Why did I create and publish my 108 YOGA GRATITUDE journal ?
GRATITUDE … a word just like any other word … a label ….a convention …. a word we might casually use in today's conversations …. But … do we really feel it?
The good thing is that this word starts to really, really come alive at certain moments as we journey through life. Most of the time it happens when we’ve experienced pretty challenging circumstances …..health wise, in our professional life, family life or just as we live out our lives…..
In my case, I have so many reasons from my early life to be grateful. If you’ve read my story you will understand why I write this and why I make showing it a part of my life.
Why YOGA and GRATITUDE together?
At the end of last year, after a scary moment which ended well in my family, I felt drawn to a particular programme on-line … a 20 minutes a day, for 40 consecutive days, yoga programme. I decided then - as an offering to the divine, as a way of expressing my gratitude - to sign up to this programme and, more importantly, to commit to it. I can tell you, many times the 40 days later, that for me the word gratitude is not now a label, or a string of letters for how I feel for having signed up. … I can feel it at the cellular level....... and this was 110 days ago …. because I am still doing the programme, repeating the 40 days sequence again and again. It is now, part of my daily routine.
Why include MANTRAS?
A few years ago I was lucky enough to take part in a few live kirtan evenings organised by lovely Diana. It was an instantaneous connection for me with the sacred sounds and, believe it or not, I now find myself chanting when I am driving - or walking by the beach - or while I am deeply engrossed with my painting. They really work for me at the subconscious level
Why have I posed TWO QUESTIONS about YOGA PRACTICE ?
What I noticed while doing my daily yoga programme is that different moves trigger a different emotion in me … sometimes I feel joy, sometimes I feel empowered, sometimes wobbly …. sometimes I loved the routines, sometimes I really didn’t. Along the way it became clear to me that my experience of yoga programmes was deepening and broadening….and I knew then that I had to find a way, for the future, to record my individual feelings about individual practices so that I could look back and retrieve them in my mind. I had to record my thoughts somewhere - so I added a space here.
Why did I include a JOURNAL section to write in by hand?
Writing by hand is something that fewer and fewer people seem to do these days. I’m lucky, many years ago I started the habit and ever since I have loved creating my future memories using any type of pen that came into my hand. Somehow, people seem to have forgotten that there is something really soothing and even magical about picking up that special pen and adding…. letter after letter,.....word after word. The whole body relaxes, breathing becomes smoother, and believe it or not you enter into a semi-meditative state … you really do become more mindful.
PUTTING ALL THESE TOGETHER
So, I decided to put all of these positive experiential activities together in one book and to encourage those who love yoga to record their journeys and in so doing to become mindful and grateful about what they are experiencing along the way…..
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