"Shifts Happen"

Hello Dear Readers and Welcome to Autumn!

My Food Today:
after a fabulous yoga class:
No Breakfast (in yoga)
Lunch:
Rockin' Guacamole with avo, tomato, onion, Bragg's, sea salt and cayenne
with Foods Alive flax crackers
Dinner:
Marinated brussel sprouts from Red Clover organic farm in Seymour, CT; sliced in half and marinated in Bragg's Amino Acids
AMAZING (I will be blogging about these olives) raw red cured olives from Whole Life Superfoods in Gresham, OR
Maple flax crackers with raw almond butter and coconut lucuma cream from Vivapure, pure coconut superfoods

This past weekend, I was in a workshop with the world-renowned yoga teacher Beryl Bender Birch. Aside from the physical asana practice of yoga, of which we did plenty!, we also spent time delving into the philosophy of yoga as well as dissecting the Yoga Sutras. One of the wonderful things that Beryl shared was that "Shifts Happen." Just when we get attached to one thing in our lives; whether it be a relationship, a job, a location, a current situation, it can change in a breath. At this point, I want to pay homage to my dear friend, colleague and partner in crime and counseling, Dr. Joanna Bronfman. Joanna just blogged brilliantly http://shrink-w-rap.blogspot.com/2010/10/illusory-musings.htmlwith her musings upon seeing the new Woody Allen film, "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger." I commented on her blog and discussion about a line in the film, "Sometimes the illusion is better than the medicine," by saying that since life is an illusion anyway, we can create it to be whatever we desire. To add to that, what we really have is what is here and now; all that is present at this moment, because "shifts happen," and this moment may become something completely different. Therefore, attachment on this level does not serve us in sustaining joy.
You have all heard me blog about my running. For the past few years, I have been running outside, even through the cold winters at six degrees. I started running at age sixteen, on and off for years; my dad was my first running partner. It's in my blood, with an already goal of a half marathon completed and a long-aspiring goal of a marathon (and a secret fantasy of an Ironman) held in my heart.
So, why did my body decide to suddenly stop running many miles, without known reason or any catastophic event?
For the past two and a half months months, I have gone back and immersed myself in yoga, running now only on opposite days; no longer running five, seven or nine miles; instead running two and a half or three miles. At first I was upset, as running has "defined" who I am for quite awhile. Then I grieved. But as I entered into yoga, I allowed myself to go deeply and expand. I met myself where I was at and opened the doors to new insights each day. Running is constrictive in the body and expansive in the mind; yoga is expansive in the body and quieting of the mind. The level I was at in my life in my own personal development was asking for mental quiet and physical expansiveness.
I understood that as we develop, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, we need our daily practices to correspond to this new person we've become, but our egos have a hard time allowing that.
Why would I want to be the person who was running two years ago to heal her heart after the painful ending of a relationship, when who I am now is the goddess opening to love?
We hold on and hold on to that which we've become attached, so afraid to let it go or lighten it up, so afraid that it marks our identities, when who we are in our evolution has already shifted and requires concrete rituals and daily ways of living to match.
A woman open to love needs to continue to expand her heart everyday; how perfect is heart-centered yoga for that?
And by the way, your food might also change, so be open to new possibilities there, too.
As long as each new level, and with it each new way of living, honors your soul, you will be in the right place.
"Trust the change you already are." Hope
PS- I'll keep you posted on the marathon as my evolution continues...