Midlife Yogis Return With Shifted States of Mind

 

The midlife yogis are back. We stretched. We learned, We shifted.

You can’t spend a week in the rainforest and not look at your life and the world differently. It’s a new year and if you want this year to be better than last year, make a shift.

I left the rainforest knowing this (1) I could be a better person by controlling my mind and my mouth and (2) I need to be ultra kind to the planet for the sake of the rainforest, the animals, and mankind.

I’ve made efforts in these areas, but now wiser in midlife I’m no longer pussy footing around with it. Won’t you join me in making these shifts, too?

Rainforest Wisdom to Be a Better Person (learned from midlife yogis)

1.  Quit Lashing Out and Start Loving
Believe it or not there were some harsh words said and feelings hurt during the yoga retreat multiple times throughout the week. This is the last place I expected it but it reminds me we’re human. However, instead of trumping someone or tromping someone, just take a breath and be still. There’s too much lashing and not enough loving going on in the world. Agree to disagree. And if you too are writing a blog, get permission for everything you post. Make no assumptions. Be a lover, not a fighter. It’s a lot more fun.

2.  Be Open to It All.
Pura Vida if the shower runs hot and cold. Pura Vida if someone in the group (office, class, book club) is loud, quiet, reserved, or obnoxious. It’s all for observation not judgment. Pura Vida if the yoga position hurts like hell. Observe, back off, adjust, and move forward. Pura Vida. It’s a colloquial term in Costa Rica meaning pure life,  what the hell, whatever, so be it, hello, good bye, and more.

3.   Curb Your Mind
We need to have curb your mind signs in the states as well as curb your dog signs. Our wandering, ADD, ego-driven minds need a choker caller and it’s called meditation. Pick up a book, take a class. Teach yourself to calm you mind through 15 minutes (preferably more) of meditation a day. It might be the defining moment in your year to start this practice.

4. Shut it Off
I didn’t bring a cell phone (imagine). The room had no alarm clock (imagine). It had not TV or air conditioning (imagine). It had no radio, CD player or MP3 player (imagine). All our gadgets, devices, and luxuries are robbing us from time with our kids, with our families, with nature, with what’s going on out there. The good stuff. Shut it off and turn up the volume of your life.

5.  It’s Happy Night All Night
This was a sign posted above a bar and restaurant in Puerto Viejo. It sums up the Tico mindset as compared to ours in the states. We have happy hour and they have happy night, all night.

Check back this week to read my mindful takeaways about being a more conscious person environmentally.

Pura Vida!

Tags: costa rica yoga vacation, midlife crisis, midlife transformation, midlife yogis, over 50, yoga

Category: BRENDA BLOG