Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Creatures of Habit

I love my immune system. It rarely fails me or lets me down. I can function in daily life knowing that it is strong.. For the most part.

Being sick is a chore for me. I grew up with a nurse as a mother whom I'm sure brought home every illness, disease and ailment known to man, just so that my immune system could know what it was and how to fight it. I rarely ever get sick. Sure, sometimes I'm feeling under the weather but for the most part it's blown out of proportion by my emotional state.

I've taken many a lesson from my nursemom. One of them being that even when I am sick, it shouldn't stop my life from happening. I rarely missed school, work, events, anything due to sickness. My life happened whether my immune system wanted it to or not.

Just keep swimming.

Now as a yogi (of sorts) I try and involve myself in the philosophy of yoga as well as the asanas (physical postures) but it's quite a lot to handle sometimes. Not only am I trying to live my life as productively as I can but I'm trying to involve all different aspects of interest in it as well. Music, art, nature, ect. I've been trying to concour the 8 limbs of yoga for some time now. It's not an easy task. To not only memorize them but to incorporate them into your life at all times takes quite a bit of effort. But as it's been referd to before, the 8 limbs are more of the spokes on a bycicle tire rather than steps of a latter. They're meant to all be done at once, not taken one by one. (IMO)

Which brings us to another point.

Balance.

What is life without balance? The middle way? Compromise?

Sometimes it's good to just take it slow. It may not be a "sick day" but you can rest and still be productive. Maybe it's good to just go over the names of the Yamas one day and save the rest for later.

I'm a huge fan of putting my fingers in all the pies and getting a bit of everything. Jack of all trades rather than incompitant at one thing and amazing at another.

Point is, what can we do to balance our lives a bit? Take a bit of it all at once and see how it goes.

:Contents of my head.

M.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Trapped



Loo loves the outdoors but isn't really the brightest. She would probably ingest every twig she came in contact with. Hence me keeping her indoors. Sometimes you've got to protect the ones you love... from puking.

Obviously, she's not pleased..

Enjoy!

M

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Insanity

My journey with yoga has made my life a more enriched experience by far, but there are always those days, sometimes even just sessions, that get to the bones of me and frustrate me to no end.

This one of of them.

The theme in class today was about doing an action over and over and expecting a different outcome. It happens a lot, in life, in yoga, everything. We are creatures of habit to the death and it can be good or bad, whatever you allow it. My habit isn't usually to be frustrated in class.

In fact, I'm quite a laid back person. Of course I have my core values and respects but for the most part, it's hard to really get under my skin. To the point of me having extremely low blood pressure, very open joints, and little core strength. Some say I'm very kapha, some say I'm water/earth sign, some say I'm just a pushover. Point being, it takes quite a bit to really piss me off.

I honestly can't tell you what was going on with me in class today. We did a series of lunge flows that got my fire going, a half lotus lift that messed with me (mainly because my arms are shorter than my torso and I can't lift) and the worst of them all were the balancing poses. I was o.k. in tree but as soon as we started to lean or (god forbid) go to dancers I was almost grumbling to myself.

Luckily that passive nature takes over at the first sign of relaxation so when we did some binds sitting down, I was ok, and Savasana was a breeze so I was able to breathe fluidly again.

One thing I found myself saying though out it all though is "It's better to try and fail than to not try at all" so I pushed myself to my limit but at least I knew where my limit lay. I didn't come out of it thinking, I could've put in more effort. I didn't feel lazy or angry at myself so I think I came out on top.

It's cheesy and typical but the point of this post is a reminder that sometimes you just have to focus on the big picture. A class isn't going to kill me and just a menial task won't kill anyone else. You've got to step away from the magnifying glass of emotion and see the whole situation.

Just the contents of my head today..

M

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Virgin Dancer


So a couple friends of mine convinced me to go out for a friends birthday which started as that and lead quickly into a mini dance party.

I'm really not the "out on the town" type. I don't do very well in large social group situations and usually end up feeling quite uncomfortable and awkward. So this was a new experience to me.

The venue was changed on us just as we got to the area so we decided to go for a spot of dancing first before meeting up with everyone. We go to this club(?) that I knew of but had never been to. (not that I've been to any club ever before) I was driving so I didn't drink but had fun all the same. It was quite an odd experience to just allow yourself to be in a crowded room with strange people who are totally different from you and are there for totally different reasons. I really just went out for curiosity and a bit of fun.

It's actually quite interesting how people get so primped and primed just to go out. I looked good, sure, but I wasn't nearly as done up as most of the girls there.

Anyway, that's off point. I went out with my two best friends, one of whom was drinking and the other had to work at 7 so didn't stay long but it was a good balance. My fellow redheaded friend was the one drinking and had such a cool and collected air about her. She owned whatever moves she was doing but yet still was so simplistic. My other friend was a dancing queen who would just do whatever moved her. She was dancing with some pretty hardcore people just for the hell of it. Apparently, I was dancing like I was high but I think it's just because I really enjoyed the music. Not that I would listen to it on a daily basis but it was sweet to have such loud vibrations moving though you.

Most people probably see this as no big deal but it's actually kind of a huge change in my life. I'm REALLY not the type but I entirely enjoyed this and must do it again before my dancing queen moves off to Korea. Maybe make it a little challenge today to do something you wouldn't normally do. Everyone needs to grow and how do you know you won't like it if you don't try?

Just what's going through my head today...


M.

Friday, May 20, 2011

These Dreams


Lately I've felt super inspired by a certain Danish singer/song writer named Oh Land. She creates out of anything and maybe because she's not a Westerner but she seems to really have little shame in what she does. She is fully expressive and when she decides to cover her face in glitter, she does it! Link
To me it relates to a childlike nature. When a kid wants something, for the most part, they just go for it. Now, how that can be related and used as an adult is actually quite simple. Don't react to all the little things. Or as it's more commonly put, chill out! A repeating theme lately in my life is reaction. We are programed to immediately feel emotion and express it to the full extent. What I see in Oh Land (Nanna Øland Fabricius) is the ability to have almost a detachment from life just so that she is capable of giving what she feels is right as a reaction. Not caring about the little judgments that people put out in the world. Putting out only what is useful to her. No exaggerations or dramatic antics.
Sometimes I feel there is a fine line between creative personality and over the top personality (depending on the person) but then again, who am I to judge?

Just what's going on in my head right now..

ta ta

Meri

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Creative Fluxuation


A couple nights ago, I had just gone to bed and sort of settled down when I realized, I wasn't really settled. My fingers were still buzzing and I needed to get up and create.
So I did.

This was before I watched "Exit Through the Gift Shop"
- A Banksy film. Whom I respect tremendously. Enjoy the Trailer here.
Of course that inspired another whirlwind of images and general go-getter ability.

I must say though. I do enjoy where I am going as an artist.
I remember being 16 and watch
ing films like these (Pollock documentary ect.) and finding really amazing artists and just thinking I wanted to BE them. Then getting frustrated because when I tried to replicate their work, I couldn't. Now (with a little inspiration from my baby sister) I just allow their talent to encourage me to be better and continue to push myself to make more art. It's rather nice. So this is a part of my little artistic splurge lately...
Enjoi!
Meri

Numero Uno


A small introduction:

First posts of anything always seem silly to me.

I am a couple months into my 22nd year of life. I have many things to learn yet and many an experience yet to be had but this is a blip of my life in the moments of me writing and bringing life to words.

I am currently teaching yoga as a way to pay my bills but of course yoga for me is more of a learning curve. I'm happy with the way it is teaching me different things in my life and I will expand on what those things are as they arise in my life to come.

I paint as well. Mostly abstract acrylic on canvas but sometimes I use the odd object such as cutting boards that are being tossed or just average every day things you wouldn't consider to be a pallet for creation and creativity. I enjoy the strange oddities in artistic endeavors.

My goals for this blog is meerly to convey my growth and expansion as a person to the public. I'm not a hugely open person to strangers and this is the perfect way to express myself. I plan on posting pictures of my adventures and sharing things I find that inspire me in my yearning for kindness, goodness and activity.

And now I must head off to ze studio to make my living.

Sometime I'll think of an outro type deal but I'm not as creative on the spot so..

Ta ta for now friends.

Meri