5 Ways to Love to Hate the Holidays

Hot yoga is a practice in paradox.

Hot yoga. Cool people.

Christmas has become a paradox: avoid delicious holiday meals, hold back on gifting, stay calm through the festivities.

'Tis the season everyone loves to be confused about.

Relax; the paradoxes are the best part

Things are always working out, especially when they're falling apart. And they do, in hot yoga and on major holidays.

Lucky for you.

Can you learn to love the paradoxes? Apply these 5 hot yoga lessons for a peaceful, powerful, paradoxical holiday season.

1. Laugh at yourself and you're healing your holiday spirit

Just when you think you have it all figured out, it reconfigures.

Hot yoga is profoundly physical and challenging and you work hard at it: you've heard about the Cumulative Effect and you want it! So you practice faithfully three times a week and you feel the benefits building. Then, just when you get the poses just right...it gets hard again.

That's because you got it right.

Wha...?

Hot yoga is helping you build your body, yes, but it is also helping you grasp the art of letting go and embrace the exhilaration of expansion.

That's funny; that's not what you thought you signed up for. Or is it?

You will feel yoga stretching your body, little by little, bit by bit, class after class.  Yet, 99-percent of hot yoga is about stretching beyond the limits that reside in your mind.

And that's where your holiday stress lives.

Relaxing in hot yoga is exactly how you stretch your body beyond injuries, illnesses and damaging diagnosis.

And then comes the good part.

That flexibility you gain will filter into your life, giving you the ease to enjoy every last minute of your holiday season, to flow and bask in it with grace and, dare I say it, joy.

Now combine hot yoga with laughter and you've got the secret to instant happiness. At Riverflow Yoga our teachers will often combine jokes with pose cues: just when you're putting forth your greatest effort, a peale of laughter will take you all the way into that pose.

Laughter has a momentum. One laugh relaxes everything. Soon, the laughs comes easier as your natural response to dealing with they paradoxes. 

And then you remember: oh, yes, Christmas is supposed to be fun.

Just like everything else you're currently stressing about.

Here's another laugh: after all your "hard work" in hot yoga, it will look and feel to others like you have transformed overnight. All at once, people will ask, "What have you done to yourself - you look wonderful! Plastic surgery perhaps? A little nip and tuck?"

That's funny.

Now, laugh when when you find yourself standing in a long Christmas line at Toys R Us after vowing to only give handmade holiday gifts this year. Life is full of surprises.

It's the best part.

2. When you're not alone, smile at all the faces

Hot yoga classes are practiced in a community and you feel the energy of people around you lifting you up  (although, ever notice how when one person lies down, others drop like dominoes?).

Yet you are clearly instructed to focus 100% on yourself, look directly into your own eyes in the mirror, block out all distractions.

You can do both. Smile at yourself during class and you actually do the poses easier.. A smile goes to work on you: it is impossible to be stressed when you smile.

You're going to be around people this holiday. Smile and pretend you like it and....you will.

It's a simple exercise, no props necessary, available at all times. A simple smile can control the rather complex system that connects your body, mind and spirit and beyond, reaching out to everyone's system as well.

Simply smile. Especially when you dont feel like it; because that when you need it most.

3. Meditation is an activity

In your most active yoga twists, just when you feel every muscle and sinew of your body align, you transcend your body and find yourself...someplace else.

You are meditating.

You dont have to sit still to meditate; in hot yoga, activity begets meditation. And lucky you - you live a very active life, with lots to do, especially at the holiday season: presents to buy, parties to plan, resolutions to break.

And so each of those activities can become a meditation.

How does that paradox work? Easy: resolve to enjoy every activity you engage. No matter what, find something about it to enjoy....or put it off til you do.

Give every activity everything you've got.

In hot yoga it is that 100%,in-give-it-all-you've-got, pose-til-you-plotz attutude in every pose that efficiently burns your internal fuel. Paradoxically, this kind of energy burn leaves you energized.

It is only when you empty completely that you can fill up again. It's one reason why you sleep so well after hot yoga class and bounce out of bed the next morning.

Get used to living at 100% - go ahead, fail big!- because anything less is futlle. Even 99% effort is 100% useless. There is no substitute for 100%.

Go for it, with gusto. That goes for baking Christmas cookies or making the year-end presentation to the corporate bigwigs. When you really need a lesson in all-in, take a hot yoga class with a tough teacher.

Then play 100% too. Ask your kids to show you how. And Christmas is the best time for re-learning this game you once knew.

4. Stop looking for time off and turn yourself ON

Yoga can feel like your time away from your stressful life, and we'e always glad you get this break. Yet, what you will find in the hot yoga room if you look, is an unburied treasure of tools for living happily outside the yoga studio.

Yoga encourages you to be calm, but it is especially effective at dealing with crazy.

This doesn't mean stop and drop into Savasana when you need to calm down. All you need to do is bring to mind to the feeling you had in your last Savasana (calm)...or Spinal Twist (release!) or Standing Bow Pulling (power) or Eagle (freedom). Hot yoga has already stored that feeling in your body; now just recall the experience and it will be right there for you, whenever you need calm, release, power or freedom.

You can do Christmas and yoga in your mind; in fact, that's the only way you ever do it well.

5. You love them, and you don't need their stinkin' approval

In hot yoga you may have already found something so valuable, you want to share it. You invite your partner, friends, family, colleagues at work (especially her!) by detailing your many miracles of your hot yoga practice.

They look at you like you're from another planet (you just might be). Worse, they ridicule you:

"105 degrees...are you crazy? Is this some sort of weird cult you're into now? You're  pretty crunchy to begin with - what is this, the latest New Age app?"

An artist friend, Julia, recently faced her detractors, heart first. Here is what she encountered, and her advice on handling negativity is a wonderful yoga lesson in the paradox of the living in the world and still being yourself. 

An Email from Julia

A few days ago  I got a call from a  gallery where I recently placed my work saying that they were going to remove my paintings due to my Buddhist and New Age beliefs 

 

Bodhi Tree Pendant. This image projects  the energy of love, especially in the face of negativity, helping you overcome these situations by not being drawn into them.

They were especially offended by my  painting, The Bodhi Tree,   pictured above as they believe Buddhism is evil. 

This seemed strange because the Bodhi Tree is where Buddha discovered that the only emotion worthy of thought or focus is love ... a central concept in all religions. 

I've faced these same arguments in the past including a campaign to get my paintings banned from facebook.  

And there is the occasional person who comes to my art shows and makes a big scene yelling at me that I am going to hell for my artwork. 

It is a very small fringe group ... but a very vocal one.

Aggressive attacks do not have to impact your self worth.

And they don't have to pull you into negative thoughts and emotions.   In other words, they are an opportunity to strenghten your positive feelings.

 

To maintain your connection to the good in your heart and project calm love. Somehow, to find the strength to hold true to your inner tranquility. While this isn't always easy, it is very important to yourself - and to the world.

This is exactly what Buddha did under the Bodhi tree to defeat an army of demons sent to destroy him... a story representing the triumph of love over the evils of the world we all face.

 

It is so strange that my experiences with the Bodhi Tree painting, in so many ways but on a much smaller scale, seem to mirror the energies and conflict that took place under the real Bodhi Tree.  It is like the painting itself magically put into action the forces of an ageless conflict within our human existence.

I believe this actually happened so I would write this. If you are faced with anger, ignorance  and bigotry over your beliefs, you can learn or relearn the lesson of the Bodhi Tree, mirrored in your own religion.

What I ask of you is that if this article brought to mind bad things that have happened to you, let them go now. Replace it love and empathy for people who have angered you. Let your spirit rise.

• Don't analyze it anymore
  
• Don't blame or argue anymore  
• Don't categorize or label people who have hurt you   
• Don't retaliate; this only hurts you more
• And don't apologize anymore, either

Just let it pass and you will embrace the most important lessons. Then, if you face future conflicts, your life will become an example for yourself and for making the entire world a place of peace.

I am glad it happened.

Namaste,

Energy Artist Julia

Comments

[Aimee Maier]

Hot yoga surprises me. Over and over again. This is one of the reasons I love class. I can be completely present and feeling to the extreme. And just when I think I've mastered a pose or the lesson has come, I find that I'm starting over again. Each fresh start begins another exciting journey.

[Melina]

I also love the paradoxical nature of yoga - it's really just a gateway into the paradoxical nature of life itself. We sometimes just encounter it physically and spiritually first through yoga practice. And as that practice deepens, our arms become stronger to cradle life's paradox all the time. On the yoga mat we allow ourselves to come into contact with our strength and our vulnerability - and its then that we realize that vulnerability is indeed our biggest strength.

[Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT]

So true Melina -but then, why do you think we're all so afraid to be vulnerable?

[Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT]

True, Aimee: reach a pinnacle and there you find yourself at a new beginning. Hot yoga constantly teaches me to let go of the idea of "perfecting" and as soon as I do, it all becomes a lot more fun. And if fun ain't the point...what is?