It only takes 10 minutes to change your life

Wow, that's quite a promise.  I can hear the spirit of Billie Mays right now..."You, too, can achieve A-mazing results in only 10 minutes a day..."

Operators are standing by.

I mentioned in the last blog that injury has been slowing me down, allowing me to evaluate bits and pieces of my life - what I thought my life should be versus what it is.  Pain has been a great motivator for intraspection.  One of the changes that emerged was writing this blog.  Another recent change has been stretching and improving my flexibility...REALITY CHECK...it's more about keeping the limited flexibility that I have rather than improving it.

In my eagerness to get over my back injury, I joined a yoga class.    I got a physical therapist's release notice. I worked with the yoga instructor to modify my positions.  The group sessions were almost an hour and a half.  I knew better, but tried to keep up.  By the third session, I was experiencing muscle spasms and spinal cord entrapment all over again, thankfully not as severe as in the autumn, but significant.

I decided to honor my body's message and bowed out of the class.  For 15 days my new yoga routine was stretch gently, ice back and butt, sit up straight, lay down, groan. Stand and rock from side to side.  Repeat hourly.

Is all lost?  No.  I learned many things. I still practice Yoga, but it's not about the positions. It's about Mindfulness.  Simplicity.  Breathing.  Honoring....and it's about the positions.

I wake up about 20 minutes earlier now.  I use the Zen timer on my IPad to chime the minutes for a 10-minute session.  I start in child's pose, my forehead on the ground, gently feeling my body relax into my back.  I slowly move from one floor position to another, the positions I know will honor my body, ending in the corpse pose, arms relaxed and palms up, heart wide open.

I've only done this for two days.  I missed the routine this morning when I woke up late.

God, how I missed it!  Only two days, ten minutes each day, and I crave it - it was THAT good and it lasted all day.  It doesn't take much to change.  Just listen.

Lord, help me to keep honoring myself each day.  Help me to remember the feel of each action, each thought, each feeling that empowers me.  Thank you for using my body as another vehicle to communicate with me.  Gently remind me to listen and live in my higher self.  Thank you.

Majeeda Rosa

The Enemy of Good is Perfect

It's been a few weeks. I made a commitment to myself that I would post this blog weekly. The occasional delay...acceptable.

OMG. I've missed two weeks. I almost didn't write tonight; the gaping absence of postings was building into a blanket of undesirable "shoulds."

How hard it is to live up to my own expectations. I hold myself to a higher standard in ways I would never expect from someone else under the same conditions. I wind up practicing catastrophic thinking and use the "F" word:

FAILED

Thpppt! Get over it! Failure? Let's try a different F-word:

Forgiveness

I've had good reason to be distracted this month, illness and injury. Time to practice self-compassion. How do I practice it for others? I put myself in their shoes...since I'm already there, the next best thing is to step out of them! A little objectivity is good for this situation.

Majeeda, relax. Every commitment has an escape clause, it's called humanity. Sometimes you're going to fall down. In the falling we learn about ourselves. In the getting-back-up we learn about ourselves. In the doing of whatever we strive toward, we put the puzzle pieces of our destiny together until that destiny becomes clear. Every action, every moment, every thought counts. There is no failure, only striving. Do what you are meant to do.

Wow. Sometimes I give some really good advice to myself :)

Thank you Great Mother of us all. Your guidance is so needed and so appreciated. Thank you for opening my mind and heart so that I may listen carefully to your words and live them. Forgiveness. Compassion. Love. Destiny.

Majeeda Rosa