Another Journey

Must

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:26:49 -0400

No matter what, I must go to yoga today. My shoulders have been up to my ears for the past two weeks. Must de-stress.

"While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:27:01 -0400

“While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance, that might seem a little silly: Why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that’s precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a following of my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-), Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human..."

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:23:35 -0400

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1995), French Jesuit priest

Compassion: The Bedrock Of Our Capacity to Serve

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:11:00 -0400

Compassion: The Bedrock Of Our Capacity to Serve:

Why compassion is a necessary quality in business, particularly within social entrepreneurship:

When leaders cultivate compassion by addressing the negativity within, they strengthen their ability to build compassion into the framework of their businesses. This, in turn, directly impacts the implementation of their mission. This requires humility—the recognition that, while compassion is intrinsic to our nature, few of us are completely free of negativity and, consequently, all of us have inner work to do.

When you’re stuck in traffic and waiting in line at the...

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:37:46 -0400

When you’re stuck in traffic and waiting in line at the grocery store, remember that you can choose how you see the world in those moments. Inspiration to be peace this week of Grow Your Yoga.

Grow Your Yoga, Week 1: Vegan Challenge

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:19:11 -0400

I missed meat this week. And dairy, which is funny because I don’t eat that much dairy normally but it turns out whenever I want something vegetarian, I opt for cheese as a substitute. On Day 1, I mixed some previously purchased breadcrumbs into a quinoa mix, only to read the breadcrumb ingredients after and notice it contains whole dried egg and a ton of other preservative crap! I realized this must have been left over from days when I didn’t read ingredient lists but I was still shocked.

Day 4 was my three-year-old niece’s birthday party, which was a barbecue at my sister’s house. Meat-fest galore and my sister and her husband are excellent cooks. I debated cheating for this one day, this one special occasion, but my sister likes well-rounded meals so she inadvertently prepared a few vegan dishes that filled me up nicely: a mustard potato salad, a Lebanese-spiced leaf-lettuce salad and grilled vegetable skewers. I was also bummed that I couldn’t eat the cake, which is from our favourite patisserie that uses real cream and butter, but I stuck with fruit.

After I got back home from the long kid-filled day, my body felt light and I had a lot of energy still, which normally doesn’t happen after one of my sister’s barbecue. I was actually happy that I wasn’t overstuffed with meat and cake because I needed to spend the evening packing for a move.

So the conclusion for Week 1 of the vegan challenge is that my body is happy with what I’m doing even if my taste buds get really sad from time to time.

Very excited about this special yoga event, coming to Toronto on...

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:46:12 -0400

Very excited about this special yoga event, coming to Toronto on Sat. Jun. 22. Practicing yoga outdoors with hundreds (possibly thousands!) of people, wearing all white, led by one of my favourite yoga teachers, Grace Dubery.

Registration is free and the event provides you a yoga mat!

Today is the 4th anniversary of my first Moksha Yoga class at...

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:15:00 -0400

Today is the 4th anniversary of my first Moksha Yoga class at the North York studio in Toronto. I am grateful for a healthy body, to walk in nature, and to love and be loved.

This about sums up the life of a writer! (Minus the part where...

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:50:08 -0400

This about sums up the life of a writer! (Minus the part where my writings have won prizes…)

Photo

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:49:17 -0400

Boston

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:38:31 -0400

Everything about the Boston bombing is awful… including death of one of the suspects, guilty or not. This is NOT them versus us. There is no such thing especially when lives are involved. We have failed as a society and unfortunately, the world has become a little darker because of these events and the ones to unfold.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” —Gandhi

The Meat of Life

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:13:00 -0400

When I say I love food, it’s the kind of burning, magical, deep love most parents probably have for their children. Everything about food intrigues me—how it’s grown, where it comes from, how it bring strangers together and defines cultures. As someone who prides herself on eating almost anything, even I was shocked when I decided that for 30 days this May I won’t eat any meat or animal byproducts; in part for the Grow Your Yoga off-the-mat challenge.

It’s unimaginable that I would go vegan for a month. I like eating meat. A lot. I love vegetables, grains, tofu and all that good stuff, too, but as a food-lover, I want to taste it all. So, why the change? I have to thank Alyssa Arroyo, a teacher at Moksha Yoga NYC, for introducing me to the book, Yoga and Vegetarianism by Sharon Gannon. Reading this book was not a pleasant experience. The language seemed aggressive and I felt personally attacked at times. Yet, I kept reading. I wanted to understand the core message beyond the words. Finally, the message hit me in my gut… and my heart: We are all connected.

When most people ask why I’m doing this challenge, I say it’s environmental. Producing meat for consumption is one of the most inefficient uses of natural resources. (Something stupid like 13 pounds of meat needed to produce one pound of beef for humans.) But the biggest reason why is really for my spiritual health. No one is more surprised than me about what I see now when I look at meat, eggs or butter. I still acknowledge and even crave the deliciousness of those things but now I also see life in that food—life of the animal, the Earth and my fellow man. And I want to do what I can to help preserve that life, one bite at a time.

Video

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:03:44 -0400

Documentary featuring five different people’s inner...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:26:00 -0400

Documentary featuring five different people’s inner journey with a meditation practice, including U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan. A poetic reminder that meditation is available to all of us regardless of age, background, etc.

Grow Your Yoga

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:07:00 -0400

My personal challenges for Grow Your Yoga in May:

1. Be Healthy - Choosing not to eat meat or any animal byproducts for 30 days.

2. Be Peace - Practice 20 minutes of meditation every day for 30 days.

3. Be Accessible - Practicing 30 days of no gossip and no negative comments, even in jest.

4. Reach Out - Learn more about the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust and share the knowledge with others.

"I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization."

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:54:00 -0400

“I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.”

- Roger Ebert (1942-2013), film critic and writer

More than one way.

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:46:00 -0400

My daily meditation practice has felt stale and rigid of late. I’m sitting still for 10 minutes at a time but the mind… that wild beast is scowling, foaming at the mouth, beating its chest and demanding out. “Keep showing up,” I remind myself. “There is no such thing as a bad meditation,” I keep thinking. No such thing as a bad meditation but I still feel bad. Good luck with that, Heather.

Then, I meditated in a group yesterday and I realized something very important: There is no single best way to meditate. I’ve suspected for awhile that this is why my practice has become stagnant. Since the 10-day Vipassana course I took last April, I’ve narrowed my meditation experiences and in effect, set unnecessary limitations on myself. Yesterday was the first time I sat for three short sessions one after the other and it cracked open my shallow view on what it means to sit silently. You don’t have to sit for an hour straight to get the benefits of meditation.

Every day, we're learning.

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:58:00 -0400

This story is about a friend of mine. A kind-hearted, soft-spoken man in his mid-40s. A martial arts master and a meditation student. A loving husband and a keen soon-to-be father. Yesterday, we were meditating together in a group. Our guide instructed us to sit silently for 10 minutes, take a break, sit again for 15 minutes, rest and stretch, then meditate for a final 10 minutes. In between sits, we were invited to share our experiences. It was a small group with a few first-timers so there was a shyness cast around us.

When we finished, my friend spoke up for the first time that hour. In the last 10 minutes we had been asked to imagine ourselves at a time when we needed someone to show us kindness. Whether it was yesterday or years ago, we were supposed to meditate on this self and send him or her the kindness that we so rightfully deserved but never received. “I found myself remembering a time when I was a little boy, maybe in Grade 2 or 3, waiting for the bus and I had forgotten my mitts or something,” my friend began his story. A teacher harshly wagged her finger at him and scolded him, telling him to hurry up because he was making everyone late. “And that may be one of the earliest times in my life when I learned how to feel bad about myself.”

In that instant, I felt the timidness of the group melt away. We were all leaning in now, absorbed in my friend’s tale and reflection. “This is a strong memory for me,” he said, “but this is the first time that I was told to show that little boy compassion.”

"The path of meditation and the path of our lives altogether has to do with curiosity,..."

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:34:00 -0400

“

The path of meditation and the path of our lives altogether has to do with curiosity, inquisitiveness. The ground is ourselves; we’re here to study ourselves and to get to know ourselves now, not later. People often say to me, ‘I wanted to come and have an interview with you, I wanted to write you a letter, I wanted to call you on the phone, but I wanted to wait until I was more together.’ And I think, ‘Well, if you’re anything like me, you could wait forever.

So come as you are. The magic is being willing to open to that, being willing to be fully awake to that. One of the main discoveries of meditation is seeing how we continually run away from the present moment, how we avoid being here just as we are. That’s not considered to be a problem; the point is to see it.

”

- Pema Chodron, Tibetan Buddhist Nun

Do what you love, love what you do.

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:26:00 -0400

I always thought of that phrase as applicable to work, your job, your career. Today I just realized you can apply this thought to every moment of your life. Imagine if you woke up in the morning and loved making your bed, commuting to school or work, drinking coffee, organizing your calendar, cooking dinner and flossing before bed. How different would your day be? And if you don’t love those things, that’s fine, too. But why not add something to your day that you do love to do?

We all deserve to do what we love—what we truly love—at least once a day, every day of our life.