Power 4 on the Gratitude List

An attitude of gratitude!   As I pass my 10-days-remaining mark, I seek to really integrate this experience into my heart and my head.  Here's what comes barreling through:

#1#1#1: New friends and teachers. At the end of most yoga classes I, following the lead fo the instructor, put my hands near my heart, stretch upwards through my tip toppiest vertebra, but bow my chin deeply towards my heart and say Namaste.  Namaste means that I salute the teacher in you (and you, and you, and you.) It means thank you for being you. It is a reminder that everyone I meet along the journey is a teacher. Each in their own way. 

New Zealand is full of some of the sweetest, biggest-hearted folks I've come across.  I remember the first day I met Victoria, she put everything down to show me the lay of campus: Where the coffee lives, and where the Wifi is strongest. ("Wait a minute. strike that.. reverse it." -Willy Wonka) 

And Richard, who I seem to run into 100% of the times I make it to the library. Conversations with this Irish Samoan are too interesting to forgo for something like a bit of studying. (I'll study when I'm dead.)(JK, I am study enough when I'm alive, I'll become a mental loafer when I'm dead.) 

My flatmates of course have had the most positive influence of this experience. We're all away from home, but our little apartment has become a place of refuge. We sing songs, strum ukelele, tape drawings on the fridge, and cook up some of the most tasty, gourmet foods imaginable!

#2) Living by the sea shore. So I've probably averaged less than an hour of beach time every other week, but oh boy, the sea, she's a strong one.  At this moment the sound of dripping rain praises the windowsill.  It is a constant sound and it feels like the ocean.

I remember one of the first times I really connected at the beach. I laid out my travel yoga mat and came into tree pose. Usually my knees bow in and out, my ankles quiver, and I feel like a lopsided sapling. But not by the ocean. It was so interesting to notice how the element of water grounded me firmly into the sand. The wind was blowing hard, but my body barely wavered. The ocean is incredible. I am beginning to see why epic books often feature her. 

#3) Insomnia. Sleepless nights used to freak me out. I've read too much research about how we're primed to get a certain amount of ZzzzzZZzzs, and how quickly we fall into disrepair without enough REMs. 

But I have come to see sleeplessness isn't really a curse. It has enabled me to watch some really good movies, make beautiful art, and learn more about myself through journaling.  It seems like an opportunity for good rest always comes around eventually with divine timing.

#4) Classes. Two in particular have been hugely challenging. But that whole saying about coming through a struggle stronger (and smarter) really is true.  With that being said, I had better not push my luck: finals begin in 2 days!

I'm grateful to know more about how the Maori conceptualize health. They acknowledge all aspects, including family, physical, mental, and spiritual.

My intro to Maori culture teachers are probably the most captivating, humorous lecturers I've ever met, and I'm grateful that that doesn't come at the expense of learning-- actually it enhances the breadth of the content, allowing it to become part of real life!

Its hard to not group my whole experience here into my momentary feeling about it.  So I'll just say: this momentary feeling about it certainly is part of my whole experience here in NZ.  I feel lucky to be here and so excited to be homeward bound soon.  

beginning the treat at Villa Sumaya

Propitious Arrival at Lake Atitlan 

We arrived last night, a boatload of scraggly dagglers,  just in time for a miraculously colorful sunset boat ride across Lake Atitlan. Moreover, a sumptuous dinner had been laid across the tables just minutes before our arrival: Chile Rellenos! 

A number of travel snafus had delayed our travel by a few hours. But it was so comforting to be on the shuttle with 5  friends-to-be.  The simple question "where are you from?" rarely has a simple answer.  Thus, my faith in the sheer randomness of life's journey is restored.  The selfish "should-be's" that weigh down a significant portion of my child - like curiosity of the world ("I should have this job,  this partner, know this and that...") do not serve any purpose. As it is revealed that there is no right way to do this life thing, my worries of striving towards those "should be's" is replaced with enquiry into "how to's". 

It comes as no surprise that I resonated with this observation from Anodea Judith in her book, "eastern body, western mind": 

"without grounding we are unstable. We lose our center, fly off the handle, get swept off our feet, or daydream in a fantasy world. We lose our ability to contain, which is the ability to have and to hold. If we cannot contain, we cannot hold our boundaries and build our inner power ; thus, we cannot mature. Boundaries allow the hermitic seal necessary for transformation.      Without boundaries, natural excitement gets dissipated and diluted and becomes ineffectual. When we our ground our attention wanders and we appear vague and insubstantial.

                                                

The healthy establishment of one's ground is the essential work for the first chakra and the foundation for any further Growth. Here lies the basic rights of the first chakra: the right to be here and the right to have what we need in order to survive." (Anodea Judith)

Ashleigh led a beautiful yoga practice this morning. The studio has three fully - windowed walls which overlook Atitlan. Across the lake, it appears that Taos mountain has transplanted itself and gone under the guise of a volcano.  The element of the first chakra, muladhara, is earth, so some of the prompts I found particularly helpful was to imagine my feet and hands sinking into the mud. The muladhara is located mostly in the pelvis, and is the area responsible for grounding. 

Grounding into lake Atitlan

Often times a deficient or excessive movement of energy through this chakra will be compensated with intellect. It is the chakra of feeling the biological reality of existence,  which  is a great way for me to shift my perspective. Some things just have to be felt to be understood. 

Not 4 days ago, I was sitting in front of a computer at a Kaplan testing center in Santa Fe, duking it out in my brain, running full speed ahead in an attempt to garner an impressive score on the GRE.  It is so refreshing to be in a space where it doesn't matter a lick how well my brain can manipulate numbers or choose the most fitting adjectives (that, if used in real life, would be as useful in communication as gurgling and spitting up soda). What is that saying? From Jack Kornfield,s "Little Buddha Companion book":  “In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?” and from the b-man himself: " Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life." (Taken from fakebuddhaquotes.com) <<<funny site by the way.