Assignment #1: Creating your Personal Workshop Space-
Workshop Time is important for personal well-being, and for being centered in order to show up for others. This time is for you–when the course ends, you will have established a time with which to engage in a practice of meditation, exercise, study, whatever you find to be pertinent in your own wellness journey. Find a space that works for you, if at all possible, sit in the sun, in nature. If you are on the road, as I have been for numerous years, plan ahead and pull over in a beautiful place. If the weather is not conducive to being outside, I sit in my car overlooking some amazing landscape with the sun streaming in through the front window. If you are a busy mom and the duty allows you to be still, schedule your time after you drop the kids off, or when the baby goes down for a nap. If you have a partner, impress upon him the importance of your time and ask for his help. I find that if I do not take intentional time/space for myself, I waste time wandering from project to project aimlessly–just me. But when I engage my workshop time, I am focused and ready for life.
In yogic practice we call this time Svadhyaya meaning 'one's own reading' or 'self-study'; Sva, meaning own, self, or the human soul, and Adhyaya, meaning lesson, lecture, or reading, and also implies the practice of studying scriptures, as well as a practice of studying the Self. In the practice of yoga, when we see the word self written with a small ‘s’, it refers to ourselves in this physical form, our ego, and who we consider ourselves to be on a daily basis. When you read the word ‘Self’ with a capital ‘S’, this is likely to refer to the true self–Atman, or the divine within us.
There are literally thousands of yogic texts containing fascinating, inspiring and transformational writing about the practice of yoga in all its many forms. Some of the most popular and well-known texts which are still studied today include The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, The Bhagavad Gita, and The Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Yoga is a life-long pursuit and requires intention and focus, as is our health and wellness. You may opt to select a Yoga text and work through the pages slowly during your workshop time when you complete this course; you may even find that an hour a day (30 & 30) is simply not enough. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra says: “Study thyself, discover the divine'' (II.44) in you.
It’s probably fair to say that the more we realize what we are not, the closer we come to realizing who or what we truly are. By studying ‘the self’ and recognizing our habits surrounding food, we may come to realize that what we believe about health and wellness is not what we actually practice in our daily lives. The small “s” self is laden with habits and patterns that are well established by familial, cultural and social conditioning that we engage without thought. For example, having that first cup of coffee in the morning, when used in excess, can compromise our liver and kidneys, especially before we have properly hydrated ourselves with our first medicine–water. However, coffee has become the gold standard of morning wake-up, with common connotations that place coffee in the must have first thing in the morning category with sayings such as “ May your coffee be strong and your Monday be short;” “ Today's good mood is sponsored by coffee;” “ Caffeine- It maintains my sunny personality;” “ Three cups of coffee a day keeps the doctor away;” “ Stressed, blessed, and coffee obsessed.” Mess with someone’s coffee habit and you could have a fight on your hands. The ‘s’ in our small ‘self’ is mostly concerned with survival, which usually entails getting what it wants in all situations, and proving it is indeed ‘the best’ despite what consequences that might have for us. The small self judges, criticizes, fears, conditions, doubts and is essentially the cause of our own suffering. By paying attention to, or ‘studying’ our ‘self’, we become more aware of the things we do that harm us, and also those which serve us and bring us closer to our true Self.
In this first assignment, you will set an alarm on your phone to remind you of the time you have set aside for engaging the course content and the recommended daily practices. Remember, this course is designed to assist you with honing the life practices that will lead to optimal wellness throughout your life.
ASSIGNMENT #1
