Surviving Monday In Irie Style

Mondays can feel like an avalanche barreling down on you. My simple advice? Start by planning in the time you'll care for yourself. Today will you work out, go to a yoga class, meditate, read, get a massage, take a walk?? Decide when that's happening first and treat it like any other important deadline or meeting. The hustle up a nice cuppa tea and get to it. Don't forget to eat.

Second, take it lightly. And to keep keepin' it real, listen to reggae. (read this next line with your best Jamaican patois) "Got to t'ink positive, no negative vibes!"  Reggae was made for Mondays. Especially when the sun is taking care of other people. It's like instant sunshine. Irie.

And here are my Instant Sunshine Monday Jams to get you through - FEEL DEM RIDDIMS!

Duppy Conqueror - Bob Marley & The Wailers
Step It Pon the Rastaman Scene - Easy Star All-Stars
Police And Thieves - Junior Murvin
Beautiful Woman - Toots & The Maytals
The Fat Panther - Price Fatty
African Herbsman (King Kooba Remix) - Bob Marley & The Wailers
<flashback breakout>
Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant
Pass The Dutchie - Musical Youth
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Countryman Fiddle - The Aggrolites
Wa Do Dem - Eek-A Mouse
The Tourist - Israel Vibration
Shimmy Shimmy Ya - Prince Fatty
Iron Lion Zion - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Gina Caputo

www.ginacaputo.com

www.facebook.com/yoginiontheloose

Give Voice To Your Passions

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a man whose tongue lit fires across the land.

In addition to his unwavering commitment to service and very yogic lens of unity, what I am most inspired by in him is that he was a MAN ON FIRE!

He was passionate and gave voice to that passion. He didn't get stuck in the human trap of smallness, weaving inner tales of not being ________ enough and then getting bound up in those tales, forever trapped and dangling over his own potential. He fed his inner fire fearlessly which gave rise to his voice and its ability to illuminate.

There was the message and mission he championed directly and also the teachings by example: 

Live a passionate life - find something you believe in, something that ignites you, something that makes you feel both angry and ecstatic.

Give voice to your passion - don't get mired in overanalysis of whether what you're saying is important enough or articulate enough. Trust the evolutionary process and know someone is ready to hear exactly what you are saying, the way you're saying it, today.

Think big - smallness consciousness is part of the illusion (maya) that keeps us trapped in reductive, regressive cycles of behavior. If YOU don't make your unique offering, who will? You and your passions are not small, you are greater than you've ever imagined.

"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." ~ Mary Oliver

Thank you Dr. King. Thank you my teacher.

Devotion or Discipline?

It's that time again. Every new year (and solstice, equinox, new moon, Monday morning...) I resolve to be more disciplined. And every single time, I fail to become the smoothly functioning, well balanced, highly disciplined person I envision I should could be.

It begs the question - how many times am I going to repeat this exact same cycle before I do something differently? As a yoga teacher, I'm in the business of wake up calls. The word for teacher in Sanskrit is guru which translates as "dispeller of darkness". So let's flip on the light, roll out of this behavioral groove and wake the f*ck up!

I'll start with semantics. Part of the problem is the word itself DISCIPLINE. Have you ever noticed how that word makes you feel? It's got a negative vibe. And it harkens back to being grounded, chastised, BUSTED!

NO WIRE HANGERS - EVER!!!

It's hard to get excited about being more disciplined. It feels so austere, so dry biscuit. And there's an implication of authority, of imposition. That I should because it's expected of me, what I'm supposed to do. And then that starts to feel oppressive and shitty and I rebel and "fail" yet again.

DRY BISCUIT - BLECH

Discipline feels so limiting - I've determined that I fail at discipline because I'm afraid that being more disciplined will cause me to miss nectarian moments in life. And when I make the nectarian choice, I label those as indulgences, so very NOT disciplined.

This shit is getting old. So after the 108th failure to become more disciplined, I'm finally changing my tune. 

Here goes...

At its essence, what the discipline I seek truly entails is constancy of purpose. Aw, hell yeah, I like the sound of that!

HALLELUJAH!

Damn Gina! When I change the locution just a little bit, I finally see the light. Constancy of purpose requires DEVOTION. And that word makes me feel warm, capacious, juicy and empowered! 

Getting clear about what I'm devoted to in this one precious life and then aligning myself with that purpose requires effort I'm truly, deeply inspired to put forth, without reservation, hesitation or shame. To be fair, I don't think the discipline is bad. I think it's what we've culturally slathered on it and contained it in that makes it stink. And I don't think for a hot second that devotion will be free from effort or suffering. But that extraordinary effort now feels like it will come from a place of inspiration instead of self-flagellation and obligation.

Maria Montessori said that "Discipline must come through liberty..." And I think I finally feel liberated to resolve to be more devoted.

Happy New Year and good luck with those resolutions y'all!

Big love,
Gina

TASTE THE NECTAR