November 2023 Week 4

Welcome to a week of gratitude!!!! So I want start by thanking you all for journeying with me in the Calm Crew. You all make me continue to learn and to TRY to live out my yoga practice to the best of my ability. I am sooooo very grateful for each of you, truly, thank you. This leads me to a reminder of the sutra we are focusing on this month: Sutra 1:1 - “Now the exposition of Yoga is being made.” This is the start of the sutras and it is grounding us in the very basic purpose of our yoga practice and the Calm Crew.
This sutra is saying, exposition or instruction - this is not merely philosophy that the Sutras are going to teach us but a direct instruction on how to practice Yoga. Meaning, how to practice yoga in our lives on and off the mat.
SriSwami Satchidananda’s interpretation states:“Mere philosophy will not satisfy us. We cannot reach the goal by mere words alone. Without practice, nothing can be achieved.” This 1st sutra is reinforcing our time together, we don’t just practice yoga we speak of yoga through our intentions and yoga philosophy which I hope helps us to take this practice into our lives. Our intention this month, I choose to trust myself, is an invitation to turn inward, connect with our own integrity and then to fully express this part of ourselves. This is putting into practical use the concept of truly living from the inside out. I don’t know about you, but when I am in alignment, I just feel better. So lets all go into this holiday week and season authentically connecting with ourselves, honoring ourselves, trusting ourselves and then expressing ourselves in the fullness of our lives. Happy and healthy Thanksgiving to you all!!!!

Here is the meditation and prayer I shared this morning during shavasana:
“If I have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Charity means to care enough about other people to really want to do something for them. A smile, a word of encouragement, a word of love goes winged on its way, simple though it may seem, while the mighty words of an orator fall on deaf ears. Use up the odd moments of your day in trying to do some little thing to cheer up another person. I pray that my day may be brightened by some little act of charity.”