My Tribe
Everyone has their own quirks and special preferences that make them unique. Mine happen to take on a hippie and bohemian quality. They smell of rose water and feel like sand beneath the toes on a Tuesday evening.
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Leap of Faith Life
Leaps of Faith in Life, Travel, Yoga, and Happiness
Tag: peace
“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” -John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
Want to know how to make happiness a way of life? So did I.
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Or a literal title might be named, “How to calm down in any anxiety-giving situation, or situation you perceive to be negative.” Not as effective.
When the ship is going down, in the moment of anxiety-driven situations and high emotions (anger, frustration, jealousy, stress, or mind-blowing-madness), to say something like, “let’s block this negativity together,” might not have the same effect as the captain yelling to the group to regain control, “Just calm the F down! Everything’s going to be okay!”
Think about it – the adrenaline pumping through your body is like the crazed ship group running into each other to get to the life boats, and your mind is the captain trying to get their attention.
So, how do you calm the F down? Luckily, it’s easy to do – it’s called breathing. Or, if you want to get fancy, prana, which means life force, energy, vital breath.
Yoga starts and ends with breath. As do we. So it makes sense that we have control in any situation, negative or positive, to direct our emotions with our breath. It might not feel like it at the time, but after some practice, it will get easier and more useful to you to use anywhere.
When you panic, or get upset, the breath tends to get short and fast. This leads to less oxygen to the brain and the body, and induces a panic sensation in the body. Think about when someone is hyperventilating – to get them to calm down you may have seen them breathe into a bag. Part of the reason that helps is due to the focus on breath, to make it longer and fuller, rather than short and fast. Continue reading
This experience came at me out of no where. Despite my 10 year high school reunion this year, I haven’t paid a particular amount of attention to my age (well, more than normal anyway). So, this boat thing surprised me and really, really helped me clear my head on the whole damn age thing.
Weird Coincidences
After a long run (well, long for me anyway, I’m a total newbie to running) along the shore front of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota, I did my normal cool down walk. It was a beautiful breezy summer day, and sweaty or not, something was calling me to go sit down on a public bench on the beach instead of returning immediately to my car to go home and shower. The sky and water were both insanely blue, and I decided to listen to the urge to sit, rather than ignore it (the easier option).
The only reason I actually listened to this voice came from my recent commitment to my meditation practice. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit as a yoga teacher for the past four years, my daily home meditation practice was sorely lacking. I began to get serious about it this summer, and settled in to a nice space after a month or so.
Stay with me here – once I made a commitment to get my butt down on the ground for 10 – 20 minutes (mind you, I had to work up to that amount of time, I started off with a few minutes each day), I started to see the benefits immediately, and I was addicted.
I am pushed to consider the world around and inside me, to recognize love in myself and admire love in everyone around me. It’s freaking amazing. It puts me in check when I have a moment where something might jump out at me to knock me down. I take a moment to calm down or just breathe in gratitude. Much better than seeing red when someone cuts me off in traffic!
It also guides me to focus and recognize when the universe tries to send me signs, messages, or just a little love. Normally people only acknowledge messages after something tragic happens, like a death, to see little signs of love around them. Small, yet significant – a particularly beautiful sunset, a certain song on the radio or a dog coming to say hello with the same name.
The Event that Changed My Outlook About Age on the Beach
About five minutes after I sat down on that bench I was called to put my booty in, I saw off in the distance a little parade of sail boats coming down the waterway. They were about 1000 feet offshore, and a beautiful site to see. They were coming in at a fast clip, so I decided to walk down to the water’s edge and take a few pictures. Continue reading
Thanks for stopping by! My name is Azahar, and I am an avid traveler, daily yoga student + teacher and holistic happiness seeker. Join me as I dig through all the world has to offer in lessons of leaps of faith with travel, yoga, and holistics in learning to practice happiness.
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