James Walsh Yoga

Friday, March 29, 2024, "Be A Light" is probably said many ways, in religious and secular context, but the principle of the message is simple; " don't be down for long.....don't allow your own sadness/darkness/emptiness to grow and become strong....lift yourself up....be a light".  Sometimes easier said than done but, if/when one ultimately feels down about something, a quick and easy way to help alleviate this feeling of being down is to complete a task (make your bed, wash the dishes, complete that work-task that you've been putting off).   I'm behind schedule, and it's time to begin.... Part II: On my mat, having just come out of Savasana and writing my Part II (after-practice) update.  Even when your light isn't at its brightest; be a light.  Time to enter the world.  Namaste

Wednesday, March 27, 2024, I'm behind schedule, so won't make a meal of this morning's post, but when one isn't "feeling like it" and one isn't "feeling great" and one isn't "feeling pretty", one tends to slump and and makes oneself feel less beautiful...one tends to do things that compound the feelings of ugliness and unworthiness. Pushing through those feelings (whether one wants to or not), can break that cycle.   Time to begin... Part II: Am I beautiful or ugly?..........the answer (for all humans) is that you're, unfortunately, going to be both (until your final day).  Like everyone, I feel "ugly" sometimes (physically ugly and non-physically ugly).  One will always have to battle with this up/down.  One can make oneself less ugly through yoga, prayer, and meditation.  Resist the temptation to say, " well, I'm not feeling great anyway....I might as well sit on the couch and eat Doritos" as that makes...

Tuesday, March 26, 2024, I'm behind schedule a little bit, so today's post will be brief (like last week's posts) but, as I lay on my mat typing, I can feel certain areas of my body a little "stiffened" and "kinked up" (from a combination of other physcial activities like running, and messing around in the yard/garden longer than I should have over the weekend).  Keeping one's body strong is essential but, keeping one's body fluid and un-rigid is essentially essential......a physical yoga practice is oil for the tinman. Part II: Behind schedule, so can't post much but, having not practiced since last Thursday (4 mornings ago) I'll say that my joints and muscles had stiffened up (even in that short amount of time), and the needed to be moved and un-hinged.   Time to enter the world.  Namaste

Thursday, March 21, 2024,  Behind schedule....time to begin... Part II: Behind schedule.  Time to enter the world.  Namaste

Tuesday, March 19, 2024, It's 5:31am, and it's time to begin... Part II: Behind schedule, but time to enter the world.  Namaste

Monday, March 18, 2024,  Behind schedule, time to begin... Part II: Behind schedule, and time to enter the world.  Namaste

Thursday, March 14, 2024, It's 5:36am as I type this and I was delayed in getting to my mat...time to begin...

Wednesday, March 13, 2024, "What if" thoughts can help one's condition or hurt one's condition.  Very often the "what if's" that we're fed through the Entertainment Industry (Social Media, "News", etc.) are very dismal and gloomy "what if's"......what if the polar ice caps all melt in 5 years.....what if WWIII is already brewing.......what if all the food disappears and all of the clean water evaporates......PANIC PANIC PANIC!!!! But, just as feasible and just as possible, are "what if" scenarios that counter all of this panic, fear, doom, and dread: What if WWIII actually never happens......what if the last World War ended in the 1940's and another one never occurs again in human history....what if? What if the polar ice caps don't melt, what if our planet is not doomed, and what if many of the radical shrieks to panic are actually wrong and are shrieking about things that will never occur? What if the curre...

Monday, March 11, 2024, Yesterday was a lovely restful day in our household.  No chores, no obligations, no workouts, no anything....  It's a nice way to spend 1/7th of your week but, to be honest, I personally start to get a little antsy when I lounge around watching TV for hours on end.   Rest and recovery is as important as the work and effort put into something but, human nature (being flawed) will always encourage us to rest a little too much for our own good (and eat a little too much for our own good, and do everything that's indulgent a little too much for our own good).  Given that one's nature will always push one to be lazy, it's important to never allow oneself to give in too much to the rest, and to always ensure that, your rest period is a defined "break" in the work (with a clear start and a clear end); otherwise.....you may just rest all the way through your next experience or memory (which you don't make sitting on the couch).  Time to beg...

Friday, March 8, 2024, Motivation and drive will come and go.  Like all humans, one has a physical health and a mental health (and you could argue, other types of health too).  Some aspects of physical and mental health are fully silo'd from each other and sometimes, they overlap.  Have you ever felt physically ill, tired, unwell, "off", etc.....of course you have.....everyone has......that physical feeling of being unwell can, and will, effect your mental health.  The state of your body effects the state of your mind. The inverse of this is true as well; the state of your mind can, and will, effect your body.  Mind over body is, most often, the way to live as it demonstrates "who is boss" (your mind is), and who controls who (your mind should control your body)...." no....we're not going to eat Doritos and watch TV for 5 hours........no, we're not going to avoid our chore/task, etc. that we said we'd do........no, we're not going to order a...

Thursday, March 7, 2024, One of the worst attributes of our modern era is Social Media. One of the worst attributes of Social Media is the constant and continual support of the theory that you, the user of the Social Media, are the protagonist of life.....you, the user of the Social Media, are the King/Queen and others are but players and side-characters in your tale. This concept/theory of self-centered thought is dangerous, for many reasons, but it's instilled so passively and subtly through Social Media use that those who support Social Media can easily argue against it; they'd be wrong, but they can easily argue that Social Media is a good thing...that it helps connect the world....allows like-minded people to find their tribe......whatever sugary language is needed.   Religion, and the practice of yoga, helps one understand the exact opposite of what Social Media teaches us.  Religion, and the practice of yoga helps to keep one humble and reminds us that we are a no...

Wednesday, March 6, 2024, It's a famous tag line of Nike, but the simplicity of the phrase is a great one.  Just do it.  Do what?  Well, what is your duty?....your responsibility?....your goal(s)?  Whatever that is, just do it.  Move out of the talking/thinking phase and into the physical phase. Part II: I'm on my mat, having just finished this morning's practice.  There are always factors and excuses for not doing something; this morning, for whatever reason, my stomach is cramping and dancing a jig....I got on my mat anyway.......my muscles are sore from my half-marathon training.....I got on my mat anyway.....doing what you're supposed to do (even if the spirit and drive aren't always there, or always as high as they should be), shows good self-control and helps you break through the malaise and monotony of something....you end up on the other side of it, proud you did it (good spirited or not).  Namaste

Monday, March 4, 2024, "Chin up" is a simple phrase that can be hard to live by in the modern world we live in.  Interconnectivity (primarily through social media), quickly shows you 1,000,000 reasons to despair, and have your chin down, throughout your day (if you let it.  The world, brought to us mostly through out phones, tells us lies and makes us believe that... My problems are complicated, and totally unsolvable... Things are different nowadays....it's harder now than ever before in history to stay positive... We're all doomed anyhow, so there's no point in trying... The reality is that none of the above is true.  There's a great scene in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" film when a high-ranking (but weak and distorted) steward/stand-in-leader sees the massive enemy army approaching him and his city and he shouts, in despair from the top of the city, " abandon your posts and flee for your lives", only to be ...

Friday, March 1, 2024,  I start and end my day, like most of us, scrolling through my lovely little phone and looking at ideas for my hobbies of gardening, food, etc.  Naturally, I can't help but get drawn to my delicious little social media accounts to see what's-what and who's-who.  Many of my yoga reflections focus around the poison of social media.  I have to just add one more post to the pile here because, within moments of being on any social media platform, your phone (which tracks and remembers everything you do), begins to show you things that you like......but it also shows you things that you may not like (I.E. if you're politically leaning one way, your phone will show you things you agree with, and it will also show you things that you don't agree with; things that will enrage you).  I, like anyone else, at times, takes the bait......I bite the hook.......I'm caught...... I couldn't even tell you what the specific social media video clip was abo...

Wednesday, February 28, 2024, Simplicity (in almost all facets of one's life) should be strived for.  Simple relationships.  Simple approaches to problems. Simple ways to work and simple ways to enjoy leisure.  Simplicity towards one's health is, almost always, the way to go as well (mental health and physcial health, which we all have).   A simple way to improve one's mental health is to pause, catch one's breath (I.E.- Full even inhales and full even exhales), and then to start thinking of the good things, or blessings, one has in one's life.  Your car, your home/apartment, etc., your family, your fridge full of food, your job, your health (even if it fluctuates), etc.  It's irritating to many people that this simple approach to improving one's mental health is the equivalent of diet/exercise for one's physical (it works and its simple and it aligns ownership to you, the person in charge of your own physical and mental health); that's why it's ...

Tuesday, February 27, 2024, If one could write down in a series of bullet-points what is of the utmost importance in one's life, what would those bullet-points be? Money/security Family Job/career Health/appearance These are all important things in one's life, but they all eventually go away....they all eventually cease....like us, they all eventually disappear. Bleak as it sounds, much of what is deemed important and significant and worth worrying over disappears. Is there a part of us that doesn't disappear?  We hope so....we hope that a thinking/feelings/remembering part of our being continues on after death.  If there is a part of us that continues on after our death, then that part of us is the most important feature of our being, and should be nurtured first.  How does one nurture the part of one's being that continues on after death?  That all depends on who you ask but I can say that I nurture the part of me that continues on after death by incorporating pray...

Friday, February 23, 2024,  Control is actually a wonderful attribute and trait that Disney+ and a lot of other media outlets have passively spray-painted as something bad and negative; it's not.  Control, in many of its forms, is a wonderful skill to learn and know (especially self-control).  You could say that, on the other end of the spectrum, we have "release".  Is release better/worse, etc. than control?  In my humble opinion (that no one on asked for), you need to be able to release with the same ability that you need to have control (how's that for a wad of hippie-dippie mumbo jumbo...). It's 5:31am, and it's time to begin today's pratice...

Wednesday, February 21, 2024,  It's 5:35am as I type this, and today's posting will be brief so I can begin start my practice at a reasonable time but, I've often thought of how hopeless and despondent out world wants us to feel about everything (including ourselves).  As long as there is breath in your body, and you are alive, your fire is not out; ever.  It may be reduced down to embers, but it is not out and cannot be put out; some would argue that, even death, does not put out your fire, but moves your fire out of this world and onto the next.   Time to begin today's practice. Part II: Behind schedule, but an exceptional practice, the fire is never out.  Namaste

  Monday, February 19, 2024, A key to building happiness isn't the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them, and resolve them.  A powerful, and simple line that I read recently is today's title, " Fix Your Problems".  It got me thinking about the attractive and addictive nature of complaining about a problem, but not really doing anything to fix it (everyone, myself included, complains about problems at some point or another with no effort put forth into actually resolving the problem).  Altogether, our modern world, with its interconnectivity/social-media, now allows complainers to get together and ruminate and stew and do nothing other than.........complain.  Complain about the politics of the day, the amount of money they make, their living conditions, the cost of things, the weather, it's too hot, now it's too cold, now it's too mild, now it's too windy......  If one can A:) Pull oneself out of this din of noise and confusion and B:) ...

Friday, February 16, 2024, C.S. Lewis has an interesting line about the human spirit and, like a physical human body, how one's spirit will behave in certain situations.  A snippet of his famous quote is: "...Spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison..." It's an interesting and, somewhat, frightening thought to imagine a starved human body, being given something that they know to be bad for them but, in such a malnourished state, casting care and worry to the side and greedily shoveling handfuls of a poison down their throat if only to satiate their hunger for a period of time. The quote, as you can read, is more directly speaking about the spiritual side of one's being and, if our spiritual side is malnourished, not tended to, and cared for, it will ravenously consume anything it can to placate itself (regardless of how poisonous and deadly the thing might be to one's spirit/self).   I, like many of us, start...