Shake it Out

Well its been just over a week since the meditation/yoga challenge started. So far I am feeling pretty good though last night I was bagged and didn't feel like doing either so I just did a 20 min yin yoga sequence for the shoulders and a 2 minute meditation.

My meditation of choice for the last couple days has been crank the music and interpretive dance. If you even want to call it dance more like shaking and moving in weird ways that could be confused for seizing....

I feel like sometimes we all just need a really good shake down to let lose to let go and get out of our heads, get out of our own way. Sometimes I do need the peace of sitting with my breath or sitting with a mantra, but otherdays when I am feeling wound up, or to serious I just need to shake it out and lighten up. Life doesnt have to be so serious all the time! Yoga and meditation don't have to be serious, I especially think yoga should be fun! And as I have been learning in the last lil bit meditaion can be fun as well.

Of course there are times when you are going to have to put in the ground work in yoga to build strength or flexibility, just like anything in life. But for the most part if its not fun and you don't like it why are you doing it? I do yoga because I enjoy it, I have fun during my practice and feel great afterwards. In my meditation practice I am definantly in the ground work, I am a begginer meditator but I still feel the benefits of my mediation. I meditate when I can for how ever long I have time. I dont get up an hour early to sit on my cushion in lotus focusing on my breath... if I even thought I would have to do that I would give up before I started.

Meditation can be very accessible, you can meditate in the car when you are stuck behind a train for a few minutes, you can just take 2 minutes before bed to listen to your breath. Meditation doesn't have to be this huge lengthy ordeal to get the benefits from it.

Meditation in my opinion is anything that gets you out of your own head and into the moment you're in right NOW.

Lots of Love!
Happy Shaking

xxoo

Katie

Yoga/Meditation Challange Day 3

Yesterday morning I went to a friends yoga class in the morning, and her intention or theme for class was very fitting with my intention for this year. My intention being self acceptance and self love, her theme for class being strengthening your relationship with yourself. She made a very important statement that may seem obvious but maybe you haven't really thought about it before.

"Your relationship with yourself is the longest relationship you will ever have."

 WOW isn't that the truth. So if our relationship with our self is the longest one we will ever have why do we avoid working on it the most? Common sense would suggest we would improve and work on it more than any other relationship. If we have to spend so much time with ourselves why do we continually beat our selves up? Why is it harder to love our selves than it is to love someone else? We see the flaws and characters in other people and accept them why can't we accept ours?

We can. It just takes work, it takes small steps to teach yourself how to love you. At the beginning they definitely feel cheesy and stupid but like anything if you give them a fighting chance you may notice you start to feel more compassionate towards yourself, you start to feel more peaceful.

My meditation of choice for the past 3 days has been: Breathing in I LOVE MYSELF Breathing out I AM THAT. When I finish my seated meditation I thank myself for taking the time to sit and love, and accept me.

So another way to say my intention for 2013 is I am working on my relationship with me, I am getting to know me, I am growing my love for me.

peace & love
xoxo

Kate

Goodbye 2012 Hello 2013

Again its been a long while since I have been on here, but I have not forgot about it.
Well its the last day of 2012 and its been an awesome year filled with growth and many adventures. So today is a day to look forward to the coming year and set intentions for myself in the new year.

I don't really like to call it making a resolution I feel like its so definitive and if you get off track for a lil bit then you feel more apt to give up. Where the word intention gives you some breathing room to make a couple mistakes and gives you a sense of time and space to get back on track and start fresh again. But that is just my personal interpretation of the definition so use whatever works for you.

One of my biggest intentions for myself in the coming year is to build on my self love and my self worth. I struggle with this almost daily. I feel everyone has insecurities and we all deal with them differently, but when they start affecting how you live your life and how much fun you are having it is a problem. There have  been days where I can't seem to find anything I like about myself, whether its the way I act, or the way I look. I admit it has gotten a lot better over the years and those days are fewer and farther between but it has taken a lot of work and self discovery and a lot of yoga. So My intention for the New Year is to continue working on the love for myself. Accepting and embracing myself and my awesomeness exactly as I am without changing anything about myself. Yes some days are going to be harder than others but that's life, and on those hard days I will give myself extra love and compassion.

So to kick off my intention for 2013 I am doing a 31 day yoga and meditation challenge. The goal for my challenge is not to change myself or to change my body, but to accept everything and embrace it exactly as it is.

What are your intentions for the New Year?

lots of love
xoxox
Kate

Stillness

So I have been on the road the last 3ish weeks, through 2 provinces and 6 states. I have seen and done a lot of wicked stuff and learned some really important things.

As a society in general we are driven by consumerism, we always feel the need to buy and do things so we can be a better person or maybe to feel more complete.  I will admit I do this as well....Every year I take off somewhere for about a month to try to learn something about my self, to make myself a better person, always searching outside of myself. I have never regretted any of my travels as I do always have great experiences and learn a lot, but this time I think I learned the most important thing yet.

Everything you ever need is inside of yourself.

I know this may sound really simple and you have probably heard it before. I know I have heard it a lot, especially being in the yoga business. But it never really landed. I still keep going externally to find peace, to get "un-stuck" from my life. Sometimes finding stillness can be very difficult, even the thought of sitting still can be overwhelming. I had the opportunity to sit with a great meditation teacher named Molly while I was at Wanderlust in Squaw Valley. She made meditation accessible. Everyone has busy lives and places to be, things to do, so take the time when your stopped in traffic to find stillness, or just 5 minutes before bed or right when you wake up. When you just start to take the time you do have to sit in stillness and breath you realize YOU ARE ENOUGH. You understand that you don't need all these external substances, possessions, or experiences to fill you up. When you begin to realize that, you can start to enjoy the experiences or your possessions for what they really are. Not trying desperately to draw something out of them to fill the spaces you think you have inside of you.

So when you start to get that "stuck" feeling in your life, instead of running away, or buying something for yourself take 5 mins to sit, breath, and tell yourself YOU ARE ENOUGH. If you don't believe it at first keep trying eventually you will feel it's true in your soul. I wrote down a line from Molly that really stuck with me...

"In that stillness we find who we really are....."

I am still going to travel and consume and keep creating myself as I grow and learn. But I am going to practice filling what ever empty space I think I have with stillness, with breath, I AM ENOUGH.

Sending Peace & Love
xoxo

Eyes on the Prize

Hey Guys... So lately I have been thinking about looking where you are going.  Literally and figuratively....

I recently went to a yoga core workshop in Portland with Kathryn Budig, wich was amazing by the way. And we were working on jump thoroughs. (when you jump from down dog swing your legs between your arms to  sitting on your bum) And besides all the core strength it takes you also gotta have your eyes looking where you want to end up (infront of your hands). Surprisingly as soon as you look up where you want to go it becomes that much easier. ( I am still less than graceful)

As the same with riding horses especially Barrel Racing, if you are not looking where you want to be during your run trust me you are not going to end up there. I have also realized this technique is true with driving; while driving the California coast all the windy roads that are on top on abrupt cliffs you need to keep both eyes in the road at ALL times.

Now for the more figuratively point... my last year has been one hell of a ride since finishing my Moksha Yoga Teacher Training last June. I have accomplished more and gone farther then I thought possible in a year. By keeping my eyes open and looking ahead and just kept going forwardno matter what curve balls came my way.

If you are not looking forward at what you want to do or where you want to be you become stagnant, stale even. Even just small things, maybe you already have the dream life that you want which is sweet and you should be proud of yourself for getting there. But if you don't continue to grow to look forward and move toward it even your dream life can become still. So even something as little as reading more, or learning to meditate can help you keep growing.

But if you don't set goals and keep your eyes open and looking ahead you may find yourself getting stuck half way in your jump through or driving off the side of the road......

Sending Love and Light From Cali
xoxo

Rebirth

So its been a lil while since I posted, you know how life gets a crazy sometimes....

So its time to post. There has been a lot of different topics rollin around in my head lately. A lot about death and rebirth and not in necessarily the physical way, but even just changes in life. The past week I moved out of my apartment in the city and back in with my parents for the summer till my house is ready. Giving up my apartment in the city was tougher than I thought it would be. The convenience of work being closer and your own privacy is tough to live with out. This was a decision I didn't totally get to choose, but its easier to save money when you don't have to pay rent and I couldn't afford to stay in city for the summer as I am also going away for a month. So there was this death of my city life that I have had for the last 2 years and a rebirth of getting back to nature. So even though I didn't get to make the decision fully I feel as if I am ready to get back to fresh air and green every where.

I was having a conversation with my Granny this week, she is getting some trees removed because the had died. The guy at the tree removal company said that those trees lived along time considering their short life span. I was kind of taken aback the trees had designated life spans like humans.... But it shouldn't be surprising at all actually every living thing has a life span. I had just never thought of it before. But my Granny said something really true... Everything has to die eventually to make room for the rebirth.

 Even though you don't always get to make the full decision on whats happening in your life remember its just making room for something greater. Even though I moved out of my apartment I am moving to a better place and getting back to my roots. And the trees may have died but they will make room for new flowers, new life.

"Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as it you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it" Eckhart Tolle

Peace
xo

Letting Go

So the intention I have been setting in my classes for the last couple days have been letting go, especially of any expectations we place on our practice or ourselves. I kinda thought I was the type of person that wasn't perfect at letting go but was pretty alright at letting go, not just in practice but in life as well. I don't have many possessions that I cling to or would be really upset if  I lost, I think I can let go pretty well.

Well life in incredibly humbling.

Today I talked to my lil friend Nikki that bought my horse Norma last summer. Now Norma isn't just a horse she was my baby. I had her for 10 years, almost my whole rodeo career was on Norma. We made many finals in Alberta and in the States, and she was definitely  priceless to me. But then life gets a little unpredictable with school, travel, limited funds to rodeo with, and I had to sell Norma so someone else could enjoy her as much as I did.  So last summer a wonderful family with a young teenage girl bought her.  I would never have let her go if I new she wasn't going to be loved and taken care of just as good or better than I had treated her.

So this weekend they are at the Alberta High School Rodeo finals and she gave me a lil call for advice for her run today. So I was very happy Nikki called and to give advice to try to help her out. The whole time talking to her on the phone and after I was feeling incredibly nervous for her run today and I had no reason to. The situation is out of my control and I can't do anything about it but wish them luck. I was feeling very sad and I missed Norma incredibly. I couldn't let go. I couldn't let go of the fact that Norma is no longer my horse. I couldn't let go of the fact that I was feeling helpless and so out of control of what Norma does and what happens to Norma. I took a step back from the situation I was putting myself in and just thought; wow maybe I should try setting my intention to learn to let go.

So today I let go a little bit more of the fact that Norma is no longer in my possession, I havn't let go completely but it is a practice, just like practicing the asanas in yoga.

So Nikki and Norma I love you to the moon and back, and I wish you all the luck in the world and to have fun with each other. As I practice letting Norma go it doesn't mean I ever forget, and I know I can still visit.

I had read a passage from Meditations from the Mat to my classes this week, I don't have it on me so I'm going to try to get it as accurately as possible....

Live in this world with a mind that lets go. If you let go a little you will find a little peace. If you let go a lot you will find a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom, and all of your struggles with the world will disappear.

wishing you the strength to let go and find peace
xo