The Power of our Thoughts

So no one ever really told us this was how it was going to be.  In graduate school, the mantra that hard work, buckling down, tenacity and stick-to-it-ness would pay off was the only thing to hold on to at times when I wanted to tell a certain professor that I simply didn't care about program evaluation or policy analysis.  Turns out, I pretty much could've done that and maybe even been better off, farther ahead in the game and more financially successful.  However, I did not, I chose the high road.  But the realization I have come to is this - things may not be how I thought/planned/envisioned but they are the way they are.  The key of course is to find the best way to deal with them. Interestingly, the way we planned for our lives to be, the expectations we've set for ourselves are really nothing more than thoughts in our minds.  Thoughts!  How crazy and simply yet radically complex is that??!

Yet the beauty lies in this - if we can change our thoughts, we can change our lives.  I think Dr. Wayne Dyer bestowed this profound knowledge to me within the last month.  It is so very simple yet rings so true.  I mean how can we expect to change the world if we do not start with ourselves?

As you have probably surmised by now this leads to my thoughts on yoga.  Yoga is the only thing I feel like I have control over and most the time I am only striving for control - of my thoughts, breath, pose or transition.  In a time when I receive rejection after rejection letter and I have relatively little control over the very near future, yoga helps me keep things in focus.  Whether I am focusing on meditation, pranayama breath or actual asana poses - these exercises keep me focused on the only thing I have control over - the present moment. I may not be able to do a backbend or headstand yet but if I can do several rounds of full yogic breath, I feel more grounded, aware, and connected.

As you may or may not know, last week I pinched a nerve in my left rotator cuff while resting after yoga.  It seemed so silly to me to have hurt myself in a resting pose but it is what happened.  Luckily I found a wonderful massage therapist who focuses in sports injury within a 5 minute walk from my house who massaged the nerves back where they needed to be.  The healing from this consists of continuing yoga, stretches and breathing exercises.  The beauty of yogic breathing (which I am only beginning to learn) is that it delivers more oxygen to your blood which increases the healing process by repairing damaged cells more quickly.  Who knew something so simple as breathing could be so healing?  The more I learn about this ancient subject the more I feel like I have been walking around blindly for years.  Oh well, it's better to wake up slowly than never at all right?

For those of you interested in learning some basics about yoga I can recommend some books you can check out at your local library (well I say that respectively as many of you live in rural areas)that may be helpful.  I like illustrated books demonstrating poses with background information as well.  

A good start is "Yoga: Your Home Practice Companion" published by the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center. "Hatha Yoga Illustrated" by Martin Kirk & Brook Boon is another good one. And another one that is not as great but okay for beginners is "The Yoga Bible - The Definitive Guide to Yoga Postures" by Christina Brown.  This has abbreviated information on the history of yoga, the eight limbs of yoga and breathing exercises but the poses may not make as much sense to someone who has never taken a yoga asana class before. Once you get some general information down, "The Light on Yoga" by yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar is necessary (I am still reading it).  I hope this information helps anyone remotely interested in yoga.  

Yoga is a life long learning practice so don't feel overwhelmed because it is not a competition.  Go slowly and enjoy each moment. Be careful and mindful of everything you do and of course keep in mind I am no expert! I am learning and sharing information I have found helpful.  It is a good idea to take a beginner class at a yoga studio or your local gym and ask questions and advice from a certified yoga instructor.

Musings from the mat...

I have mentioned that my recent saving grace has been yoga? Well it has.  Cliche as it may be, there are reasons so many people go on and on about this subject.  Yoga is as wide ranging as it is deep.  From the various types of asana poses and teaching styles to the ancient Sandskrit philosophical texts to the pranayama breathing and meditations to more recent books about personal transformation, yoga is or at least can be where ever you look.

Although I am only an intermediate beginner still aspiring to one day gain enough arm strength to rise off my feet in crow pose, fully embracing yoga has changed my life, opened my heart, alleviated my stress and anxiety and brought awareness to many aspects of my life I was going through mindlessly.  Yoga is all about being mindful and bringing awareness to our lives and sharing that with others.  I am not going to go on as if I know enough to write in depth at this point about the subject, but let's just say I've been studying the subject extensively lately and have developed a home practice which is something I always thought I could not do.  The more I learn however, the more you will probably hear me go on about the subject.  So for now, my baby steps are really adding up to actual life changes - yay 2012! 

Another huge transformational step for me this year has been giving up meat.  As someone who loves meat, this is not an easy sacrifice (especially when there is an amazing Texas BBQ joint in walking distance from our house).  But the more I study yoga, I now realize that it is highly counterproductive to create positive life energy (prana) when you eat the dead flesh of a once living creature.  I am not on a soap box about what anyone else does, that is not my place to judge.  But the more I also learn about the devastating effects factory farming and ranching has on our planet, I feel better about my decision.  Another strong reinforcement I recently came upon is the documentary "Forks Over Knives" - a recommended watch from dear friend and super star Chicago yogi Sara Strother.  This film combines decades of scientific evidence compiled around the globe with clinical trials proving that consumption of meat and animal products has a direct correlation with all cancers, diabetes and a plethora of diseases afflicting humanity.  Not only is this proven, but the clinical trials show that by switching to a plant based diet that we can actually repair most if not all of the damage done to our bodies.  That is some compelling evidence.  I highly recommend watching this film, it is well worth your time. Overall, I know I made the right decision, and although it has been hard, watching this film is making it much easier.

So I started this blog as a way to document my transformation in this new year.  I will be going back and forth from the mat to the kitchen to the unemployment line and documenting my successes and failures in these realms along the way. Expect some serious sarcasm, facts and fiction, various musings, yoga info, philosophical rants, and good food along the way.  Thanks for reading.  Namaste.

Musings from the unemployment line...

The unemployment line is of course a metaphor these days because there aren't really physical lines like there used to be now that we have computers.  Now that we have computers we don't have to leave the comfort of our flannel pajamas or be presentable while we incessantly research and apply for jobs on the internet.  Oh that wonderful invention the internet, how it has brought humanity such progress yet simultaneously injected a huge division between humans actually meeting one another in person and talking to one another face to face.  This is the bane of the job hunt in the 21st century.  Every place wants you to only apply online so you risk being nothing more than another piece of paper in a stack of resumes a mile high.  

I know because I used to screen applications in my previous jobs and it is a royal pain in the ass.  I try at least to do the poor HR bastards a favor and at least keep my cover letters to two short paragraphs.  Lord knows if you don't even want to finish reading your own cover letter kissing ass to XY or Z organization, why in the hell would they?

Still it never ceases to amaze me how much time I put into researching, writing and applying for jobs and I know I am not alone.  Most of us "intelligent" folk who convinced ourselves the daily/weekly/monthly/annual grinding torture of graduate school would one day be worth it - are all pretty much kicking ourselves in the ass about now.  

Maybe it is the fact that we are still in a major economic downturn, or maybe it has more to do with geographic location, but getting a job today is much more difficult than it used to be. I've come to realize (although deep down knew this before moving here) that perhaps getting a job is so difficult because I live in the most intelligent, overly-saturated and wonderfully self-absorbed city of Portland, Oregon.  The place Fred Armison made his show Portlandia that effectively coined Portland "the city where young people go to retire" where Stanford graduates will duke it out with other over-qualified hipsters to fight for barista jobs at Stumptown Coffee Roasters.  

This is the place where young people flock in droves, willing to sacrifice and do just about anything just for the privilege of living here.  It makes for an interesting conglomeration of all the weird-o, smart, talented, artists, musicians, and otherwise 'different' types from each town in the USA.  The result?  A giant group people who are basically the same continuously filling the City of Roses to the point where she is busting at the seams.  Stereotyping you might say?  I am not excluding myself in this mix. I'm an artsy-painter type who loves this state so much I drove around Illinois with an "I <3 Oregon" bumper sticker next to my "Defend America - Fire the Republicans" sticker on my Subaru Outback - can you get more liberal stereotyped?  Well yes you can but I digress.  The point is that I am one of these ambitious, smart, spirited, talented people who loves the earth, believes global warming is REAL, knows evolution should be taught in schools without parental outlash and who still firmly believes in the American dream that is continually being crushed by corporate America on a daily basis.  

However, I somehow with a Bachelor's and Master's degree cannot seem to get more than a Nordstrom's interview lined up these days. One reason is because I am not related to anyone here and the other is because there are so many smart, qualified people in this town that employers will selectively choose the most overly-qualified candidate who will work for the least amount of money.  Balderdash I say! I did not work my ass off in graduate school to a)work in retail for the rest of my life - no offense to the good people who do - b) or work for less than I made as a graduate assistant.  It is highly insulting and super annoying but instead of being angry or bitter over it any more, I am highly sarcastic yet ironically optimistic and uber positive that something great is along the horizon.  And you know if it isn't, well there is always yoga my friends.