Wednesday 31 December 2014

This is What a Real Yoga Body Looks Like. ~ Rachel Priest

Via Rachel Prieston Oct 11, 2013
Rachel Priest

For more: this will blow your mind and heart wide open.

Also, read: Maitri (Pema Chodron).


“Excuse me ma’am, I really enjoyed your yoga class tonight. But I wanted to come by and tell you that as a yoga teacher, you need to lose weight. Namaste.”

Wow, well this was an unexpected turn of events from the yoga class I taught tonight.
How many times has this all happened to us though? When someone (a stranger usually) comes up to us and imposes their idea of what we should do, be, look or behave like to fit their idea of perfect?
The answer is: all the time. And then what happens? We become sad, self-conscious and unhappy with ourselves, feeling like we are unworthy or not lovable the way we naturally are.
This is the message today: we need to start a revolution of self acceptance and love for who we truly are—and for once, not care what anyone else has to think or say.
For once, just say, “F*** it, I’m gonna do me! Be me and love me, for myself and no one else!”
Seriously, right now, say that out loud.
To cycle back to the beginning, this was a comment I received from a student right after teaching (what I thought) was a class with wonderful energy and great people sharing their practice together. She questioned my eating habits and other exercise practices I do outside of yoga… and then pinched my side.
I was at a loss for words—especially since this happened in a yoga environment, a supposed safe haven from judgment and hate. I had struggled with an eating disorder for eight years, and had found a good place—but these comments shook me and I began to question all of the personal progress I have made in my life.
I was faced with a choice, as we all are when people criticize and critique our life to try and “fix” us. I could either fall into old bad habits of the eating disorder and self-loathing.
Or, I could finally realize that I love myself and I’m perfectly fine the way I am, no matter what judgements a stranger may have and if you don’t think so, then great, that stranger can carry their judgment to their grave but I will keep living in light and love and no longer be affected by another’s hate or criticisms.
That is my message: we all need to rally together and promote self acceptance and love. Let’s keep on living our life happily knowing that we are all beautiful and undying souls and we were born perfect and will never be more perfect than we are at this very moment.
Because perfection isn’t an outward appearance or attire and seriously, who has a supermodel body and is truly happy within themselves everyday? Probably no one.
I know that I am not “perfect” by American standards and probably never will be. But what I am is loving, adventurous, silly, goofy, a strong kid and no one can crush my spirit.
I will never look like a typical tiny yoga teacher, but you know what? I look pretty freaking good—I am strong, flexible, knowledgeable and want to help people and so if that isn’t enough, then I will quit openly.
So looking into our own lives, where today can we realize that we are behaving in a certain way to please others?
Where are we not truly ourselves because someone made us feel inadequate to be ourselves and said we needed to change?
Can we just take a moment, look inward and then eliminate this person or situation from our lives?
For years I used the disorder as my crutch but now, it is my strength. Through my pain, I can help others who are struggling and keeping silent. If need be I can be the voice that shouts out, “you are beautiful and perfect exactly this way and fuck anyone that can’t see the beauty in you that I see.” But Ideally, I want us all to have the strength to do this.
We all need to let go and just truly accept ourselves for who we are.
When our time comes and our physical bodies die, do we want to look back and realize we lived our lives trying to change to please others? Or do we come to a point and realize that we are perfect now, we will never be here again and in that moment, we are more beautiful and no one…let me say that again, no one, can steal or snuff out our light.
So just as I am standing in that picture, in a bathing suit with everything showing, I can say that I think I look pretty good.
Can you look at yourself today and say, “Damn, I love you self, I have never met anyone like you. You are exciting, fun, happy, and I truly see you, how honored I am to know myself.”
Sometimes this is easier said than done and it has taken me a long time to come to this place. But whatever you are struggling with, pains, sadness, eating disorders, fears, desires, anxieties, etc. whatever it is, try to let a little piece of it go today.
Letting go a little piece of whatever your struggles are, even just changing one negative thought a day about yourself into a positive thought, do so.
Begin the journey of self-acceptance. People always ask, “Well, it’s scary to let go of my pain and other’s criticisms because it is all that I know—what will I find when I let go?”
I answer, “Finally, you will find You!”

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Half-naked heroes and baby animals… what more could you want! Shirtless firefighters pose with puppies for 2015 charity calendar 

A new calendar has combined two of the most swoon-inducing subjects known to womankind - shirtless heroes and baby animals. 
Charleston Animal Society released the calendar in association with The Fire Department of Charleston, South Carolina, to benefit its Toby's Fund, which treats injured, abused and abandoned animals.
The visual feast, according to the charity, stars 15 of the area’s 'bravest animal-loving firefighters' cradling an array of rescue dogs, puppies and kittens. 
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Almost unmanageable: A new calendar has taken two of the most swoon-inducing subjects known to womankind - shirtless heroes and baby animals - and mashed them together into a visual feast

Almost unmanageable: A new calendar has taken two of the most swoon-inducing subjects known to womankind - shirtless heroes and baby animals - and mashed them together into a visual feast
'Toby’s Fund provides $500,000 in medicine, treatment and recovery therapy to animals who are brought to us homeless, abused and neglected', the charity states.
It's the second consecutive year CAS has released its Firefighter Calendar, following an enormously successful run in 2014.
Last year's effort raised more than $100,000 for Toby's Fund, which is named after one of the charity's first rescue cases.

Good cause: Charleston Animal Society released the calendar in association with The Fire Department of Charleston, South Carolina, to benefit its Toby's Fund, which treats injured, abused and abandoned animals

Good cause: Charleston Animal Society released the calendar in association with The Fire Department of Charleston, South Carolina, to benefit its Toby's Fund, which treats injured, abused and abandoned animals

Meow! According to the charity, the calendar stars 15 of the area’s 'bravest animal-loving firefighters'

Meow! According to the charity, the calendar stars 15 of the area’s 'bravest animal-loving firefighters'

Puppy love: Whose eyes are more enchanting here? It's hard to say

Puppy love: Whose eyes are more enchanting here? It's hard to say
'Toby came to CAS with severe chemical burns, but was rehabilitated and later adopted by a loving family,' says Caroline Eller, the organization's director of development. 
'That's our goal for every animal who comes through our doors.'
Of the driving concept behind the calendar, Ms Eller states: 'We rescue animals, firefighters rescue humans, it was a natural fit.'
The 2015 Firefighter Calendar can be purchased online at www.charlestonfirefightercalendar.com


Double trouble: Toby’s Fund provides $500,000 in medicine, treatment and recovery therapy to animals who are brought to them homeless, abused and neglected 

Double trouble: Toby’s Fund provides $500,000 in medicine, treatment and recovery therapy to animals who are brought to them homeless, abused and neglected 

Arm candy: One firefighter brandishes a slightly bemused-looking puppy

Arm candy: One firefighter brandishes a slightly bemused-looking puppy

Casual: This strapping young hero cradles his canine co-star amid a smoke-filled building

Casual: This strapping young hero cradles his canine co-star amid a smoke-filled building

Savior: 'We rescue animals, firefighters rescue humans, it was a natural fit,' says Caroline Eller, CAS's director of development

Savior: 'We rescue animals, firefighters rescue humans, it was a natural fit,' says Caroline Eller, CAS's director of development

You're welcome: This will be CAS's second consecutive Firefighter Calendar, after last year's effort raised more than $100,000 for Toby's Fund

You're welcome: This will be CAS's second consecutive Firefighter Calendar, after last year's effort raised more than $100,000 for Toby's Fund

Tanksome: Some firefighters are topless, others aren't, but bulging biceps appear in every shot 

Tanksome: Some firefighters are topless, others aren't, but bulging biceps appear in every shot 

Model looks: It seems inconceivable that one firefighters unit could include quite so many genetic lottery winners, but the proof is plain to see

Model looks: It seems inconceivable that one firefighters unit could include quite so many genetic lottery winners, but the proof is plain to see

A good year beckons: One hunk and one pup for every month of 2015

A good year beckons: One hunk and one pup for every month of 2015

Winning smiles: Here's hoping this year's calendar will draw in a wealth of donations for Toby's Fund

Winning smiles: Here's hoping this year's calendar will draw in a wealth of donations for Toby's Fund

Where is the baby animal? This shot seems to missing a very key component 

Where is the baby animal? This shot seems to missing a very key component 

That's all folks: All the stars of the delightful calendar amass to bid us farewell 

That's all folks: All the stars of the delightful calendar amass to bid us farewell 


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2891460/Half-naked-heroes-baby-animals-want-Shirtless-firefighters-pose-puppies-2015-charity-calendar.html#ixzz3NWNASeB6
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Happy New Year




43 Of The Most Romantic Lines From Literature

Suggested by susiem424348d09 Frau Böb (buuusyyyy) / Flickr: frauboeb
2. “He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.” 
—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina 
Suggested by Vivi Hyacinthe on Facebook
3. “Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same…If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” 
—Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights 
Suggested by Alex Zrenner on Facebook
4. “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.” 
—Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice 
Suggested by Giovana Draghi on Facebook
5. “You and I, it’s as though we have been taught to kiss in heaven and sent down to earth together, to see if we know what we were taught.” 
—Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago 
Suggested by TXBluebonnet
Suggested by Rajina Shrestha on Facebook Kevin Dooley / Flickr: pagedooley
7. “Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps… perhaps…love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.” 
—Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea 
Suggested by Christianna Novakovic on Facebook
8. “If it weren’t for her, there would never have been an empty space, or the need to fill it.”
—Nicole Krause, The History of Love 
Suggested by Marlaine23
9. “He doesn’t want you to be real, and to think and to live. He doesn’t love you. But I love you. I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings, even when I hold you in my arms.” 
—E. M. Forster, A Room With A View 
Suggested by eriamasmi
10. “The more you love someone, he came to think, the harder it is to tell them. It surprised him that strangers didn’t stop each other on the street to say I love you.”
—Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated 
Suggested by janal44d6632e0
Suggested by Farin Schlussel on Facebook. Barbara Willi / Flickr: barbara-pictures
12. “I took a photo of us mid-embrace. When I am old and alone, I will remember that I once held something truly beautiful.” 
—Joe Dunthorne, Submarine 
Suggested by mjmcgarry13
13. “I’m watching her talk. Watching her jaw move and collecting her words one by one as they spill from her lips. I don’t deserve them. Her warm memories. I’d like to paint them over the bare plaster walls of my soul, but everything I paint seems to peel.”
—Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies 
Suggested by Larissa Trevino
14. “When you love something it loves you back in whatever way it has to love.” 
—John Knowles, A Separate Peace 
Suggested by mollyp49cf70741
15. “If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If we were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.” 
—Michelle Hodkin, The Evolution of Mara Dyer 
Suggested by marashaw
Suggested by AHopefulPessimist irisb477 / Flickr: emeraldrose
17. “Do I love you? My god, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches.” 
—William Goldman, The Princess Bride 
Suggested by ericag5
18. “A love story is not about those who lose their heart but about those who find that sullen inhabitant who, when it is stumbled upon, means the body can fool no one, can fool nothing— not the wisdom of sleep or the habit of social graces. It is a consuming of oneself and the past.” 
—Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient 
Suggested by heatherl46fd8569e
19. “Every lover is, in his heart, a madman, and, in his head, a minstrel.” 
—Neil Gaiman, Stardust 
Suggested by katiea47d3178d6
20. “When the day shall come that we do part,” he said softly, and turned to look at me, “if my last words are not ‘I love you’-ye’ll ken it was because I didna have time.” 
—Diana Gabaldon, Outlander 
Suggested by Sara Westcott on Facebook
Suggested by Ronny Manor on Facebook James Morley / Flickr: whatsthatpicture
22. “Yet everything that touches us, me and you,
takes us together like a violin’s bow,
which draws one voice out of two separate strings.” 
—Rainer Maria Rilke, “Love Song” 
Suggested by Jack Snyder on Facebook
23. “I have been astonished that Men could die Martyrs for their religion - I have shudder’d at it. I shudder no more - I could be martyr’d for my Religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that. I could die for you. […] My love is selfish. I cannot breathe without you.” 
—John Keats, in a letter to Fanny Brawne 
Suggested by Erika Ashlee Bakal on Facebook
24. “And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy.” 
—Plato, The Symposium
25. “If you ever have need of my life, come and take it.” 
—Anton Chekhov, The Seagull 
Suggested by RW89
Suggested by sharzdb Cristina Ivan / Flickr: krystynana
27. “I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat was threadbare - there were holes at his elbows; the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul.” 
—Victor Hugo, Les Misérables 
Suggested by emilya425ae247c
28. “We loved with a love that was more than love.” 
—Edgar Allan Poe, “Annabel Lee” 
Suggested by Shannon Arney on Facebook
29. “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living. You said I killed you—haunt me then. The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe—I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” 
—Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights 
Suggested by Pam Orr on Facebook
30. “When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.” 
—William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet 
Suggested by Molly Moreau on Facebook
Suggested by Justin Ayotte on Facebook Yen H Nguyen / Flickr: yenstefanie
32. “I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” 
—Charles Dickens, Great Expectations 
Suggested by Megan Rose Scott on Facebook
33. “Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name.” 
—Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn 
Suggested by Megan Elizabeth on Facebook
34. “I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.”
—Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre 
Suggested by Emily Sposa on Facebook
35. “Is love this misguided need to have you beside me most of the time? Is love this safety I feel in our silences? Is it this belonging, this completeness?” 
—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun 
Suggested by gemsowerby
Suggested by Christopher Harress on Facebook Neal Fowler / Flickr: 31878512@N06
37. “Explain! Tell a man to explain how he dropped into hell! Explain my preference! I never had a PREFERENCE for her, any more than I have a preference for breathing. No other woman exists by the side of her. I would rather touch her hand if it were dead, than I would touch any other woman’s living.” 
—George Eliot, Middlemarch 
Suggested by Gina Clark on Facebook
38. “You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.” 
—John Green, The Fault in Our Stars 
Suggested by Reagan Dreiling on Facebook
39. “His examination revealed that he had no fever, no pain anywhere, and that his only concrete feeling was an urgent desire to die. All that was needed was shrewd questioning…to conclude once again that the symptoms of love were the same as those of cholera.” 
—Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera 
Suggested by Diana Betancourt Ortega on Facebook
Suggested by katys4deff4ddd NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center / Flickr: nasamarshall
41. “I do love nothing in the world so well as you - is not that strange?”
—William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing 
Suggested by Emily Georgina on Facebook
42. “Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still: if you raved, my arms should confine you, and not a strait waistcoat—your grasp, even in fury, would have a charm for me: if you flew at me as wildly as that woman did this morning, I should receive you in an embrace, at least as fond as it would be restrictive. I should not shrink from you with disgust as I did from her: in your quiet moments you should have no watcher and no nurse but me; and I could hang over you with untiring tenderness, though you gave me no smile in return; and never weary of gazing into your eyes, though they had no longer a ray of recognition for me.” 
—Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre 
Suggested by Gina Clark on Facebook
Suggested by Stephanie Swanson from Facebook. Via Richard Fisher / Flickr: richardfisher