Re-define “Happy”
OFF THE MAT
Weekly Thought Offering:
You can’t acquire happiness; you can only BE it. If you are happy, you are being your true self.
~The Greatest Secret~
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It isn’t your job isn’t to “find” happiness but to reveal it.
~Nicole Katz~
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Happiness that is rooted in an outside source will always leave you, that is its job. It is only through the repetitive experience of this that we one day will be driven inwards in search for our Selves and a happiness rooted in the unchangeable. That happiness is constant no matter the outside experience we face.
~Nicole Katz~
Weekly Journal Prompts:
My greatest happiness right now is…
My greatest love right now is…
When I feel joy in my body it is located…
My greatest unhappiness right now is….
I am labeling that thing as “bad” because….
If I saw this as a road sign telling me to take a different direction that would ultimately lead me where I want to go then I would…
Weekly Mantra:
I welcome the message of this moment
I am whole and complete even in this moment
I am the Seer not the Seen I am light
Hello Sadhakas!
A few weeks ago the clocks sprung forward. A magical thing that harkens the coming of warmer and brighter days. For many people this becomes a time of year for cleansing in many ways from our homes to our bodies. I believe in that. I believe in taking stock and shedding what is no longer serving us. This year in particular we collectively prepare to move out of the darkest days of the pandemic and slowly back into our new world. I think taking a week to get very, very, clear about what and how we are evolving is extremely powerful. In fact, this week I am supporting MOAI by adding some whole life yoga to their 7-day reset (join us here!). I want to make sure that we are doing it from a place of revealing what is already there. A place of honoring ourSelves as sacred. Not ever a place of shame or of rejection or of attempting to become someone else.
That’s a BIG shift for many of us. How do we make it?
Well, what do you see in the image for this post? At first glance most of us see a vase. At second glance, if you look with a slightly different perspective, the view changes and two faces are revealed. Just that subtle shift and something totally different reveals itself. It’s not what you’re looking at but how you are looking at it.
You do not have to go out and find happiness. Your job is to reveal what is already there.
Moreover, your job is to reveal what is already there in every situation. And if it is already there the “work” isn’t really work at all, and yet it is. It is because we are fighting years and years as well as lifetimes upon lifetimes of programming that tells us that happiness is rooted in something outside of you. You must first “get something” or have some list of things and then you will be happy. Happiness is to be had in fleeting moments but to expect to be happy all of the time is a fool’s errand. That may be true if your definition of happiness is the having of everything that you want. Surely that is not likely in every moment but what is most certainly possible is the ability to connect to an inner experience of Self that is unchangeable; love, joy, and peace. (I know it is because I have done it. So very many of my clients have done it and the fact that yoga is still around 5k years later must also be a clue ;))
Once you can feel that space you can see the outside world and all of its trappings as communication with the divine. “Bad things” cease to be “bad” and become an opportunity to see in a new way, guidance to turn in another direction or an invitation to move within for what you were seeking outside. Life becomes a joyful conversation. An opportunity to release negative emotions and no longer a punishment. How do we change our definition of happiness?
This week ON THE MAT we begin a new pose, and we play with changing our experience of things in the physical body. This month we play with Parvritta Utthita Hasta Padangustasana (if that isn’t a mouth full! ;)
Said in a simpler way, we’re working with revolved extended hand to big toe pose. It’s a lot of tricky things at one time. It’s a balance and a twist. It requires length in muscle groups that for most of us are pretty tight. It can be pretty uncomfortable, and we can very easily grip and grab our way to staying lifted.
But this first week we are going to flip that script. We are going to explore not gripping when we arrive at a tight muscle. We are going to shift our experience to turning on the muscles that create movement and welcome the “tight” sensation rather than push it away or force it to be something different. Access this week’s flow HERE.
And so, both ON AND OFF THE MAT and during our 7-Day Reset we are looking at changing our perspective. Moving away from focusing on what something is not and what we don’t have while moving towards focusing on what is and what we do have. We focus on where we are being pointed by a loving universe.
With great respect and love,
Nicole
