Lessons in Balance

Seven Days and Seven Ways to Care for Yourself

I received this boxed set of cards a few years ago and use it every so often in my yoga classes.  This past Saturday, each of the seven cards that were drawn held a significant message for its recipient, and lots of laughter and nodding heads preceded our circle of sharing. 

This morning as I looked at each card and thought about the comments they elicited, a progressive pattern appeared and the number seven suggested a week-long focus. If you'd care to, start your week today and approach each suggestion on a daily basis. Or, read through all seven, digest them and make plans for a week-long focus or self-care retreat.

The title and text as written on the cards, appear in boldface. My comments and suggestions that follow, reflect the conversations we had before our morning yoga practice.

A Week of Self-Care...

Day 1. REST. Rest and relax. Release guilt and make your needs a top priority. Even if you're living the life you've always wanted, there's always an urge to move forward and do more. Remember that the more you have, the more you have to give, so don't feel that what you do for yourself takes away from others.

    For one day, do nothing but Rest and Relax. Experience what it feels like to just tend to your own needs. If you can't afford a day to be physically away from your responsibilities, try just giving it up for a few minutes at a time. We often think that our roles in life tie us down, but many times we hold on tightly to our roles in order to justify our existence. Ease up and rethink things.

Day 2. CLEARING. Clear the clutter. When in doubt, throw it out.

 Have you ever gone shopping for more storage and organizing supplies, only to realize that the stuff you want to put away or organize, just isn't all that important to you anymore? Ask the Feng Shui experts what clutter does to your life.

The same applies to your thoughts and habits. Organizing experts often suggest that you set a timer to go off every 10 to 30 minutes. When the alarm sounds, jot down what you're doing or thinking. As you look back on the day's list, what does it tell you?  Are you spending time on the things that really matter to you? What really does matter to you?

Day 3. DECISIONS. Honor your top priorities. If it's not an absolute yes, then it's a no.

If you have difficulty making decisions, they too can end up as clutter and make you feel tired, worn out and frazzled. Make a list of those gnats that are flying around, outside and inside your head. If you can't honestly say "I want this", then it's a "no".

Day 4. PRIORITIES. Get your priorities straight. When you know what's important, saying no gets much easier. Referring to your list of Absolute Yeses, today determine their priority in your life. Again, even if things are going well for you or success is just around the corner, check, and re-check.

Your power is in the now so don't leave a couple of gnats to propagate into a swarm next month. (It really does take 30 days for gnats to go from egg to adult stage).

Day 5. ACTION. Take action. The journey to find your lost self begins with one step. Sometimes we find ourselves facing a BIG step because it looks as though we have so many to climb. A change of attitude might help. If we can see the steps we've already taken as the long climb, the next step we take might just be toward an easy downhill.

Today do one thing for yourself that's high on your priority list. If it looks like a BIG step, break it into pieces and do something that will only take 5 minutes. Before you go to sleep, plan on the next small step for tomorrow.

Day 6. DANCE. Step into the light. Share your gifts and talents with the world. A busy life can make you feel as though you're running in place or scurrying from one pair of out-stretched arms to another. Running away for a vacation is a definite self-care action but so is viewing all of your actions as a beautiful dance. Who we are and what we do, doesn't have to be an either/or choice. We can choose to see it as "and-and-and", as steps in the Dance of Life.

Today, appreciate yourself and all that you do. Put on your favorite dance music and let every cell in your body move with you.

Day 7. REJUVENATION. Get a good night's sleep. Rejuvenate your body, mind, and spirit. There are times in our lives when we truly can't get the sleep we need and drag ourselves through the day, too tired to do the things that might even help us sleep better at night. If babies or young children are the reason for your sleep deprivation, you're in luck, they do grow up. 

Here are some other reasons and possible remedies, How to Sleep Well Every Night.

One big tip: be grateful for the hours that you do receive and don't talk about your lack of sleep during the day. Replaying the scenes of tossing and turning can be even more tiring. Rejuvenation means to make young again so let go of old regimens and requirements. Four hours of sleep are better than none!

CREDITS:

Wisdom: All those in class on Saturday, August 22, from 10am to 12 pm. Mahalo and Namaste.

Photos of Cards: CherylRichardson.com

What Do I Want?

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny'.

-Isaac Asimov

Since I've been trying my best to replace the sentences that begin with 'I should', 'I need to' and 'I have to' with the sweeter sounding 'I want to...', I've gradually done away with a set load of distasteful chores.

There's now a tendency to describe what I want in better terms. "I have to throw that stinky, rotten mess out of  here", becomes "I want a clean, odorless refrigerator".  The chore remains, but clean and odorless have become the focus and so I feel better as I'm tossing the usual suspects off the shelf.

Gradually, those things that could not be transformed by altering my vocabulary or attitude, have slowly been deleted. It's amazing how many things there are that I think I should do, that go unnoticed by the world whether I do them or not! That's funny.

Many times, the things I enjoy and really want, compete for my time. As an example, the three things I like to do early in the morning are (1) checking in on Twitter, (2) doing the Mother Sequence of yoga poses and (3) writing my morning pages.  The other day, I realized that I can get online or write my three pages any time of the day with no problem.  But if I miss my morning yoga sequence...well, the sun just doesn't seem to roll across the sky correctly. No matter how much yoga I do during the day, I feel as though I missed out on something.  The Mother Sequence is my meditation, my Cheerios, my starting fluid. It became a 'have to' when I wasn't looking!

So I've made a few changes and now acknowledge: "I want to do my yoga sequence in the morning because it makes me happy all day long." Amazingly, a better space for my mat has appeared just inside my front door and there are folks who'd like to join me in an early morning practice of the Mother Sequence too. Everything is conspiring to make me happy and that's how I know I'm moving in the right direction.


You don't have to do this, only if you want to, but think about those things that have been gnawing at you. Listen to the talk that begins with "I have to", "I need to" and "I should". What happens when you start those sentences with "I want to"? 

This is what I found:  I want to find all the things I have to do to make me happy.

Photo: SighlentJ via Flickr.

Infinite Causes

Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.-Leonardo da Vinci

 

On Saturday,  I was half way into my Morning Pages when I dropped the little rubber band  I was playing with onto the page.  As I was about to move it out of the way, I noticed that it had formed the symbol for infinity as well as for the date, August 8.  I quickly took a picture and then continued writing about my search for a main focus for this blog.

When I stopped to look at the photo, it reminded me that there is no end. No end to the story, no end to my experiences and no end to my lessons. I might alter things to make them more pleasing but I'll never be done.  "Lessons in Balance" will at times find me going from one extreme to the other and there will be times when I might even feel quite centered and content. But that won't be the end, I'll just go down another road.

The little rubber band stopped my wondering and wandering, before I could even commit to another sentence. I could even hear my yoga teacher silencing my questions by saying, "Just do". Answers will appear as you 'just do'.

I find comfort in believing in the absence of finality, that there will  always be room for improvement and that I can continue to use the word yet.  There are infinite causes that have not yet occurred in my experience. They are my lessons in balance.