Sunday Breakfast Ritual

Here's the part where I write about something that makes me insanely happy...just because I feel like it.



If any random person were to ask me what my favorite day, activity or part of the week was, it would take no more than one second for me to answer: Sunday morning-ish. Ah, better just say Sunday. See, a couple of years ago I made a general commitment to stay home every Sunday, consume a criminal amount of coffee and an equally criminal breakfast type brunch meal. In the "criminality" of it all, I am allowed a full day to bask in the charm of my family while partaking in the gift of food.


Sunday usually begins with a mild attempt to sleep in. But Isaiah, my four year old is expert at making sure I don't sleep too long as he crawls int bed with me around 8am snuggling up momentarily then demanding "Get up Momma." I usually grudgingly oblige and as we make our way out to the living room Isaiah holds hims arms up commanding me once again "Carry me to the couch Momma." But that's not the last of it because the final request is that we cuddle on the couch. He must know me well, because the moment I insist that I need to get up to make coffee he lets me go and gets up to play. My husband Joe and older son Nico are quite the champion "sleeper-inners", all sound and motion drifts past them like the lofty dreams they must be lost in. They must be dreaming of Sunday morning itself!


Part two of Sunday morning is where I sit on the couch with my coffee reading Oprah, Martha Stewart or some candy fashion magazine which does nothing but entertain me. Ahhh, life is good on the couch every Sunday at 9am. Where's the breakfast you say? Isn't it 9am already? Well, around here we like to make it sort of an all-day affair, so better to start later. Anyways, before the meal portion of Sunday begins there are several other obligations: Let the cat in and the dog out. Watch She-Ra or Clone Wars or Robotek (yes, Robotek). Let the cat out and the dog in. Break up some tiffs between our boys who are probably tiffing because they are hungry (hey, it has it's charms). Use brushing teeth as a means to distract boys from argument over watching Elmo or even more Clone Wars. Let the cat in and the dog out. Realize the pets are whining because they too, are hungry and aren't really asking to be let in and out. Feed pets. 10 am rolls around. And finally...MUST - MAKE - PANCAKES. And soon, or else the morning loses it's "charm".


SO I finally get around to making breakfast. Did I mention that this is may all-time favorite meal, ever? And having cooked professionally for about 15 years and still counting (many of them doing lots of breakfasts!) , this is sort of my time to bust a move in the kitchen. I mean, heck I've got all day!

Breakfast. Often it's good old fashioned pancakes with butter and warmed maple syrup, more coffee, and fresh orange juice. Okay, "fresh" from a can of frozen O.J., but I do put it in a really nice pitcher! On occasion, Belgian waffles with fresh berries and sour cream, Niman Ranch bacon and fried eggs. When I'm feeling supper snazzy I like to make fancy breakfasts like I did at Chateau Du Sureau when I prepared breakfast for their hotel guests. This would be something like roasted ruby-red grapefruit crusted brown sugar and brandied cherries as a first course. Hey, if you really want your breakfast to seem hoidy toidy, you have to serve it in courses! For the next course, seared herb polenta with perfectly poached eggs, Black Forest ham on top all doused in red-wine porcini sauce. Sometimes I make crepes Suzette which is stuffed with raspberries and sugar. Sometimes I make French toast with old bread. I thoroughly enjoy the process of heating the griddle, cracking eggs and even cleaning up as I work. In the act of preparing food, everyone thinks I am oblivious to their existence. I listen to the banter of my boys, the chatter of Joe and the sizzle of bacon. I turn a pancake and Isaiah hums a tune while he fidgets with Legos. I mix the juice and Nico shouts "Dad, watch this!" while he does some crazy Ninja jump from the couch. I set the table and Joe cracks up over the hilarity of kids. This is a day and time set aside for pure joy and nothing but.


I have this ad stuck in my head as a result of my loose habit of paroozing all manner of not-so-life-enriching magazines. It is an ad for a cruise. The picture is of a couple sitting on their balcony over looking a stunning view of Alaskan glaciers. The table in front of them is set for breakfast with white table cloths and beautiful china. When I first saw this ad I was a new mom in need of a break. I stared at the cruise ad for quite a while, finally understanding why people went on them. It's not just to do nothing I'm sure. It's to experience that sense of indulgence and luxury that many of us crave and all deserve. That ad struck a nerve in me. A nerve that came with instructions: On Sunday, when the week both ends and begins, in the morning when there is freshness and all things are possible, that is the time to relish all "normal" things that I most enjoy in life. And it's an immense reminder to me. The things I most enjoy are simple and unfathomably precious: time with my children and my husband, appreciation of good food, and forgetting the troubles of my immediate world as well as the bigger world. Everyone deserves this, especially people who are experiencing deep struggles.

When it's finally time to eat, the table is dressed in white. Favorite plates are set and silverware rests on cloth napkins. I beam at my feast and pour orange juice into jelly jars. Coffee gurgles once again as a second pot brews. There is festivity about our home. Whether it's eggs Benedict or flapjacks, the table is set as though we are royalty or as though it is Christmas day. Everyone literally cheers as I call out "Come to the table! Breakfast is ready!" And that alone is worth the effort. There we sit in our pajamas doing the most important thing in the whole world, enjoying our lives. As is often said, but less often practiced: There is no time like the present. The time I dedicate to practicing the yoga of being in the present is every Sunday morning, when it is simple enough for a beginner like me.

Stay tuned with The Yoga Teacher for breakfast recipes, photos and more. Coming soon!

Change, Courage and Making it Happen

Many of us are on a mission to re-vamp our lives for the up-coming year. But most people who create lengthy lists of resolutions will sadly fail at making their visions reality. Why? I believe we are over-come with collective motivation. All at once, the masses decide to over-haul their lives and do almost everything differently! Lose weight, save money, make more money, get healthy, learn to surf, run a marathon. We want so badly to do all of these things in quest for the ultimate achievement: happiness. We embark on what feels to be an exciting journey with expectation and curiosity. For about a week after New Year's day, we collectively throw ourselves into life changing patterns of behavior and then...

And then life continues as usual. The world around us behaves exactly as it always did and the way we behaved in the past is the most comfortable means of continuing interaction with everyone in our lives. Part of the fear of change is knowing our desire to change may elicit negativity in others, most especially family and friends even when we want something good for ourselves. When we change on a deeper level there is a noticeable shift in how we live and those people lose a certain part of connectivity with us, and we lose it with them too. For instance, we may lose an eating or gossiping buddy. That fear can feel crippling and the people in our lives feel inadvertently betrayed. So instead of being supportive, they may actually make sub-conscious attempts to sabotage your efforts. And in your fear of losing someone, you may do the sabotage all by your self.

I like many, used to fall victim to the 100-goal resolution list every year. And every year, no more than a week would go by when I'd buckle and every habit that provided my creature with the comfort of familiarity would return. Every year disappointment showed up at my door like a pathetic moocher needing a couch to crash on. And every year I'd sigh and say to disappointment, "Come on in, let's have a stiff drink while we lick our wounds". Phew, that sounded super pathetic. But it's true. I could not for the life of me create the change I wanted. So I stopped making resolutions. And having had a ten year or so break, I'm back. But the way I resolve to change itself, has changed.

See, through my studies and practice of yoga I started to realize that no problem is EVER what it appears to be on the surface. EVER. And so to think that simply motivating to create change by changing the surface appearance of problems won't work either. The more we attempt these changes without actually exploring what seed the problem has rooted from, the more discouraged we become. It's like noticing a weed in the garden and saying"Oh, look at that weed. I hate it. It's ruining my garden. I am going to chop it off." As we all know, the appearance of the weed bothers us, but it is the roots of the weed that cause the real damage. We feel like failures. We feel incapable and inferior, when that is not at all true. It's just that looking at the problems that cause the problems seems daunting and, well, scary. For instance, as someone who has lost weight (and now keep it off) it took realizing that I was padding myself with fat to protect me from experiencing physically intimate relationships. I was afraid of my own sexuality. I also ate to distract myself from a deeply unhappy adolescence. The same can be said for my former smoking and drinking habits. Once I realized that I was hiding myself in fat and slowly killing myself in order to avoid certain aspects of life, I also realized that I needed courage to embark on real romantic relationships and distance myself from the home I grew up in.

To take it a step further, I had to understand what exactly courage is. Courage is not fearlessness. It is not bravery. Courage is way beyond all of that. Courage requires faith. Faith in whatever happens because what you are doing is frightening and you will feel scared and want to quit. Courage is not something you do...rather it is that special energy that gets you through the scariness. It reminds us that "this to, shall pass"' whatever it is. Courage invites us to experience fear and pain and explore their meaning. Courage does not look ahead or behind, it can only exist in the present. Courage walks with you in steps that are as tiny as you need them to be, but it also tells you when you can go bigger. If your goal looks like a big pool of frightening possibilities, then courage is the stroke you use to swim across. Courage is what we instill every step of the way with. It is a whispering voice that says "Yes" to you over and over again. The job of courage is simply to en-courage.

Courage continues, year by year to be a constant in my life. I find that sometimes I need more, and sometimes less. But it is an unfaltering friend and ally.


So as 2011 approached I asked myself where I find fault in my life. The answers were easy to come by, because I used courage to examine myself with a gentle yet discriminating heart. I found that I often leave things half finished, leaving loose ends at work and home. I fiddle around on with social networking and web-surf longer than I should. I often manage my time unwisely. I procrastinate on important things because I often fear the outcome of the choices I may make, as though any outcome could be "wrong". Yoga has taught me that there can be no wrong outcome. I get to choose my reaction to the outcome. So the surface appearance of my resolution is fast decision making and action...knowing full-well I will make mistakes. But the deeper resolution is actually learning to surrender to every situation and every moment without anxiety.

Now that I have learned a more sophisticated approach to change, I was able create guidelines for myself that will help me along the way. For instance, I put myself on a strict "computer time limit diet". This means 20 minutes for social networking and several other reasonable limits I set for myself. Two days in so far and I am so glad to not be staring at facebook for 1 hour straight...or more. And the best thing is that I now really understand what it means to resolve to do something. Resolve itself requires courage, and a "no looking back" attitude. It requires me to experience the inevitable, but temporary discomforts of change. And all of this means what we are all egtting after: happiness, contentedness, a sense of accomplishment.

Change Always starts with a little (or a LOT of) courage. I'd love to hear how courage has effected your life. When do you most need courage? What are your goals for 2011 and how will you achieve them? What other elements will be involved getting the results you seek? And most importantly, what now, in your life is so good that you feel compelled to change? What are some effective ways you have created lasting change in your life? I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

May you have a most blessed, prosperous and peaceful year,
-Jen

Sweet Potato Smoothie

If you are a smoothie junkie like I am, winter can be a challenging time since smoothies are usually as frozen as the cold outside air. Not very soothing. A smoothie can provide a quick meal complete with all the nutrients you need which actually makes them an ideal healing food. But maybe not so ideal if it is cold and you are sick. A couple of days ago both my kids were sick and hungry, but not wanting much of anything unless it was sweet, all I wanted was to make them a smoothie because could I sneak in all sorts of super-food types of things that they don't even notice, but would turn away if served up in obvious forms. Everything from spinach to flax seed and nuts to bananas go in the concoctions, but not without tons of chilly frozen fruits and ice. So when I opened my fridge to see what I could do for the boys that they would like I remembered some boiled sweet potato chunks that were in need of a home. If you can make a pie or pancakes from sweet potatoes, I thought, Why not a smoothie? And thus the sweet potato smoothie adventure began. My goal was to make something that wasn't too cold for kids with colds and was also really thick and creamy without dairy. Also, the concoction needed to be as nutritious as an eight oz serving of anything could possibly be. The result was a total hit. Nico who is six asked for seconds. And when I showed him what I put in it he was really surprised. I enjoyed my sweet potato smoothie so much that I think I am going to keep a batch of freshly boiled sweet potatoes on hand at all times.

• Sweet potatoes make a great alternative to bananas as a thickener.
  
• Sweet potatoes are available as a locally grown food!
• Sweet potatoes pack some serious nutritional benefits: High in potassium and antioxidants as well as fiber. They are considered to be a super food.

Sweet Potato Smoothie Recipe

• 1.5 cups well cooked sweet potatoes, peeled and chunked (roasted or boiled, but highly mashable)
• 1/2 cup frozen berries such as raspberries or blueberries known for antioxidant values
• 1 cup Almond or rice milk (soy or cows milk work, but contribute to congestion)
• 2 heaping tbs frozen orange juice concentrate (I always add this as sweetener)
• 1 cup hot water

Put first three ingredients into your blender then pour hot water over. Cover and blend until thick and smooth, about 1 minute. The smoothie will be creamy and thick like a shake, but without the chilly side effects of a fully frozen beverage.
variations:
-Dessert: Sub maple syrup for OJ concentrate, frozen mango or peach for berries and add a dash of pumpkin pie spice
-Healthy: Add 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh spinach and 1 tbs ground flax seed for the ultimate "lunch smoothie"
-Tropical: Sub coconut milk (not coconut water, not coconut cream) for other milk, frozen mango for berries and pineapple juice concentrate for OJ concentrate.

Please tell me if you make a Sweet Potato Smoothie, and how it turns out!

Winter Health Arsenal

Keeping healthy during the winter can be difficult. We tend spend more time not moving which is imperative in moving lymph (fluid in the bodies immune system) through the body. Though cold is not an actual cause of illness, what can happen to the body when excessively exposed to outdoor chill, is that the immune function drops making us more prone to viruses and harmful bacterias. On top of that, there's more time in close quarters with friends and family indulging in foods that don't necessarily contribute to overall health. Not that winter is not a lovely time, and especially for the close company we share while entertaining indoors. And I can't complain about the food either! But as we cover our bodies in heavy clothing and the flesh-baring health focus of summer fades, so we shift our activities and thinking to things that nurture quiet restfulness.

It is easy to care for yourself during the winter though! In fact, winter time is the time I consider the best ways to revitalize my health and return to internal calmness. Over the last several years and through the many illnesses of my poor lil' kids (who, as children can't seem to avoid it at any cost), I have skirted contracting most of the viruses and infections they bring home from school (and share at school as well!).

Many of these remedies are based on Ayurveda ( Say "i- yur-vay-duh"), an ancient healing and lifestyle system that dates back about 5000 years from India. Yep, Indians were probably the first health gurus. And the system works, because it is based not only on each persons highly individual needs (everyone has a constitution that an Ayurvedic practitioner can analyze), but also on living in harmony with your surroundings and the seasons. There are a few basic things that seem to work quite well for all people regardless of individual constitutions. Below I have shared some of the remedies that have kept me feeling vibrant and well during winter and all year long.

Try one or all remedies and see how you feel after a week of committing to well-being. When it seems like work to take care of yourself just remember that it's way more work to feel bad and have to catch up on the things that get neglected when you are tired and under the weather.

Cheers to your health!
-Jen

The Remedy Routine:

Outdoor Pranayama

One of the best possible remedies for anything, ever, is a breath of fresh air outside! You cannot go wrong with this one and can easily make it your habit each time you walk out side.

• Inhaling deeply, spread your arms wide, lift your heart skyward and look at the sky. As you exhale allow your arms to slowly drop and bring your gaze back to looking forward. Repeat this several times, slowly incorporating the practice of inhaling as deeply as possible and holding for just a moment while smiling (yes, you need to smile. It is good for you!), then exhaling as completely as possible...still smiling! Now how do you feel? This of course can b done inside as well, but even (and especially when I feel un-well) A little out-doors are well received by the body and the psyche.

Simple Yoga for Lymph Function

These are some moves I learned in a class specifically created for lymph function. You will notice the general benefits of the poses right away, but keep going and the immune benefits will be obvious.

• Cat-Cow: Come to hands and knees position (like you are about to crawl). As you inhale slowly dip the spine toward the floor while looking up. As you exhale round the spine up and let your head hang down. Do this as many times as you want, but I recommend about 10 rounds.
• Shoulder opener: Stand with feet wider than hips. Spread your arms wide, then bring them behind your back and interlace your fingers. If possible, straighten the elbows. As you breath in, lift your chest and look up pulling the hands and shoulders back. Take a full in and out breath here. On the next exhale, bend your knees and fold forward lifting your arms and hand up as you do so. This can be intense for tight shoulders, it is up to you to take care and not overdo it.
• Lunge pump: With feet together and hands on hips (starting position), step your left foot back into a lunge so the right knee is bent. Slowly lower the left knee toward the floor, touching it down gently then straightening the left leg again (right knee stays bent). Repeat 5 to 10 times, switching sides.
• Seated twist: Sit up very tall in a chair. Grab the back of the chair with your left hand and press your right hand to the outside of your left thigh. Inhale deeply and keeping the chin very gently angled toward the chest twist to the left. Take five full breaths here, twisting a little more deeply with each exhale. Switch sides.
  

Neti

Neti is a technique used to cleanse the sinuses. You can buy a neti pot (nasal irrigation pot) at every drugstore in America now. Yay for recognition of good old fashioned natural remedies. You may have to ask the pharmacist for it. They are also available from any Ayurvedic practitioner (Blue Oak Ayurveda is recommended) and the health food store. You will need to refer to instructions that come with your pot, but it is very simple. The passage of warmish saline through the sinuses unclogs and draws out all sorts of crazy snot and boogers as well as removing any allergens that make their way up there. With regular use, your breathing will be full and clear, but be patient if your are stuffed up when you first try it and the liquid doesn't flow. It can be a slow process that works wonders.

Turmeric Remedy

Turmeric black pepper and ginger are all known for digestive, anti-inflammatory, immune boosting and warming properties to name just a few. This amazing blend has become a daily staple for me. I have found that it is best to take after a meal and prefer to drink it morning or afternoon.

Turmeric Remedy blend:
All measurements are approximate. No need to be exact.
1 cup ground turmeric (bright yellow spice common in Indian cooking)
1/4 cup ground dried ginger
2 tbs finely ground black pepper
Blend these ingredients well and store in a sealed jar.

To make the remedy beverage:
Remedy beverage does not taste good, but it's not bad either. Rather it is very earthy and a bit spicy. It make take a little getting used to, but again the benefits are well worth it.
Mix @ 6oz warm water with a heaping tablespoon remedy powder and mix well. Drink the mixture after a meal. If the flavor is too disagreeable, mix a heaping spoonful of raw honey in the water before adding the powder.




Simple dietary Guidelines

Easy to follow "rules" to live by and why

1. Skip the dairy, non-fermented soy products and refined sugar. These all contribute to congestion. If you've ever had a stuffy nose then drank a glass of milk you'll see why right away. The refined sugar is a bit sneakier, creating mucoids (yep, it's a real word) less quickly. Non-fermented soy includes soy milk, soy yogurts (it is cultured, not fermented) and most soy-based snacks. Tofu and soy sauce are fermented and less mucoid forming. For the record, Ayurveda does not often discourage dairy, but it is actually considered to be one of the most valuable foods. Given the current context of processed, hormonally altered milk products from cows that do not eat what cows are supposed to, most milk is in blacklisted from my diet. I have also found that even raw organic milk can be a culprit of congestive issues. Raw fresh goats milk may be the best choice if you really want milk. It actually closely resembles human milk...but don't let that turn you off! ;)
   
2. Eat fresh food and un-processed foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables provide valuable nutrients and enzymes. This does not mean not to cook them. Ayurveda (thankfully!) encourages eating lots of cooked food during the winter as it is easier to digest than raw foods. Grains such as rice and quinoa are not fresh, but they are do not contain synthetic additives, sodium or sugar. The same can be said for dried beans (and some canned) and pasta. Eating eggs and meats that are free-range and organic greatly increases the nutritive value of the animal protein, while lessening the impact of toxic waste produced by factory farms. Though vegetarian diet seems traditional to Indian and Ayurvedic practice, this is not totally true. It depends on your constitution and beliefs.
3. Eat three meals a day, making your breakfast light and simple (starches and fruit), lunch the heaviest meal (animal proteins, larger portions) and dinner lighter (vegetable soup and bread). This one feels like a toughie for most of us. We have been trained to eat a huge breakfast, a light lunch and a big dinner. While that may actually work on a whole, this method actually supports your natural digestive cycles. For instance, when you wake up, your digestive system is too. And just like most of us need to gently make our way into the morning, so does the belly. By mid-day, granted you treat your tummy right in the morning, your are hungry and need extra fat and protein for brain function (fat is essential in brain function) and energy to complete the days tasks. As for dinner, the time for your belly to rest along with you has come. If your body has to work to assimilate food while you sleep, you may not rest as well. There are exceptions to all of these rules of course, but if after a few weeks it is still difficult to follow, it may be that your constitution is experiencing an "imbalance" and illness follows closely behind imbalances.
4. Sip only room temperature or warm beverages during your meals. The stomach is a warm place and needs that warmth to digest and assimilate. Cold things only slow the process down.

Special thanks to Eliza Kerr who introduced me to Ayurveda and taught me about my constitution and Ayurvedic self-care.


Have a thought, question or opinion? I bet you do, and I want to hear it!

Living Prayer; It is What You Do

Prayer is in all things, in all actions. -Mother Teresa

In other words all thought and action sends a message -a request- to God. All action begins with thought. Thought begins with belief. Belief begins in the sub-conscious. The sub-conscious is a store house of all past events and interactions. This means that what and who we are surrounded by impacts the daily prayer in action we send to God. And in effect we as humanity have been sending God one big prayer that has been occurring for all time. Through this we are undeniably linked as One Human family. What we ask for and receive is one and the same thing, but with the illusion of ego separating my suffering from your suffering, from the suffering of people across the world. The illusion of separation can be destroyed through simple compassion. Share what you have that is good and you give yourself the gift that you just gave someone else. Be aware of someone Else's suffering and you feel your own suffering. And thus, your desire will be to end the suffering of the world. But do not fret, as there are billions of us, there is clearly no need to believe that it is up to you as an individual to heal humanity! Through your actions and thoughts, others will be inspired to do the same. Saving the world is a "band-wagon" kind of thing. Monkey see, monkey do. Just be aware of the bandwagons you are tempted to ride on and all will be simple and clear! Participate in the One Prayer of Humanity to heal Humanity!

• When it feels difficult remember this: When we each do our parts singly, we may not see the effect in the big picture, but it's like putting money in your karmic savings.
• When others seem resistant to compassion and the spirit of giving, you are simply recognizing resistance within yourself. One is able to recognize only what one has direct personal experience with. This should make it easy to feel compassion for the feeling of resistance in others, as you are aware of how uncomfortable resistance is yourself.
• Suffering is part of the game and puzzle of human existence. It cannot be eliminated in a day. The choice to experience joy and awakening is made not once, but every moment you wish to experience it. This is an infinite amount of times that the choice must be made. Make this choice whenever you think of it.

The best gift you can give is one to yourself. Seriously.

It is a fact: in order to give to the world around us, we must be fully charged, energized, nourished and nurtured to truly give. Yet when times get busy, most people actually fight the urge to slow down and replenish what is available in their own energy stores. Why is this? Could it possibly be that we are martyring ourselves on a sub-conscious level? Do we feel so inadequate that in order to feel our own worth we give everything we have? When we over-extend ourselves, we are actually giving away a false sense of self worth. Doing too much for others and not enough for yourself is like "Here, everything I have within me is in this act of doing something I cannot energetically afford. And in my emptiness, I might actually see that I was full." Maybe overextending ourselves is not such a good idea after all.

What you are worth as a person cannot be measured by what you give or do. Your worth is infinite. The amount of energy you can put into what you give, however is finite. The amount of energy you have is NOT a measure of who you are and what you are worth! Giving to yourself is like putting money in a bank where the return is always 100%. Ghandi once said, "I have so much to do today. I am going to have to meditate twice as long." This may sound like a silly joke, but it is very serious and meaningful. The more we connect with stillness and truth, the more wisely we spend our energy. Our ability to discriminate between necessary and unnecessary sharpens. Instead of procrastinating and doing things we resent, the truly important things naturally rise to the top of our list of priorities. This can include saying no to family member without feeling guilty. It can include asking for time off work to be alone or with loved ones. It can include not attending parties. Maybe it means not sending cards this year. It might even mean indulging less than modestly in all of the festivities and foods surrounding this time of year, instead of denying yourself.

One thing I know to be absolutely certain, is that just like Ghandi needed to meditate, yoga is the gift I give myself when I need a recharge. It is meditation in action. It is satisfying and pleasurable and I swear that the more yoga I do, the more time I actually have on any given day

The Gift of Ego

As a teacher and devoted practitioner of all aspects of yoga, I have experimented with many unique variations of the physical practice we call "asana". Asana is the aspect of yoga which requires us to move, hold poses, and breath into our bodies. For me, yoga asana has been a course in body awareness: "What do I feel like today, how am I treating myself, do I like my body?" These are a few basic questions that are answered without my even asking during any given practice. And this is also why yoga has had a profound healing effect on me. Yoga sparked a healing process I never thought I'd undergo. Through yoga, I am learning to heal my mind.

My mind believes many things. In the past my mind believed things such as "I will never be thin enough", and "How could I possible make a difference in the world?" My mind thought "I am an inconvenience to the people around me", and "I know that I have lots of talent, but my talent is not enough for the world." Yes, sounds a bit sniveling, but the fact is that, I never believed myself to be enough, to be whole. I never believed that I was who I am. Belief exists in one place: in the mind. Through various studies in yoga, I have learned that the mind contains the aspect of ego and that all my life, through conditioning as a product of my environment, that the ego existing as an aspect of the physical manifestation of who I am (body and brain), really thrived! And I bet yours has too.

Ego is often misunderstood and wrongly defined as having the nature of obvious self centered-ness, vanity and narcissism. Though this can be one face of ego, self pity, self doubt and general lack of belief in the worth of the self are also aspects of ego. And there are many subtle places in between. Many people give selflessly, yet have a self-belief that if they stopped, the world would come crashing down around them. There are quiet folks who appear humble and would rather be counted in the status quo. These are not only personality traits, they are traits of ego.

Ego is very simply a mis-directed energy. It is the energy of identification. The essence of who we really are and what we really are cannot be identified, labeled, or seen, and the ego arises with the minds effort to make sense of this world of stimuli. Ego is unavoidable. It exists within each person as surely does the True Self. And naming the True Self in and of itself is an act of ego, because again it is an act of identification.

Through the discipline of postures, meditation and studying the ethics of yoga, I have had the interesting experience of changing my thoughts. Through my practice I began regarding my body differently, and as I ventured into the world of teaching, I began to recognize my function as a human differently. I made a choice to replace old thinking with new thinking. This remains a pleasurable and important aspect of my practice. But there remains still a pitfall.

Is ego a bad thing? No way! Ego is but a veil, a puzzle, a maze. Here we are on this planet and what is the purpose? Some believe to praise and love God's creation. Some believe to fulfill our dreams. For me, it is to navigate the slippery slopes of egoism all around us. It is a journey in honing the skills of differentiation between real and un-real. It is to get lost in this intoxicating world of physical beauty, mystique and wonder in search of an exit for human suffering. There are infinite facets of this enchanting adventure. So what is the pitfall?

The pitfall is here. As I mentioned, practicing yoga provided me some amazing tools to switch my thoughts, to change my beliefs. But they are still that: beliefs.

So does an enlightened person stop thinking? No. Most likely not. I have noticed that in brief moments of liberation, I simply know that all of these beliefs are part of this magnificent game. And my beliefs become something akin to dress-up clothes. Just as the clothes we wear everyday express some portion of what we believe about ourselves. And this is the most liberating part of it all! Here I am, in this world, with a whole universe of props for playing "Life on Earth." And life becomes lighter. My need to express who I am, changes. It becomes translucent. There is a place where I understand the deep importance of this game without taking it seriously. It is a paradox, always.

Eckhart Tolle says something amazing in The Power of Now. He says that who you are requires no belief. And that in fact, every belief is an obstacle to self-realization since you already are who you are. But without that realization, who you are does not shine out into the world.

We are born liberated. Babies do not differentiate between themselves, their mothers and the world around them. This is a fact. Newborn babies come into the world knowing enlightenment. Babies make no judgments. They have nothing to compare their experience with. But this is a different kind of enlightenment. Or is it? It is only as we grow, and the mind develops and we begin to cultivate relationships of our own that ego starts to emerge. As we develop into adulthood, a comprehensive sense of identity develops from our sense of ego. And we often feel the need to protect this identity, as though who we are could possibly ever be threatened! We may stumble upon a path leading to self-realization. We may seek it from a very young age, or there is the possibility that enlightenment comes when death knocks on our door too loudly to ignore. I am grateful that yoga rolled out the red carpet of the path toward enlightenment for me.

However it is experienced, one thing is for sure: Ego is not only the culprit of the need for liberation. Ego is the Pied Piper calling us to the path of liberation. Ego is God very cleverly disguised as himself, playing a very clever trick on the world. Ego is not an enemy. It is a gift, a partner. Ego is the sound of humanity knocking on liberation's door.
-Namaste