Is Yoga Cultural Appropriation?
Swami Ji, the OG
What is cultural appropriation? Cultural appropriation is defined as the process by which Intellectual property, artifacts, dance, clothing/fashion, language, music, food, religious symbols, medicine, wellness practices and more are used for purposes that were unintended by the original culture and may even be offensive to that culture. With yoga, this can often be seen through the adaptation of practices in ways that sterilize them for the West by stripping the spiritual aspects of the philosophy, by refusal to use Sanskrit words, or by removing the symbols or stories that exemplify the...
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Journey Into Your Being Plus a Meditation Practice
Swami Ji, the OG
Today we are going to discuss the components of who you are, and then you will be guided through a short meditation. Feel free to listen to the discussion portion, but then stop the recording before doing the meditation if you are not in a location where you can sit quietly and still with the eyes closed. You may have heard the common definition of yoga is “union” and it comes from the Sanskrit word ‘yug’ meaning to yoke. If we think about how buffalo are yoked together or horses or sled dogs are joined together, the purpose of yoking is to unite multiple forces to create...
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Making Life Simple and Easy
Swami Ji, the OG
Is your life simple and easy? I believe it can be and for the last couple of years, I’ve challenged myself to create a life that is becoming simpler and easier. Prior to this time my life was so full it was overflowing, and it often left me drained to the point where I felt so weighted down that I could barely keep moving forward. In 2019, I was in the twenty second year of running a yoga center that employed about 16 staff members and served several hundred students per week. I was also the education director and president of the board of a nonprofit yoga academy, housed in the center’s...
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3 Steps to Healthy Boundaries
Swami Ji, the OG
A boundary is a limit or space between you and another person. It is a clear place where you begin and the other person ends, physically, mentally, energetically and spiritually. The purpose of setting a healthy boundary is, of course, to protect and take good care of yourself at all levels of being. Do you have unhealthy boundaries? Unhealthy boundaries involve a disregard for your own and/or others' values, wants, needs, and limits. Unhealthy boundaries can also lead to dysfunctional and potentially abusive relationships. I’m going to ask a few questions that will help you...
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Letting Go To Find Balance
Swami Ji, the OG
When we feel we are losing our balance we grab hold of something to feel secure and to prevent falling. This is a normal reaction to be able to maintain our physical balance and hopefully prevent pain. At that moment of uncertainty, that moment of being out of balance, we would think it strange if someone told us to “just let go.” But what about our mental balance? What are we grabbing hold of to feel secure? And are we holding on to hopefully prevent the mental and emotional pains? In the ancient text, the Yoga Sutras, within the very first few sutras we are told that it is possible...
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Still Body - Still Mind
Swami Ji, the OG
Sometimes we keep busy moving from one thing to another and believe this will keep us from thinking too much. However, we are only creating a distracted mind, the part that is overdeveloped to start with, and all this busy-ness keeps feeding this part of the mind that is processing sensory information and tries to make sense of the world. We need to develop the part of the mind that connects us with our higher self. When we go to bed at night, we become still and gradually the mind slows down and we fall asleep. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to slow down the mind at any point during...
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5 Keys To Improve Discipline
Swami Ji, the OG
When you think or hear about the word discipline what comes up for you? “Oh, I wish I had more of it,” or “I don’t have time for discipline,” or even “did I do something wrong?” The last implying that the word discipline is a form of punishment. Today we are going to discuss our misperceptions about discipline, its importance, and how we can improve our discipline to be more successful in our lives. Let’s start with the dictionary definitions. 1) the practice of training people to obey rules using punishment to correct disobedience or 2) a branch of knowledge,...
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From Change Comes Growth
Swami Ji, the OG
Today I will discuss the inevitability of change, why we find it difficult, how change and growth go hand in hand, the importance of having goals, and to welcome change! WHEW! That’s a lot to think about! And all of those thoughts are also part of the mechanism that keeps us “stuck” where we are and resisting changes. It has often been said that the only constant is life is change! Yet most of us find it difficult to change, especially when it takes us away from our routine, our conditioned ways of thinking. In actuality we’ve been changing our whole lives! Some of the changes...
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Just Relax!
Swami Ji, the OG
Just relax! I’m sure someone has said this to you at some point in your life! As if the ability to relax is like flipping a switch and something so easy you can just do it spontaneously at any time. When we were growing up, did anyone ever teach us how to relax? Do you know how even now? From my experience teaching yoga since 1995 and practicing yoga since the early 1980’s, I know that relaxation can be difficult to achieve, and few people have a method that supports them to become deeply relaxed. Today this podcast will have a brief introduction to the practice that I’ve done and taught...
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What Is Resilience and Why Do You Need It?
Swami Ji, the OG
Some think of it as endurance, but when I think of endurance, I think it means the power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process without giving up. Or fortitude? Fortitude is courage in the face of pain or adversity. Indeed, both of these words can be a part of resilience, but don’t thoroughly encompass the whole concept. Resilience is the ability to bounce back quickly from difficult situations and actually thrive when faced with challenging circumstances! Some ways of thinking about resilience includes being tough, quick to recover, buoyant, irrepressible, adaptable, flexible and...
info_outlineThis year has been filled with challenges! Never one to turn my back on challenges, I have used this time to sort out many feelings, many less than optimal relationships, and many goals. It has made me stronger. It has made me more intentional. And it has allowed me to have more space to find the person I want to become moving forward.
Over the past couple of decades, my whole focus was creating a yoga studio and a nonprofit yoga academy. To create more options for people to incorporate the healing practices of yoga into their lives, I created and taught more classes, more courses, did more travel…more and more and more.
And because the work was never ending, the demands of others never ceasing, I found myself letting go of more and more of the "normal" activities of life and was essentially swallowed up by the work seven days a week. As I got closer and closer to my 70th birthday, I knew I didn't want to go into the next decade of my life continuing down this path.
I put that energy out into the universe. I meditated on letting go of it all. I put out the intention to move on and I really felt it could happen. But only if I worked toward it. I reached out to other teachers in the community who had a long history of teaching, searching for someone who might be interested. And someone came forward.
Another intention that I made was to help the new owner maintain the student base and continue to teach regular classes for at least a year. The pandemic has made this a considerable challenge for yoga studios and many have closed. Our student base has mastered online classes and attendance remains steady with new students taking the place of the normal attrition
The third intention I set was to get healthier. This summer I realized that any semblance of normal would not be likely before another year or so. I ordered a treadmill. I made some long overdue healthcare appointments. I began to eat and sleep on a regular schedule, eating tons of fresh fruits and vegetables, eliminating most sugar, and bought a sleep machine that plays delta waves to get into deeper sleep patterns. I’m losing weight and sleeping sounder.
So why am I telling you all this? Because the concept of living with intention is SO important. Instead of letting life happen to you, take on life with renewed determination.
Here are 5 ways to start.
- Make a choice and act on it every day. What do you want? Eliminate the split between what you think and what you actually do. Thinking about something may seem important, but if you don’t take action nothing will happen except you will feel frustration or defensiveness. The idea and the action must be fused.
- Believe in your ability to succeed. Be convinced at a deep level, that you will make progress toward your goal. That daily action that you take can have its ups and downs but know in your heart that you will see changes over time. Adjust your expectations about how long it will take. Be patient.
- Accept change. Sometimes when these changes begin to happen, they impact our lives in a way that stirs unconscious fears and we engage in self-sabotage. Yes, change will happen and when it does, you cannot be the same. It is impossible to both change and be the same. Accept this. Don’t fear it. Embrace it.
- Practice mindfulness. Develop some sort of daily meditation or self-reflection. A practice that will bring you peace and allow you to be more aware and more present upon its conclusion. And each day when you leave the practice, see if you can be a little more aware, a little more present, as you move back into your daily activities.
- Adjust your lifestyle for success. Simplify your life, eliminating unnecessary busy-ness and clean out the clutter. Set a daily schedule for those things that will build your energy – regular times to eat and eat health foods, regular times to sleep and rise, daily outdoor activity, exercise, meditation, and daily connection with someone who nurtures you.
I encourage you to live with intention in 2021. Don’t make a New Year’s resolution that will probably last a few weeks and then go by the wayside. Living with intention requires action, ongoing commitment and patience.
Happy New Year!
This episode concludes the second season of my podcast. In my own need to live with intention in 2021, I will be taking some time off from creating this podcast and spend time creating short yoga courses and developing one on one yogic coaching.
I hope you will stay in touch. Please go to my website, swamiatmarupa.com and sign up for my newsletter to learn more about upcoming ways we can remain connected. Or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @SwamiAtmarupa. My intention is to start another season of this podcast later next year.
Thank you for listening!