Mindful Living: Be the Change You Want to See in the World

While I was reading Jolene Hart’s book, Ignite Your Light (2020), yesterday, I thought a lot about my personal energy, and how I influence others around me in my day-to-day life. I often wonder if I am the type of person who lifts others up or brings them down with my energy.

Jolene Hart stated in her book,

“I love Maya Angelou’s observation that ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ That feeling is energy. So, how do you make others feel? What energetic effect do you leave in your wake? Personal energy is a choice, one that you reaffirm hundreds of times over the course of a single day.”

Jolene Hart, Ignite Your Light

When I pondered the type of energy I wanted to cultivate in myself, I thought about my role as a teacher, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, and human being. What is the first thing I want people to feel when they are around me? The answer came almost immediately.

Light and Kindness

I want to be the type of person who enriches others, and meets them where they are. Though I will not always agree with life choices or standards others may have, the one thing I can do above all else is stand by my beliefs in a way that isn’t toxic.

I don’t know how many people who read this are empathic but you may understand how it feels to be around toxic, negative, and overbearing people, whose energy takes over and drains you. I’ve been around plenty of people who find out I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and verbally attack what they think I believe or don’t know about my church.

When this happens, it is mentally and emotionally draining and damaging. If I’m not careful, the empath in me goes into overload, and it sometimes takes one to two days to slug all the energy off.

It’s dawned on me recently that I can be that type of person too if I’m not careful. These questions often pop up in my mind: Do I automatically bar my hackles if I find out someone is of a different religion? How does my opinion of someone shift if I find out they are gay, or have made similar types of decisions?

I can easily become a toxic and negative influence in the world if I make allowances for unkindness towards those who don’t believe as I do. That is the type of person I DON’T want to be. I feel there are too many instances on and offline where people find fault in others’ beliefs or opinions and brutally attack them for it.

For myself, I want to be the kind of person who people can turn to even if we don’t see eye to eye in everything. In fact, I think it would wonderful if those types of things didn’t matter.

Above all else, I want my energy to be like light filling up the room. One of my favorite literary characters is Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket (1998-2006). She is the type of person people want to be around because she sees them and loves them where they are. So many people change and grow because of her and not because she sermonizes or pushes them to. They change simply because she became the place they could go home to and feel safe. 

I’ll finish this post off with one last quote from Jolene Hart.

Spreading bright energy doesn’t have to be as involved as gifting a bouquet of flowers or treating a friend to lunch: you spread light simply by embodying it yourself.

Jolene Hart, Ignite Your Light

I hope the new year is treating everyone well! As many yogis around the world say, the light in me honors the light in you. Namaste.

Mindful Living: Waking Up Energetically

I’ve missed writing blog posts on this website, so you’ll probably be seeing a lot more of me these next couple of weeks. I’ve been struggling balancing my day ever since this new school year started. I wake up around 6:00 AM so I can be at work by 7:30 AM, with a driving commute of about 40 minutes.

Normally, I like to start my day slowly, with yoga, a walk, and reading/ writing. However, this new schedule has terminated it. I could wake up at 5:00 AM but being a school teacher is exhausting and makes waking up that early anxiety inducing.

So, how do I want to wake up and spend my mornings? At my core, I find it’s important to do so MINDFULLY through:

1. Movement
2. Meditation
3. Nourishing Meals

I don’t know how it is for others, but recently I’ve had nothing but negative emotions when I wake up each morning. It’s rather frustrating, especially when I compare these emotions to how I faced mornings only three or four years ago. I changed from a night owl to a morning person and I loved every moment of it. Now. . . mornings are a mere hurdle to crawl over every day.

But I want to change and gain back that love I used to have for my morning routines. I miss the feeling I used to have waking up every morning, like each day was a treasure. I know I can do this if I set for myself realistic and nourishing goals, despite my circumstances.

I’ve been reading Joene Hart’s Ignite Your Light (2020) on and off for the past few months and love the idea of igniting my life every morning, day, and evening in a way that nourishes my body, mind, and spirit. One quote that stuck out to me recently was,

As you open your eyes and regain alertness after sleep, concentrate first on a positive feeling.

-Jolene Hart, Ignite Your Light

So, I’m slowly but surely going to find a way to change this for myself, even through the gloomy winter months and monotony of work. The trick is, I need to do so slowly and methodically.

If you’re struggling with finding energy and purpose in the morning you are not alone! Perhaps we can figure it out together over the next few months. 🙂

I’ll leave you with another quote from Jolene Hart which I find is slowly becoming my mantra as the days go by.

Your body “hears” and responds to your mind energetically, giving even your unspoken thoughts, affirmations, and intentions power that can’t be overstated. In fact, your state of mind creates an energetic effect that sweeps over every cell in your body, producing dramatic changes in your personal energy. . . Practice making a wakeup routine that lets you savor that act of waking up, rather than rushing through it.

-Jolene Hart, Ignite Your Light

Yoga Inspiration: Day 9, What does having energy mean?

Lotus Pose Nataliya Anichkina – Dreamstime.com

I thought a lot about energy today.

To be energetic usually means going faster, or more specifically getting lots of things done faster. Better efficiency means completing allotted tasks more quickly. We think speed is better because we expect it to be that way. Its why it takes less then three minutes to receive our orders at a fast food restaurant and less then a second for us to find a word definition online.

But efficiency doesn’t always equate to better quality. In fact, because we have almost unlimited fast access to things like information and food, we become dependent on convenience. What this system cannot give us is experience, better results, or a sense of achievement. To work hard doesn’t always mean going fast. Nor does having lots energy always mean we should move more quickly.

Speed isn’t energy. People, animals, and objects use energy. We use energy. So perhaps the more appropriate question for today’s practice is “How do you use energy?”

This is a principle I have more fully come to appreciate over time through my yoga practice. There are times when I’ve had to rethink the way I approach it. I remember one Primary Ashtanga series I completed with one of my teachers Nicole. At the beginning of the class, she let us know she would not count between each pose. As an added bonus, she invited us to hold these poses longer than normal.

Honestly, it was frustrating at first because I had built for myself expectations for that sequence. I wanted to move faster. I thought I needed consistency. But by slowing down, I appreciated each pose more. I stopped counting and started simply being there, breathing in the moment. My whole body felt like it was on fire and I can honestly say its the most energetic I have ever felt during a yoga practice. The class ended before I knew it and I was mentally and physically exhausted. But I felt deeply satisfied with the work I had done. 

Today, for the first time in a long time, I felt super fired up to do yoga. Instead of playing calming piano music or more thoughtful soundtracks, I turned to one full of guitar, bass drops, and orchestral crescendos. As I began my sequence, I started rushing my way through each of the poses. After finishing my Sun Salutation A’s, I asked myself what I think having energy means. As I pondered this question, my movements evolved and I changed how I viewed each of my movements.

Within multiple yoga disciplines, various practices can connect us to our divine self. (For reference check Yoga Basics) What I find interesting though, is to connect to this part of ourselves we don’t need intense speed or physical ability. We need stillness and rest after releasing built-up energy. To release this built up energy requires concentrated, deliberate use of our energy. It is moving with purpose.

Thank you for reading! See you tomorrow.