Chapter 2

Life isn't a race. You're not in competition with anyone, including yourself. It isn't any better if you get there in a big rush. In fact, it might just be more fun to savor each step of the journey. In the mad dash for faster, bigger, better, and just generally more we may lose sight of the real reason why we are here. Love. Pure and simple. We are here to love each other. When you find yourself running to some self-created goal or judging yourself by some external metric, remember that all that matters is the love you share. What matters is how you treat people, not whether you're the leader of the pack. If you want to be truly first then learn to serve. If you want people to respect you, then respect them first. If you run someone over on the road to enlightenment that defeats the whole propose of the journey.

It's just not cool to be a self-important diva on the spiritual stage of life. You might shine like a shooting star, but you'll burn up all your friends. With a fierce blaze and tunnel vision towards your goal you may think you did it all by sheer will power. But you always stand on someone's shoulders. You are not alone. You are not a one-person show. Life is a patchwork of many different people coming together like a symphony. Even if you think you're destined to be the soloist, what makes it possible for you to shine is the whole orchestra, the stage production crew, the house manager, the audience. And when the show is over what matters more than any fleeting moment of fame is the love you've shared along the way. To be humble, to be kind, to lend a helping hand, to speak words of life, to offer blessings, to respect yourself and others. To live is to love. Everything else passes away, but love you share lasts forever. Some days I feel like a hero for even getting on my mat. After 12 hours of sleep I crawled on my mat for a very lazy, sleepy primary series. Practice doesn't need to be perfect, you just need to get on your mat. Get on your mat. Even five minutes has the power to change your day, clear out troubling emotions and set your intention to live a more peaceful life.

There is an unlimited amount of happiness in the world. It is not a finite resource to be guarded under lock and key. The more you give the more you have. Happiness spreads, multiplies and grows when you share it. People around you notice it, feel it and are positively effected. What blocks you from happiness is almost always some internal obstacle, rarely anything outside of ourselves despite how tempting it is to blame external circumstance. Happiness is always waiting for you on the other side of anger, judgment or depression. It sits there like a secret prize for you to claim when you're ready to drop the struggle and surrender. Think about this: how many times have you ruined a day by taking something personably, speaking harsh words, being overly critical, unforgiving or just generally sour. What was stopping you from being happy? Hold no grudges, forgive easily. Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response. Choose moment to moment to love the life you live

The most important thing to understand is that you are responsible for your own happiness. Don't wait around for someone or something to change before you allow yourself be happy. Feel yourself as whole and completed, powerful and pure. Find the keys to your own happiness in the garden of your heart. Yoga is personal practice, a daily discipline, a devotional activity dedicated to the highest truth within. Yoga is a slow, steady turning inward of the awareness so that you directly experience the infinite depth of the innermost self within. Once you touch that space you carry the seed of peace with you in every moment of your life. Life is a divine mystery waiting to be revealed to you. Listen with stillness, hear with love, see with power, feel with depth. It's all there right under your fingertips, hiding in the flowers. 

I used to think I would be happy one day when I got everything I wanted, one day when I checked off all the boxes on my bucket list. But the list just keeps growing and there is always some new desire. If you base your happiness in an accumulation of material possessions or worldly achievements they will eventually either and leave you empty. The endless quest for the momentary happiness from the material world is like an addictive cycle of searching for the next big thing. It always feel like you're just around the corner of some big breakthrough that you have to keep striving for. True happiness is a decision to embrace yourself and your life exactly as you are, a choice to let love win against all odds, to see the beam of light shining trough the darkness. Let yourself be filled up with love and shine from the inside out

Nothing in this world completes you. You are already whole and pure in the eyes of spirit. You are a spiritual being with boundless energy. You have everything you need. Stop the struggle. Relax. Breathe. Be happy. I woke up extra early this morning to practice before teaching. When my alarm when off I wanted desperately to snooze. But I got up because I know that those ten minutes on my mat are worth more than ten minutes on the pillow. Taking time for yourself can be hard, but you have to do it. The busier you get the more it seems like there is no time to take care of yourself. But somehow if you claim as little as five minutes a day for yourself there is suddenly time for everything else

There is a fine line between self-care and selfishness. Some people will give and give until they break. Other people will always put themselves first no matter what. Find the narrow road between these two extremes. Make time enough for yourself to recharge, but be willing to give and sacrifice when it's needed. Identify what your spiritual needs are and then prioritize those moments of restoration. For me silence and solitude are healing and if I don't have a few moments of total quiet each day I tend to go a little crazy. Every moment of exhaustion is a cry of the soul. Every traffic jam is a spiritual problem. Do your practice every day so that you're strong enough never to lose sight of your center as the world spins around you. Let yourself be filled up with from the inside with the pure light of spirit so that your cup overflows. 

Infinite patience brings immediate results. If you're willing to wait it out, let it take the time it takes, not rush it, then all things are possible. I am, however, not a naturally patient person. When I have an idea that I am excited about I usually want it to happen yesterday. I dream and there is no way that I can control all the moving parts that are necessary for my dreams to come to fruition. I have to sit tight while the dream unfolds around me. With unwavering faith and the humility to put in the work little by little each day, all things are possible. Who you are is who you are meant to be. We are all really just walking the long road home, to the center of ourselves. 

So many students push their bodies towards an asana goal only to get injured along the way, myself included. Rushing the journey into the inner body only creates more of the same tension that caused the body to close up and lock down in the first place. The body heals when it feels safe. Pain, tightness and weakness are all messages from the body. Yoga teaches you how to listen to the body's language and feel the subtlety and beauty of your inner body. Yoga is a road back to the center of yourself. You can run if you want to, but isn't it nicer to stop and smell the flowers, share a few moments of intimacy and cherish the journey? 

Some experiences are so deep that they leave you forever changed. You feel reborn, refreshed, renewed, restored.  After my first ten day meditation retreat the world literally looked brand-new. I felt like a new person, like the same old-me did not come back. That doesn’t mean that every person immediately validated the change and related to this “new” person. One of the most frustrating things along the spiritual path is the delay response between the subtle inner shifts and material world. It can be painful to see the cycles of suffering that your old patterns have caused and feel stuck there even after climbing mountains within. Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi says that spiritual practice remains incomplete if we desire to stay at the top of the “flagpole". Once we reach the top of the 100 foot flagpole that epitomizes peak spiritual experiences we have to jump off. This vacillation between the soaring heights and the gritty world below is meant to deepen our understanding of both the inner path and its integration with the material world.

It takes strength and steadiness to hold true to the new patterns while standing in the midst of a swirling vortex initiated in the past. But in many ways the true test of integration only happens when you come down from the mountain top of peak experiences and integrate those lessons with life. Vertical growth along the spiritual path cannot be disassociated from horizontal growth with the world around you. The spiritual path is a heroic battle for the true self. The site of this battle is at once happening in the depths of the inner realms and the ordinary minutia of the outer world. Once you experience the deepest level of truth you are forever changed and going back to your old ways simply isn’t an option. You will simply find it necessary to live your life according to a new and higher sense of alignment. Small things like folding the clothes properly, doing the dishes, sweeping the floor suddenly matter. Every single human interaction matters. Every word spoken in love heals. Every thought held in love is a bridge. Every act done in love is devotion. Life is love in action. 

A fire in the sky.... Look around you, the pages of your soul are written in your world. What you think is impossible will one day be easy. Faith, strength and grace are the keys to the kingdom. Look in your heart to find the narrow road home. The follow it all the way to heaven.

Life is simple. Or at least it can be when you turn the mind inwards, let go of all your problems and just breathe. You have everything you need. All is good, even when it seems to be falling apart. In the infinite space of the heart there is a sanctuary filled with imperturbable peace. Tune in and drop down into that sacred space at least once a day. When it all comes down to what really matters it's never about the to-do list, it's always about love. Love yourself, love your world. Give yourself permission to be happy, to live the life you love. Love is the simple expression of the human spirit at its highest potential... graceful, strong, elegant, beautiful, resplendent, patient, humble and kind. Love Is who you are. Love is everywhere. Look around. 

Most things are beyond your control. Especially the things you really want, the desires you're most attached to, those are all just outside the realm of what you can control. What do you do when faced with by an impossible situation? You can't quit and walk away because that leaves you feeling defeated. But you can learn to surrender. The difference between surrender and quitting is a matter of faith. Quitting is a depressing state that drags you down and can sometimes stem from the belief that world is against you or that you have failed. Surrendering is a relinquishing of the false notion of the ego's power and a letting go and trusting the true power of God

Next time you're faced with a problem in your life try this. Turn over the control to God. Let go, but do not quit or harbor any resentment. Pray, ask for guidance and wait for the answer. Do not try to fix it, take no action from a state of ego, let nothing get you down emotionally, remain equanimous. When you get a clear sign then accept the answer you get and find meaning in it, even if it means you have to start the journey of whatever it is you're working on all over again. Sometimes your greatest strength is in letting go, walking away and turning it over. Sometimes there is nothing left to do but breathe. The best things in life are never acts of ego, but things we receive through grace. Love, laughter and friendship are all gifts and blessings for us to receive. We may nurture and appreciate them, but never bend them to our ego's will. I always thought I was too hyper to meditate. Calm was not a state that I ever really experienced before yoga. But the mind is like a muscle. It responds to consistent practice. I sit in meditation practice for between five and twenty minutes every day. I have done that for the last 12 years of my life. The only time I stopped was when I needed it the most, when a period of depression took me down darker than I have ever been before. The first step out of that darkness began with reclaiming those few moments of silent inner connection each day. Meditation starts with concentration. Only the still and directed mind can perceive the deepest level of truth. Once the mind becomes fit for concentration then it can enter states of meditation that include the possibility of a direct perception of the depths of the inner self.

the practice of concentrating the mind and stilling the mental waves is a timeless practice. Stillness is a skill that you can cultivate. A strong mind is your most powerful tool. As little as five minutes a day can change you life. Start today, pause, breathe, and be you. Set your gaze on the horizon of the inner self and you will see the flames of spirit illuminated within.