The Acceptance of Self

This was emailed to me today by a dear friend:

I believe in myself. I am special. I am my own best self. I possess myself with quiet confidence. I love myself fiercely. There is no one I would rather be than me. This lyrical declaration is grounded in a full and embodied understanding of life and living that is worthy of my existence. What I affirm for myself I affirm for others. To paraphrase the words of Howard Thurman--". . .to love myself is to honor something in me that is beyond any feeling that I may have of my worth or worthlessness." I am conscious of being loved, at a place deep within me that is beyond mere feeling, thought, accolade or carking condemnation. It is a stirring at the center, the sounding of the genuine, the movement of the spirit, the eruption of the heart, the redemption of my soul. I have been confirmed and affirmed by the presence of other human beings, the created world, the endless universe, the Presence of God. I have plummeted into the mystery of my own existence only to emerge in the midst of all life. I am because we are, and because of this fact, there is nothing in life that I ultimately cannot endure. There is a PRESENCE. -Alton Pollard

Imagine This...

"Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you."

I read this passage this morning and it really resonated with me. Have a good day crafting your own image ; )

The World's Fastest Indian

I saw a really inspiring movie this past weekend called The World's Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins. My friend had a bunch of screeners from the Sag Awards, and I really didn't want to see it at first. But it was one of the few movies that she hadn't seen yet. So we popped it in and it turned out to be a pretty fantastic movie. A true story too. I highly recommend it if you get a chance.

Excedrin to the Rescue??

Today was an unsual day for me. I woke up with a headache that had carried over from the night before and stayed in my apartment trying to rest and meditate until about 2pm. Then I started to panic. I knew that I couldn't teach my 6pm class with my head throbbing like that, and I hadn't cancelled because I thought it would go away by then.

So I go down to Erewhon, get some carrot soup, and stop by 7-11 (of all places) to get some Excedrin --- drastic situations call for drastic measures... and besides, I had tried the herbal "holistic" headache medicine all that morning. I knew from my past experience that Excedrin would knock it right out.

When I got back home, I popped two pills and immediately felt like something messy was about to happen. I walked into my bathroom openned my toilet in anticipation.... and then I threw up for the first time since I can remember. That was bizarre. I didn't think I had food poisoning or anything like that. But the strangest part was, after I vomitted, I felt much much better. My headache started to go away and I felt healed.

I took 2 more Excedrin just to be on the safe side, and got ready to go and teach my class. As I type this, I'm feeling close to 95% well. The class was great. And hopefully I won't have to go through this again anytime soon. I'm thinking it was stress-related. I'm in the process of purchasing some property and I've been working out the numbers in my head a little too much.

Anyway, it's good to be back in shape.

I Love the Rain

I am really enjoying this rain we have been having in Los Angeles these past couple of days. It's non-stop and feels very cleansing. And it's particularly nice to teach yoga classes in rainy weather, with the sounds of drizzling accenting the meditative background of savasana. I hope it rains like this tomorrow for my 1o:30am yoga class at Crunch. I'll bring some candles to make it nice and intimate. For now, I'm off to bed. Sweet dreams....

More Mundane Posts To Come

I've been a lazy poster of my thoughts lately. Although I think about posting a lot, I end up not doing it for a multitude of reasons.... mostly because I don't think that I have anything profound to say in that particular moment.

And now I'm saying to myself that that's okay. Everything that comes out of my mouth doesn't have to be quotable, profound, or particularly deep. And I really enjoy writing these posts.

So from now on, my intention is to post no matter what my feeling about what I'm posting is. Write from a place of authenticity. Get real.

So here's what I have to say today:

I went for a nice run this morning up at Runyon. 2 laps up the dirt path and down the paved path. The sun was shining and the park was nearly empty. I was listening to stand up comedy on my ipod. That's my new thing... listening to stand up comedy. I need some new material though because I've pretty much memorized all of Dane Cooks stuff along with D. L. Hughley's, Ron White's, Chris Rock's and Bernie Mac's.

Anyway, as soon as I finished running, the clouds came out and there was no more sun for pretty much the rest of the day. Which was perfect because I had plenty of mundane errands to run: post office, Trader Joes, Smart & Final, Target.

I'm really looking forward to teaching my candlelight class later on tonight. And after that, my neighbors and I are doing a game night in my building. As I've written before, I love playing board games and I really look forward to making this a regular thing until I move out.

Okay, stay tuned for more mundane stuff later... ; )