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Developing a Love for Yoga: Learning to Add Balance to Your Life…
“If I’m losing balance in a pose, I stretch higher and God reaches down to steady me. It works every time, and not just in yoga.” ~Terri Guillemets
Yoga Love: Add a Yoga Practise to Your Activities by Adria Richards via Flickr
How would you like to start the fall season with an exercise practice that balances body, mind and spirit? Recently, I shared on one of my Positive Kismet blog posts “The Serenity Prayer,” that yoga has been an important part of my life since the 1980s. Even though I’d heard of yoga and meditation for years, I didn’t pay close attention to it until I moved to the US from London. I started practicing it in college as a way to handle both the stress of living in New York City and the demands of a challenging academic program.
The results were profound and I soon found that it helped me make beneficial changes to my diet, my work/study habits and my relationships. Over a period of time, I incorporated the philosophical teachings into my yoga life, found a yoga master/teacher, and studied the traditional Sanskrit texts with thousands of devoted students in an ashram/gurukula/yoga center. It has been a blessing because the exercises or postures/poses/asanas, as they are called, can be learned by people of all ages.
There are many Yoga traditions, from the classic B.K.S. Iyengar style to the more modern Yoga styles to choose from. Because of the widespread growth of this physical and spiritual practice since the 1970s, it is quite easy to find a yoga studio in any major city worldwide.
Yoga instructors typically go through rigorous training and licensing and most incorporate good nutritional tips and meditation to help body and mind. It would be wise to find out what style/type of yoga a studio offers and, ask questions, to determine if it matches your needs. Despite the information shared incorrectly in some circles, it is not a religion but a healthy, spiritual lifestyle; incorporating a form of exercise that enhances our body, mind and spirit.
September is National Yoga Awareness Month and the Yoga Health Foundation (YHF) is offering a week of free classes for new students. You get to choose a convenient location and yoga studio in your area. They are also celebrating the release of the TITANS OF YOGA movie with a world premiere. Between the free classes and the upcoming movie, there should be plenty of good ways to help sharpen our positive mental attitude. **I have added more information from the YHF below to help you read up and request your free pass. Take advantage of this offer and you’ll surprise yourself with how rejuvenated you’ll feel afterward.
Would you like to take a class? As always, I encourage people new to yoga to take a gentle stretch, beginners level class and work your way up…. Let me know what you learn. Do you have a yoga practice? Have you tried a yoga class before? Do Share.
“Yoga means union – the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day to day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.” ~ B.K.S. Iyengar
“Yoga: Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.”~Anon
Yoga Love: Sun Salutations for Body & Mind by Mike Baird via Flickr
CALL TO ACTION!
ONE WEEK FREE YOGA and TITANS OF YOGA movie world premiere to kick-off National Yoga Month September
When was the last time you felt drained by your stressful day, struggled with weight control or had trouble concentrating? Bring a little downward dog into your life and you could see drastic improvement. The ultimate goal of yoga is to develop mind and body free of chronic strain. Whether you’re looking for a change in lifestyle or simply looking for better stress management, yoga can help. Yoga is one of the oldest known sciences in the world and is widely acknowledged as a highly effective complementary alternative medicine. So, as we all explore ways to take better care of ourselves and even reduce health care costs, it gives us a proven way to do so.
September is official National Yoga Month. Cards worth ONE WEEK FREE YOGA and FREE YOGA CLASSES are available to all who visit http://www.yogamonth.org. Get off the couch and onto the yoga mat in the name of better health.
For the first time ever, TITANS OF YOGA – an empowering and inspirational movie and the Official National Yoga Month movie – brings together twenty-five of the most prominent figures in the worlds of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, from Dr. Dean Ornish, a physician consultant to President Clinton, to Lilias Folan, the “First Lady of Yoga.” As they share their own life experiences from the tragic to the ecstatic, the Titans embark on a journey of self-discovery that touches and inspires.
Their tales of addiction and heartache, depression, an HIV positive diagnosis and a penchant for sex, drugs and rock-and-roll will move you as they share how they overcame these challenges and transformed them into their greatest life victories. Proceeds benefit Yoga-Recess in School to bring yoga-based health education into classrooms. To watch the trailer visit: http://www.yogamonth.org.
National Yoga Month is a grassroots campaign administered by the Yoga Health Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. All funds benefit the national awareness campaign and Yoga-Recess in School to bring yoga-based health and fitness education into classrooms.
Again, don’t hesitate to share your yoga experience here. Have you tried a yoga class before? Do you have a yoga practice? Do Share.
PHOTO CREDITS:
Yoga Woman in Pose via Adria Richards on Flickr
Yoga Sun Salutations via Mike Baird on Flickr
Search for Photos ~ courtesy of Google Images
Until Next Time… Ask. Believe. Receive. © Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Love For Its Own Sake: Is Unconditional Love Humanly Possible?
“There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives – the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it…” Mother Teresa
“To love another person is to see the face of God.” -Les Miserables
Unconditional Love: Black & White with Red touches via Keturah Weathers
This summer has been quite hectic with the usual running around with family, friends, and handling other equally important matters. I’ve also put more energy into developing my blogging efforts by revamping and renaming an old blog; basically starting it from scratch, joining a few more online bloggers communities and, last week, taking the leap to join a Writer’s Workshop.
Kathy of Mamakat’s has generously devoted part of her busy schedule, as a mom of three, to send weekly prompts to the group. We choose one from a list, write on it, then add it to a page link where everyone gathers to submit their completed piece, click on other blogs and give comments/support to at least three other bloggers. I chose a different prompt for my Positive Kismet blog from the list. Read it here.
This week’s assignment/selection:
“It was as if an invisible thread hooked her to her boy. The thread could go taut or slack but it could never come undone, it could never reach the end of its spool because there was no end; it bound them forever.” What does unconditional love mean to you?
When I read the prompts for this week, I gravitated toward the one above on Unconditional Love. Perhaps it was something in the quote that drew me near “it bound them forever” or simply that the topic itself is hugely popular and everyone seems to have an opinion about Love and its many permutations.
Unconditional Love: What it isn’t?
“Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.” – Saint-Exupery
Mother's Unconditional Love: Judgement of Solomon via Gustave Dore
In the movies, we meet characters who effusively express their undying love for one another. In books, we read about lovers, like Romeo and Juliet, who die for each another and in the Bible, we meet characters who betray the tenets of unconditional love. Yes, Jesus loved unconditionally but what about the rest of us? Our human capacity for unconditional love seems marred by unfulfilled expectations and promises gone awry. Does this work in theory but not in practice?
Are our expectations just too high? Unrealistic? I recall the famous story of the two women, the baby and King Solomon’s judgment in the book of 1 Kings 3:16-28. When the wise King Solomon offered to cut the baby in dispute in half, he found out who the baby’s real mother was because she did something. What did she do? Read on and I’ll tell you at the end. It was an act of unconditional love.
Wherever we turn, there are stories and pronouncements about love and we all want some of it. However, most of us don’t walk around with eyes glazed over, drooling like a doting puppy, making declarations about the undying love we have for each other because we understand where fact meets fiction and when the ship is out to sea. Puppy Love and the Love Boat are great for music, movies and TV but they don’t quite pan out in real life.
In relationships, we often imagine our love to be deep, rich and unconditional. However, in reality, our relationships are fraught with conditions and expectations. When we give love, we expect some reciprocity; an acknowledgment of sorts. We expect our lovers, parents, children, and friends to respond to our actions positively and carry out our requests or orders. Is that unconditional? No. Is that bad? No.
Unconditional Love: What it is?
“It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations” Kahlil Gibran
Unconditional Love: See The Love Foundation by Rita Smink
What does this tell you? Or Me? It tells me that unconditional love is a spiritual not a mundane form of love. We use the term casually, but to truly love another unconditionally is to love them without restrictions, reservations, controls, expectations, interpretation, and interference and to accept them without any form of judgment. This is not easy to do. As parents, we love our children implicitly and feel responsible for their moral training and emotional state. True. However, a shift occurs as they grow and assert themselves; we sway back and forth from unconditional to conditional love. This is a human quality and perfectly normal. Unconditional love doesn’t negate our role; it shines a light on how we express our love and what we ask for in return.
Essentially, unconditional love is about surrender and freedom. We surrender our need to control and open our hearts to let our loved ones be free to be who they are – a whole independent soul. We might express our love within a certain percentage of the above, but it is virtually impossible to love another without expectations; whether good or bad. We love unconditionally on paper and from a distance; however, up close, it is something we can’t do completely because of the dynamic of human interactions. Our love is interpretive; through our eyes it seems unconditional so we use the term loosely.
Unconditional Love: King Solomon’s Wisdom?
“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment, first to let go of life, finally, to take a step without feet.” Jalal Ad-Din Rumi
Unconditional Love: Sites we love ... City Hall - Ljubljana Slovenia -via Magdelana Znidar
Some might say that an extreme form of Unconditional Love is obsession but I don’t think so. Unconditional Love is about freedom while obsession is about possession; which brings me to King Solomon’s decision. The real mother of the baby begged the King to give her baby to her dishonest opponent as she could not bear to see her baby die. Her opponent? She was ready to take half a baby. She wanted whatever she could possess. Yes, a mother’s love for her child starts out being unconditional but time and maturity changes it. The baby grows up and talks back. He becomes a brooding teen or sulking adult. We create conditions for engagement. The flip side of Unconditional Love is Unrequited Love.
What is my point then? I believe Unconditional Love is both a spiritual and philosophical construct that exists in our imaginations. It is a soul quality that we all have access to but that we, with our human foibles and emotions, can barely articulate it. It is the Nirvana of love; the unattainable, holy grail of human interactions. We experience glimpses of it during the honeymoon phase in a relationship, during times of crises, or at special moments in our lives… but like the moon, it waxes and wanes and we go back to the familiar, conditions-based love we live by. What’s your take? What does it mean to you? Is it humanly possible or a fantasy?
Celebrate Global Love Day on May 1, 2011 with The Love Foundation.
PHOTO CREDITS:
City Hall – Ljubljana Slovenia ~ via Magdelana Znidar
Love in Black & White with Red touches via Keturah Weathers
Judgement of Solomon by Gustave Dore ~ via Wikipedia
Unconditional Love Mandala by Rita Smink ~ via The Love Foundation
Search for Photos ~ courtesy of Google Images
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
A Twitter Friend: An Environmental Columnist Shares Some Thoughts…
“To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.” ~Theodore Roosevelt, seventh annual message, 3 December 1907
Tweet This: Environmentally Safe - Organically Grown
One of the great benefits of joining social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and such is the convenience of connecting with some of the most talented, informed, interesting and successful people around. From my first week of tweeting till now, I have had, as so many others have, the opportunity to converse and collaborate with some pretty creative and impressive folk. My Twitter friends are terrific.
As I’ve said in other interviews here, the goal remains to share insights and stories from my interviewees and present the real people behind the many usernames that greet us on myriad sites. Theodora Filis is a twitter friend whom I met through another great twitter friend Deana Martina.
“There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet.” ~Brooke Medicine Eagle
“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
Dora Filis: An Environmental Columnist shares...
When we first connected on Twitter, what struck me about Theodora or Dora, as she is fondly called, is that she listens and remembers exchanges. How many of us are able to do this consistently? With all the internet distractions, it’s not as easy as we think. After a few tweets, I sought my way to Dora’s website to get a better sense of the person behind the username and found her writings and outstanding research on environmental issues. I remember a post she wrote on the impending water crisis in the US and how we are marching down the road to water becoming a rare commodity. Or as an expert said, “Water is overtaking oil as our scarcest natural resource in the world.” (Charity: Water is doing awesome work on this)
Dora has consulted with corporations and government agencies, travels extensively, lives partly in New Jersey and Greece, and actively contributes her freelance write-ups to various publications including Examiner.com, UK Progressive, GreenWala and more. Ever the busy mom of two boys, she agreed to share some thoughts with us. I am glad she did. I encourage you to read her blogs: F.R.E.E. Foundation, Introspections, DorasDoingitHerWay, Shewrites, follow her on Twitter and connect with her on LinkedIn. Enjoy her contribution below…
“I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?” ~Robert Redford, Yosemite National Park dedication, 1985
Greek Nights: Unadulterated Terrain via D. Filis
Foundation Questions:
Tell us a bit on your background: Who are you? Where did you grow up and where do you live now?
My name is Theodora Filis. I am a 21st Century woman who lives each day to the fullest and looks at road blocks as stepping stones. I look at blessings as signs that I am not alone. Born and raised in Queens, New York, I moved to Athens, Greece in 1989 and lived there until 2009. I now reside, with my sons, in a small town in New Jersey.
What do you do for a living?
I am a freelance writer for UK Progressive, Examiner.com and GreenWala. I teach Organic Farming and Environmental Safety at Brookdale’s Outreach Program. Prior to moving back to the US, I was an environmental consultant working with organic farmers throughout Europe.
Why did you choose the path you now follow?
I did not choose this path, it most definitely chose me, and I continue to follow its light.
When did you decide to make key changes in your life?
I have yet to stand on terra firma. My life is constantly changing and shifting. Just when I start to feel settled – the tectonic plates of my life decide to shift.
Share your world view: How do you live your life and manage your household?
I have simultaneously raised two sons and built a career applying one very basic rule to everything I do: Love, Laugh, Respect and Appreciate!
***In Response to a Question: What are your top 6 environmental issues of the 21st Century:
Dora Responds: Here is the list of my top 6 environmental issues of the 21st century.***
Depending on what part of the world you live in, each one of these issues will effect you differently. Nonetheless, all have global impacts and demand global attention.
1. Climate Change
Climate Change has been the topic of more scientific research, political debate and public concern than any environmental issue of the past 10 years. Although climate change has sparked worldwide concern, it has failed to inspire world leaders to set aside their national agendas’ and work together toward a global strategy.
Recommended reading: “The Climate War” by Eric Pooley. Provides a behind the scenes look at the efforts to solve the climate crisis.
2. Global Water Crisis
According to the New Global Water Security Index, 10 countries worldwide, including 5 African nations are at “extreme risk” because of limited access to clean, fresh water. The effects of climate change and population growth will exacerbate the stress on these water supplies, potentially threatening stability in many regions. Among the nations most at risk are Somalia, Mauritania, Sudan, Niger, and Iraq. Other nations at extreme risk including Pakistan, Egypt and Uzbekistan are already facing internal and boarder tensions because of limited
water supplies.
Global water crisis statistics: WaterAidAmerica.org
3. Endangered Species
The disruption of the food chain and fragile ecosystems have been pressing issues from 2000 till now. Once a link is disturbed, every balance is lost. There is an urgent need is to save the environmental niche of endangered animals on a global scale.
Comprehensive list of endangered species by country: Endangered species list
4. Food Safety and Chemical Contamination
World Health Organization reports: “The contamination of food by chemical hazards is a worldwide public health concern and is a leading cause of trade problems internationally. Contamination may occur through environmental pollution of the air, water and soil, such as the case with toxic metals, PCBs and dioxins, or through the intentional use of various chemicals, such as pesticides, animal drugs and other agrochemicals.”
View the complete report: FoodSafety
5. Deforestation
“Despite increased awareness of the importance of these forests, deforestation rates have not slowed. Analysis of figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that tropical deforestation rates increased 8.5 percent from 2000-2005 when compared with the 1990s, while loss of primary forests may have expanded by 25 percent over the same period. Nigeria and Vietnam’s rate of primary forest loss has doubled since the 1990s, while Peru’s rate has tripled.”
Global deforestation rates: Deforestation Rates
6. Biodiversity and Land Use
Every type of land use involves utilization of land resources for human benefit. Biodiversity is a land resource that is more often the target for human utilization. Land use may therefore, have direct effects on biodiversity, especially when the form of land involves harvesting or modifying the land cover.
***There are 4 other environmental issues that cause me great concern. They are
Ozone Layer Depletion, Air Pollution, Energy, and Oceans & Fisheries.
I will cover the remaining 4 in my blog: DFilis Blog and will write a follow-up article for UKProgressive in the days to follow.
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” ~Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Tweeting on The Environment?: For the Love of Nature...
Reflective Questions:
What do you consider the most important thing about yourself?
My loyalty and devotion to those I love, my work, and the world around me.
What motivates you to get out of bed?
The birds chirping outside my window, the dawn of a new day lighting up the sky, and my two beautiful sons.
What makes you happy/laugh?
Everything! Happiness is a gift I won’t squander – laughter is something I can’t control!
What makes you sad/mad?
Ignorance.
What would you do differently with your life if you had the power? With the world if you had the choice?
With my life – nothing. With the world, I would take the blinders off every person allowing them to see that we are all important, intricate parts of a divine whole.
What guiding principle(s) do you follow to make your life meaningful?
I have a destiny, and I will not rest until I have fulfilled that destiny.
What word(s) of advice would you give to others today?
Love, respect and honor one another and this beautiful planet we call home.
How would you like to be remembered?
As a loving mother who tried her best to do her best.
Happiness is … ?
Knowing God is with me every step of the way!
What are your questions or comments for Theodora? Are you an expert in a field that our readers can benefit hearing about? Do you have a story to share? Please share your feedback with us. Thank You!
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER FOR VIDEOS***
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
PHOTO CREDITS:
Photograph of Theodora Filis ~ courtesy of Theodora
All other photos via Theodora Filis/Google Images
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
