LYM Challenge: Week 7

It's the final frontier! I can't believe the last 6 weeks has passed so quickly and that I am finally facing my 7th and final challenge. I have had so much fun, and learned so many new things during this on and off the mat challenge. I have continued a lot of these things after the challenges have ended, which I'm proud to say has only helped me.
The seventh Moksha pillar is "Be Peace".

Be Peace - We offer the benefit of our practice to the benefit of all beings everywhere.

Sounds like kind of a tall order but it’s actually pretty simple!  When we improve ourselves from within, we have more to offer our family, our community and the world.  For us, this is what yoga is all about.  Working hard on all the pillars, sweating buckets on our mats, all for the benefit of all beings everywhere – all for peace.

The seventh and final challenge is:

Practice 1 hour of silence daily for the next 7 days!

Check out this interview with Deepak Chopra on Listening and Stillness. He has listed some "to dos" to help you be silent.

This challenge is going to be difficult for me. Not entirely because it's an hour, but also because it will be hard to find an hour where I don't have to be speaking to the dog. Most likely I will have to do this later in the evening when I can put him in his crate for bed.

For the next 7 days, enjoy extended Savasanas after each day you practice.  If your studio has the time, work towards 20-30 minute long Savasanas.

If you aren't sure what savasana is check out this video which will show you the posture. Why is savasana so important? Check out this article The Importance of Rest.

Savasana is one of my favourtite postures in yoga. It is in savasana that I am able to let go of all of my stress from the day and just lie there. It is a lot harder than  you think. So many times I am tempted to wipe the sweat that is dripping from my body, open my eyes, take a drink, or get up. But whenever those things come to my mind, I remember that I need this rest, and it is just as important, if not more important than the other postures I practiced today. This is one of the reasons I loved Power Yoga Canada. Savasana was part of the practice there. For about the last 10 mins of practice, the whole class was able to enjoy savasana together, in silence, before we close the practice together. There were no distraction allowed from the other people. At Moksha it is a little different. We spend about 1 min in savasana before closing the practice, and then are given the option to stay as long as we wish. Unfortunately, most people rush out of class to get to the showers, tearing their mats off the floor (which is now sticky from humidity so it makes a very loud noise). It is almost impossible to drown out the amount of noise that is going on, so my savasana is often cut short, not by my choice. I try to remain if I can for at least 10 mins, and then I close my practice in my own way. For this challenge when I do practice, I will try to increase that another 10 mins.

Here are some other links worth checking out that were included in this week's newsletter:

50 Peaceful Things-This is a really neat list of peaceful things to do that the author has created based on "The Book of Awesome". My copy is currently in the mail so it will come at the perfect time for this week's challenge. I'm going to try to do a number of these peaceful things during the week.

The Power of Silence-This article gives us 5 examples of when to use silence and why. Most of us can benefit from reading this article. Two that I was really interested in were gossipping, and during arguments.

The Dalai Lama: 18 Rules for Living-Very inspirational way to look at living your life. Definitely some important lessons in there.

Shhhh...Time to be silent.