MyLifeYoga

For those of you who are seeking the spiritual life, I recommend these four daily practices:

1. Spend time alone each day in receptive silence

2. When angry or afflicted with any negative emotion, take time to be alone with God. (Do not talk with people who are angry; they are irrational and cannot be reasoned with. If you or they are angry, it is best to leave and pray.

3. Visualize God’s light each day and send it to someone who needs help.

4. Exercise the body, it is the temple of the soul.

Credit:
These words are credited to Peace Pilgrim. Thanks to the book: Peace Pilgrim, Her life and work in her own words.

Related: A Chart Of A Saint’s Spiritual Journey

I recently moved to a more ‘conservative’ community, where yoga is not yet as natural a part of life as it has become in places like California and London. Advocating strongly for yoga as a lifestyle I have come across a number of limiting beliefs about yoga, preventing people from getting involved in this magical practice. It’s time for these to be exposed…. and binned.

1. ‘Those Yoga people are flexible. I can’t even touch my toes’

Telling yourself that you’re not flexible enough for yoga is like saying you’re too dirty to take a bath. Noticing your own inflexibility is a sign that you need to do something different in looking after your body. Yoga is that something different.

2. ‘I don’t have time for something that doesn’t offer a real workout. I do work, home and gym. I’m sorted’

Yoga is not your ordinary workout. You will work on strength, balance, endurance, muscle tone, and stretching muscles that have not been stretched for years. You will have to create space in your spine so you can move properly again and achieve strength in places not known before to support your lengthened and strengthened muscles, joints and vertebrae. To top it all of you will need to find a way to let go, breathe, release, establish softness and, god forbid….relax and expand your mind. Real workout? No, better.

3. ‘I will look ridiculous trying these funny moves’ Continue reading →

Can you literally sleep your way to success? Arianna Huffington says YES! Why do great and brilliant leaders make terrible mistakes? The answer may be that if we are so sleep deprived it may lead to impaired thinking and impaired functioning. The tragedy of trying to do more and more at the cost of our sleep is that eventually we become less and less effective. We do keep ourselves busy when we deprive ourselves of sleep, but this may be more related to spinning in circles rather than being productive and getting anywhere. In this short but effective TED talk Arianna Huffington invites us to simply shut our eyes and discover for ourselves the power of sleep.

Related: Can Yoga Help With Sleep?

Rachael Isbister with her Mom and Dad

Doctors gave this twenty oz baby for dead, but its life was saved with a cuddle. It was to be the one and only cuddle Carolyn Isbister would have with her tiny, premature daughter.

Rachael had been born minutes before – weighing a mere 20oz – and had only minutes to live. Her heart was beating once every ten seconds and she was not breathing. As doctors gave up, Miss Isbister lifted her baby out of her hospital blanket and placed her on her chest. It was this hug that kickstarted Rachael’s heart.

Carolyn later said, “I didn’t want her to die being cold. So I lifted her out of her blanket and put her against my skin to warm her up. Her feet were so cold.

“It was the only cuddle I was going to have with her, so I wanted to remember the moment.” Then something remarkable happened. The warmth of her mother’s skin kickstarted Rachael’s heart into beating properly, which allowed her to take little breaths of her own.

Miss Isbister said: “We couldn’t believe it – and neither could the doctors. She let out a tiny cry.”

“The doctors came in and said there was still no hope – but I wasn’t letting go of her. We had her blessed by the hospital chaplain, and waited for her to slip away.”

“But she still hung on. And then amazingly the pink colour began to return to her cheeks.”

“She literally was turning from grey to pink before our eyes, and she began to warm up too.” Continue reading →