Yoga
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
“Nah, yoga’s not for me. I’ve never been flexible.” It may be the number one reason I hear from people who are unwilling to even try a yoga class. Well, if being flexible means some of the extreme postures some highly experienced yogis can do, then none of us are particularly flexible. But we aren’t…
Read MoreStanding Tall
I spent some time today looking at the dictionary for definitions, antonyms, synonyms and usage for the word stiffen as in ‘to stiffen the spine.’ I’ll spare you the details, but as you might imagine, the term is connected with courage, standing up for what you believe in, and strength. Now all of those sound like…
Read MorePlot Twists
A couple of weeks ago in a post about stretching, I mentioned the concept undergirding one of my favorite graduate classes – the idea that one of the skills of leadership is being able to envision the future. And so we studied leadership by reading novels and enjoying the ability of novelists to imagine a variety…
Read MoreTwisting Ourselves Into Knots
When we think of yoga, at least before we take a class, we often think of someone twisted into a human pretzel. Like this: – or some of those really crazy ones where you can’t quite figure out what leg is connected where. That’s the physical version of tying oneself in a knot, but we…
Read MoreTwists and Turns
As we reach the middle of May, the academic year begins to wind down. Many campuses have already celebrated their graduates with one version or another of a commencement ceremony. Some are still to come – final papers in my class are due today. But I think all of us would agree that this semester…
Read MoreSlow Down Faster
There’s a lot to be said for developing a practice of writing five days a week. Publishing said writing five days a week brings another set of challenges. If one is writing as a practice, quality doesn’t matter. That’s not true if one is putting the finished product out into the world. So today, instead of failing…
Read MoreCreating Space
You might be wondering what creating space has to do with this week’s topic of energy. The Quote of the Day is the stimulus for today’s topic. Eckhart Tolle suggests we find thirty seconds of space in our day and I think he’s exactly right. Creating even that tiny amount of space in our day, giving…
Read MoreBurned out? Breathe!
Last week I did a remote workshop on the topic of True Colors. (For those who haven’t done True Colors, here’s a quick shorthand: Orange – Energetic, Spontaneous, Charming “Seize the Day”; Gold – Punctual, Precise, Organized “Be Prepared”; Green – Analytical, Intuitive, Visionary “Knowledge is Key”; Blue – Empathetic, Compassionate, Cooperative “I Care”.) During…
Read MoreBending Over Backwards
I looked up this phrase, ‘to bend over backward’ on several websites today. The general meaning is consistent – expending effort to make sure something happens or more particularly to expend effort to help someone else accomplish something. In every case, there was a sense of effort, sometimes, great effort. And I get that –…
Read MoreEnergy
When you read that the topic for this week is energy, what comes to your mind? Sometimes when a question like that is asked, the questioner has something in mind, but not today. There are so many possible answers. For some people, it’s a mechanical question – it’s the capacity for doing work. Physicists might consider…
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