Fall in love with less for stress-free living

Stop buying unnecessary things.
Toss half your stuff, learn contentedness.
Reduce half again.

List 4 essential things in your life,
stop doing non-essential things.
Do these essentials first each day, clear distractions
focus on each moment.

Let go of attachment to doing, having more.
Fall in love with less.

“Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” ~ Lao Tzu

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” - Albert Einstein

“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as one, two, three and to a hundred or a thousand. We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.” - Henry David Thoreau

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” - William Morris

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” - Will Rogers

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” - Hans Hofmann

Time to Simplify and De-Junkify!

Yoga for Dummies, p. 277

Yoga encourages you to cultivate the virtue of greedlessness in all matters.  The Sanskrit word for this is aparigraha, whcih means literally “not grasping all round.”  The yoga practitioner who is well-trained in the art of greedlessness is said to understand the deeper reason for his or her life.  Behind this traditional wisdom lies a profound experience:  As you loosen your grip on material possessions, you also let go of the ego, which is doing the gripping or grasping.  As the ego-contraction relaxes, you increasingly become in touch with the abiding happiness of your true self.  Then you realize that you need nothing at all to be happy.  You are unconcerned about the future and live fully in the present.  You are not afraid to give freely to others and also share with them your inner abundance.

Lately I’ve felt a strong desire to simplify and reduce the number of needless possessions I’ve accumulated over years of mindless consumption.  It’s shocking to step back and take a no-holds-barred inventory of all the junk filling up space in every corner of my house.  Over the Christmas holiday I got the organizing bug and decided it was time to purge the bookcases in my home office, which I had jokingly nicknamed the “Harry Potter room” because there was no telling which piece of paper stuffed into the shelves was magically holding everything together.  Unfortunately, even after buying three new bookcases, the purging turned out to be more of a paper shuffle, and now a month later I’m still feeling a bit overwhelmed by crap on the shelves. That’s just one room in the house. Obviously, more bookshelves wasn’t the correct answer.

I now realize I didn’t need to be better organized (although organizing the stuff you truly need isn’t a bad thing), I needed to get rid of stuff and stop buying things I don’t need.  Of course, deep down I think I knew that answer all along, but that’s a tough pill to swallow.  It’s hard to explain the mind-shift that I’m having right now about consumerism, but it’s almost as if  someone grabbed me about the shoulders and shook me back to reality.  It’s about time to start living more simply.

Of course, renouncing all possessions simply does not present a realistic approach to minimalism and simplicity.  Most of us have families, jobs, lives, and unless we’re willing to give up those lives, our approach won’t be so drastic.

What we need is a realistic approach to change.  Slow change is best for most people.

Here are 10 steps to minimalism as adapted from one of my favorite blogs, mnmlist, that I intend to implement over the next month:

1. Stop buying unnecessary things.  Only buy the necessities, and always ask yourself: is this truly necessary?

2. Get rid of the obvious things. Stuff that’s getting in your way, that you rarely ever use. You can often fill up a few boxes immediately, put them in your car, and donate them to a thrift shop or to friends and family the next day.

3. Get rid of more obvious things. Now that you’ve cleared up some of the clutter, you can take a look around and start seeing other things you rarely use. Box these up as well.

4. Clear the clutter on your floors. If your floors are barely visible because you have clothes and boxes and different items all over the place, start clearing your floors.

5. Clear other flat surfaces. Shelves, table tops, counter tops. They don’t have to be completely clear, but should only have a few essential objects.

6. Start going into closets and drawers. One place at a time, start clearing out clutter.

7. Cut back another third. At this point, you should have simplified drastically, but you can revisit what you still own and see things you don’t really use that often.

8. Start letting go, emotionally. For emotional reasons, there will be things that you “just can’t part” with — clothes or shoes or books or mementoes or gifts, childhood items. This is difficult, but given time, you’ll learn that such attachments aren’t necessary.

9. Get rid of another third. At this point, you’re pretty minimalist, but you can cut back more.

10. Et cetera. The process will never end, until you actually give up everything.

I intend to blog about my de-junkification project over the next month and would love to hear  any experiences or insights you might have on the process of creating a more simple, minimalist life.

Daily Cup of Yoga at a Crossroads

On Feb 2, Daily Cup of Yoga will reach its three year anniversary as a yoga blog. As with many a blog, the posting rate on Daily Cup of Yoga has been like a roller coaster — more like a downhill roller coaster of late. As much as I enjoy studying and practicing yoga, I guess I feel like I’m at a bit of a crossroads in terms of the direction I want to take Daily Cup of Yoga. As far as content and theme are concerned, to be honest, I’m a bit bored and underwhelmed with just blogging about yoga.

Don’t get me wrong, I still feel like blogging about yoga, but I also want to blog about other things as well. I just feel like opening up a bit more and capturing and sharing my thoughts about a few other things that really interest me (like whether the Apple iPad will sink or soar, for instance). Now, I certainly don’t want to abandon my core readership by veering too far away from a yoga-centered blog, but I also don’t want to always feel like I can’t say whatever I darn well feel like on my own blog.

I suppose I’m only unshackling myself from self-imposed limitations, but wanted to give fair warning that I intend to broaden the scope of content found on Daily Cup of Yoga. Over the coming days, months, and years, expect more stream of consciousness and more posts with commentary on everyday, ordinary subjects that may or may not have a yogic twist to them. I hope you enjoy it!

Namaste.

10 Reasons to Participate in Yoga Day USA 2010

Even though it’s nearly the end of January, do you still find yourself writing 2009 instead of 2010 anytime you have to date something?  Perhaps this annoying quirk just goes to show how difficult it can be to wrap the brain around something new.  Old habits die hard.  And sometimes new habits just require a little motivation.

If you’re looking for a little motivation to re-jumpstart your New Year’s intention to make yoga a habit, this weekend, 23 January 2010, to be specific, looks like an excellent time to head over to the local yoga studio for Yoga Day USA.  Read more about Yoga Day USA and find a “free – or nearly free” yoga class in your neighborhood.

Here are 10 really great reasons for cultivating the yoga habit:

1. Stress relief
2. Pain relief
3. Better breathing
4. Flexibility
5. Increased strength
6. Weight management
7. Improved circulation
8. Cardiovascular conditioning
9. Focus on the present
10. Inner peace

43 Creative Ways to Reuse or Recycle Your Old Yoga Mat

Let’s face it, even if your favorite yoga mat is bulletproof and will never ever wear out, there’s still a decent chance that you have a collection of yoga mats laying around the house, most likely never to be used for their intended purpose ever again.  Eventually, one day you may decide to tidy up the place and gaze in astonishment at all your mats. First, you’ll wonder where the heck they all came from.  And second, you’ll wonder what the heck to do with them since you really don’t need old, worn-out mats filling up the corners of every room in your house, do you?

Well, it certainly looks yogic to have a mat in every corner, but then you think to yourself there must be something practical I could do with all these extra pieces of large, spongy, colorful, plastic rectangles.   The simple answer:

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

After a little personal introspection and Internet research, I compiled this list of 43 creative ways to reuse, recycle, and extend your old yoga mats’ non-yoga related usefulness.  Sound fun?  Get your scissors ready.  Off you go:

My Personal Top 10 Reuse/Recycle Options:

1. Turn your mat into a bleacher cushion.  Great for those hard bleachers when watching sporting events.  Here’s how:  Step 1) Cut the mat into equal pieces to make one top and bottom (the size of a newspaper laid flat); Step 2) Punch holes about every 2 inches with a paper hole punch all the way around (both top and bottom); Step 3) Take a couple of days worth of newspapers and lay them between the top and bottom (or if you have another old mat to sacrifice, chop it up and use it as the cushioning); Step 4) Use yarn, ribbon, rawhide, etc. to lace the holes and tie off.  Oh yeah, pretty sweet, huh?  To re-stuff, untie and add new newspaper.  Easy to store, lightweight, washable, reusable, and comfortable
2. Leave the beach towel home and bring your old yoga mat to the beach instead (caution! may induce spontaneous yoga poses on the beach
3. Save your floors and roll out the old mats for the kids to do messy craft projects on
4. Along the same lines as number 1, fold mat in four, place in a pillow cover, and you have a cheap and comfy meditation cushion
5. Donate your old mat to a mat recycling program such as Recycle Your Mat, an eco-conscious organization whose goal is to re-purpose or recycle the world’s unwanted yoga mats.  Apparently Manduka offers 20% discount on your next mat purchase if you go this route!  Jade Yoga also offers a 3R Program where yoga students can drop off their used up and unwanted mats to participating studios who, with Jade’s help will find local resources to reuse or donate the mats.  I’m sure there’s more recycling programs like these, so feel free to comment if you know of other programs that deserve a mention
6. Enjoy yoga in the wild! Use old mats as a “Guerrilla Yoga” mat alternative (okay, I just mean plain old outside yoga, but Guerrilla Yoga sounds so much more primitive).  Most, if not all, “eco” mats are susceptible to damage by the elements and using them for outside practice is not the best idea.   Now you don’t have to jack up your good mat doing it
7. How could the computer geek inside me resist a nice, thick, cushiony yoga mouse pad for surfing the Internet
8. I really hate rattling stereo speakers.  Place cut out yoga mat squares under those noisy stereo speakers to reduce vibration rattle
9. Do you absolutely love the feel of yoga mat on your feet?  Why not cut out yoga mat insoles for all your shoes.  Now you’re a true yogi!  Oh, wait, no your not unless you’ve tried number 10…
10. True yogis don’t wear shoes, right?  Why not make a pair of flip-flops out of your yoga mat?!?  Click the link and/or watch the video below for everything you need to know.  You’re going to need these for going to the beach (see #2 above)

Click through the jump to see the rest of the list…

Video: How to Use a Neti Pot

Rock a Healthy Shoulderstand

Came across this great shoulderstand video on Rand(Om) Bites.  Do it right and it feels great; do it wrong and…just don’t do it wrong, okay.  Better yet, this is one of those poses best learned at the hands of a skilled teacher before you get too wild and crazy on your own.

Also, check out this snazzy Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga poster.  I love cool yoga posters.

Question of the day:  Can Yoga Save the World?

Yoga for Frogs

Doesn’t your day just feel messed up if you don’t get in at least a few Sun Salutations?  Kermit the Frog thinks so.   Though yoga for dogs used to be the rage, apparently yoga for frogs is the next up-and-coming craze.

Er, maybe not, but you’re more than welcome to enjoy the singular experience of brushing up on your Sun Salutation skills with everyone’s favorite frog.

.

There’s more where that came from….

[inspired by YogaDork]

Video: David Swenson on Yoga and Strength

Yoga – The Perfect Running Companion

A few months ago I experimented with removing running from my exercise routine because I wanted to see how much flexibility I could gain by laying off the daily pavement pounding and sticking with a daily yoga practice. I have a propensity for inflexibility in the first place, but to my surprise, the lack of running really didn’t make that much of a difference in terms of increased flexibility.

However, when I decided it was time to get back out on the streets again, my lungs felt like they were going to collapse. It was at that moment, when the side-cramp and wheezing reached a critical zenith, that I realized I needed to balance out my yoga practice with aerobic exercise.

I still needed running.

While running has many benefits, it can also beat up on the body a little bit, which is why yoga complements it so well. Try some of these recommended stretches/poses from Runner’s World to stay loose and flexible after your next workout.

I also recommend checking out Yoga for Runners at Yoga Journal.