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The Unexpected Benefits of Being a Beginner

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When is the last time you tried something you’ve never done before?

Or, better yet: when is the last time you approached something familiar with the eyes (and mind) of a beginner?

Toward the end of last year, I decided that I needed a kick in the arse to get my personal yoga practice back to a more regular schedule. To help me get back in the swing of things, I signed up for the Wanderlust 21-Day Challenge.

It’s a free challenge that takes about 20 minutes a day, and by the end you’ll be familiar with 60 yoga poses and a vinyasa flow practice.

Since I’m a Hatha teacher and practitioner, I decided that learning a new style would be a good way to kick off the new year.

That being said, between the time I signed up and the challenge started earlier this week, I managed to get myself back into a regular practice that’s split between home and in-studio.

When Monday rolled around and I started to watch the first video, my immediate reaction went something like this:

“They’re starting with how to sit comfortably? I’ve been doing yoga for almost a decade! I don’t need to know how to do this. Get me outta here!”

Being comfortable can be painful

The good news? I didn’t listen to that voice.

I stayed planted on my mat and kept the video running, despite the mental protestations running through my head.

And what I discovered by the end of that 20 minutes surprised me.

By putting aside my preconceived notions and sitting with my discomfort, I slipped back into beginner’s mind.

Rather than pretending I knew everything there is to know – which is SO not the case – I gained much more than just 20 minutes of asana practice.

The teacher becomes the student

As a yoga teacher, I do my best to explain the asana practice in a way that makes sense to my students, that allows them to feel their way into the poses in a safe and beneficial way.

And while I come from a teaching lineage that has very precise language for this, there’s still so much that I can learn.

By opening up my mind to a different approach, I’m learning as much about how to describe the poses to my students as I am about how they feel in my body.

All this because I allowed myself to step back onto my yoga mat as a beginner.

Taking beginner’s mind off the mat and into the world

This experience has me thinking.

Where else in your life can you bring this in?

Are there places in your life where you just go with the flow, sticking to what you know because it’s how you’ve always done it?

While doing what you’re good at – in a way that you’re comfortable with – is an efficient way to work, there may be some surprising benefits to bringing a beginner’s mind to your life and work.

What is one small area where you can bring a beginner’s open mind and curiosity into your experience? Let me know in the comments!

Rebel Yogi Roundup: Volume V

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Here we are again.

The end of a year is fast approaching, and the holiday madness is well and truly begun. I don’t know about you, but I must have deleted hundreds of Black Friday and Cyber Monday emails this past week…

So how do you stay in the moment during one of the busiest (and most stressful) months of the year? How do you end 2016 in a graceful way, and move into 2017 with clear intentions?

This month’s roundup brings you the best of the best, curated from my reading over the past few weeks — compiled to help you navigate the year end transition.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

Harvard Unveils MRI Study Proving Meditation Literally Rebuilds The Brain’s Gray Matter In 8 Weeks

Don’t have time to meditate? This Harvard study might just convince you otherwise… 8 weeks to rebuild your brain in major (positive) ways? If you start this week, you’ll have fresh gray matter by February!

Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day.

This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.”

Meditation for People with Absolutely No Patience

Ever feel like meditation just isn’t for you? Feeling antsy, squirming around, your brain on fire because you’re forcing it to sit still? This meditation practice may be for you.

Some days you’ll notice that you’re more easily distracted and other times you’ll observe Jedi-like powers of concentration.”

balance-lena-stevens

David Whyte on How to Break the Tyranny of Work/Life Balance

In this intriguing post, David Whyte explores the concept of work-life balance, and concludes that we should stop thinking in those terms. Instead, we should look at the 3 separate facets of our lives as “movable conversational frontier.”

The current understanding of work-life balance is too simplistic. People find it hard to balance work with family, family with self, because it might not be a question of balance. Some other dynamic is in play, something to do with a very human attempt at happiness that does not quantify different parts of life and then set them against one another.

We are collectively exhausted because of our inability to hold competing parts of ourselves together in a more integrated way.”

8 Yoga Poses That Inspire Gratitude

And what would a post-Thanksgiving post roundup be without throwing a little bit of gratitude into the mix? 😉

Regardless of how you do it, practicing gratitude can help you get out of your head and gain a fresh perspective by reminding you of the positive things in your life and focusing your attention on someone else’s well-being.”

winnie-the-pooh

So there you have it.

A hand-curated set of posts and quotes that I hope will encourage you to end 2016 on a high note.

As we wrap up this year, let me know what you think of the series — if there’s anything you’d like to see more of, or less of— or, if you’ve read anything recently that should go into the next roundup!

Until next time… and next year!

I can’t wait to see what 2017 brings.

Why You Suck at Setting Priorities (and How to Fix It)

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There’s always something standing in the way of what you want to accomplish.

For most of us, it’s an excuse:

“I don’t have enough time!”

Or…

“I have too many things on my to do list. I can’t possibly add anything else.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

If so, keep reading.

Why you’re always unbalanced

I’ve spent the past few years examining what it takes to live a balanced life.

Sometimes I feel like I almost get there.

But often, something knocks me back off track and I feel like I have to start all over again.

And while things like getting the right kind of exercise, improving your sleep, eating well, taking time for mindfulness, and surrounding yourself with a supportive community are all equally important to creating balance in your life, there’s one aspect at the root of everything else:

Setting priorities.

And I don’t mean just making a huge list of all the things you have to do and then randomly assigning them a spot in your schedule (or on your already overloaded to do list).

If you’re like most people, you aren’t sure how to figure out what’s really important.

When you look at trying to cut down your task list, it’s often so overwhelming that you just want to give up.

There’s got to be a better way!

I’ve been a little MIA on the blog this month, but there’s a good reason why.

I’ve been busy behind the scenes working on a fix to this priorities issue.

It’s a short, 2-week email course that will help you if you struggle with FOMO (fear of missing out), entrepreneurial ADD, and general overwhelm. It’s designed to help you set clear priorities and eliminate any busywork that’s holding you back.

Rather than another tired productivity “hack” designed to help you find more time (can you hear my eyes rolling?), it will allow you to focus on the things that really matter — the priorities that will move your world changing work forward.

Set yourself up for success

The course material is being tested by an awesome group of beta testers over the next few weeks, and will be ready for prime time by the beginning of 2017.

Until then, take a good hard look at your to do list and your priorities, and see if they’re working for you.

If not, don’t lose hope. A solution is on the way.

I’ll let you know when it’s ready!

Do you have trouble setting priorities? Does your to do list feel like it might crush you under its weight? Let me know what you’ve been struggling with in the comments!

Overcome The Violence of Overwork and Modern Life

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Think that overwork and burnout is a new phenomenon? Something that only came about with the dawn of personal computing and an ever-quickening pace of life?

Turns out, not so much.

Back in 1966 Thomas Merton wrote the following, in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander:

There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork.

The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence.

The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”

My guess is that if you look hard enough, you’ll find examples of humans pushing the edges of our physical and mental capabilities from the earliest days of our existence.

What changed since those early days of human overachieving?

Looking at Merton’s quote, the word that stands out is “modern”.

We have reached a point in human evolution where the tools we’ve created allow us to do more, better, faster… but we as a society haven’t learned where our boundaries are. We haven’t caught up to our technology.

We’ve reached a place where we can actually choose to do less — without fear of death or physical harm. But yet a psychological need to stay ahead of the curve – to not become irrelevant – has caused us to fear that choice.

Some questions to ponder:

What if it was time to let go of your need to do more, more, more?

What if you could focus, pick the things that are truly important, and let the rest go?

What if, instead of burning the candle at both ends and rushing your life away, you could slow down and actually (oh, I don’t know) enjoy the ride?

Tame your to-do list

Here’s my challenge for you this week: take a look at the crazy list of things you have on your to-do list, and get rid of at least one of them. Not in a “kick the can down the road” way, but in a “let it go forever” way.

I know there’s something on that list you’ve been dreading or putting off forever. Let it go. Done. No more guilt hanging over your head because you haven’t done it yet, or you feel like you should.

Now take a deep breath, and see how you feel. Lighter? Less guilty?

Good.

Let’s start to take back this one precious life we’ve been given, and dedicate it to things that bring us joy.

No more guilt-ridden to do lists. No more causing yourself violence by committing yourself to too many projects.

Simplify. Find the things that bring you energy and enjoyment.

As Howard Thurman said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Rebel Yogi Roundup: Volume IV

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The last time the roundup came around, it was still thoroughly (and sweatily) summer.

What a difference a couple of months can make!

And yes, I enjoy making up words.

As the east coast experiences a soggy, cool fall morning…

Here’s the best (and most hilarious) of what I’ve read over the past few weeks.

How to Be Perfectly Unhappy

This comic from the Oatmeal is fantastic. It may make you have all the feels. If you’re like me, it may even inspire you to write an entire post based on its premise.

I’m not happy because our definition of happy isn’t very good. It’s a monochromatic word used to describe a rich, painful spectrum of human feeling.”

9 Reasons Why You Should Practice Yoga

From the obvious reasons (lower stress and get more flexible) to the not so obvious (have better sex and smell better), this article breaks down 9 good reasons that yoga isn’t just for chicks.

Contrary to what you might think, [yoga is] not just a sport for sexy ladies. And we have tons of reasons why you should be doing it—other than picking up women.”

stillness-within

10 Reasons You Should Never Start a Yoga Practice

Wait. Wasn’t the last article I shared reasons TO do yoga? And now I’m sharing a link that says you shouldn’t? What’s up with that? Read this one in the spirit of good fun.

It will ruin chili cheese fries.”

The Surprising Truth About Creating Sustainable Watershed Solutions

Okay, okay. So maybe this one is cheating a little bit, since I wrote it. But hey — guest post for the awesome folks over at the Center for Watershed Protection. Because the people saving the world sometimes need to be reminded to take care of themselves.

You work hard to create a sustainable planet. But it’s just as important to create a sustainable life for you, so that you can continue to do your world changing work!.”

gold-nuggets

So there you have it. Some of my favorite things from the past couple of months!

I’d love to hear what you think of the series — anything you’d like to see more of, less of— or, if you’ve read anything recently that should go into the next roundup!

Until next time…

The Myth of “Happy” and How Your Words Define You

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Happy.

Sad.

What do those words mean to you?

Do you have a particular definition you attach to them? And do you know where – or when – you learned to define them that way?

The first time I read this Oatmeal comic about being happy, I had quite a few feels.

(If you haven’t seen the comic, go take a look. It’s beautifully done.)

I felt resistance around the idea. It grated — how can a human claim to never be happy? Isn’t that one of the built-in experiences that comes along with these bodies and minds?

The way Matthew sees it, there is no middle ground. You’re either happy or unhappy.

Happiness is a permanent state. Once achieved, “you get to sit atop your giant pile of happy forever.”

I think part of why I had a hard time with his explanation is because I see a looser definition of the word — I see an entire spectrum of emotion where happy and unhappy are just points along the graph.

And maybe that’s what he’s actually getting at.

Matthew says that the definition of happy doesn’t work. “It’s a monochromatic word used to describe a rich, painful spectrum of human feeling.”

What I do agree with is this: the way we use and define words has a massive influence on us.

Language is a gray area

Even with all its complexity, human language is often not cut out for describing things that you feel or experience on more than a physical level.

And yet we so often get caught up in the idea that we have to strive to be “happy” or “content”.

I have a hard time with certain words.

“Content” is one of them. To me, the word indicates settling, allowing ourselves – or pretending – to be okay with a situation that is less than ideal.

“Busy” is another. I cannot stand this word, and what it has come to mean. It’s an indicator that our lives are full of stuff we’d rather not be doing, or that other people are making us do. That there’s no time for the important things. That time is slipping away, out of our control.

How can you be more cognizant of the words that you use, and the story that those words are telling about your life?

How yoga can help

Yoga and meditation both help you ride the waves of life.

You don’t struggle to avoid the lows.

And you don’t scratch and claw and bite to stay up in the highs.

Instead, you do your best to go with the flow. To shake off the bad times, and to enjoy the good ones while they’re here.

You allow yourself to be totally in the moment, experiencing every bit of the emotional spectrum — but not allowing yourself to become attached to or defined by those emotions.

Unraveling the human experience

So maybe Matthew is right.

Maybe we should all do things that are meaningful, even if they don’t make us happy.

Because isn’t that what this whole human experience is about?

Experiencing it?

You experience life from within the lens of your life.

And I have a different experience because my internal landscape and life story are different.

And that’s a beautiful thing.

How can you be more present to the experiences that life brings your way? And do you have words that you feel are limiting by their very definition? Let me know in the comments!