Thursday Musing

"The secret lies in our own breath.  Through breathing exercises, certain breathing techniques and some practice of meditation, we can rekindle positive vibrations within and around us."
~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Founder of the Art of Living Foundation

Image source:  subscription emails from the Art of Living Foundation.
Subscribe to Guru-ji's wisdom here:  http://www.artoflivinguniverse.org/2012/12/art-of-living-free-subscriptions.html?m=1

Wednesday Wisdom

"The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man."
~ Euripides

xoxo

Foxy

Source:  Yoga for Yogi's Instagram account
Image source:  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/126100858293691384/

Inspiration Friday

"Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the soul the work of the soul, and good for either the work of the other."
~ Henry David Thoreau

xoxo

Foxy

Image source:  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82824080619529449/

Friday Musing

"To acquire balance means to achieve that happy medium between the minimum and the maximum that represents your optimum"
~ Nido Qubein

xoxo

Foxy

Image source:  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/88312842665428856/

Heart Garden

Plant gratitude-seeds
inside your heart-garden
your life will be beautiful
and fruitful
with glowing deeds

~ Sri Chinmoy

xoxo

Foxy

Image source:  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/98234835598860293/

Quick Update

This does what it says on the box:  it's a quick update.

I didn't go to the gym this weekend - it was quite a busy one - so I did a little bit of yoga at home.  I mostly spent the weekend making jewellery, doing household chores and recharging my batteries.

I have been spending quite a bit of time making mala bead necklaces.  This is a hugely meditative process and one I have enjoyed.  I began my process by buying beads that were attractive to me and planned the final product according to available materials.  My first few hours of this endeavour were experimental and filled with optimism.  I saw online that one can tie knots between each bead, which I tried.  That resulted in a very time-consuming process, which I expected and didn't mind,  The result I was achieving was disappointing so I put that first endeavour to one side and started again.  This time I didn't tie knots between each bead, but after each set of 27 beads.  This achieved much more pleasing results and, admittedly, took less time, which was a bonus.

The important part of this whole process is the materials.  I bought quite a few small packets of wooden beads.  These are interesting because they are not uniform in shape, colour, size or texture.  I started to choose beads based on appearance to try and exclude any beads which were not aesthetically pleasing because of a mark or an odd shape.  Despite the fact that the final product is beautiful, and I am incredibly happy with the mala, I realised that I was trying to make it as perfect as possible by disregarding beads with small flaws.  I think this is a metaphor for my life, and probably for life in general.

We prefer to choose beautiful moments to string together to display and to tell our life's story.  We would prefer to disregard the difficult, ugly, challenging parts of our lives;  to hide them away and to pretend that they don't exist.

I gave up on choosing perfect beads and have made a mala with all of the beads that I disregarded while making my first two malas.  The result is one lovely, very unique mala necklace.  I now wear this mala with various combinations of my crystal pendants (that I sourced all the way from Knysna), and I love the way it looks and feels.

My mala beads - super chuffed with this piece.

xoxo

Foxy

Image is my own

Soulful Saturday

"The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there."
~ Robert M. Pirsig

xoxo

Foxy

Image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/88312842664492784/
Photo by Julien Balmer of Visual Spectrum

Friday Gratitude

"Yoga is a light, which once lit, will never dim.  The better your practice, the brighter the flame."
~ B.K.S Iyengar

xoxo

Foxy

Image source:  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/126100858289700109/

Wednesday Wisdom

"Move your joints every day.  You have to find your own tricks.  Bury your mind deep in your heart, and watch the body move by itself."
~ Sri Dharma Mittra

xoxo

Foxy

Image source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/yoga-health-benefits_n_4768746.html

Thursday Pondering

No winter lasts forever;  no spring skips its turn.
~ Hal Borland

xoxo

Foxy

Tao Te Ching Wisdom

"If you want to shrink something,
you must first allow it to expand.
If you want to get rid of something,
you must first allow it to flourish."
~ Tao Te Ching

From a Veronica Krestow video called "How Letting Go May Be Keeping You Stuck"

xoxo

Foxy

Quick Update

Life has been a bit chaotic over the last few weeks, and thus my level of motivation to go to the gym and do yoga has been at a record low.  Combined with exhaustion, sleep deprivation, visits to the chiropractor and an oncoming flu, last week left me wanting to hibernate for a while.  I have been guzzling tea, hot water with a honey-cinnamon mix, and home-made butternut soup.  

I went to my usual yoga class on Sunday and really felt the effects of a lack of yoga and exercise.  I definitely needed that practice and I'm so pleased that I attended, despite the terrible cold and rainy weather.  I felt refreshed and relaxed afterwards.

This week, the focus is to return to the gym, get back into regular exercise and yoga practice because I hate the way I have been feeling lately.

I have bigger goals which I would like to work on, and need to go about finding help to do this.

xoxo

Foxy

Unhappy spine

I visited the chiropractor again yesterday and she said: "lovey, your muscles are as hard as my floor boards". For a bodybuilder, this would ordinarily be a compliment, but alas this was not the case here.

She expected my back to be a bit out of sorts because of my recently chaotic work schedule and long hours, but I think the state of my spine and its muscles was worse than anticipated.

The always excellent doctor did some acupuncture and pushed and cracked me back into place to get some movement, as she calls it. But because she is not yet completely happy with the range of movement and the tension in the muscles, I'm booked for another session next week. I am thus not to do anything stupid or extreme with my yogi body this weekend.

My back, neck, shoulders and trapezius muscles are all so sore.

I miss my yoga.

In addition to all the pain, because I'm tired and my immune system is run down, I'm catching a cold. I went to the pharmacy earlier to stock up on flu medication - only going to the doctor if I feel like the situation is antibiotics-level serious.

It definitely feels and looks like autumn outside, which ordinarily I'd love. And it's a long weekend, and it's Easter, and my birthday soon. Many reasons to be thankful and cheerful.

Trying to remind myself of this while I find some crafty projects to keep myself busy and make this a productive weekend.

xoxo

Foxy

Thursday Pondering

"Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You've got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it."
~ Ray Bradbury

xoxo

Foxy

Monday Inspiration

"Accept - then act.  Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.  Always work with it, not against it."
~ Eckhart Tolle

xoxo

Foxy

Friday Gratitude

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love"
~ Marcus Aurelius

xoxo

Foxy

Thursday Inspiration

"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us."
~ Joseph Campbell

 

xoxo

 

Foxy

Wednesday Mantra

"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain."
~ Joseph Campbell

xoxo

Foxy

Meditation

"Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger, and that is very healing.  We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work."
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

xoxo

Foxy

Image source:  Facebook (unsure of exact page)

Find Your Bliss

"If you open your heart and become like a child, you will always be blissful, always content."
~ Sri Dharma Mittra

xoxo

Foxy

Image source:  Earthseed Yoga http://earthseedyoga.com/2014/08/19/yoga-101-is-back-2-basics-this-fall/