, if they would respect the laws of nature and spring from a profound understanding that we are all deeply connected with all other beings on the planet and with the planet and the whole universe itself.

We, the human race, have disconnected ourselves from the natural flow of life and forgotten that we are all part of it and what we do to another living being we do to ourselves. We are all important parts of a big whole and all our actions are having impact on the whole. It is easy to see that our current actions are having a negative impact on the planet (just consider how much garbage everyone of us throw every day or the production chain behind the things that we buy). Imagine the reverse: How would it look if everybody could really feel their belonging and interrelatedness to the whole and took responsibility for every action? Let's go back to the supermarket, the temple of consumerism, and in front of every item we are about to buy stop and ask: Is this thing recyclable? Is it in any way destructive for the planet, either in the production process or as waste? If it is don’t by it!

And of course, on our way out we say no thank you to plastic bags!


Please note that this observation is made in Greece where management of environmental issues is not yet that developed. I am aware that in many other countries plastic bags in the supermarkets just don't exist anymore or they exist but you have to pay for them.



Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Stretching bodies, stretching minds / Ανοίγουμε το σώμα, ανοίγουμε το μυαλό



Yoga can actually be quite a revolutionary practice, an antidote to the sleeping state of our society. But it is a revolution that starts in our own minds. 
By questioning old concepts, belief systems and conditionings we've been fed and taken for true and for granted and for “normal”, we can wake up, awaken and find our own truth.
When I do this inquiery of the mind I usually realize that most of my thoughts are not true, and still they have such impact on me: They keep me imprisoned, stuck and suffering, if I believe them.
Yoga is not only stretching our bodies, it is also stretching our minds. 
Taken that the quality of awareness is there, which it should because it is the very thing that differs yoga from the workout in the gym, yoga can take us into a deep understanding of who we are. Awareness of body, breath and mind. 
You move – with awareness – into a posture, reaching a point where it is a little challenging, a little difficult, you can really feel the stretch in your muscles, you are reaching the borders of your comfort zone. Then the mind starts going, maybe saying things like: “No, I can't do this! How long is that teacher going to keep us in this position? Why did I bother to come here anyway? Look at the woman over there, she is really flexible. I am really worthless.”. And so on.
But you stay. 
You breathe, you watch, you explore. You feel, you listen, you look into every corner of your being. You accept, you embrace and maybe find that space of relaxation in the midst of effort. Suddenly you are out of your comfort zone, totally present and alive. Free and with an inner strength you didn't even know that you had. It is the body that has opened but also the mind; it went beyond the resistant “I can't”, therefor that feeling of freedom.
 
We can take this practice off the mat. We can learn to look at our body-mind structure with the same awareness wherever we are and whatever we do. We can become aware of the position of our body, take a deep, conscious breath and relax. We can also become aware of the thoughts in our head and if they are stressful we can question them and notice that they aren't necessarily true. Actually we might discover that there is a cacophony of voices in our heads all telling us lies!

There is an excellent method of inquiering the thoughts called The Work, founded by Byron Katie. I've had the opportunity to practice the method with a certified facilitator of The Work, Helena Montelius, and if you are curious and would like to explore I can really recommend her. Here's her website: lookwithininstitute.com
And here is the official website for The Work: thework.com





Ανοίγουμε το σώμα, ανοίγουμε το μυαλό
Η γιόγκα μπορεί να είναι μια επαναστατική πρακτική, ένα αντίδοτο ενάντια στην ύπνωση που βρίσκεται η κοινωνία μας. Άλλα αυτή η επανάσταση ξεκινά από το ίδιο μας το μυαλό. Αμφισβητώντας παλιές ιδέες, συστήματα αξιών και σκέψεις που δημιουργούν στρες, τα οποία τα θεωρούμε αλήθεια και δεδομένα. Όταν αμφισβητώ τις σκέψεις μου συνειδητοποιώ οτι οι περισσότερες δεν είναι αληθινές, και όμως έχουν μεγάλη επίδραση πάνω μου: Με κρατάνε φυλακισμένη, κολλημένη, με κάνουν να υποφέρω, εφόσον τις πιστεύω.
Η γιόγκα δεν ανοίγει μόνο το σώμα μας, άλλα και το μυαλό, εάν βέβαια, έχουμε επίγνωση. Είναι η επίγνωση αυτή που διαφοροποιεί την γιόγκα από οποιαδήποτε άλλη γυμναστική. Επίγνωση στο σώμα, στην αναπνοή και στο μυαλό. Μπαίνεις – με επίγνωση - σε μια στάση, φτάνοντας σε ένα σημείο που είναι λίγο προκλητικό, λίγο δύσκολο, νοιώθεις το τέντωμα στους μυς, φτάνεις στα οριά σου. Και το μυαλό ακολουθεί, ίσως λέει: Όχι, δεν μπορώ! Πόση ώρα θα μας κρατήσει αυτός ο δάσκαλος σε αυτη την στάση; Τι ήθελα και ήρθα εδώ; Γιατί δεν έμεινα σπίτι στον καναπέ μου; Κοίτα αυτη την γυναίκα, είναι πολύ ευλύγιστη. Είμαι άχρηστη. Αν έκανα πιο πολύ πρακτική θα ήμουν καλύτερη. Και τα λοιπά.
Αλλά μένεις. Αναπνέεις, παρατηρείς, εξερευνάς. Αισθάνεσαι, ακούς, κοιτάς κάθε γωνία του εαυτού σου. Αποδέχεσαι, αγκαλιάζεις και ίσως βρίσκεις εκεί χώρο για χαλάρωση στην μέση της προσπάθειας. Ξαφνικά έχεις ξεπεράσει τα όριά σου και είσαι εντελώς παρόν και ζωντανός. Ελεύθερος και με μια εσωτερική δύναμη που δεν ήξερες καν οτι έχεις. Το σώμα έχει ανοίξει αλλά και το μυαλό· ξεπέρασε το “Δεν μπορώ”, την αντίσταση και τις αμφιβολίες, για αυτό και έχεις αυτήν την αίσθηση ελευθερίας.
Μπορούμε να πάρουμε αυτή την πρακτική μαζί μας πέρα από το στρωματάκι. Μπορούμε να μάθουμε να κοιτάμε το σώμα-νου με την ίδια επίγνωση όπου και να βρισκόμαστε και ότι και να κάνουμε. Μπορούμε να συνειδητοποιούμε την στάση του σώματός μας, να πάρουμε μια βαθιά αναπνοή και να αμφισβητούμε τις σκέψεις μας που δεν είναι απαραίτητα αληθινές. Πράγματι μπορεί να ανακαλύψουμε ότι υπάρχουν πολλές φωνές οι οποίες μας λένε όλο ψέματα!

Υπάρχει μια θαυμάσια μέθοδος για να κάνουμε αυτή την εξερεύνηση των σκέψεων που ονομάζεται The Work (Η Εργασία), ιδρυμένη από την Μπάιρον Κέιτη (Byron Katie).  Επισκεφτείτε την ιστοσελίδα της για περισσότερες πληροφορίες:  https://thework.com/



Welcome to my blog!


I am delighted to share and connect with you more than I would do if I just kept these writings in my journals. I feel we all have a lot to share and contribute and this is the time to do it. We have all the technological assistance we need and it seems to be a time of communication, to go from "me" to "we" and create something beautiful together.
What is happening in the world blends with my experience of meditation, yoga, healing and Life itself, and I see an interesting connection: What is happening in the world is also happening in ourselves, what is happening in the world is a reflection on what goes on inside us; chaos, conflicts, confusion but also love, joy, grace... We usually don't realize though, that we’ve got the power to choose and to change. We really just need to change one person to change the world; ourselves. We can stop our doing for a moment to take a deep breath, to go within, take a good look and question what is going on in our minds. When we do that we usually discover that many of our thoughts, beliefs and ideas are not ours, they are not even true, but we still take them for granted, for “normal”, live by them and create our lives according to them.
The crises and changes that are taking place in the world today are reflecting crises and changes in our consciousness. More and more people and movements are questioning old systems and lifestyles that obviously don't serve us anymore. There is a longing and a tendency to move from separation to oneness. From fighting to caring, from fear to love, from war to peace.
The soulful revolution starts within. It starts with the soul, sick and tired of being prisoned by the concepts of our mind. It is the soul that wants to be set free and express and embody itself as the highest potential of the human experience. In Love. In Peace. In Grace.
Would you like to join? Just close your eyes for a moment. Become aware of the breath breathing you in this moment, feel your body as you sit there and just explore what happens inside, in you. There it begins.