9 Days of 100 days of Happiness

Happiness is something you see in every moment or choose not to.
My Facebook page is loading pictures of new babies and a little older babies. So cute.
Even as I see them I recall those amazing first days of just LOVE. Nothing else.

I recall in my own young life a time of just boldness and endless curiosity that got me in perpetual trouble. Taking apart the TV, the phone, my siblings toys, bringing home strays, climbing cliffs and dragging my siblings along.

Where did she go? When did she go?
I am more tempered now. More aware of what can go wrong. Because I have seen things go wrong. I have seen broken bodies falling from cliffs and felt broken hearts. I have seen people who will take from other people for their own beliefs and gain. I have felt the pain of greed and the sorrow of death.

And yet in each moment, there was also new birth, new babies who break your heart with boundless love, blossoming flowers and an endless cycle of birth and death.
Where I put my attention will determine my happiness.

What's your story?

We all have a fear story. That story of how our life will unfold in the way we don't want. My fear, being alone. Disconnected.
As I embark on a new journey of no longer being a single mom... just being a single woman, there are moments the fear seems realized.
And then I go to the studio... my community... and I am reminded I am not alone.
I sit in meditation and I am reminded I am never alone.
The illusion is that I am in some way separate from everyone and when there is no one with me, I am alone.
The truth is that when I am looking outside of my own heart for companionship, I will always feel alone even in a room full of people.
Connection happens when we are resting in the seat of our own heart.
We are comfortable in our own shoes.
We are comfortable in our own skin.

Life Practices for the Best of your Life

These practices came to me through the skilled teaching of Rod Stryker. I still struggle with mastering all of them - but it is a lovely reminder that anything that helps us move in the direction of attaining these actions is skillful.
Embody what you can, and feel compassion for that which you cannot yet master.

~ Love and respect yourself and the world.
~ Have faith in yourself; your strength, courage and tenacity.
~ Love and be grateful for this life given to you, with all its strengths, limitations & karma.
~ Strengthen your potential - do not undermine it.
~ Make time for yourself, honour yourself.
~ Expectation, entitlement - these create suffering. Be grateful for what is offered. Do not want more.
~ Disconnect. Discover the stillness in silence.
~ Cultivate your relationship with the force behind all life.

Asmita... this was me once

http://blackdiamondequipment.com/en/experience-story?cid=video-live-climb-repeat&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&campaign=experience

I watched this.
I cried. This was me at one time.
I climbed. I worked in climbing. I dreamed sequences. I visualized success. I awoke in a van, had coffee and went climbing usually before others were up.

Then I wanted more. My heart wanted a home, a shower. A baby. To serve the world in some way.
I awoke in a house. I went to a job. I taught others what I had learned.
I had a son. Someone counting on me. My soul also longed for his happiness, his life to be full.

The job continued to evolve; more administration, less teaching. My soul's longing to solve the next problem no longer fulfilled. The longing to share now met as a mother.

Climbing was pushed to the back of my heart. Not enough time, no climbing partner.

Then I found Yoga.
I had new sequences to solve, new movement to understand. Movement in the body and movement of the mind.
A whole new adventure, exploring my inner landscape.
Climbing inside... overcoming the obstacles of my own limitations.
I now have the joy of climbing inside and occasionally out. Solo and occasionally with a partner (if she hadn't up and move to BC).

There will always be climbing in my heart... the routes are just not always on rock.

Resistance

This morning I awoke to a winter storm.
It's mid March.
I awoke to feeling my earring come out as I pulled my hair back and now cannot find it.
I awoke to learn an amazing spirit and mentor has died.
I buried myself in a book - "Who Would You be Without Your Story? by Byron Katie.
My story - it shouldn't be snowing, my dear friend should not have died and I should be able to find my earring. It is not really any of these things that is the cause of my suffering, it is the idea that they should not be happening. I am snug in my home with a fire blazing in the stove and warm tea in my hand. My dear friend has spent the last 3 years fighting cancer. Now she is at rest. And the snow... it is March. It is a little crazy to believe that it shouldn't snow in winter.

Who would you be without your story?
Thanks Katie.

Sutras - threads of living fully

Sutra 1.33
Transparency of mind comes by embracing an attitude of friendliness, compassion, happiness, and non-judgement toward those who are happy, miserable, virtuous, and non-virtuous. ~The Secret of the Yoga Sutras, by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD.
The magic of being a parent has been being able to live this sutra with my son. He can speak to me in a way that is less than virtuous and I can still feel equanimity in my heart. When he is happy, I do not feel jealous or envy, I simply feel joy.
Although it is very hard not to feel attachment toward my son, at least the taste of the teachings shows me the potential expansiveness of my heart.

It takes a Community

Love makes the world go around.
Love happens between people who think alike.
Love is a reflection of the love in our own heart.
Without a mirror, a person to reflect our Self, fear exists.
It takes two to make love a reality.
It takes more than 2 to really shine.