Yoga Shala Community

20/09/2023

18/09/2023

I can't promise
to constantly offer you some warmth—
I have my coldest
and darkest of nights, too;
I have times
when I get to be embraced
by the arms of my own storm

yet trust me,
when you need some light,
I'm willing to exhaust mine
until the last ray—
but when both of us
are under the rain,
I won't leave
no matter how strong the wind is;
I won't lose
the hold onto your hand;
I will stay on your side

when you feel like
being hugged by your sadness,
I'll pull you even closer—
I'll hug you even tighter

I'll be here,
let's be sad
together—
let's feel this pain

until both of us are fine again

—Ren Ednalig, The Storytellers

Illustration: _earbean

16/09/2023

Do not live half a life
and do not die a half death
If you choose silence, then be silent
When you speak, do so until you are finished
If you accept, then express it bluntly
Do not mask it
If you refuse then be clear about it
for an ambiguous refusal is but a weak acceptance
Do not accept half a solution
Do not believe half truths
Do not dream half a dream
Do not fantasize about half hopes
Half the way will get you no where
You are a whole that exists to live a life
not half a life. ~Khalil Gibran

(Book: The Prophet https://amzn.to/3LqsqAN)

06/09/2023

In meditation we explore the way we relate to our own experiences and to our motivations for change. We look at the degree of concentration, mindfulness , and love that we bring to bear on whatever maybe happening in our lives. Our efforts in meditation are directed toward opening , toward knowing what we feel, to remaining awake to the suffering and joy we encounter. This is meditation as a way of life, a way of recapturing our lives so we can delight in the integrity, joy, and peace that arise from understanding the truth of who we are.
Sharon Salzberg

03/09/2023

So many live their lives feeling unloved, unseen, unrecognized, unappreciated. So very many. You may not know who they are because we are all conditioned to hide our truth below a bushel of shame. But they are everywhere. When you make an effort to share your love, you don’t always know where it will land. But be sure that it does. Sometimes it lights a torch for others to follow. Sometimes it gives them reason to believe that there is a better life waiting for them after a lifetime of disappointment. Sometimes it builds spirits and sometimes it actually saves lives. We just have to keep giving the love wherever and whenever we can. You never know how far it will travel. ~Jeff Brown

(Book: Love It Forward https://amzn.to/45Bb5wY)

02/09/2023

Just as life is made up of day and night, and song is made up of music and silence, friendships, because they are of this world, are also made up of times of being in touch and spaces in-between.
Being human, we sometimes fill these spaces with worry, or we imagine the silence is some form of punishment, or we internalize the time we are not in touch with a loved one as some unexpressed change of heart. Our minds work very hard to make something out of nothing. We can perceive silence as rejection in an instant, and then build a cold castle on that tiny imagined brick.
The only release from the tensions we weave around nothing is to remain a creature of the heart. By giving voice to the river of feelings as they flow through and through, we can stay clear and open.
In daily terms, we call this checking in with each other, though most of us reduce this to a grocery list: How are you today? Do you need any milk? Eggs? Juice? Toilet paper?
Though we can help each other survive with such outer kindnesses, we help each other thrive when the checking in with each other comes from a list of inner kindnesses: How are you today? Do you need any affirmation? Clarity? Support? Understanding? When we ask these deeper questions directly, we wipe the mind clean of its misperceptions.
Just as we must dust our belongings from time to time, we must wipe away what covers us when we are apart.
~ Mark Nepo
Art by Marcia_Baldwin

29/08/2023

The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may sound paradoxical to you, but it is not.

It is an existential truth: Only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of the other person—without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other.

They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.

🖊Author|Osho

**** A first response to that introductory line may in general be "No. That's a blanket statement".
But truth in my opinion is that love does start within yourself, knowing, accepting and loving yourself. If you can't be content, happy and at peace with your own company, other people can't completely satisfy the need of love. I think it's so well explained by Osho, philosopher and teacher in the art of being alone ~ A Friend 💜

🎨Artist|Tarn Ellis

27/08/2023

The beautiful, well-versed 83 year old lady, fully dressed every morning at 8 am sharp, with her hair done in fashion and perfectly applied makeup, is moving to a retirement home. Her husband recently died, which motivated her move.
After many hours of patiently waiting in the hall of the home, she smiled sweetly, when told her room was ready.
As she moved her walker toward the elevator, she was given a detailed description of her small room, including the curtains hanging from her window.
′′ I love it ", she said, with the enthusiasm of a 8-year-old girl who was just handed over a new pet.
- Mrs. Jones; you haven't seen the room, just wait.
- That doesn't matter, she replied.
Happiness is something you decide over time. Whether or not I like my room doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged, it depends on how I arrange my mind.
I’ve already decided that I like it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have the choice; I can spend the day in bed, going through the difficulty I have with my body parts that don't work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the parts that do work.
Every day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I will focus on the new day and the happy memories I've stored just for this time in my life.
HAPPINESS is like a bank account: you withdraw from it, what you deposit.
So my advice would be to deposit a lot of happiness into your memory account.
Remember these five simple things:
1.- Free your heart from hate/discord.
2.- Free your mind from worries.
3.- Live Simply.
4.- Give more.
5.- Take less.
Also Read 👇
https://www.cricketinfo.us/2023/08/19/i-was-waiting-in-line-for-a-ride-at-the-airport/

23/08/2023

Life is made up of a collection of moments that are not ours to keep. The pain we encounter throughout our days spent on this earth comes from the illusion that some moments can be held onto. Clinging to people and experiences that were never ours in the first place is what causes us to miss out on the beauty of the miracle that is the now. All of this is yours, yet none of it is. How could it be? Look around you. Everything is fleeting.
To love and let go, love and let go, love and let go, it's the single most important thing we can learn in this lifetime.

~ Rachel Brathen 💚

www.earthschoolharmony.com

18/08/2023

Pause
Exhale
Let go,
if only for a moment,
of anything you are carrying.

Physically.
Mentally.
Emotionally...

The pressure of today’s to do list.
The weight of your own expectations.
The noise of others’ opinions.

Your ideas about how things should be.
The need to be any different to the way you are right here and right now.

Take a moment to put down whatever it is you are carrying.
Yes, it’s heavy.
And yet, it might be scary to let go.
Try anyway.
You can pick it straight back up again if you need to.

Just pause.
And trust.
For a moment.
That the weight of the world isn’t yours to carry.

It never was.
And it never needs to be.
You are here only to be you.
Perfectly.
Wholly.
Entirely you.

No more and no less.
Anything that doesn’t support this wasn’t yours to begin with.

Let it go.
Be you.
And trust.
That the world will adjust.

- The Equine Psychotherapy Institute
https://www.facebook.com/EquinePsychotherapyAustralia/

Artist: Stella Zachariassen |
'Dreams', 'She remembered who she was and the game changed.' https://www.facebook.com/SelviZachArts

17/08/2023

"I knew a Wise Woman
And she said to me
That the river would mold me
And the wild wind would cool me
That the trickster the coyote
He would fool me
That father Sun would warm me
Mother Earth would clothe me
Grandmother Moon would greet me
And of the old ways she would teach me
Wise woman, she told me
To always walk lightly
Tread the earth ever gently
Lovingly so preciously
And take from her sparingly
She said, to share with others
What you have learned from me
Be still and breathe, ever patiently
For the web of life
Has woven what is to be
But you must still chose
Your own path, you will see
And lastly, the wise woman said to me
To listen to the wise one
That dwells within me
To walk my path in balance
Is too be free
More than just words
So mote it be"...

Unknown

15/08/2023

“Each day is born with a sunrise
and ends in a sunset, the same way we
open our eyes to see the light,
and close them to hear the dark.
You have no control over
how your story begins or ends.
But by now, you should know that
all things have an ending.
Every spark returns to darkness.
Every sound returns to silence.
And every flower returns to sleep
with the earth.
The journey of the sun
and moon is predictable.
But yours,
is your ultimate
art.”
Suzy Kassem - Heartwork.

William Hawkins