You may know that I began my own yoga practice a few months ago last fall.  Many people advised against it, believing that it was possibly the dumbest time to start a business during the height of the economic recession.  I see where these people are coming from – a strictly financial point of view, however, you may also know that I don’t always see things from a strictly financial point of view.  In fact, I rarely to never do.  I see money as an important means to get things done, not the end all be all to any of my actions.

Anyway, I started off with offering 2 classes a week, one night class and one morning class.  The morning class never picked up, but the night one had 1 – 3 students for the first few weeks.  From a strictly financial point of view, it was kind of a bummer.  I was making less than probably most 15 year old girls do in a week.  However, I stayed positive and invested in the one loyal and faithful client who returned every week without fail for a good 6 months.  My practice since then has grown considerably, just the right amount of dedicated followers and weekly income.  But the most rewarding thing happened just yesterday – I got a surprise email waiting for me from my business website; this client had written a testimonial about her experience in my classes.  Here it is:

‘When I first took one of Carol’s classes, I was heart broken.  I needed some serious self love and confidence.  The transformation of my emotions from the start of class to walking out of the studio were unbelievable!  I felt strong and self assured, yoga makes me feel confident and peaceful.  I immediately noticed Carol’s class specifically did more for me than the other classes I was attending at the time. And after some private classes I continued to feel better and better in many ways.  The physical results  (I immediately noticed my core muscles get tighter and stronger after 2 classes) are a bonus to the amazing mind and heart healing powers of Carol’s classes.  Carol has taught me how important and life changing connecting to my
breath is and I am so very thankful for her!!’

I had no idea how much these classes that I was giving meant to her until I read that testimonial that she posted on my website.  She is also a big reason why my number in followers increased; because she believed so much in the power of the classes, she spread the word to almost everyone she knows.  Word of mouth worked its magic.  From a strictly financial point of view, I’d say that helping one person can effectively mean helping several others if you play your cards right.  But from a spiritual point of view, geeze, I helped this woman find her own sense of self-love and confidence again.  I find that a priceless accomplishment, one that will go down in my history on the ‘Proud achievements’ list.

Looking back on those  beginning weeks that I spent fighting and negotiating with that voice inside me that doubted whether or not these classes would last, I now feel confident that everything happens for reason.  It never is about you, it’s about something greater, and that something is the value of helping people help themselves, and that, is priceless.

Feel Good Now – feel good now about everything you have in your life
Say thank you – for everything you have in your life and for everything that you want in your life
Act as if – you have everything you ever want and need in your life right now, because you do, on some level

So here’s my morning practice for you:

I feel good now about my body, the fact that everything is in place, everything is working in harmony and that I am breathing and smiling and living well.
Thank you, miraculous Universe, for giving me this wonderful human body to house my spirit in and experience life’s amazing human adventures.
I am going to teach yoga and dance today, then fit in a nice walk under the cerulean sky with a HUGE smile on my face.

The end of the blog and the beginning of an awesome morning!

If you’ve been following the blogs you will know that I am planning on compiling a book of a thousand virtues after a thousand days of my blogging adventures.  I committed to writing a blog a day, remarking on moments of ‘embodied virtue’ in my daily life.  Well, being sick kind of put that to a halt, so I haven’t written in weeks.  This morning I had a mix of feelings about my predicament and came to these questions: it shouldn’t take just one sickness to keep me from following my dreams, on the other hand, maybe my dream was too fixed and needed reinventing, ie, why force a virtue every day?

So to conclude, I am in fact, okay with the fact that I had to put my blogging on hold, and will continue to blog until I have a book of a thousand virtues to share in paperback or hard cover form, be it thousand days from when I first began or maybe a little later.  Hello, flexibility.

Now is the part where I channel Mr. Miyagi and apply what I’ve learned into my daily life.  It’s okay to lose to opponents of all shapes, sizes and forms, but it is never okay to lose to fear.  I have definitely been guilty of not doing a few things in my life  because I’ve been afraid, but Mr. Miyagi’s words have inspired me.  My best mental, emotional and spiritual karate to take on the world and go for my dreams is all inside me, and now IS the time to let it out.  KATA!

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1/2 cup crushed almonds
• tablespoon of ghee
• sea salt

Boil water, add quinoa, reduce to simmer, add ghee and cover for 5 minutes, turn off heat and fluff, let stand till cool.

• avocado, finely diced
• mango, finely diced
• strawberries,finely diced
• fresh lemon juice
• sea salt

mix and stir, then add onto a bowl of quinoa.  serve warm or cool.

DELICIOUS!!!! Bon appetit!!!!

1. WordPress – for giving me space to articulate my thoughts and feelings.
2. Corn Pasta – for being delicious and nutritious in my belly
3. Vegetables – for tasting so good on top of the corn pasta
4. My laptop – for holding so much information and resources for me to rely on day in and day out
5. My parents – for agreeing even for just a moment’s time that they loved each other enough to make me happen in my mother’s womb
6. Down comforter – for allowing me to stay warm during this snow storm
7. Fleece – for allowing me to stay even warmer during this snow storm
8. My toothbrush – for keeping my gums and teeth squeaky clean
9. Water – for the natural miracle that is running water flowing through the pipes in this house that feed me and keep me clean
10. the Tiles in the bathroom – for being cold and refreshing and so well put together
11. the big-ass mirror in the bathroom – for self-reflection proverbial and literal
12. the spoon – for making it easier to eat my delicious and nutritious meal
13. the window – that allows me to see the outside world without having to be in it when I feel cold
14. this desk – that houses my laptop, books, frames and whatnots for me to enjoy daily
15. pink nail polish – for brightening my nails and my day
16. socks – cause warm feet are happy feet
17. whoever built this house – cause having a place to eat, sleep and call home is a gift
18. Firefox – for connecting me to in intricate network of people, places and information
19. Steve Job – for having the persistence and faith in his technological dreams so that I may enjoy a portable computer and music player
20. iPod shuffle – for bringing me my favorite music so that I can have my morning dance jam to start the day
21. snow – for giving me the day off yesterday
22. the man who ploughs the snow – for keeping the roads safe so that my dad can go to work
23. this guitar – for being an awesome contraption capable of emitting endless emotions through carefully choreographed string coordination
24. oxygen – to breathe in and breathe out and stay alive
25. the sun – for another day of learning and loving

Well, that sure makes me feel like life is goooood.  When you focus on things you do have right now, the rest becomes less important, like the things you don’t have.  It is 10am and I have said thank you over 50 times already, making me feel like abundance is everywhere.  Thank you for reading.

Today I was thrown hit after hit from a special someone in my life (name to be left unmentioned) on my proverbial and literal path from Cape Cod to New York.  There were times when I felt my inner thermometer shoot upwards almost darting out beyond the top, but I leveled it down with consistent deep breathing (THANK YOU YOGA) and positive self-talk.  After a straight 2 hours of this, I almost took a turn into WTF land and lost my cool, but I didn’t.  How?  How on earth, you may ask, did you, Chien-Hwe, stay cool when your narcissistic car companion incessantly lashed out her negativity in your general direction at any given chance she had like she has been doing for the last, oh, 28 years of your life?  The answer is gratitude.  Please keep reading.

This is the thing:  the universe has given me a lifelong, very special, unique and tuition free education in how not to be, how to keep your feet on the ground in the eye of a shit storm, how to be the happy on a highway of miserables and my favorite, how to love the haters. I know this may sound drenched in sarcasm, but after 28 years of experience, I assure you, this is the remedy.  Be thankful for the pains in your asses, as they are the rocks in your path that turn into gold.

Let go: While on this path, the essential goal would be to let go. One must be satisfied with what material comfort that is available to us. ‘Enough is enough’ should be everybody’s motto. The pursuit of the 5 C’s in the developing and developed countries has been the bugbear. They work furiously just to acquire (1) cars, (2) condominium, (3) credit cards, (4) career, and (5) clubs membership to neurotic proportions. They forget that we cannot take it with us. A story here would illustrate this point brilliantly. A young student is sent overseas to study certain skills. This overseas country has a currency control. No money may be brought in or taken out of the country. However the student may earn a living to feed himself and pay for his tuition fees. The scholarship is for ten years. So he took a part time job while studying the skills that he was sent to learn. This part time job was so successful that in two years he made it a full time job. Then he acquired a flat, a car with credit cards. He joined prestigious clubs of that country, and he made his lucrative job his career, forgetting what he went there for. The skills that he went to learn were compassion, wisdom and unconditional love. All these were totally forgotten. So by the end of ten years at which time he has to go home, he failed miserably to acquire these skills. Neither could he bring home all his wealth because the foreign country does not allow any expatriation of its currency, and also his home country does not use money. The currency in his home is karma and merit. This is exactly what happens to all of us, except that the length of overseas study is between 50 to 80 years and not ten. And the country of our foreign study is planet earth. Our home is the spirit world.