tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73176358349127616732024-02-19T01:08:10.720-08:00Dani McGuireConfessions of an Asana AddictDani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-36192166713881361362014-10-21T09:13:00.001-07:002014-10-21T09:14:19.725-07:00Set your Gaze Upon the Earth: Tips to Calm the Emotions and FallFeeling emotional, spacey, addicted, or like you can't follow through?<br />
<br />
Fall being Vata season, represented by the qualities cold, light, dry, irregular, moving, quick and changeable, can be a time of year that challenges us emotionally and physically. It becomes increasingly difficult to maintain our self care practices, healthy diets, and positive thoughts, as school and activity schedules increase. This is one of the reasons many of us come down with illness during this time of year or chronic pain gets worse.<br />
<br />
As my family was increasingly "loosing it" the other day, with 8 year old tears, lost car keys, and swimming in the sea of colored pages that float upon every table top, my husband looked at me and said, "you seem really grounded."<br />
<br />
I am not immune when it comes to this season. Even on the best days I feel my balanced state of mind and genuine peace succumbing to desires, daydreams, and daily to-dos.<br />
<br />
Just as the leaves outside are changing and displaying their full range of color, we can take a lesson from nature to embrace ours. Here are a few things I do to stay grounded and grateful during "the fall."<br />
<br />
<b>What we resist persists</b><br />
Fall is a time for change however, stop trying to change what cannot be moved. Take time to re-direct your attention and energy to something that can be changed, maybe something you have been avoiding. We tend to give our energy away to things that cannot be changed and avoid the things we can change because we know we have the power to co-create and that can be a bit frightening. If there is a nagging voice inside wanting big change, it is there for a reason. Sit with it.(<i>literally sit still</i>)<br />
<br />
<b>Get outside</b><br />
Easy! We may not have much of this nice weather left, so even if it is a bit more chilly than you like, bundle up and get outside to enjoy nature's colors.<br />
<br />
<b>Be Thankful</b><br />
Gratitude like all of our practices only happens by grace, but you will never become it if you do not take a moment to practice it each day. Feel your feet upon the earth, stop and say Thank You! Eventually you will feel the fruits of your practice as you suddenly begin to<i> feel grateful, </i>and we become what we feel.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Do it with Both Hands</b><br />
Sounds a little dirty, I know, but love often is. Our hands are an extension of the heart, which is why we express our emotions through our hands. If the ground is always moving beneath us, moving from our heart is the only way to stay grounded. We often move through life only revealing certain parts of ourselves. Don't be afraid to use all sides of yourself. Create a practice of watching your hands do your work from a place of genuine, caring, and authentic presence.<br />
<br />
<b>Gaze Upon the Earth</b><br />
In your yoga practice turn your attention to the earth. I love practicing with my eyes closed. It is like I am swimming down deep into the oceans of my soul, however, fall is NOT the best time for this and can make you more spacey, less grounded, and more vulnerable to addictions. Place your gaze and your desires upon the earth so only what serves will become seeds in the soil of your asana practice and life. Use your drishti(gaze) to focus, become alert and stay present to your changing scenery.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBdmKQ_BJWVKL2fzX2JHctRFjdVXF4HGIaI9w6boYEeZzFYKjiAc272__TE_Cj7K14uN-d_LiGkvI8xUu75GelYVzDa7TV53465GvzibVth4h1PfvkM8saWf_zPU1l-Z_NQrr1obCmNeg/s1600/Dani0239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBdmKQ_BJWVKL2fzX2JHctRFjdVXF4HGIaI9w6boYEeZzFYKjiAc272__TE_Cj7K14uN-d_LiGkvI8xUu75GelYVzDa7TV53465GvzibVth4h1PfvkM8saWf_zPU1l-Z_NQrr1obCmNeg/s1600/Dani0239.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-44356419845637412212013-06-25T07:38:00.000-07:002013-06-25T07:48:14.136-07:00My Personal-ity Dilemma<br />
<h3 style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 19px;">
I heard a knock on the door.</h3>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I was just diving into some coconut bliss and goddess granola for dessert, following my delicious lunch of kale, red radish and raw goat cheese lunch.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I could see from the window an unfamiliar face of an African American, middle-aged man. He was on my porch, gazing in at me, stern faced.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I live in a diverse neighborhood that ranges from artists and baby booming yuppies, to people living on unemployment or selling drugs. I love the diversity and unpredictability. I find it grounding.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I slowly opened the door, keeping my cell phone in close proximity, as every possible melodrama and news headline flashed across my lower mind.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I took a deep breath and tried to look the man straight in the eyes, unwavering.</div>
<blockquote style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
"How can I help you?"</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
The man asked if my husband was home.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
"No," I said hesitantly.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
He proceeded to tell me that my husband had promised him work, and that he would like to mow our lawn. I looked around, but did not see a lawn mower. He also explained that times were hard for him and his wife, who was standing on the sidewalk near the house, stone-faced and wiping the sweat from her brow. <span data-mce-style="color: #ff00ff;" style="color: magenta;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
"We have had a hard time putting food on the table, and the food stamps won’t arrive until next week. We are hungary. Please help us out," he said.</blockquote>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I told him I would grab some things from the kitchen for them to eat. I went back into the house and brought back veggies, rice and a can of organic beans. As I came back out on the porch, they were both on the sidewalk. The man looked at what I had in my hands, waived his arm at me in aggravation, and said, “Seriously you expect that to fill us up?! Look at us! We was hoping for some McDonald's or something!”</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
I felt like I did back in high school when I was the last person picked to be on a team. How can I meet this person where they are when the layers of our personalities are so thick? My personality steeped in the identity of "helping" and his in "you owe me something better". Here I was left standing on my front porch with my $30 organic skinny bitch yoga food.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Part of me was pissed! <em>You have some nerve coming to my front door and then throwing your arms up at me!</em></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
All I could think of was how can I transmit 10 years of yoga and Ayurveda study to this ridiculous person in one sentence? That, or use some Jedi mind trick. "Y<em>ou do want organic stir-fry tonight. and you are sorry for inconveniencing me-Namaste'</em>" I imagined that with a waive of my sparkling yoga-jedi wand that he would drop all of his conditioning and habitual patterns and buy into mine.<span data-mce-style="color: #ff00ff;" style="color: magenta;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;">
The thing about yoga is that it develops this part of the brain called "witness" the part of yourself that watches how ridiculous the melodrama of life can be.</h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGlafOTLu98-iDyKlFoY1W9Nqx0IO7hBolr_h2is7okCDANyWKIKHb1gEkTaMk8eD_u4b0ovcRo7FyTq_ShzmFyk_8T1TPzpQD0gj9wdNvCE4uV_uxTLqNCTT_YUvzt4Bp1z3JZNj4Ck0/s1600/images-4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGlafOTLu98-iDyKlFoY1W9Nqx0IO7hBolr_h2is7okCDANyWKIKHb1gEkTaMk8eD_u4b0ovcRo7FyTq_ShzmFyk_8T1TPzpQD0gj9wdNvCE4uV_uxTLqNCTT_YUvzt4Bp1z3JZNj4Ck0/s1600/images-4.jpeg" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
So while one part of my self was angry, another part was amused at the teaching and grounding in the moment. After all, realizing my personality of <em>Pisces and Bhakti yogini</em>, my head easily stuck in the clouds. I am aware that we have to be in the world too, keeping it all in perspective. Not everyone is interested in reading another Rumi poem on my blog or Facebook feed about how in love I am with everyone and everything. </div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Sometimes it is necessary for us to be brought up off our knees, onto our feet, and into the reality of the world we live in—even if it is a little mucked up. Life as I know it has been the dance between standing on my feet and dropping to my knees. It's about the weaving of them both and not getting stuck in one place for too long.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
What do you think all these sun salutations are prepping us for?</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
This day I should have used my feet. Taken a different path of action.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<em>Why?! This guy was really an ass!</em></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Because, part of me really buys into the yoga ideology that we are all one, and I couldn’t find kinship with this person <em>except</em> that we were both piddling all over each other with our personal identities. As our eyes met something happened. I could see exactly how he viewed me "goody-goody" and he could see exactly how i viewed him "ungrateful free-loader", and for a moment we could see ourselves reflected in one another's eyes. As he left me standing there, dumbfounded that he didn't accept my self-righteous food offering, I felt a sense of sadness. One that arises from the separation caused by the level of our personalities, how we catalog ourselves in the world. So what if he wanted McDonald's?! Maybe I could have handled the situation differently...</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
In my <a data-mce-href="http://pranayogaschool.com" href="http://pranayogaschool.com/">yoga school</a> our mission is to meet people where they are. I could have walked with him, bought them a meal, and gotten to hear more about their struggle. When someone trusts us enough to listen, we are given a gift of standing in some spark of truth.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Isn't that what really <em>nourishes us—</em>for our stories to be heard?<em></em></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
<em>Listen</em>.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Rather than finding common ground and standing on my feet, I hurried to my cabinet insulting him with my easy, messy, expensive, organic, <em>hand out; </em>ultimately so that he would get off my porch and allow me to get back to <em>my</em> <em>bliss and goddess dessert</em>.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
My haste, my personality, and my fear were just as much obstacles as anything coming from his side. He was stuck in his conditioning, and so was I. Rather than forcing him to "take a hike" maybe I should have offered him "a walk." Perhaps, a walk to McDonald's was all it would take to practice some real yoga and create a different pattern. This is the hard work: keeping an open and fearless heart out in the world.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">
Yoga is the balance of inhale and exhale, dropping to our knees, allowing another veil of ourselves fall away and then standing back up upon our feet, <em>fearlessly</em>, as we take what we learn from our stillness and devotion, and offer it back to whomever crosses our path, or knocks at our door. More than an offering of food, what if I really took time to<em> listen</em>? In the word of Ram Dass, “We are all just walking each other home” and McDonalds could have been the start..</div>
Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-27270252524217671662013-06-09T15:48:00.004-07:002013-06-09T15:53:28.714-07:00From A Dream<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAwZcVhmBQqWVBajjUjLJaHc1brtA5ctp02MrH2FAck9W3hdlhr_ItHWNenb8wlj_c8kBzC1_RokiVu0WB7UInS6CMQRi4pyH-weI33RmdCHXu8wJBiluxn1EMtcy1zchkE_d-mmvYjDk/s1600/images-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAwZcVhmBQqWVBajjUjLJaHc1brtA5ctp02MrH2FAck9W3hdlhr_ItHWNenb8wlj_c8kBzC1_RokiVu0WB7UInS6CMQRi4pyH-weI33RmdCHXu8wJBiluxn1EMtcy1zchkE_d-mmvYjDk/s1600/images-2.jpeg" /></a></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Template>Normal.dotm</o:Template>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>112</o:Words>
<o:Characters>641</o:Characters>
<o:Company>pranayoga school of yoga and health</o:Company>
<o:Lines>5</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>787</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>12.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
she is beautiful; mysterious </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
she suffers and mourns, but
moves in graceful waves. Dancing her pain back to the earth as she tosses her
long limbs and dark hair. Speaking a language I do not understand..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
he understands; dark and wise; </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I Watch</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
him, watching her, with a fiery gaze that could permeate any
body of water. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I See</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
her resist him the way I mold my feet into the sand and
strengthen my connection to earth resisting the ocean’s current pulling me
forward into it;<br />
until finally, the force is too much.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I am swept beneath. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
she is swept onto him. Their bodies become one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I Feel</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
they weave like vines, I am one with them intertwined, We are One.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I Wake</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
cheeks wet, heart pounding a beat between loss and
love, body shaking; </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
trying to resist, and knowing we are held.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-14191176639214438662013-02-06T13:04:00.003-08:002013-02-06T13:05:24.532-08:00Dancing on the shadows<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Template>Normal.dotm</o:Template>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>221</o:Words>
<o:Characters>1260</o:Characters>
<o:Company>pranayoga school of yoga and health</o:Company>
<o:Lines>10</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>2</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>1547</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>12.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I fell in love with yoga because it showed me how many boxes
I had locked myself in, losing sight my authentic self completely. It taught me
that nothing is good or bad on its own, but only when measured against truth,
intent, and greater good. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At first it was quite scary to begin breaking down boxes but
soon it became exhilarating! At times I can become like the Hindu Goddess, and
ego shatterer, Kali, hardly able to control myself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, as a woman, sometimes I get asked to crawl back into
my box. And sometimes I think
about crawling back in, all by myself. But here is my response to that..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Be careful what you ask for, because in trampling out all
the negative thoughts I had about myself, I trampled on all the negative thoughts
I had about you. In stomping on the judging thoughts about who I was I stomped
out the judgements I had made about you. In dancing on the shadows of doubt,
and learning to love myself, I started loving you. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we break down the boxes and walls we build around
ourselves, to keep us safe, we break down the barriers we’ve built against each
other and we begin to really practice yoga.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are my teacher and I am yours, let us not ask
anything of each other, just sync your breath to mine and be here. Like we were
when we were kids, not swayed by the judging mind, not trying to be something
else, and not far from the wisdom we had before. Sharpen your sword of love and
cut down any over grown ideas that strangle your true path and keep us from
walking it together.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1v-saVP0OE2WYyOSiWIKN03Lqv0EZNCGpFrSCgpn2WxGjlWmQEv3dHnPc_-F2b5zyHc-i8X_VwhSN4CbMyuHvZPnW5B1P0lQONuWJXDgjRYTuv5vyqHL23f-KlauXky9Ags5gqAaXYCs/s1600/wheel+beach+color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1v-saVP0OE2WYyOSiWIKN03Lqv0EZNCGpFrSCgpn2WxGjlWmQEv3dHnPc_-F2b5zyHc-i8X_VwhSN4CbMyuHvZPnW5B1P0lQONuWJXDgjRYTuv5vyqHL23f-KlauXky9Ags5gqAaXYCs/s320/wheel+beach+color.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo by Taya Smyth, Costa Rica</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-62862079692417325092013-01-10T18:00:00.000-08:002013-01-10T18:00:28.081-08:00The Space Between<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Template>Normal.dotm</o:Template>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>452</o:Words>
<o:Characters>2582</o:Characters>
<o:Company>pranayoga school of yoga and health</o:Company>
<o:Lines>21</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>5</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>3170</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>12.0</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJPaG1k2bSxSmG6RGaQU5ydUIp8Ow8AlTOusKE8WA0wQeWTBTVNztj81Rx6hw1MwVQroXRepAEh7LLHwGYsPQFU6z1KrlIV7VRIArB9D3VvYSCivETRRkrGv_JxKhyphenhyphenpP-es6rp3YjaBRs/s1600/natural+prayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJPaG1k2bSxSmG6RGaQU5ydUIp8Ow8AlTOusKE8WA0wQeWTBTVNztj81Rx6hw1MwVQroXRepAEh7LLHwGYsPQFU6z1KrlIV7VRIArB9D3VvYSCivETRRkrGv_JxKhyphenhyphenpP-es6rp3YjaBRs/s320/natural+prayer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many of us have experienced it in our lives.. The “something
missing” the miss-alignment, and feeling that something isn’t quite whole. And we have all experienced the
opposite. The moment when the gap is filled by a beautiful sunset, or the
moment when two souls fall in love. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The alchemy of life is that this feeling crumbles and once
again we feel lost in space. We quicken, and in haste, search for the next
sunset, lover, or melody that will bring us to that exact place again. It isn’t about recreating moments. It is about those times when the
unknown becomes familiar. On a
recent trip to India I was surrounded by a culture so opposite of anything I
have ever experienced, yet it was the most familiar place I have ever been. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is like that the first time we see our beloved or birth a
child. A familiarity that fills that space. Still these moments always end. The
trip always has an end from that perspective. How do we end the cycle of
samsara? (The ups and downs and cycle of life)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we begin to realize that the emptiness is familiar
too. When we quicken to be in
silence the way we quicken to be with our beloved. When we become the beloved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think the buddhist have it right by speaking emptiness,
which never sat well with me, being a “glass half full” kind of girl. In our
rajasic(fast passed nature) society we tend to see emptiness as a bad thing.
These teachings help create a familiarity where us as humans, but especially
Americans are not familiar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I remember thinking as a young girl that I didn’t have much
time and that every day I had to be better than the day before, but in a very
superficial way, like more successful or my waist must look skinner every day
to show that I am improving. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We all have the inherent want to better ourselves and to be
good, but we need to redifine what good is. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have made peace with the cycle of life. Life is not as linear
as we would like to think. We may not always make more money this year than
last, or be more athletic or witty. But in shedding our old conditioned ways,
we do have an opportunity to be more authentic, and more accepting of the cycle
of the human experience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Search for the
familiar in all experiences and find comfort there. To end the cycle of
pleasure vs. pain, we bring the bodymind back into a state of neutral. Like a mother craddeling the crying baby
back to a state of ease. Seeing
that all is sacred, even the space between that doesn’t have to be filled.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is a practical breathing application that I like to use
to remind me of the cycle of life and the wholeness that it is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coming into a comfortable seated posture. Breath in and out
through the nose, focusing on the breath along the spine. As we inhale up to
the crown of the head, pause and notice that feeling of fullness and your
relationship to that. Exhale down the spine. Pause at the bottom of the exhale.
Feel what it feels like to be empty. Notice your relationship to that. Repeat
for 2-3 minutes and try to notice if after time you see no difference between
the turning of the breath, one continuous flow. Where fullness and emptiness
are one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-48554379654603154712012-06-21T06:10:00.003-07:002012-06-21T06:16:59.379-07:00The Yoga Diet<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIivOSiBYHLVm8vjV5T_TDO1RlCwLkwNKFpTiubMYi5JpufVr6jMFhF2AE-1uBq3WWnpTwZpOf77RGS_kfaMr9wXhLzpem1xNkPywtvfGAlsuIpimXc_0wUZizTcJmvU2b42WHK6Nj3NQ/s1600/customer-service2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIivOSiBYHLVm8vjV5T_TDO1RlCwLkwNKFpTiubMYi5JpufVr6jMFhF2AE-1uBq3WWnpTwZpOf77RGS_kfaMr9wXhLzpem1xNkPywtvfGAlsuIpimXc_0wUZizTcJmvU2b42WHK6Nj3NQ/s1600/customer-service2.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: Whole Foods.com<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
I have seen many fad diets over the past 20 years, since picking up my first book on health, Fit for Life, at the age of 16. Since then I have tried food combining, Eating for my blood type, and tried on even more labels, such as, Fruitatarian, Macrobiotic, Paleolithic, Raw Foodie, Vegan, Omnivore, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Gluten and Casein Free. It may also come as no shocker, that within this constellation of food experiments, paired with unhealthy self-esteem, that an eating disorder erupted to further the complicate this already complicated relationship I was in, with Food. There are as many different diets out there as there are religions, and in a way our diet is like a religion. There is always a new list of commandments you don’t do to be HEALTHY which equals GOOD. The popular diets and beliefs take over the consumer market. Gluten is the newest EVIL in the religion of health. And companies catch on quickly to line the shelves with products catering to our newest set of beliefs. If we ingest Gluten we are BAD or at least feel bad, as I have told myself for the past 2 years, but if we eat super foods we are GOOD and will feel super human. On a recent trip to whole foods I happened to be in the aisle with a woman that was new to gluten free. There were 3 employees, opening different packages of gluten free cookies and letting us sample them. (I love whole foods) Of course I tried every one they offered, because it was FREE. I left the store with a sugar hangover, wondering if it was really a good idea to eat all of these sugar-filled, refined foods just because the gluten free industry has found a way to make them taste even better than the real deal, in some instances. I started to wonder what it is I was being fed, and if the information was true to me.<br />
Through my years of practicing yoga I began the study of Ayurveda, a sister science to Yoga, that teaches us how to live life. Ayurveda told me exactly what I wanted to hear in a moment the pendulum was swinging from, “There is only One Way to be radiantly healthy to I am no longer putting a label on myself when it comes to my relationship with food!” I no longer believed and believe there could be just ONE way for the complexity of our human bodies. Ayurveda told me that it was ok to eat meat if I needed some grounding, something that the sister science of Yoga and other philosophies have claimed to be bad. It explained why I craved eating raw during the summer months. It told me that there is not going to be one diet for every body or even one way for your body your whole life or even every season. Now I am consumer and practitioner of science of Ayurveda. Still, it is my yoga practice that has given me the most insight into myself and the world, and has healed the struggles I had in my early twenties with an eating disorder. Yoga has taught me to not be a consumer of fads and ever changing diets and beliefs, rather to believe in myself. Food is a way to experience the moment, sensations, and mostly nurturing my RELATIONSHIP with myself and the earth. Ayurveda has taught me to keep my body like a smooth running machine so that if I eat a little gluten or dairy, I still feel good. Yoga has taught me, if I eat too many cookies in the whole foods gluten free aisle, I don’t have to run 10 miles to burn them off. Many times when I am seeing students for nutritional counseling we end up working on forgiveness, self-esteem, and savoring their life. What we eat is only part of the puzzle, because we are multi-dimensional beings. It takes more than the perfect meal to make us feel nourished. How is your relationship with food? What is happening on the mental and emotional level? Are you feeling integrated and deeply connected with yourself, and with nature? This is The Yoga Diet Mantra… “I Know that I am FULL and Happy and am not looking for anything outside of myself.” In the words of my teacher David Frawley, “The consumer is consumed.”<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;">
</div>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-60768264159886885992012-06-04T20:27:00.001-07:002012-06-04T20:27:59.966-07:00Soul Mate (inspired by Venus transit)I Gaze into the reflection of the window<br />
My eyes<br />
Reflecting off the pane of glass<br />
The separation that sends a shiver of pain<br />
Through me; into me<br />
The crevices, distortions, haze and imperfections within the glass<br />
They obscure me from seeing clearly<br />
I soften to gaze deeper<br />
and Awake to the reflection of you<br />
I feel your gaze upon me, within me<br />
Our hands meet<br />
Our lips press<br />
Against the glass; Smooth and Cold<br />
Until the the heat from your soul meets mine.<br />
As it intersects in the space between; The space where we are one<br />
Our heat shatters the pane between us.<br />
Shards of glass fall like rain drops; to the earth beneath us.<br />
We gaze into the reflection of each other<br />
One Love<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPyAZ63UfHBGdcAJqDk6CJ1Y28AxaHP-BmCDSY6_PcD0QsbDopW8pKvUmXjeQrzN1Jb8iiP_QCbd4T7Lvu6SRqmOKmhM4mrwVLloJOAMVJJAHZywU9Tl_gbPHJ5OcmZsPvt_xm2RG0zMY/s1600/46804_146264212076523_122092731160338_199685_7544608_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPyAZ63UfHBGdcAJqDk6CJ1Y28AxaHP-BmCDSY6_PcD0QsbDopW8pKvUmXjeQrzN1Jb8iiP_QCbd4T7Lvu6SRqmOKmhM4mrwVLloJOAMVJJAHZywU9Tl_gbPHJ5OcmZsPvt_xm2RG0zMY/s320/46804_146264212076523_122092731160338_199685_7544608_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-85398029641379735182012-05-11T06:11:00.002-07:002012-05-11T06:11:16.226-07:00How to Raise Spiritually Balance Kids<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px;">Having opened a yoga school 3 years ago, working day and nice with
fierce passion, </span>finally finding what feels like my dharma, <i>up to this point
anyway</i>….a few things have been neglected. For example, romantic vacations with
the hubby where we lay in the sand half naked and drinking margaritas all day.
now involve me teaching yoga in tropical
places,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>having discussions on
dharma, artha, kama, and moksa, and entertaining a group of yogis all week long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Great stuff but can take a little of
the spark away! Family vacations have also fallen to the wayside, and my 6 year
old was starting to question this, reminding me, that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we promised we would go back to Disney when she was 6 and her
sister was 3, three years ago. She was right on schedule, and I wanted to be
truthful to her, because to me, the number one rule in parenting, is
to follow through with your word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I looked up from my computer and told her to pray about it because we
didn’t have enough money right now, but if she prayed and believed it would
most likely work out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Less than a month later we have our room booked and we are
driving to Disney next week. Wow, powerful manifestor, these little ones are. I
want to teach her to have faith and that she is a co creator, but how do I make
sure I do not cross the lines into the spiritual materialism many of us have
encountered over the past decade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other comments I have heard this week are “Me and God did
this.”-Cool she sees herself as a co-creator!! And then… “Mom, some kids don’t
know Jesus…. Or Santa Claus..” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">STRIKE.</b> There is
was, the confusion that I knew would kick in at some point coming from a family
of Yogi/Philosophers who are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">more
spiritual than religious</i>, having an evangelical Christian grandmother, and
an Atheist Grandfather who was mocking me in my head since I heard the
statement comparing Jesus to Santa Claus. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I went from teaching her to have faith and being a
co-creator, to teaching that God is like Santa Claus, oh and by the way you
will find out once day that all adults are big LIARS. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though my #1 parenting advice is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">truthfulness</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All I could in that moment, surrounded by the image of my
family (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in my mind)</i> laughing, shaking
their heads in disapproval of what a lousey mother I was, was to look her deep in
the eyes, lump in my throat, and say,” well honey they are not really the same
thing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully the comments
stopped there, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for now</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have since decided that all I can teach her is to be
strong in her relationships. Her relationships with Faith, with God, and with
the Gifts we receive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I paid off my car last week and received an overpayment
check of .02 Cents. My husband laughed, and almost threw it away. To me it was
important to make the trip to the bank and deposit that check because it
represents my relationship with receiving gifts and abundance in my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shouldn’t reject the gifts that come
into our lives, we should go to the source of the gift with Gratitude weather
it is from Santa, the Bank, or the Divine. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It always goes back to the Divine. I will continue to
teach my daughters the Truth, and that is, when we are Grateful and Faithful we
just may discover our strength and feel a glimpse of just how much we are Loved.
As for the Santa Myth, I will deal with that later.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRcshg6_fYCU7GqsrlrbPJ7Pmfi_m9QEUOcsKPiMEY4ucP2Z0yoVhYqrIlmrBf2kvIRn31CYWqBCsiPAlip2lVkww0WBWoOKXwkUoRRLpaz_GqgncTybTcs3yUJKMQ5qgUYUM43u0x5A/s1600/IMG_3247.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHRcshg6_fYCU7GqsrlrbPJ7Pmfi_m9QEUOcsKPiMEY4ucP2Z0yoVhYqrIlmrBf2kvIRn31CYWqBCsiPAlip2lVkww0WBWoOKXwkUoRRLpaz_GqgncTybTcs3yUJKMQ5qgUYUM43u0x5A/s320/IMG_3247.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-26359003534959623162012-03-30T06:12:00.001-07:002012-03-30T10:48:47.892-07:00Learn Yoga and Become a Jedi!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjIRvuUWA_yDsQivjhR5Zw-9Zq8EA9nrHXddalGHbAMhe2mI_ZN08a36yMW8vhyWhUTpc8gyoBij2jXVsvJyR9uSeMj4obSjUgUaF6AkGJSLH6YHrTM18DLH9biXU-Grq04K0Zq8g9qwA/s1600/x-wing-extended-550x407.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjIRvuUWA_yDsQivjhR5Zw-9Zq8EA9nrHXddalGHbAMhe2mI_ZN08a36yMW8vhyWhUTpc8gyoBij2jXVsvJyR9uSeMj4obSjUgUaF6AkGJSLH6YHrTM18DLH9biXU-Grq04K0Zq8g9qwA/s320/x-wing-extended-550x407.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I was having lunch at our local food co op the other day, and started having a conversation with a guy I had seen around a couple of times, about yoga. The topic of yoga usually comes up in conversations with me, with anyone willing to talk about it. It is the topic of conversation that I have a tendency to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">light up</i> at more than any other, begin a self proclaimed “asana addict”. Yet this person threw me a curve ball when he asked, “have you ever been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">illuminated,</i>” after less than 5 minutes of conversation and no alcohol involved. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">WTF</i>!! When did this become typical conversation for a Thursday afternoon, with someone you just met? I didn’t know if I should rejoice in that kind of spiritual interest or be pissed off. I chose the latter.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">My teachers warned me to not get caught up in the circus tricks of yoga, and my inner Guru teaches me to let go of results, so when I see students striving to attain siddhis, special powers, through the practice of yoga, I get discouraged. I feel like they are missing the point, the same way the student coming just for the yoga butt, is missing the point. I see the pendulum swing from one extreme to the other. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">As Yogis, we should evolve into practices, just for the sake of the subtle bodies, because our subtle bodies are what govern our physical, mental, and emotional health, and to be a Yogi means to be rooted in Self. But I do not care for any special Jedi tricks or powers, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">most of the time</i>. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Even if I <i>have</i> been <i>illuminated</i> it wouldn’t be something I would share, there, in our 5 minutes of getting to know each other. This would only cause separation, unless of course he had a similar experience, and then I would think he was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nuts.</i> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The kundalini awakening that is sought after by many intrigued students of yoga, is often short lived and leaves the body completely wacked. In the past, if it happened and a student wasn’t ready, an Ayurvedic Practitioner could help in returning balance to the physical and mental bodies.<br />
<br />
As I witness the shift of consciousness in the world from materialism to spirituality, I am sure we will have more conversations about this. A refreshing change from, “what teacher will give me the best workout.” However, we should make sure our intentions are pure, and that we don’t just swing to spiritual materialism. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Just as we should not compare the shapes of our postures, we should not compare the brightness of our souls.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> We come as spiritual seekers and each of our paths are as differently shaped as the bones in our bodies. We all have the ability to become <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">illuminate</i>d not from some special yoga mudra, pranayama, or vigorous asana practice, but by choosing faith, devotion, and connection. A wise one once said, Once I became Enlightened I never met another person that wasn’t. </div>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-76607812075974067512012-03-16T18:31:00.001-07:002012-03-16T18:39:17.360-07:00My Irish Ode<div class="MsoNormal">When Saint Patrick’s day rolls around there are usually a few things on my mind: Hanging with my dad, drinking Guinness, anniversary of when chris and I became “official”, green silk camis, and hanging with my sister on her 21<sup>st</sup> birthday because that was the first time we had met a full blooded Irishmen!! It was a bit of a disappointment when he claimed I was a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FookIng disgrace</i> for pouring a Guinness with bubbles, and claimed that I would be in trouble if I wasn’t married. (whatever that means)Little did he know I found him a prepubescent, pissin drunk boy. The only thing that made him cool in the slightest was that he was truly Irish. I am just a American half-ly Irish girl, and always have been. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anyways</i>, this unforgettable 21<sup>st</sup> birthday was the night when my sister and I coined the term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hiya Paddy!</i> Something that is only funny between sisters and after several cocktails , but comes up every st paddy’s day.</div><div class="MsoNormal">This year is different. All I can think about it my grandfather, who past away this February, and the best complement I ever received from anyone…</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
I sat by his side, as he was suffering and ending his long journey with cancer, and he said “You really are a beautiful Irish lass” He was still a charmer and full of it, but anyone that knows me as Dani, not Vani, the teacher, knows that flattery will get you everywhere.</div><div class="MsoNormal">God knows I am not nearly as Irish as grandpa but I have learned a few things from him about being Irish. , and it really isn’t about Guinness, green silk camis, and Irish boys at all. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I learned that to be Irish is to be resilient; To be emotional, there is no middle ground like there is in Yoga. It is either lovin or fighten. The Irish love God and trust Him to do all the work because, well, he is God and we are human. So we can sit back, enjoy a beer, and screw up as much as we want. I learned to go to church, and to make sure everyone else goes to church, but to find God in nature. The Irish don’t need much to be happy; just a little log cabin, a dog, a beer, and family. But mostly, family. They are just a little bit mystic. I remember grandpa calling Wisconsin God’s country as he would go for long walks and soak up the green. He didn’t drink a ton(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">when I knew him</i>), but he would drink a beer, and cheers to family, ritual, and calling one another out on their bullshit. It is said that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Irish people are a fair folk, they never speak well of one another</i>, but that wasn’t true. I will hold on to grandpa’s compliment forever, because like a true Irishman he knew how to exaggerate like the rest of them. Most of all I learned that the Irish are loved and lovers.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2OUDtQRLGrbLfylar5jPJ7gP8dNM8TDIy6FHSxZfScUFxJcjDCDXplfz0jh-92Pl4gU7q0_mvGsmFLoTuRNX2Fv303Mxl9ClR3CCq0HmgJ5g-ltVKp0H1Y8Gw2uWPuRWIbrnffxKYeQk/s1600/403757_2590287248829_1604040126_32137384_1663438359_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2OUDtQRLGrbLfylar5jPJ7gP8dNM8TDIy6FHSxZfScUFxJcjDCDXplfz0jh-92Pl4gU7q0_mvGsmFLoTuRNX2Fv303Mxl9ClR3CCq0HmgJ5g-ltVKp0H1Y8Gw2uWPuRWIbrnffxKYeQk/s320/403757_2590287248829_1604040126_32137384_1663438359_n.jpg" width="320" /></a> My Grandpa and Katie</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ll leave you with a quote from the eminent Historian Carl Wittke on the Irish Temperament.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt;">"The so-called Irish temperament is a mixture of flaming ego, hot temper, stubbornness, great personal charm and warmth, and a wit that shines through adversity. An irrepressible buoyancy, a vivacious spirit, a kindliness and tolerance for the common frailties of man and a feeling that 'it is time enough to bid the devil good morning when you meet him' are character traits which Americans have associated with their Irish neighbors for more than a century."</span></div>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-71770388395381321572012-03-16T05:41:00.000-07:002012-03-16T05:41:10.908-07:00A Breeze of Consciousness<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Have you ever caught a moment of pure bliss, it washes over as you are driving, maybe on a sunny afternoon? The moment is as sweet, as it is gone in a flash. Still something has shifted within you just from having had the experience of remembering. When captivated in this state of joy it is difficult to notice sensations in the body. It is an “other-worldly” experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It is consciousness, our true essence that is joy. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are continually chasing happiness using our senses to try to bring us closer to this state, but it exists beyond the senses. We long for this freedom, because it is the truth of who we are. And when we get glimpses through this window of meaning, it keeps us seeking.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As Seekers we dance with the idea of freedom as we kiss our lovers lips, indulge in our senses, or listen to our favorite song(I love music that makes me feel like I am flying). How do we free ourselves of duality and fluctuations between consciousness and unconsciousness, and slide into Truth. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Like Surfers, we can only know how to ride theses waves of bliss. Knowing that there is no lover to be kissed except for the one truth we all share, no sense that can be indulged permanently, and the only song that goes on forever is the one playing in your soul.</div><div class="MsoNormal">We had our first warm day this week where i live in Indiana. <i>Unusually</i> warm, as it was 77 degrees in mid March. As most people drove with windows down, tops rolled back, or got their motorcycles and jogging strollers out; I wondered how many people were experiencing moments of bliss, or "flight", as their favorite song blasted through the speakers and wind blowed through their hair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Then</i> I noticed a few scattered cars with their windows rolled up and I was pissed!! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could they block themselves off from such a beautiful day. As my compassionate side tried to think up excuses for them, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I became more outraged. There is no excuse for such misconduct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was true scandal…not the usual blah blah drama that irritates us.</div><div class="MsoNormal">As humans we block ourselves from the light all of the time. We prevent our souls from taking flight like they were meant to.</div><div class="MsoNormal">We can’t fly if we are anchored down by Fear, Ego, Refusal, or Attachment, The four veils that color the truth of our souls, and are usually at play during any given moment of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">The practice of yoga is to help us remove these veils that distort our true nature(joy) and wear our hearts on our sleeves.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A practice that I try to do each day, around these veils of illusion(avidya), that helps me to be more real and enjoy being ALIVE...</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b>Fear</b>-Do something that scares you. Fear is just excitement without the breath.-Fritz Perls</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b>Ego</b>-Be compassionate. Practice Non-Judgement. Know that if you were <i>that</i> person, with <i>their past</i> and karmas, you would be doing the same thing.</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b>Refusal</b>-If my first reaction is a big NO to something I know to pause and think it through, most of the time it needs to be a YES to LIFE. I am not speaking about the voice of intuition that tells us no, but the voice of denying transformation and living our dharma.</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b>Attachment</b>-The spiritual practice is always about letting go. Deep breathing and softening help me to let things flow out of my life just knowing this is freeing me up for sweeter fruits.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A mind held too tightly is like a window rolled up on<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the most beautiful day of the year so far.</div><div class="MsoNormal">A mind held too relaxed is one that steers us out of control. A mind held not to tightly or too relaxed is the way of yoga. The shift is happening for us to move beyond yogic concepts to embodying this way of being, but you have to open some windows and let the breeze touch your spirit. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Practice the above when you can, enjoy the waters of life, and maybe you will be set free to feel more ALIVE. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>We dive in and out of consciousness and we dive in and out of this world. Sometimes we meet here and sometimes we meet there. Today we are separate and tomorrow we are one. </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here is a great playlist of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>summertime</i> music me and my loves put together. Enjoy next time you are driving with the window DOWN on these beautiful days..And let us know your favorite tune to listen to on a warm summer day.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Clocks - Coldplay<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sunrise - Norah Jones</div><div class="MsoNormal">Fallin’ For You<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-Colbie Caillat<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Collide<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>-Howie Day</div><div class="MsoNormal">Let Go -Frou Frou</div><div class="MsoNormal">Fireflies-Owl City</div><div class="MsoNormal">Brand New Day<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-Joshua Radin </div><div class="MsoNormal">Sugar Magnolia -Grateful Dead</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Boys of Summer-Don Henley<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Flowers in the Window -Travis<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Caring is Creeping - The Shins.</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s a Summer Night-Flash Cadillac</div><div class="MsoNormal">Beautiful World-Colin Hay</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg49tmuB9opQxyxPO2vFMow9Kqaepgrd3YofHhyHzYrPnKds7eIiicVU5ffvbyLcDv0t1m_AiDWf3jVwF_KnnlmE9rV1E3yEUTWV16XrtyA9sXluKovNYsdl6iGf5lp7WGPQ4oA_8rYHrk/s1600/dannyjune+083+edit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg49tmuB9opQxyxPO2vFMow9Kqaepgrd3YofHhyHzYrPnKds7eIiicVU5ffvbyLcDv0t1m_AiDWf3jVwF_KnnlmE9rV1E3yEUTWV16XrtyA9sXluKovNYsdl6iGf5lp7WGPQ4oA_8rYHrk/s320/dannyjune+083+edit.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div><!--EndFragment-->Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-82393448357981343322012-02-14T07:46:00.002-08:002012-03-16T05:04:02.066-07:00Yoga, Shit, and the Practice of Ahimsa<div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Ahimsa(non-violence) is the first Yama. We know that Yoga means relationship, and Yama is the relationship that we have to everything in the world. Our relationship to the world is a mirror of our relationships to ourselves. </div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">"For a person who has experience his Buddha nature, he sees the Buddha nature in everyone. For a person who is full of shit, he sees everybody as a pile of shit." -Dharma Master Fo Yin in his conversation with the infamous poet Su Dong Po(A.D. 1037-1101)</div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> What does this mean to us? Maybe it gives us some insight on how to put up with that annoying co-worker and the person, or press, that keeps slamming the practice that has transformed our lives, maybe it means to just cut off those that challenge us? What the dharma master is saying is that yoga starts within. Yoga begins with awareness, and that awareness, has to start with <i>ourselves</i>. It begins with our Yoga(relationship) to ourselves and from there will spill over into your other relationships. Lately yoga has gotten a lot of bad press. There have been books and articles written about the stress that yoga can put on our bodies, scandal within the yoga community exposing teachers' "dark sides." First of all, How can Yoga wreck our body!? Yoga means relationship. Relationships can wreck us only if our intentions are not pure. Think again to that co-worker, when we try to change them and their actions we just strengthen that which is causing turmoil within us in the first place. When we work on ourselves the co-worker doesn't change but our projections and needs for them to turn into someone else does. Yoga is an internal practice and as a society growing in materialism, many of us have made it an external practice. We can't help ourselves, we're Americans! We have turned yoga teachers into rockstars and then we get mad at them for sleeping around! These things happen to wake us up, to get a conversation started, and to tear down our walls and expose our hearts(something that takes years of yoga practice to accomplish). Set the intention of love and kindness today, set the intention on your "inner guru" and intuition, and "Self-<i>center</i>" instead of being self-centered. Whatever we set our intention towards expands in our lives. When you come to your mat, set the intention for Ahimsa(non-harming), <i>especially</i> if you are a type A personality. Set the intention today to be kinder to yourself on your yoga mat, to listen to what your body, mind and Soul needs are, and to nurture your Self. These problems in the yoga community are not because of Yoga, it is because we are humans practicing yoga. It is the reason we came to yoga in the first place!! As Bryan Kest says,"you can take what you learn on your mat and apply it to your life, or you can take what you do in life, and turn your yoga into shit!" Turns out Bryan Kest and the Dharma master Fo Yin had a similar message. </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Ahimsa(non-violence/kindness) is the highest dharma(law). Ahimsa is the best tapas(austerity). Ahimsa is the greatest gift. Ahimsa is the highest self-control. Ahimsa is the highest sacrifice. Ahimsa is the highest power. Ahimsa is the highest friend. Ahimsa is the highest truth. Ahimsa is the highest teaching.--Mahabharata</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5cCsy5ZIHdXg7CAFVPyUDB5lYtVVcDUb2NK7-dMLeV3Au7Uwaw7zOVL9EH2LRWtOrfz_NwBFgM0ZxvkCXo0OxhakFlqY7v7FQY34s8lbWxy8Aex2_NjN08i-73j1PQacM3t4aBYj-VT8/s1600/rest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5cCsy5ZIHdXg7CAFVPyUDB5lYtVVcDUb2NK7-dMLeV3Au7Uwaw7zOVL9EH2LRWtOrfz_NwBFgM0ZxvkCXo0OxhakFlqY7v7FQY34s8lbWxy8Aex2_NjN08i-73j1PQacM3t4aBYj-VT8/s320/rest.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-74167398657701601682011-12-25T05:34:00.000-08:002011-12-25T05:34:09.241-08:00The 5 Must Haves this Holiday Season.<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Think back to when you were a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a time before all of us had attachments to our blankets, stuffed animals, or favorite toy. Most of us can’t remember this far back, but it was the time when we saw our parents, not as separate, but rather an extension of us. It was a time when we felt joy with just a few essential things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The desires of the world that preceded this time have caused either our suffering or have given us the drive for our blessings, but now it is time to go back to the essentials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What were the first 5 things we had that brought us joy, from as far back as the womb, and do you and those you pass on the street have them this Holiday.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>A warm place to stay</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Nourishment</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Rest</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Play</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Love</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Rather than getting the impossible gift for the person that has everything this year, why not bond together with them and make sure that everyone you meet has the top 5 first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lets remember a time when we didn’t believe that we were separate or know that there were objects of the world to desire other than these things, because I guarantee that some people who appear to have it all are missing some of the essentials this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Play</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_IOAECG8ffatN-bssLPx378Pe8AdSehANOWaBq_pXB26Bzl8R1xhNbrvDwfdge86kdii6gb7qLNlQdkBLWB4yKYS6taICD1HQBav6qh-Jr9Uuqsve_FpdXQTPKNN-PjPlYsIVnYkXl0/s1600/77913_1563187168107_1488190463_31561742_7060430_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_IOAECG8ffatN-bssLPx378Pe8AdSehANOWaBq_pXB26Bzl8R1xhNbrvDwfdge86kdii6gb7qLNlQdkBLWB4yKYS6taICD1HQBav6qh-Jr9Uuqsve_FpdXQTPKNN-PjPlYsIVnYkXl0/s320/77913_1563187168107_1488190463_31561742_7060430_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></div><!--EndFragment-->Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-89832866727942354642011-11-03T11:35:00.000-07:002011-11-03T11:54:56.151-07:00Catholic to Tantric<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixyYE_8Fpg3GclE5vNlYLotD_f_u-nFZekLRa3xpYQX6yv7MXv0nPgtbFNYOKVVuP8fYNIyroHSvyBq3J25dB4aBB_po9Tn7WVY32AnWtDmqsCTuRJtRX7cUmK4X6Tb61TZEsRviTXbbc/s1600/Dani+in+the+sky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixyYE_8Fpg3GclE5vNlYLotD_f_u-nFZekLRa3xpYQX6yv7MXv0nPgtbFNYOKVVuP8fYNIyroHSvyBq3J25dB4aBB_po9Tn7WVY32AnWtDmqsCTuRJtRX7cUmK4X6Tb61TZEsRviTXbbc/s320/Dani+in+the+sky.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Confession time from this asana addict…I am a catholic wannabe from way back!! Born to hippie parents that knew little boundaries or ritual, though a house that valued laughter and tradition. I longed for the structure and reverence and parents that would force me to go to church like my best friends’ parents did. My grandfather would pick up my sister and I some Sundays and take us to church. I looked around at the bodies moving up and down trying to keep up the way I did the first time I entered a yoga class. Are we kneeling or are we standing? Sitting or kneeling? How is my alignment? I tried to follow the prayers that everyone else had memorized, feeling like I would never fit into the "cult-like" group. However confused and judging of myself I became, during this ritual, the whole experience would leave me exhilarated and full. I loved singing out at the top of my lungs to God. I was sure I would grow up to be a nun(haha). My days of wanting to be Catholic have changed a bit since being convinced by my husband to join before we were married, during the one point in my life when I was just not interested.(timing is everything-<i>i was a very bad catholic girl!</i>) I still love our Catholic church we attend once in awhile, with our priest that looks like Santa Claus, the rituals, that I now have memorized, the pew sun salutations, and singing(although I love chanting in sanskrit much more) I think this is why the "Catholic wannabe" in me is so drawn to the study of Tantric Shaivism, the direction my sadhana(daily practice) is leading me to these days. The mantras, the ritual, the breath, Oh my! Some of my friends still think that Tantra is about sex…it certainly makes it a lot more interesting to think about in these terms. After all, most of us remember the first time that we made love…the confusion, amazement, and rapture of it all. Or the first kiss.. wet, weird, and the thoughts of “Am I doing it right,” even though we had practiced on our hands or at the mirror hundreds of times before the actual act with Jeremy Peacock(hmm.. maybe that is why I can't stand peacock pose). Or for me the first time I practiced vinyasa, much like dancing, laying in savasana(relaxation) at the end of class with a feeling that I had been through a storm and was shipwrecked, washed up on the beach, and now laid there not know what just happened, or who I was, but here now.. alive. This is why I am an addict of asana, love, and devotion, and why the rituals and practice of Tantra are certainly appealing to me. The breath and sound rituals are the way that we can access the present moment. The average adult breathes approximately 21,600 times a day. Each one of these breaths is an opportunity to feel alive and experience this moment unlike any other! In a world of to do lists, which sometimes include our yoga practice, tea with friends, and being with our beloved, as things we check off at the end of the day, we all need these reminders and rituals to pause and be alive in these experiences. We all remember the first time we do something new, but how often do we remember the last. Will we remember the details of the last time that we make love as much as the first, or the last kiss as much as the first(Yuck) or the last conversation with our wise friend or grandfather.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Each moment we breath-in we have the ability within us to be enlightened, which means awake. The pause is what helps us remember. </div><div class="MsoNormal">“The question is not will I ever become enlightened, rather can I become enlightened right now.” – Chris Tompkins</div><div class="MsoNormal">When we enter into the present moment even a leaf falling from the branch of a tree, seems to hold all of the joy and suffering of the human race. It floats softly, sparkly, circular... following the pattern of our breath. What if we all remembered at the same time? Maybe the Mayan calendar would be true and time would cease to exist. And then!? As a wise one once said, “What happen’s after enlightenment? Laundry!”.</div>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-81617759813874109822011-08-10T07:11:00.000-07:002011-08-10T07:11:40.913-07:00Here and There<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdNQ9bFz9_2ZKDl1ktPpk0p-3uIpwDnxCQUOv28d7qp6DWEuV_T1HMghoVNvLsM_9PCNcm40MapuhgfnLmptCgHAn0hYTB7vORnY0g0HxWweZCJUl3vKv11vSi_9-eEZSDd0DQ1g-ttOk/s1600/natural+prayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdNQ9bFz9_2ZKDl1ktPpk0p-3uIpwDnxCQUOv28d7qp6DWEuV_T1HMghoVNvLsM_9PCNcm40MapuhgfnLmptCgHAn0hYTB7vORnY0g0HxWweZCJUl3vKv11vSi_9-eEZSDd0DQ1g-ttOk/s320/natural+prayer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Far Away</div><div class="MsoNormal">I am searching for you</div><div class="MsoNormal">Waiting, Restless</div><div class="MsoNormal">Looking here and there, not knowing</div><div class="MsoNormal">Unaware</div><div class="MsoNormal">I have forgotten</div><div class="MsoNormal">Still searching</div><div class="MsoNormal">For you, For Love</div><div class="MsoNormal">Random images, confusion</div><div class="MsoNormal">Flash like scenes from a dream</div><div class="MsoNormal">Far Away</div><div class="MsoNormal">You are watching</div><div class="MsoNormal">Waiting, Restless</div><div class="MsoNormal">I sit, Motionless</div><div class="MsoNormal">I feel you ripple through me </div><div class="MsoNormal">The way waves caress each piece of sand on the shore</div><div class="MsoNormal">Each cell in my body is bathed by your light, your beauty</div><div class="MsoNormal">Alive</div><div class="MsoNormal">Full of love, Ecstasy</div><div class="MsoNormal">I remember</div><div class="MsoNormal">I shutter, quake</div><div class="MsoNormal">Awake</div><div class="MsoNormal">Eyes Open, I sleep</div><div class="MsoNormal">Searching</div><div class="MsoNormal">Still Searching</div><div class="MsoNormal">Far Away, and Knowing</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here Now</div><!--EndFragment--> Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-25515375107017920572011-08-04T09:30:00.000-07:002011-08-04T09:30:44.193-07:00The World doesn’t Happen to US..It Happens Because of us..Just Imagine!!<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Wherever you go, you carry your own imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if you go to heaven, you won’t be able to see it as heaven if there is a hell in your heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have a heaven in your heart, you would even enjoy hell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes it’s true. Because you would see heaven there. It is all up to you.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>-Swami Satchidananda</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This was the passage that I read today at breakfast as I set my intention for the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recently got back from a Prana Flow training in LA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back in Fort Wayne, Indiana where everything is so spread out, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>missing my daily walks, and no car necessary approach to life, I hesitantly loaded my girls into the car to take them to daycare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I turned the key, nothing happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was honestly grateful, because now we were forced to walk to daycare which is only a mile away. </div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s just that, well, we sort of live in the ghetto, and so I usually start my car up to drive them a mile away, and then if I want to go for a walk, drive another half mile to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>walk around the beautiful park and golf course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today I was forced to take the less sexy or scenic walk. I realized that I was doing something that was not only good for my body, my kids, and the environment, but I couldn’t help but feel down and stressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much less peaceful and present than when I walk through the beautiful park, that I usually drive to, even though it is only a mile away from my home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was feeling discouraged about where we live and how the people around us live, thinking that we need to move and judging everyone around me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My kids were thrilled about the walk, and I was thankful that it wouldn’t take long, since I have a daycare provider so close.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we walked, and I judged, my 5 year old pointed to a home that we passed, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you know</i> the neighbor that has several porcelain figures, planters, and a bathtub alter with mother Mary, set up in the yard ..<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">look mom…cool</i>!! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">They have so much cool Halloween stuff ready</i>, then she pointed down to a shiny 3 musketeers wrapper in another neighbors yard(my kids don’t really know what candy bar wrappers look like)”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Look at that beautiful flower mom!</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I reflected on the passage that I began my day with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wherever you go, carry your own imagination. <o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal">It is easy to be inspired, feel sexy, and look younger, when we get out of our everyday lives and habitual ways of living. Like when we go on a vacation, go on a yoga retreat, or wake up on a beach or a mountain top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how do we do this in our every day lives?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we stop grasping for something other than where we are right now, and live and love every moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We use our imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started using mine, and began “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">picking flowers</i>” on the way home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only was I cutting down on toxins in the environment today by not being able to turn on my car, I was helping to make my neighborhood a more beautiful place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of obsessing about the new sexy Chevy Volt that I want, to show what a great yogi I am, I embrace being able to use my legs and hands for serving those around me. To serve those that may not have the time, health, or inspiration to clean up their own yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for the home with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Halloween décor</i> all over the yard, well..at least it makes my daughter excited, and I have an alter at home too, we are not so different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t matter weather we are laying on a beach in LA or walking through the ghetto on a drizzly day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are joyful you experience joy, wherever you are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What matters is how we walk this walk, and if we are reaching out to inspire and uplift others along the way. Be the one to capture something new today, to see something different than you usually do, and to carry your imagination with you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Change the, sometimes mundane, walk through life, into a path of beauty and wonderment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s all up to you.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxN7B5cl08zi0Wl0jr4q86MCVumbfsXsFP5gRtAXKzoUKquAJPaR1upZjnP7Kjt0ld_EsPWLd6xLIiUTvvteX9ZoCnzQf3OTMqsUjarbBHIN-31-JUKBtjjRafRtpMSEuMBvOmHV97C8/s1600/2011-07-27+19.08.00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxN7B5cl08zi0Wl0jr4q86MCVumbfsXsFP5gRtAXKzoUKquAJPaR1upZjnP7Kjt0ld_EsPWLd6xLIiUTvvteX9ZoCnzQf3OTMqsUjarbBHIN-31-JUKBtjjRafRtpMSEuMBvOmHV97C8/s320/2011-07-27+19.08.00.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Be Joy! Wherever you are!!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment-->Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-52266524934116418152011-03-28T10:44:00.000-07:002011-05-26T07:36:24.930-07:00How Yoga Made Me a Terrible Runner<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZOcPDY-ksW4TxSFjYb2xBGuVT2EdrlMzeqRmR5MCCa4R4zrY8fV6XXRH0X50YOaKai8JFcGbsMIxJARb5Sn52UQgowNvJMh7EHDfbgQpp2uVqaqjVJCoH2O3mz8tISDhyphenhyphen3FnctWiLik/s1600/marathon-pic.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZOcPDY-ksW4TxSFjYb2xBGuVT2EdrlMzeqRmR5MCCa4R4zrY8fV6XXRH0X50YOaKai8JFcGbsMIxJARb5Sn52UQgowNvJMh7EHDfbgQpp2uVqaqjVJCoH2O3mz8tISDhyphenhyphen3FnctWiLik/s320/marathon-pic.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611033446001150898" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">As I climb on the treadmill today the familiar-faced gentlemen beside me says, ”Hi Dani! You’re still running?” Looking surprised to see my yoga bum at the YMCA. Well I am standing on a treadmill with my worn out sneakers, so he is obviously referring to something else…</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I think to myself, what has happened to me! I used to be a “Runner”. Has yoga affected my ability to run? Yes, and it has affected my ability to flee. For most of my life, my water-like persona has been to run from one endeavor to the next. Shape shifting into what “I thought” everyone else wanted from me. It is much easier to shy away from our selves than to face the truth. We are all running from something at sometime or another on this path, and quite frankly running is exhausting, and can never satisfy the soul. In the words of Carbon Leaf, “it takes the courage of a lamb to run, the fierceness of a storm to love.” I used to think that to love was to be weak…weak in the knees, weak-willed, week stomached with the floating butterflies. I would like to thank Walt Disney for the role model of the female princess, so soft and feminine that a bird will land on her finger as she sings in her angle like voice. I still get so excited when the little squirrel that visits my front porch for the few walnuts I leave, comes to visit me, just so I can imagine I have that certain grace, and nurturing, goddess energy, that animals flock to for comfort and companionship. And thank you even more for the thought that I am the type that falls all over herself, and into the arms of the man, whom without, I would be incomplete.<br />Many times we end up searching outside of ourselves for everyone and everything to give our power to. It takes incredible strength to own our power, be fully ourselves, and a constant awareness that we are not falling back into those habitual thought patterns that our society, and Walt, have left impressed into our subconscious. Through my yoga practice I have found my core beliefs and strength, and it is earth shaking to finally realize this that is inherently ours.<br />If there are two things I want my daughters to learn from my parenting, or anyone else in life, it is that they are powerful and loved beyond what they could ever imagine.<br />Rumi sends a much more positive message to our soul that I’ve witnessed through the practice of yoga…”The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">It takes courage to be a vessel for this type of love.<br />If we stop running… what happens when we stay? When we stay in a difficult yoga pose…the sensations change and transform. But only if you are honest and aware of what you are feeling. In order to stay you have to be fully in touch with your emotions, even if they are socially unacceptable or unpopular. This is the most difficult part when you are a recovering people pleaser like myself. Really feel what you are feeling. How often do we do this? We are usually too busy or the timing is not right to acknowledge what we feel, or we let our judging mind determine whether it is a good or bad to feel this way. Just stop, and really feel what you are feeling today. It may not be popular, and it will most likely be uncomfortable, but it is the truth. To try to reason with our emotions is the biggest way to flee from our lives, as you take a back seat to your mind and emotions playing a game of tug of war. This can become a continuous inner struggle unless we let go of the rope, feel what we are feeling, and then move on purpose with purpose.<br />“Reason is like an officer when the king appears. The officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; Go is the sun.”-rumi<br />When Walt thaws out, I would like to see him write a story about the Princess that saves herself…</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The man on the other treadmill noticed the confusion in my face waiting patiently as I reply “no, I am not still running” turn on my treadmill, put my earbuds in place, and exhaust myself for the next 3 miles.</p></span>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-11759945831061790382011-03-10T10:41:00.000-08:002011-05-04T10:43:38.388-07:00Why Yogis are OK with being naked<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; ">As yoga clothes start to resemble lingerie ads, nude yoga calendars are being printed, and I hear chatter of my students discussing their nude beach experience, I start to wonder what it is with naked yogis. Is it that they want to show off their “yoga buns”? I have bought into some of this myself (mostly the feminine looking yoga outfits) and although I consider myself a “free spirit,” the thought of baring all makes me a little flush in my cheeks. Am I a prude, and why are yogis so comfortable with this?<br />This brings me back to an interesting experience I encountered in my early twenties with a guitar teacher of mine. Let’s call him “Harry” to protect his identity. I began taking guitar lessons at the request of my then boyfriend (Chris) in hopes that we could form a rock band together. Although I was feeling “too old” and insecure to begin learning an instrument, I put my fear aside and went for it, getting the highest recommended yoga teacher in town. Each week when I showed up for my lesson, I felt anxious and exposed, due to my own lack of confidence. As the lessons progressed and I began feeling more comfortable, it seems harry was too. Yes it is true… I showed up for my lesson and Harry was the one who was exposed (naked)this week. After a moment, an apology for forgetting about my lesson, and a quick change we proceeded as usual. I thought to myself, “Wow, who would have known he was a nudist.” I went back the next week. Same thing. This time it was “laundry day”. I left vowing to never return, but being coaxed into it by my boyfriend, who didn’t fully believe me (and would have much rather had the Janice Joplin, than the Seane Corne type) went back a third time. Needless to say (since I am not a famous guitarist) I didn’t go back again. In fact, I quit playing guitar because in my avidya(illusion) I thought it was Harry’s way of telling me I was not a worthy guitar student, because I had NO rhythm. I have never been one to judge others, only myself. THANKFULLY Yoga has helped me turn away from this judging mind and feel more comfortable in my SKIN. Maybe not to the extent of sitting naked on the beach (although I would like to think I could) and the nude yoga classes, well they just seem like they would be as awkward as a naked guitar lesson.<br />Why are many yogis comfortable in the buff..well..I think it is this reason.<br />I have had students express to me the awkwardness they feel post savasana (deep relaxation) bliss. This is the point where we pause and look deep into each other’s eyes for a moment before bowing our heads in Namaste (light in me-honors the light in you). Here we sit much more exposed than when we are nude. Through the process of yoga, we shed the layers that we put on ourselves or others put on us that lead to our fears and insecurities. We come in to this world naked and pure, like a crystal clear wine glass, and then we get passed around and the imprints began to dim our sparkle. Yoga begins to wipe these smudges away and if we are lucky, we can catch the glimmer that is there…here we sit uncovered, natural, crystal clear. Namaste’</span>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-37868838489796633372011-02-16T10:41:00.000-08:002011-05-26T07:38:34.913-07:00No ADD in Belize<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPITvIRiJxiSrRGjnozEq0b7DjXM5I2D3Pbn9arMKuK9TZdD3ss4xFcGvAtV84ulOOFYf2reslAnAzMoV1_cBa_e4tPkuDNJcRxKF4y1HpWsi3Czuw-wh5nmivfIlLUr-Smg-p234euyc/s1600/Belize-2011-02-08-Cave-051-1024x768.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPITvIRiJxiSrRGjnozEq0b7DjXM5I2D3Pbn9arMKuK9TZdD3ss4xFcGvAtV84ulOOFYf2reslAnAzMoV1_cBa_e4tPkuDNJcRxKF4y1HpWsi3Czuw-wh5nmivfIlLUr-Smg-p234euyc/s320/Belize-2011-02-08-Cave-051-1024x768.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611034208120703202" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"><div class="entry-content" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 12px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">On my recent trip to Belize I was finally forced out of my “comfort zone” that I have been reflecting on so much lately. I am able to cross things off a bucket list I never knew existed! One of them being the amazing Actun Tunichil Muknal tour, otherwise noted as ATM tour on our itinerary. When I signed up, I went with my intuition, trusting this would be the right choice, even though I had no idea what an ATM tour was. For all I knew this would be a place were we could go and pull out some much needed American cash, so I said SIGN ME UP. After all, I was most concerned about teaching some yoga in a beautiful place, and getting the heck out of snow-pocalypse and record lows in Indiana . I found out the night before our tour, at dinner, that this was a 6 hour Cave Tour that we would have to swim to enter the cave. Hmm, so 5 hours with no light, cold, and wet. Though not my usual idea of a good time, I smiled an uncomfortable smile, put my fears on the shelf, and surrendered to the whole experience. Just as you do when you realize that you have just entered a yoga class where the teacher can be likened to the dentist. As we arrived at our destination, we all left our waters, lunch and dry clothing at the picnic area, pulled up a bush for those of us that drank too much coffee, and than headed through the lake and into the cave. At first I thought I could make it in by hugging the wall, and not have to swim and get wet, but since a huge black wall spider had the same idea, needless to say; I dove in, doggy-paddled my way to shallow water, and began the journey into the underworld. I clung to our guide on the way, finding comfort from him. We all had to pass on messages to one another and if one of us failed to do so, someone could have gotten injured. We all became important messengers. There was a great amount of respect and reverence in the way the guide led us through the darkness. He pointed up to a beautiful opening in the cave where sunlight filtered down, and told us to say goodbye to the last bit of light for the next few hours….</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Further down our path we came to a place in the cave where a plant grew, 6oo feet down, with no sunlight. “How was this possible?”, we wondered. It had soil, water, and seed from the fruit bat’s excrement. Where was the light it needed? The guide has us turn off our headlamps. It was completely black. We turned them back on, and he said “it is your light.” It made me think that it had to be more than just the artificial light that we wore on the top of our adorable read helmets (see photo). Out of the hundreds of tours here, if we all stop to pay attention to this plant, of course it will thrive.<br />I thought about the things that I have been paying attention to in my life. Do my thoughts line up with the things I want to flourish?<br />What we pay attention to, is what expands and grows. Are my thoughts supporting my intention and aim? Ask yourself this question, “Does my mind revolve around worry and fear, or do I focus positive energy on the areas I want to sprout new beginnings in my life?” Even if it begins with a pile of shit, there is possibility for growth…<br />We made it through the cave to the main area that looked like a Cathedral, saw the famous Mayan pottery and skeletons, and then sat in the Cathedral. There is something about meditation in blackness, opening your eyes, there is still nothing to entertain, nothing to excited the sense of sight, so inward we go…<br />As we headed back I was much more relaxed and in the moment after meditation, rather than grasping toward warmth, light, and my veggie sandwich. As we passed the plant on the way out, I leaned over and touched the leaves. Trying to give back a little “prana”, for the gratitude I felt, for the reminder to pay attention to what matters. The people in Belize do a great job of paying attention. The kids are happy, the environment is well cared for, the stray animals are plump with shinny coats, and there is vegetation and orange grooves lining every highway. Contrasting our society, where we lack attention as we are multitasking in our superhighway of technology. Attention Deficit Disorder is on the rise, eye contact is no longer the norm…<br />I take a breath in a country that has the attitude of slow and attentive, and feel peace and joy.<br />A few days later I am sitting at breakfast enjoying the fresh food and peaceful sounds, as we are preparing to leave the island to return to American soil. Suddenly I am startled by a sound coming from my purse. It was my cell phone (which didn’t have reception the whole week, until this moment) Time to go home…<br />A place of peace and joy.<br /><br /></p></div></span>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-21848305429828024512011-02-02T10:39:00.000-08:002011-05-26T07:43:15.696-07:00Every moment can possess magic<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDjLv8K2DOP3BW3A-mQEUoWVbiW3TMrwhij_ZAp4nnbfbaoN_lBbydvugXlEEb5vLjc2a5_EDd7rrWJV_QGijAarQ-VtSNz2DXgCc9lVV3DmihYYIxreyO-JhGrgrXdzPK_GNSjD9x4A/s1600/Danis-Magic-150x150.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJDjLv8K2DOP3BW3A-mQEUoWVbiW3TMrwhij_ZAp4nnbfbaoN_lBbydvugXlEEb5vLjc2a5_EDd7rrWJV_QGijAarQ-VtSNz2DXgCc9lVV3DmihYYIxreyO-JhGrgrXdzPK_GNSjD9x4A/s320/Danis-Magic-150x150.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611035392975642514" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">“Power to manifest. Every moment can possess magic.” I heard someone talking about this the other day on Oprah radio. I instantly thought THAT’S YOGA. For many years now, I have been amazed how what I chose to focus on, shows up in my life. I know this to be true, yet it always stuns me. Imagining that we have this power is responsibility, when I use to leave everything up to, or <em style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">blame </em>everything on, “Destiny”.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Still this thought isn’t quite complete. There is so much more to happiness and peace than being a co-creator in our life. If we truly want happiness, everything we manifest should be for others, not ourselves. Switching from the idea that every moment can possess magic, to every moment<em style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> IS</em> magic, is a much more powerful way of thinking and being. Open up those eyelids to experience what is in front of you, NOW.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">My 5 year old just learned the days of the week song at school and serenades me daily,<em style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Sunday Monday Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday Friday, Sat-uur-day, and then begins again.</em> Although I am proud of her for learning the days of the week, I can’t help but get stressed out at the thought of a week going by so quickly, and then doing it all over again! It usually ends up being the same thing… always striving for something more, or something different… but the same week just begins again. This is our”week-ness”. This is our samskara (habitual patterns and unaware-ness in each day, that creates the karma of our life) If you have ever caught yourself wondering how in the heck you got to this place/mess, it is usually because this unconscious thought pattern was your tour guide. No matter how high of an intention we set for ourselves, if we are not present, we will never propel ourselves to where we need to be.<br />What do we do now, as many of us have already fallen off the wagon of our New Year intentions, because of life, or ourselves, getting in the way? We color outside of the lines! Do something that frightens you!! Something out of your comfort zone! Challenge yourself, without being attached to the outcome of whether you “succeed”, or “fail”. Discover that inner child that once knew it was OK to color outside the lines. Only you, have the power to change that week-ness into empowerment. As we get older, many times, our fear of failure keeps us from trying. I recently picked up the guitar AGAIN, because I really love to play, but I can get so discouraged when I do not sound like Jimmie Hendrix. I know I <em style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">probably</em> never will, but I am able to let go of needing to be perfect, or even good for that matter. What is important, is that I have surrendered any expectations and within that, have found myself fully enjoying being present, during my noisy meditation. Do something completely out of the ordinary, without fear of judgment, or looking/sounding a little dorky. Stop saying, “I should eat more mindfully, I am going to learn a new language, or play that instrument when I have more time, I am going to be with the people I love more, or more like the people I love.” Keep it simple. Open your eyelids and wake up to whatever life is presenting for you. Be a co-creator by being alive and of service <em style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">now</em>. As a great yogi tea bag once said. “If you are unconsciously living a conscious life, you will never be poor.”</p></span>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-77913840074896738302010-12-28T10:39:00.000-08:002011-05-26T07:44:34.602-07:00Jala (a meditation)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFgcdpU9ux9745E7loAwIU0Ms3puCX8oitjWvXjnDMfB2YRMRAWBBzkNnnHb44mKZs_SZJSeFLLlsaGAcWYiq8Eo4dAfVeIUVXj9uCwih2Rq3kTg-g18PWkygkRvX2aAc2FCf8m7h5Qo/s1600/Mala-prayer-1024x685.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFgcdpU9ux9745E7loAwIU0Ms3puCX8oitjWvXjnDMfB2YRMRAWBBzkNnnHb44mKZs_SZJSeFLLlsaGAcWYiq8Eo4dAfVeIUVXj9uCwih2Rq3kTg-g18PWkygkRvX2aAc2FCf8m7h5Qo/s320/Mala-prayer-1024x685.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611035681960635154" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"><div class="entry-content" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 12px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">You are the puddle,<br />I can see clearly into.<br />He is the droplet that lays beneath my chest.<br />As I lean to gaze deeper,<br />He splashes into you.<br />But I am not lost,<br />I am found.<br />The moon reflects off our curves and ripples,<br />Cooling. Loving. Creating.<br />We are the water cupped in the hands of children,<br />Passing over innocent lips.<br />Nourishing. Healing. Divine.<br />Let them be well, live well, love well<br />Let them splash into each other,<br />And into He.<br /><br /></p></div></span>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-4054409116425500412010-12-10T10:38:00.000-08:002011-05-04T10:39:12.135-07:00Comfort Zones<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; "><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><a href="http://danimcguire.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Dani-in-a-snowglobe.jpg" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(255, 75, 51); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><img src="http://danimcguire.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Dani-in-a-snowglobe-300x300.jpg" alt="" title="Dani in a snowglobe" width="300" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-95" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; clear: both; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; " /></a><br />I’m noticing my attachment to spending time in my comfort zone right now. It’s easy for me to do physically as the temperature turns frigid, and I don’t want to go outside running or walking in the cold. I stay in the comfort of my warm, (otherwise known as the “old folks home, because I keep it sooo hot”) cozy home. I put on some leg warmers and brew a cup of chai, watching the snowflakes fall around me and imagine I am inside a snow globe that God just shook up. The comfort of my home feels great on days like these where we get snowed in, and can pretend that nothing exists outside of this glass bulb. However I know this can’t last. But what about our comfort zones that have lasted, most of our lives? What are these really about? These “comfort” rooms can be made up of the walls that our egos build, telling us about what we like, or dislike, what we can or cannot do, and what we don’t have time, energy, money, or talent for. By these walls of separation we feel protected? Maybe for a short time, until we realize it is a false sense of security. These walls are really our limited stories and beliefs that we tell ourselves about us, and the world around us. If we stay in our glass bulbs too long we loose our sense of joy, and create a world dominated by our ego. You may start to feel that there is no room for growth, change, love, let alone to breathe.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I open my mouth and fog up the window, practicing my ojai breath, seeing the heat of my breath against the glass; a reminder to me that it is always there, even though invisible. Time to bundle up the kids, go outside, and explore the snowflakes; time to experience the way the cold feels on our noses, and observe how the flakes turn to water as they land against the warmth of our skin. Stop watching the world from your comfort zone and get in the game. Our dog doesn’t wait inside with the thoughts of “I would rather be warm and comfortable.” He jumps up on the sofa, shaking and howling, excited to get out in the world, play, and be one with mother- nature. We can learn a lot from our animals.<br />Where do you stay in your comfort zone? Perhaps it is your relationships, daily routine, or career? Are you afraid to change directions in life or try something new because your friends or family might judge you? Is fear holding you back? What would you do if failure simply wasn’t an option? Do you do things that aren’t serving you any longer simply because you have always done it this way? Try to turn off the judging mind and just be completely you for a while. Sit with your self for 5 minutes every day in the quiet of the morning or evening sunset. Try doing a few handstands. Leave your comfort zones by deciding to moonlight somewhere that encourages your creativity, take the pain and the ass employee out to lunch, scheme up ways to make your passion your living, and daydream about quitting your day job to become a singer on Broadway. So maybe that last part is a stretch, but for now, turn off the computer, put on some music, and dance. Shake things up a bit, and tune back in at a later date to get clear on your intentions for next year.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">“We’re going to take this thing here straight over the stratosphere, baby.”-Snoop Dogg</p></span>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-89849925185647771712010-10-31T10:37:00.000-07:002011-05-26T07:41:27.291-07:00Caution! Road never ends.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYSVtm1XTk6uaLQgJfd-hnr6lydkt9OALP6pCKp3ZYzmO-mb4XkN4bNut94pmPQAPBt_dLCviwMfaHXVDfTPV6WvkhYDFYpjahpcx9WKP6knYsO1aiPud1lT51STe658M1RCAjR4GNfiA/s1600/Caution-Road-Never-Ends.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 254px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYSVtm1XTk6uaLQgJfd-hnr6lydkt9OALP6pCKp3ZYzmO-mb4XkN4bNut94pmPQAPBt_dLCviwMfaHXVDfTPV6WvkhYDFYpjahpcx9WKP6knYsO1aiPud1lT51STe658M1RCAjR4GNfiA/s320/Caution-Road-Never-Ends.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611034899399693490" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><a href="http://danimcguire.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Caution-Road-Never-Ends.jpg" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><br /></a>I remember several years ago in an Iyengar class, when the teacher looked at me and said, “You know you can never stop now,<em style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> right</em>?” As someone who has had a hard time sticking with anything in life, I looked over my shoulder, from some bound up position, eyebrow raised, curious about what that comment actually meant. I felt at the time that she was putting curse on me? Almost a decade later, here I am, owning a yoga studio, completing my 500 hr training, having spent a week with this summer with inspirational, Shiva Rea, completing my Mentorship with Jnani Chapman in Yoga Therapy, and receiving a new name(Vani). I take a moment to pause, and wonder what comes next!! As I write this I do realized that I am addicted to yoga, hence the name of this blog. My family members are constantly asking me. So <strong style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">now</strong> are you done, right? Don’t you know <em style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">everything</em> there is to know about yoga? I have to reassure them that this is much different than when I was in college, and continually switched my major, because I couldn’t figure out what I was meant to do. I know it seems odd to them, as it did to me a decade ago, when all I knew is that my body felt amazing after being in those different shapes for an hour. Being a forever student, facinated by the art and science of yoga, I realize that even though I have a few more pieces of paper in my yoga notebook, I still feel like I know <em style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">almost </em>nothing. I know enough to understand what my first teacher meant. It took me thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of training to realize that Barbara was right! I can never stop! Sill, it doesn’t make any more sense to daddy, who thinks Yoga is a Pyramid Program. In some ways that is what it does look like in America.(A topic for a later discussion perhaps) I am forever grateful to have stumbled into that Iyengar class several years ago, and I am grateful that this journey continues. What comes next…I teach. I get endless amounts of joy from being both a student and a teacher of yoga, and dancing between the two. I have seen other teachers struggle with this as they stop practicing when they become teachers. This is not a sustainable practice. It is important to find balance between the two, if you really want to serve your students. Below is a little practice that I do to help me be in the moment whether I am soaking up the tradition from another, or being a channel through which Yoga can flow.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">“When I enter the presence of my teachers I ask to be emptied so that I may receive. When I enter the presence of my students I ask that I may be filled so that I can serve.”<br />-Dani (Vani)</p></span>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-1079498290325048862010-10-08T10:36:00.000-07:002011-05-04T10:37:24.850-07:00Stop. Love. Go.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; "><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I have been sitting a lot lately. Why? Because my meditation teacher is making me, because I made the commitment to myself to continue after being at the Ashram, and because I am teaching my students about meditation. Fall is a great time to sit, if your energy gets a little erratic with the change of seasons, like mine does. The practice of meditation has gifted me with a chance to find stillness, and a place to stop the chatter in my head, even if only for a moment. The more I practice, the more I notice the practice seaping into other aspects of my life. For example: I will walk around the park taking in the colors of the leaves and their own mysterious erratic energy as they change from green to a bouquet of orange and red. Usually, I would be running around the park just to check off my jog for the day. A refreshing peak into the details of my day, that I would normally rush by, has been a lovely result of committing to sitting. Meditation is a great way for bringing stillness into our worlds and, within that stillness, feel the love that exists within ourselves.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">In the midst of this mindful retreat, a friend of mine was going into the hospital for a serious operation, and having been through the cancer journey before, was not sure what to expect on the other side. I received an email with a link to a blog, developed by she and her family, to keep everyone aware of her progress and to organize a healing community around her, during this 8 hour surgery, and the healing beyond. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I witnessed great love, support, and community, proving that she is not alone on this walk. Her own strength and beauty, reflected in her words on my computer screen, were an inspiration and teacher to me. I thought about our technology, and how separate it makes us. Yet, here is an opportunity to keep us connected and sharing our prayers and support through the same devices. Duality existing even in the land of the information super highway.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Meditation brings stillness and clears out our STUFF, but nothing clears out the vrittis (mind chatter) in our lives faster than peeking into the mortality of our physical bodies on this sacred playground. Humans are amazing during a time of need when the veil of egoic want is lifted. It is like an instantaneous purge of our selfishness. There is a ripe moment where none of us knows how we really got here. Then, flows an infinity of love that exudes from within. We are all waiting for the chance to serve, and when it arrives, it just happens.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">It is during these moments, when all becomes still, that you can witness the divine within you waiting to love…quite the opposite of what we do the rest of the time. We are usually caught up in our stories of waiting to be loved, complaining that we are not loved enough, or worst of all, undeserving of love.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">As I got on with my “to do” list… after meditating, reading the blog, crying, praying, juicing, putting some of the cucumbers over my eyes (to reduce puffiness), and then crying some more, it was time to take my daughter to school. On the way, I noticed a couple kissing in their car at the stoplight and I immediately thought, ”they are obviously not married or heading anywhere important today if they can kiss each other like<em style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "> that</em>, at 7:30 in the morning.” Then I noticed another couple standing on the corner, just moments later, kissing each other, baby cooing in the stroller beside them. Today, during the lunch hour, I noticed a couple slow dancing on the corner waiting for the light to turn green. What is happening? Have I lost my mind. Is Fort Wayne the city of lip-locked lovers on every street corner and I just haven’t been aware of it until now? The one thing these lovers had in common is that they were all at stoplights. We are usually so caught up in the fast pace of our lives, that we are on autopilot. Many times, it takes a teacher to make you stop and sit; or a traumatic event, to stop us in our tracks. When we stop, love spills out, whether we are at a stoplight, or on our knees or meditation cushions. This is our divine nature. Love is what gets us through our day at our possibly monotonous jobs, and love is what is waiting to heal us when we wake from an intense 8 hour surgery. Most importantly, Love is what we are if we can just stop and get out of our own way. Just don’t stop breathing, even those lip-locked lovers will eventually have to come up for air. Unfortunately and fortunately, the light will turn green.<a href="http://danimcguire.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Mala-prayer.jpg" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><img src="http://danimcguire.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Mala-prayer-300x200.jpg" alt="" title="SONY DSC" width="300" height="200" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-71" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; clear: both; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; " /></a></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Spill out love with this Tibetan Buddhist Meditation<br />Imagine a person you wish to serve in uplifting. Breathe in the pain of this person. Imagine it as a gray cloud that is transformed within you to pure light. Breathe out to that person spaciousness, healing or love. You can do this for anyone: the homeless mother that you pass on the street, a sick friend, someone you choose to forgive, or yourself.</p></span>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7317635834912761673.post-38734884573218671302010-09-24T10:34:00.000-07:002011-05-26T07:48:16.923-07:00Investigating Dah-ni<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhicoDidrw6vsgjdlpRQ616mP9IpTAB_-cfzb9VqIVp2BVW2klhARjbeYphKSVH6xrXPpERDouZitbbCVhi3r0SN0wrKG8IPZR4Y_jRoGX49shU2ZwlmQjh2aCk-06LqpD0_fCR_Jjnfj0/s1600/transformation2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhicoDidrw6vsgjdlpRQ616mP9IpTAB_-cfzb9VqIVp2BVW2klhARjbeYphKSVH6xrXPpERDouZitbbCVhi3r0SN0wrKG8IPZR4Y_jRoGX49shU2ZwlmQjh2aCk-06LqpD0_fCR_Jjnfj0/s320/transformation2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611036687929675250" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><br /></u></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The only true currency in this bankrupt world… is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool. –Almost Famous</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I recently received an email and a phone call from an old neighbor, Sam, that I lived next door in my early twenties. He called me recently, because he had heard about me and the guidance and service I had been offering to his friend through my teachings on yoga. She would often speak of her teacher and friend, DAH-ni. Sam had the image of this tall, ethnic, beauty, as she would always pronounce my name DAH-ni, instead of Dani. Many weeks later, intrigued by the transformation he was witnessing, he wanted to learn more, so he hopped onto our studio website and began perusing the pages. Sam came to the page with my picture and said, “That’s not DAH-ni that’s DAAAAni!” “She was my neighbor!” She’s not the enlightened person you spoke about. She works out like a maniac and her boyfriend, wanna-be rock star, is allergic to weeds. (Here all this time I thought we were pretty cool.) Ahhh, I remember Sam too and the nights my, then boyfriend, Chris would be running around our home shutting windows trying to quiet the sound of Sam karaoking, in his wavering falsetto, to Sarah Mclachlan tunes at the top of his lungs. I secretly loved listening to the tone-def crooning, though. It comforted me, as it was a sound you wouldn’t expect to hear in the middle of our not-so-safe neighborhood, and an affirmation that I was not alone in my “un-coolness”.<br />As Sam was telling me how he came to realize it was the same person that lived next door, but with a new spark, and about his own spiritual awaking over the years, I couldn’t help but drift into thought, over the mispronunciation of my name and the synchronicity of the new name given to me by one of the Swamis (Renunciate like a nun or a monk) at the Ashram last month. She donned me with the name Vani (pronounced VAH-ni) comes from the Sanskrit word meaning “eloquent in words”, relating to music, “sound, or voice”.<br />HMMM Vani, DAH-ni. Interesting. I am not certain if I have embodied these qualities fully, but I do know that I have embraced my inner, taller ethnic beauty that is inside this Irish body of mine, and listening to Sam, I realized that he had uncovered something wonderful too, his true nature. Sam I AM.<br />Transformation<br />Most of us in the yoga community feel a little nauseated with how much the word transformation is thrown around these days. In fact, I am making myself a little ill right now. Companies have marketed the term to death to sell products promising that you will forever be changed, which of course has the underlying tone that we are not good enough as we are. Still, if some company bottled it and wrapped it in pretty packaging, I’d probably try it, especially if it came in Ginger.<br /></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I can’t speak for Sam, but I am still not any cooler. What has happened through love, life, loss, and most of all my yoga practice, is that I’ve become comfortable in my own skin. For me, yoga has been the process of uncovering what is already there and knowing that I am enough, and that is a very cool realization. Beware of your Svadyaya (Self-Study), one of Niyamas, or “observances” in yoga. Your inner traits may look a little bigger or even a little darker than the corky Irish persona, or whatever you have been hiding behind, but to experience your true nature, is bliss.<br />This can be a challenging task, when the reality is most of us are afraid to really explore the depth of our souls. It means we have to be OK with the fact that we are not perfect, we have to forgive others, and even scarier, ourselves; we may even have to visit some dark places, before we can fully embrace the light.<br />When we stop listening to the beliefs that others have put on us about who we are, and especially when we surrender our own misconceptions about who we are, can we begin to experience truth. So dig deep into the sea of you heart, use the tools of yoga, or whatever spiritual practice you have embarked on, to begin to remove the veil of illusion, and walls of separation.<br />Beginning by stepping out of the story(drama) that has been created, either for you or by you, and forget about your ideas of how you want to be perceived … Then Practice this attitude daily.. Honesty in your mind, Sincerity in your spirit, and a knowing, that you are loved.<br />Vani</p></span>Dani McGuirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600833901724416984noreply@blogger.com0