NO PLACE LIKE CALM FOR THE HOLIDAYS

 

“You’re pre-check,” the TSA agent informed me. “You can go through the line without taking your boots off or taking your computer out.”

Really? Yippee-ki-yay! I had no clue why I had been designated “pre-check”, but her words were like choirs of angels bursting into sweet, celebratory song. After a series of significant travel snafus and disappointments — including our flight being cancelled on Christmas Day — it was nice to be told the typical airport hassle would be mitigated as Jamie and I tried for the second time in 24 hours to get to Denver for the holidays.

But hold the tinsel, Virginia. The travel Grinch wasn’t done yet. I passed through the metal detector, and it beeped. I’d been selected for a random hand swab. The little machine screeched. The agent ‘s eyes narrowed with suspicion.

Not only would I have to remove my boots, I’d get the privilege of an intimate encounter with a female TSA agent. As I waited for a gender appropriate agent, Jamie — who’d been relegated to the regular line — threw me a questioning look. I shrugged. Another glitch on the road of trying to spend the holidays with family.

After a heavyset agent with bright red hair invaded my space in an intensely personal way (“back of the hand, ma’am”), I was led from a private room to a table where they would search and swab my luggage, purse and sundry accessories. The agent handed me my boots. “Would you like us to bring you a chair so you can put these on?”

“Oh, no. That’s OK,” I replied. “I can put them on standing up. My balance is good – I do yoga.”

“Yoga!” she exclaimed as she rifled through my belongings. “Does that help keep you calm?”

“Weelllll….yes. I am calm right now, aren’t I?” I replied, smiling.

“Actually, you really are,” replied the agent, with a look that nearly bordered on pleasant. “You’re WAY calmer than most of the people we put through this.”

The thing is, I was amazingly calm — nothing like I would have been 15 or 20 years ago in the same circumstance. It struck me that throughout our travel tragi-dramas, I had remained (mostly) serene. My yoga practice gets big credit for that. When disappointment, frustration, or irritation threatened to get the best of me, I turned to my breath. I practiced santosha — the precept of non-attachment and choosing contentment.

I tried to find compassion for the people who had to work on the holiday. Staying focused on gratitude gave me perspective. Plenty of grievous human suffering is present in the world. What we were experiencing was nothing even close to that.

We had the means to fly on a different airline when our original flight was delayed beyond reason. We were on our way to spend several days in a gorgeous, winterland setting. My family was safe and healthy, and we would be reunited soon enough.

The agent finished her search, and said I was cleared. I began to put my things in order.

“This job is so stressful,” she sighed. “I’ve got to do something or I am going to drop dead. Do you think yoga would help me deal with stress?”

Yes, I told her. I’m certain it would.

LETTING GO OF THE UNATTAINABLE

Regardless of the industry, "hectic" is a word people frequently use to describe their days. This experience, and associated thought-process, has driven a phenomenon that didn’t even exist two decades ago— “multitasking." The term originated from the early computing era and was popularized in the late 1990s as the world morphed into a 24/7 global culture.

Now it's the holidays, and people see "multitasking" as a life saver, a way to get more done in a shorter amount of time as holiday and end-of-year pressures mount. The thing is — and this is backed up by multiple research studies — multitasking is not even possible. Not only that, it can actually interfere with our ability to accomplish tasks efficiently. If you want to go deeper, check out “Small Business Owners: Why Multitasking is Not the Answer,” Jamie’s blog on Equifax Small Business (December 11, 2013).

It has tips for retraining your brain and letting go of the multitasking mindset, including using meditation as a way to increase concentration, use time more effectively and generate higher quality outcomes.

Once you stop trying to do the impossible, you might find "hectic" can be transformed to "focused, calm and satisfied."

Wishing you a wonderful season full of love, gratitude and joy.

SEDONA + YOGA = BLISS

Having lived in Arizona all of my life, I can't remember the very first time I went to Sedona. But I truly never, ever tire of going there. It's a legendary place, with a stark yet majestic beauty that grabs you by the throat and the melts into your heart.  Driving to  Sedona — about two hours north of our Phoenix home — we look forward to spotting that first flash or two of the ochre dirt and rocks. Then we turn a corner,  and the other-worldly landscape explodes into view. It never fails to elicit a gasp of appreciation.

Sedona also is known as a place of vortices and higher consciousness, which makes it a perfect venue for the Sedona Yoga Festival.

We did a little dance of  delight when we were notified that we would be presenting workshops there during its run February 6-9.  And now we're even more delighted that we have two passes to give away, worth nearly $400 each, for two lucky people to join us at the festival.

We know some of the other people who will be presenting there — Mary Bruce, our dear friend and a truly gifted teacher; Mark Whitwell,  and KC Miller among others. And we're looking forward to meeting, learning from and building relationships with the other people who will be sharing their gifts with those who attend. We have mild winters here in Arizona, so if you're looking to escape some cold winter weather this is a great opportunity.

Here are the ways you can enter to win one of  the two full-access PASSES (travel, food, and lodging are up to you):

• Like our FACEBOOK page and/or leave a comment about what yoga means to you with the hashtag #SYF14.
• Send us an email via yogawisdomatwork.com with the subject line Enter me for SYF14!
• Share this post on your facebook page: "Jamie & Maren Showkeir are giving away a free pass to the Sedona Yoga Festival! Check out their facebook page for details."
• Send a tweet: "@authenticmaren and @17Jamie are giving away a free pass to the Sedona Yoga Festival. Check out their facebook page for details.

Please share this with your networks! Entries will be taken until midnight, Dec. 31. (Happy New Year!) Winner will be announced on our facebook page the following week.
NOTE: Winners MUST register by Jan. 10 for the pass to be valid, so please be sure you'll be able to attend.

EMPOWERMENT? IT'S IMPOSSIBLE

In our organizational work, Jamie and I frequently hear people talk about the elusive quality of “empowerment.” Managers ask about techniques they can use for “empowering” those that report to them. Employees discuss their yearning to be empowered by their bosses. They look upward or outward, hoping someone will proffer power, like a monarch bestowing knighthood. Yet, like Glenda the Good witch tells Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, “You had the power all along, my dear.”

Everyone comes into the world with all the power there is, yet many people fail to see it. They don’t understand it’s right there. Your power is self-contained. You don’t even need to plug it in — the source is always burning, ever present, waiting to be unveiled. Ready to light up the world.

 Waiting for someone to “empower” you is a waste of time. Thinking your “empowerment” is in the hands of someone else is like sitting in a dark, windowless room, waiting for someone else to open the door so you can walk out and bask in sunlight. The sun has always been there — but clouds of self-doubt, curtains of helplessness and walls of fear cover it up.  You may feel it is safer to hide your light in an underground bunker, but what is the cost to you? And to the world?

We have been schooled to believe that what we need is “out there.” In fact, everything we need is “in here.”

One of the reasons I was drawn to yoga was that it isn’t about finding and fixing your flaws, but about recognizing and developing your infinite power and limitless potential.

No ruby slippers required.

After so many years of believing messages about the importance of fixing my imperfections, it was nice to begin understanding that I am whole and perfect. Bad habits and flaws aren’t me, they are just things that don’t serve me well. The practices of yoga —  living its guiding principles, breathing, postures, meditation — provide the means to burnish an existent light.

 You don’t need someone else to knock down walls to reveal your light. You can open your own door. You don’t need an electrical outlet to plug into, or a benevolent witch to wave a wand, or even sparkling ruby slippers. You can tap into your source by taking a mindful breath, closing your eyes — or just remembering that it is there.

Alice Walker wrote “The most common way people give up their fear is by thinking they don’t have any.”

She’s right.