love poem: radical acceptance

Here's something I've never done before: shared some of my writing. But it felt like I should, and when my heart speaks, I'm powerless to do anything but listen. This is what I'm practicing:

Radical Acceptance
For him
I have lain down

Shone the light into the ground
Seen below the resistance and strife
The fears--yes, fears--of sharing my life

I have been yelling in my head
Screaming words I've left unsaid

Driving to exhaustion the
love love love love love

On my knees, forehead to the floor
I sent a prayer to the universe
"I don't know what to do anymore"

Ringing through my tears of false sorrow
The answer came clear--sunk into my marrow

Accept him

There is no love
That is not fully given
No conditions set out
Or contracts written

There is no love
Unless you fully accept him

Clint Eastwood: the gun-slinging yogi

It's true. I didn't make it up.

Straight from the manly man's mouth (via sawf news), who meditates twice a day:

"It works great," Eastwood says. "Because it just gives you a chance to
gather your thoughts."

"I'm religious about it when I'm working."

And while he works up a sweat on the elliptical trainer for half an
hour every day, he is not too macho to do a few yoga sessions with his wife Dina
Eastwood.

"[In the evening] I'll pump some iron," he says. "And I stretch.
Sometimes my wife and I go on vacation and she'll wanna do a yoga class, and Ill
say: 'Yeah, I'll take it with you'."

thoughts on manifesting: schmanifesting

This is what I'm wondering: Is there a point in taking time to send positive, loving, hopefully-manifesting thoughts in a certain direction?

Or is the power in recognizing, and catching ourselves out of, negative, "can't do it" thoughts?

Is the power in staying on top of our mind, in recognizing it's just a tool for us to use, and that we can choose our thoughts?

Is the power in surrounding ourselves with positivity: daily affirmations, mantras, books, TV shows, blogs, and people who believe in us--and themselves?

Is the power in recognizing that positive thinking can be transplanted by powerful thinking: recognizing that there is always good in this world--even though some situations just plain suck?

p.s. I don't think a mantra has to be Sanskrit--though I do love them, and have been using Om Namah Shivaya and really loving the book Healing Mantras. A friend uses "I do what I can right now."

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meltdown: real life = real yoga test

So here's what I think about living as a modern-day yogi: it's a helluva lot harder than being an ancient-day yogi. Yup, being a "householder" as Yogi Bhajan called us, really ups the risk of losing our yoga.

This week, my internet modem broke down. One minute I'm working away, racing through client projects, ticking off my to-do list like crazy, and the next minute--Nadda. Not a thing is goin' on 'cause I can't get online. Two hours later and a long convo with a Telus helper and the conclusion is: "we'll send you a new modem in three to five days." Three to FIVE days! Hang on, lemme just call up all the people who depend on me to get things done for them--I'll just let them all know it'll be a week late. All of it.

For me, this is "Lost: Yoga" prime time. Freak-out central. Lucky for me, this is where my heart spoke up. It said, "Here's a challenge that's even bigger than trying to get into Mayurasana. It's even bigger than making sure you get up early every day--no matter what--to do your morning Sadhana. This challenge is to keep your yoga, the real heart-open, perspective-bringing, calm-inducing, loving yoga, going off the mat--into this real world."

So have I floated through this week, no big deal? Not entirely. But let the record show that Lindsey Lewis, she who at one time, in another life, was known for needing to control every detail of not just her life but those of the others in her life, too, has slept through every night soundly, has enjoyed the time spent working in a cafe, has stayed calm for probably about 90% of this time, and has realized, too, the great gift of being welcomed into the home of her amazing yogi-friend B--who's dining table I've spent the past two and a half days working from.

I don't actually have a handy list of take-away-tips to share with anyone hoping to use them in their own "Lost: Yoga" moments. What I do have is the understanding that the power came from simply recognizing that this was my big challenge: to keep my yoga going, in all these moments, off my mat.

Namaste