Month: January 2020

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Congrats to me!

I started 2020 determined to shift some longtime behaviors (as described in my blog post: Off to a great start). But I know better than to attempt a dramatic, sweeping transformation; instead I was aiming for incremental, gradual but consistent change in three key areas of my life.

Well, two out of the three were incremental and gradual; the other not so much. If my goal had been to “earn” one star each for successfully getting up early, meditating, and rebounding every day, I’m pretty sure I would have failed. I would have gotten frustrated when I only had two stars, or — heaven forbid — only one!

Instead I decided that — so long as I was making a good effort in the right direction every day — I earned my star!

So, what was the bottom line? The incremental, gradual changes went pretty darn well. I started with just a few minutes at a time several times a day on the rebounder and it felt great. I never missed a day and I can feel definite changes in my energy, stamina, and strength as a result.

Getting up dramatically earlier allowed me to gradually rebuild a consistent meditation practice, which feels incredible!

But as it turns out, “forcing” myself to get up early no matter what time I went to bed wasn’t sustainable — I was feeling rundown, getting cranky, and it was affecting my ability to function. However–! It did allow me to get off to a good start with my new year routines; in fact, over the course of the month I found myself spontaneously adding in other little healthy habits and improvements. And even though I had to back off the super early waking up, I’m still getting up way earlier than before.

So that’s why I’m saying “Well done, Bhagavati!” and “Congrats to me!”

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Juggling plates

Too much of today felt like this…

….when what I want to feel is this.

Even-minded and cheerful. Such an excellent goal.

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Ananda Meditation Retreat

We spent most of the day up at the Ananda Meditation Retreat for the annual meeting of the Ananda Sangha Worldwide Outreach Ministries — always deeply inspiring and fun in equal parts!

It’s amazing what we accomplished last year and 2020 promises to be almost as eventful. 🙂

And it’s always a joy to spend time at the Meditation Retreat, laughing with dear friends like Durga and Vidura, and eating delicious food prepared by Lallah and Brannon.

All in all a lovely day. 💕

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So. Much. Fun.

Can I just say how much fun we’re having in choir?

Today was one of those non-stop days, filled to the brim with tasks and challenges both expected and unexpected. It was all good but I felt like I hardly had a chance to catch my breath, arriving at rehearsal feeling rather frazzled and not especially prepared.

But it really didn’t matter. Because there we all were (close to fifty of us), joined together in fellowship and in the joy of singing our glorious music. Feeling our energy rising in response to the vibration of high consciousness.

So we sang and we laughed and we sang some more. And it was just so fun because there was so much JOY.

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“Don’t take life so seriously”

I’ve been reflecting on this quote from Yogananda. I feel the truth of it — especially the part about the world being “a terrible place, there is no safety here” — but I can’t say that I truly comprehend it.

Still, I find it helpful…and comforting…to try and wrap my mind around it. Bottom line? “Live for God and God alone!”

“Don’t take life so seriously. This world is a terrible place, there is no safety here. But what are we to do? We must stop taking life so seriously. Delusion can be overcome by holding steadfastly to one philosophy: everything here is nothing more than God’s motion picture. Don’t make a fuss about anything. Whenever you worry, remember, you are deepening the cosmic delusion within you. It is your own dreams that frighten you. In every form of sense experience you must remind yourself, ‘IT IS A DREAM!’ So don’t be attached to the passing dreams of life. Live for God and God alone.”
— Paramhansa Yogananda

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Skies glorious & magical

Sometimes I’m just blown away by the beauty that’s all around us. The photo above is what I saw as I took a short walk at sunset. Truly glorious.

Then at dusk the new moon and Venus decided to put on a show. Pure magic.

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Gandhi & MLK Jr

Although I shared a few posts on Facebook for Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, today I’m feeling to dedicate my blog post to him. And not only him, but also Mahatma Gandhi, whose use of nonviolent resistance in India greatly influenced and inspired Rev Dr King.

King once declared that “Christ showed us the way and Gandhi in India showed it could work”. He also wrote that Gandhi’s teachings were “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.”

Both Gandhi and King were so insightful, eloquent, and inspiring. Here are two of my favorite quotes:

“You know, a lot of people don’t love themselves. And they go through life with deep and haunting emotional conflicts. So the length of life means that you must love yourself. And you know what loving yourself also means? It means that you’ve got to accept yourself.” — Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Feeling very thankful for the impact these great souls had — and are still having — on our world. 🕉✝🕉

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Progress: slow but steady

I have to keep reminding myself that it’s a marathon, not a sprint…

I’d like to be further along than I am.
I’d like not to have spent an hour scrolling through Facebook posts tonight.
I’d like to be about to get into bed, instead of quickly getting this written shortly before 11:00 pm.

But for each thing that I’m not yet doing just as I’d like, there are other things that I’ve been doing — consistently! — for a while now. I’m getting close to being ready to share about those things. Maybe in another week; I don’t want to jinx it!

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It worked!

And it’s amazing how accomplished I feel! 😂

Actually, that’s pretty much it for tonight. I think I’ll go on home and bask in the afterglow while fixing an relatively early dinner for a change.

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Trial and error

There’s nothing like constantly attempting things that are completely out of your comfort zone to keep you humble.

This blog is an excellent case in point. I shared back at the beginning about how it took months to even start writing. And a few months ago I pushed through my resistance and learned how to make it possible for people to actually subscribe (or follow) the blog.

Well, I got a few subscribers but they weren’t actually receiving a notification when the blog came out. Oops! The only problem was that I had run out of oomph for that particular learning curve and so it just stayed like that for quite some time.

But it’s a new year with new energy, so it was time to try again! Ramesha helped get me going and I started tackling the next learning curve.

Created the email, set up the schedule, and awaited the notification. It came — yay! Opened it and tried to click through to the blog post — Nothing. Niente. Nada.

Back to the drawing board.

Realized that it’s up to me to enter the hyperlinks (duh). Which I did, then rescheduled the email, awaited the notification. It came — yay! Hyperlinks worked — yay!

But then I received an email from a friend (thanks, Erin!): “I love that spontaneously I’m finally getting these emails about your blog. I signed up awhile back but they never came until now. But there’s no link to click?? Lol  😂  maybe I’m missing something?”

Hmmm…guess I didn’t put the hyperlinks where people would actually find them to click on! Arrrgghhhh!

Hopefully the third time really is the charm, but I can’t help but think about the people who really know what they’re doing when it comes to this kind of stuff, which seems really impressive to me right now. On the other hand, most of them have probably never played Mozart’s G major flute concerto. For what it’s worth. 😄