Are you in search of some daily inspiration? How would you like a little "OM" delivered right to your computer every day? You can either visit the Daily Om website daily . . . or you can sign up to receive their daily emails. They deliver all sorts of interesting inspirations on a variety of topics. On the site you will find daily horoscopes and an intersting marketplace. Check it out!

Grocery Store Meditation

Last week I was talking to a friend who happens to love to blog. She loves reading blogs, writing blogs, talking about blogs . . . I told her that I stuggle to find interesting things to say to fellow yogis and she suggested that I write about ME. I thought, "now who wants to hear about me?" . . . but today I realized that simple things happen in my every day life that do relate to yoga. I mean, I'm not going to share my yoga routine with you, but the aspects of yoga that happen off the mat are the ones I find interesting.

And that leads me to today's entry. I realized this evening that I need to practice meditation at the grocery store. I mean I need some DEEP breathing to keep me from choking some people. As if shopping for groceries isn't stressful enough for me, the checkout line usually puts me over the edge. Today I picked what I thought was the shortest line. After all, I have things to do and dogs waiting at home. So the person in front of me is writing out a check, slower than I thought possible. Who writes that slow? No, wait a minute . . . who doesn't have a bank debit card today? To all the people out there that still write checks in stores . . . . GET A DEBIT CARD for heaven's sake. So the cashier takes the check and looks at it very closely. Then she sighs and turns on her little blinky light. That's it, I'm gonna blow. I'm thinking that eating is over-rated and I should just walk away and fast for a few days.

So the manager comes over and explains some reason why they can't take the check. What happens next? The customer says, "oh, can I just use this?" and pulls out a debit card. HELLO!!!! If you had a debit card in the first place, WHY ARE YOU WRITING A CHECK? Am I the only one that feels this way? Can anyone tell me why people are still writing checks at stores? I just don't get it.

But the point of this whole story is to say that my reaction to this whole scene was just terrible. After all, it was only another 5 minutes of my life. Part of me thinks "Yes, 5 precious minutes wasted." But another part of me realizes that I could have used those 5 minutes to relax and meditate. I should have been breathing deeply and using the time to contemplate something larger than me. So I promise to have more patience in line at the store. I am going to take deep breathes and imagine myself somewhere else - a mini vacation of sorts. But if there's a price check, I just may have to break out into a down dog!

For the Love of Autumn

Last week I got an email from a photographer that was questioning why I give my photography away on www.yogadudes.com. He said that he was trying to sell similar stuff on his own site and was not happy that I just give it way. So, being nosy, I went to check out his work and I must say, I was honored that he compared his work to mine! He was a real photographer with great photos. I don't consider myself a real photographer. I just happen to love to take pictures and love to share them with anyone willing to look at them.

This made me realize that I should share more of my photography in this YogaDudes blog. I decided to turn one YogaDudes inspirational photo into a Windows desktop background every month. I will post these new desktops in this blog for anyone to enjoy.

But in the meantime, I want to share some great Fall photos that I took a couple of weekends ago in Old Wethersfield, CT.

Healthy Tip of the Day - Organic Produce Codes

Did you know that you can tell if fruit and veggies are organic just by looking at the little sticker on them? Well, you can! The numbered stickers on store-bought fruit and vegetables indicate whether the items were organically grown. Regular produce carries a four-digit code starting with a 3 or 4, while organic has five digits starting with a 9. For example, if a bunch of conventional carrots is tagged 4094, its organic counterpart would be labeled 94094.

One Way To Find Out

I read this today on Daily OM and I really liked it. Thought it might be good to share:

One Way To Find Out
You Never Know Until You Try

When contemplating whether to do something or not, a plucky voice in our heads may say, "You never know until you try." This is time-honored wisdom that encourages us to be game rather than to hold back. It reminds us that it is only through experience that we learn about this world and ourselves. Even if we regret the outcome, we have learned something, and the newfound knowledge is almost always worth it.

This wisdom can be applied to situations both large and small. From crossing the Atlantic on a boat to trying Ethiopian food, there's only one way to find out what it's like. We have all had experiences where we tried something we didn't think we'd like and fell in love. We may have found ourselves stuck with nothing to read but a "boring" book, only to kick-start a lifelong passion for Victorian literature. We may have decided that sailing was not for us until we fell in love with someone with a boat. On the other hand, we may try tofu only to learn that it is truly not for us. In this case, we gain greater self-knowledge from the experience. And yet, we might still remain open to trying it prepared in a different way. The right marinade might make you a convert-you'll never know if you don't try it.

It is often said that at the end of our lives we are more likely to regret the things we did not do than the things we did. As an exercise to test your own willingness to discover through doing, try making a list of things you regret not having done. You may begin to notice patterns such as a failure to say what you really think at key moments or closed-mindedness to certain types of activities. Just being aware of the opportunities you missed might encourage you not to miss them again. There's only one way to find out.

Mental Anguish

Yoga is supposed to help stress, right? And I'm a firm believer in yoga, but what do you do if you have so many things racing inside your head that you simply can not clear it? I once had a dream . . . that dream was to turn my little YogaDudes business into something that I could do full time. I even had fantasies about becoming a yoga instructor and maybe opening a studio with a dear friend. It's so much fun to dream . . . But I also shared a dream with my husband. And that dream was to own and live in a post & beam country retreat. Both of these dreams seemed like they would never really happen and it never occurred to me that one could cancel out the other. But it's happened. We finally found our dream home and yesterday we signed our lives away on the contract that commits us to buying it. And what does that mean for my YogaDudes business? Well, that means that I'll never be able to quit my 'day job.' Well, not unless an awful lot of yogis all buy lots of YogaDudes goodies :-) Tell all your yoga friends - quick!

But seriously, I'm struggling with clearing my mind. I know I should be happy and excited, but I'm feeling terrified. Scared of saying goodbye to the house that I built and poured so much of myself into. Scared of the whole moving process. Scared of moving further away from everything and everyone. Scared my dear friends at home will disown me (yes, Lisa I mean YOU!)

And what a coincendence that I just got an email from a yoga writer. You can go on her website and subscribe to daily yoga articles. Today's opening line read "Do you ever find it hard to concentrate or become easilydistracted?" YES, I do!! If you would like to check out what she had to say, click here. I only subscribed last week and already she has helped me!