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I must admit, I’m a perfectionist. After a lifetime of studying myself, I only pinpointed that fact just a few years ago. To paint a full picture, I’m a perfectionist who uses her perfectionism–is that a word?–to procrastinate. Not the best for getting things done.
Maybe I should say I’m a recovering perfectionist, but that’s a whole other story.

In any case, I meant to post this on the first of the month, but you can see now, 10 days later, I did not. I had too much to say and I couldn’t figure out the perfect thing or things to focus on. I still feel that way, but I’m going to go with it and see what happens–see, recovering perfectionist; I’m trying!

So onward to what I want to talk about, or rather, what I want to ask you:

Who are you?

When I ask you that question, if you’re like me, different things start popping into your head. Mine sometimes sound something like, “I’m a yoga teacher, I’m a lomilomi practitioner. I’m a blue haired elf. I’m a recovering perfectionist.” Stuff like that.

But what if those things go away. What if I stop teaching yoga and doing lomilomi and making my hair blue? If actually stop being a perfectionist? Would I still be me? We’ll come back to this in a few.

A big part of the practice of yoga is studying ourselves. When we come to the mat, we are examining ourselves physically, seeing what feels tight, what we need to work on. We might also, on our mats, be studying ourselves emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

One of my favorite yoga concepts–and my most favorite Sanskrit word–is Svadhyaya.

Svadhyaya is often classically translated as “the study of self and scripture.” Does that mean you need to sit for hours and study the Bible or the Bhagavad Gita? Not necessarily, though you can of course.

Svadhyaya–at least in my lineage of yogic understanding–studying yourself and studying everything around you with the idea of learning more about yourself to work towards growth and enlightenment.

That can mean studying a scripture, like the Bible, but it can also mean reading a fiction book and thinking about how the lessons the main character learned might apply to your life. It can mean showing up on your mat and learning where your body is tight. It could mean watching a movie and taking to heart what one of the characters said. It could mean starting to notice when you need to say, “no,” to that next weeknight invitation out and take some time at home for yourself. I think you get the idea.

There are many levels to this. The things we learn about ourselves in the physical plane like when we are doing yoga on our mat or that we are happier when everything in our house is put away. Then, of course, there are emotional and mental levels, maybe learning we can choose how we react when a strong emotion hits or finding the meditation that works for us to help us steady our mind.

And then there are the deeper levels of studying ourselves, getting in touch with our higher self and our connection to Source, or God, or Goddess, or however, you wish to think about the world in that way.

We are multidimensional beings and studying ourselves is multidimensional from what your favorite nail polish color is to who is the you who is aware that you are reading this right now?

To me, Svadhyaya is going on throughout every other aspect of our yoga practice, and remember, our yoga practice is so much more than just getting on our mats. Really, if we are of a yogic mindset, we can practice Svadhyaya every moment of every day–though take a break from analyzing yourself if you’re driving yourself crazy.

When we are really working with this practice of studying ourselves, meditation is one of the best ways to really go deep into who we are.

If you want a little taste of the practice of mediation, I have an online meditation course up right now. It’s really accessible, even if you’ve never meditated before.

You can sign up here!

If you want to talk more about this idea of Svadhyaya or have any questions, please reach out. I’m always happy to discuss. You can find me on all social media @yogawithgin or send me an email: gin@yogawithgin.com

Here’s to me not being a perfectionist and procrastinating the next post!

Aloha & Namaste!

-Gin

Happy Spring Equinox and Full Moon! Today is a great day for letting go of what doesn’t serve us. Sometimes we hold on to myths and misconceptions and believe that they are true. Let’s all let go of some of those things today!

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions around meditation, especially at the start of our meditation journey. Some of these myths often prevent us from getting started in the first place. If we can let go of these misconceptions, our meditation practice can really start to blossom.
I love making meditation accessible to all, and one of the best ways I know how to do that is to dispel those myths. Here are my top 5 meditation myths and then why they simply are not true. Gonna keep this simple. Also…trust me, I know these things. 😉

Meditation Myth #1: I can’t meditate.
Meditation Myth #2: I must be doing it wrong.
Meditation Myth #3: I tried it but it wasn’t working.
Meditation Myth #4: I don’t have time to meditate.
Meditation Myth #5: Mediation is supposed to make your mind be quiet.

Let’s dispel these myths!

You can meditate. Everyone can. I promise. You are not doing it wrong. You cannot be. There is no right or wrong to meditation. And if you tried it was working, even if you felt like it wasn’t.

All of these myths go together in my mind. We usually come to the practice of meditation with ideas of what mediation is supposed to look like. That usually is something along the lines of thinking that we are supposed to sit for a long time–20 minutes? An hour? Four hours?–and be quiet and maybe pay attention to our breath and then our mind is just naturally supposed to get quiet. And when that doesn’t happen, we think we can’t do it, we’re doing something wrong, it isn’t working, or we can’t possibly take that much time out of our day to do it.

The thing is, meditation, like many things in our lives, is not one-size-fits-all. We think meditation is supposed to look a certain way, but there are so many different ways to mediate. In fact, one of my favorite texts called the Vijnana Bhairava explains 112 different ways to meditate or naturally find the state of meditation. It is an amazing list of meditation techniques, but also pointing out instructions regarding moments in life that all of us have experienced before in which we naturally feel the state that we are trying to get to in mediation. For those of us feeling the time crunch myth, some of the techniques are really quick and meant to drop you into the state of meditation almost instantly.

It is very interesting and I would be happy to talk more about all of it, but my point is that in just one text there are 112 different ways to meditate basically. With all those options, we can find at least one–if not many!–that work for you. It’s not that you can’t meditate, or your doing it wrong or isn’t working or you don’t have the time, it’s just that you haven’t found your way of mediating yet.

In addition, if 112 different techniques seem like a lot to go through, please know that even if you close your eyes and take a few deep breaths you are starting your journey into the practice of meditation. It really can be that simple.

And as to that whole “making the mind be quiet” thing, well, if you ask me, I think that is almost impossible. It’s a great thing when it happens, but it does not need to be our goal, nor do I think it should be.

In fact, I don’t think making the mind be quiet is the goal at all. Rather, I believe, learning to calm the mind–which is different than quiet–is more the goal of meditation.

Our minds are meant to think. That’s what they are there for and they are really good at it. Our minds don’t have to be spinning out of control though and thinking about things we do not want. We can focus our minds and think calmly and clearly.
Meditation helps us do that, and in fact, some meditation techniques directly ask the mind to think about some specific thing and by doing so calm the mind.

Happy to discuss these ideas more if you all are interested.

I promise you, with a little exploration of what works for you, you can meditate!

If you are in Richmond and you are interested in these ideas, Dr. Jessica Norris and I have a workshop on Tuesday, March 26th at 6:00 pm at Balance Space where we’ll go over 3 simple meditation techniques that you can use in your daily life to help you de-stress. You’ll also get to hear two scientists–that’s us!–talk about the science of stress, mindfulness, meditation, and essential oils. Plus you can even experience some of Dr. Jess’s essential oil blends. Sign up here!

If you’re not in Richmond, you can take my Thinkific Workshop: De-Stress to Manifest Your Best Life which explores the last 3 limbs of yoga and gives you 3 meditation techniques that you can use to create the life you want to live.

As always, any questions or comments or if you want to share a little about your meditation practice, you can find me on all social media @yogawithgin or send me an email: gin@yogawithgin.com

Enjoy the full moon equinox!

Aloha & Namaste!
-Gin

“Mad as a March hare.” That phrase was always funny to me.

There is an energy to March, for sure, especially in climates with real seasons, which I am getting to experience again after living a long time where there were none.

I also have been quite obsessed over the last few weeks with this movie that has a bunch of bunnies and some people who are rather crazy–but that’s an aside.

So I’ve been thinking about this March madness thing and thinking, “well, what’s the antidote to madness, to craziness, to franticness?” And, of course, the answer is meditation and mindfulness.

Meditation and mindfulness are buzzwords at the moment. They are hot topics that pervade the yoga world–rightfully so as in the end that’s what yoga is all about– and they are creeping into the lives of people who have never even stepped onto a yoga mat. Meditation and mindfulness are also making their way into board rooms and businesses and making a huge difference in the way organizations function.

You may have tried meditation or tried to practice mindfulness. Maybe they worked, but maybe you just felt like you didn’t know what you were doing or worse, that you were, “doing it wrong.”

I know the first time I sat to meditate I felt like it was silly and that I wasn’t doing it right and that it “didn’t work.” I thought I was supposed to just sit there and close my eyes and focus on my breath and that was it. Honestly, that’s really challenging for a lot of us.

Years later I came across some writings from the teacher who is now my meditation teacher and realized there is a lot more to meditation than I originally thought and there are different techniques and ways to go about it. I then sat again with a completely different feeling and it all started to make sense.

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about mindfulness and meditation. This month I’m making it my purpose to dispell those and show you how simple meditation and mindfulness can be and how they can be incorporated into your life and even into your business.

The physical practice of yoga is just an 8th of the practice and, in fact, the last 3 limbs of yoga are about mindfulness and meditation. If you want to jump right in this month and start seeing how meditation can change your life, I have a workshop that I taught over the holidays which you can do online on your own time now that discusses those last 3 limbs of yoga and takes you through 3 meditation techniques. You can check that out here.

There’s a lot more to come this month all about mediation, both online and in person in Richmond with my dear friend, Dr. Jess Norris. In the meantime, even if you just stop and take three long breaths, that is a beautiful mindfulness practice itself, so go ahead and do that at least once a day and see what a difference it makes with your March madness.

From Hawaii….Aloha!
-Gin