When I Grow Up

I remember, as a little girl, I wanted to go to space.  Then, I found out that you had to have 20/20 vision to fly above the Earth.  I let that dream go. 

Now that I've had lasik eye surgery, I do have 20/20 vision and while that dream still exists, it may be a little out of my grasp.  That's why Astronomy Picture of the Day is my homepage.  Every day there is a new image, featuring the universe.  Check it out!

This is my favourite image for November.

Strength Fueled By Compassion

There is a teacher at my yoga studio who I admire greatly. She is a tough cookie and makes you work your ass off. She takes the time to get you into the proper set up in every single pose, she'll call you out if you aren't working to your potential. I remember her telling me in my first few months of practice about water and how you really should just sip your water and that, yes, your heart will be pounding fiercely by the time you are finished the first set of Standing Bow. Just breathe and stand still, she says.

She is also so very kind. She will tell the class to smile at themselves in the mirror. She will remind us constantly that we should have compassion for ourselves at the same time as kicking our heel forward in Standing Head to Knee.

I worked very hard in class this morning at the same time as being kind and gentle to my sore shoulder.

It reminded me that I need to stop kicking myself when I'm down. It reminded me to keep my head up. It reminded me that I am surrounded my supportive and caring people everyday - virtually and in person. It reminded me to have faith, have trust in myself and to know sometimes I need to just stand still and breathe.

Yoga Nightmare

I had a yoga nightmare last night.

I walked into the studio and all seemed normal, I placed my mat on the floor and went and hung out in the reception area.  Everything seemed relatively normal except that it was very chaotic, kind of like a free day, when it's full of new students.  And the colours were different, the room was dark and full of velvet chairs. Even my mat and towel were dark maroon colours.

When it was 5 minutes to class I walked back into the studio with every intention of lying down for a few minutes before class started.  But it was utter chaos in there!  People running around, yelling, drinking.  Someone had kicked my mat and towel around so that I couldn't find it.  Finally my teacher walked in.  He tried to take control of the room to no avail.  Then another teacher came in to try to calm everyone down - it didn't work.  I was getting very frustrated by this point and left the room.

Back in the reception area, everything was calm - as it should be.  I chatted with my instructor for a bit and then walked outside to get into my truck and go home.  My truck was gone!  Someone had stolen it.  I went back into the studio completely panicked.  The instructors were trying to help me find it but it was gone, along with all of my stuff.  My new purse, my blog which was written on paper like a diary, everything. 

Here everything kind of goes blank, except that I was extremely anxious and scared.

And then suddenly my truck was back.  Just like that.  Nothing was missing from it.  Everything was at it should be, except for the fact that all of my blog pages were highlighted in bright yellow.  And all of the words highlighted were swear words.

Then I woke up.

I was paralyzed in my bed.  I could not move.  My heart was pounding.  I felt as though someone was watching me. Drinking water would not make the dream go away.  I turned on the light and read for a while  to try to get that awful feeling away from me.

I am a little unsure of where this dream came from.  All my yoga dreams to date have been relatively pleasant where I just dream about practicing the poses.  I am in the midst of making a very important decision regarding my yoga practice.  I am nervous and it will definitely put me completely out of my comfort zone.  I was probably just "voicing" my anxiety through this dream.

What kind of yoga dreams have you had?

Yoga Dream

This morning I awoke at 4:30 from a chaotic yoga dream. 

I was in the hot room but the room was like a jungle.  Hot and humid, plants everywhere, leopard print couches, and my fellow yogis lounging, drinking beer and sleeping.  I left the room to fill my water bottle and the reception area was the same as it always is, peaceful, calm, bright and people chatting.  When I walked back into the room chaos had erupted.  Loud music was blaring from speakers, people were dancing, drinking and spilling beer everywhere.  My instructor walked in and I thought, ok things will calm down now and we can start our practice.  But he just proceeded to jump up on the teacher's podium and play air guitar.

I sat bolt right up in bed.  What the fuck?