Chapter 26

All is good. Even when it seems bad, it's still good. If you haven't seen the light then keep searching because it's there. Or as they say, if it's not ok, it's not over. Don't give up. There is a solution to every problem. Everything is happening at just the right time. You can't control it all. Sometimes letting go and turning it over is the hardest step. It's all good. Make your peace with even the darkest places inside yourself and you make your peace with even the darkest experiences around you. Be peace. Be a light of love. Be a yogi.

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Santosha Tips: 

1. Focus on the solution not the problem. Thinking about all that's wrong will only make the issue bigger than it is.

2. Breathe. Ten deep breaths helps you tune into the present moment. Life is simple, problems are complicated. No matter how bad it gets there is always the simplicity of the breath.

3. Turn it over. Ask yourself if you're trying to control all the details and then realize wonderfully that you can't. You can't control other people or the outcomes. You can only show up, do your best, give your all and let it go. 

Practice every day and live the yogi life. 

I'm sensitive. I hear everything that is said and feel everything that is unsaid. Sometimes that's good and sometimes it's bad. It's good when I get an early indication of how someone is feeling and can offer a hug or a kind word. But it's bad when I take everything personally and rehash mean, spiteful comments. And you know what I realize. We are all sensitive. We all feel. Perhaps more than we really like to admit. Some of us wear our feelings on our sleeves. Others keep our feelings more to ourselves. But we all feel it all. Every word that is spoken has power, power to build or to destroy, to lift up or bring down. Listen to your feelings, feel it in your gut, heed the aches of your heart. Get comfortable with your sensitivity. Be vulnerable. Our true strength isn't about stuffing and hiding away our feelings. Our true strength is about feeling it all. Yoga teaches you how to feel your body, your mind and your emotions from the inside out. First you must become intimate with yourself, accept and love yourself fully. Then you can accept and love your whole world. �'-

Sensitivity Tips

1. Listen with your body - Is there a situation that just thinking about makes you feel tight and uncomfortable? If so, your body might be telling you that it's not right. Usually if it doesn't feel it, it isn't right. You may need to make some changes.

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2. Accept your sensitivity - Recognize your own sensitivity and accept it. Don't fight it or try to make yourself all tough. Just be brave enough to be vulnerable.

3. Quiet Reflection - make time each day to practice, sit in silence and be with yourself. Feel your body and mind in total peace and acceptance. 

4. Be sensitive with others - Speak kind words, empathize, expand your heart, and listen.

​Your voice, your vote counts. Just think, less than 100 years ago women didn't have the right to vote. Too many people have fought for too long for you to be able to exercise your right to vote. While this election cycle has left many disillusioned, horrified, traumatized and fearful, exercising your right to vote is an act of faith. The dream of democracy might seem empty in the broken promises of our politicians but the dream lives and breaths when you vote. We need healing as a nation, and, as Americans, we need each other. Not more divisions, not more blaming, not more hate. No matter who wins we need more love, more togetherness, more respect, more sharing, more community, more people who are audacious enough to hope, more souls who dream of peace. We are spirit, we are bright, we are limitless, we are strong, we are fierce. Go out and vote your conscience today and tomorrow reach across the divisive lines and stand together with all Americans as one people, united not by the color of our skin, but by the dream of freedom, justice and liberty for all. 

The thing is, we all believe somewhere inside that what we are doing is right, even in moments when we are wrong. We stumble, we fall, we make mistakes, we tune out when we should tune in. What matters isn't getting it right or being perfect. What matters is having the grace to admit your mistakes and the grit to get back up and try again, rise up again, stronger, brighter and full of stubborn hope. 

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Close your eyes, tune in to a quiet place of wisdom, and dare to dream your dream. This is your world, your voice, and every single second matters. Every action is a chance to start anew. Every choice is filled with meaning and responsibility. 

Let me live for one more moment in the dream of love so I can wake up filled with its greatness and devote my life to making it real. Let me be filled with idealism and inspiration and never flame out or go dull. Let me stay to fight the good fight and not cower down in the corner of fear. Let me stand tall in the face of adversity with a humble heart and claim the ground of freedom. Let me stare down fear and injustice with purity and truth. I will not go quietly into that good night. I will not be silenced. I will never give up. I will dream. I will shine. I will fly.

Practice isn't always glamorous or fancy. It's not always a perfect video edited with no mistakes. Sure sometimes it feels like you're floating and everything just flows. But really more often than not it's just practice. Humble. Pure. Honest. Raw. Real. Like life. If we're afraid as yogis to show our flaws that sets a standard of false perfection up for others. If we always have the perfect practice out there, like a game face that wears the style of yoga, then what we are we really saying about the practice? You cannot judge yourself or your practice by the shapes you make. A deep backbend doesn't mean you're enlightened. A rockin' handstand doesn't mean you are spiritually evolved. Wearing the right clothes, ticking off the right boxes for what you should do, and creating an image isn't what yoga is about. It's about the truth of your heart, laid bare, vulnerable and real, fierce and wounded, loving and wise. It's about grace and grit. It's about loving yourself when you fall and when you're injured and need to heal. It's about kindness, gentleness, patience. Not as an accoutrement, not as a badge you wear, but as an action in your life. You can only get there by quieting the mind and truly listening to your body, your soul, your world. 

1. Listen to your body when you practice. Don't force. Don't quit. Listen and follow. 

2. Listen to someone else, preferably someone you don't agree with. Listen respectfully and open your heart. 

3. Listen to the world. Go out in your world, in nature, in a city, close your eyes and just listen.