I’m essentially a lazy person. I can be perfectly content to sit around and do pretty much nothing. Given that there are things that I want to accomplish and that I want a full, active life, this presents a slight problem. It means that I have to be smart about how I start my day. If I begin my day by lazing around for too long, I’ll generally stay at rest, not get the movement my body and mind need and I end up feeling slightly unhealthy and unhappy with my day. On the other hand, if I start my day by doing something active and/ or creative, I can keep that energy going throughout the day. This leads to feeling generally more healthy and fulfilled.

I read a book by a guy named the Barefoot Doctor a long time ago (The Barefoot Doctor’s Guide to the Tao), where he talks about one of the most important things in living the Tao is to have a ritual that you do no matter what in the morning. It could be a yoga practice, a run, or simply making tea and being present while doing it. A way to connect and center yourself and get ready for the day ahead. I have found this to be very useful advice. What you do in the morning sets the stage for your day. However inertia takes hold is likely to carry you through your day, and if it starts out with being too much at rest, both mentally and physically, it can be quite hard to turn that around.

The only thing I’ll add here is that I’ve also found from experience, that having a morning ritual that is too hard or complicated can lead to not doing it at all, or only doing it sometimes, which defeats the whole purpose. The trick is in finding something that you can commit to and stick with that will give you a chance to move into your day, be present, and get energy moving.

I’ve been a coffee and tea drinking almost my entire life. When I was a kid, my favorite ice cream flavor was always coffee and I really looked forward to being old enough to drink a big cup of it when I was old enough that my parents would let me. I can’t actually remember a time since I was a child that I have been caffeine free. But I’ve decided to eliminate it from my diet finally. Caffeine can cause anxiety, mood swings, and insomnia, irritability, and lots of other stuff, yet most of us consume it regularly. It can also make you stiff, which is exactly the opposite of what most of us yoga practitioners are trying to be. I actually had a really hard time finding concrete studies here, but as I understand it from talking to people who know about this, caffeine can cause muscle twitching (hyperflexia), which prevents our muscles from relaxing fully, a necessity to get a good, healthy stretch. Additionally, if taken in large enough doses, it acts as a diuretic, draining you body of precious water and leaving your muscles less able to stretch. That combined with the addictive nature of the drug, are finally getting me to give it up. Instead, I’ll be relying on a short morning yoga practice (which I’ve not always done) and breathing. There are lots of good resources if you are interested in trying to kick caffeine as well. I’ve included a couple of them below:

findbliss.com
yoga journal
yoga-australia.com

I’ve been thinking about desire a lot lately. How it relates to being able to be present, how it manifests itself, and what we can learn from it. Most of the time, especially if we haven’t spent time working with our desires, they can take over, pulling us out of the moment and towards some unrealized future in which we have achieved whatever it is that we want. We see something, we want it, and that’s all there is to it. We don’t usually grow from that experience, it just repeats itself the next time we see something we want. Part of what I’ve been trying to figure out is the following: When can desire be a good thing? And when it’s harming us, bringing us closer to attachment and suffering, how do we recognize the difference and how can we work with it?

Jack Kornfield, in his wonderful book A Path with Heart, makes a distinction in types of desire, naming the negative parts grasping and wanting. “Grasping and Wanting are two names for the most painful aspects of desire.” He says. “There are beneficial desires such as the desire for the well being of others, the desire for awakening, the creative desires that express the positive aspects of passion and beauty. There are painful aspects of desire – the desires of addiction, greed, blind ambition, or unending inner hunger.” Given how similar the two can feel on the surface, how do we notice when the desire is beneficial or painful?

Like all of our emotions and thought, it takes bringing real conscious attention in order for us to be able to see our own patterns and how those emotions play out. Kornfield suggests paying attention to desire when it arises and noting certain aspects of it. “How long does this kind of desire last? Does it intensify first or just fade away? How does it feel in the body? When it is present, are you happy or agitated, open or closed?”

For me, when I unconsciously follow a desire, it can be surprising how the thing I thought I wanted, suddenly doesn’t seem so appealing once I see the whole picture. How it fits in with the rest of my life, the work that might be needed to maintain it, etc. And of the flip side, once you bring consciousness to a desire and are able to see the whole picture, it can also be easier to identify the desires which are healthy.

Bringing attention to desire can also help us to identify places in our life where we need attention and nourishing. When we trace painful desires back to their root, they can point the way to things in our life that we might be neglecting. Which can help us to grow and learn about ourselves and bring about positive change.