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Saturday, April 25, 2009
Where Do We Set Our Intentions?
Sometimes we just need to say it out loud what we would really like to see happen in our lives and justifying it to someone can create all the energy we need to get something moving. As Wayne Dyer says it, "Our intention creates our reality."
After many years of denying myself the luxury, I finally decided to try out a Feng Shui consultant for my home in LA. Ariel came as a referral from a local yoga studio, was affordable, and amazingly was very down to earth in this sometimes-mystical field.
He laid out my apartment according to basic Feng Shui principles, where each section of my house was diagramed in a circle, like a clock, when you entered the front door. At 6 o'clock, sat my career corner, at 2 o'clock was my relationship corner, and at 9 o'clock was my friendship corner, etc. From this, together we decided how to highlight each piece of my life in that area if it wasn't succeeding as I would have liked already.
First, I noticed it was super interesting to hear myself tell a stranger about where my life is at the moment, what I think needs help, and what I am completely content with presently. I took a moment to be super grateful for my friends, which I thought was doing really well, for example.
He looked at my bedroom, my relationship corner, and frowned. He said I need more pinks and reds, and twos of everything - pictures, lights, candles, etc. I had told him that I was actually perfectly content with my non-existent dating life at the time, focusing more on my business, and didn't want to be distracted with anything else. I knew how time consuming dating could be. He told me I could really have it all, and that one didn't have to distract from the other. I told him if I could find someone who complemented my business, then I would be open to that. With that, pink pictures got put up instead of green ones, and candles were symmetrical placed on the nightstands. Okay, fine.
We then moved to my workstation, and he told me to sit with my back against the wall, which symbolizes a place of power. Was 'The Godfather' into Feng Shiu as well? I was welcoming any help to grow 'Yoga To Have Fun', so I moved my desk so that I could now more easily sit between the desk and the wall. Cool and easy.
Through all this moving and adjusting in my apartment, I realized that with the placement of each rock, or hanging of each pink picture, I was setting an intention. I was consciously saying to myself, that I wanted my life to move in a certain direction. If someone special walked into my life who was in "the biz", that would be okay, but most importantly I wanted a more fluid income stream.
Soon after, I got invited to a few film festivals with some powerful players, making my influence with Yoga for Families jump up the ranks. Nice change of seating arrangements. I also got a check in the mail the very next day that I had been waiting for - nice!
What I learned the most from my time with Feng Shui, and then moving some things around, is that sometimes we need to say out loud what it is that we want with our lives. We can tell ourselves the story, but having to justify it to someone makes a big difference. This helps us set the intention, and with that, things may fall into place. The exercise alone was worth the fee, being able to prioritize my current wants and needs. Doing this as a family could also prove very useful to articulate what everyone wants at the moment, and ensuring everyone is on the same page.
As I write this, my Mom is calling to check in how it's going with Mr. Producer. We've been dating a few months, and funnily enough, he works in film.
Posted by Ingrid on 04/25 at 11:26 PM
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Friday, April 17, 2009
Where Is That Girl With Braces and Big Smile?
Have you ever received old photos via Facebook that a childhood friends have scanned and posted after visiting their parents over the holidays? With the growing popularity of social networking sites (and the fact that I am hooked on them), I now have visual reminders of what I was like as a child. I look at those pictures, and wonder if that little girl with a long braid down her back still exists, before all those to-do lists, pending decisions, and "shoulds" in my life. Does she still live somewhere, smiling, content, joyful, and creative?
Okay, while people may still see me as that person today, I sometimes wonder where she is when my mind is filled with doubt, worry, and concern for my 401K. At those times I need to remind myself that people love me most when I am truly myself. I recall that I received awards in the past when I was my true self, and that I failed when I was trying to be someone else. Some examples come to mind.
In college, I won an award for 'Enthusiasm and Leadership in Student Activities.' I loved leading groups for a beneficial purpose, such as Habitat for Humanity. And, when Villanova University bestowed the title of Homecoming Queen, I was delighted because it recognized my participation in activities that I loved to do.
Simultaneously when I missed getting offers for jobs where I'd spend hours on data analysis and creating Excel spreadsheets, I learned that providence was making explicitly clear, this was not my sweet spot.
As I walk around today, I look at my options and try to match them up with things that would bring out the best from that little girl with the long braid. After all, we share the same breath, and the core of each of us is still the same.
As some of you know, I am exploring the prospect of promote my yoga career in London in the film and television industry. I will be finishing the edits to the DVDs for a fitness channel in the UK and moving toward creating a children's yoga television series.
I'm staying true to the essence of that girl with the long braid in the picture taken over 20 years ago. London beckons to the person who finds reward when she is truly herself. I look forward to seeing what the universe offers on that side of the pond and I'll be sure to keep you updated via Facebook ☺.
Posted by Ingrid on 04/17 at 03:41 AM
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Thursday, April 09, 2009
Got Something Stuck in Your Molar?
People use yoga for many different reasons-time to stretch, time to sweat, time to prepare the mind to quiet down, just to name a few, and for each person it is unique.
One of the reasons that I like and promote yoga is because it gives us time entirely for ourselves. Typically, the room is quiet, and we are encouraged to stop both the internal and external chatter. We don't usually have conversations throughout our practice with our neighbor, and we are encouraged to forget about what type of yoga clothing she or he is sporting that day. I love that part. It's time to focus purely on me, and what I feel I need today. Yahoo! How often does that happen?
Over the last few yoga classes, I have had this imagery come into my mind of a dentist picking at something between two of my molars. As I focused on myself, trying to forget about everyday items like to-do lists, decisions to be made, things that I 'should' do, I imagined the dentist picking away at each part of my physical life. With each click of that sharp tool, he gets out the "stuff" that distracts me from my true self. With each breath, and with each exhalation, I am becoming calmer and more confident about who I truly am.
Some picks with the sharp tool are easy - like the fact that I am maybe getting a little bit hungry, distracted by what I want to eat after class. Put that away for the time being. But, the dentist is still working on getting some particles out. The biggest one is that Ego. Phew! That "stuff" can often go very deep.
As Eddie Ellner, the owner and founder of YogaSoup in Santa Barbara, CA, put it recently:
"When the 'I' disappears, when who you believe yourself to be vanishes, then all the dramas that support and bodyguard that identity also disappear. What remains is the simple and obvious joy of who you are. You are not anything that can be described. You just are."
It is with these thoughts that I breathe deep, and encourage that dentist to pick at each of the items that I have chewed along the way- multiple stories that we tell ourselves, and dramas that we adopt as our own.
Eddie describes the Ego thus:
"...harsh judgments... ego's attempts to remain in charge, to keep out the recognition of this light. But why? Why would you want to keep something this wonderful at bay? Good question.
Because with the light, with the truth, comes the end of the story the ego loves to tell about itself, its plight, its life.
I recognized at once all the mean and petty ways that Ego tries to remain separate by judging, diminishing, elevating, resisting, accusing, needing, fearing ... all the ways ego attempts to stay in control, to not lose face ... never realizing the face it has to lose isn't real to begin with.
Absurd, right? Don't blame ego, that's just the way it's built."
That is why we need regular dental check-ups, also known as yoga, and some time for ourselves on the mat. In yoga, we are able to get rid of some of the noise of the outside world, and focus on that wonderful, true self. It is with these thoughts that I look forward to my next time on the mat, and having a chance to chip away some more of that "stuff" stuck in my molars.
Posted by Ingrid on 04/09 at 06:25 AM
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Sunday, April 05, 2009
Family Yoga Off The Mat
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I based the idea for ‘Yoga for Families’ on the concept of encouraging family members to increase communication, which then allows them to strengthen relationships. The purpose being that we are then better able to support each other in our true passions, which then encourages each individual to reach their fullest potential.
This week I write about doing some yoga with my own family, and since we are 3000 miles apart, we are practicing yoga off the mat.
Last year, when I decided that a blog/newsletter was the best way to communicate my ideas about ‘Yoga for Families’, my fingers started to shake each time I came close to my keyboard to write. After excelling in math and physics in high school, but struggling to write purposeful and effective essays in English class, I knew I was going to need some help. I wanted to be able to communicate a message with clarity and accuracy so that the message was always best interpreted.
As I looked around, I remembered that my uncle had spent his career as a high school English teacher, and was always walking around with a pen and note card in his shirt pocket to jot down the latest idea for his next book. Uncle Fred (same last name) has been retired for many years, now spending his time writing novels and keeping in touch with the family via email.
I asked Uncle Fred if he would be willing to review my blogs before they went out each week and correct them for both grammar as well as story fluidity. This was great since it is often hard to correct one’s own work, and simply having another set of eyes on the work would prove to be invaluable.
What I have found over the past few months is that by having a project that we can work on together, we have increased our regular communication, strengthened our relationship, and supported each other in our true passions. With the encouragement of my uncle, I feel that I can reach the 1500+ people on my mailing list with efficacy and strength. I feel confident to help change their yoga practice, and through that, hopefully change their lives.
In addition, what I have also realized during our working together, is that the 3000 miles that keeps us apart between New York and Los Angeles, have no way affected our ability to practice yoga together. Yoga means union, and I have at no other time in my life felt closer and more connected to my uncle who is 41 years my elder.
At the same time, I have learned more about my uncle’s passion for writing, and have recently read the two books that he had published many years ago. It is with great pride that I endorse his publications in my newsletter this month.
It is with this good experience that I encourage you to look for projects that you can work on with your family members. Is there a weakness in your repertoire that can be filled in by someone else’s strong suit? By working together, two heads most often are greater than one, and by working together, we begin to build synergies between us.
See if one of these projects can also incorporate one of your or his/her passions, since you never know where this project can end up, and how it can help the both of you. By working with my uncle, he has not only helped me, but by reading his books, I learned more about his writing and interpretation of our life’s events. In the process, I have also learned a lot about myself and our family history.
If deeper family connection and support wasn’t valuable enough, we also can be aware that in hard economic times, we may be reluctant to pay for a service. If we take the time to look around, that skill may be sitting right under our nose, or on another branch of the family tree.
Love and peace,
Ingrid
Posted by Ingrid on 04/05 at 05:54 AM
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