An Eye on Asha

"Asha"

Asha is hope
is heart
is healing.
Feeling
from the inside out
to where the spirit is leading me.
I root,
to plant,
to sprout,
to bloom,
I rise,
a seed,
a dream,
a vision:
I am the universe in disguise.

I know my heart, my asha, with the openness
of an eye
wild and blue and knowing
like vast, wide, sky.
Fierce, Strong, Brave, Love
Asha.
I follow you.




A Friday poem? This is all that wants to come out today it seems, as I've attempted several times to write down my thoughts today trying to understand what the above mandala really means for me. Asha is a sanskrit word for "hope" and for some reason is the word that came to me when I drew this eye. Speaking of rooting and rising a vision, I've decided to commit myself to practice 1,000 hours of yoga with the intention of strengthening my connection to my heart. I don't have a time line, so it could take me years, but that's ok. I just needed to make the commitment with an intention. So I have! I've been trying to write about my relationship with "commitment" all week because its a concept that's surfacing in my life (like not committing to finishing projects I start or goals I set out to complete) and ironically enough, have not been able to commit to writing about it. Perhaps next week....Until then,

Have a wonderful weekend!!

An Eye on Asha

Eliza Lynn, Where've you been?

I didn't mean to disappear for so long! 

Perhaps some of you have been wondering where I've disappeared too...and to be truthful, I don't have a good answer. 

Sure, I've been busy:

~Finishing up yoga homework for my upcoming (and final part) teacher training (I finished this morning!)

~brainstorming and scratching out ideas for my final graduate thesis project and paper....I've got some exciting plans that might even include an installation/art show type thing!

~Socializing!

I had a wonderful few days with a dear friend who came to visit me for a few days last week.

I spent time with some family who were down visiting the ocean.

I went to a Senior Art show at Wheaton College (So much fresh, energetic expression!)

We went to a friend's house for a Lobstah dinnah (and got to witness a first timer open his lobster...it's all about hands on learning!)

and on Saturday, I got all dolled up and went with friends to the Boston Symphony Orchestra (14$ for nose-bleeder seats...totally worth it!)

And, in between all of this, I've been working on this series of Mandalas, sacred circle paintings. 

I'm not sure what's going to happen to them next...but I'm loving making them.

It is a really meditative process and that turns these circles into reflections of my emotions and at the same time, transforms them. I'm getting back to the studio this afternoon to see where I can go with them!

So, yes. That is what I've been up too these past few days of my silence. 

I wasn't planning on being silent for so long, but I fell into it anyway. 

I think that I am still learning how to be more visible in this online world. Sometimes I feel as though I don't really have anything to share, so why bother? Or I'll start a post, only to leave it in the edit box forever, unfinished. 

I go through these phases of quiet, introversion in my life too

and perhaps this blog (and my absence from it this past week)

is a reflection of that. 

Perhaps because I was so out in the world with all the socializing and such,

I didn't have the energy I needed to be that way on this blog.

This seems to be the balance I am trying to find everywhere in my life right now:

learning how to go both outward and inward enough and in the right proportion so that I don't wear myself to thin. So here's to finding the balance of outwardly and actively participating in the world, but also recharging enough (and I'm a person that recharges by going inward and being quiet) to not burn out!

Eliza Lynn, Where've you been?

Grumpy pants and a 91-year-old yoga Instructor

(My dog Tulsi with her grumpy pants on because she'd rather be outside too)

I have my grumpy pants on today. I think in combination of it being a BEAUTIFUL spring day and having to be INSIDE finishing up some homework and being on day Three of this Spring Cleanse. I am feeling luke warm about spring cleansing. About as luke warm as the lemon water I'm drinking every morning of it. Here's the reality: I really LOVE coffee and carbohydrates. Without them, I feel kind of...empty? Really...I do feel an attachment to these kind of foods that goes beyond being calorically satiated. I originally was just going to do a fruits and veggies cleanse, but by the end of day one of that, I was feeling so crappy, so tired and so cranky that I was ready to call it quits on the cleanse all together. (And oh so often I feel like quiting when the going gets tough!?...what is that saying, when the going gets tough, the tough get going? Maybe I am not so very tough then.) But I have decided not to quit, instead, at the suggestion of my loving partner, I have decided to just modify the cleanse. So, now with proteins (from beans and lentils) and carbohydrates (from whole grains like brown rice and quinoa), I'm a much happier cleansing camper. And while, may not be cleansing fully, I have adapted the process to a whole foods diet to meet my needs and haven't given in to the cravings of coffee.....yet.

Then just before I sat down to write this post, I came across a link at the blog Yoga with John,

that played a CNNmoney video about a 91-year-old yoga instructor (link will lead you to the video).

Yes. And she is a tango dancer and wrote screenplays for a bunch of Films in India.

and she said, (and today, I feel like this was a message I needed to hear):

"You can't help other people if your negative or afraid. Never be afraid."

Amen, sister!

so with that, I'm leaving the grumpy pants behind, putting down my yoga homework and am going to go sit outside and make some long overdue time for my art.

Grumpy pants and a 91-year-old yoga Instructor

What am I doing?

I am going to take a little hiatus from Creativity Meditations...maybe not forever...maybe just for a little while. I want to offer inspiration for creativity, but only when it is genuine. I feel that if I post something when I am not feeling inspired to do so, it will be obvious that its not coming from a genuinely inspired place and that won't do any good for anybody. I'm learning that when something doesn't feel authentic, its time to move on...at least until it feels authentic once again. So for now, I'm moving on...

What is genuinely inspiring me this Monday afternoon???

~daffodils blooming lovingingly in the window

~today is DAY ONE of my Spring Cleanse!!! looks like lots of Lemons for me! (Lemons in warm water, lemons and asparagus, lemons and cayenne....)

~catching up with a kindred spirit who reminded me of many wise truths

~Finishing the rough draft of my thesis proposal for graduate school! (and remembering that many little steps will get me to the end of the project)

~10 sun salutations first thing in the morning (three days in a row, wahoo!)

~this post by Amber Dusick: I have no idea what I'm doing (this is how I sometimes feel about my blog too!)

~This play list playing in the background of my days:

What am I doing?

Sprouting

My tomato sprouts have popped up! This year, my husband and I are trying to grow our very own tomato plants. We started them from seeds and now they are springing their green shoots skywards! I'm so excited for ripe tomatoes!

The other thing sprouting over here at Art Asana is the very green beginnings of writing a proposal for my graduate thesis...I am feeling a little more daunted by this kind of sprout.

It's funny how a topic that I've been reading about and writing about for almost two years now can seem so elusive when I have to pin it down into one short sentence.

I've been going back through all my work from semester's past, splashing through papers to pull out patterns, themes and threads that might help lead me to a conclusive statement

about what it is I am actually studying.

I picked up on a few things:

yoga, creativity, visual arts, creative writing, a narrative about journey, path and process, metaphors of mountains, oceans, trees, roots, and

oh yeah,

sprouts.

There is something circular about looking back on the past to come up with a statement in the present that summarizes all of what I've done. It has to be conclusive enough to close the circle, yet open-ended enough to keep the momentum of circulation going. Which brings me to another recurring aspect of my graduate work: making mandalas.

So, somehow by next week, I have to put all my ideas together and come up with a proposal for what it is my thesis paper and project will look like.

I think I might start with a circle. Write "Yoga and Creativity" in it and then write down all the other ideas that come sprouting out of it.

Do any of you have any tools you use for brainstorming ideas?

Sprouting

Fine Day

It's a fine day and I feel like sharing!

"Abundance Mandala" available here

First off, I have the above new print up in the etsy shop!

Also I have a new website! It's a work in progress, but I had fun putting it together and am excited about continuing to tweak it over time. I built it over at Wix.com (which is a pretty cool site that you can build really professional looking site with no professional skills needed!)

My new website is (drum roll...)

http://www.elizalynntobin.com.

I'd love to know what you think! Is it colorful enough? Clean enough? Easy enough to navigate?

Do any of you out there have a new website that you want to share?

******

I am starting a spring cleanse next week! Ayurevdic practitioner and Anusara yoga teacher Cate Stillman of Yoga Healer is hosting this Spring Cleanse Teleconference cleanse.

The cleanse can be done from anywhere and there is a great online forum to participate in to help support the cleansing process. I am pretty sure there is room left if any one is interested in joining in!

I am hoping to find some time later today to sit down and write my intentions for the cleanse, but I think they are going to be about clearing emotional and physical space in my mind and body for healthy and happy changes to sprout.

I am ready to lighten up and re-energize!

Speaking of light and energizing, I recommend checking out this blog:

http://janinejoles.blogspot.com/

Janine's nature-inspired images are stunning and meditative. I find that visiting her spot in cyber space is a perfect way to remember the vibrancy of our universe!

Fine Day

Creativity Meditation Monday

When I was in college, I was in an art class once where we had an assignment to do a daily project. We had to pick something that we would do everyday and do it for a month. It had to something that we weren’t already doing, something tangible that we could look back upon and something that would record our life in some way. Someone in my class took a photo of what they ate for lunch every day, some one else made a tiny painting every day. Another person took a picture of themselves in the mirror every morning when they first got out of bed. I choose to make a paper crane every day out of an old 365 desk calender with quotes from the Dalai Lama on it. I also linked the crane making practice to my yoga practice and would write the intention I had for my yoga practice on the wings of the crane. I then strung the cranes together. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve started making cranes again, for no apparent reason other than I love making them. This morning, as I sat down at my desk to write a paper, I found my hand swishing a piece of square rice paper out of the ziplock bag I have full of oragimi rice paper and then my fingers begin to fold and crease the paper into a delicate bird form yet again. I remembered then the assignment I’d had in college and thought that perhaps I would start it up again and make a colorful little bird every day with an intention left on its wings to be flown out into the universe. In our creativity meditation today, I invite you to ponder the impact a small creative daily practice might have on your life. What kind of small creative thing could you do every single day? As you begin this meditation and begin to move into the quietness of the breath, imagine the possibilities of one small creative act!

Spend a few moments gathering together the materials you would need to create this one small thing, rice paper for a paper bird, a camera for a picture, a piece of paper and a pencil for a quick drawing. Choose materials that can be collected in just a few moments so that this one small creative act won’t take a large amount of time in your day. Place your materials in front of you. When you are ready, press play on the podcast! Enjoy!

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Creativity Meditation Monday

5 Random Things

I've been sort of on the down and out this week...some sort of cold-type thing has humbled me into submission to lay low. One moment I am thinking I am feeling better and I get up to get something done and find a few minutes later that I need to lay down again. So this is why its been so very quiet over here at Art Asana....but I'm flying on the high of a few minutes of feeling better (although I can already feel the creepy hands of cold chill and the achy-ness in the core of my bones begin to strengthen and the couch calling my name) and wanted to post my 5 random things Friday....so here, with the inspiration of a sick week lapping their heels, my 5 random things:

1. Butt-Kicking: Over on facebook, Anusara yoga teacher Amy Ippoliti offers a 30 day Tigress Challenge each month with a new pose. I am thinking about joining in on this one! The challenge is to do Vaisthiasana, side angle pose every day for one minute (on each side I'm presuming?). Ironically, this is my least favorite pose, so I'm not sure how its going to go...perhaps I will learn to love it? Planning to start as soon as I'm feeling up for it or Monday, which ever comes first!

2. Book: I've been on a reading frenzy over here lately...it has been an intricate part of the down and out process....but I've read some great books in the past couple of weeks! Here they are in order of reading: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (takes place in Himalayan India and tells a deliciously written story about life post Indian Independence)

3. Book: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni (I read this book in a day because I literally could not put it down until it was done...it was breathtaking)

4. Books: Little Bee by Chris Cleave (I don't know how to summarize this book in one sentence, but lets just leave it that I am still thinking about the characters of this amazing story). Currently, I am reading Waking the Global Heart by Andoea Judith (non-fiction account of the state of our world and the hope for it) and Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie is in queue. Have you read any great books lately?

5. Birds: Recently, I've been making dozens of birds. Origami paper cranes to be exact. I made 38 last week and brought them as decoration to my friend's bridal shower and had guests write little notes on the wings for her. We then pasted them to the wall. I learned to make these birds in elementary school from a japanese woman who lived with my family for 5 months. I've been making them ever since and find the clean folding in and opening out and folding in and opening out a very meditative process. Perhaps I should look more into the significance of these birds....

Wishing you all a happy, healthy weekend! I hope to be back (healthy and 100% myself) on Monday for a Creative Meditation!

5 Random Things