Good Mind, Good Mind.

The mind gets a bad rap in some spiritual traditions.

I like my mind most of the time; and there is no need to exterminate it as some practices would have us believe!

Anyway it is a part of us, and a part of this life experience! It can work for us, not against us.

Mind discerns, creates, contemplates and invents good things!

Sometimes it runs a muck, but in a flash it comes back to the present with a little gentleness on our part.

Colors of the Mind Batik by Stephanie Ann Pappas

Praises to a healthy mind! And body/mind.

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Dolphin Yoga in Tulum, MX

Stephanie Pappas and the Dolphin Healer Yogi

In 2001, I had an eye twitch for 3 months after the 9/11 event, and teaching yoga in a boys prison camp. The twitch was so annoying and it only went away when I ran vigorously on the canal path along the Delaware River.

So,  I went on a vacation to Tulum, MX  with my yoga friend John F. and swam with some amazing dolphins. It was his birthday gift to me.

I was so touched by their gentleness and compassion.

I cried like a baby at dinner afterwords. The Mayan waiter, Ramon, was really the manager at Zamas Restaurant on the beach, but was filling in that night because they were short-staffed. Ramon was understanding, and listened to my glassy-eyed dolphin tourist story of that day with a big smile and kind eyes.

One year later, on yet another Tulum vacation, I ended up getting shown a piece of property in Tulum town from that same Ramon, and buying it with cash over coffee! His uncle was the owner, and the mayor of the town.

And so goes the circular journey of magic in this life!

It seems that anything very significant that has every happened to me, I realize  has happened with little or no effort on my part.

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Protect Your Loving World – a Call to Women

By Stephanie Pappas
1/25/12
Hey Women. It is time to do something different. Put your comfort zone aside.

We intuitively know something is wrong in society and in this world
when we see pictures of starving children and animals with their
faces bashed in on facebook.

We know how to birth; literally and figuratively.

For the most part, our hearts know about love, and how to protect and
cultivate a loving atmosphere.

We love our men, and they can be so supportive, but our men also like war games, and weapons of destruction.

The fear/ego/power based part of their male brains is designed to create walls of protection for us.
However the walls close us off and make others wrong. They kill others they feel are wrong.

Fear and intellect overrides their hearts and they forget that true protection and safety is based on love and connection.
It is not their fault. It is their condition. I am not saying women don’t do this, but look at history and you will
factually see we created millions of times less suffering.

It is time that women step forward and put forth our truth based on our
innate goodness and loving feelings toward humanity. We can create
businesses that will grow the truth of connection, not separation.

We can feel and see that time is running out to help each other on this Earth.

What idea do you have brewing Ms.? It might take some planning and research, but
you have time. You KNOW it is worth it. What do you feel? What does your life stand for?

Instead of competing with other women for a man’s love and attention, support and connect with
one another to greatness and goodness.

To be continued…

Love, Stefani

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My New Spanish Yoga Book

I just released my first yoga book in Spanish! It is a translation of my Yoga Posture Adjustments and Assisting book. Here is the back cover information in Spanish. For the holidays, it is a great gift for Spanish speaking yoga teachers, trainees, or serious yoga students. There are not many books about yoga in Spanish for teachers, so I am delighted to have published one of them!

La primera guía extensa y comprensible para instructores y estudiantes de yoga en español, que incluye todos los detalles sobre cómo ajustar y asistir a alguien mientras realiza una postura de yoga. Con la reciente popularidad que el yoga ha adquirido, este libro es particularmente invaluable para millones de personas que enseñan o practican esta disciplina, pues las claras instrucciones y la generosa cantidad de fotos facilitan a los instructores el aprendizaje y la comprensión para asistir a sus estudiantes. Los estudiantes también pueden utilizar esta guía para profundizar en su práctica personal y aplicar los principios en parejas. Aquí se demuestran y explican las técnicas de ajuste y asistencia para más de 65 posturas, ilustradas con alrededor de 200 fotos.

Usted puede aprender:

* Como ajustar y asistir a alguien mientras realiza una postura de yoga

* Como ejecutar ajustes utilizando mecánicas corporales efectivas

* Múltiples variantes de como ajustar en una postura

* Frases que pueden ayudar a sus estudiantes o parejas/compañeros de yoga

* Maneras de acomodar diferentes tipos de cuerpos

* Como ayudar a sus estudiantes a profundizar en las posturas de manera segura

La comunidad internacional de yoga se beneficiará enormemente con este libro.

“Pienso que tu libro es fabuloso. Tengo muchos libros de yoga, todos reconocidos internacionalmente por algunos de los Yogis más famosos en el mundo. Aún así llevo largo tiempo buscando “este” libro, con simples, aplicables y manejables técnicas para asistir a mis estudiantes mientras realizan posturas. Encuentro tu libro naturalmente amigable sin ser intimidante ni pretencioso. Es una gran herramienta para instructores y estudiantes en entrenamiento. Me gusta mucho el hecho de que tus modelos sean gente “real”; todos con diferentes tipos de cuerpo y niveles variados en su práctica. Me gustaría utilizar tu libro en mi propio programa de entrenamiento”. – Violeta Pastor Wilson, Entrenadora de Instructores de Yoga, Fundadora de la Alianza Canadiense de Yoga.

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Yoga – Radiant Body, Reverent Breath

What I’d really like to share with you about the yoga practice…

Now for sale my new yoga book for all levels

• Yoga offers you a deeper appreciation of your body –your temple this time around.
• Yoga helps you age gracefully and with dignity.
• Yoga offers us the awareness of who we are – and who we are not.
• Yoga offers us a means to be kinder and more compassionate with ourselves.
• Yoga is more than just touching your toes.
• Yoga is more than fitness. It includes something for all levels of our being: lungs, organs, glands, emotions, mind, spirit, muscles.
• Yoga has the power to bring you into the present moment and accept yourself as you are.
• Yoga is a great way to feel connected in your community.
• Yoga classes are a way of encountering like-minded individuals.
• The breath is more important than the postures.
• Yoga is a friend for life.
• Yoga is the best preventative medicine and it costs nothing!
• Yoga is like a self-therapy and self-massage.
• Yoga is a gift passed on through the ages and never gets old.
• Every time you do a pose or take a breath you do it in a fresh new moment.
• Practicing with friends or loved ones increases understanding, intimacy, and belongingness.
• You can practice yoga on your own by listening to your own innate intelligence –
  that same intelligence that is there to heal your cuts and wounds.
• Yoga transcends race, culture, religion, class, and age.
• You can practice yoga when you are feeling well or not so well.
• Yoga just feels so complete.
• http://www.YogaAtYourWall.com

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Excerpt from Yoga at Your Wall

No coincidences.

During the past year as I wrote Yoga at Your Wall, I experienced one of the most challenging years of my life. As I practiced yoga at physical walls in NJ and Mexico, I also found myself against emotional walls, intellectual walls, and spiritual walls. So many distractions interfered with my writing. At times, what appeared to be stumbling blocks between me and completing this book were actually starting blocks motivating me to write more. Writing and yoga, yoga and writing became the safe places to be.

And as I write this blog, I am fiercely focusing on the page to stop the vertigo that started over a month ago. What do you think? Maybe it will go away once the publisher starts printing the book next week? Is it the last of the great walls before publication?

I offer this book to you in gratitude for getting me through a challenging year. If you find yourself against the wall, hitting your wall, or between a wall and a hard place in life, know that you are not alone. As you read these pages, keep in mind that I was encountering the largest and hardest walls in my life.

At the beginning, I had no electricity in the Caribbean cabin I call home. To order to keep writing, I relied on electrical outlets at friend’s homes and internet cafes. I wrestled with menopausal symptoms, allergies, and various tropical diseases which were all exaggerated by the intense summer heat and humidity. I swatted away a variety of tropical pests between paragraphs: scorpions, spiders, mosquitoes, flies, ants and another unidentified insect that bit in its own unique way. I scratched and itched during file saves.

A few weeks after the initial concept for this book began taking shape, my mom was rushed to the hospital in New Jersey. The diagnosis was heart failure. I shuttled myself back and forth between NJ and Mexico all year. And then there was the break-up of a very intense 6 year relationship, and learning to live alone in a foreign country.

Eventually I had electricity, but so did my neighbors. As I powered up my computer, they powered up their stereo and celebrated with thunderous music and around the clock parties—some lasting for 4 days. As the walls vibrated around me, I inserted my ear plugs and wrote more.

Practicing yoga is an act of kindness toward ourselves. Even if we dedicate 10 minutes a day to our own well-being, self-awareness, and spirit in the middle of chaos and drama, it is time well spent.I hope this book inspires you to practice more yoga— wherever and whenever you encounter walls!

Namaste,

Stephanie

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Yoga at Your Wall

Okay, okay. I will start a blog even if I don’t think anyone will read it.
That comment oozes doubt and low self-worth – those lovely codependent mental tendencies!

The book is finished and will be in print by February 2009.

The web site is http://www.YogaAtYourWall.com

I look forward to sharing this book. I hit all my emotional, spiritual and physical walls while I wrote this book.

I keep hitting them. You are not alone. You will read more about the walls I encountered and encounter on this blog. How could I write otherwise?

Read my blog life lessons from my 9 cats:

Brave adventures from Bat Kitty
Retreating from society from Reina
Paying attention to everyone from Pijamas
Jumping through windows from Junio
Clever entrances and exits from Cow Face Kitty (a.k.a. Gomukha in Sanskrit)
Seven Wonders from Seven (a.k.a. SIETE en Spanish)
Frolic time from Franki
Stealth from Sylvester
Cry when you need to from Little Cry Baby (a.k.a. Chilloncita in Spanish)

Editors, please write me at stefanipappas@hotmail.com if you would like a review copy.

Find me at Stephanie Pappas on Facebook.

Franki Yogi

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