Happy New Year (January 1st, 2022)

Yoga can make us realize the inner state within those who carved ancient temple arts
https://www.kaiutyogaboulder.com/kaiut-yoga-and-metabolism/
David was created by Michelangelo between 1501-04, depicting him: as alert, ready for
combat. Irving Stone in Agony & Ecstasy writes, he was euphoric when carving marble,
would work non-stop, with a candle-holder hat, barely eating, sleeping. Kind of Yogic
attention with a slowed-down metabolism, low energy waste, stillness, and little friction.

Yoga can take us from incessant (in)activity to meaningful action
https://www.themarginalian.org/2019/11/21/kahlil-gibran-prophet-talking/
Lebanese American poet, Kahlil Gibran (The Prophet) writes you are good when you
are one with yourself, strive to give of yourself, when you are fully awake in your speech,
walk to your goal. Yoga can empower us to keep moving towards increasing stillness. He
adds, in your longing for your giant self lies your goodness, in countless ways: all in you.

Yoga opens a new dimension that there is no life’s calling but life is calling
https://bodha.com/journal/avoiding-stagnation
When life calls, involvement becomes total. One finds confidence in doing things that
one has never done before. Michelangelo, took up painting, although he was into
sculpture. He did not socialize, but relished in getting stones from the quarry, anatomy,
dissecting bodies. Yoga takes us to a ‘being-doing-having’ mode, so as not to stagnate.

Yoga can manifest the spirit of mountaineering in our Consciousness
https://www.yogalacrosse.com/blog/calming-the-waves-of-consciousness/
In Yoga, the canyons & mountains, peaks & valleys symbolize states of Consciousness.
When one peak is reached within, another peak beacons. Yogic poet R.N. Tagore wrote,
as we spend time, money, energy going far-off to see the mountains, oceans; do spend
time to look within much closer to home as fulfillment comes from expanded calmness.

Yogic Process can make one realize development as a Butterfly’s life journey
https://yogahillsboro.com/the-holy-longing/
Like the caterpillar, yoga helps in shedding old habits, stories, beliefs; entering chrysalis,
where outwardly one may look the same, inwardly big changes keep happening. Slowly
one emerges, with wings to fly. Goethe wrote in, The Holy Longing, you are the butterfly
and you are gone: to die and so to grow, else only a troubled guest on the dark earth.

Yoga can teach us impermanence to reinforce that it too shall pass
https://inspiringchildren.org/
Grammy-nominated singer, Jewel Kilcher, launched Inspiring Children Foundation, to
teach mental hygiene. At 15 had panic attacks, tried to pay rent, hold down jobs. At 18,
was homeless, shoplifting, experienced anxiety disorder, till she started meditating. It
has made her loving, resilient, not bitter, mistrusting. She feels we should cultivate time
to relate to ourselves to be with the center of creativity, then just be with jobs, friends.

Yoga can foster resilience, curiosity like Tolstoy and Hopper
https://kulayoga.com.au/kulablog/be-curious-through-your-yoga-practice/
Leo Tolstoy wrote, “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. True life is
lived when tiny changes occur.” Yoga is a way of making incremental changes to quieten
the chattering mind, allowing us to enter that realm of timelessness. Rear Admiral Grace
Hopper persisted on a computer language based on English, despite many who
questioned, and developed FLOW-MATIC which led to COBOL. Perseverance is key.

Yoga can help instill values of generous discipline vs be propitiatory or vindictive
https://medium.com/@teacher_finn/the-yoga-of-positive-discipline-8b9c3a6cd948
Bernard Shaw’s play, Man & Superman, shows Yogic value changes: rich to prosperous,
servile to loyal, sheepish to dutiful, patriotic to public-spirited, quarrelsome to
courageous, obstinate to determined, obtuse to self-controlled, domineering to
masterful, vain to self-respecting, opinionated to intelligent, factious to progressive.

Yoga can help break the insanity of unfulfilled passions of the past
https://soulsalt.com/feeling-unfulfilled/
In the story “Hungry Stones” by R.N.Tagore, a tax collector in a dilapidated palace,
eventually realizes that the palace stones have preserved lifetimes of ungratified desires.
As his curiosity turns to obsession, escape appears impossible. Yoga can help one live in
the present with deep attention and wide awareness, free from the shackles of the past.

Yogic Practice can teach us about commitment and authenticity like Goethe
https://samyayogahealing.com/the-importance-of-commitment-on-the-spiritual-path/
Goethe said: “Until one is committed—there is hesitancy. The chance to draw back,
therefore, always ineffectiveness.” Commitment is made from a place of duty. Yoga
shows wisdom is gained from doing, studying. Commitment is repetition: catalyst,
a trigger for engagement. Shaw said commitment makes one change circumstances.

Yoga can help us strive for George Bernard Shaw’s sage advice to start playing
https://www.ekhartyoga.com/articles/practice/being-playful-in-your-yoga-practice
Irish playwright Bernard Shaw wrote, “You don’t stop playing because you get old. You
get old because you stop playing”. Yoga says, it is not our age that stops our flexibility,
but our thinking that we can’t be bendy. The body is the gross form of the mind, the mind the
subtle form of the body. It can change our minds, break dead habits, with power within.

Yogic Education can be liberating, as Lennon sang in Imagine all the people
https://chopra.com/articles/7-ways-to-access-your-intuition-and-cosmic-intelligence
John Lennon imagines a world at peace, with no divisions but with a realized spirituality
where a person does not become imprisoned by thoughts of others, which causes rigidity
to set it, and one’s ability to fly in the sky (Above us) of truth is destroyed. Feeding
thoughts mean feeding memory which is mechanical; It does not spark intelligence.