Feeling broken: Do you ever wonder how you'll make it through the day?

you were broken but now filled, more beautiful.

How will you do it?

Feeling broken? Too much chaos? Too many obligations that stifle who you are? Do you ever wonder how you'll make it through the day? 

Embrace mystery around you

Before you close your eyes at night, whether success or failure defines the little things in your day, give yourself a break. Just living your life is the way through.

Smile as you judge your productivity through the eyes of someone else.

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Don't pass by me: Who goes slowly goes healthy

wishes that come trueThere is a fine balance between shyness and true expression. As if in a bit of a conundrum, I go back and forth between befriending stillness and the gems inside me that open only when the darkness underneath is stirred to view what's lurking beneath.

The words of a song remind me,

I swear that I can feel you creeping underneath my skin. It feels like heaven to me sometimes.

There is a quality of light within the dark—a yin/yang. 

I can feel a side of me inside reaching out for expression, asking gently to not vaporize the energy of the expression into an emptiness. Don't pass me by, it asks. There is much to be learned in the dark that I so easily hide within the armor I've built like a child building a sand castle.

Sand is a good metaphor for this armor. It is made of rock, symbolizing strength. After many years of weather it can harden to an impenetrable substance, but if air continually moves through the tiny spaces between each grain, the wall can easily be knocked down. A simple symbolic hand can do the trick with one violent strike. Alternatively, I could douse it with my essence in a waterfall, or a slow drip to eat away at it slowly.

A soothing Italian proverb leads the way in my life now: 

Chi va piano va sano va lontano. (Who goes slowly, goes healthy and far.)

Take time with the precious gems that have been in the dark for a long time. Once they see the light, they do not acclimate immediately. They need time to adjust and evolve into their new form, with light shone upon them.

They can become like a dream that I’ve always imagined but could never reach. Not until now at least.

© 2014 R.E.L. Copywriting

Are you always too busy: Do you care about your freedom?

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/namastedharmacafe?directed_target_id=0It seems to be the new cool to say you're busy, swamped or otherwise not available for free time. Why is that?

It's cool to control your freedom

Isn't the true meaning of living the ability to control your own schedule, which also means living a good life and having the freedom to chose how you spend your precious time?

I fall into this sometimes too. Recently my friend Joslyn Hamilton asked me how I was doing in an electronic conversation. I left the message unanswered for weeks because I did not want to come back with my honest "I'm busy, swamped." So, I waited. Until today. 

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Early morning yoga keeps me more present in life

Yoga Tree Corte Madera (by r.e.l.)It's difficult not to write after this morning's 6:00 a.m. class at Yoga Tree Corte Madera.

Early morning yoga in Marin

During these darker winter mornings, the lighting in the yoga room is amazing—soothing for the waking body and mind. The new colorful clouds really make the space, together with the redwood tree mural, lighting and fixtures.

I felt this morning like I was in my living room rather than an eye-opening, wake-up call early morning yoga class. Whether challenging or simplistic, it made my yoga practice deeper since I was soothed on a deep level.  

More present in class at 6:00 a.m.

The early morning 6am class—if you've not tried the early morning thing—is quite life-changing. I myself recently broke out of the night owl mode and moved into the early morning yoga scene. For me, it has seemed a miraculous accomplishment. Now that I am into it (after doing yoga for 17 years), I am trying out the studios in Marin which offer early morning yoga. I need to be led at this hour, so sorry, no Mysore for me.

Image Source: Yoga Tree Corte Madera

Surprisingly, I have found that I am more present during these early classes. My chatter brain has yet to activate into its normal self and I "wake" from savasana with the most profound connections, measages and intentions which carry through my day. I find I am more patient and focused now in my business and family life, thanks to early morning yoga.

Chatter brain turns to peace

Yoga Tree Corte Madera has the earliest led-yoga classes in southern Marin. If you need to go to work right afterward, showers will welcome you. Check it out :)

Why your blog still matters

Your blog is your place for thinking, and then typing what you think. It's your news source and outlet for relaying whatever you've got to say, and putting it out there. Even if no one reads it—let's hope that's not the case—your blog is a collection of all of your thoughts, organized chronologically and categorically. 

blogging is important

It's a place to share and blend multiple, mutually-attractive ideas that you've learned from others, but with your elaborations. It can be a collection of randomness. Its overall message may be one, or it may be best summarized in a cloud of words (i.e., tag cloud) that do or do not imply any regard for convention. 

Your blog posts ping the internet search engines as new content—something favored by Google, et al. In other words, the ranking of your web site or standalone blog itself will increase the more you blog.

There are many other reasons to keep blogging and even more reasons to start one today. Claire Diaz-Ortiz gives us a list of reasons why to start a blog. My favorites are "You're a great typer, and are in desperate need of an outlet for your skills" and "You get up at 5 AM, but don't know why."

wake up early to blog

I do wake up early and tell myself it's because I want to go to early morning yoga or be done exercising before everyone else even wakes up. But, the truth is I wake up early to write when my head is most pure. I wake up to blog...

@ 2013 R.E.L. Copywriting

One glass of wine: Wine enthusiast, wine industry expertise

with just one sip, i believe...The thoughts that come to me when I am into you.

Even after just one sip.

...Of memories.

...Of dreams.

Relax with me into the soul of who you are.

Inspire me as you feel your inhibitions slowly drop and your cheer—as red grapes—take their place.

It's a beautiful life, you know.

I am a wine enthusiast. Let me write for you in your wine industry. I travel too.

© 2013 R.E.L. Copywriting

Marin county yoga at the Yoga Tree Corte Madera

Premier yoga in Marin County - Yoga Tree Corte MaderaSan Francisco's top yoga studios, owned by Yoga Tree, have been in operation for at least thirteen years. The founders now boast seven studios across the San Francisco Bay Area, including the East and North Bay.

The baby of the group is Yoga Tree Corte Madera. It is located in a busy part of this southern Marin town, close to the highway and malls so its convenience easily invites the opportunity for yoga—early morning wake-up, lunch break, late afternoon power-packed pre-dinner flow or restorative evening for winding down.

The studio breathes nature and will change your mood and your spirit as soon as you enter through the doors. Calming and captivating, you will feel that you've walked into a Northern California redwood forest, greeted by mesmerizing photography by artist Russ Eddy. Danielle Hirsch, interior designer who was responsible for the studio design, explains that the redwood forest photograph set the mood for the rest. The color, materials and vibe of the endeavor to create a peaceful, premier yoga studio in Marin organically evolved from there.

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I am a yoga columnist

I am a yoga columnist. I find the poetic reality of yoga...

For, it helps one find a pure state of mind, while burning away layers of chatter, allowing truth inside to reign. It helps one fill in gaps that seem empty and magically become full with prana.

While stirring up dust inside, it helps form a fertile ground in which to grow life's seeds, while helping to take a stand against inhibitions.

Over time it teaches love, euphoria, magic and intuition—most importantly, the notion that it's all inside.

Remember that you can do whatever you put your mind to, and that you can love another with freedom.

Namaste.

© 2013 R.E.L. Copywriting