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The Wishing Formation

To sit patiently with a yearning that has not yet been fulfilled, and to trust that, that fulfillment will come, is quite possibly one of the most powerful "magic skills" that human beings are capable of. It has been noted by almost every ancient wisdom tradition. -Elizabeth Gilbert

I was sitting at my desk computer a day after flying the friendly skies from New Jersey, back home to Hawaii, and recalled my pre-trip wishes. Although my parents were more than capable of making the trip by themselves, they pinned me with the trip guide nametag and holding that bit of responsibility in mind, I wanted (1) our luggage to arrive along with us, (2) a safe and comfortable journey and (3) a super-memorable visit with my brother and his family. Just those three things.

Well they all came true! Never mind that we sat in the plane in Kona for nearly 90 minutes while a mysterious leak was being investigated (better than springing a leak over the deep blue Pacific). Never mind that my dad forgot his week's supply of meds (his daughter-in-law skillfully got them replaced before the end of the day). Never mind that two taxicabs collided not far from where we stood in Times Square, injuring six people (the six of us were there the day before). Yes, never mind all that, I got my three wishes. My brother Jason, his wife Heidi and their son Kai, must have had more wishes that also came true because we had a wonderful and perfect time.

It all sounds selfish, I know. But I haven't yet developed the power to wish for, and receive, the safety and well-being of the entire planet. Planes still crash, cars jump curbs and some people just can't get along with each other. But I do pretty well within my own sphere of influence and I think with a little practice, I can expand my reach. Imagine what a group of like- hearted-well-wishers could accomplish!


Here's something from Confucius that you won't find in a fortune cookie:

"To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right."

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NOTE:
There are many ambitious trials being done to prove the power of collective intent. The Intention Experiment, working with leading physicists and psychologists, continues to study the effects of focused wishing for philanthropic results such as physical and psychological healings and environmental improvements. The Global Coherence project, by the folks who make my favorite emWave device, are in the process of examining "how fluctuations and resonances in the earth and ionosphere's magnetic fields affect or are influenced by human heart-rhythm patterns, brain activity, stress and emotions." They admit that it is a grand quest, but I like to weigh the implications.

Photo: i go2thegym

Randy Pausch

Immortality is the genius to move others long after you yourself have stopped moving. - Frank Rooney

His rise to fame was like a comet siting: time specific, well-defined, yet limited. Randy Pausch was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and the video of his Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University circulated quickly by e-mail. The You Tube video that I've listed below, one of many available, has had over 6 million views as of today.

Randy Pausch's physical presence was also comet-like. We were transfixed by his bright and shining form, doing push-ups and laughing as no dying man is apt to do. Eventually, after many orbits, comets disintegrate and disappear, and Pausch too, died this year on July 25, leaving behind a wife and three young children.

Pausch viewed his situation as an engineering problem and decided to do the best he could with what he had. He considered himself lucky to have had the time to write a book, also titled The Last Lecture and written primarily for his children.

What I find remarkable is that we are all waking up everyday with the same fate as Randy Pausch. We may not have the x-rays and lab results to confirm our imminent demise, but we do have expiration dates, all of us. What would you do if you were given an exit date?

Pausch said that he chose to lecture because that's what he did in life. As a professor, he lectured. If you could leave a message by way of what you do best in this life, what would it be?

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Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?
I love that question! Make it a good day.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: YouTube (1:16:27)

Randy Pausch discussing his book, The Last Lecture: Google Video (17:10)

Ten Questions for Randy Pausch: Time/CNN.

Photo: MortonM

Groundhog Day Review: 8/8/08

The changes we undertake must be such that they make us feel more alive. We have to find more pleasure in changing than in not changing. -David Servan-Schrieber

 

This Groundhog Day Review of my Year of Living Delightfully, is being brought to you on a very auspicious day, 08-08-08. It's the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing, thousands have chosen this day to get married and babies born today with additional 8's to their vital statistics (time of birth, weight, home addresses, etc.) are making the news.

My activities are much more pedestrian. I was talking to a friend a few days ago about the importance of right speech, words that segue to elevated emotional states rather than sink us into depths of doubt and fear. As soon as I say I have to, I feel my heels digging deep, leaving a furrowed line that underscores my rebellious response. I've learned that sentences beginning with I want are magical incantations that infuse power and possibility.

David Servan-Schrieber is a psychiatry professor and author of Healing without Freud or Prozac. In the March issue of Ode Magazine he wrote about a 50 year old lawyer named Martin, who despite having two  coronary bypass procedures, could not bring himself to stop smoking, change his diet or start exercising regularly.

Martin was divorced, rarely saw his children and had buried himself in his work. It's easy to see that he derived pleasure out of the habits that were transporting him to yet a third bypass operation, or worse. Martin needed stronger WANTS in his life. As my yoga teacher Jehangir Palkhivala once advised, "If you have a weakness, use it. Say, 'Let me find pleasure in a new pattern', rather than trying to eliminate the pleasure."

Martin discovered a health support group, reconnected with his children and changed the focus of his law practice by becoming a mediator. He took charge of his body because he now wanted to be healthy. Notice how your choices undergo a mood altering change when you say "I want to..." and when you say "I have to...". I find that my resistance lessens and my heels come off the ground whenever I want.

In earlier reviews, I berated myself for not reaching par, failing to meet the demands of my quest. But along the way, I learned to truly appreciate my starting point. There was nothing wrong, I simply wanted more.

Photo:chekabuje

My Son is Watching

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.
~Joyce Maynard

Happy 57th Anniversary to, Fred and Clara Uechi, a couple of my most diligent and most improved yoga students, who also happen to be my parents.

Fred was born in Kohala and Clara was born in Kona. They met, wed and bred two children in Honolulu before returning to the Big Island where two more were born. They've been parents for a very long time!

I've written about a few of the lasting gifts my mother and my father have given me and seriously wonder if I would be able to lay claim to the happy life I now have, had I been born to any other couple. As the mother of an adult child, I've begun to observe my own parents through my non-dominant eye, the one that's controlled by my right brain.

Yesterday, when my son, his wife and their dog left after an overnight stay, I began to anticipate their next visit even before they reached the main road. Then I thought about my folks and the miles between them and my three younger brothers. Spread out over the continent, one lives in San Francisco, one in Las Vegas, and the youngest in New Jersey. Is it easier to say "goodbye" when you have four children rather than just one? Do you get used to it, the older you get? Probably not.

I can see the strong ties that my parents have erected, they insure connection but are never used to pull or drag. As I observe, I learn, and I think my son is watching.

Give These Guys a Name!

  These are the floor locks in our studio for the sliding walls. I look at these sweet faces everytime I teach a class and place my mat in front of them.  They never fail to make me smile so I think they deserve to be named. Can we come up with some names? I'll conjure up a surprise Prize! Deadline: Saturday, August 9. Winner to be announced in next Monday's newsletter and here on our blog.

P.S. I have determined that they are male...no further information.

Please enter through the COMMENT section below. Mahalo!

Someday

"Someday is not a day of the week."
~Somebody

 

A few of my classes have already seen the last class-day of the month and restorative poses were the order of the day. I've also been choosing journalling exercises and examples for my Keeping Tabs workshop this Saturday and when this one called for entering a relaxed state of mind and deep breathing, it tasted like a perfect pairing.

 

While the class relaxed into  Supta Baddha Konasana, I read the following  instructions from Journal to the Self, by Kathleen Adams:

Take a moment to become comfortable in your body.
Relax. . .close your eyes. . .
and take a slow, deep breath. . .
hold it. . .and release it.
Do it again. . .
and again. . . .
And as you breathe deeply and relax,
imagine that there is a calendar before you. . .
and you are looking at today's date.
Now imagine that this calendar is for the next year. . .
12 months. . .
52 weeks. . .
365 days from now. . .
And in your imagination,
begin to turn the pages forward. . .
until you reach today's date once again.

It is one year from today.

And now begin to place yourself  in space and time

one year from today. . .

Begin to imagine yourself as you are one year from now.

You are one year older. . .

And as you review the year just past

you can stop to take note. . .

of the journey traveled.

You can recall the most enjoyable parts of the year. . .

the lessons you learned.

And as you review the year just past. . .

you notice how you are today.

where you live. . .

how you live. . .

the work you do. . .

the opportunities ahead. . .

the parts of your life that make it joyful. . .

Stay there for as long as you like. . .

When you are ready. . .

Open your eyes.

take a deep breath,

and date your page one year from today.

 

Write a sentence or two, or a list of things you saw in your future, just 365 days away.

 

This felt like a light and breezy game since we're straddling mid-year and not yet thinking about another list of resolutions. Also, while we're in a relaxed mental state and resting in a nurturing position, we tend to desire more of the same.  Calling for the future from this location made a world of difference. When you have some space and time, try it.

 

One person who anticipates a year of care-giving, saw herself enjoying the process and now looks forward to the next twelve months as she tends to an aging parent.  Another woman saw  her life in the next 12 months as remaining in status quo, except that in every way possible, things will be better. Yet another, saw her stack of insurmountable actions, things that have been waiting  to take place someday.  But while envisioning a clean and clear calendar, she began to realize that someday might just be one of the next 365.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: ELZR- Info Design Challenge

I Write, Therefore I am

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it.
-Benjamin Disraeli

I'm offering a journal writing workshop entitled KEEPING TABS on August 2nd and this illustration by one of my favorite artists, Julie Paschkis, is on the brochure. It depicts my enchantment with scribbling and the light hearted, super-powered life I've scripted. I have written for and to myself for most of my life and have a collection of journal books, black and white composition tablets and spiral notebooks to support a bookworm colony.

Writing on a computer, much less publishing what I write on-line, is a very recent practice. My left hand has led hundreds of pens over thousands of blank pages, in long-hand, for a long time.

My mother has kept diaries and journals for as long as I can remember and I have memories of visiting with her father, his journal written in Japanese, resting on his lap as he greeted us from his bed. My maternal grandmother, Haru Matsuda, also kept a journal and wrote poems that have found their way into books by Buddhist authors. So I may quite well have a journal gene spiraling within me.

Psychologist James Pennebaker's research has revealed that people who write about their issues and concerns experience higher levels of immunity and life functions. Professionals who had been laid off from work and instructed to write their deepest thoughts and feelings about unemployment, were much more likely to find employment than those in the study who were told to simply write about their day and those who did no writing at all.

More than just a spot to pour out gripes and grievances, my journals were the crumbs that I followed my way into the future. Twenty-two years ago I wrote: "To sit and spend time moaning & groaning about the negatives is a waste! I need to concentrate on affirmations and things positive." When my writing voice changed, my speech changed. It has made all the difference in the world.

I recently responded to a friend's questions: "How similar is your life now to how you imagined it ten years ago? Twenty years ago?" I commented on her blog: I thought I would have a whole lot more. But never did I dream that I would be this happy! The "whole lot more" that I refer to are just peripheral visions. My focus has always been to seek balance and joy and it thrills me to see that my wishes of old are here today and spilling over into my future, as it is written.

Illustration: Julie Paschkis

The Faces and Phases of Kona Yoga

This appeared in Monday's newsletter, to see it in a slightly larger format go to: http://animoto.com/play/ehf0dGKwuVP151OyPVRwSg

If you like this, you'll love using your own photos and music. Do it all on Animoto.com. I'm making more as soon as I can take more photos, so SMILE!

I See Things...

If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get.
-Frank A. Clark

I had another (!) birthday last week Thursday and coincidentally (?) had an appointment with my optometrist the same day. Although it didn't sound like an exciting way to spend my birthday, the fact that my eyesight had improved yet again, made me very happy. Two years ago, the eye-doc wasn't impressed, "It happens at your age", he said, "and eventually you'll get cataracts." This year I guess the degree of improvement was a little surprising because he said, "You can see that? Congratulations!"

I still read well (and a lot) without any corrective lens but may "have difficulty removing a splinter". Pffffft. I'm not worried about splinters. I like the fact that my eyes are going along with my general yoga thought patterns: every year since beginning yoga, my body improves in some way and I have more strength and mobility than I did in my 30's! I've witnessed it, I believe it, and that's the story I tell.

I've been referring mostly to my musculo-skeletal system, but I guess the rest of my body has picked up on it too. What do you say and believe about your body as it ages? How is it responding? It takes more than positive affirmations for something to materialize, it helps to feel it and to believe it. That's why appreciating even the smallest improvement pays off and talking about what works in your body, and in your life, is so much more beneficial than reciting a litany of complaints. It's the difference between living till the end and dying in the end.

My friendly eye-doc said, "Well, I guess you're maturing," and I finished his statement even before it became a sentence: "...and I see things clearly now."

Happy Birthday today to Moku-wai Busch!

Photo: ianqui

Groundhog Day Review: 7/7

You are walking into the future of whatever you do with your mind. So, where is your mind?
-Abraham-Hicks

It's another Groundhog Day check- in, being the seventh of July or 7/7 and I feel as though I've made it to the summit. The top, of one of many mountains.

In my May review, I was learning to read between the signs posted along the way: "This Way to Contentment" and "This Way with Contentment" and I realized that the second path meant that I had already arrived at the first. The second pathway also promised to be a lot more enjoyable so I decided that I wanted to find Contentment right where I stood.

I got back into the habit of writing my morning pages, and made it a point to reach heart coherence at least three times a day with my emWave device. I've been using these tools sporadically for a few years so it wasn't difficult at all to add them into my life on a daily basis. As a wise teacher once told me, "Where the mind goes, it grows" and I've been finding contentment in nearly every step I take.

At the beginning of the year, I wanted to commit to two practices that would make me healthier and stronger. I would be happy as long as I was healthy and strong. One could choose a number of conditions, actions or material items aside from "healthy and strong", as prerequisites to being happy. The desire to feel good, I believe, is the common denominator and our single intention to be happy is the way we control our future numerator.

When I come to a fork in the road, I will always be reminded of Yogi Berra saying "take it!", but I will always choose to go with contentment. "Why go if you're already there?" you might ask. Because that's the game of life! The object is to get to the top of as many mountains as possible and the winner is the one who's happy playing the game, not because they climbed the most mountains!

Photo: Real Life at NCCTK