Happy Monday! Today, I’d love to share some “Happy Momentum” with you.

I am incredibly fortunate to have amazing friends, colleagues, and mentors in my life.  One of those special, kind, and inspirational people is my friend, and fellow yoga teacher at Denver studio The Freyja Project, Caren Baginski, whose website is “Happy Momentum.”  Furthermore, she has this awesome weekly newsletter that gets my mind and spirit going in a great direction every time I read it. 

And today, I’m sharing Caren’s work with you because she’s doing this whole “translating yoga to ‘real life’ thing” really well. 🙂  So, I figured, instead of recreating the wheel, I would just share one of her posts with you because, heck, I just started full time grad school and – honestly – I’m already swamped!  (But swamped in a  I’m-in-nerd-Heaven-and-loving-this swamped kind of way :-p).  

Something in particular that Caren does that I really love, is linking specific yoga poses – asanas – with an “off-the-mat” lesson. (That picture is of her and her adorable pup, and her post includes instructions on how to do the pose and why it’s relevant to today’s lesson).

That being said, here’s how one of her most recent posts {which can be found directly here: http://www.carenbaginski.com/closer-to-bliss/} goes …

“Each day, we either eliminate or grow the distance between us and our bliss.

This distance is tangible. When we’re far from feeling like ourselves, we disconnect from others, eat empty calories, spend inordinate amounts of time feeling like day-tripping tourists in our own bodies.

When we arrive closer to our core, we’re in our most creative flow, lose track of time, and don’t need to convince ourselves that we are enough — we just know.

Our daily thoughts, actions and conversations contribute to whether or not we delight in our life or see it as a struggle. Meditated today? Yelled at someone you love? Went against your intuition? Ate a salad?

Some days, the pendulum will swing wildly from one pole to the other. It’s the balanced center that is much more elusive. It’s the balanced center that we crave.

You’re probably intimately familiar with your ups and downs, but how in tune are you with your outer to inner selves? In the yoga philosophy, these are called koshas, Sanskrit for “sheaths.” Like the layers of an onion, they are the five layers that surround our core.”

To learn about the koshas, how they give you clues to more balance, and how to apply that knowledge to better handling conflicts with a loved one, please read the remainder of Caren’s post HERE. She equips you with some key questions to ask yourself when discovering how to handle conflict with more ease, as well as a yoga pose to help you peel back some of your own layers and get more open.  

Caren says, “The goal is not to eliminate conflict or tough conversations — it’s to eliminate the distance between you and bliss during those interactions. That’s living your yoga. After all:

“Yoga does not just change the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.” —B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life “

Remember, Caren’s post can be found directly HERE.   Please post comments below to let me know what you thought, and if you gave Caren’s yoga asana a try!

 

P.S. The next SEMPER Sarah retreat is scheduled for June 2015 in Nosara, Costa Rica.  For full details and to reserve your spot early (space is limited to 12 attendees), visit www.SemperSarah.com/Retreat