Celebrate Summer with Yoga

Last week I got to experience yoga outside for the first time - and it was amazing! I felt so lucky to be able to share a perfect sunny evening with all the lovely ladies - and one gentleman - in our bootcamp! The sun was just perfect and the calming voice of our instructor - Taya Gunsul - drowned out the passing cars.

This Wednesday evening I may try and join The Bhaktishop as they take a special bike ride around Portland and check out some of the best places to do yoga outside and celebrate Portland's month long bike celebration - Pedalpalooza. Meet the group at the top of Mt Tabor and finish at their new studio to close the evening with a yoga practice. I don't know about you but I am ready to celebrate summer now that it is finally here!

Yet Another Excuse To Move Somewhere Sunny

A friend once teased me, "Why is it you always choose to make your adventures happen in these dark, rainy places?"

It's true. My life story reads like the pages of some dark and stormy Dashiell Hammett novel. Sweden, Denmark, Minnesota (actually it was pretty sunny there), Iceland (I mean ice is one thing but 2 hours of daylight in winter is entirely another), and finally Portland, OR. Portland it-is-June-and-50-degrees-and-I-am-running-my heater-in-my-house Oregon.


At one point in my life I might have thought this woman was worried about her burn. Now I know she is simply gloating over her advantage in the longevity race.

I accept that it is my own masochistic tendencies that have landed me here. True, others can boast about their sunny days and bronzed shoulders, but part of me always felt a smug satisfaction in knowing that I might live a longer life as a result. I might be masochistic and smell like mildew, but all of the sunny do-gooders would die long before me of skin cancer.

Well, turns out that my one feel good antidote for the creeping depression inspired by too many cold, rainy June days is - at best - rather flimsy.

Get this: some research says the health benefits of sun far outweigh the risks.

Great. So we are freezing for no good reason?!?!?

A Change in the Weather or A Change In Attitude

Ok for starters – the weather. Who hasn't been driven to tears by the sheer frustration of the gray skies that don't seem to have plans to leave anytime soon. I could probably go on and on for hours about how the thought of another rainy day makes me want to go home and crawl back in to bed with the covers pulled up tight over my head. But I am not going to – you all feel the same and listening to me complain about it is not going to change it. Instead I have been thinking a lot about perception. Maybe the weather isn't the problem – maybe I am just looking at it all wrong.

On Monday we had a brief moment of sun. The clouds parted and I even saw some blue sky! I was so excited to get off work – grab Sasha – and head out to the Gorge for a hike. But by the time I made it home – the clouds had rolled back in and the rain began.

Normally I probably would have just given up. Apologized to Sasha for being a boring mom and spend the evening drinking wine. But instead I decided to head out anyways. The closest and easiest spot I like to go is Angel's Rest, just off of 84, on the Columbia River Scenic Hwy. I was pleasantly surprised to see only one car in the normally overflowing parking lot. So with my rain coat and hat on – we set off. Just as we were beginning our hike – I ran in to one other brave sole. A boy with a dog named Sasha too, and he was the last person I saw. I felt so lucky to have this whole mountain to myself! I felt empowered and finally was able to take in my surroundings for all that they were. The rain can make the greens in the leaves brighter and the smell of the wildflowers and fresh air stronger. I usually bring my Ipod along, but I recognized the need to be alone with the sound of the rain and my thoughts. And boy did I think. And I thought a lot about a change in attitude. An attitude adjustment your mom might have said at one time. And I have been feeling the need for one.

I am influenced by outside forces. As much as I hate to admit it, I am. And I think we all are. The sun is out – I am happy. My roommate does the dishes – I am happy. It is raining again – I am bummed. My friend doesn't call me back – I am bummed. Most of these factors have nothing to do with me personally. And yet they affect me all the same. So how do you not let the factors around you influence you? Tanya brought up a very profound thought earlier that day that she learned from her teacher - The Karmapa . The thought that fear and judgment comes from things that happen in the past. When we fear something or 'perceive' something, it is usually based on an event that happened in the past. My view of the present is looked at with pieces of my past. The trick, Buddhism says, is to be in the present, without holding on and without pushing away, accepting things just as they are.

So as I reached the top of the mountain I accepted the rain and felt gratitude for being able to be at that exact spot and that exact moment. I think I even saw a patch of blue sky. And I as made my way back down and for the rest of the week I have counted my blessings for the moment that I was in, not for what it could be or what I wanted it to be, but rather for what it was.

And that has been just the attitude adjustment I needed. Embracing the gratitude of being here, present, alive, and dancing in the rain.