Ben's Weekly Spark 4.23.18: A Boy and His Dog, A Guide to Saying "No," and Sword Yoga

...A Weekly Digest of

Community-Generated Tools, Tips & Experiences for Accessing JOY, HOPE, PEACE & LOVE...

(Click here to join our Facebook group where these tools are shared. THANK YOU to the BC Tribe members who contributed to this week's Spark!)

***THIS WEEK'S SPARKS***

🔥JOY: Ty Taylor's performance on For the Record Live's "For the Record: Live at Whitley House" is a surefire way to catch some joy in your life!

The other morning while practicing yoga, I looked at the sword my husband had gifted me on my altar, and was like, “Why not?” And thus, the delight of sword yoga was discovered. Definitely going to be bringing a bag of swords to one of my classes this upcoming week for us all to practice with!

🔥HOPE: This past Sunday was Earth Day, and I drove with some friends down to San Diego to celebrate at their annual Earth Fair! Thousands of people gathered to celebrate everything our planet gives us and learn how to become more conscious eco-citizens!

🔥PEACE: One of the things I'm working on in life is my ability to say, "no" more often. I'm realizing these days how kindly and compassionately answering "no" is a great way to care for myself and for others. Teacher Marie Forleo has a really great guide to saying "no" below, including a script for graceful ways to say "no" in different common situations.

My yoga teacher, Christy Marsden offered this perspective on time on her blog:

"I am reminded of this quote from Ganga White, “Yoga doesn’t take time, it gives time.” When I find myself thinking or saying, “I don’t have time to do yoga or meditate”, I stop what I am doing, take a few deep breaths with the following words for each breath: I am here. I am now. I am breathing. It helps me to re-center, calm down and re-focus my energy on what I am doing instead of my mind moving into the future with all that needs to be done.

Funny how the faster I move, the more mistakes I tend to make. And the more mistakes I make, the more often I have to re-do what I was doing which means going faster actually takes me longer. Ugh.

Time is what we perceive it to be. The faster we move, the faster time sees to move. The slower we move, the slower time seems to move. Fascinating. And true. Yoga gives us time. It encourages us to breathe deeply with complete attention as we move and transition or as we sit and relax to settle the mind. With practice we are better able to see what comes at us with full awareness and make the choice that is the most appropriate for the situation. Therefore feeling as if time has slowed down."

Check out Christy's blog on Yogablend's website!

🔥LOVE: My friend Joy posted this video of a dog and a boy. I love how faithfully and patiently the dog waits while the boy plays. A beautiful metaphor for how to be of service to the ones we love...