Skip to main content

Begin, And End, With Yourself

Friday, September 4, 2020 (Part I),
Who can you control?.....yourself.

Begin, and end, there. 

You cannot control others.  You cannot win people over, influence them, or force them to believe what you believe.  You cannot say, "my hatred, discord, aggression, disrespect, and viciousness towards others is ok because I'm supporting something that's good".  

What you can do is control the words that come from your mouth.  You can control yourself through your actions, and, with practice, you can gain greater control over the thoughts that flit through your head.

Trite, cliche, and old-fashioned as it sounds; be the change that you want in the world.  Begin and end there, always. 

Today is the fifth, and final day of my yoga practice rebuild.  I sustained an injury earlier in the summer and haven't been able to practice.  I came back to my mat 5 days ago, and have been going through an abbreviated sequence of Asanas/physical poses to test my physical strength, and slowly rebuild any lost muscle memory, flexibility, or strength. 

Time to begin... 

Friday, September 4, 2020 (Part II),
As always, the Part II update is written post-practice, having just come out of Savasana.  

Sometimes your brain/mind and body cooperate with you, and sometimes they don't.  Sometimes they cooperate 50%.  No matter what degree of cooperation (or non-cooperation), no matter how good, or boring a practice can seem, the version that comes out the other side is always more refined.  The version that gets shared with the world is always better.  

Namaste

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Rebuild

Tuesday, July 10, 2018 Woke at my usual 4:45AM this morning for coffee and contemplation. Feeling wonderful this morning, and not terribly sore at all.  There's a bit of stiffness in my back from yesterday's backbends, but that's to be expected. Ready to sweat it out on my mat. Tuesday, July 10, 2018 (Part II) I'm writing this off my mat, already showered up for my day. I love going to my mat.  The physical challenge alone is reward enough, but, while I've said it many times before, the mental and spiritual adjustments that one can make are priceless.  Physically, I already see a difference in my body.  Arms are still re-building their stamina, but the twists and forward bends I incorporate are already helping with digestion and elimination and the general "deflating" of my body and G.I. track (TMI, I'm sure, but this is one of the main physical reasons why I practice). Mentally, I feel prepared for anything that comes my way today and fe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sleeping In

Wednesday, August 24, 2017 Woke at my usual 5:00 AM and then slept for another 20 minutes.  No big deal. I'm feeling grounded, stable, and balanced, even before hitting my mat. To stay on schedule, I'll hit my mat in about 30/40 minutes. Wednesday, August 24, 2017 (Part II) I not only slept in this morning, I didn't hit my mat until 6:30 AM (30 minutes after my normal time).  I was productive, however, and used my coffee fueled morning motivation to tidy up around my place and take care of some chores that I'd been putting off for a while. When I finally did hit my mat, I began with my standard 5 minutes of prayer and meditation.  After that, I began my standard warmup.  I moved into my formal practice feeling wonderful; no aches and no sluggishness, as I felt yesterday. I finished with 3 beautiful Upward Bow poses and am writing this after having just come out of Savasana. I feel balanced, strong, beautiful, content, solid, gentle, and indestructible. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rebirth and Regrowth

Friday, December 28, 2018 Still enjoying the marvelous holiday break from my normal routine. I still wake around a normal time, but I'm writing this pre-yoga-post at 10:06AM. I already feel the positive effects of my practice.  My mind, and its thoughts are more stable and reliable, I'm physically seeing changes in my body (even after two days), and, even though I'm still eating a fair amount of unhealthy food options, I'm not feeling as "sludgy" as I was earlier this week. I'm going to meditate, pray, and warm up before I begin my practice. Friday, December 28, 2018 (Part II) Three days. Three consecutive practices. Three completely different experiences. The title of today's post is "Rebirth and Regrowth" but I only really felt that way at the beginning/Part I of my post.  As I write this Part II section of today's blog, I feel very different from how I was before.  I feel solid and steady.  I feel like I'm galvani...
Post a Comment
Read more