Connections in Life

I love when I see the themes and connections in my life.
The day that I was re-writing Sally Kempton’s article about the Work/Yoga mindset, Scott Sonnon posted about the “What the Hell Effect”. At the end of his post he wrote, “No cheat days. In Anything. Ever. “

My initial reaction is that scares me. That means no laziness. No procrastination, that if the truth be told, I have created an art form in procrastination. ART FORM! If you want to learn more about the Practice of Procrastination for a mere $9.99, please send your dollars to... Shelley-Lynne Domingue

sigh.

But as I thought about it more, “No cheat days. In Anything. Ever.” I brought it down into more manageable bites. First off is the Work/Yoga mindset. For it to work, for it to change my life, there can be no cheat days. When I looked at that, I connected into where I wasn’t taking a cheat day, when I normally would.

After my week off in August, I promised myself that I would get back to doing yoga every morning before I go to work. We know all the benefits of working out so I won’t get into all that. But it took me a bit of a conversation with myself to find the DVD that I would use. My main purpose is that I want to feel ready with energy for the work day when I leave my house. And I want to have the proper mindset.

I’ve noticed that a lot of yoga DVD’s irritate me when I do them in the morning. And it’s the chatter. If I were ever asked how the design the best yoga DVD, I would say have two work outs. One with the instructions and chatter and the other one that is exactly the same but only says the positions you are getting into and then silence. Silence!

I could get into a good rant about this, but I’ll cut myself short. I don’t think they are conscious of the fact that you will hear them say the same thing every single day because if they were more mindful of it... I remember Pink saying on Oprah that she has to turn the sound down on P90X because that guy’s voice gets on her nerves. lol

Anyway, I lucked out and picked the right DVD on the first try. Fat Free Yoga by Ravi Singh & Ana Brett. If you try it, it’s not the traditional downward dog yoga. It is Kundalini Yoga. Immediately Monday I felt great, really great. I didn’t feel like I could crash in the afternoon and since I was working both jobs on Monday, I felt just as great when I got to my part time job.

Okay, I was off for a week so how tired would I be? Tuesday morning I rolled myself out of bed and onto my yoga mat promising myself that if I could just do the work out everything would be okay. And it was. Same high energy level at work on Tuesday.
I’ve done that work out every single day this week without negotiating with myself, without coming up with any excuses to press the snooze button for just 15 more minutes. Just open eyes, roll out of bed, doing drunken sleepy walk to put on my yoga gear and start yoga.

No cheat days. In Anything. Ever.

What I love about Kundalini Yoga, why I chose this practice above any other yoga practices, is that I like the work out, the breath work and the mantras. To MY inner knowing, that is what yoga is. No criticism of anyone else’s choice. This is my choice.

What I’ve been looking for within this practice over the years, is my chosen mantra. When I got my tattoo last week, I silently chanted Sat Nam and in the painful parts of the tattoo process, I silently chanted Sa Ta Na Ma. It was helpful. But I still want a personal mantra that resonates with me. I have yet to find it, I know I will.

On Friday, after work I was walking through the Ryerson University grounds. Frosh week has begun. A man asked me if I worked a Ryerson. No. That’s okay, I can still offer you this. And he gave me a business card of a new yoga centre that focuses on yoga mantras, chanting and singing. Seriously, dude!

He (Sam) says, “although I don’t know why I stopped you because you look so relaxed, what’s your practice?”
Me: “Ha ha! I am relaxed. This is the, “I get to leave work early on a long weekend” practice of relaxation.” And I cracked myself up.

Sam was holding the Bhagavad Gita in his hand. I extended the conversation with, “it’s funny that you should be holding that book because...” and I pulled out my paper that I did on the Work/Yoga mindset and said that Sally Kempton took quotes out of the Bhagavad Gita. Sam showed me the same quote from my paper in the book and then found me a mantra to try out. I love those little magical moments when everything connects.

This morning I woke up from my dream. I dreamt that not only did I see Prince in concert but after his concert, he came over to my place to hang out. We discussed how when the music is really flowing for him, he could play his concert all night long if they let him. I talked about the times that I’ve been in that writing flow, when I’ve tried to go to sleep and keep jumping up to write down the words and sentences that are dancing in my head. They just won’t let me sleep and that’s the best feeling.

A couple of funny notes in my dream -
1- friends kept dropping in to my place and I never outed Prince. But in one conversation with my friend Sarah who looked like Britney Spears (bahaha) she said something about feeling like she could go and perform somewhere nonstop until she couldn’t move. I pointed at Prince and said, “Yes we were just talking about that.” Sarah/Britney looked over at Prince, did a double take and then looked at me. I smiled and nodded Yes, as if to say yes, that’s really who you think it is.

2- at one point Prince sits down on my kitchen floor, leaning against the wall. I sit beside him and say, “the floor is a little dirty. I was going to clean up before I went to your concert but I figured, why worry about it, it’s not like I’m going to pick up a guy and bring him home. Especially not PRINCE!” I cracked myself up in my dream.

The next night in my dream, Prince and I were saying our good byes in a park, with an art exhibit.
I ran to catch up to him and said, “Scott Sonnon had a post on facebook recently and it really resonates with me and me spending this time with you. It was ‘no cheat days, in anything, ever.’”
Prince nodded his head in agreement, we hugged and parted ways.

So I’m thinking, that’s my mantra.

No Cheat Days. In Anything. Ever!

EY

Scott Sonnon's "What the Hell Effect!"

Fat Free Yoga by Ravi Singh and Ana Brett

Act Your Age, not your shoe size...

4:43pm Sunday 17Dec06

Had much music on for a hot minute this morning while I got ready to go out to meet my breakfast buddy. I'm sitting there staring at the TV with my head cocked to one side, "is that Prince singing? Why hasn't anyone told me he has a song in Happy Feet? I've got to see it TODAY!"

I saw Happy Feet. What an adorable movie. If there are any stuffed animals of Mumble as a baby, somebody please buy me one!

Talk about the theme of Free Spirit. A penguin that dances in a clan of penguins that sing!. Too freaking cute. The tapping kept making me think about Gregory Hines, whom I loved loved loved! Turns out it was choreographed by Savion Glover who totally deserves the Gregory Hines' title of king of tap.

I remember Savion as a kid in Greg's movie Tap (that nobody went to see) that had all the black old timers of tap and dance like the Nicholas brothers before they all died off. Challenge! Challenge!
Savion looked like he could be Gregory Hines' kid.

When the Happy Feet started off with the penguins singing Kiss I thought I was going to burst a gut with laughter. I kept saying, Oh no they didn't, oh no they didn't. And using Queen's, somebody to love was just priceless. My Ally Macbeal inspired theme song.

I loved the themes: you have to believe in yourself even when you are different from every one in your clan. The outsider is the one to lead. You have to get through all the pain and lack of belief before you reap the rewards.

I was pretty positive that the movie was going to make me cry but I managed to hold it together.

OMG some of the head moves when they were dancing were killing me. Crack me right up.

It really makes you think about what we are doing to the animals that live on this earth with us. It's too ironic because I just watched an episode of men in trees and there was a comment about throwing off the balance of the ecosystem. It falls in line with Happy Feet. It really is time that we all think about what we are doing and how to correct it individually and giving the message to our children as young as possible so that they are mindful and ready to make creative changes.

The scene in the zoo is heart breaking and reminds me of the art show that was in New York that I would have loved to have gone to. It was a photo exhibit whereby the photographer had gone into each animal's habitat and photographed them. There was a comment that animals that we see in the zoo have basically gone crazy. They don't do the normal things that they would do. They are bored, depressed. They've gone crazy. That polar bear that does the repetitive diving into the water and swimming back up to the top, although he looks fascinating, is exhibiting his insanity. If we don't care about creatures that can't tell us that we are hurting them how the hell are we supposed to listen to and care about each other?

That's the first sign of abuse and abusive behaviour. When the Humane society notes animal abuse in a home it's a sure sign that there is domestic abuse. That's just the microcosm of the macrocosm. We're abusing, killing, destroying our wild life and ultimately each other.

What a smart move to cash in on the love of penguins that the march of the penguins brought on and to leave us with a message that we have to care for our earth now. What a fun movie. And the obligatory Robin Williams as both Lovelace and Ramon was too funny.

When Mumble meets up with Ramon and the other Latino penguins and they like his frenetic dance moves it reminded me that somewhere someone appreciates you as you are. I don't know how many big women I've told, "You need to go to the Caribbean, black men love big women."

And that's really it isn't it? Sometimes we're just not appreciated where we live. Sometimes we have to go somewhere else to find the clan that sees our outer beauty.

Oh well, I could go on. I'm glad that my Prince got me out to see the movie that I had a good laugh and felt somewhat inspired. That's all I ask for.

EY