This is a bit of a continuation of my last post, The Struggle is Real. What I have for you today is a little poem that I put together about the beauty of the breakdown, of being ripped open and raw, and slowly beginning to put yourself back together ... so you can be a stronger and more inspiring you.
The Struggle is Real
Yes, my friends, you heard me correctly... The Struggle Is Real. The struggle to find ourselves, to be ourselves, to keep our hearts open to the world and our souls filled with passion. Do you sometimes forget that we all have internal struggles and battles? Sometimes our social media feed looks a lot everyone's life is perfect and blissful. This is not the truth. Of course we all have real life struggles, today let's talk about how the struggle is real.... and how you handle it.
A super simple self help tool we can all use
Have you ever been told to keep a record of you thoughts or feelings? That it would help you to journal? Did you nod because that's something you've heard before but your response is empty in the fact that you do not actually plan to journal? Are you unsure of how to write to yourself? Does it feel uncomfortable?
What I recently learned was the profound power of freely writing in a journal.
Self-Compassion
Sometimes we lose our way. We trip and fall down and need a second to breath and gather ourselves before we dust off and get back up and continue. Maybe we get stuck in a little rut every now and again. How do we make our way out of it? What leads us to getting back up and continuing on our journey? How do some people do this quicker than others? There is a tool to use when this happens, and at all other times in your life. This tool will change your life. What is it?
7 Reasons to Spend Time with YOU
5 Powerful ways to Happy :)
How can you go from being overwhelmed or underwhelmed to feeling alive and free and creating a life you desire? The first step is to move towards a state of happiness within ourselves. Once we do this, we are able to relax a little bit, settle in to who we are internally, and begin to hear that inner voice and allow it to guide us.
So, I've create a list of 5 steps to help you! These techniques will help you begin to feel your power and strength and step into a state of more happiness - to live more out of love than fear, and to start to listen to that inner voice that wants to lead you towards healing and triumph and love. <3
The benefits of letting go of competition
All throughout my life I had been considered a highly competitive person, and for this I was exalted and celebrated. Being a competitive person was seemingly referred to as though I was part of a club that was a notch about the rest - I "got" things other people didn't, I was smart and talented and driven, and I was "good enough" to be considered in competition for a top spot in whatever it was I was doing. Because there was so much positive reinforcement and praise for being a "competitive person" I became really attached to it and let competitiveness become something that defined me. Have you ever felt like this or know someone else who does?
If I'm not happy, you can't be happy
Ever felt like this before? When you're not happy you radiate such a mood/aura that you do your best to not allow others to feel happy. Or perhaps you've been around others that lived in this way and it affected you? Although we tend to not want to believe or see the worst in ourselves, for most of us this is has been the case for us either in the past or presently. If we are not happy then we do our best to make sure others are also not happy. When this happens so many things fall to the wayside...our relationships, our careers, the animals, the environment, basically the planet as a whole. Sound like I am drawing too big of conclusions?
5 reasons to take a trip
The world needs you - and the world needs me
Today some of my friends from yoga school started a conversation in the comments section of a friends post on facebook. Her post was about how she feels like she is getting her butt kicked and how she is working on balance & staying connected and that by keeping a good attitude through adversity will help and how important it is to maintain her yoga/meditation practice. Her journey was that she did the 6 week course in Rishikesh, India for her yoga teacher training certification, then went to a vipassa meditation in nepal, and then studyed aurveda in a different part of India. The conversation we [friends from the yoga teacher training, YTT, program] started on her post was about the struggle of coming back to the western world after having spent time in India working on ourselves, our perspective, and how living in the laws of nature flourishes everything. The question has been then, whey are we struggling being back in our daily lives?
I LOVE where I live
I am so appreciate to live where I do - in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in a town called Evergreen, Colorado. For the first time in my life I choose where I wanted to live because I wanted to live there not because I wanted a job that was there. After doing my fair share of moving after high school (I think 11 total moves and 7 moves between states/countries), I decided that it was time for me to live in a place that I would love and thrive in, and no matter what I was "doing" this was where I wanted to be. After two years of living here, I'm still in love with Evergreen. The visitors we had today are one of the things I love about it so much here.
How a break through in my attitude led to a break through in skiing
As you know, I was a gymnast for basically all my life. I was competitively involved in the sport from age 5-28 and currently I still teach classes here and there, but at a more recreational level. As a gymnast I had AMAZING control of my body and was in FANTASTIC shape. My balance and coordination were impeccable and I was super quick and powerful not to mention that I was really strong and could maneuver my body well. While I was no longer a gymnast and by no means in gymnastics shape, I still have some heightened body awareness. So you would think I would be great at skiing, right? Wrong.
Jump in the car!
Yesterday seemed to be a day for noticing. What do I mean by that? I mean that there were ways and things I wasn't feeling great so it was time to take a step back and figure out what exactly was going on so I knew how to move forward. I've found this to be much for productive then giving in to feeling bad, acting irrationally out of my emotions, regretting it later, and then repeating the whole cycle again. I'm working on being in my cortex part of my brain rather than my limbic brain more regularly.
Simply Snowing
Okay so I know I live in Colorado and I know that it's December, but this morning I woke up and looked outside and gasped! Snow! The entire sky was white! Where were the reds and pinks I was used to seeing as the sun was rising?! Oh my gosh winter seemed to be here in a flash and along with that came the cold, cloudy skies filled with white flurries. I was feeling a bit dramatic this morning as I'm sure you can tell. What did I do next?
My new Neti Pot
The interesting thing really is that I used a neti pot for a straight 6 weeks - when I was in India doing my yoga teacher training certification program. Neti was one of the things I feared going into the program. I mean, really? You want me to stick something in my nose and have fluid run out the other side? Disgusting! And why? Because it helps cleanse me out? I thought my body was made to do that on it's own and that I didn't need to stick a spout of salty saline water to assist it. Was I ever WRONG.