
6 Healthy Habits to Help Ease Your Way into Fall

without notice, your life will change.
pain will appear and its up to YOU.
How will you respond, react?
pay attention!
it happens to us all.
I felt it- and it was powerful- an explosive complicated mess of health, habits, human beings and stability… whirling around in a tornado this week. tough decisions, painful realities.
as the sun comes out today and shines on me while I stretch. I came home.
in fact, this whole week I was home. Things were being thrown left and right- asking me” WILL YOU DROWN?WILL YOU HIDE? WILL YOU GO DOWN?”
and the answer is no.
My light will shine, my glitter will go on… a way for me to keep dusting off and moving forward.
Learning to trust & love myself- for this resilience .. for the tears & the smiles.
“trust yourself to do what is right and navigate the way
trust yourself- this is advanced practice. ” Erich Schiffman
I have read, watched, listened to and practiced in my home with Erich Schiffman for a few years. I have seen him at various conferences and even attended a wee bit of his workshops in DC in 2012. This past weekend, I traveled to one of my favorite quiet and nourishing places, YOGAVILLE, to study for a weekend with him entitled, Freedom Yoga… “His unique Freedom Yoga offers an intuitive approach to Yoga as the art of living. Using this approach, you meditate (listen inwardly for guidance) when you sit quietly, when you practice poses and throughout the rest of your day. From this inner connection, you act as you are prompted to—from within. While not an inherently strenuous practice, it is an advanced one, requiring courage to follow your deepest impulses about what feels right and what doesn’t—which isn’t always easy.” From Yogaville website.
“Be the place where love flows through b/c it’s good for others and it’s good for you” – Erich Schiffman.
I adore what he has to say. He has been practicing yoga for 47 years and he is open minded, soft, clear, strong and humble. A true warrior. He talks about his growth & learning process, his understanding of yoga and meditation as it applies directly to his life today. I love his teachings b/c they empower ME to live fully in my own life, not according to some GURU. His postures are helpful for our bodies, they heal and connect us. He encourages us to practice “Freedom Style Yoga” which means that within the alignment and the boundaries of knowing posture.. we can play, we can explore variations, we can make it our own. It is Freedom. He teaches and supports us to sit in meditation, which is repeats IS the yoga. IS the most important part of yoga. His sequencing is as follows…
Chapter 1- Dharma Talk/ Discussion
Chapter 2- Meditation
Chapter 3- Asana, guided
Chapter 4- Asana- FREE
Chapter 5- Meditation
* all of this can be done in a variety of time frames AND by the end of the weekend, we voted for LONG Freedom Yoga and no guided asana.. it was SO POWERFUL to practice with a room of breathing, moving, being, loving Yogis- all doing what served and healed and stretched them. Us, somehow together and yet completely left on our own to be fully expressed as unique and beautiful individual selves! it was AWE -some.
“put THE KNOWN on pause. learn to shut up.
put a coma, in your commentary.” Erich Schiffman
Here are my favorite quotes from the weekend. You can check out more at ErichSchiffman.com. I subscribe to his website which is where I have learned from him over the past 2 years. He puts on classes, content, teachings, that you can explore, at your own pace and schedule.
“quiet the mind. zip it. mentally, in that moment of chaos. Then, you start feeling more authentic.
life will become more fun.”
“RELAX and be brave enough to do what your inner guide is telling you to do. ”
“meditation IS listening. thinking less and listening more.”
“intuitive practice IS advanced.”
“ways to meditate
1. buddha style
2. asana style
3. lifestyle “everything else”- the rest of the time.”
” SURRENDER- our deepest impulses are love. ”
“HOMEWORK TO START NOW!
relax ( whenever it occurs to you)
Practice LOVE More
Trust your deepest impulses of how to think and be. ”
“Be a loving presence. love is the willingness to recognize that which is truth”
“steps of meditation
align- get comfy
relax- settle in- wobble- to stillness
breathe- breath watch
love ride the breathe into the feeling
pay attention- listening ”
“when it occurs to you practice exhale, pause ( like now, and now, and now) ”
“HEALING means REVEALING”
I have been gone quite a while.
scared to stop and write, to be open about the challenges that have been appearing in front of me.
starting to heal. I teach, I love, I shed the tears of joy and it’s been a wild ride.
the bigness of our lives, of our moments, each strung with breathe. it’s real. I can feel it..
change is on the way. for me, for you, for fall.. all around us. without us holding tight or letting go.
slowly coming back to life. the pain is softening, the fears have less of a hold.
no matter when you think the healing has happened, you can always go deeper, uncover more heart.
the experience itself is not something to minimize. it’s so great. its magical how it all happens.
feeling supported so that you don’t drown in sorrow.
Here comes creativity, spirit and some ease.. asking the questions I’m ready to answer.
stepping into the light to release the patterns that don’t serve me anymore.
She told me it was enough.
I am enough.