mental-health

Maintaining Balance While Enjoying Summer

by ultrapeg

Summer is a great time of year for those of us (like me!) who love warm weather.  Deep shades of green are flowing everywhere peppered with the colors of wild flowers.  But summer also tends to be a time when our schedules change and our usual routines are disrupted.  Living here in the Black Hills, summer can also be a time when we are busiest.  Whether you’re travelling or welcoming visitors or maintaining more business hours to accomodate the tourists, it’s easy to get frazzled and forget that most of the time the “disruptions” are created by things we really want to do.

This was illustrated in my own life this past week when I spent 4+ days in an intensive yoga workshop.  The first part of the workshop was an evening event and the hours that preceded it were filled with other personal obligations that required me to show up for scheduled events at specific times with lots of driving in between.  Driving is not my favorite task which added to the stress load.  As I anticipated this day and the intensity of my schedule, it was easy to get uptight and let negativity creep in.  Somehow I was able to remind myself that everything on the docket was an activity I had chosen to do.  Nothing was forcing my attendance and I could easily have bowed out of any of it without serious consequences.  It may seem obvious, but this realization was a revelation.  This was all stuff I wanted to do.  The thought allowed me to relax and just enjoy the day.  From that point on everything went smoothly and in the end I was glad I did all of it.

Granted, it is possible to overload with things we want to do.  This is certainly a trap I can easily fall into.  There are so many things I want to do!  But, unfortunately, time and stamina are finite commodities.  It’s a privilege to have the luxury of being able to be choosy about how I spend my time.  So I’ve become more discerning in recent years.  A friend of mine remarked once that she was very protective of her free time.  I’ve come to appreciate and share that sentiment.  I try to weigh my choices carefully and sometimes I just have to let things go that I would really love to do.  If I make the wrong choice and find myself spending my time on something that really doesn’t work for me, I try to extricate myself as quickly as possible.  Life is short.  And none of us know when the end will come.  Time is precious.  When there is a choice, it pays to be picky about how I choose to spend what time I have.

So as we get into the busy-ness of summer, think about the choices you make.  If something you really want to do disrupts your usual routine, remember that it is just that – something you really want to do.  And try not to let it throw you off balance.  Don’t depend too much on specific outcomes or anticipate negative issues (travel problems, etc.) before they occur.  You may find that whatever happens – even if it is not what you expected – may be surprisingly pleasing.  Stay open minded to whatever happens.  Think of travelling as an adventure.  There are lessons to be learned in every experience.  If you have guests, let them be part of your life.  You might find out that they actually enjoy the same things you do.  Time passes quickly and you will be able to resume your usual routine with fresh enthusiasm soon enough.

On a practical level, changes in our usual routine can often mean physical disruptions like alterations in patterns of eating and sleeping or not getting the same type of exercise that you’re used to.  These complications can further interrupt your enjoyment of vacation and/or company.  Whenever possible, try to anticipate changes and be prepared.  Bring food with you to avoid being at the mercy of what’s available on the road.  Yoga and Pilates are both disciplines that you can easily take with you.  They don’t require much space and there are some great lightweight yoga mats designed for travel that you can keep with you.  In a pinch, use a towel or invest in those socks with the non-skid bottoms.  Or do some chair yoga. Or take a walk.  Walk between gates in the airport.  Or at the rest stop if you’re driving.  If you have guests, try getting up a few minutes earlier or inviting your guests to join you.  Don’t forget – their routines are also being disrupted.  They might welcome the opportunity to accompany you.  Even 10 minutes a day will help keep you grounded.  Just focusing on breathing for a few minutes can make a big difference in your attitude.  Frequently attitude adjustment is all you need to change a negative to a positive.  And breathing can be done anywhere, any time, under any circumstances.

If worse comes to worse and you forget something, unless you’re visiting a third-world country you will probably be able to find whatever you need somewhere in your travels.  No need to beat up on yourself for forgetting.  Treat the situation as a puzzle that requires a solution using what’s available rather than lamenting a lack that can’t be changed.  Remember all of the things we do to and for ourselves effect our overall health, both mental and physical.

In a recent article entitled “Cultivating Self Sustainibility” from the online magazine OM Times, Angela Levesque, an exercise physiologist, mind/body educator and energy healer, wrote the following:

“Sustainability is a word often associated with economics and environmentalism.  But the concepts of sustainability should also be applied to our health.  Our health and healing largely revolves around our self-care.  .  . it is our day-to-day actions that matter the most in how well we feel.

Stress has been defined as when perceived resources do not meet perceived demands.  When we fail to practice self-care and take time out when we need it, we put our minds and bodies in a lowered functioning state.  If we honor the needs our bodies we set ourselves up for greatness.

. . . remember to use your resources wisely.   Allow them the space to renew when necessary.  Without stress reduction and relaxation you will deplete them. So put the same value on loving more, laughing often, and moving creatively and with purpose.  This is how you cultivate the sustainable self.”

Take care of yourself and enjoy the summer!

Finding the Time to Practice

by ultrapeg

Sometimes we think we don’t have time to practice.  A better time will come when this finishes or that happens.

Here are some brief words of wisdom from Pema Chodron, an ordained Buddhist nun, prolific author and teacher:

The key instruction is to stay in the present. Don’t get caught up in hopes of what you’ll achieve and how good your situation will be some day in the future. What you do right now is what matters.

Another well-known teacher, Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, puts this into a slightly different context.  In a recent article in Tricycle Magazine, she talked about her early days of finding a personal practice and how she went through a dilemma over which practice path to follow.  She writes:

In order to practice, we have to surrender, we have to take a risk. . . .Often the obstacle is fear: we don’t think we’ll ever succeed.

One of the strongest experiences that I had of this happened somewhat early in my practice when I was living in India. . . . Unable to decide between the two traditions, I would sit . . .and mostly I would just think, “Should I do this or should I do that?”

I wasn’t really learning a lot from my practice since I wasn’t really practicing much. I was mostly just thinking about which practice to do. Finally I said to myself, “Just do something. It doesn’t have to be a lifetime commitment, just do something for the sake of the doing, for the engagement, for the involvement.”

After much vacillation, I concluded, “Well, I’ll just do one form of practice for six months,” and that’s what got me into actually practicing. It’s not that one needs to do only one practice forever,  and I certainly haven’t.”

Years ago I recall speaking with a friend who claimed to want to quit smoking cigarettes, but always found some reason why now was not a good time.  For example, when we spoke her father was coping with advanced cancer and she was helping her mother attend to him.  She said, “Once this crisis passes, then I’ll quit”.  My response was, “There is never going to be a ‘right time’.  You just have to make up your mind and do it.”  This was no revelation of great wisdom on my part.  I was speaking from my own experience.  I, too, had been a smoker.  During a great crisis in my life, I came to recognize how important it is to take control of the things you can control while you can control them.  Many of us operate under an illusion that we are in charge of our lives, but there is so little we can truly control in this life.  Although smoking is an addiction, it was still a choice I was making.  One of the few things I really did have the power to control.  It took a decision and a daily commitment, but I did it – despite the emotional turmoil in my life at the time.

Another friend of mine who was a collector of rare books and ephemera used to speak longingly of spending more time exploring his passion.  Instead he continued to work at a job he disliked intensely because he thought it was something he needed to do.  Then one day he was afflicted with an aneurism and died suddenly.  He never got to do the things he wanted to do most while still on this planet.  This, too, was a lesson to me.  Life is uncertain, but death is inevitable.  We know it will happen to all of us, but we don’t when or how.  All we have is this moment, right now.  Sounds so simple, yet so hard to truly accept.

And, of course, all of this comes back to my passion for practicing yoga and Pilates.  Many of you have heard me say that we all need to move while we can move since we never know when we won’t be able to move anymore.  So rather than wait until _____________ (fill in the blank – you lose some weight, or the kids go to college, or whatever life issue is keeping you from doing what you know you need to do), as the commercial says “just do it!”  You will need to make a decision and re-commit each day.  But if you make that decision, you will find a way.  Start small.  A few minutes a day is better than nothing.  Consistency is the most important ingredient.  Just keep at it.  People often tell me that they wish they could do some of the things I do in class the way that I do them.  Here is a revelation:  I was not born knowing how to do these things. I don’t even have any particular talent or skill.   I could not do these things when I first started either.  But with regular practice I have learned that I am able to do much more than I thought I could.  Practice itself is an amazing teacher.

Notice I mentioned “decision”.  For me, this is the most important requirement for making it happen.  This was recently echoed in an interview on Sounds True with Snatam Kaur, an American singer who was raised in the kundalini yoga tradition.  She is the lead singer for the Celebrate Peace tours and has released eight records.  As a travelling musician with an international performance schedule who also recently became a new mother, she talked about how she maintains her practice despite an overwhelmingly busy and demanding life.  She said:

. . . after I had experienced having a baby and being on the road as a touring musician and my daily practice just kind of, you know, evaporated. . . . But then . . . I figured out my bottom line. And it was, I’ve got to have a half hour of yoga every day. And it was amazing. I made the choice in my mind, and then I was able to do it. I have to have a half hour. And then it was like time and space moved for me.

Just in case you are unable to relate to any of these situations and you are still feeling like your particular circumstances are unique, here are a few more words of encouragement and inspiration from and article in Tricycle by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, an abbot of Metta Forest Monastery and the translator of numerous Thai meditation guides:

In times of crisis, we often feel we don’t have the time or energy to practice, but those are precisely the times when the practice is most necessary. This is what we’ve been practicing for: the situations where the practice doesn’t come easily. When the winds of change reach hurricane force, our inner refuge of mindfulness, concentration, and discernment is the only thing that will keep us from getting blown away. . . . And we needn’t be afraid that this is an escapist shelter.  When the basis of our well-being is firm within, we can act with true courage and compassion for others, for we’re coming from a solid position of calmness and strength.

We may be powerless to change the past, but we do have the power to shape the present and the future by what we do, moment to moment, right now.

Amen to that!