Could Your GPS Be a Spiritual Teacher?

Could Your GPS Be a Spiritual Teacher?

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“I was thinking about the GPS in my car. It never gets annoyed at me. If I make a mistake, it says, ‘Recalculating.’” Have you ever considered the spiritual role model your GPS could be? Calm. Even keeled. Gracious. Creative. Endlessly patient. Even (especially!) when finding solutions to some ludicrous mistakes and wrong turns. Can you imagine accepting your mistakes and wrong turns with such poise? Can you imagine extending the same grace to your partner or your children? What would it take (short of being a piece of technology) to navigate life with such a certainty that all will be well? That all that is needed is a moment to calculate a new route?

Being a Pioneer at the Frontier of Life

Being a Pioneer at the Frontier of Life

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We live every moment at the frontier of what we know and what we don’t know. It is at this frontier that we explore the growth and possibility of our lives. Living here – as I learned as a child from Laura Ingalls and her family – requires grace, courage, focus, and a willingness to embrace the reality that none of us know where we are going and that is wonderfully OK.

A True Birthday Celebration

A True Birthday Celebration

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I am writing this on the eve of my birthday, annually a good day for a little introspection and retrospection. This year marks a birthday that ends with a 5, hopefully a mid-mark of another decade here on planet Earth. I remember vividly the joy and anticipation I felt when celebrating my last birthday that ended with a zero. In hindsight, I am thankful that one of my birthday gifts that year was not a crystal ball. Had I known how the next five years would challenge me, stretch me, and, in some ways, break me, I would have been more afraid than excited. But, while painful, the past five years, have also been a profoundly fertile time of growth and change – exactly what I believe we celebrate when we celebrate birthdays. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating your next birthday as I am celebrating this one of min – as a wonderful opportunity to celebrate your capacity for growth and a moment to welcome the coming year with joy and anticipation.

Fixing Problems Begins By Noticing Them

Fixing Problems Begins By Noticing Them

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For six years my dog has been bounding into my garden, crushing my plants. For six years, I have been hollering at him. This pattern of ours had become so normal that I’d almost forgotten it was a problem I could solve. It turns out that a lot of our stress comes from little bursts of friction caused by our own behaviors and choices! The self-awareness that comes from yoga can go a long way toward smoothing these self-induced bumps in the road.

You Can Be the Sunshine for Another Person.

You Can Be the Sunshine for Another Person.

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“You can be the sunshine for another person.” It is simple – love one another. It is also difficult. Love takes effort, courage, creativity, generosity, and trust. It is also the most empowering thing we can do. Sharing your light in this world does not dim your light at all. In fact, sharing your light actually makes your light shine brighter. It is in giving ourselves away that we receive the riches of this wonderful life we’re here to share.

How to Avoid Big, Messy, Destructive Reactions

How to Avoid Big, Messy, Destructive Reactions

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A truck drove into a bridge in front of my house, inviting me to imagine how a yoga practice could have helped the driver avoid some of the mess he made. He might still have had the accident (nothing, not even yoga, makes us perfect). Yoga could have helped him minimize the swath of destruction caused by his reactions – which he and my neighbors would have appreciated very much.

What Message Is Your Body Language Sending?

What Message Is Your Body Language Sending?

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An adolescent lack of self-awareness in a high school math class taught me the hard way about the power of body language when my teacher mistook my extreme discomfort as extreme indifference. Decades later my yoga practice furthered my understanding that mindful body language can help me convey to those around me that they are welcome, interesting, and valued.

The Freedom of Decluttering

The Freedom of Decluttering

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Yoga philosophy teaches that letting go of extra “stuff” actually frees us. When we step back from our attachment to the stuff we have, the things we have no longer own us. Helping my son clean out his closet reminded me of the power of decluttering and how important it is to the quality of our lives to regularly clean out, pare down and straighten up our spaces, our days, and our minds.