One, you might be asking, what is a vision board, and two, you might be asking why you should do one? A vision board is a visual representation of your hopes, dreams, desires and goals for the future. It's a way for your mind to powerfully connect in at the deepest level to help manifest your intentions into reality. 

I can answer the second part with this quote by Mahatma Ghandi, "Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny." Vision boards provide a very real way for you to be in control of your thoughts and beliefs--and maybe even upgrade them or eliminate the negatives ones all together. 

Your Inner Child 

The hardest part is getting started. Once you do, you find your inner child takes over and like a child, you create your vision board with big thoughts and dreams. You color outside the lines. You maintain enthusiasm regardless of any surrounding loud-mouthed critics.

Buy a poster board--whatever color appeals to your inner child. Dig out all the magazines you can find, your scissors and some glue. Before you begin tearing through the mags, consider these tips:

  1. Take a few minutes and write down a few goals. Think spherically. What would you like to have/accomplish physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, relationships, lifestyle or any other category that is important to you?
  2. Find some affirmation that correlate to your goals. Some examples are "the Divine plan is unfolding perfectly in my life now." "I'm in excellent health." "I am financially free." Make up your own. Keep them positive and in the present tense--AS IF it's already happening.
  3. As you're scouring magazines, look for pics and phrases that call to you and speak to the goals you jotted down in #1. There's no right or wrong way to do your vision board. Let your inner child stay in the lead and you'll have the best vision board you can have.
  4. Make way for the new developments. If your current state is crowded and cluttered, there's no room for new and better to enter. So clean out closets, desk drawers, your car, your office, kitchen...whatever. Trust me. Your minds takes this outer cleansing very seriously.
  5. Finally, express gratitude everyday for all that you already have. The more you learn to appreciate what you have, the more good that finds its way into your life.

Now get to it. We're already one month into the new year.
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I wish I could take credit for today's title but those wise words come from Anna Almond, a recent 500-hour graduate. She had a lot of ups and downs (like all the participants) and finally realized she had one of two options: either continue to hold on to the car bumper praying the car would magically stop, or let go of the bumper and be okay with where she landed.

It seems this has been a common lesson circulating through my close network of friends and trainees. I, too, am enjoying (not!)
the merry-go-round of that lesson--in holding onto something that I don't really want but not seeing another option--or worse fearing the other options. 

Glance around.  This is an epidemic lesson right now, one in which many are experiencing in crisis form as thousands of individuals are being thrust into the fear-laden throes of letting go and detaching. 

"Oh, this economy." Reality check: It's not the economy, it's the universe. 

The universe is showing us what greedy, selfish, money-driven, house-obsessed, material-hoarding, pleasure-seeking individuals we are. Don't get me wrong, money is not evil and making money is not wrong. The problem arises when we allow what money buys to define us; when we judge others by how much or how little they make; when someone loses their job and has no savings because they've spent every last dime overextending themselves on things they couldn't afford in the first place.

I've been on that merry-go-round. There is nothing worse then the dizzying effects of bills you can't pay, harassing phone calls, threatening legal documents, selling household goods for a fraction of what I paid for them on credit cards to cover monthly expenses, grocery shopping with coupons, hoping to not see any neighbors. Guess what? My misery came not from losing my house or losing my credit cards. My misery came from being attached to what it meant to have those THINGS.

THINGS do not cause us misery. The Yoga Sutras teach us that our suffering comes from within, from our own minds, from the attachments we put on things, people and expectations.

Thankfully (ha-ha) I find myself on a different merry-go-round from the one I described above. You might possibly think there is no worse merry-go-round than the one that threatens your job, your house and/or financial well-being. Maybe from a certain perspective that's true. But no matter how big or small the merry-go-round is, it still goes around in a circle making me sick to my stomach.

Attachment in any form causes us misery. There is no quantifying misery. That's like asking would you rather break your arm or your leg? And at least there's an upside to breaking your leg or arm....it eventually heals. However unless we let go of our attachments, we cannot hope to heal the misery caused from it. Until we let go of our attachments we cannot be given the gift that comes to us when we open up to other possibilities.

With fear trembling inside her, Anna finally let go of the car's bumper. She watched the tail lights fade and disappear as the car sped out of sight. She sat there for a long time, watching the dust settle wondering what in the heck she was going to do. Knowing she couldn't stay in the middle of the road, she stood up, knocked the grit off her clothes and turned to take in her surroundings. Imagine her surprise when she saw  she was surrounded by paradise.

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Both Stacy (my illustrious assistant director) and I think of that song when we hear the word A-HA so it seemed a fitting title for this entry. Drum roll, please............it's the A-HA blAHg where I get to talk about the light bulb moments that students have during teacher training.

If I might selfishly steal the floor before I reveal the group's A-HAs, I wanted to talk about mine first. I started a new Friday night feature called B.R.A.G. where each participant shared a Brag, Rant, Affirmation, and Gratitude. (Thank you AbundantYogi.com for the idea.) My A-HA came while I listened to each woman list out her multiple Gratitudes. What I found amazing was I've had conversations with most of them to know each one struggles with various concerns, issues, and problems. Yet each one easily found many reasons to show gratitude.  My A-HA was the realization that there is no better sound than a woman expressing her gratitude for her life, her health, her children, her work, her abilities, her friends, her intuition, or her love. BEE-U-TEE-FULL!!!

The group tackled the world of breathing this weekend, and as our newest participant stated, "l hear 'inhale and exhale' in class but now I really get what is behind it."

No, breathing is not the most exotic topic but it's a pretty darn important function of our lives. It's the first thing we do when we're born and the last thing to do when we die and somewhere in between those two points is a hell of a lot of inhalations and exhalations. Like so many other functions in our lives we take breathing for granted because it's an automatic & involuntary action of the body. No conscious thought has to go into respiration. The downside is that the body doesn't have to guarantee the quality of the involuntary breath--only do it enough to keep us alive. 

Only by turning respiration into a conscious act can we change the quality of our breath AND change the quality of our lives. Yep, changing the way you breathe can totally change your life. Through better breathing, students find more restful sleep, more focused thinking, calmer moods and less stress. It even chops, slices, dices and makes julienne fries. That's not exactly truth in advertising but better quality of breathing could help YOU chop, slice and dice better, I'm sure of it.

The other A-HA I wanted to share was a similar one from two different participants. In this crazy, competitive mixed-up world, it's difficult to appreciate where we are as individuals and not get caught up in the comparison game; however that's just what these participants are doing: appreciating their diversity and what they bring to the game instead of worrying about what skills they don't have.

When someone contacts me about training, one of my bullet points is to let prospects know that Purple Lotus Yoga isn't about creating cookie cutter teachers. Instead the directors meet each participant where she is and guides her to where she wants to be.
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Here's Your Sign 09/07/2011
 
Whenever we have a decision to make we silently send out the same request: "Please show me the right thing to do here." Like the rest of you, I'd like to be driving down the road and see the billboard plastered with my answer/sign, "Hey Shannon, you need to do this. --The Universe." 

How much easier our lives would be if that's how it worked.....

Here's the irony--that IS how it works. But we're too distracted or too ego-driven, or worse, too disbelieving that the message is meant for us individually. I find it both funny and sad that people constantly ask the Universe for a sign then duck and run before the answer is revealed. It's as though we treat our life and passions like a bad Halloween prank. Let's sneak up and ring this doorbell then run away before the door is opened.

Every time you run away, you ignore the Universe and from personal experience, she despises that. Like a new lover, she softly
whispers the answers to you as if we are hearing them in a dream. Look out, she's testing you. She wants to see if  you can make the difficult yet right decision so that you are in control, so you can prove to her that you're ready for the next development in your life. Unfortunately for too many people, they swat at these quiet urgings like nagging gnats. 

For four years, I worked a corporate job making great money from easy work but ultimately bored after two years. I kept thinking I wanted to go back to work for myself. Back and forth, swatting at those persistent whispered urgings. The Universe grew tired of my indecision when she had done an abundant job of making it clear what I should do. At Christmas time, I was laid off. Because I had put off making the decision for myself, I was devastated and unprepared when it happened even though I had been thinking about quitting for months. 

Stop ringing the Universe's doorbell and then running away. If you're going to have the cahones to ring the doorbell then have the cahones to stay--stand your ground--and meet the answer head on. It's not like Frankenstein or a mass murderer is going to open the door. Yes, there's a good chance the answer will not be exactly what you want, but it will be exactly what you need.

I challenge to you make that decision this week. Whatever it is. Make it and show the Universe that you are a responsible spirit and completely ready for the unfolding that comes from making a tough call. This is your sign, the answer you've been waiting for, the permission you need to move forward. Do it. (And if you really have the cahones, share it with me.)
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One of the concepts we teach in training is called vinyasa krama which means a logical sequencing. For most of us we apply this principle to designing yoga classes. Krishnamacharya defined vinyasa simply as a beginning, middle and end and taught that  birth, life and death was the ultimate vinyasa made up of thousands of tiny vinyasas in between.

Last week I had the surreal experience of standing in the middle of vinyasa. As we laid my 81-year-old grandmother to rest, I rubbed my ever-expanding belly with a growing life inside. I, at 40-years-old, was the middle.  The surreality came not from being in the middle but from experiencing a beginning, middle and end all in one moment. 

I wish I could tell you that in that moment I was able to appreciate the profoundness, however at the time I could only grieve the passing of a wonderful, caring, loving woman. Now as I contemplate this entry, I think about the little attention we pay to the cycle of life....and if we're so blatant in our disregard for the ultimate vinyasa can we truly honor the cycle of a yoga class?

A great example of this is our avoidance of the term "corpse" as in corpse pose. In our politically correct times, in our attempts to be sensitive we gloss over it by referring to it in Sanskrit because it sounds better and prettier. We describe it as resting, relaxation and beach pose because we don't want people to have to think about death.  Ranjana, a long time yoga master and mentor to Maggie, states we should honor corpse pose because it does signify a death--an ending--and upon rising out of corpse, we arise a new being. (That's a fuzzy summary of how Maggie explained it to me so my apologies if I hacked up too badly.)

We honor births with flowers and celebrations. We acknowledge death with eulogies and sympathy, but what do we do about the middle? On our tombstones, the middle is represented by the dash between the date of birth and date of death-- a full life summarized by one little typographical character.  We acknowledge the beginning of a class with a quiet centering and celebrate the end with relaxation and meditation. But what about the dash of your classes? Has it been boiled down to a typographical character?

My challenge to you is to make your classes (and your life!) more than a typographical character, barely remembered. Allow the middle to be as important as the beginning and end because that is truly where the richness lies
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In January 2011, eight beautiful women sat around in a circle, nervously sizing up the other seven. Some of the group knew each other but most were strangers with the same goal--to earn their 500-hour advanced yoga certificate. At the end of the weekend, the group was slowly accepting each other, tentatively understanding the path of the next few months and feeling more excited than nervous. 

In February, these still nervous yoginis had to "declare" their focus for a final project. Like college, each participant picks an area of yoga to concentrate on for the remaining six months. NO ONE wanted to share. Perhaps it was lack of confidence, maybe embarrassment or mostly self-doubt, but I think it was the most difficult task for them to set aside their armor and let others see their true dreams and passions. It took a lot of cajoling, but finally out of the blue, one of the women stepped fully into her journey, "I want to open a yoga studio!" The entire room glanced over and the look of terror on her face said she'd really like to it  take back. However, that one brave and bold declaration gave everyone else the courage to share--in very quiet tones--their desires.

You cannot reshape metal without first getting it red hot and there were a few months where the intensity of the training was palpable. Not only was each weekend overflowing with anatomy, chakras, sutras and assisted yoga, they always had to keep moving forward on their final projects. There were no official meltdowns but the doubt and uncertainty was evident a couple of weekends, and Maggie and I did our best to keep the fires consistent, yet hot enough to keep reshaping. We never let up though because we understood the stages of the process.

It's hard to summarize an eight-month walk of faith in only a few paragraphs, so it might be easier to show you the results of what can be accomplished. **Please note the incredible joy and confidence on each participant as they gave their final presentations. There were no quiet tones, no embarrassment and certainly no more self-doubt as each women took her place firmly in the yoga world. 
From one of the participants during the outpouring on Facebook after the weekend concluded.  "Love the support.... from everyone, but especially from Shannon and Maggie. They want everyone to be a success.... and have done every single thing with in their power to make it happen.... I don't expect that to change. Really, just such an amazing group and such a well rounded training program. Feeling extremely... "over the top"... grateful to have crossed paths with every single one of you. I mean that from the depths of my heart."
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Simple assists for balasana.
I love teacher training. It's my favorite pastime and career all rolled into one. The fresh-faced eagerness and excitement of the student turned teacher-in-training; the compassion that's already there and the understanding that dawns throughout the months-long journey; and the ability to give these newly minted teachers confidence to step out on to a mat to make a difference to others. WOW! No greater feeling!

The 200-hour participants just completed the Teaching Tools portion where most of them got up for the first time and taught to their peers. (The hardest thing EVER!)  They learned some tips and techniques for making the most out of any environment and designed their first practices. Watch out yoga world, they're coming for you soon!

I asked the group to share some of what they loved about the weekend.
"It's amazing how diverse this group is yet we're all here for a common reason," said the veteran of the group. Not in age but in years of experience. She brings almost 10 years with her as she seeks to get her "official" certification. Her experience provides such a wonderful reference point for the newbies.

"I loved learning the assists and the response you get from something so simple," exclaimed the corporate trainer. (I love having a fellow corporate trainer because she gets everything so quickly--and I don't mean the yoga stuff, I mean the training stuff I throw in to help people learn and transform.)

The youngest award goes to our cute librarian who said, "I loved the mini-teach session. There was no pressure just the ability to see how things went." 

We have a dancer in our midst who brings with her so much understanding in how important the mind-body connection is especially from an industry where image can be over-emphasized and and the healthy mind-body connection undermined. "I've taught dance for so many years however I love to see how other do it (teach). I really enjoy the different points of view."

Just a glimpse into our weekend training session. Each group is so  unique and amazing in their own ways. As the veteran stated, it is a diverse group but all are working together to bring compassion and love into their teaching.
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I have been practicing yoga for the past ten years and recently finished a yoga teacher training and I must say that I am so glad I did! Because I have been practicing yoga for so long, I thought that there was really no point in taking a yoga certification program because I am not looking to teach yoga professionally. But did you know there are such things as yoga immersion programs?

I first discovered yoga when I was eighteen years old when I was in a really bad place in my life. I was depressed, overweight, having a terrible time in school, my boyfriend just broke up with me, and well….you can hear the violin strings playing in the background. Yes, my life was on a downhill slope to loser land and a friend of mine introduced me to yoga. Honestly, I saw yoga as some hippie dippy thing where we were all going to chant and I thought I was going to have to do some weird ritual.

Suffice it to say I took my first yoga class and have been addicted ever since. After my first practice I decided to completely immerse myself in yoga and try every style out there. I tried hatha, ashtanga, Bikram,kundalini,anusara, you name it and I tried it. So after ten years of doing yoga, I really thought that I was at the peak of my game. I can hold any pose imaginable with grace and integrity and I even help some of my friends with their yoga practice.

But honestly I have no intention of becoming a yoga teacher professionally. I mean, I love yoga and all but I also enjoy the amount of money I make at my job. Teaching yoga does not afford me the lifestyle I want but it does afford me the health I want. Sort of ironic huh?

Well, I have seen lots of these yoga teacher training programs advertised in the studios I practice in and paid no attention since I am not looking to build a yoga career. However after speaking with a friend of mine who finished her yoga teacher training, she had told me how the program really took her practice to a whole other level. She was telling me how that by doing one of these programs it really helped her see yoga from a whole other perspective.

Well, I signed up and took my first teacher training program and am so glad I did. It really did teach me things about yoga I would have never learned from a yoga class. A yoga class is great for a consistent health regimen. But a yoga teacher training program really kicked my butt and took my practice to newer heights and I am so glad I did!

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Brick House Yoga 11/07/2010
 
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It probably hasn't escaped your attention that I've been remiss on posting 

That's because I bought a yoga studio. Yes, oops, I did it again. A little birdie called me back in late August to tell me there was a yoga studio in downtown McKinney for sale. My first thought was, "who cares?" Boy, did I get a lesson in "never say never!"

Sometimes when opportunities present themselves, it's our obligation to grab hold and see where they take us. It's not for us to question the universe but to step up and step into what is possible, instead of sitting back in fear and thinking, "that's impossible." The last six weeks have been a whirlwind of activity from naming the studio, branding, website, etc., and that was all before I took over the actual running of the business. But it's also been learning some of my own lessons along the way. (And I don't believe those lessons are over.)

For one solid week, I was depressed and questioning my sanity. See I KNOW the hard work it will take to make the studio succeed. I KNOW you don't become a millionaire by buying a yoga studio. I KNOW a lot of things and that past knowledge scares the beejeezles out of me. When I sold the studio the first time, it was amidst my own personal crisis--one that took almost three years to come out of. At night when everyone is asleep, I worry that I'm walking a path that will lead me back to everything that was wrong (with me) with the first one. In the wee hours of the morning, I fear I've made the biggest mistake and it will all come crashing down me, like it did before. 

So I have a choice: I can walk in fear, or I can walk in faith, and at least by walking in faith, I sleep a little better at night :)

THANK YOU to my dear friends, who provided the much needed faith when I was without. They reached out to knock me in the side of the head with a 2x4. You believed in me when it was difficult for me to believe in myself, when I doubted that I had the chops to make it a go--for a second time.  No one--and I mean no one--tried to talk me out of this endeavor. Brick House Yoga is born because so many people are helping me deliver it to the world.

Now the good news! Are you still reading this far???? The 200-hour and 500-hour Yoga Alliance Registered training begins in January 2011. Why is that exciting? It's always exciting to have a group of eager yogis ready to absorb all the knowledge I can throw at them. But now we have a home--a place to lay our mats, talk about yoga (and you get to practice for free while enrolled in training).... How cool is that?

Check out the dates. Make your arrangements and send me your commitment forms. Make a commitment in YOURSELF.....take that brave next step. If I can purchase a yoga studio, surely you can commit to following your dream of becoming a yoga teacher?
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Because we're authentic. Not authentic in the all-natural, all-organic, we're better than other brands out there. At Purple Lotus Yoga we're real--and honest. We are real humans with real problems simply wanting to make the best of our lives. Plus we do it as honestly as we can so long as it isn't harmful to another....that's ahimsa and satya in action. We don't pretend that yoga fixes everything or that yoga will solve all the world's problems.....although it's my personal belief that if more people practiced the ideals of yoga, the world would be a better place.

Each person who has participated in a Purple Lotus Yoga event knows that yoga is the best way to face his or her own problems and to live the best life possible. Participants know they can be human, make mistakes, mess up and not be perfect AND still be able to live their best possible life. As a teacher, I am not perfect and I give my students permission to not be perfect. As a teacher I work, practice and make mistakes all with the goal of living my life to its fullest possibilities. I show my students that life is a work in progress and through living my own life, try to demonstrate that mistakes are okay--even if they might be embarrassing or humbling.

Don't take my word for it. I've only been doing it for about 12 years, and guess what? In those 12 years while practicing yoga, I've made some crazy mistakes. I've made decisions I wish I could take back or undo. I've experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And each time I took a mis-step I shared that experience with my students. Not all teachers do this. Not all teachers want to show the chinks in their armor. But how can I advise my students to live authentically if I hide all my flaws from them?

And since I'm real and honest, I'll tell you I haven't practiced asanas everyday on my mat for the last decade. My physical practice has ebbed and flowed with the fluctuations of my body and my life. Sometimes I have found clarity and calm in meditation or in research and reading. Sometimes I found solace in doing nothing or simply listening to my inner voice.

Yoga doesn't magically make the problems and bad decisions disappear. What it does is gives you the ability to understand much faster that you've made an error in judgement. Yoga gives you the ability to cope with the stress that comes from a bad decision. More importantly, yoga gives you the space to figure this all out.

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