Author: pmcrose

What are the stories we tell ourselves that limit us, that limit what we will try to do, that stop us before we even start?

These limits define what’s possible for us just as our abilities do.

Try that impossible yoga pose.  Push your limits a bit.  Often our limits do not become visible to us until we challenge them.

Notice in what ways your mind or body say this is too hard, I’m not strong enough, my balance isn’t good enough….

And still try!  Like The Little Engine That Could, counter these habitual limits that often lurk in the background furtively keeping us their captive.

What are your “stories” that define your comfort zone?  Is this really how you want to live?

This is not to say we do not have “realistic” limits.  Nor should we abandon reason and become foolhardy.

But our assumptions that keep us from trying, that keep us limited in ways that we do not like and ultimately keep us unhappy–these “stories” are just that, illusions that keep us from from knowing we have wings to soar into truly new possibilities….

 

 

 

In the space between the breaths, there’s a field of quiet.

Go there,

and it will nourish and uplift you.

Memories of the past and thoughts of the future are only actually happening now, in the present moment.

When things occurred in the past, it was a now, a present moment, when it happened.

In the future, it will be another now when whatever will happen will happen.

Does this mean there’s really only now?

My glimpses of this in yoga and meditation are that now, this consciousness when empty of thought, is blissful and infinite.  It is as though “time” stands still and yet goes on forever and that there is seemingly only this moment.

Maybe you have felt this at a sunset or sunrise, at the birth of a baby, at the death of a loved one….

Yoga and meditation can help open the window to “time,” and thereby show us what we can be present to now!

 

A regular practice of yoga and meditation can move mountains, one flick of dust at a time….

In the eye of the tornado

there is the quiet center

from which to witness

the swirling changes of life.

 

Meditation and yoga can help you find and live from this center!

As you do yoga and meditate, listen to your breath.

This is the air of the Himalayas, of the Hawaiian Islands, of Turkey, of Sudan, of Antartica, of the Siberian tundra.  The air of the Grand Canyon, of Peru, of Beijing, of Kenya, of Iran…

The same air, only different.

One earth.

We share the air we breathe.

We’re often in a bigger hurry than life.

Discontented with its timeline, we futilely try to push or pull it along to meet our expectations, only to be frustrated, angered, and defeated.

All the while, life patiently waits and extends an open hand welcoming us to simply take hold at any time.

Practicing meditation and yoga each day helps me be more able to do just that!

 

The wordless space has nothing to say.

It is the quiet one in the room witnessing everything, never making a judgement, taking it all in, and smiling with a knowing nod.

It finally hit me!

After over 40 years now of yoga and meditation, I realized how much I’ve trusted them with my life.

Each day they nourish and transform me a bit like a drop of water wears away and shapes stone over time.

Yoga and meditation, if you will, have been major sculptors of my attitude and perspective as well as my physique–of my mind, body, and spirit.

Daily, they have had their hands in molding me into who I am, and will continue to till the day I die.

I am happy to say, and fortunate too, that they have and will continue to have such a central role in shaping my life.

And for this, I am eternally grateful!

What will you choose to be the sculptors of your life?

The Every Day Yogi knows that repeated practice is key, not in an obsessive way, but persistent yet patient.

The Every Day Yogi trusts this repeated practice of meditation and yoga to transform one’s state in inexplicably wonderful ways.