Always love.

Always love.

There's a difference between being vulnerable and loving deeply, and giving away your power. In vulnerability, the power is in the one who submits. There’s a lot to be learned from that.

Christine U

Restless Spirit Hours the Week of December 16th...

Come in for a visit and let's chat! We'll sit here and do cards or a session for your deepening. Or we'll sit in meditation in the space right behind me and let Grace take over. Whatever it is that you would like to do, Restless Spirit is a very harmonious, spiritual place and you are welcome anytime to come talk with me! 

I'm planning to be in the studio Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 11-7pm, and maybe Friday. Oh of course it all depends on the weather.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I have some appointments so I'll be there for sure. Text me to make sure I'm available at the time you want to drop in.

Hope to see you all soon!

Remember to book your appointments with me here or email, or by texting or calling. Thx.

How corporations fool us every time! Why are we so surprised?!

Photo: click to article about the tactics of lululemon founder chip wilson! (Use your back button to get back to this page)

And no I'm NOT wearing their clothing!

My response to this article:

If you ever looked closely at the corporate culture of this place (can't even say the name) it was never meant to embrace the "values" of yoga. It was a marketing ploy - as simple as that. And it worked. Why? Because it never really embraced the depth of the "values" of yoga and was a marketing ploy.

Chip wanted to turn it into a cult and it almost happened - only stopped by the constant stream of people leaving the place.

I sold my soul and became an ambassador years ago. What did it get me? Not much - except $1000 worth of clothing which at the time was great because I was poor and couldn't afford anything let alone at their prices. I've stopped wearing their stuff the minute I got a whiff of their cultish corporate tactics.
I worked with them for three years and tried to instill a yoga-sensability to no avail. I was the only one who tried to encourage participants to bring the only "payment" asked of them (on the website) for the Sunday yoga class which was a dry or canned good for the food bank. Only one person would bring anything every week out of sometimes 30+ people. I was appalled. There was no encouragement from the staff and I sometimes got looks. This to me was fostering a selfish, ego-driven, entitled culture of lemons and I wanted no part of it.

So yoga values - what are those anyway? Telling us to "breathe"? "Be Happy"? "Do one thing that scares you". These are not yoga values. The New Age equivalent of yoga values. You ate it up. That's why they're so successful. What a great marketing ploy!

To Chip and the lemons yoga values meant one thing and that was looking good in your expensive enviable yoga gear even if you didn't do yoga.

Practicing: Loving 1st Series

Urdhva Muka Paschimottanasana

Loving 1st Series again! Practicing in LA.

How to Book My Services...

You can book me for: Private Yoga, Mediation, Deep Immersion Program or Therapy (short or regular sessions available)

Book My Services Online here!

You can email me and ask any questions about the services anytime: 1restlessspirit@gmail.com

Namaste

Christine

Ashtanga - Primary Series - Practice

The past two weeks, I have focused on the Primary Series. Haven't done it - consistently - for a while. Wanted to get back into it - really missed it. It was so hard to do in the beginning years ago when I first started to practice. My body and system did not like all the forward bends. It really effected me - and not in a good way. I remember how I would not be able to do ALL of the postures. It took years upon years of practice to get me to a point of feeling good in the practice.

But it came at a price. I mangled my body and stressed it out just by working into the postures.

I have a very sensitive system - even my bodyworker whether it is a chiropractor/thai massage/SOT therapist, says that my body has extreme reactions to adjustments. In other words, the work that I do in my practice can really set off a chain reaction of pain. Shoulder pain, back pain. Stiff neck and back. Sore hips and aching legs. So I had to lay off for a while.

Now - it's all back. The shoulder pain especially. It's because my right shoulder leans more into the forward bends and it puts it out every time. Even when I am totally conscious of it.

That's a part of the practice then isn't it. The physical practice is easier - I know the postures I can get into easily, I know the postures I can get into with some effort, and I know the postures, for my body's sack, I shouldn't push. It is a part of the practice to know these things.

I need to work like this for a while and let my body slowly work out the kinks again.

I know that if I were in Mysore practice I would try to push myself too much - spurred on by the energy of the room. Although I really love that - being with all those people. It has never served me.

Today I practice quietly in my home - I've got a great little spot - breathing and working through the aches in my body with a clear and calm mind. I do not push. I listen and learn. And I love every minute of it!

Peace!

“I Don’t Know” #1

The Creative Process needs a kind of openness akin to what the Spiritual Practice needs in order to see what is truly ‘there’.

This article, written on this site: http://99u.com/articles/15339/the-joy-of-creative-ignorance-embracing-uncertainty-in-your-day-to-dayspeaks from the writer’s pov – or rather advises writers to have an “I don”t know” stance when approaching their work.

This kind of “I don’t know” recipe for the creative process is Inherent In Spiritual Practice. It isn’t a new idea even when Keats was around. One of the best books on the subject of “I don’t know” is “Zen Mind. Beginners Mind”. The Spiritual Practice needs a mind that has no attachment to identity. No Strings attached to Outcome. When the mind is free, It opens the heart. In an all-embracing attitude possibilities are endless.

Yogas Citta Vrtti Nirodhah - Yoga Sutra #2

Yoga is "the control of thought waves of the mind" - as one translation of the Second Yoga Sutra states. Mr. Iyengar puts it another way, "Yoga is the cessation of movements in the consciousness." Sri Swami Satchitananda says it this way, that Yogas Citta Vrtti Nirodhah translates as "the restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga."

Stopping Your Thoughts

So . . . What now? What do I have to do? It sounds like your thoughts are like horses and all you have to do is build a fence around them and they'll stay corralled and under control. Or they're like a swarm of mosquitos; unlikable, pesky things that you shoo away with all get-out with some kind of fly swatter or bug repellent (the soy kind). Or perhaps more like a barking dog tied to a post and hopefully you can find the muzzle. Hmmm - I don't know how to do that with my thoughts. Do you? Do I deal with each thought separately or do I lump them all together?

When this is taught in most yoga or meditation classes, sometimes the translation of the sutra gets lost and teachers and students tend to talk about stopping a thought or a number of them. I suppose it's a Christian thing - you know, your thoughts are the sin or . . . it's not about what you think but rather what you do with the thought, or it is what you think and what you do with the thought, etc. Confusing, isn't it? It occurs to me that that must have been misquoted for centuries probably as well. Stopping thoughts always catches people up. After talking to a lot of people, it is the one thing that most fixate on.

The Thought About the Thought

What I've been taught and what I've experienced though, is that it is the movement of thought rather than the individual thought itself. But how do you stop movement? And is that what we're supposed to do? The movement of thoughts to me is like the movement of air like wind. Sometimes it's gusty, and sometimes it's gale force strength. And other times, it's a welcomed breeze. Thoughts flow constantly. Sometimes you take notice. Sometimes you don't. So when do you take notice of thoughts? When they bother you of course. When someone says something that just gets under your skin, or when something happens and you have a strong reaction to it - like you feel embarrassed, or when you have to get or do something because your life depended on it. All worthy thoughts. How many times have you reiterated a conversation in your head hours, days after the conversation - or before the conversation has even happened . . . even if you didn't want to think about it, yet there it is? What makes thought waves so powerful? Pema Chödron said that her teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche would say - it is not the negative, but it is the negative about the negative. In other words, it is not the thought, but the thought about the thought which turns into another thought about that thought and so on, that gets us into trouble.

My First Meditation Retreat

I remember my first meditation retreat some years ago. I am a self-declared 'idea' person; Give me a problem and I will give you a number of solutions that are pretty creative and sometimes even original. Anyway, I was at this meditation retreat for the first time, sitting Zazen. I was determined to do a good job. I went with a friend who is a seasoned sitter, and so I mimicked him the first day. I sat for 4 hours straight without moving. OMG - I was so sore for the rest of the time. In order to get through this, I made sure I sat a lot (it was a very relaxed atmosphere about your schedule to sit - still very strict about eye contact and silence.) I battled the whole way through. I sat and sat, and still my thoughts came, ideas about: how to fix the roof; what gifts I can make each and every person there because they are so great; how much I wished I could eat (I was fasting as well); how much I wished I could wash my hair (little facility to do that at this place), and how I was right about being eaten alive by mosquitos (it was a hot week in August). Afterward, I told my teacher I found out how I wasn't as still and silent as I thought I was; I had always thought that I was a pretty laid back, quiet person. But I wasn't. Maybe that's why some of you don't want to do the meditation that asks you to be still. It can be a pretty shocking, and an eye opening experience, and some of you may not want to know. Through my years of practice, I learned that thoughts will always come and go, but it is most certainly about how your organism responds to those thoughts.

The Paradox of Still Mind

"Yoga is the suppression of the transformation of the thinking principle", as someone else puts it. Suppression? Hmm. I am not a fan of our potential interpretation of the word suppression. In psycho-talk, it can be interpreted as 'swallowing' or 'eating' your thoughts or words and that never ends well. How I have experienced this, "suppression of the transformation of the thinking principle" has taken a number of years of hard work to understand my reactive responses to external stimuli. Most of us react because we feel threatened by something/someone, or, we are anxious to prove something, and so on. What needs to happen is simultaneous to developing a Still Mind. Once you develop the Buddha Mind, you will realize that you are not separate and there is no threat (really) because there is no you. Before you develop Buddha Mind, you struggle with all the thoughts which anchor you into an identity that is separate. In other words, you need to develop Buddha Mind before you can transcend your reactionary self and you need to transcend your reactionary self before you can realize Buddha Mind. It is a paradox. Like peeling the onion, or chipping away at a stone. The only way through is to open your heart and risk the death that all of us are so afraid of - ego-death.

I always liked the word Transformation. Here it is talking about the transformation of the thinking principle. Transformation? Is a thought a thought if you don't react to it? Like the falling tree in the forest thing - it is a conundrum. Is the mind-stuff just like scattered dust particles in the air and only when you start to collect them do they become annoying dust-bunnies? Is that what "transforms" thought particles into real thoughts, whether you organize them, collect them or corral them?

Steps to Yoga

Movement of thoughts is the undulation of the mind when it is reactive. Now we're getting somewhere. It is not the thought that needs work, but the reactive mind. A lot of yogis/yoginis, swamis, etc. say that any kind of therapy is not necessary when you do yoga. But the key here is that you do "YOGA", not little 'y' yoga (mostly asana practice) or what it has now turned into because it is mostly a hedonistic practice to most - bhoga (meaning, doing yoga for its own sake for the appeasement of your own ego - i.e. look at what I can do). To do YOGA is to delve into the workings of your mind and how it effects your Being. Awareness is key, and to affect awareness, there needs to be some sort of dialogue (with a teacher who knows, a therapist who knows, etc.). But this is still not Wakefulness. Almost every yogi/yogini I know equates being aware of the present moment, of what you do or say in that moment, of how your organism reacts and so on, to and in line with Enligthenment. But this is not so. In awareness, there is still the "I" - You are aware.

The Heart Path

This is really only the beginning. The process that is the Heart Path will take you Home. The Heart Path really to me is about the final step toward Enlightenment and that is "Acceptance". You have seen who you are and you accept it. You don't try to hide, mask or manipulate it. You have seen the world as it is - truly, and you don't run from it, or hide. And you don't try to manipulate it. You have seen what other people are like and you don't do anything to change them. You just accept them. You have seen the truth of the wild, untamed world of animals, vegetable, mineral and you see them for what they are. Without greed or fear in your Heart. There is only Love.

My friend says this - Yoga (Union) is just that. You need nothing else. We're already there. Yoga IS the Cessation of the Thought Waves. That is Yoga. Yes, yes, yes I say. It is that simple.

. . . Yoga is the Stillness Within. Let It Be.

Walk with Grace.

Namaste

, 

Variation of Leg Behind the Head Pose...

Variation for leg behind the head pose. Working into it and stopping along the way.

I love to do this variation of the leg behind the head posture. Took me a long time to get here. When I’m here I feel a certain kind of freedom in my body and mind that only comes from the kind of practice that will get you here. For some people this is a posture that comes simply and naturally. For me it took about 10 years! Think about it…

On Our True Non-Dualistic Nature...

“We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence. We should find perfection in imperfection. For us, complete perfection is not different from imperfection. The eternal exists because of non-eternal existence. In Buddhism it is a heretical view to expect something outside this world. We do not seek for something besides ourselves. We should find the truth in this world, through our difficulties, through our suffering. This is the basic teaching of Buddhism. Pleasure is not different from difficulty. Good is not different from bad. Bad is good; good is bad. They are two sides of one coin. So enlightenment should be in practice. that is the right understanding of practice, and the right understanding of our life. So to find pleasure in suffering is the only way to accept the truth of transiency. Without realizing how to accept this truth you cannot live in this world. ..” - - Suzuki Roshi Zen Mind, Beginners Mind

What do you Bring?

I have been reading and hearing a lot about the good and bad of practicing yoga asana - the physical aspect of yoga, let's make this clear. About what it's good for, health-wise. what it's bad for, health-wise. What it can do for you in the way of making you feel better - about yourself?, about the human race? about your body? Yoga postures can do a lot of things for you - more than you'll ever know probably, and the pursuit of this knowledge is alive and well in all of us - students and teachers alike. I see it in the faces of my students, and other students in other classes. Eager to learn - but some of them, somehow are less eager to work for this knowledge. Some think they know already and i sense a kind of deadness in these people. One girl. she's doing trikonasana (triangle). One hand in the air. limp. falling almost. The attitude of her body arched and a bit contorted. Her head heavy. Her eyebrow cocked and mouth slightly open. Maybe this one's jaded. Has been doing yoga asana for-e-ver, but somehow is just going through the motions. No one stops to adjust her. Encourage her to go deeper. It is not considered good yoga etiquette to be directive... any more. Used to be that yoga was about deepening your experience and accepting instruction. Maybe she doesn't like adjustments for just that reason. It's insulting, she thinks. She's been practicing in the corner of the room. Without realizing, she has isolated herself and has become passive aggressive and withdrawn in her own practice. So this is it. This is what yoga can teach you. Today when i start the class, i begin by saying, "...if you do any yoga posture - any at all, it will do something for you. You will get that stretch you're looking for. You will achieve that posture (in your body) with practice. You will get something out of doing it. But - that is only the beginning of your yoga practice. Now it's time to change things around. To give something back. Change the notion of always getting and taking something from yoga: what it's good for, what it's bad for... Turn your mind from expectations. Rather - Bring something to Yoga. Your yoga practice. Ask yourself what can you give to your practice on your mat right now? During the ninety minutes we're here. What do you bring?"