Purusharta, purpose of the soul

In yoga class we were asked to keep a journal, mainly for personal use and documentation of our own growth.  I bought a very pretty journal, a very pretty empty journal.  I decided that instead of writing down my actual journal assignments in my bound journal, I would share them in my blog.  I will of course keep my pretty journal for a more personal use on my journey.

In yoga there are four aims or desires of life according the the Vedas.  Collectively these aims are known as Purusharta, or, the purpose of the soul.  Yes people, I am talking about the purpose of life!  Keep your britches on kids, it's a lot more simple than one would think, in fact there are no secrets here, simply questions.  These questions find their answers deep within each individual, there is no overall purpose, each is particular to its own soul.

1.  Dharma- the desire to become who you were meant to be, or to fulfill your destiny.  To find your path so that you may live in harmony with the universe.

So how does one know what they are 'meant' to be doing?  Here are a few key questions that I will answer as if teaching yoga and remaining theatrical were my purpose in life.

-Is it joyful?  Yes I take joy and pleasure in teaching and practicing as well as acting.
-Do others benefit?  Yes, they benefit from my teaching in health and mind, and I am able to entertain and tell stories through my acting.
-Is is sustainable?  Yes, yoga can be taught and practiced for a lifetime and so can acting.
-Do you feel guided and protected?  Yes, I feel that my family, friends and teachers have supported me on both my acting and yogic journey in an unconditional way.  I feel nothing but security.
-Do you experience both growth and gratitude?  Are you challenged?  Absolutely.  Yoga is very difficult, both in body and mind, especially the harnessing of my ever chattery mind.  Every time I come to my mat I am challenged and every time I leave my mat I have done something I could not before and thus have grown.  Acting is similar in the sense that it too is a harnessing of the mind, but more so the emotions.  It is a constant ebb and flow, a challenge and a release, a fight and a win.  So yes I do feel gratitude after progressing on each path (acting and yoga) after they have presented me with a challenge.

2.  Arta- the material means to fulfill your dreams i.e.  food, shelter, security, health, perseverance etc.  I could not do yoga without feeding my body, giving it sleep, clothing it and having the means to do so.

3. Kama- the 'pleasure sutra' the desire for pleasure of all kinds i.e., art, music, food, friends, sex, etc.  We desire to do well and to feel good while we're at it.

4.  Moksha- liberation, freedom.  This is the end of all suffering of the soul.  Our goal in life, and for others, after life, is to end the suffering of the soul and body.  This is the ultimate meaning in every ones life.  To reduce suffering and promote happiness, after all, isn't that what everyone does on a day to day basis?  We work to have money so that we can  pay rent and buy food.  We pay rent and buy food to sustain us and keep us alive (Arta).  We also make money so that we can do things that we enjoy, like see our friends and family, go to the movies, go to concerts or just stay home and read (Kama).  And we surround ourselves with our loved ones and the things we love to support us on our journey to do what we love to do.  For most of us, that thing is just a hobby, it brings us in no money so it is not sustainable.  We repeat this cycle over and over again, never reaching Moksha.  For other people, it is a career or at the very least, they have found some way to balance it and make it sustainable, thus completing the cycle and find what they were meant to do (Dharma) and finding their way toward Moksha, or close to it anyway.  Now does this mean that if I do not become Meryl Streep that I will never be liberated in this life because I am not doing what I am meant to be doing?  No.  The truth is, we have no idea what we are 'meant' to be doing.  We simply tend do things because they make us happy.  The trick is find that 'thing,' that drives you with passion and challenges and allows you to move it to make you and your world stronger.  That's when you know, or you get damn close anyway.

Flying through the air

Last night I had the pleasure of attending Cirque Du Soleil's 'Iris,' before it closes on the 19th.  My boyfriend's best friend from home and his girlfriend made the trip from Vegas to see it as well.  They are also both acrobats, so seeing a show of acrobats with acrobats proved to be quite interesting!

I am always stunned and amazed by the sheer power of the human body, the strength, dexterity and utter will power it takes to move in certain ways.  It is breath taking.  Not to mention that many of the actors/acrobats are weighed down with layer upon layer of heavy costumes, wigs and props.  Overall it was another great experience and I always love to see a live performance.

I was able to sit down and have a long conversation with a lovely lady trapeze artist from Vegas (boyfriends best friend's girlfriend, it's a long title but I would rather not use names!).  We talked about everything from exercise and diet to her brand new Vita mix blender which she claims has changed her life, and I absolutely believe it.  She also told me about the constant exhaustion and pain in her body due to hard aerial work and other health issues.  She was a Raiders cheerleader, she was in the circus she even dabbled in film, and now she's a highly regarded trapeze artist.  I asked her if she had a trainer or what she would do if she wanted to learn something new, she said, "I just teach myself new tricks and rehearse on my own."  Nothing worth doing is easy, and she is living proof and so is her partner who is a hand to hand acrobat.

I was lucky enough to share some of my thoughts on yoga and answer some of her questions, yes even an acrobat has questions.  We both shared a general passion for health and wellness and building our bodies in a positive way.

You don't need to be a Yoga Guru, a ballerina or an acrobat to have a healthy active body.  You don't need to be a nutritionist to eat items that are healthy for you.  Once again, anything worth doing will most likely not be easy, but you've only got one body!  And whether you're swinging through the air, on set, in downward dog, or sitting at a desk all day, you and only you have the power to decide just how strong you can and want to be.

Promises...promises.

What does it mean when you make a promise?  Most of us think of promises to other people, but what about promises to yourself? You are your only hope of being happy and healthy and you cannot possibly be of any help to anyone else unless you promise yourself you'll be there.

When I was just a wee little kid without a care in the world, my mountain was small. But on my small mountain (which of course was massive in my eyes) I had small problems and small hopes and small victories.  I say small, because in comparison to my current issues they are, but my mountain has grown much taller.  My goal, as a kid was to be happy and happiness came from things like staying up late, toys, candy and being better at things than my little sister.  I had no concept of how my decisions effected others, I did what I was told and kept my promises simply because that's what my parents demanded of me and you never bite the hand that feeds you.  I kept my promises...Most of the time.  It's that moment as a child when you see that last dirty dish in the sink and think, "I should wash that and help out," not because you have to or it's the ' right thing to do' but because you genuinely care about how your decision  will effect the members of your family.

Compassion is something that is learned because innately we are built to survive, our instincts propel us towards self endurance, our own well being.  What I am proposing at this moment, is the idea that NOT being compassionate to one's self can actually negatively effect those around you.  Whatever you may believe in, whether it be Karma or repentance for bad deeds, whatever drives you to ' do the right thing' should not just apply to the people around you.  When you keep your promises to yourself, love yourself unconditionally, allow yourself to be free and happy, you will influence and thus positively impact every person around you.  So go ahead, wash that last dish, and then take a long bath.  Whatever promises you make, make sure you keep them, because it's much harder to forgive yourself then anyone else.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Good afternoon to you and yours, I hope all of your dreams come true this year!  I would like to begin the year with a quote and a juicing recipe.

"Men are the only creatures that eat when not hungry and generally live to eat rather than eat to live."

My good morning/afternoon juice!
- Base: celery, cucumbers
- Core: kale, green apples, Chia seed, lemon, lime
- Herbs: parsley, cilantro

This juice, one cup in the morning and one in the afternoon will cleanse your digestive system, give you better breath and more energy!  Once again, happy New Year!!

WORKOUT

Recently I have decided that in order to improve my communication skills as a trainer/yoga instructor (what have you)  I would offer free training sessions to friends and co-workers until April.  Of course, the talk amongst the ladies was giddy and filled with thoughts of butt-lifts, bat-wing removal, six packs and of course, no more cellulite.  All of these things are good dreams to hold, but the reality of it, or so I have learned, is that it is not a workout, it is a lifestyle.  If you treat your workout and diet as if it weren't temporary (think about it, I bet 99.9 percent of you are simply doing it for a means to an end, like that one day at the beach) then you can build a foundation to last a lifetime.

I have a..."client,"who seemed to me like a very unlikely candidate to incorporate all the necessary aspects of a healthy lifestyle in order to improve her body.  So far she has proved me dead wrong and I have made a great friend in the process.  Yoga or any kind of physical training, much like meditation requires control over ones body.  And yes, you guessed it, just like most of us don't have control over our own lives, we don't have control over our own bodies.  Therefore, in that defining moment when you finally truly take a real breath, or balance, or find your core, or run that fourth mile, a wall crumbles down.  And with that wall comes everything that it was holding it there in the first place.  This means a stream of uncontrollable emotion that you blocked because you couldn't control it.  Good control leads to the release of things that ought not to be controlled.  Funny.

It is also curious as to who shows up and/or who needs to be prompted to show up and pushed to work.  It is a bit odd for me because I want to be hard on people, I want to push them, but I don't want to scare them away from something because it's hard.  I want them to work harder because it's hard.  I want them to do it simply because it's hard and the rewards will be that much sweeter.  Although, I think my experience today especially gave me quite a bit of insight as to what to work on as far as my communication goes and how to push people with positivity.  It's a work in progress.

Your fault?

Excuse me while I drag myself out of bed.  Excuse me I didn't get enough sleep last night.  It was my fault though, I went to bed too late.  Although, I did have to work well into the morning.  Excuse me I'm very grumpy, there is nothing to eat around here.  Well there is, but I shouldn't eat it.  At least I don't think I should.  Everyone else I know seems to eat it.  Everyone else I know has the same problems that I have.  Everyone else in this country eats this stuff and has the same problems I have.  They are tired because they go to sleep too late, they are grumpy because they eat this stuff and they are unhappy because it is their fault, but they are too confused to make the "right," decisions.  I am unhappy.  Here is a pill.  I am unhappy.  Here is a beer.  I am unhappy.  Here is a body.  I am unhappy.  But it seems to me that so is everyone else.

It is a sad reality that posted everywhere all the time are people having "fun," eating Big Macs, buying Victoria Secret lingerie, drinking Grey Goose vodka and wearing pounds of makeup and other anti-look-like-yourself products.  I have bought into almost all of it.  I don't blame myself, because guess what?  It's not my fault.  But guess what else?  It IS my fault for giving myself the time and credit to come to the realization that I am ENOUGH.

There is a quick fix for literally everything these days, but absolutely nothing addresses the root of these problems, which happens to be quite simply: how we address our quality of life and how we define it.  Unfortunately, the lot of us define our happiness based on the media and the people around us.  If we have the best things, look the best and make the most money than we are happy.  If we are not happy with all of this "stuff" (god forbid) SOMETHING must be wrong with us, right?  Now for those of us who are struggling, our unhappiness has a reason, so in that we take some comfort.  We also take comfort in the "fact" that once we do receive money, we can go out and be happy again.  

Cigarette advertisements are band in a handful of countries and since 2010 in the US, severely limited in the sense that there can be NO music, and NO sound effects.  Cigarettes are addictive.  Clothes are addictive.  Money addictive.  Food is addictive.  Sex is addictive.  We are animals and once upon a time these instincts, these pleasure releasing items were a sign that we were going to survive a famine, a harsh winter, or be able to pass on our genes.  We live in a world of feast but famine has never come.  We pump calories into our body and receive no nutrition.  We use people on a daily basis and receive no love or commitment.  We diet, buy clothes, makeup, and drink to feel better for an hour.  But our actual "need" is really no need at all.

Turn the TV off.  Stay away from the mall for a week.  Grab a handful of fruit, a cup of tea, your raggedy sweat shirt and a book.  Like a real one.  Twilight, Fifty Shades of whatever (it's porn with a fancy cover) and magazines don't count.  Nourish your body as well as your soul.  The addictions that this world has convinced you that you need will only add to your inability to help yourself choose to be happy.

Truth demands responsibility

"Violence, it resides in a man's mind, and not in the instrument he holds in his hand."

This quote actually has nothing to do with gun violence, but instead with being a vegetarian.  Iyengar says that violence is a state of mind not a diet.  I'm not sure if I could ever become a vegetarian, let alone a vegan!  But getting back on topic, I would have to agree that our states of violence come not from guns, rap music or video games, but from a sickness of the mind.

"Violence is bound to decline when men learn to base their faith upon reality and investigation rather than upon ignorance and supposition."

People no longer search for truth, we simply wait for it to be delivered to us, whether it be through the news or facebook or an app on our phone all we have to do is click and wait.  If we bothered to do our own research to improve our well being, our happiness and the quality of our life instead of searching for blame and demanding justice and change, we may improve the root of the problem.  We choose to point fingers and scratch the surface, it takes all responsibility away from us.  We must not forget we are responsible all the time just simply because we are present.