new address - please switch in your reader!

hi all! thanks for dealing with my slack blogging of late, but i am back in the game and will have more to say from now on. my address has changed, so please if you follow - change the address. oh pretty please do because i don't want to lose touch. the new address is

http://www.blissful-body.org/

let me know what you think of the new design! hope to hear from you soon! best wishes.

dragging my feet

i have been a totally bad blogger of late. why oh why have i been dragging my feet about getting back into the game?!?! i have just needed some time to ground back down to earth and check in with all that is home to me. new blog design is in process and i can't wait to make the switch and be re-inspired in so many ways!

goals for today:

• get schedule back in shape and confirm clients schedules
• weekly yoga post on the joy of yoga
• start teaching new yoga class at 4pm
• put away laundry and tidy up the house
• rehearse for upcoming fringe festival performance at 7:30pm
• keep on setting back in to reality
• make appointment with local BMC practitioner
• take dog for hike/run

cheers!

finding a fluid balance

just to share a little bit of what i can verbally articulate from the training i went to last week. i have actually been able to name some of the ways i feel. for so long i pushed and pushed ahead to be successful and make an impact. i gave so much effort and energy out and thought that doing so would really feed me. (and it did in many ways for a while...it has brought me many successes and experiences i am grateful for!) what i really discovered this past week was that i recoup in a place of energetically stepping back. that doesn't mean that i give any less effort to my work and/or home...it just means that i do it from a place of pulling back into myself and allowing what takes place to happen without the added stress that i used to bring to a situation.

in body mind centering work, i resonated with the balance in the blood circulating in the body. we have arterial blood that the heart pumps away from itself. it is full of effort and rhythm. it is dynamic and grounding. on the flip side is venous blood that is pumped from the periphery (arms, legs, head) back to the heart. the quality of the venous blood is wave-like and gentle pulsing. i like to think of the return back to the heart as comfort. this is where i feel i am in so many ways in my life. i am returning back to my heart and myself. through this experiential anatomy perspective, i have been able to see that i have not been finding the balance between coming and going as i thought i had. i feel there are so many ways i can reconnect that have been staring me in the face and, yet, i have been putting so much effort into figuring out what those things are that i haven't seen them at all! does that ever happen to you? do you ever ask yourself "why didn't i recognize that a long time ago?" some of my specific decisions will be written about in due time. i really feel the pull to transition and am excited about the adventure. i feel a strong pull back into myself, back into my home, back into my heart.

ahhhh...2010 feels like a year of settling.

coming back up for air!

hello my beloved readers. i am back from an intense training and have gained so much new perspective! yeah for time and space to rest and recollect and learn. the week of body mind centering training was based in experiential anatomy and focused on the fluid systems of the body. i was in such physical/mental process with the whole week that it was very hard to verbalize my experience....thus, no blogging for the week! boo. i even missed my beloved mindful monday (which i want to being in each week!) here's my mindful thought of the week - paraphrased from bonnie bainbridge cohen (founder of body mind centering):

it's not about what you can get; it's about the experiences you have.

i love this! it really hit home for me in so many ways. i've become really clear that life is all about what comes and what goes, what goes in and what goes out - and then setting intentional and thoughtful boundaries to contain that which passes through out lives. i can't wait to share more about the internal balance i have found through this deeper experience of my body. lots of thoughts still swirling around.....more to come. cheers!

brain in overload

wow. not sure how much posting will get done this week as i have just finished day one in my seven day training on the fluid systems of the body with body mind centering. it's amazing and i am so in process about what it is all about and how this will shift my work and influence my goal to live mindfully. my brain is swirling. thanks for understanding. more about this when i ground back down to earth. (hopefully tomorrow, i'll be able to focus and discuss this insightful week i am embarking upon!) cheers!

mindful monday - 1/52

as mentioned before, i really want to get organized about blogging and set realistic intentions on writing. i look forward to sharing all of this with you along the way!

welcome to the first (of hopefully many)

mindful monday

the start of my week seems to be the most inspirational and also the hardest because i am usually not reading to jump back in after the weekend. i always stay up to late on sundays (probably due to excess energy from sunday evening dance rehearsals) and setting a monday intent helps me wake up fresh and ready for what it ahead.

my favorite thing about my mondays is that i take a weekly yoga class (actually skipping today due to much needed visit from best gal and her son - we're having dinner tonight, but usually my mondays involve yoga). it is such a wonderful end of the day activity for me. i hope to add to my mondays with blogging about mindfulness and setting an intent each week to bring that to my life.

“Generosity is another quality which, like patience, letting go, non-judging, and trust, provides a solid foundation for mindfulness practice. You might experiment with using the cultivation of generosity as a vehicle for deep self-observation and inquiry as well as an exercise in giving. A good place to start is with yourself. See if you can give yourself gifts that may be true blessings, such as self-acceptance, or some time each day with no purpose. Practice feeling deserving enough to accept these gifts without obligation-to simply receive from yourself, and from the universe.” -Jon Kabat Zinn

i think my tendency to busy myself to the -nth degree is because there have been times when i have felt like i was not deserving of time without busyness. that i needed to constantly be on the go in order to be worthy of life. sounds pretty extreme - right?!?! i am moving away from that pattern and giving myself time and space to recognize what i need. i love to think of this as a foundation to living the mindful life: giftng yourself the ability to live mindfully. allowing it and doing it. i find that in the past decade, there have been many moments where my self worth and value comes from external sources (and not even people who i was really that close to). i am now learning that all of those feelings of self and worthiness - given the time i need to embrace who i am and be with those i truly love - really comes from within.

mindful practice of the week: allow time without purpose as a gift - at least 30 minutes each day (no thinking - oh, i should be doing this or that OR feeling bad about "wasting time") and know that it is deserved. notice if giving to myself enables gifts to flow to others with effortlessness. take deep breathes the whole way.

january dreaming

i feel a little behind in getting my plans together for blogging in 2010. one thing i want to do each month is post some dreams, goals, thoughts that i have for the month and then follow up at the end of the month to see how those commitments worked out. staying mindful and organized for me is all about setting intention and doing my very best to follow through.

wishes for january

• attend first body mind centering training on the fluid system and embark upon new facet of learning and teaching healing movement
• use time at training to develop book writing plan & marketing for lovely, inspiring friend jessica's fabulous body work practice
• begin game plan for e-course on mindfully managing your time - any ideas or interest?!?!
• blog re-design and switch to wordpress
• cardio exercise and yoga practice daily (not so good up until now, but monday is true beginning for me!)
• only have my oh-so loved vino on the weekends
• finish setting modern dance piece on the company for march show
• 10 minutes of meditation daily
• 2-3 book reviews on the blog

what are your aspirations for this beginning month of the decade? i am stoked on 2010 to be a year of progress, innovation, and growth! (oh - and maybe taking more pics of my life - i've gotta improve on that one!) cheers!