Imagine Balance

I’m alive… and well.

Tara SG — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:59:21 +0000

First let me apologize for disappearing without even taking the time to explain my absence. That being said, it was for happy reasons. Stressful, yes, but also happy. Here is a very brief recap of what I’ve been up to. I promise more detailed posts later. I’m also hoping to gradually restart this blog.

In late Spring, my husband and I starting looking to buy our first house. It was a more intense, stress-filled experience than I expected. In July, we found our house. We looked at it twice in one day, put in an offer that afternoon, and had our counter-offer accepted that night. While incredibly excited for the next big stage in our life, this meant packing and cleaning. I hate packing and cleaning.

As luck would have it, our late honeymoon/family vacation was already booked for the week prior to closing on the house. On one hand, it was crazy to try to have everything ready before we left the country. On the other hand, it was the perfect break from everything. Mexico was AMAZING! We had a blast with my parents and loved getting away from work.

Looking back, moving wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We got the main living areas painted and moved in all in one weekend. I spent the next week refinishing the kitchen (which I LOVE) and felt like I was painting every other day for weeks.

Then just as things were settling down, I got a job. Not just a job, but a step in the right direction for my career. Is it my dream job? No. But I’m loving it. I like the people I work with. I’m good at this. And I finally am back to a 8-4:30 Monday – Friday schedule. While that’s great for me, the hubs got moved to second shift. Which means we see each other for 2-3 hours on Saturday and Sunday. Yes, you read that correctly. We do not seeing other at all during the week. Since he is working weekends, we also doing see each other much then. I hate it.

I backed away from the internet at first because I was too busy, and then because I was too tired, and then because I had been gone for so long I didn’t know how to come back. This is the first step. Hope you guys know how much I’ve missed you and that even though I was quiet, I wasn’t gone. I still read a lot of your blog posts from my phone and cannot wait to reconnect with you.

multi-tasking yoga {1}

Tara SG — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:20:50 +0000

How those of you with full-time jobs and kids fit in yoga, is really beyond my grasp (and something I’ll hopefully learn when the time comes). If someone like me – who is home three days a week and has a hubs who doesn’t take up a lot of time due his work schedule – has a hard time getting in a practice every day, then how does anyone else do it?! I’ve started to yoga multi-task recently and it is amazing to me how much asana or meditation can be worked in at the same time as other things.

Most of these (tips? I’m not sure what call them) may be no-brainers that you figured out years ago. In which case, you’re welcome for the reminder But seeing as I just started discovering them, then maybe a few of your haven’t yet either.

I’m starting with my favorite. Something I like to call “teasana”.

Most nights I like to get in bed or curl up on the couch with a hot cup of Yogi Bedtime tea to help get ready to sleep. This used to mean: fill the tea kettle and start the water, wash my face, pour the water and start brewing, check Twitter/feed the cat/turn on the TV, then I’d relax with my chamomile.

Lately, however, I’ve found an even more relaxing way to end (and most of the time start) my day. I start the water and then find a place to sit (or take mountain pose) and meditate while listening to the sound of the water boiling. The sense of peace I find in the moments when it gets really quiet – right before it’s about to whistle – is beautiful. Then while my tea is brewing, I pull out my kitchen/outside yoga mat (yes, I have three mats placed around my house – that’s an issue for another post lol). Since my Bedtime tea brews for 10 minutes, it’s perfect for some slow, relaxing poses to ready my body for sleep. Washing my face prior to starting the tea and feeding the cat afterwards does not take up so much more of my time that I even notice a difference.

Do you practice teasana?

Cry Baby

Tara SG — Thu, 05 May 2011 17:25:24 +0000

(me in my favorite outfit)

I didn’t cry a lot as a baby. Which was odd considering that I multiple surgeries. Nope, I just made this “eh” sound. Even as a toddler I was kick ass. I mean look at that outfit. You wouldn’t accuse that kid of being a cry baby. But guess what, yoga has made me into a crier. I’m not sure if I like this or not.

I’ve always been really empathetic. I’ve always cried during movies and books. Now I cry watching commercials. Biggest Loser. Intervention. The newest Harry Potter trailer (this one is totally understandable though). Hell I even break into tears during pigeon pose from time to time!

So why am I blaming this on yoga? Because it’s gotten me to become more aware of myself and the present moment. I’m allowing myself to be more open to my deeper feelings and to be more free to express my emotions. This is AMAZING and I love it! Well I love the extreme feelings of joy parts of it.

I love seeing someone playing in the park and it brings me a smile (that I now actually pay attention to). I love hearing a woman singing out loud as she’s running and then getting in my car and cranking the sound up and singing along. I love letting go of fights quicker and being more understand of the hubs. I do not love crying more. Or do I? At this point the jury is still out. But lately I can really relate to this song:

Just Say Thanks

Tara SG — Mon, 02 May 2011 12:00:44 +0000

I had a ton of compliments on this outfit yesterday. Cute tights. Cute shirt. And a skirt that hits my waist in the perfect spot. So why did I feel uncomfortable with people telling me I looked cute?! I’m not sure that I would have noticed it if @CurvyYoga hadn’t tweeted about this amazing post on “Learning How to Take a Compliment” by @ChallyWrites.

How terrible is that we’re taught to decline compliments on how we look? How am I supposed to learn to love my body if I’m not allowed to believe or acknowledge praise from others?!

I’m constantly saying things like “oh the dress just hits my waist in a good spot, I’m not really that small” or “meh I got it on sale” or “I’m just having a good hair day. It doesn’t normally look like this.”. I think it makes me look arrogant if I say “Thanks! I feel really pretty today.”. Am I not supposed to tell people when I think I look good?

I’m making a vow to myself. From now on I’m going to say “Thank you!”. No excuses. No downplaying myself. No need to give a compliment right back to balance things out.

Just say “Thanks!”.

Finding vs Making Time

Tara SG — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:09:46 +0000

This clock hangs in my living room and hasn’t worked in close to a year. And yet I still look at it and think “oh I have plenty of time!” before I realize that unless it’s that magical twice a day time, I do not have plenty of time. Today was one of those days. I was planning on fitting in some asana before hitting the gym with the hubs (he will only go if I go with even though I prefer to workout at home or outside – note how good of a wife I am). Unsurprisingly I did not fit in my practice pre-gym.

So I made time to flow for 10 minutes in the midst of getting ready for work. Was it what I originally wanted? No. Was it enough? Yes.

This made me think about the difference between finding time and making time. Finding time implies that it is just sitting there lost in the midst of laying around (which is sometimes the case). On most of my busy days, however, there isn’t minutes or hours hiding under the blankets just waiting for me to uncover them. On those days I have to make time. I have to sacrifice other activities that also seemed necessary.

Making time means eating my breakfast on the way to work, letting my hair air dry, or making my tea at work. None of these situations are ideal. The smartest way for me to make this time would be in advance by going to bed earlier and setting my alarm an hour ahead. I’ll get there eventually. One step at a time…

Did you make time for yoga today?

What am I choosing right now?

Tara SG — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:00:08 +0000

What am I choosing right now? Does it enrich my life and the life of the world?

- 03.29 : A Year of Living Your Yoga by Judith Lasater

I’m not the best time manager. I make plans. Schedule the day. Then end up getting ready for bed wondering why I didn’t accomplish all that I set out to do. Why does this happen? I waste A LOT of time. As I’m typing this, The Office is playing on the TV. I have no idea why I need the TV on in order to write a blog post. Perhaps if I wasn’t stopping every few minutes to watch (and laugh), I would have caught up on reading and commenting on blogs today. Maybe if I didn’t feel the need to read an entire review book today, I would have done the grocery shopping.

I love vegging out in front of the TV and losing myself in a good book (which for the record – today’s wasn’t great). How do I balance this with tasks that I want/need to complete? I’m trying to set aside a certain amount of time just for me to check out. That way I’m not telling myself that I can’t do it (because then I’ll want to all the time). I’m also not telling myself that it’s OK to do nothing all the time. The real trick is stopping once you start. One episode of Buffy turns into the whole season. One chapter turns into the whole book (I have a REALLY hard time not reading books in all one sitting).

I actually talked to a counselor about this a few years ago. She explained that it was similar to ADD, but with an opposite effect. Once something has my attention, I have a hard time pulling away. I’m somehow concerned that the activity or project won’t get finished if I don’t do it all at once. To fix this I need to start building trust in myself. It won’t be easy at first, but if I continually am able to jump back into a book or finish the blog post later, I’ll start to be able to set aside these tasks and spread my time more efficiently.

How do you balance leisure time?

Beaming diidhiti {Wrap Up}

Tara SG — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:41:11 +0000

It’s hard to believe that it has been a month already! I’m beyond grateful for Thais and Faern helping putting together this beautiful series on inspiration and what our yoga means to us on and off the mat. I’m extremely proud of all of us for being able to really open up – not just to our own readers, but to those on other blogs as well. So what did we learn about ourselves and each other this past month?

Thais opened up about her reason for practicing yoga here on Imagine Balance. Like many of us, she has issues with food. As a binge eater, she has found yoga to be perfect for learning to embrace herself, eating disorder and all. Please head over and read the full post if you haven’t yet!

The following week, Thais headed over to Faern’s blog to talk about how yoga inspires her off the mat. She wrote a beautiful post about setting your drishti in life. A wonderful post about setting goals.

Faern started the series off on Thais’ blog talking about the varying ways yoga inspires her off the mat. One of them (and the most important we can all take notice of) is that life is worth living. You should really head over and check out the great post and breathtaking photos.

The following week she came here to Imagine Balance to talk about what gets her on the mat. For her, it’s about believing in her Self or more importantly, taking time for her Self. In a crazy, busy, stressful life, she uses yoga exactly how I believe it’s meant to be used.

I opened Beaming diidhiti at Faern in the Works talking about how I take yoga into the world. You see, I used to be a book addict (technically I still am) and I was using books to escape my life. Yoga is helping me be conscious of my time and my life goals.

The second week I stopped by Living in the (K)now to open up about my own food and body issues. It was the first time I had openly talked (and was openly honest with myself) about not liking my body and how yoga is a huge part of my path to change that.

Beaming diidhiti {Faern in the Works}

Tara SG — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:28:09 +0000

diidhiti is the Sanskrit word for inspiration, splendor, light, power, brightness, and devotion

Beaming diidhiti is an inspiration series hosted by Thais, Faern, and myself. We’ll be rotating blogs each Tuesday to talk about what inspires us to get on our mats and how yoga inspires our lives off the mat. You can find more info and the blog schedule here.

Today I’d love for you to welcome Faern of Faern in the Works! She is a phenomenal photographer, amazing artist, and a beautiful inspiration for those who want to follow their dreams. Today, she’s here to share how her yoga practice inspires her off the mat.

~~~

When navigating the internal/external universe – which sometimes seem to flow against one another- a certain mode of self sufficiency is necessary for me to create. Now, I’m not talking paying the bills and remembering to eat- because I pass over that kind of thing all the time. What I’m talking about is believing in the self- knowing that I am me and that is enough- that I am what I am. That there is always a fire inside- that I am in charge of- that I light up and I cool down- a fire that is being stoked by me, and me alone. Becoming/recognizing ME- that I can stand here and say, with a strait face (and maybe a tear in my eye), that I am proud to be me. I am proud to call myself an artist in a time when artists get the least respect and barely a nod from your everyday U.S. societal structure.

Getting on the yoga mat is akin to calling a meeting with the Self, the capital ‘S’, the head honcho- and saying “hey, what’s up? How can we move through this?” … Especially if you don’t have a seated meditation practice yet, like myself.

Most directly and currently my reasoning for getting on the mat in relation to self-sufficiency is self care. With all this “San Francisco” happening around me, the need for self care is pretty high. It’s really easy to get carried away here- in many ways- even with too many yoga asana classes, but I digress… As many of my regular readers know, last year my mom passed away, may she rest in peace. The few months before I spent time taking care of her with a couple other members of my family. But what you may not know is that in doing so I really started to become ill, I was not taking care of myself properly and started developing, what they thought to be at the time, a heart problem. My blood pressure was astronomical, I was walking around in a complete daze and started taking even less care, I was a mess on the inside, but from the outside I just looked like me. Nobody understood what was going on, how I was even walking around with blood pressure like that was a mystery to a couple doctors. I had, of course, completely stopped practicing yoga asana. Until one day one of the two or three people I was in constant contact with at the time called me up- now, she has worked with many many people with serious illness and has been a part of a lot of studies on cancer and yoga- so- to say the least she knows her stuff and I am very lucky- anyhow- she heard the numbers and had one, immediate response “Shoulderstand- now- everyday- even if it’s all you do”-

And that was just the beginning to me healing my heart- as it’s a very short story about a very long, slow road that I’d like to cut shortright now- I’ll just say that what inspires me to get on my yoga mat and practice yoga asana is staying on the road to self sufficiency. I spent many months working on this issue and getting my health to where it is now (regulated blood pressure! & understood physical challenges!) and I have a long way to go- but I know, as long as I stay with my herbal remedies, stay on my mat continuing to do my shoulderstands and my backbends- all is well.

Faern is a mixed media artist, photographer and yoga practitioner in San Francisco. Visit her website, follow her on Twitter, or like her onFacebook.

Beaming diidhiti {Thais of Living in the (k)Now}

Tara SG — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:00:03 +0000

diidhiti is the Sanskrit word for inspiration, splendor, light, power, brightness, and devotion

Today I’d love for you to help me welcome the lovely Thais of Living in the (k)Now!! She somehow manages to find time to be inspirational and uplifting while working, doing her YTT, and keeping up with her amazing blog. Here she’s opened up about how she first was introduced to yoga and what finally made her fall in love with it.

~~~

What inspires me to get on my yoga mat? One word – Food.

I have had issues with binge eating for three years now. It’s something I have to deal with every time there is food in front of me. As long as I know I am working towards my healing, I feel ok about it, or at least try to. The question is – how do I heal?

When I was first introduced to yoga, I was not a fan. My competitive nature led me to believe yoga was only about flexibility and because I wasn’t flexible I was not interested. A few years, and many pounds later, I went back to yoga with a new perspective. I heard about the healing powers of the mat and I figured – what did I have to lose? Anything to help me deal with my issues (as any binge eater knows, eating disorders have very little to do with food) was welcomed.

There was another reason I wanted to try yoga again. I grew up in a spiritual household and the more I fell in love with God and the Universe, the more I wanted to reach out to like-minded people. People who understand that living in the present moment is essential to a satisfying life. People who understand the beauty of letting it go. I hoped yoga would open those connections that I was so dearly missing in my life.

My second introduction to yoga was as different from the first as night and day. I fell madly, deeply, truly in love. Not only did I meet the like-minded people I wanted, but I was also exposed to so much more. I learned the connection between breath and body. I started trusting my body more and practicing compassion and love. The way I viewed my disorder slowly started to shift. I felt supported by a community that made me feel perfect just the way I am.

So going back to the question – What inspires me to get on my yoga mat? Food does. I know that every time I practice yoga, either through meditation, postures, breathing techniques, I am one step closer to embracing my binge disorder. One step closer to accepting my imperfections and perfections. Getting on that mat is my way of telling the world – I am working on myself. Every time I practice yoga I send a little thank you prayer, for I have found my path to healing.

xx T

Thais is a 20s something yoga dork with a passion for living life to the fullest. You can catch her taking naps in the park with her black lab Caviar, reading ten books at a time, or tweeting away about some quote or another. Check out her corner of the blogging world here, or join her on Facebook or twitter.

I Forgive You

Tara SG — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:38:27 +0000

{Luna Bella and I}

“To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.”

~ Robert Muller

Luna reminded me of a very important key to happiness (which seems like all I blog about lately…). My poor kitty had to go to the vet a few days ago to be tested for a possible UTI. I’m not sure if you have pets or have had to take them to be tested, but they squeeze out a urine sample. Needless to say, Luna hated it!! Top it off with the fact that she has to take a pill once a day for two weeks.

I didn’t expect to see much of her after we got home from that nightmare. Last time I had to take her to the vet, she avoided me for at least a week. She’s known to hold a grudge… maybe a little like her mom.

This time, however, she jumped right back into my lap that same day. And today, not even an hour after I forced her to take her medicine she was cuddled up and purring. She let go of her grudge. She forgot about the horrific process of shoving a pill in her mouth. She forgave me.

What if I followed her lead and forgave people? What if I let go of my anger and focused on the joy my friends, family, and co-workers bring me? I’d probably be purring the day away too…. or laughing and smiling… same thing

And if nothing else, there’s always this reason to let go of a grudge:

“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.”

~ Oscar Wilde