Seasonal love

In the spring, I want you
Like a strawberry
Decadent, overflowing, ripe
And I'll eat you up, seeds and all
Filled with sweetness
Morning, afternoon, and night
In the summer, I want you
Like a watermelon
Cut open, juicy, stain my hands and face
In the middle of the day refresh me
I'll fill you up with liquor and take you
At night, edges dipped in salt
In the fall, I want you
Like an apple
Out in nature, in the trees
On my break or after dinner
Easy as pie, in my hand
Keep the doctor away, I want you once a day
In the winter, I want you
Like an orange
Peel off a layer before you're mine
Remind me of sweetness in the rain
Take you apart and enjoy you slowly
Start my day off right, then clean up the mess
Every day, I want you
3-5 servings per day
7 days a week
Keep it fresh, keep me satisfied
And I used to think I wasn't a fruit person.

The Beauty of Imbalance

I'm breaking out, I'm on my period for the second time this month, I can't do inversions because of that and inversions are my favorite, the girl sitting next to me brought pretzel thins for a snack and chews with her mouth open, I have a headache, I ate like crap this weekend, I barely went to any yoga classes this week, I'm losing my connection, I'm out of balance.

It was a rough weekend.

But it is still life.  This is still my yoga.  But it's not beautiful, backbendy, blissed out yoga.  It is like utkatasana (chair pose): uncomfortable, difficult, and it lasts longer than I ever think necessary.

I like backbending bliss so much better.

But these times in our life are part of the natural flow of energy, ebbing and flowing and dancing around (albeit sloppily) to create our reality.  My challenge isn't to do another arm balance or to go deeper into a hip opener, my challenge is the hard stuff.  The poses you hate the most are the ones you should do the most because you need them.  We need to connect with this seemingly negative energy because it has so much to teach us.

I had a shitty weekend.  But I learned how I handle it, I learned I'm strong enough to get through it, I learned that there is enough of the good to overshadow the bad if I really look for it.  I learned that what hurts is beautiful, just as beautiful as what feels good.

During our anatomy lecture recently we were discussing scoliosis (when the spine curves at varying degrees causing postural problems and, when very severe, health issues.)  No one wants to have a health problem or a hunchback.  No yoga teacher wants to have a disrupted practice because their spine won't allow them the same range of motion on both sides.  Scoliosis seemingly sucks.  But our teacher stopped mid-lecture and said how she always found scoliosis kind of beautiful.  Look how much your body will adjust for you so you can face the world straight on.  You may be imbalanced, but your body makes it work, it finds a way, it moves you so that you can still stand.

Imbalance is incredibly beautiful if you take a step back and look at the big picture.  Without the hard stuff there wouldn't be bliss.  If I didn't do chair pose I wouldn't have the leg strength to ground myself in back bends.  If we didn't curve a little we'd all be staring out at the world sideways.

Wouldn't that be silly?

Bathtub Sharks

It is a known fact that most fish will continue to grow up until the day that they die. It is also a known fact that most fish will grow and adapt to the size of their habitat. So, reasonably speaking, I could take a baby shark and keep it in my bathtub and be the proud owner of a ferocious yet tub-sized animal. But I would never do that to a shark; I would never limit it's capacity to my bathroom when I know that someday if given the right home it could grow into a 10 foot long badass who gets featured on Shark Week.

It is a little known fact that the human mind will continue to grow up until the day that we die. It is just as true that the human mind will adapt to it's surroundings, only growing big enough to fit into the confines of the space provided. And we all confine ourselves with "what we know." The only thing we KNOW is what we have experienced directly, which is often not much. The rest of our beliefs rest on inference - what we think makes sense, or what society deems as truth, or a specific dogma that has been grasped onto. And in grasping on to what we "know," we lose the opportunity to embrace something new. If we let go of our mental constraints and start to open our eyes to something new, we open ourselves to growth that we may not have realized was possible in the little bathtub of supposed truth. Outside of that bathtub is an ocean of experience and possibility.

Are you a bathtub shark, or an ocean shark?

Love :)

On being an ocean

"...on being an ocean.

You are vast. Give like you've got enough.
You are powerful. Roar when you need to.
You are flexible. Change when you feel like it.
You are alive. Treat yourself with the respect you deserve.
You are naturally balanced. Be mindful of what you add to your life.
You are finite. Remember not to trash your future for today's pleasure.
You are more beautiful than any language can describe. Be beautiful."

Today is Ok

Because you are strong you'll have good days. Because you are human you'll have bad days. You're challenge is to be okay with both, to be able to look back on either of these kinds of day and say 'I'm still moving forward.'

Getting into the spirit

Sometimes you have to bust out the Christmas socks and play model with your best friend. Don't fight the silliness!! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :)

If is an ugly word

If you meditate every day you will be enlightened.

If you go to church every week you will earn God'd love.

If you call in the next 30 minutes you can get the Magic Bullet for just one easy payment of $19.99!

So what if...I don't?

What if I do it my way?

Can I still have peace?

Can I still have love?

Can I still have homemade salsa?

So maybe you don't own lululemon pants, and you're not a vegan, and sitting still is hard, and you're not very good at yoga.  Do you see past the structure sometimes and witness the love that created it? Do you sometimes eat a salad because you heard on the news that meat is bad for the environment? Do you have a mat at home and sometimes lay on it for a few minutes in your pjs and then leave it feeling better that you tried something new? You're already enlightened.

And maybe you have never spoken to God or you don't believe. Maybe the thought of a bearded man watching you eat Oreos on Sunday morning makes you uncomfortable. Maybe you went to church to make your parents happy and never looked back after high school. But have you held the door for someone who had their hands full? Have you shared an umbrella in the rain? Do you sometimes wake up in the morning, look out your window and revel in the beauty that you were blessed with? Then you already know the love of something bigger than you.

I'm not going to wax philosophical about the Magic Bullet, just get a food processor and a few tomatoes and peppers, I promise you'll never go back to jarred salsa.

I digress.

We are if-ing ourselves to death and kidding ourselves into thinking that somehow we are never quite good enough. But there is literally nothing that you need that is more than what you have right now. There is nothing you can add to make your life more beautiful than you are experiencing it today.

There is nothing you can do to be a better version of you. No ifs about it.

Sing out. Be free.

Janssen :)