Yoga… Dreaming while awake

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” – William Arthur Ward

“When we feel bad inside emotionally, it is human nature to want to blame others for our feelings and say “she made me feel that way.” Truth is, no one makes you feel a certain way. Only you allow your reaction to make you feel a certain way.” David Scott

“If we truly seek transformation, somewhere along the way, without judgment or aggression, we have to identify our own flaws and begin to work with them. Otherwise our spiritual practice is in danger of becoming a workaround and we will simply encapsulate our neuroses within a shell of o8ut idealism.” David Nichtern

“It is a lot easier to tell others how to live their lives, rather than first walking the talk ourselves and living the ideals we expect others to live.” David Scott

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” —George Eliot

“The secret to living longer is to eat half, walk double, laugh triple and love without measure.” Tibetan Proverb

“The goal isn’t to get rid of all your negative thoughts, feelings, and life situations. That’s impossible. The goal is to change your response to them.” MarcandAngel

“Someday you will look back on your life and realize that everything worthwhile you’ve ever accomplished initially challenged you.” MarcandAngel

“Never go in search of love, go in search of life, and life will find you the love you seek.” – Atticus

Yoga practice is a lot like dreaming while awake

“Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame.” — B.K.S. Iyengar

From the Gita:

[of yoga] “On this path no effort is wasted, no gain is ever reversed; even a little of this practice will shelter you from great sorrow.”

“Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.” – Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois

“As gold purified in a furnace loses its impurities and achieves its own true nature, the mind gets rid of the impurities of the attributes of delusion, attachment and purity through meditation and attains Reality.” – Adi Shankara

“The nature of illusion is that, when you see through it, it disappears.” – Mooji

“We are made of all those who have built and broken us.” Atticus

“We are all born free and spend a lifetime becoming slaves to our own false truths.” Atticus

“I would rather have a body full of scars and a head full of memories than a life of regrets and perfect skin.” Atticus

“Life is about change, sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s beautiful, but most of the time it’s both.” —Kristin Kreuk

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” —Benjamin Franklin

“Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. Remember, you are not starting from the beginning this time, you are starting from a place of wisdom, learned from past mistakes and successes.” – David Scott

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.” —Joseph Campbell

“As we grow older and wiser, we begin to realize what we need and what we need to leave behind. Sometimes there are things in our lives that aren’t meant to stay. Sometimes the changes we don’t want are the changes we need to grow. And sometimes walking away is a step forward.” —Unknown

“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you.” —Eckhart Tolle

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” —Albert Einstein

Part B – Meditation

Study on the effects of Yoga:

The review, published in the journal Brain Plasticity, focused on 11 studies of the relationship between yoga practice and brain health. “We see increases in the volume of the hippocampus with yoga practice,” Gothe said. The hippocampus is involved in memory processing and is known to shrink with age, Gothe said. “It is also the structure that is first affected in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.”

The amygdala, a brain structure that contributes to emotional regulation, tends to be larger in yoga practitioners than in their peers who do not practice yoga. The prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and brain networks such as the default mode network also tend to be larger or more efficient in those who regularly practice yoga.

“We found that those who had done yoga for eight weeks had an attenuated cortisol response to stress that was associated with better performance on tests of decision-making, task-switching and attention.” Yoga helps people with or without anxiety disorders manage their stress, Gothe said. “The practice of yoga helps improve emotional regulation to reduce stress, anxiety and depression,” she said. “And that seems to improve brain functioning.”

“The prefrontal cortex, a brain region just behind the forehead, is essential to planning, decision-making, multitasking, thinking about your options and picking the right option,” Damoiseaux said. “The default mode network is a set of brain regions involved in thinking about the self, planning and memory.”

Like the amygdala, the cingulate cortex is part of the limbic system, a circuit of structures that plays a key role in emotional regulation, learning and memory, she said. The studies also find that the brain changes seen in individuals practicing yoga are associated with better performance on cognitive tests or measures of emotional regulation.

“If you constantly seek the Buddha in others, you will never find the true Buddha within yourself. Would you investigate a mirror that was broken, and distorted, trying to observe your true reflection? Why then would you look towards others, with their broken, wounded illusions about reality, for their approval and validation of your self-worth? The true guru is within.” – David Scott

Spend time with those that love you unconditionally and not just to get what they want.

I don’t want other people to decide who I am and what I stand for, I want to decide that for myself.

Change your thoughts and change your day.

It is not your responsibility to like me, it is my responsibility to like me.

“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” – Sigmund Freud

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

What you wish for in life, someone else already has, what you already have is what someone else needs, what you already take for granted, is something someone else only dreams of finding.

Make sure your worst enemy is not living between your own ears.

When your heart is fractured and broken, it is the cracks that allow the light to enter.

Do you ever find yourself trying to justify yourself to others that in the end truly don’t matter?

When you start looking at people’s hearts instead of their faces, life becomes clear.

Sometimes when I am not feeling happy, I do something to make others happy, and then suddenly I feel happy again.

Do you drown in a drop of water?

“If you surround yourself with people who are strong and positive, you are much more likely to see a world of opportunity and adventure.” – Jack Canfield

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius

“It takes a strong person to do their own thing and not validate their existence.” Steven Aitchison

“Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never thought you had.”

Four very powerful words you can say to your child “I believe in you.”

“It is in the quiet moments of your practice, that you prepare yourselves for the exciting moments.”

Sometimes we have to just stand back and let life happen. Don’t hold together what must fall apart. The familiar fades away to create space for the new.

You are not truly rich until you have something money cannot buy.

“The word happiness would not be understood if not balanced by the meaning of sadness.” David Scott

If you do not like where you are in life, move you are not a tree.

Kindness towards others begins with compassion for ourselves.

“Kind words are short and easy to say, but their echoes are truly endless” Mother Teresa

“Misery loves company, so if you find yourself surrounded by drama and negativity, change you situation quickly because bad energy is highly contagious.”

“Friendship is not something to be written on paper, for paper can tear and fade. Friendship is not something to be written in a stone, for a stone can shatter and break. True friendship should be written in the heart where it can last forever.”

You can’t force someone to respect you, but you can refuse to be disrespected.

“If you surround yourself with people who are strong and positive, you are much more likely to see a world of opportunity and adventure.” – Jack Canfield

We are who we are, when we begin to accept people for who they are and not who we want them to be, our relationship can blossom.