METAMORPHOSIS - ep. 21 - I Am Open #30Letters from #yogacamp miniseries l SMart Choice Lifestyle

Yours truly is not that open. I am more of a private person that doesn't like to feel exposed and scrutinized in detail by others. I choose to only show what I think to be relevant, helpful and purposeful in a given situation. No more, no less.

Of course, it depends on the context, the person or how at ease I feel, or how in tune I feel. It's a protective measure most of the times. A protection for getting hurt emotionally. With time, I began to see that some people act strangely around me, while others are perfectly in sync. 

I noticed that if I thought a person to be tight up, that's what that person thought of me back. Lastly, I discovered that if I disliked a person for a particular reason, most certain that reason was one of my flaws.

"Open your heart, open your mind, open yourself to all possibilities."

(Adriene Mishler - Yoga With Adriene)

How I discovered that? Simple! (Wrote some more about this HERE and HERE)

I tried being more open with people I didn't think so much of at first glance, or with people that intimidated me or made me feel nervous (either excited or anxious). And guess what? They were normal, pleasant and fun to be around. I was the one who shut them out and didn't interract.

This goes the same for opportunities. Be open to them. Try new things. Challenge yourself. You'll be surprised. I know I did! The moment I gave up those gremlins inside of my mind (as @BreneBrown calls that inner negative voice we all have), it all fell seamlessly into place.

Of course there are ups and downs, good days and bad days, but the purpose of all this is to make up the courage to be yourself, no matter what others say, or what your mind tells you. It doesn't mean you can run on the street naked, howling at the Moon, but it allows you to be more self-confident and live life more assertively.

Be curious about what you encounter in life. Keep exploring unbeated trails. Keep exploring (deep) within. Be happy about opportunities and learning. They lead to growth and growth leads to wisdom.

Look at your best and worst moments in life and add those "grey" areas too. Be curious about why they happened and what you've learned from each. Dig deeper and ask yourself "why?". Be open for whatever reasons might come up and be prepared to accept, adapt, overcome and heal each one. Grow.

You open yourself up to knowing and understanding better who you are and what you need. Take into account that you might get scared, sad or disappointed, even angry because of what you'll discover about yourself.

All in all, people are pretty simple. They act like a mirror, so become aware of what you show them in you. You might not like the reflection.

Here’s the routine I’m referring to. Day 15 of 30 days of #yogacamp: I Am Open. Enjoy!

Thank you for your visit. Please remember to comment down below, share your thoughts on this. Subscribe HERE to stay in touch with what I write.

As always, transformation starts from within.

For the rest of the “METAMORPHOSIS” series, click here.

#30letters is a miniseries derived from the experience of being transformed by some of my choices, in this case yoga, a lesson about yourself and for yourself. #Yogacamp is a 30 day challenge created by the wonderful Adriene Mishler (@yogawithadriene) and shared for free on her YouTube Channel. Check it out HERE.

Sincerely,

Denisa (Alex - alias)

METAMORPHOSIS - ep. 20 - I Go With The Flow #30Letters from #yogacamp miniseries

Vinyasa yoga gets your body and blood pumpin'! If you haven't exercised for some time, you'll get tired quickly. You can also become frustrated. The session might not be that hard, but your overachiever Ego can want to be on top. You get angry at not being the best and at feeling left behind and exhausted by the video. Humbling experience.

In life, we don't always get what we want, what we plan to get, but the trick is to continue, to go with the flow. Eventually, things will get better. There is a time for everything. Have patience.

The so-called "flow" isn't always going smoothly. It has ups and downs, bumps and detours, it can become stuck or vortexed... depending on the circumstances it encounters. But it manages to adapt, to brake free from all the challenges and push through, continuing its course.

Take water for example. It's always flowing. Be like water! As Bruce Lee said it: “You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”

Be clear-minded, asses your options, accept the situation you're going through, work with what you have, innovate. Change is a part of moving forward. We have challenges, we learn, we grow. We become wiser. Experience got us where we are now.

Continue that flow that began when you were a baby: explore, keep trying, be curious and happy about what you have and succeed in doing. Enjoy what this life has to offer. Live morally, in love and kindness. Avoid temptation and anything that makes your soul feels strange, heavy or fearfull. Listen to your conscience first.

Live in the present moment and hope for redemption. Choose the good in the world. Don't tie your happiness to money! Share, be humble and let go of Ego. Learn to work with others for a common goal. Collaborate. Be just and do justice for all. Choose to see the love in all things, the love in all people. Focus on the beauty life has, on its good things.

Throughout your lifetime, you cannot amass all the knowledge in the world. Remember to take care of your soul and live your life according to God's Law. Enjoy life while you are young, do the things you want to do decisively, you only get one go in life. 

Did you ever had that moment when you thought "man, this is the worst day of my life! I don't know how I'm going to get through tomorrow!"? And then tomorrow came and you were alive and well? And then a week, a month, a year passed and you became stronger that you've ever been? What happened then?

Your mind, your Ego was telling you that you can't do it, that it is to hard, that something bad will happen, right? That was fear, our oldest defense and survival mechanism that alerts us when something is wrong and we need to take care of it to avoid dying. 

But we can't die multiple times. Only once. Just go with the flow. Everything is smoke. It shall pass, let it flow. Breathe!

Here’s the routine I’m referring to. Day 9 of 30 days of #yogacamp: I Go With The Flow. Enjoy!

                           

Thank you for your visit. Please remember to comment down below, share your thoughts on this. Subscribe HERE to stay in touch with what I write.

As always, transformation starts from within.

For the rest of the “METAMORPHOSIS” series, click here.

#30letters is a miniseries derived from the experience of being transformed by some of my choices, in this case yoga, a lesson about yourself and for yourself. #Yogacamp is a 30 day challenge created by the wonderful Adriene Mishler (@yogawithadriene) and shared for free on her YouTube Channel. Check it out here.

Sincerely,

Denisa (Alex - alias)

METAMORPHOSIS - ep. 19 - I Deserve #30Letters from #yogacamp miniseries

To deserve means to be entitled to something, to be worthy, good enough, meritorious enough to receive or have what you wish for. It means to be able to receive a something because of good service, because of serving devotedly.

When we think of it in the context of self-transformation, it all boils down to how well are you treating yourself? How much service are you putting out there for the people around you, in order to gain that much-wanted self-confidence and sense of ease that leads to an improved you?

We tend to be self-judgmental, self-critical and think so low of ourselves that we often think that good things are not going to happen to us because we're just not lucky enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough. That's just negative down-talk and it doesn't do you any favors, either if you keep it all to yourself or you talk to others about it (plus, people tend to stay away from complainers).

We are all entitled to happiness, health and a good quality of life. From ages ago, people have fought to gain these things because they knew they were entitled to have them. The situation changes when we're alone with our minds. We don't really think to high of ourselves. At least not all the time.

We think that if people around us suffer, we're not allowed to be or feel happy. If people don't show us love, we think we don't deserve it and get frustrated and sad. All the love we will ever need comes from inside us. 

We all have it, most of us forget about it. I don't know about you, but for me, this love comes from God and how He wants me to live this life: with joy, happiness and with the need of helping others, just to feel like I'm being useful.

Self-reflection, as time-consuming and complicated as it might first seem, it's pretty simple actually. All you need is time with yourself, time to think, and a will to understand what you are all about, why you do certain things, why you do them in a certain way and not another, what your feelings are, when and why you have a certain one, and so forth. 

We each are different, have certain life experiences, certain abilities, wants, ideas, dreams. But at the end of the day, we all want to belong, to be accepted, to feel like we deserve to be loved, to be understood.

The trick is to stop asking for permission. Love is free. Happiness is a state of mind. Having a better life it's your right. But you must do the work for getting all of this. Daily! Connect with yourself, breathe deeply, be happy!

Here’s the routine I’m referring to. Day 9 of 30 days of #yogacamp: I Deserve. Enjoy!

Thank you for your visit. Please remember to comment down below, share your thoughts on this. Subscribe HERE to stay in touch with what I write.

As always, transformation starts from within.

For the rest of the “METAMORPHOSIS” series, click here.

#30letters is a miniseries derived from the experience of being transformed by some of my choices, in this case yoga, a lesson about yourself and for yourself. #Yogacamp is a 30 day challenge created by the wonderful Adriene Mishler (@yogawithadriene) and shared for free on her YouTube Channel. Check it out here.

Sincerely,

Denisa (Alex - alias)

METAMORPHOSIS - ep. 18 - I Trust #30Letters from #yogacamp miniseries

Trust is about confidence. In others and in yourself. It’s about having faith and being optimistic about things. It’s about hope. It’s about courage and the power to live in spite of the unknown you might be facing. Have faith in yourself and in God that things are going to be alright, that there’s a solution to every pain-point. Every action has a reaction, so make the right choices for your life; those smart, informed choices that will benefit your lifestyle on the long run.

Trust is the opposite of fear and doubt. Would you like to live being scared and doubtful or having confidence that all things are going to get better? They will surely change, nothing stays the same. But they will not improve by themselves if you’re just waiting for something to drop out of the sky and make it happen. It doesn’t work that way.

The U.S. Navy SEALs have a saying: "Get comfortable being uncomfortable.". That way you can prepare yourself for whatever hardship life will throw at you. And life does that. It makes you feel uncomfortable all the time, especially when going through a new experience or trying something for the first time.

Our lifestyles might be comfortable, we might not welcome change, but it’s the way things happen. Especially in MS. In order to go forward with anything, you need to adapt. But adaptation doesn’t come if we don’t accept what’s happening. If we grab hold of our old way of living and reject the new things. It’s a perfectly normal reaction, but so is change. We go through it since we are babies, go through adolescence and reach adulthood and we think this is stable. We have to trust the process. Things change. We change. Accept, adapt and overcome. That’s how life moves forward, no matter the consequences.

The point here is that you need to focus on what you want to achieve, no matter how uncomfortable it might get. I had moments when being uncomfortable with approaching a new person lead me to miss out on things. Or when, after my diagnosis, I was to afraid to exercise, thinking it will cause me to relapse. Two years into it, it hasn’t done it yet, but I learned to live with that fear, and in time it went away. I got stronger. I might not have a beach-body, but I feel toned, my muscles get stretched every day and I learned to go forward, to trust myself into doing things.

You have to take risks, dare more, try new things, work on getting better again and trust that it will eventually be OK.

Here’s the routine I’m referring to. Day 9 of 30 days of #yogacamp: I Trust. Enjoy!

Thank you for your visit. Please remember to comment down below, share your thoughts on this. Subscribe HERE to stay in touch with what I write.

As always, transformation starts from within.

For the rest of the “METAMORPHOSIS” series, click here.

#30letters is a miniseries derived from the experience of being transformed by some of my choices, in this case yoga, a lesson about yourself and for yourself. #Yogacamp is a 30 day challenge created by the wonderful Adriene Mishler (@yogawithadriene) and shared for free on her YouTube Channel. Check it out here.

Sincerely,

Denisa (Alex - alias)

METAMORPHOSIS - ep. 17 - I Release. #30Letters from #yogacamp miniseries

Releasing means letting go, dropping something from a tight grip. When we’re doing this with negative emotions, all kind of weird things might happen: aggression, panic attacks, nervousness, being tired, stomach acidity and others. It really depends on each person.

Releasing all that does not serve us anymore can mean becoming calmer, more at ease. It literally can feel like we drop a heavy rock or block of concrete and now we can breathe again. We begin to feel lighter on a psychological level.

Many logical people think that there’s no real correlation (a scientific one) between the body and the mind. This happens mostly in Western cultures. Meanwhile, the Eastern part has always been aware of the psychosomatic connections between the brain and the rest of the human body.

Take for example at how you feel when you’re stressed, angry or afraid. Relive those sensations. We’ve all felt them. Then, remember how you’ve felt when your mind was no longer paying attention to those issues, remember that feeling of relaxation and ease that you get when you breathe deeply. That’s what I’m talking about here.

Yoga relaxes the mind and body. Relaxed muscles help release endorphins that in turn improve your emotional state, giving you that sense of ease, of feeling good in your own skin.

Make the conscient decision / choice to let go of and release those negative thoughts. It will make you feel better.

Here’s the routine I’m referring to. Day 9 of 30 days of #yogacamp: I Release. Enjoy!

Thank you for your visit. Please remember to comment down below, share your thoughts on this. Subscribe HERE to stay in touch with what I write.

As always, transformation starts from within.

For the rest of the “METAMORPHOSIS” series, click here.

#30letters is a miniseries derived from the experience of being transformed by some of my choices, in this case yoga, a lesson about yourself and for yourself. #Yogacamp is a 30 day challenge created by the wonderful Adriene Mishler (@yogawithadriene) and shared for free on her YouTube Channel. Check it out here.

Sincerely,

Denisa (Alex - alias)

METAMORPHOSIS - ep. 16 - I Am Present. #30Letters from #yogacamp miniseries

Our minds are always fighting between remembering the past and planning the future. The present is merely a time when we do these things and regret or get anxious / stressed about what is to come.

Living in awareness of the present moment is important. It connects mind and body and makes us more in tune with what’s happening with those two in our lives. When we’re not aware, we eat compulsively, we think of other things when people talk to us, or plan the next big project / deadline when we’re on vacation or with a loved one.

Being aware is not some New Age fairy tale that advises us to dream of flowers and pink rainbows. It’s the best way to get more things done in a shorter amount of time, because we are more focused. It’s the best way of increasing our relationships by really being there in the moment, conscious of what we’re saying, feeling and sensing. It’s the best way to maintain health, as we sense when our bodies are full and we don’t overeat or stuff our guts mindlessly. We get more out of our exercise because we’re doing it 100%, not thinking of other stuff.

That’s what we find to be so hard at yoga: aligning the mind to the body. Being aware of our bodily sensations and the emotions that come with them. Through the stretches, our minds want to quit, but get silenced by the body, who gets stronger and goes stronger and lightly through the poses, proving the mind that we are strong and capable.

The sensations feel good, even those that strain us. We go through them. One can get through hardship if only one has patience, acceptance and lives the moment.

Choose to be present and aware. Continue forward.

Here’s the routine I’m referring to. Day 9 of 30 days of #yogacamp: I Am Present. Enjoy!

Thank you for your visit. Please remember to comment down below, share your thoughts on this. Subscribe HERE to stay in touch with what I write.

As always, transformation starts from within.

For the rest of the “METAMORPHOSIS” series, click here.

#30letters is a miniseries derived from the experience of being transformed by some of my choices, in this case yoga, a lesson about yourself and for yourself. #Yogacamp is a 30 day challenge created by the wonderful Adriene Mishler (@yogawithadriene) and shared for free on her YouTube Channel. Check it out here.

Sincerely,

Denisa (Alex - alias)

METAMORPHOSIS - ep. 15 - I Am Bold. #30Letters from #yogacamp miniseries

(written originally on 12 Jan)

I am BOLD to live my life without FEAR!

Yoga is the art of waking up, even just because I surely felt my body waking up in the 30 or so minutes of this routine. I used to complain mildly about not feeling as much of a workout during yoga class. Today I did. Sweat was not actually streaming down, but just enough to let me know I am alive and the body is cracking open through yoga.

Being bold and having the courage and strength to go through all the asanas without major complaints, makes me happy and able to understand that my body can do lots of things. The mind needs training and peeling off old habits and thought patterns that no longer serve me.

I focused on the sensations and body reactions as I moved through asanas. Closing the eyes gets you more in tune with how your body feels during the moves and how that makes you feel while moving. EXPLORE! I surely have the need now.

Here’s the routine I’m referring to. Day 9 of 30 days of #yogacamp: I Am Bold. Enjoy!

Thank you for your visit. Please remember to comment down below, share your thoughts on this. Subscribe HERE to stay in touch with what I write.

As always, transformation starts from within.

For the rest of the “METAMORPHOSIS” series, click here.

#30letters is a miniseries derived from the experience of being transformed by some of my choices, in this case yoga, a lesson about yourself and for yourself. #Yogacamp is a 30 day challenge created by the wonderful Adriene Mishler (@yogawithadriene) and shared for free on her YouTube Channel. Check it out here.

Sincerely,

Alex

METAMORPHOSIS - ep. 14 - I Choose. #30Letters from #yogacamp miniseries

Aaa! The power of choice! The wonderful gift God gave us when we were born. We go through life making decisions every single day. Who we are and who we become gets created with every choice we get to make. They become habits which through repetition become our character. Our personality is thus made of what we choose.

Of course we get to decide between whatever is available where we are in the world, at a given time. The trick is to make the smart choice. That informed, unique-to-you choice, that will further benefit your lifestyle and daily activities. Make the best with what you have. That’s where the “smart” part comes into play.

As we have the ability to choose, we have endless possibilities and combinations. The one area where these options are really infinite is the one where we choose who we are.

The way we behave, the way we feel about a situation, the way we speak, the way we make others feel, the way we treat ourselves tell the story of who we really are. One cannot always choose material things or similar items, but one can definitely choose who he or she wants to be remembered as. Always!

This reminds me of a Harry Potter quote, by professor Dumbledore, that got me thinking all those years back, when I first heard it: “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”. So thank you J.K. Rowling for writing that, because it clearly defines the long path we each take in order to become our finest, truest selves.

We can use our abilities to create or to destroy. There’s no middle ground, just lack of action. Of course, both of these extremes can be understood as to create good and destroy evil, or to create evil and destroy good. Choose the first one, as it helps build a lighter, happier you. Choosing the negative side takes a toll eventually, bringing your spirit down. Remember what I said about those neural connections here!

In January, I chose to let go of all multiple sclerosis related stress. To move slow and with the breath. And I did. It was the most relaxing yoga practice in a long time.

The second time, at the beginning of April, I chose to be my best self, to love myself and to have more confidence in what I do or say.

I found ease and understood that I’ve changed somewhat since the last time I did this. The body became more flexible and I became more confident, as I choose to start before I’m ready, to let go and embrace the opportunities of the moment, whilst staying true to myself.

This is the interesting thing about yoga, that although it aims to let go of the thinking mind and focus on the body, breath and sensations, it also makes you think, it makes you understand things about life, about yourself and about how it is all tied together and why.

The “why” is important. We need to know it, find it out. Without it, we go about life just executing mindless actions. What drives us in life, to do this and that? Stand still and ask yourself that. Have an inner conversation. Choose to know who you are inside and out. Explore!

Yoga and movement are a great tool for doing all that and more. Stand still and have patience. Listen. The Universe is talking. Choose with the heart. Choose what makes you happy.

Thank you for your visit. Please remember to comment down below, share your thoughts on this. Subscribe to stay in touch with what I write.

As always, transformation starts from within.

For the rest of the “METAMORPHOSIS” series, click here.

#30letters is a miniseries derived from the experience of being transformed by some of my choices, in this case yoga, a lesson about yourself and for yourself. #Yogacamp is a 30 day challenge created by the wonderful Adriene Mishler (@yogawithadriene) and shared for free on her YouTube Channel. Check it out here.

Sincerely,

Alex