A combination of Green Tea, Swiss Dark chocolate, and dreamy plans is keeping me awake for the past 3 hours as I lay in bed. My sore throat could use the sleep to recover, but my mind wants to keep planning & acting. I'm picturing how my new massage office will look, how my therapists will greet & usher back clients; how each and every movement or process in the office will occur. If I can see it and understand it, I can make it happen. Just a few more details to iron out and I will feel more confident.

Yoga Teachers, originally uploaded by Chrissy Mc.

Above are the dear people I spent so much time with in the past 3 months. I graduated teacher training one week ago, and I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with each of them. We were really a close group.

IMG_3914, originally uploaded by Chrissy Mc.

Another world, another time (Listen here: Trip Like I Do!)…or maybe just Ocean Beach at sunset again.

I want to get married: http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/wma-pop-up/B0001AP07M001008

Still trying to fit my square peg into the right hole here in San Francisco. Either I have to find a hole that can fit an engineer, a business owner, a yoga teacher, and a coach at the same time, or I will have to shave off the corners of each of them to fit into the round hole of stability and progress. Or let go of three identities, pick one, and I could easily slip into a hole somewhere in the city. The question is am I willing to give up any of them? Should I give up any of them? Time will tell…

Our thoughts have no power until we attach ourselves to them. A street bum whom I did not recognize was rooting around in trash cans outside my apartment today, and when I casually walked past him to my car, nibbling crackers on my way to yoga class, he started saying a string of horrible things in my direction, like f$*k you, you bitch and just went on and on as I was driving away. Just angry, terrible things.

And I thought at that moment, I had a choice: (1) I could attach myself to the words he was saying and start to analyze them…maybe I should have looked him in the eye, maybe I am a bitch, was I being a bitch? Am I a horrible person? OR, (2) I could just disregard his words immediately & completely, knowing that his issues were his issues, and they had nothing to do with me, and he was just choosing to be angry and wicked.

I chose the second route and peacefully drove off to my yoga class. There was a sprout of sympathy and concern I felt for him, but mostly just disregard. It is nice to have that tool in your back pocket of not taking everything that happens to come in your direction too seriously. What if he wasn’t really talking to me? I would have agonized for nothing. What if I reminded him of his ex-wife who took everything he owned? Again, nothing to do with me.

We have a choice to involve ourselves or not to get involved with the thoughts and ideas that enter our own brain. Many of the things we perceive end up getting twisted in our thoughts and mental analysis, or are immediately shaded by paradigms we developed as children that aren’t necessarily valid anymore.

We can immediately act on our thoughts, or we can realize that a thought is just a thought until we decide to do something or feel some way about it, and NOT necessarily a truth, or a thing worth our time, energy, or focus. What is your peace of mind worth? What do you take seriously?

I’ve been reading some yogic texts regarding pursuing spirituality. Not many people in my culture today pursue spirituality as their full-time dedication, as so many in India and other cultures have traditionally done.

But I liked the point that you could spend 30 minutes a day pursuing that spirituality. And you could apply some concepts throughout the day that will aid you during those 30 minutes of contemplation or peace.

Things to avoid are overeating, over-exertion, talkativeness, rigidity to social or religious rules, and avoiding negative people, people with low morals or low aspirations, who gossip or talk a lot without thinking, or give in to every bodily or thought impulse indiscriminately.

Things to practice are enthusiasm, perseverance, discrimination, unshakable faith, courage, study of spiritual books, purity, contentment, and living a simple life, the fewer material objects that you are attached to, the better.

These things help you to maintain your peace & happiness, and help to prepare your mind for higher states of consciousness, where you are no longer a slave to your thoughts & impulses. Where life’s ripples no longer shake you because you realize that your small, isolated pond in actuality has no boundaries and moves as part of a larger ocean.

“Man is created by thought. What a man thinks, he becomes. Man sows a thought and reaps an action, sows an action and reaps a habit, sows a habit and reaps a destiny. Man has made his destiny by his thinking. By right thinking, he can become the master of his destiny instead of a slave to it. The greatest victory you can win is over your own mind.”
~Sri Swami Satchidananda

“As a man thinks, so shall he become.”
~Plato

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors.
Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”
~Gandhi

Be Still…
By singing devotional songs, chanting holy names, meditating on something uplifting, quieting the body using yoga

and Know…
Knowing that involves the senses and the emotions, and the spirit, feeling that connection, the type of truth-knowledge that harmonizes and resonates through every cell and fiber in your body

that I am God…
Make a connection, a feeling of not-being-separated, to something outside yourself (this could involve first making a connection TO yourself)

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven…A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted…”

Right now is my time for change. My yoga training is coming to a close, and I’ll have more time for other things. The opportunity was presented to me to open a second office, and after doing the math, I am confident that I can make it work out so that I won’t have to go back to work for “the man”! That means the next 3 weeks will mean working very, very hard to get all the ducks in a row for a grand opening in December.

I’m excited for the challenge, and I’m meeting some great local massage therapists that are excited about the opportunity as well. I hope it will grow into something amazing for all of us.

There’s a phrase used to describe certain saints or yoga gurus, called “sage of steady wisdom.”

I figure there are many good reasons I’m not insanely rich or famous. I thought about this because a commercial just came on for the CMAs (Country Music Awards) with Carrie Underwood heavily featured. It makes me think about young people that are suddenly thrust into fame, and how they instantly become role models, ready or not.

I would much rather be ready. Any fool can have an opinion, and any fool can be famous or have a following. A good point was made on Bill Maher the other night that President Bush has a 24% approval rating, so no matter how the next election turns out, a quarter of the voting population are fools!

But seriously, how much better to have spent many, many years learning from others, and considering what is true and what is not, so that every word out of your mouth is uplifting and true. A sage of steady wisdom is the goal.