2023 and the new me in the middle, I hope. Forty-one and a half years old. ⛰Over the hill and lovin' it.

Hello again! It’s been a while. What can I say? Chipping away at it one moment a day, one day at a time, and time is relative. Today, I’ve been getting lost in The Smiths and feeling inspired and exited for what’s ahead. I work Tuesday through Friday now, ten-hour days getting to meet people to inspire hope and purpose.

As an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, I’ve been working for Texas’ Travis’ County’s Local Mental Health Authority, Integral Care. That’s a lot of possessives, but basically I work for the people in Central Texas. I work for the occasionally, existentially confused, psychotic mess of us, and I’m not ashamed to say, I’m one of us. Are you?

“ Who is wise? One who Learns from All”

The Talmud

It’s Mental Health Awareness Month.💚 There’s a Month, a Day, a time to celebrate and acknowledge the essence of our humanity. Keep the celebration going. Keep saying out loud those things that keep you up at night. Keep sharing and caring. Keep at it, one day at a time because you are inspiring. You have a right to be here, just by the nature of your breath.

Breathe and rejoice. May every moment be fresh!

Namaste. 🙏

Nix the Nexus-6 and Panpsychism

Owls are extinct in the post-apocalyptic world of Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?

You guys. 🙌 I feel like I hit the nail on the head with my thesis, “Nix the Nexus-6, Killer Androids on the Loose”. In my Religious Studies class, Bioethics, Medicine & Culture, we were assigned to respond to Philip K Dick’s sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and defend whether or not the protagonist bounty hunter was justified in killing androids. I was not familiar with Dick’s work prior to this assignment.

My professor was pleased with my paper, I made a 100 😁! However, he said he couldn’t agree with the idea of natural law as self. Initially, I felt somewhat rejected. I felt perhaps I had not conveyed my understanding of Dick’s intent, but after reading Frank Bertrand’s interview from 1980 (Dick died in 1982 at the age of 53), I feel as if Dick and I were on the same wavelength.

“Like the early Greeks I am a believer in panpsychism. Of all the metaphysical systems in philosophy I feel the greatest affinity for that of Spinoza, with his dictum, "Deus sive substantia sive natura;" to me this sums up everything (Viz: "God i.e. reality i.e. nature.")”

Philip K. Dick

I’m excited to share my thesis with you here. If you are at all interested in the concepts of morality, ethics, and religion, then I believe you will enjoy it. But, be warned!! I give away the plot entirely. If you’re into sci-fi, it’s a definite must read! I sent my dad my thesis, and he thinks that I write “pretty well” so that must say something 🤣. (That’s me laughing [and crying😭] at any hint of need for approval from my father, oy vey!). Now on to the next philosophical venture, Chance & Necessity by Jacques Monad, recommended to me by my dad. Let’s see what mind-blowing concepts I encounter!

May every moment be fresh! Namaste y’all

💜🌺☀️

Summer School 2021

What’s up y’all. I’m just gonna write freely here about where I’m at now. Can you believe? I got the courage to go back to graduate school. I’m currently at the University of Texas at Austin. I got into their Family Nurse Practitioner program!! Yeah, I’m thrilled! I have been a critical care nurse for over ten years now, and it has taken its toll on me. I’ve been ready for change and it’s happening! I will graduate in the Spring of 2022. I can’t wait to be more engaged with my community in a clinic setting.

Fall Semester was really rough. I had been working full time the summer prior taking care of covid patients in the ICU. While I was adapting to the demand of full time graduate school, I was also responsible for homeschooling my 7 year-old. He has ADD/ADHD. Between the two of us, my attempts to guide his online education broke down into fits of stern commands, defiance, yelling and tears. Ultimately, I would attend my online zoom courses and complete my assignments, while he watched YouTube videos. I had a lot of guilt. The guilt spiraled into depression, and by Christmas break I wanted to kill myself. Really. Seriously, slit my wrists in a bathtub to make cleaning up my body more convenient for whoever should find me. This may sound overdramatic, however I know that I am susceptible to succumb to the pull of depression. Because I was so busy with school, I wasn’t taking time out to practice yoga, meditate, or read the books that normally provide me comfort.

Christmas 2020: Looks can be deceiving.

I did confide in the university’s counselor. I did talk to my mother. I did confide in my primary care physician. These are all things that I had never done before. I never leaned on support and I always tried to overcome depression on my own. With their support, I decided, for the first time ever, to commit to a prescribed medicinal treatment that now consists of both Welbutrin and Lexapro. I have long hesitated to take medications for depression because of the stigma around it. Relying on medications meant that I was incapable of achieving peace on my own, it meant, as a yoga practitioner, that I was a failure. “I am a failure. I can’t get my shit together. I’m irrational and selfish.” These are thoughts that circulated that compounded my shame. These are thoughts that are JUST PLAIN WRONG.

I’m not a failure, and I can get my shit together, and a part of that entails taking medications to stabilize my mood. Since January, when I started taking anti-depressants, I’ve been more level-headed, focused, positive and content. I’m not someone else, I am more authentically the best version of me, without all the bull-crap dwelling thoughts of self-deprecation. Why did I wait so long?! Stigma?

I can happily say that I am at a really good place right now. I’ve been enjoying school. I’m currently in a bioethics class and a health policy class. I’m learning so much about how I can best contribute my skill to society. I want to add a journal entry here, from January 11, 2018. It’s at a time when I knew I needed change, but I wasn’t sure of what kind. In it, is a poem that I’m really proud of (not the first sex poem, haha). I hope you enjoy it!

January 11, 2018

Ear to heart

Set to restart

Against the warmth of your skin

Your curves I trace with

my palm

Rekindle love, Begin again.

We had sex last night for the first time in months. I had forgotten how comforting it is to lie skin to skin with a man I love and with a man who loves me. Yes, “I am worthy of being loved.” Anahata affirmation: “I am worthy of being loved”

I’m not going to take that desk job, should they ever call and offer it. Soon, I’ll have several days to myself to write and read to think. Nothing is more valuable a pass time than that. I’ve been frustrated with the mess of things around the house, the garage—so much crap, so much to not keep track of. Soon enough, both kids will be in school and I’ll have plenty of time to get organized. Once I’m organized I can get working for me, for God’s purpose—not that raising children isn’t a part of that, but in a way that provides for society. Community. Serving myself is serving community—one cannot neglect one’s own sense of self and succeed in the service of others.

Windy Day

Sweep the cobwebs away

Cool breeze kissing flesh

Blow leaves, not a mess

to today’s eye on the street

Solid rhythm, my feet

march on pavement, one

two, onward solider

in life

knocked down by capital culture

we strive day by day to catch up

On new day, windy winter day

heart pounding hard now

as if to say

“I AM ALIVE” oh, world.

I am alive.

I have COVID19

Tuesday May 19, 2020

A week ago today, I went to the Doctor for a strange faint feeling in my chest that arose at the end of a deep inhalation and would trigger a subtle dry cough.  For the entirety of the week prior, I had been feeling run down exhausted.  I had been grouping my three 12 hour ICU shifts in a row, in order to have four days home with some kind of continuity for my children.  Since schools have been closed, I’ve been required to homeschool my soon to be 7 year old Teddy and my threenager Gene.  (Shout out to all those homeschooling parents, it’s tough work!)

First day off from a weekend of work, I stayed in bed all of Monday, May4th.  I’m typically pretty useless on my first day of reprieve so I wasn’t too alarmed, especially since it coincided with my first day of menstruation.  I noticed unusual headaches and back pain , but chalked it up to being on my period.  I was feeling hot, but it was 90 degrees out and our windows had been open.  I googled “body temp and menstrual cycle” and was relieved to see that there’s generally a rise in basal body temp upon menstruation.  I know…TMI, but I just wanna reflect the full picture of the onset of my symptoms.  Tuesday, I continued to feel exhausted with headaches and body aches.  I alternated Tylenol with Alleve and allowed myself to rest.  Working in the COVID ICU since March, I deserved a good rest.  

By Wednesday, my headaches were gone, my body felt rested and I was able to get some chores done around the house, even homeschool my stubborn Teddy.  I recall having mild headaches Thursday, but nothing compared to earlier in the week, so I returned to work Friday and Saturday.  Sunday, May10th, was Mother’s day, and to be honest, not a very good one.  I was tired, very tired.  Instead of being doted on with affection, my husband Jason was fixated on his preparations to return to our barbershop, now permitted to open by Governor Abbott.  Mind you, our family has been without his income since mid-March and struggling to pay rent for our small business and home.  

Love my boys, all three of them!!

I kept thinking I was tired because of my grueling work.  I started to dread returning to the ICU.  I was anxious and depressed, and I thought it was ALL in my mind.  I scolded myself for feeling negative, “I should choose positive thoughts.”  Was I slipping back into one of my dark depressions?  Was I feeling unfamiliar anxiety?  My breath the following Monday May11th felt slightly restricted, but I thought, “It’s all in my mind.  I’ll sleep it off, but if I still feel bad in the morning, I’ll call in to work.”

“It’s all in my mind.”

I woke up at 5:30am that Tuesday and all I felt was dread.  “I don’t want to go to work.”  I took a deep breath in and knew it was abnormal.  “Something’s not right,” said my inner voice.  I called the night shift charge nurse to report my strange breathing and slight cough.  “It’s probably just allergies.  There’s a lot of mold in the air now,” she said.  “My whole family has had a cough for a week.  If you feel bad, you can always go home later.”  She convinced me.  Maybe it’s just allergies.  Maybe it’s nothing.  So I went to work.

After morning huddle and getting report on my patients I kept thinking, “I can’t do this.  I shouldn’t be here,” all while having this horrible feeling of dread.  “Am I having a panic attack?  Is this what that feels like??”  While retrieving my patients’ morning medications from the Omnicell dispenser, a co-worker casually greeted me and asked, “How are you?”  And that’s when my thoughts and emotions began to spiral out of control.  “Not good,” I answered and proceeded to tell her about my difficulty breathing.  

It’s all a blur now, but I came to tears in the hallway explaining to my dayshift charge nurse that I had tried calling in and I didn’t feel well.  She really took charge and swept me away to console me and advise me to leave and seek medical attention.  I quickly changed out of my COVID scrubs and was practically running out the door when I ran into my manager at the elevators.  “I’m gonna be fine!” I yelled through the closing elevator doors, tearful and embarrassed.  I went straight home, immediately contacted Occupational Health, and went to bed.  

” I can’t do it anymore.”

A couple hours later, I awoke.  Still no word from Occupational Health.  My manager and friend had been texting me to check up on me.  With their encouragement, I decided to get tested at an outside clinic.  Thoughts raced through my mind during the two days it took for the result to come back, “Maybe this is all in my mind.  I am depressed.  I am anxious.  I am overwhelmed.  I am tired.  I don’t want to work anymore.  I can’t do this.  Life is too hard.  I can’t do it anymore.”  Just as I was practically snorting eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils to asses my lack of ability to smell, I got the call.  Covid19 positive. 

“COVID POSITIVE”

“OH MY GOD,” jaw open, I said aloud on the phone to the Medical Doctor and then, “What a relief!” I thought to myself.  “I am NOT crazy! I really am sick.”  A day of relief turned into a day of self-pity, turned into a day of fear, turned into a day of anger, turned into a day of empowerment.  With all the time required to self-isolate and quarantine, I’ve been able to reflect, “How did I get to this present moment?”

I contracted COVID19 at work.  Since late March, I’ve been taking care of nothing but COVID19 confirmed cases in the Medical Intensive Care Unit.  I have been in situations when the ventilator circuit accidentally disconnects while repositioning a patient.  I have been coughed all over while assisting patients with activities of daily living.  I have extubated a patient.  As ICU COVID RNs, we are and cannot avoid being in these encounters of highly aerosolized viral airborne particles.  I’ve been in all of these situations wearing a decontaminated single-use N95 respirator.

FAQ on N95 resuse info compiled by National Nurses United

https://act.nationalnursesunited.org/page/-/files/graphics/0420covid19N95faq.pdf

I am sick with COVID because my employer instructed me to reuse a decontaminated N95.  I am sick with COVID because of an implemented decontamination process that has not been FDA approved.  I am sick with COVID because of a President who has no respect for science.  I am sick with COVID because of poor leadership.  There is no one single entity to blame, rather a system that is broken and failed to ensure the safety of our frontline heroes in this war against COVID19.

Since the start of this pandemic, my mantra has been, “Today everything is unfolding perfectly, according to a greater plan.”  As I grapple with upcoming rent, homeschooling my children, recovering from COVID, and returning to work to don reused PPE, I know that I am exactly where I need to be in this moment.  One of my favorite biblical verses since childhood has been surfacing in my morning meditations, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path” Proverbs 3:5-6.

There has been such an outpouring of love and support from friends and family since announcing my COVID diagnosis.  From fresh food left at my door to kind messages of healing, generous inquiries have been made as to how to offer help.  Fortunately, my illness has been mild and I am going to be okay.  Others may not be so lucky. My husband and children are happy and healthy.  We have all that we need right now.  The best way to lend a hand is to consider sharing my facebook posts that begins with, “I have COVID.”  You can access my facebook via the CONTACT link. Please help raise awareness about the risks healthcare providers are facing in the frontlines.  Help protect us, our families, and our communities.

May God heal the sick and protect those who have dedicated their lives to helping them.  We are his instruments, let’s get to work!

May every moment be fresh!! Namaste!! ~~ Cyndy

Dancing Unicorn Love

I am reveling in the joy of a magical morning. A morning of friendship. A morning of celebration. I was invited to join Lorna at her home to celebrate the creative work she’s completed towards a children’s book. Lorna has written a lovely story about her curious son Owen and has been experimenting with different mediums for its illustration.

Upon arriving to her house, I was greeted by a note stuck to her front door. Caught by surprise, I immediately texted Lorna, “…does this mean we are not hanging out at your house?” to which she responded with a unicorn emoji and “envelope on door”.

“Is this for real?” I kept thinking to myself. I walked towards my parked car and then back to her doorway to peer through the windows. Nobody there. “Ok…South 1st and Annie it is. Here I go.” Tears began to well up as it sunk in that my dear friends Trish and Lorna had planned a special surprise for me.

As I pulled up to the corner of South 1st and Annie, I spotted them. “What are they doing?” Bewildered and delighted, there in front of an iconic South Austin mural were my two friends in unicorn masks holding birthday balloons dancing gayly to an inaudible melody of Jamiroquai. It was quite a sight to see.

Now the tears started to stream as they embraced me with congratulatory hugs and belated birthday wishes. I recently received notice of my acceptance into the University of Texas at Austin’s graduate Family Nurse Practitioner program, and I had failed to sneak my December birthday past them.

With hearty laughter and confiding conversation, we enjoyed a lovely morning together over brunch. Arriving home, buzzed from loving friendship, my mind took off on the ways I could possibly extend my gratitude. What gifts could I shower these wonderful ladies with? Reflecting more on their effort to give me love and appreciation, I realize the importance of receiving from them. Can I be still with these feelings of love and appreciation? Can I be still with this heartfelt fully embodied gratitude? Can I allow myself to be loved deeply?

Life can be very dull and dissatisfying without connection, without the intimacy of close personal relationships. Thank you Trish and Lorna for not taking life too seriously and for your relentless compassionate creative curiosity. You’ve reminded me today that 1) We are stronger together 2) Life is a celebration and 3) Joy abounds if you let it.

Namaste! May every moment be fresh!!

I am still here =)

Hello out there! Yes, I am still here.  I have not written as often as I originally intended one year ago, when I conceived yogadish.com, however I am still reading my heart out and living my intention of devotion to loving kindness as a dedicated mother, life partner and nurse. I’ve been soaking up some stillness and finding peace through a daily morning meditation practice.

~ Stillness is the first requirement for manifesting your desires ~

Deepak Chopra

Since my last entry, I’ve continued to study the writing of Eknath Easwaran. I joined the mailing list of Blue Mountain Center of Meditation to receive his “Thought for the Day”, work that can be found in his book Words to Live By, Short Readings of Daily Wisdom. I highly recommend checking out their site bmcm.org and subscribing. Eknath encourages daily passage meditation. I’ve been using St. Francis’ prayer every morning, and it’s just lovely! It’s a grounding and uplifting way to start the day.

Of note, this past September I completed a workshop with Anodea Judith. I absolutely love the work she has done and is doing, sacredcenters.com. Her book Wheels of Life is my go to guide on the chakra system. I’m currently enjoying her book, The Global Heart Awakens, Humanity’s Rite of Passage from the Love of Power to the Power of Love.

There is so much more to share! 2020 is gonna be a great year and I really hope to bring more of my life’s inspiration to you. Just gotta remind myself to “keep it simple”.

May every moment be fresh!

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Neuroscience with Dr. Richard Davidson

“What we practice, we become.  We can change our brains through our behavior.”

~Krista Tippet~

This past February, I had the pleasure of discovering the work of neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson from an interview with Krista Tippet who hosts my favorite podcast On Being.  At the onset of their discussion, Krista acknowledges Dr. Davidson’s contributions to the discovery of Neuroplasticity as she affirms, “What we practice, we become.  We can change our brains through our behavior.”  The episode is titled, “Richard Davidson, A Neuroscientist on Love and Learning”.  You can listen to or download the transcript at onbeing.org.  I was so intrigued by their conversation that I promptly checked out the book he co-authored, The Emotional Life of Your Brain, How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel and Live—and How You Can Change Them.

What was it about this conversation that captured my curiosity so profoundly?  Listening back to that interview months later, I reflect on the struggles my 5 year-old son Teddy has encountered while adjusting to kindergarten.  The first few fall months were especially challenging, as I was receiving multiple calls from the principal’s office concerning his aggressive behavior.  My sweet Teddy had stabbed a classmate with a pencil, pushed a child from the top of a slide, and put hand sanitizer in another’s eye.  Additional calls from his teacher seemed so condemning of my parenting, as she sought advise on how to guide his disruptive behavior while informing me of his falling behind in reading and writing.  After formally meeting with the school counselor, principal, speech therapist, and classroom teacher we agreed the Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP) would perform an extensive evaluation to screen Teddy for Emotional Disturbance, Learning Disability, Dyslexia, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD).  This process spanned the months of January and February.  By the end of March, the LSSP concluded Teddy showed clear signs of AD/HD.  

Making wishes =)

Do I medicate my 5 year-old?  This is one of the first questions that surfaced post evaluation results.  As Dr. Davidson states and my son shows, a child that cannot attend will have difficulty learning.  What fascinated me the most from this interview, was the connection Dr. Davidson makes between social emotional learning and cognitive abilities. “Thought and feeling are absolutely intermingled in the brain” he informs us.  His words compelled me to think beyond Teddy’s mastery of 123’s and abc’s and to consider how his schooling has provided for his social and emotional development.  I do believe there is a void in social and emotional education in our public schools.  Fortunately, Dr. Davidson is founder of the Kindness Curriculum, a free program for educators, teaching young children the skills of mindfulness and self-regulation.  His research shows that children who completed this curriculum performed better academically. https://centerhealthyminds.org/news/kindness-curriculum-boosts-school-success-in-preschoolers

While his interview with Krista introduced me to his work with respect to children, The Emotional Life of Your Brain provided a more intimate study of self awareness and regulation.  In this book, he tells us how he came about his discovery of the brain’s six Emotional Styles in his efforts to solve, “Why and how do people differ so widely in their emotional response to the ups and downs of life?” He details the composition of 1)Resilience 2)Outlook 3)Social Intuition 4)Self-Awareness  5)Sensitivity to Context and 6)Attention.

“Emotional Style is the result of brain circuitry that is laid down in our early years by the genes we inherited from our parents and by the experiences we have.  But that circuitry is not forever fixed.  Although Emotional Style is ordinarily quite stable over time, it can be altered by serendipitous experiences as well as by conscious, intentional effort at any point in life, through the intentional cultivation of specific mental qualities or habits…through mental training you can alter your patterns of brain activity and the very structure of your brain in a way that will change your Emotional Style and improve your life.”

His work is empowering evidence that we can better our lives by incorporating a steady mindfulness based practice, whether it’s seated meditation or going for a walk.  He poignantly tells us, “Mindfulness is remembering to embody kindness and compassion into every moment”.  He states that the best practice you do is the one you do.  As the Nike slogan goes,  it’s so important to “Just do it.”  “Our minds are just as important as our teeth,” he tells Krista, suggesting this practice is one we should make time to do everyday, whether it’s 2 minutes or 60 minutes.  This mental hygiene is what he considers an “urgent public health need.”  Just as we have a propensity for language, so we have the capability of mastering kindness and compassion.  He references the discovery of unfortunate feral children with no mastery of language to compare our potential mastery of compassion, “We come into the world with this innate propensity, but for this propensity to be expressed, it requires nurturing.”  

 “The brain is neither immutable nor static but continuously remodeled by the lives we lead.”

~Richard Davidson~

Dr. Richard Davidson is a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is a Harvard Ph.D graduate,  who’s research is changing the way we understand the brain.  He writes, “Emotion works with cognition in an integrated and seamless way to enable us to navigate the world of relationships, work, and spiritual growth…There is no clear, distinct dividing line between emotion and other mental processes; they blur into each other.  As a result, virtually all brain regions play a role in or are affected by emotion, even down to the visual and auditory cortices.”  Krista observes with him later in the interview the “systems in our brain that support wellbeing are connected to different organs in our body and to our immune and endocrine systems”.  They discuss the nature of an “Embodied practice,” being familiar with how kindness and gratitude feel in our bodies in order to reinstate them. 

Upon meeting with the Dalai Lama in 1992, Dr, Davidson made a commitment to study the effect of virtuous qualities like kindness and compassion on the brain and overall health. His work led to him to establish the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where research aims to cultivate well-being and relieve suffering through a scientific understanding of the mind.  You can find out more about Dr. Davidson’s ongoing research at https://centerhealthyminds.org. or follow @healthy.minds on Instagram.  

If you’re in the mood for a film, Dr. Richard Davidson is featured in the 2011 documentary Happy by Roko Belic.  Check out its trailer here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcMQmuvzPmI

Follow @onbeing and checkout onbeing.org for more enticing explorations on the art of living.  

“Pursuing deep thinking and social courage, moral imagination and joy, to renew inner life, outer life, and life together.”  

~The OnBeing Project~

May every moment be fresh!

Living Your Yoga

“To practice is to pay attention to your whole life: your thoughts, your bodily sensations, and your speech and other actions…each moment of your life is a moment of potential practice.”

~ Judith Hanson Lasater ~

Living Your Yoga, Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life by Judith Hanson Lasater is one of my all time favorite books on yoga.  It changed my life. This easy to read inspirational book was lent to me by my favorite yoga teacher Angela back in 2008.  

I was a hot mess in 2008.  At twenty-six years old, I was waiting tables at Kerbey Lane Cafe and started Nursing School.  If I wasn’t studying, I was drinking.  Maker’s Mark whiskey on the rocks with a splash of water was my drink of choice.  One black out night, I’m told, I face planted on a sidewalk downtown while attempting to mount my bike.  I recall only waking intermittently while having my forehead sutured in the Emergency Department.  My inner punk rocker wrote a song about it called 7 lives, click the link to check it out.  My childhood dreams of choreographing and performing dance were never going to be realized.  The demise of a long term relationship, the stress of school, and the questioning of a career path in Nursing sent me spiraling out of control.  The words to me by my father echoed through my mind, “I’ll never amount to anything.”  I found solace in Angela’s Hatha yoga class.

“To get lost is to learn the way.”

~ Swahili Proverb ~

One day after class, shy, intimidated me mustered up the confidence to ask Angela for private lessons.  At the time, a seemingly small action was a bound of courage.  My depression was crippling.  A wave of relief washed over me when she accepted my request.  I was in such emotional turmoil during the first session that we barely practiced any poses.  She sent me home with the assignment to stare at myself in the mirror, look directly into my eyes, and repeat three times over, “I deeply and truly love and accept myself” and with that she handed me a copy of Judith Lasater's’ Living Your Yoga.

This book so profoundly changed my way of perceiving the practice of yoga.  For years, I knew yoga was helping me to feel calm and collected on the mat.  I enjoyed the sense of peace that radiates after an hour class.  However, I struggled, as I believe many do, with how to incorporate that sense of peace into my daily life.  Judith showed me how.  Her unabashed revelations of personal trials and tribulations as a young adult woman, spouse, mother, and even yoga teacher helped me feel comfortable in my own skin.  

“Whether we seek something called spirituality, holiness, or enlightenment, the route to it is through our humanness, complete with our strengths and our weaknesses, our successes and our failures.  You might say that we use ourselves to discover ourselves.”

~ JHL ~

Her book is divided into three parts:  1) Yoga within Yourself 2) Yoga and Relationships and 3) Yoga in the World.  At the end of each chapter she provides practice suggestions and mantras to help the reader incorporate the yoga concepts she explores, such as Discipline, Faith and Courage into one’s daily life as well as into one’s asana practice.  The mantras, or short phrases, are important tools that we can use at any time to bring our scattered mind to attention and intention.  Below are a few of the many that resonated with me.  

Mantras for Daily Living

• Life is practice.  Practice is life. 
  

• I give myself fully to each moment.
  

• I am perfect just as I am.
  

• Control is the greatest illusion.
  

• I choose the life that I have right now.
  
  

Practice Suggestions

• “Rather than approaching your yoga practice from an attitude of no pain, no gain, how about no pain, no pain?”
  

• “Cultivate gratitude.  Write a list of all the things about your life or about someone you love for which you are grateful.” 
  

• “Remind yourself about how much courage it takes just to live in today’s world.  Spend a quiet moment in active appreciation of your courage.”
  
  

Judith Lasater is co-founder of the Iyengar Yoga Institute in San Francisco and of the popular Yoga Journal magazine.  She has a Ph.D. in East-West psychology and is also a physical therapist. She has written nine books and continues to teach online and offers workshops across the country.  Notably, she trained with BKS Iyengar who is credited for bringing yoga from India to the West.  Yoga in America today would not be what is it without him.  

Watch this short informative video about teacher BKS Iyengar

https://www.pbs.org/video/religion-and-ethics-newsweekly-bks-iyengar/

Find out more about Judith at judithhansonlasater.com

“It is our dedication to living with open hearts and our commitment to the day-to-day details of our lives that will transform us.  When we are open to the present moment, we shine forth.  At these times, we are not on a spiritual path: we are the spiritual path.”

~ JHL ~

In her book, Judith Lasater references author Scott Peck’s opening sentence of The Road Less Traveled:  A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth, “Life is difficult.”  In reading those three words, she confides the comfort and relief felt from such profound validation.  Life is hard.  She succeeds in providing her reader that same sense of camaraderie and support.  Whether you practice yoga or not, In Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life is a resource that can be trusted to help make this crazy world seem a little more manageable.  Looking back, I’m so thankful to have had Angela generously share it  with me, and I’m happy to be able to share it with you.  May every moment be fresh! Namaste my friends.