Bliss Blog
BY TAMMY LYONS
Begin Again With Tree Pose
This standing balancing pose strengthens our legs and our core as well as improves our focus and determination.
Begin Again....
Yoga, at the very heart of the matter, is the practice of beginning again.
We sometimes get confused and think it is the practice of Down Dogs and Chatarungas and Half Moons.
But the truth is that those are just bodily situations that give us juicy conditions to practice breathing in, breathing out, falling over, getting back up, giving up and going up.
One of my favorite poses to practice "beginning again" is Tree/Vrksasana.
This standing balancing pose strengthens our legs and our core as well as improves our focus and determination. But tree pose creates the bodily situation of falling over or at the very least losing balance. The mind can be found chanting, "just wait for this pose to be over" or "if you try again, you will just fall again."
But there is the superhero called Breath that disrupts the mental banter and steps in to rescue the moment.
The exhale ends and the next inhale whispers "try again, start over, begin again". Then we recommit to our focus, bring the knee into the chest, place the foot on the inside of the inner thigh and begin again.
The Secret of I Am
Try this practice and witness your own shift!
We repeat this phrase in the chatter of our minds hundreds of times a day.
I am tired, I am late, I am a loser, I am fat, I am unsuccessful and it goes on and on this way while we are awake and moving through our day.
Every now and then there may be a I am a hard worker or I am a good cook, but often the messages delivered through I am are not so nice and definitely do not reflect what we want to see more of in our lives.
What we forget sometimes is everything that follows the phrase I Am we are manifesting on some level. Our thoughts are directly related to what we see in our lives. Our I Ams shape our thoughts and our thoughts influence our words and actions and our words and actions build our lives and impact others. Whoa.
Not only do we need to be an agent of love for others but we need to be an agent of love for our own I Ams and what we tell ourselves about ourselves.
Try this practice and witness your own shift:
If you do these practices for one week and do not experience a giant, uplifting change in your state, I will give you a free yoga class!
- Begin listing 5 power words that capture what you want to invite more of into your life. Words that stand for how you want to feel and what you want to experience on a daily basis.
- Then, anytime you have the freedom of thought (driving, showering, running, falling asleep, doing laundry), repeat your power words over and over with the phrase I Am. For example: I am healthy, I am fun, I am organized, I am energetic, I am successful!
- Say them out loud at least once a day.
- Tell them to someone else, have a witness. You can be sly or right up front about this. In a conversation you could say to a friend "I've been eating well and I am energetic because of it," or you could just say your kids, "I am fun, aren't I?!"
- Feel your I Ams in your body by verbalizing your power words when you are running or walking or practicing yoga or dancing or even jumping up and down for a minute or so!
#365daysofCLEfun
Reinvigorated and ready to begin again, here I go on this path of fun!
As it turns out, practicing fun every day is not easy.
It is a simple concept that makes sense.
When we plug in to practice something meaningful to us, to make it a ritual in our day, everything is impacted as we invite it into our lives. But as in all practices, we get derailed. Defeated. While practicing having fun was my way of inviting more fun, laughter and ease, less heaviness into my life, it doesn't mean that all of the sudden it's all fun and games. Just because we practice doesn't mean we get it right every time.
I almost gave up the whole practice. Some gray days made having fun seem like a waste of time. Some heavy moments made having fun seem super far away. But then I remembered why I started it and became re-energized. I started because I do believe that finding fun, laughing, dancing, discovering new places and people inevitably leads us into our heart and connects us with our life force. In short, having fun lights us up!
My mantra is to begin again. It is the essence of the inhale and the exhale. Begin again is the foundation of any kind of yoga practice whether it is a down dog, seated meditation practice or in this case making room for fun. Reinvigorated and ready to begin again here I go on this path of fun. Because I know for sure that when I'm practicing I have more to give.
What is your "begin again"? A practice that you gave up on?
Re-join me on August 1 on Instagram @tammyatinnerblissyoga to begin again.
The Power of Mantras
Thinking thoughts that lift us up and using words that elevate our thoughts, is a practice. Welcome, mantras.
We all know that the thoughts we think impact our experience of the world.
We know that words are powerful in how we think. We know that if we change our thoughts, we change our life.
But thinking thoughts that lift us up and using words that elevate our thoughts, is a practice.
Welcome, mantras.
At IBY we wanted to share this special practice and have created #MantraMondays - each Monday morning introducing an uplifting mantra to practice for the week.
We have noted the mantras on our black boards as well as having take alongs printed on cute little squares.
Like all good work, it is a practice to use mantras to change your thoughts, but it is worth your work!
This week "I am what I think" is our featured mantra!
Jackie Quinn: Ask, Believe, Receive!
If you would like to see this on an IBY tee, let me know!
A Mantra I’m Practicing: Ask, Believe, Receive! Shared with me by our own, Jackie Quinn!
If you would like to see this on an IBY tee, let me know!
Expect great things to happen to you and through you.
“Expect great things to happen to you and through you.”
Claire often closes her classes with this mantra. It is a beautiful reminder that our thoughts are powerful and thinking about what we want to see more of in our life instead of contemplating what is wrong with our life, leads us to greatness. Great joy, great service and great love!
Life is not happening to you, it's happening for you
As shared by my teacher Johnny Kest, "life is not happening to you, it's happening for you."
Such a sweet reminder that it is all going as it is meant to go - even in the heaviest, scariest moments.
