“So who do I have to kill to get some Grace around here?”

When Michelle asked if I wanted to read and review her book, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. There are plenty of yoga “memoirs” out there that seem to be little more than self-congratulatory storytelling and recycled pseudo-spiritual platitudes. But I had read Michelle Marchildon’s work on elephant journal and figured it was safe to assume:

This is not one of those books.

Finding More on the Mat is both funny and honest. If you read Poser and about yawned yourself to death—this is for you. This is what I was hoping for from Poser, but didn’t get. Michelle weaves practical yoga wisdom and life lessons into each chapter:

“Love is just like yoga: You have to have a fearless heart. And you have to be willing to fail over and over again before you get it right.”

I get a little sick of the “yoga will make you a size zero,” articles and memoirs. Is that really what it’s all about? For me, my time on the mat is about finding more, not less. So when I read through Michelle’s stories of parenting, divorce, trauma, finding love and taking all of it in with sense of humor and her own perfectly imperfect version of grace, I nod my head. It’s not about less—of anything. It’s about finding more.

If you take yourself too seriously, don’t make any mistakes, have never gone through anything difficult, have perfect abs and are dying to become a Lululemon ambassador—this book is not for you. It’s for the rest of us. It’s what you wish your yoga teacher would tell you about who she is and what she’s learned the hard way. It’s advice from a girlfriend who’s been in your shoes over some “Haagen Daaz with a vodka chaser,” instead of a “I’m here on the mountaintop” guru-type who conveniently leaves out the fact that sometimes life is full of “Cit.”

It’s about yoga, but it’s about a lot more that that:

“You have to wake up from the coma of modern-day life, to go for what you really want…Desire and discontent keep us off balance. They keep us humble. From that place, we can strive for more in our lives. Living in that in-between place, between what you want and what you have, is uncomfortable at best and miserable at worse. But becoming comfortable in the uncomfortable, or stepping into the natural flow of life without struggle, is finding balance in an off-balance way. To me, that is one meaning of yoga. And above all other emotions, desire is at the heart of my practice.”

If, like me, you struggle to find that balance between desire that moves you forward and contentment in where you are now—both on and off the mat—Finding More is for you.

Via Elephant Journal

Approximately 30-90 percent of cancer survivors report impaired sleep quality after treatment. Now, new research is showing that yoga can help. A recent study found that a low-intensity yoga practice improved the quality of sleep for cancer survivors.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, involved 410 cancer survivors who were suffering from moderate to severe sleep issues. Most of the participants (96 percent) were women, 75 percent of them had been treated for breast cancer.

One group of participants practiced yoga for 75 minutes twice a week for a month using a program design specifically for cancer survivors that included pranayama, gentle hatha and restorative poses, and meditation.

Those who practiced yoga showed more improvement in global sleep quality, as well as subjective sleep quality, daytime dysfunction, wake after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency. The participants who practiced yoga were also able to cut back on their sleep medications by 21 percent, reported MedPage Today. The participants who didn’t practice yoga, on the other hand, actually increased their use of sleeping medications by 5 percent per week.

Though the research showed yoga as a promising intervention for cancer patients with sleep problems, limitations included a homogenous group of participants and a large number of participants who dropped out of the study prematurely. Researchers also cautioned that more strenuous styles of yoga may not be beneficial or appropriate for cancer survivors.

Via Yoga Journal

Gladwell and his “10,000 hour rule” from the book Outliers has been questioned by David Epstein in his new book The Sports Gene. 

Epstein says the study that’s the basis for Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule is flawed, the assertion that practice matters is meaningless, and your biological setup determines how much practice you need to put into a task to master it.

Gladwell responded to Epstein in last weeks New Yorker. 

Check it out — here.

“To live sanely in Los Angeles (or, I suppose, in any other large American city) you have to cultivate the art of staying awake. You must learn to resist (firmly but not tensely) the unceasing hypnotic suggestions of the radio, the billboards, the movies and the newspapers; those demon voices which are forever whispering in your ear what you should desire, what you should fear, what you should wear and eat and drink and enjoy, what you should think and do and be. They have planned a life for you – from the cradle to the grave and beyond – which it would be easy, fatally easy, to accept. The least wandering of the attention, the least relaxation of your awareness, and already the eyelids begin to droop, the eyes grow vacant, the body starts to move in obedience to the hypnotist’s command. Wake up, wake up – before you sign that seven-year contract, buy that house you don’t really want, marry that girl you secretly despise. Don’t reach for the whisky, that won’t help you. You’ve got to think, to discriminate, to exercise your own free will and judgment. And you must do this, I repeat, without tension, quite rationally and calmly. For if you give way to fury against the hypnotists, if you smash the radio and tear the newspapers to shreds, you will only rush to the other extreme and fossilize into defiant eccentricity,”

– Christopher Isherwood, from Exhumations.

Texting while driving has killed thousands in the US and states have passed legislation to outlaw, “distracted driving.”

I’m trying to reduce my own tendencies of “distracted living.” Although it’s not as deadly as distracted driving, distracted living can have negative consequences leading us to seek instant gratification instead of spiritual truths and causing us to miss out on what’s happening in the present moment.

Society has programmed us to live this way: we’re bombarded by hundreds of advertisements each day, we spend countless hours sitting behind computer screens, and we communicate with each other instantaneously via electronic devices.

On a typical weekday, a five minute snapshot of my morning looks something like this: a pop+up advertisement window to an interesting article, a text message from a friend, a business idea comes to me, a random thought about the past surfaces…. I’ve been struggling to focus on the present moment.

It’s a challenge and a goal for me to “Be here now” in whatever I’m doing and I often find my mind wandering. How can we slow down our “monkey minds” to increase stillness? Here are a few practices to help avoid distracted living and to incorporate mindfulness.

1. Turn the phone off

One of the best parts about traveling is being disconnected from the world and not having a phone. Instead of playing a meaningless iPhone game or having a trivial text message conversation, turn the phone off for an extended period of time. (a day, a weekend, day I say a week?)

Here’s a post w/ tips to reduce cell phone dependence

2. Go for a walk

When I’ve been sitting at the computer for too long, I’ll drop everything and go for a walk. Walking outside in nature is preferred but even a walk around a building inside can help you become more attuned with the present moment. Even if it’s only a 5 minute walk, it can change the complexion of your day.

3. Read a book

Whether it’s fiction or none, reading will help anxiety subside and help you become more present.

Photo of me reading at the beach, courtesy of Danielle Lussier:

4. Exercise

Exercise releases endorphins, increases blood flow, and helps us focus on the present moment.

5. Get in nature

No phone, no technology. Just you and the natural environment. You’ll notice all sorts of life forms around you and be inspired by nature’s inherent beauty.

“There is nothing quite like immersion in Nature to restore a sense of wholeness to the soul.” ~Tim Miller

6. Meditate

I have a friend who meditates in several short bursts throughout the day while he’s at work. He’ll turn his back from the computer and focus deeply on the present moment for short spans of time (30 seconds, 1 minute.) He says it helps him to be more aware and creative throughout the day.

A Short and East Meditation for Beginners

Great tips on how to create a relaxing home meditation space: here.

7. Do a few yoga postures

It’s wild how doing two or three yoga postures can drastically change your day. Instead of reacting to external stimuli all day, you’re able to move the prana (energy) and blood throughout your body. Your spine and chakras become realigned and you start to feel alive 🙂

A one minute standing forward bend will drastically improve your day by sending prana to your brain, stretching your hamstrings, and activating your spine thus decreasing anxiety and calming the mind.

8. Turn the TV off

There are some people who literally cannot sleep without the TV on (I used to be one of them.) How can one listen to what’s going on within their own body if they’re always being bombarded with external stimuli such as TV and cell phone messages?

9. Breathe

Not the automated breathing that we use 99% of the time. Instead, the yogic, ujjayi breathing that steadies the mind. It’s incredible what 3 deep, even, focused inhales and exhales through the nose can do.

Click here for more tips on how to feel alive naturally.

What are other tips to be more aware of the present moment and to reduce distracted living?

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”