Commit to Your Yoga Practice

• Aim for arrival 10 minutes prior to the class starting. Classes generally start on time.
• Leave at least 5 minutes more than “necessary” to travel to class.
• Respect the fact that if you arrive late you may be turned away. Why stress out even more??
• If you know you will be late for class before you arrive, it is best to aim for the next scheduled class.
• Do not consider your yoga practice to be 75 or 90 minutes, but devote 120 minutes to practice, including travel time both ways.

I realize allowing 2 hours for practice isn’t possible in all cases, however consider that reducing your own stress by avoiding late arrival is usually far more beneficial to your health than taking 5 extra minutes to fold that last bit of laundry or send that one last email at work that could be sent the next morning.

To get the accurate time, go to http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=250 and note that many studios automatically synchronize their computers with a service such as this every morning. At the studio I work at, our clock is accurate. If you know that you are perpetually late, one strategy is to set your clock ahead 5 minutes. Even though you know it is fast, your brain on some level will still believe it is the actual time.

Thank yourself for your practice. I thank you for your practice. Make time for it.

Namaste

I’ve gotten called a “guru” on twitter. *runs and hides*.. I’ve been referenced online as one of the top ten in the yoga community on Twitter

On Following

1. Don’t follow back everyone. Some disagree with this. But see #5.
2. Follow back yogis who tweet valuable stuff - community leaders, teachers, studios in various areas, etc. There aren’t competitors on twitter, as far as I’m concerned, although there can be dissension and disagreement amongst yogis.The studio down the street? Not sure. But Twitter is a public forum, and I believe the possible best course of action is to follow, follow away! Even RT some of their stuff, if it’s valuable quotes or their own charity endeavours (of course you don’t want to tweet their marketing stuff)… if you’re uncomfortable with this idea (um, it is a BUSINESS after all), then create a personal account that is somewhat anonymous, and follow them through there, to keep tabs on how they’re using twitter.
3. Follow back “event broadcasters” and other leaders in the toronto area.
4. Wherever possible follow back actual clients/members of the studio, to develop an online personal relationship with them.
5. Cull your followers — as much as possible remove the spam accounts. There’s a fine line and sometimes it’s hard to tell. Some people will look at a person’s follows as a measure of whether to follow back; some people will look at a person’s follower count (ie the popularity contest — even better, is the following:follower ratio. If you are followed more than you follow, you evoke a different thing than if you follow hundreds more than who follows you..). It can be different for a business (not sure how), but in general I would say that it’s better to keep your news feed to two groups: those you want to follow because they interest you, regardless of whether they follow back. For example, an account that broadcasts Buddha quotes. You may wish to RT them a lot. Second, those who interact with you. This can be difficult, but try to follow whoever sends an @reply, if they are genuinely interacting with you.

Oh, the Automation

Please don’t automate anything about twitter. Instead, use a client like TweetDeck. Manage followers manually. Some “twitter marketers” will tell you how to get thousands of followers, and often recommend certain applications (not affiliated with twitter in any way). Beware. The people who actually use twitter, especially those in the yoga/spiritual community do NOT like these techniques, and smell them from miles away.

On @replies

Don’t underestimate the value of tweeting yogic messages that are very very very simple — Breathe. Bring awareness to the feeling of gravity in your body. Or quote patanjali. But also don’t neglect interacting. Respond to what interests you. Answer someone’s question, or ask your own, and be prepared to respond to most if not all replies to you. Try to reply to ALL @replies or mentions. Some people thank every person who RTed them. People like to get mail (except bills or junk mail — equivalent of spam!), and they like to get mentions. I don’t tend to reply to every single RT but maybe I should. It comes down for me to time.

On Retweets (RTs)

The more you reference other yogis, the more they will be likely to reference you — RTing is therefore valuable in the sense that you are not only spreading information that will give other users a better picture of who YOU are, you are also “recommending” them in a very real sense, and you are letting that person you RTed know that you are following them and value their tweets. Also RT the people who RT you, IF that person is tweeting stuff of value. You want to follow them to do that.

BE PERSONAL

This is a point of interest for ANYONE who uses twitter as a business identity. What do you actually do? How do you sell? How can you make money on twitter?

OK. Breathe.

Tweet about your challenges. Tweet generically about your challenges! That’s right! People RELATE to that. Tweet about goings on, to an extent. Big events? Sure! Tweet that you’re getting married, or going on a cruise, or to India, or about how there’s a GIANT weed in your backyard that you might need to just appreciate because it’s too big and prickly to remove. Tweet about your personal choices for being ecologically minded — and do these things without tying into your business. In other words, there is a place for saying “my studio/business is eco” - but if that’s all you’re doing then you’ve just bought into “green marketing”.. which yogis and others in the know will smell as simple self-serving marketing jibber jabber.

OK What About Business?

Now, being personal is trickier if you actually have more than one person updating twitter for your business. I actually do NOT like “we”.. it kind of reeks of groupthink. Either refer to yourself in the third person — “Studio Y is excited to announce Jerry as a new addition to the team” or, simply just get one person to tweet. Or get multiple people to tweet “for” the business, but under different names. Let them engage in the yoga community as themselves. You can choose to make your business a broadcast business, and then have your “reps” RT important things. I don’t think this model would be as effective.

People have sent business my way because of twitter, but I believe this is because of my personal relationship with them. And I give things for free, I mean knowledge and stuff. Some businesses do the occasional product giveaway, if that works - it could be a free complimentary pass for one class. it could be random or could be “the best response” kind of thing. But this can be excessive. Continuous self-promotion is not effective in this community.

In other words, be a yogic entity first, and a business second. Be ethical. Avoid direct PMs or unsolicited @replies that are just sales pitches — like if you sought out users by their location and then tweeted to them “come check out our studio/my website!” - that is so close to spam, if not spam. it can depend on how it’s approached. if someone tweeted, for instance “i’m really struggling with my yoga practice” you could tweet back, “what do you think is a barrier to getting deeper into your practice?” and engage in a conversation with them. they can organically look at the fact you are a local studio by checking out your profile. or you can eventually gently say “noticed you’re in our area, we’d love for you to come in for a class on us; finding a “home” to do your yoga can raelly help with a regular practice. ”

Finally

What is your approach to yoga? Frame yourself not just from a branding point of view, but convey why you personally are running a yoga business, and what makes you passionate about it. the more personal the better. Use twitpic to post pictures of yourself, if you choose to have a company logo as your avatar.. keeping in mind that a company logo as avatar casts you as a business with less of a face attached to it. I’d say this is somewhat a personal preference and a business decision that is ultimately your judgment call.

And enjoy! Enjoy interacting. Support others. Support them freely! Without condition! You’ll be amazed at the energy created through that.

Feel free to add anything I’ve missed, plus opinions, in the comments. I’m interested to build on these ideas. Also, I’m not really trying to cast myself as someone who is hocking that “how to make money through yoga on twitter!” but to try and bring yoga businesses to the realization that they actually have to be part of the community first, and a business second. this is not specific to yoga, except I think the community here is far more sensitive to when it happens the other way around (business first, yoga - yamas and niyamas? second).

Namaste

i am on a campaign to reduce my own stress driving. i work at a yoga studio and i see so many people come in, and they are so tense, possibly from rushing through traffic to get there. i live in a neighbourhood that is rife with giant SUVs weaving at 20 km over the speed limit. if i drive 5 or 10 km over, i am deemed to be going too slow, and so i often stare at the grilles of other massive luxury vehicles in my rearview. i often get cut off. i often observe such idiocy and danger on the road and i feel my low blood pressure rising

so i have a few practices that i keep. The practices fall in the realm of actions while driving, and then mindset while driving. i’ll talk about the actions first:

1. breathe

oh how obvious this is… but yes. if you feel pissed off, just breathe. take a breath.

2. drive the speed limit

and so this means, don’t rush anywhere. oh boy. i try to leave an extra 15 min to get wherever i’m going. and if i am late, i dont sweat it. literally, i am better off getting there late, than getting there later because of a speeding ticket, or not at all because of an accident.

3. get tailgaters off your rear

oh, but how?? aha. this is where my driver training came in. duno if you all got the same training… basically, do not hit the brake. slow down, just a little. if you do this, you will likely ‘wake them up’ — most aren’t doing it to be aggressive, they are doing it because they are not paying attention. slowing down a bit, but not so drastically that they rear-end you, nudges them back to consciousness. they usually pass. if they pass angrily, don’t get upset, just smile. wow, they must be in a rush. good thing you aren’t.

4. leave lots of space.

keep the space in front of you big. avoid hitting your brakes, almost at all costs, especially in stop and go traffic. this will prevent you from wasting gas, or hitting someone in front of you, and you will literally get there at the same time as anyone else rushing up to the car in front and slamming their brakes.

i couldn’t find the video i wanted, but this is a good demo of what i’m talking about: u-n-l-o-c-k gridlock

vrrrooohhhhhmmmm.

let go.

is it your road? do you own it? share. let a person in if they want to get in. let go of getting there first.

lose the ego

you aren’t more important than anyone else on the road. but they think they are more important than you are. does that make you angry?
let them be more important. interestingly, they are the ones who are stressed out, not you.

consciousness.

be conscious of your own emotions on the road. if someone instigates road rage toward you because you aren’t “playing the game” of stress on the road, can you be aware of what that feels like, without reacting to it?

ahimsa

don’t retaliate. be gracious, let it go. sing in the car, smile at another driver. wave someone on. protect yourself, and otherwise, to quote the lovely Kate Bornstein, don’t be mean.

finally, i will take the opportunity to insert a little rant: DO NOT INTIMIDATE PEDESTRIANS, OK?? I see so many people try to turn right or left at an intersection, and a pedestrian is walking in the cross walk, and the car is edging… slowly… forward… as if to make the pedestrian walk faster? and then they turn, not two feet from the person’s legs! i really have to exhale when i see that happen.

drive safe, be kind, share the road, leave lots of time and lots of space. listen to nice music, and sing along. save gas, use the brake as little as possible. don’t be afraid of other drivers, but don’t try to intimidate them either. and please, let someone in with a grin!

namaste

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.
~ Madeleine L’Engle

language is POWERFUL. we don’t own language. i don’t, you don’t. the speaker does not own their words, in the sense that they have control over the meaning and interpretation of those words.

so, i am practicing acceptance of others’ interpretations. i am witnessing them reflect for me ways i am judging myself and denying that i am doing so. i am witnessing them try to undercut my message by pointing out my own contradictions. i am witnessing them awaken to the ways they judge themselves. and then judge themselves for judging themselves.

can witnessing also involve the witnessing of language? witness the way you use language. witness others’ use of language. become aware of how we use it differently, and become aware of how many many many meanings exist in the same words, all at the same time.

then, words become less like swords and more like mirrors. even the mirrors are distorted and reflect multiple things at once. this can be confusing, frustrating even. how can this be okay?

can you be okay with someone else’s words? can you live with your words being imperfect? with words not being the same as the reality they attempt to describe? we are all lost in translation

it’s wonderful! we are nomads in language. this leaves room for wandering and discovering. let words breathe.

think about how this is like practicing yoga on the mat. is it clear? i hope not.

namaste

the way things are is NOT the way things should be. change through hard work, shifting the attitude toward positive thinking and scientific progress will help individuals, organizations, societies move forward, become better, and ultimately find mastery over the world, more adept at controlling its resources, purer, more ‘civilized’, and smarter.

the central focus is a judgment. negativity is unacceptable. forward thinking is the only way to move forward. moving forward is the prime directive.

the idea of manifestation is problematic when it comes from an outlook that repeats, however quietly, that right now isn’t okay. i need to manifest something different. i have a destiny or a dream or a need but i’m not *there* yet.

before you crap all over my concept of the law of attraction, i admit that i have not studied it in depth. however i approach that *theory* (not law, though some would assert it is like gravity - a reality absolute) from the perspective that it is a decontextualized borrowing from deep, rich tradition(s) that is made palatable to western audiences. it short circuits a whole host of concepts and practices into a self-help quick-fix and simplistic set of rules. so i’m less attracted to it than the centuries old texts that modern day ‘guru’ types have borrowed from to attract followers.

a story

my kripalu days brought me face-to-face with the internal talk that placed me in opposition to whatever i was at the moment. i wanted to have less tight hamstrings. i wanted to eat differently (which i got to do with ease at kripalu because i didn’t have to cook for my lazy self). i wanted to be less neurotic, have more toned abs, be less attention-seeking, be more at ease with people, make eye contact, be more brave, be more independent.. the list is a mile long.

this thing they were telling us about — non-judgmental awareness — was something i had met when i had surgery last may. laproscopic abdominal surgery left me very sore and weaker in my core. after a few days on narcotics and almost bed-ridden, i was missing yoga and bored and restless. so, the YMCA near my house had “Soft Yoga” on Wednesday mornings. I’d been before. It was mostly older folks, and the Donna taught us with many modifications for those less mobile. I usually took my practice where I felt like in that class, enjoying the community, the doting grandma types and the humour and levity Donna brought to teaching. Enter me in May, painfully easing myself into yoga, barely able to lay out my mat…

thank goodness for chair yoga!

i observed the very important safety tip that some folks don’t know (or can’t realistically heed): do NOT do yoga on pain killers, muscle relaxants and the like. Seriously, you cannot feel your body well enough to practice staying in sensation, not over stretching or torquing joints if your nerves are being subdued by medications.

taking no pain killers by the time i hit yoga 10 days post-surgery, i set about doing only what i could in that class, using pain signals as a guide to where i could go and where i could not. i had stitches, compromised abs, residual chest pain from my gall bladder attack and the air they pumped into my body during surgery.

all of this had a huge impact on me - as someone practicing yoga for almost a decade i was used to a much larger range of movement, an ease within poses, not needing props and the resilience to bounce back when i overstretched due to striving. not then.

i remember wanting to cry. i remember feeling .. not frustrated, but just deflated. then i realized what a gift i had been given in this challenge.

encountering sudden physical limitations disrupted how i took my body for granted. it confronted me with how much pride i took in where i could go with yoga. practicing during my healing process humbled me, too, as i experienced the amazing effects yoga had on my healing. just breathing, just sitting there, bringing awareness to where i was at and accepting it was transformative.

okay - witness consciousness.

many people think that meditation and yoga and enlightenment involve letting go of (read: getting rid of) negative emotions and thoughts. it means having an empty mind. many if not most people cannot get there. they haven’t arrived, and are thus dissatisfied. their ego defenses may belittle the practice because it’s too hard. they may say it’s not possible, or that the goal isn’t worthwhile, or just that it doesn’t make sense because no one has explained it to them properly (rather than, perhaps, they haven’t been open — or simply haven’t been ready — to receiving what the real message is. they’re stuck in thinking they have to be someplace else, they have to ‘get’ something else in order to arrive at that place of peaceful emptiness with no thoughts and no negative emotions.

witness consciousness means being aware. awareness of what is allows acknowledgement of what is, it allows the opportunity to understand and process your own beingness. step 1? no, not really.

awareness, practiced with non-judgment. what is, is. it just is. it may not be what it seems at first glance. it has many layers. what is cannot be fully seen.

You are right where you need to be.read the previous sentence again. you are right where you need to be. what does this mean? absolutely not! you might think this since you have many habits and faults and thoughts that you want to get rid of, that aren’t helping you be happy. you need to be more happy. your anguish, your suffering, your dis-ease is not serving you.

really? are you sure?

self-reflection

what would happen if i let go of judgment? of striving? of avoiding what is? what if i accepted suffering? what if i accepted ignorance and not knowing? what if i remained open to the things that i don’t like, noticing that i don’t like them but remaining loving to my dislike without judging myself further about that? what if i stopped scolding myself?

an emotion lasts 90 seconds. it’s a wave. it lasts longer for one of two reasons: 1-one actually *wants* to keep feeling angry. it is worn like a badge, or an identity, it is a way to feel powerful, perhaps a way to have control. 2-to me just as insidious and the one i struggle with: the more one tries to push *away* the feeling, “i’m NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ANGRY” the longer it lasts. perhaps i can bury it and dissapate it, but it will only surface again, or reside under the surface as passive aggression.

what if i ride the wave? the emotion will become intense. i will have many thoughts but if i can witness all that and let it rise, without attaching to it then it WILL ebb again. it just will. it’s like the place in between radio stations, there are noises, thoughts, music all intertwined, and it’s a question of tuning in. where am i residing? what can i find in the places in between? there is value to where i’ve been. whether i’m glad to not be where i was or regretful about where i was, or glad about where i was because it has made me stronger — all of these are judgments and i can focus on one of these only, or all of them, or none of them. any of these stances is OKAY. seriously. what if it’s all ok? what if it’s all good, even? what if it all just IS? i am right where i need to be.

there’s a hint of paradox in it, but i think that the more i become consciously aware of my mind and emotions, and witness it without judging it, my feelings become finely tuned instruments. they point merely to something i could pay attention to. more could and less should.

if i wrestle with everything going on inside my own head, and strive for something else, dissatisfied, harboring discontent, then i am not witnessing, and thus cannot see, or hear, or do as someone fully in the world - connected, and possibly in peace. for the moment.

namaste

this post caught my attention: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/get-rich-quick.html

i think some entrepreneurs, i can at least empathize, start off in the networking community as seekers, and i imagine (at least this is my perception) discover that the same people are doing the seeking, over and over, recruiting others to seek as well (affiliate) and some stick, some don’t, but then… do some of these seekers begin to wonder whether they’re swimming in a small pond with fish that all can’t find the way to the ocean?

as a graphic artist and novice web designer, i’ve been really grappling with design questions. how to have a business that moves along the stream to larger waters, in the sense that it has substance. how to communicate that substance? content is king, right? how to marketing sales blitz letters have any substance? even if they are selling something “worthwhile” in the eyes of consumers or even the entrepreneur(s) themselves?

As long as there have been people who want to get rich, there have been get rich quick schemes. The guys who sell mailing lists have a name for people who buy these schemes: “opportunity seekers.”

Raising ostriches, or timing the market or investing in tulips–there’s a long history here. The schemes tend to have a few things in common. They tend to have the same tone of voice (part breathless, part bad design, part ‘we’re just like you’) and most of all, they are too good to be true.

this really keyed me into something important:

Online, of course, like most things online, this has blossomed. You’ll see the long long web pages filled with ALL CAPS and bright colors and testimonials and “wait there’s more!” They look alike for a reason–it’s a signal to the opportunity seeker that this is one of those.

*it’s a signal* — hmm. so in a sense, these pages with the ALL CAPS and bright colours are a signal — the bait that works the best to catch fish in the small pond.

of COURSE there are many who disagree with Seth Godin. and of course, i do not. i say again, it’s the bait that works best to catch fish in the small pond. it’s a type of generic “branding”. people make money off it. and yet i remain skeptical. if you read the article, skepticism in the seeker is very important. except the bait doesn’t work for me.

honestly, i think the law of attraction is similar, in the sense that the language is a *signal*. it’s not that the LOA is a bunch of hooey, exactly. LOA is based in very very old spiritual wisdom. However the current trend is language stripped of substance, somehow, a drug that lures the seekers and leaves them there, kind of like weight loss programs, leaving people hungry for more and not entirely sure why they can’t shut off all the negative thoughts in order to attract only the positive. why are they stuck?? well, so that they’ll keep coming back for more, that’s why. LOA stripped of its hindu, buddhist, and i think kabbalic roots is like yoga stripped of all the philosophy — a great exercise, makes you feel good, but like a drug that has very temporary effects. even when its peddlers insist that there is more substance there. yes, there is, in ancient texts, that have a lot more to say than the LOA marketers and coaching, have a LOT of depth, and wait — they’re free? what?

you can read, for instance, The Upanishads and if you find the old texts inaccessible to you, look for commentary, and as much as you can find. from published sources. read the dalai lama, who is quite accessible. (search on Amazon for his books here)

i think about those five questions - what, who, when, and how. and then why. there are combinations of these, right? all hinging around the why.. as each person around the circle, or at every stage of the business has a why. there is a why-what, a why-who, a why-when, and a why-how. communications design falls into a few of these, or all of these. very important, i think, is the why-who and why-how. when designing a web page one has to ask both these questions.

who are you talking to, and why?

how are you talking to them, and why?

The posture should be comfortable and easy.
~ Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

yoga is not static. even when “holding” postures, there is movement in the body. energy flows from the ground up, from the crown down to the feet, and through outstretched arms. as the body finds alignment, sensations change. as the posture is held muscles feel different, strength waxes and wanes, the breath may become shallow, and then on reminder, become deep again.

it’s fun to explore postures. in a high lunge, wiggling the hips from side to side opens up the joints, and provides stretches in different places. find the sensation, and stay in it, holding, breathing into it. create space with your breath.

are you escaping?

yet it is also possible to “wiggle” enough to escape sensation. possible to arrange the posture “just so”, in a way perhaps that looks nice, or gets deeper, but doesn’t stretch the muscles evenly, or doesn’t stretch them at all. sometimes it is about relaxation. sometimes the skeleton finds itself compressed in a joint, and a person’s unique skeleton requires a shift, perhaps not in ideal alignment to ‘get by the bone’. people’s shoulders can be this way. some people can’t lift their arms up over their head from the front - they get to shoulder height and have to come out to the side. it can be like this in different places in the body.

becoming more aware of the difference between healthy sensation and pain, and sensation and escape from sensation, are useful inquiries.

try this at home

ego? comfort? go inside and look

think about whether you are striving to get your head to your knees when you are at your regular yoga class. notice if you feel reluctant to back off and go for the bigger stretch because it doesn’t look as impressive, or make you feel as flexible (if you feel strongly that your striving is for your own personal challenge only).

both forward bends are okay, though if you have problems with your lower back you want to try and keep a straight back. if you have osteopenia or osteoporosis, be careful with forward bends, especially coming back up to standing.

explore sensation, find the edge, and honour your body — where it is at today, right now. you’ll get “further” in the long run, i promise.

namaste

i haven’t wrapped my head or heart around the notion that judgment is a necessity. i mean, i understand that i do need to judge and discriminate in situations. to judge whether that bridge will give way as i cross it. to judge whether i can believe what someone is telling me. to make sure i stay safe. there is “making a judgment call”. this is a good thing.

but what about when it comes to people? judging whether they are lying, as i mentioned above, is one useful case. what about, whether i think this person would be a good friend? or if a friend is making a choice that i judge will lead to suffering?

i always perceived judgment as something harsh, that one person levels against another. as the opposite of kindness. how can i be kind and judge at the same time?maybe i am confused. but maybe i am onto something.

imagine a judge in a courtroom. they make a decision because people are asking the judge to make one. the judge holds authority, and the judge is separate.

think about the word kindness for a moment. hm. kindness. could it perhaps mean that i exist in kind? isn’t this the opposite of being separate from who or what we i am kind toward?

so, to be kind toward others means to treat them - to take the root of the word further down - as kin. to treat my self with kindness means that i do not separate from myself, i stay connected with the truth of who i am. being kind to myself means that even as i harm myself, i can be kind to the part of me that disregards and causes violence — the part that separates me from me. if i judge myself, i create fragments, i create larger chasms within my psyche. to love the parts of myself that are unlovable, to treat them with kindness, means shining a light into those dark spaces. it means witnessing that which is. once it ceases to be separate from me, i will not seek to destroy myself.

to treat others in kind? it would seem that a large obstacle to kindness with others is not practicing self-kindness. it is very easy to stand apart from the world and judge it harshly, when i stand apart from myself.

It’s just love. There is nothing else. There is just love. ~Swami Kripalu

one example is that prematurely declaring success can foil that success — even in ways that seem unconnected. ficticious case: i become a finalist for some writing award, and the night of the awards, because everyone is telling me i’m going to win, i phone my friend and say ‘i’m so going to win this thing, it’s practically in the bag’ … then i don’t. or i’m sure i got that job, but because i told someone about it, i didn’t get it. or i tell someone how my car has never needed more than an oil change for years, and it suddenly needs fixing.

being ‘too quick’ to assert what isn’t quite true yet is one way in which i can become disappointed and withdraw from what i’m doing when it doesn’t happen.

it can be called ‘realistic pessimism‘, which i would venture to say is more protective than unrealistic optimism, but i think both are illusory, more so anyway than some sort of “poptimism“. hah. nice word, eh?

it relates to my previous post about impermanence. if i live in the present, keeping in mind (even if at the back) that the present is not forever, i can begin to work on seeing something that hasn’t happened yet as .. well, not having happened yet. and because it hasn’t happened yet, i can’t declare that it has.

.

the more i connect with myself in the present moment, the more i can speak from the present — who i am, and not who i desire to be, not who i was. and this — this is what will allow other people to meet me where i am at right now, it will enable both of us to see the ‘now me’ more clearly.

if i stay in the present moment, i can keep open to possibility. keep connected with myself, and i can feel what or who i am connected to around me. authenticity. the present moment.

namaste