What a 'Pressure Washing Experience' taught me about Yoga & Life !

Earlier this past week, I found myself embracing in the 'duty' of giving a 'face lift' to the steps and porch leading to our Yoga Studio through the magic of pressure washing.
Wow... what a precious time I found myself in!

I started 'the job' right after guiding a very precious group of students on our morning 'exploring our bodies yoga flow' needless to say, I was already in a high. Plus happy to be around (and many times enveloped in) all that delicious water in a day when the outdoor temperature was around 89F.
Patiently I began to watch the tired green mold from the long gone winter and last transformed spring move away and disappear through the fierce jets of water leaving behind the happy and bright wood face from underneath it. As the jet kept on uncovering that true wood essence, I observe in myself, how many times I needed a good and committed push to uncover my own self from the many debris I had acquire with time.

The cool thing about this process was that the pressure necessary for the 'debris cleansing" was directly related to the well-being of the wood, in other words, if I was unfocused and held too hard in one place, I would hurt the wood, but as I was precise, motivated and patient, the result was impeccable.This can surely serve me in a daily basis.

As I got the groove of it, I found myself in this beautiful meditative experience, where the mind was totally one focus and the body was guided in a magical flow. But then again, was I fully present in the whole experience or just hypnotized by it? The answer came when I felt a little side jet of water coming from an obscure place... opss, the water hose touched the pressure washer motor and a melted spot was showing its face, so time to re-connect with the 'whole picture'.
The gift of this moment was on re-checking the times I had disconnected from the overall focus in search of the one point experience and the beauty of knowing that true balance is a dynamic scale.

Another jewel of my pressure washing experience was observing the Divine gifts and nudges we all receive in a daily matter towards the awareness of taking care of our own bodies, oh well, I was soooo into the moving of the water, the flying of the mold, the shinning of the wood, that over two and a half hours had pass when I realized I had not stopped to hydrate my own inner body and the message came through the pressure washer needing desperately some extra fuel, hummmm.

Then on my next set of two and so hours, I made sure to stop off and on checking in within my own 'inner motor' and admire the surroundings, as more beauty was being expressed through each dance of the waters, as the tiny little particles were forming rainbows here, there and all around. And once more the reflection on the many moments in which I stop the go go of life and embrace the surrounding around me embracing the rainbows of nature, friends, family, love, joy, peace, music, dance, laughter, silence, beauty and much more!

Well, thank you for listening a bit of my pressure washing experience and looking forward to see or hear you enjoying the new 'stairway to yoga' either here at the studio or in your own inner stairway to Self.
May the moments of clearing, cleansing, moving, washing and transforming be joyful, productive and insightful.

In Yoga
Namaste
Lydie Ometto
www.innerseayoga.com

innerseayoga

PARTS OF OURSELVES.....

"There are parts of ourselves we try to hide because somewhere along the way, we created the idea that 

we are alone in our flaws".  ~  A BEAUTIFUL POST BY LIZ ARCH  (lizarch.com)

We flip through magazines and see gorgeous models with perfect bodies, then we look in the mirror and feel less than. The photo above shows much more than I would ever normally feel comfortable displaying, but I share it today with the hope
 that we can stop comparing ourselves to others and start loving ourselves for the

 beautifully flawed masterpieces that we truly are.

A photographer once told me that even the models on magazine covers wish they looked like their own images.  As a yoga teacher who has appeared in my own fair share of photo spreads and magazines, I can vouch for that. I have been told not to “overindulge at the salad bar” before big shoots and I’ve often wondered why I suffer through last minute juice cleanses and spray tans, when the final images are always photoshopped to erase my imperfections.

Sure, my ego loves looking at these “perfect” photoshopped images of myself, but these images aren’t the real me.  I have cellulite and stretch marks and days when I skip my yoga mat for the couch and a pint of ice cream. But in our social media driven world, where everybody’s life seems so much glossier than our own, we’ve managed to convince ourselves that real is not beautiful and every photo needs a filter. I’m definitely guilty of editing my public life down to a handful of inspiring quotes and photos on Facebook that only show my best sides.

I never really thought much about it, until I started receiving messages from people telling me how “perfect” my body was. The thought of other people lifting me up only to put themselves down broke my heart, especially since perfect is not a word I would ever use to describe myself. So I called my dear friend, photographer Robert Sturman, and asked him if he would shoot the “real” me.

One of the reasons I have always admired Robert’s work is because he doesn’t do a lot of retouching. He might adjust the exposure of an image or play with the background, but you will never see a size eight woman photoshopped down to a size four. As a skilled photographer, he knows the body’s angles and when angles are not enough, he leaves all unflattering photos on the cutting room floor.

This shoot wasn’t about flattery though, so we threw the old rules out and created a new set: 1. No photoshopping of my body or face would be allowed. 2. All angles would be fair game.  3.  I would show up to the shoot as myself (translation: I would not starve myself, workout excessively, spray tan, or do any of the other absurd things models do before a shoot).
Here is the result. The real me is someone with a normal, healthy body—and yes, a normal, healthy body has cellulite on the back of her thighs and a belly that folds instead of lays flat.

“Everybody has a part of her body that she doesn’t like, but I’ve stopped complaining about mine because I don’t want to critique nature’s handiwork…My job is simply to allow the light to shine out of the masterpiece.” ~ Alfre Woodard

 Robert and I had set out to capture both the beauty and the beast, but a strange thing happened that day. Out of over 400 photos we shot, there ended up being only a handful of images that showed my flaws. Ironically, after years of being in front of the camera hoping I delivered the “right” shot, I was actually starting to panic that we hadn’t captured enough of the “wrong” shots. I had set out to reveal the ugly sides of myself, but in shot after shot, all I could find was beauty.  It occurred to me that I could easily take a photo of myself at my worst—we all could.
But even on my worst days, while ugly is how I might feel, it is never who I am.

Doing an “ugly” photoshoot would be just as distorted as doing a shoot where my “beauty” was photoshopped in.

The beauty of this shoot is that it captured all sides of me and while some sides admittedly made me cringe, others absolutely took my breath away (see full slideshow below). For the first time ever on a shoot, I was able to completely let go of all self-consciousness and get really comfortable in my own skin. It dawned on me as I posed unabashedly next to a soft and curved statue of Venus, that my flaws were part of what made me an exquisite work of art.

“People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder.” ~ Salma Hayek

The next time you look in the mirror, adore yourself from every angle. Accept your flaws so you may identify with your beauty.  Let go of the obsession with your outer self and allow your light to shine from deep within.

THANK YOU LIZ FOR SO ELOQUENTLY BRING THIS SUBJECT ON....

MANY BLESSINGS

LYDIE OMETTO

INNERSEAYOGA.COM

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