Well it’s moved to justbyoga.com

BelindaThurston.com will undergo a transformation over the next few weeks.

I met and befriended some great people at Kulae – they make biodegradable yoga mats that don’t weigh a ton and won’t break the bank. The Kulae peeps started hanging with lots of our peeps and before you knew it we looked like a clan (but aren’t we all anyway?)

Here’s a blog post from Jessica about our revelry. There’s some photos and yes a video called the drunken Om. (sigh)

Community, oneness and a drunken OM all the way home.

Group shot of organizer Jonny Kest with presenters including Seane Corn, Julia Butterfly Hill and Saul David Raye

How can I live my life as an offering?

Every moment of every day is an opportunity to bow in honor of breath.

I know all my actions have impact, so I’m owning the value of that impact RIGHT NOW.

Many of you know that my path has led to becoming a more active member of my community. Whether it’s through yoga, or tai chi or going car-free or being a locavore or just telling kids to stop spray painting in a park I have stepped up my role and voice as a being.

Well, I’m even more committed now to taking deeper steps to use my mindfulness practices – yoga, tai chi and Buddhism  – to be more spiritually activated in the fabric of my daily being. I cannot afford not to.

As promised, here are some audio and video clips from this weekend’s 11^th annual Midwest Yoga Conference outside of Chicago. There was plenty of asana but that was the smallest part of it. We shared our humanity and reaffirmed our need to take our practice off the mat and into action. It’s not a perfect but I’m done practicing, I’m participating, partnering and putting myself in play on the court.

Julia Butterfly Hill and Seane Corn discuss spiritual activism and money

VIDEO – “Julia Butterfly Hill, Yoga Superhero” – Jonny Kest

AUDIO ONLY (not high quality but it is audible)

http://bythurston.posterous.com/julia-butterfly-hill-yoga-superhero-midwest-y

VIDEO – Yogis talk about “Spiritual activism and making money.”

Julia Butterfly Hill, Seane Corn, David Saul Raye, Jonny Kest

(video may still be processing on YouTube)

It was for the simplest of things:

Reconnecting with good friends;

Meeting new kindred people;

Messages that reaffirm my spirit;

Mantras for new motivation and action.

You see I met and heard Julia Butterfly Hill.

Here are some key things she said that I wanted to share right away. I’ll do more later, after I’m done sopping all this up with my biscuits this weekend.

“Extraordinary acts are meant for us to embrace the extra and the ordinary in each of us.”

See, Julia spent two years doing something she didn’t think would happen to her. It started as an ordinary thought and then the extra followed.

“You can’t hear in someone else anything that doesn’t already exist in yourself.”

“Everything we need to know is already within us…. We’re just here to remember.”

All the seeds of time are inside of us and we send them forward. Julia connected with the deep roots and ancient spirit of the Redwood forests in the Pacific Northwest. She didn’t know ahead of time what her calling was but it was there all the time.

“Every time we take a breath a miracle  happens.”

We cannot take for granted even something so automatic as the normal cycle of our breathing. Julia spent two years in a tree making a statement of validation of life for the forest – not a protest. Making a statement of the mission of man a steward. Making a statement about this miracle that exists on this planet in so many forms every day.

“It is impossible not to make a difference.”

Everything we do has an impact and influence. We get to choose how and what that influence or impact is. But it is naïve to think…I or it won’t make a difference.

We have been numbed and hypnotized as a society with this statement:

“Throw it away.” “We’ve been conditioned to actually believe there’s such a place as AWAY.”

These are just snippets of last night’s keynote speaker. I have some video and audio. I’ll check the quality when I get home. I’m disconnecting now and hitting my mat for the next two days. Yoga. Aaaah.

Be well. Do good deeds.

Namaste.

With each new year the clarity of my memory’s lens fades and what remains are the essence of pure feeling. Those feelings are the foundation of my being, the comfort and security of a hug, the dose of “act right” from a swatted bottom, the confidence and love from a gleam of pride at the simplest of accomplishments.

Portrait of my mother, Arnita L. Thurston, 1967

I share below a collection of sayings, moments and smiles.

–Little Mouth, aka Sugar Lump, aka Belinda Yvonne

“Get up!”

Who needed alarm clocks? I don’t know about ya’ll but the morning ritual at 1522 Newton could be harsh. But it effectively got you out of bed. The floor would rattle and shake from my mother stomping in a march the length of the house from front to back on the first floor, WHUR blaring and her repeated mantra “Good morning! Get up!”

Ma used to say:

“Fix your face.”

She didn’t tell me it would get stuck or anything. She just wanted it fixed. See I wear every emotion on my face, even the ones I’m not telling anybody about.

“Irrelevant and immadursian.”

I will confer with my brother on the spelling. But immadursian is like irrelevancy’s bigger more irrelevant brother. Get it? The ultimate in “means absolutely nothing to me.”

“Look hard and remember well.”

We didn’t have a lot of money for fancy things like cameras with film. Hah! We would take day trips though and we would ooh and ahh out the window in amazement at a skyline, a mountain, a miracle of some sort or other. But alas, even if we stopped to take a closer look she found a way to have her two children practice the essence of dharma – impermanence.

Ma visiting me in Pennsylvania with Honey Bear when I lived in the country!

A seven-year-old’s birthday.

I woke up on my seventh birthday to many gifts. First, my mother said I didn’t have to go to school.

Then we went to a stranger’s house and inside it was overrun with kittens!

“Pick out whichever one you want.”

I remember crawling on the floor to coax kittens from under furniture, petting them – my face hurting from smiling.

I went home with Jessie and Max that day. Yep, I ended up getting two.

A hand on top of mine.

I’m gripping the fat red pencil hard. It dwarfs my five-year-old hand. I press into my right middle finger until it hurts and causes a bump (that’s still there today). B. B. B.

Stay in the lines. Press hard. Draw straight down, then round and round.

Equally doting on one another.

Paper gouges and tears. Markings somewhat resembling lettering remain.

Then a warm grownup hand slips atop mine and makes gliding motions across the paper.

B-e-l-i-n-d-a.

“There you go Little Sug. That’s beautiful. That’s your name. Now let’s try it again.”

The memory of learning to write with my grandmother is one of my fondest and deepest. I would jump from the table waving a paper, “Look!”

There was always a gleam and a smile and it made me want more.

“I like you.”

My mother used to emphasize when we got “grown” that while she loved us she also LIKED us and would want to know us and hang with us and be friends with us even if she hadn’t given birth to us. She didn’t want to take that for granted and she wanted us to know that

Thurston family at the Buddhism in America conference 2000.

she liked the PEOPLE we had become, outside of the roles of son or daughter, beyond the duties of family.

I did not and have not taken that for granted and genuinely feel the same way about her and my sib, Baratunde.

Embrace each other and your connections. Celebrate your being together. Honor the lessons. Look hard and remember well for the journey is short.

Well, Mother Nature had another idea about the April 24 Earth Day Lansing event.  It was cold and wet but Yoga Lansing for the Earth kept going. Yogis bundled up in fleece, socks and other layers. We practiced smile-asana and had fun.

We had a great time sharing yoga with whoever walked by. And as you can see, we had a ton of fun with the kids.

Sun salutes at the Capitol steps

Swish the Fish does yoga

Frogmasana!

Downward facing dog at the Lansing state Capitol

Warrior 2 at the Lansing state Capitol

Shalabasana at the Lansing state Capitol

Flying warrior? Kids make yoga look so fun!

Om, jnanamudra and meditation at the Lansing state Capitol

Kids having fun with yoga at the Lansing state Capitol for Earth Day.

Little girl takes flight in yoga at the Lansing state Capitol

Rollercoaster-asana was a big hit at Earth Day Lansing.

Many thanks to Ruth Fisk of Center for Yoga and Movement, Lauren Long who teaches at State of Fitness and Yoga State, Anna Kaschner of Feed your Karma, and Connie Varma, Bobbi Jo Minor, Jade Sims who teach at Hilltop Yoga, and  Kathy Ornish of Center for Yoga.  What a blast!

And many mega thanks to Erin Slayter of the Sweaty Mouse, who pulled Earth Day Lansing together. I can’t wait for next year!

Free community class

This week will be the one-month anniversary of the free community class I’ve been teaching at the Shabazz Academy gym on Wednesdays.

Many thanks to everyone who has donated mats, heaters, blankets, time and love!

I got a call from the Ingham County Health Department yesterday asking about the class so they could recommend people to come to it! I love this community.

Our Youth, Our Future

I attended the Michigan Our Youth, Our Future community discussion last Tuesday. And while the keynote speaker, Tavis Smiley, didn’t make it, it was a vibrant conversation and eye-opener about issues that we face in Michigan and the perspective of our  young people.

I’ll post some clips from the event shortly.

Thank you for being my mother, my provider, my home.

Earth Day in Lansing

More than a year ago I donated my car to the VOA and have been on a bike, bus or bumming a ride since.

Last year I joined my first CSA (MSU Student organic farm) and learned what it was like to live on whatever the earth provided at that time in that season.

I’ve started writing about these life changes and sharing the stories of others.

This weekend I’m a part of Yoga Lansing for the Earth.

I believe our community is improving and growing, but there are still areas where we could improve.

(see Earth Day morning bike ride).

Forgive us. Be patient as we heal ourselves in order to heal you.

May you get well and be well.

Just B.

Here’s some random Just B-eing:

Ya’ll saw my new logo. Well check out what Connie’s been doing with the B.

New B for Just B Yoga by Connie Varma

Wait? Is that Jake?

I went to our Lansing Community Newspaper office in Charlotte last week and noticed a portrait that looked strikingly like my friend Jake. What do you think?

Jacob Ball at the Ledges

Jake and Anna in a loving hug

Here's Jake and Anna at Jake's birthday party at MBC.

And here’s some fun kitty shots since I’m babysitting my step-kitties.

Kang Kang is a drama queen.

I call Kang Kang the juvenile delinquent. Do you see why? Plus he looks high.

Inky is always the innocent diva next to Kang Kang.

Lansing yogis to teach yoga for Earth Day at the Capitol steps

Several yogis around Lansing will work together on April 24 to teach yoga at the Capitol steps for Lansing’s Family Eco Fest, an Earth Day Lansing event. We’re calling it Yoga Lansing for the Earth. Check out the schedule.

Celebrating the earth and its cycles with the sun and moon and the union we have with the natural world is yoga. Honoring and protecting the earth is essential in a yoga practice.

Do yoga practitioners have a duty to the earth?

Here’s a breakdown of the sun salute, the core of any yoga practice from some sages.

Sri Pattabhi Jois

“…let me repeat that no asana practice is complete without sun worship. Without its focusing of mental energies, yoga practice amounts to little more than gymnastics and, as such, loses meaning and proves fruitless. Indeed the Surya Namaskaras should never be mistaken for mere physical exercise – for something incidental, that is, that simply precedes the asanas of yoga. Therefore, it is necessary, before beginning the sun salutations, to pray to Surya […] to bestow upon us the good fortune of having only good thoughts, of hearing and speaking only good words and of attaining a sound and strong body, so that we may have a long life and one day achieve oneness with God.”–Sri K. Pattabhi Jois

“The sun salutation is a prayer in motion. It allows us to use the body as an instrument of higher awareness, so that we can receive wisdom and knowledge. The ancient yogis taught that each of us replicates the world at large, embodying “rivers, seas, mountains, fields…stars and planets…the sun and moon” (Shiva Samhita, II. 1-3). The outer sun, they asserted, is in reality a token of our own “inner sun” which corresponds to our subtle, or spiritual, heart. Here is the seat of consciousness and higher wisdom (jnana) and, in some traditions, the domicile of the embodied self (jivatman).”—author unknown

By honoring our planet we honor ourselves.

Take a moment to reflect on your yoga practice and your daily activities and their impacts on the earth.

What’s your yoga mat made of? Where did your clothes come from? Are they designer yoga clothes? Did it employ safe labor practices? Was the fabric made with sustainable and organic practices?

How do you get to your yoga practice (daily? Once a week? However frequently?) Did you spend a few gallons of gas to do it?

Does your studio recycle? Do you use a water bottle from home or do you buy water every day in clear plastic bottles?

Does your studio conserve energy (how much is spent to heat studios in summer?) Is the pursuit of hot power contradictory to being compassionate toward the earth?

What are your props made of? Does your studio or its students donate time and materials to the community?

How do we take our yoga off the mat and into our day to day?

Yoga is more than a span of minutes in postures on your mat. Your yoga practice lies in your actions, your speech, your intentions in all of your being.

Be the change. — Ghandi

The Greater Lansing Convention and Visitor’s Bureau took their link down to this event and removed it from their calendar after my friend Anna called them on it. (see comments)

ORIGINAL POST:

(Pardon this brief break from posts about yoga to make this important announcement)

Are you F-ing kidding me? I know I vowed off the F word but this might warrant a couple of bombs.

How much sense does this make? Claddagh Irish Pub in Lansing is sponsoring “A shot for breast cancer” this Sunday.  How asinine is it to have a benefit for breast cancer by trying to break the world record for “the most consecutive shots” drank in one night of Jameson Whiskey? Whether it’s the most consecutive  shots drank by a group or a contest counting the total number of shots people can repeatedly knock back doesn’t matter to me. I’m revolted by the whole concept.

Proceeds will go to the Sparrow Foundation and organizations that promote breast cancer awareness. And they are OK with this? They couldn’t find a better event to hitch their wagon to?

Let’s cure breast cancer with an event that encourages drinking shots of whiskey? Apparently Lansing has voted and breasts outrank livers in the bodypart poll. We must be making the choice to support this event based on our eyes finding breasts more visually appealing than livers.

All of my glib and snide comments aside I find it an irresponsible event on the part of the organizers. It’s something that might pack the pub on Sunday. Actually it likely will. And the sideline benefit is they get food sales and extra drink sales, etc. So woo hoo for Claddagh for finding a way to make some money.

And shame on the Lansing Convention and Visitor’s bureau for promoting it. I found out about this from a Tweet from them: “Break a world record at @CladdaghLansing in @eastwoodtwnctr to benefit @SparrowHealth Foundation! Details: http://bit.ly/94ElJ7 #lovelansing“

I’m sure there are far better ways to show support for Lansing than backing this event.

I know I might not be making friends here, but is this the kind of community we want to build as we push for a greater, better Lansing?

Why do so many of our community events have to revolve around alcohol? Is this really the only way we know how to get people to participate in something?

There are pub crawls and Thirsty Thursday for the stadium. I think we should draw the line at decency and common-sense philosophy. You don’t show support for helping cure/raise awareness for one horrible disease by encouraging behavior that can cause another.

In the interest of full disclosure:

1. My mother died of cancer
2. I do drink whiskey
3. I would probably vote for breasts over liver in terms of visual appeal

With that said, check out some more info about cancer and you decide for yourself whether you support this type of event and using it to grow a better Lansing.

Cancer Research UK

Alcohol and cancer

National Cancer Institute

Cancer prevalence in the U.S.

Common cancer types