wellness + healing articles

21.5.800: yoga, writing, life living

Hey hey, today (June 8) begins Bindu Wiles' (aka my fav Brooklyn-based Buddhist) way cool "21.5.800" community project. I'm all over it (and it's taking off like wild fire already.) It's just the right kind of creative crazy for me now.

For 21 days, we’ll be doing 5 days of yoga a week and 800 words of writing per day.

THE WRITING: The writing can be ANYTHING. Memoir, blogs, business plans, essays, fiction, free-writing, letters……ANYTHING. The point is to get writing again daily and to have the boundaries and challenge of a daily word count to reach.

THE YOGA: There are several options for you to do the yoga portion of 21.5.800 5 times in 7 days. Here are the options: 1. Go to a yoga class in your ‘hood. 2. Do a yoga dvd at home. 3. Take a 20-40 minute savasana* at home on the floor.

JOIN IN THE BEAUTY (and a bit of the brawn.) CHECK IT OUT HERE. SIGN UP. DO IT.

Follower Bindu on Twitter: @binduwiles

 

what’s your relationship to sleep?

I've subscribed for years to this occasional email from Dadi Jahnki. She's the current leader of the Brahma Kumaris spiritual organization. I loved last week's message from her:

Dear Friend,

Om shanti. Sometimes when we are together, you ask me why I don't seem to get tired when I travel from India or give programs into the evening. Tiredness is a kind of sickness. When we work with honesty and love, everything happens without tiredness. When we know how to take cooperation from others, there is no tiredness. It is not a matter of how long we sleep that determines whether we feel tired. It is waste and negative thoughts and actions that create tiredness. Create positive thoughts and elevated actions and you will take strength from that, and your tiredness will leave you.

Work for money and you will count your hours and your salary. Work for love, and you can work 16 hours a day with happiness and without getting tired. Serving others brings energy. You will then feel your happiness accumulating.

Love,
Dadi Janki

I think a lot of us have a big story around needing sleep. I know what science says about sleep and overall wellness ("eight hours is a must.") But then, science doesn't have quite as much to say about the chemical effects of joy or enthusiasm. Many eastern teachers believe that we are a culture that sleeps too much. Some practicing monks get by on five hours a night. Apparently Einstein slept in four hour increments to just "rest his brain." (more...)