Category Archives: Gratitude

Ode to a New Class

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I recently finished reading the pre-work essays for my newest yoga teacher training. Now that we’re underway, I have a confession to make: I didn’t want to start this training.

Having second thoughts at the beginning of a new class isn’t unusual for me. Leading this program is a ton of work and responsibility. Every time I choose to begin, I commit to a year of being present both physically and emotionally to support the hearts, dreams, and aspirations of seedling yoga teachers.

As most people know, my husband’s and my life may change significantly in the coming year, which has caused us to rethink where we will live. And even if we stay in Seattle, I’m likely to spend more time writing my thoughts than saying them out loud.

None of that was the real problem, though. My biggest obstacle to bonding with this group was my attachment to the class that preceded them. I love all of my students, but my last advanced class was special. We’d been together for over two years, and they had cemented themselves permanently in my heart. I said goodbye to them at a retreat that felt deep, profound, and transformational. The perfect finish to my yoga teaching training career. I was complete.

And I was scheduled to start another class in less than a month.

I had no choice, at least not one I could live with. Some of the students in my new group had been waiting for this program for over two years. All had reorganized their lives to accommodate eleven months of training. When I accepted them into the training, I made a promise. And when I promise something, I always deliver.

Today I realized why. After reading about the life experiences of these thirty-two yogis, I can say that I’m touched. They have arrived at my doorstep via pathways paved with challenges. They’ve endured traumas: divorce, death, illness, addiction. They found respite in yoga, and they know that yoga is about more than stretching your hamstrings. Yoga is about finding clarity, entering life’s battlefields without flinching, and making it to the other side whole.

I don’t know why I’ve been so blessed. Lord knows I’m not always the most yogic yoga teacher. When it comes to teaching yoga, I have reasonable talent, but I’m certainly no rock star. There’s very little I offer that others couldn’t do as well or better. Yet for some reason, the universe has gifted me with many wonderful students to help guide my journey, all while I pretend to guide theirs.

As for this new crop of students, I can say one thing with certainty: I’m falling in love all over again.

Thank you for sharing the next year with me.

Namaste

Tracy Weber

          A Killer Retreat

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT and MURDER STRIKES A POSE are available at book sellers everywhere! 

Saying Goodbye

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Sixteen months ago, I led a retreat at the Grunewald Guild in Leavenworth, Washington. That wonderful weekend was the beginning of the journey that I started with twenty-nine other yogis. Ten days ago, I let a retreat at Jim Creek Recreation Area in Arlington, Washington. That weekend completed the journey.

I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. You see, each of those yogis was a graduate of my two hundred-hour yoga teacher training program. Two of them started with me in my very first class in 2003. Three of them—the assistants—had already taken advanced teacher training with me before.  Ten of the participants either were or had been my employees. Even the “newbies” had studied with me for at least a year.

So I should have known them, right? And I did, individually. But somehow when we came together as a group, something wonderful happened. This collection of kind, caring, honest, and intelligent people formed a community. A group that held together through automobile crashes, health scares, surgeries, breakups, job losses, and raising teenagers. A group that bonded and trusted and leaned on each other for help.

We had a few arguments (but shockingly few, honestly), and we got off track hundreds of times. We even had to cut some material. But I can honestly say that I don’t think I’ve ever taught a group that so truly got yoga at its essence. Connection.

To my newest graduates: Saying goodbye at the end of our final weekend together was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I told you that I needed another year to teach you everything you needed to know. That was a lie. In reality, you are already wiser than I will ever be. You already understand what’s most important. Then again, you always did. It was I who needed another year with you and your loving energy. I miss you already.

So today, in this blog, I sing to you the chant we sang at the beginning of each class—in English this time—and share it with my yoga friends reading this blog.

We have  come together as student and teacher to share this time of learning.
Let us have energy and awareness to fulfill this task.
Let us be protected, and nourished, and cherish our time together.
Om, peace, peace, peace.

I did, indeed, cherish our time together. I hope our paths continue to cross over and over and over again.

Namaste

Tracy Weber

          A Killer Retreat

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT and MURDER STRIKES A POSE are available at book sellers everywhere! 

A Great Big Thank You

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Tracy MacDonald and Fiona

Tracy MacDonald and Fiona

Today is my blogging day on Inkspot., the blog for the authors of Midnight Ink.  And it seems only fitting at the end of my book launch to thank some of the great people who have helped me make it such a success.  Even better–I have never met any of these people in person!

The gifts of yoga live everywhere–even in people who’ve never done a single pose.  Check out some of my favorites at http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/2015/01/liftoff-success.html

Thanks all!  Next week I’ll be back to my normal yoga blog!

Tracy Weber

          A Killer Retreat

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT and MURDER STRIKES A POSE are available at book sellers everywhere! 

Heart Felt Thanks

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trees

In just over a month, my second yoga and dog-related mystery, A Killer Retreat, will finally be released and out in the world.

Until I became a writer, I ignored the acknowledgements and dedications decorating the first pages of my favorite reads. Now, I know that they represent the many, many connections that make a book possible. Please take a moment and help me acknowledge the people who helped me birth my second written child.

To anyone I may have neglected to mention: my oversight does not make your contribution less important. You have my sincerest appreciation.

Dedication:

To my husband Marc. Without your support, my writing wouldn’t be possible.

Acknowledgements:

I always assumed writing would be a lonely endeavor. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Thank you to the readers who have contacted me to tell me that they’ve enjoyed my work and to the writers who’ve encouraged me to keep persevering. Your support means the world to me.

For A Killer Retreat, I have so many people to thank that I don’t even know where to begin.

My mom Marcia’s enthusiastic support of the series has touched me, and I’m pretty sure she has single-handedly kept the Billings Barnes and Noble in business since my first book was released. My yoga students have attended events, read my work, and given me encouragement even when I’ve struggled. My wonderful agent, Margaret Bail, editors Terri Bischoff and Connie Hill at Midnight Ink, and freelance editor Marta Tanrikulu have all given me invaluable help and feedback.

Special thanks to D.P. Lyle MD, who helped me work out the technical details of the crimes in this book. He is kind, generous with his time, and an invaluable resource to all of us in the crime writing community. Of course if there are any errors in this work, they are completely mine.

My husband, Marc, supports me in all of my crazy endeavors but chooses to work in the background, designing and maintaining my website, creating marketing materials, helping me brainstorm plot points, and putting up with the angst, heartache, joy, frustration, and excitement that are all part of being a writer. Thank you, honey.

Finally, I have to acknowledge my own personal Bella, German shepherd Tasha. You’re getting older, sweetie, so we don’t have as many adventures as we used to, but rest assured that you are woven into the fabric of my stories and branded on my heart. I hope we have many more years together. You will always be my inspiration and the greatest joy of my life.

Tracy weber

          A Killer Retreat

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT is available for preorder now from Whole Life Yoga. MURDER STRIKES A POSE is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble,  and book sellers everywhere! 

Fiction, Gratitude and Real Change

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Depositphotos_17589007_m

Today is my blog day at Inkspot, the blog for the authors of Midnight Ink.  In today’s article, I discuss gratitude, “seeing” the homeless, and Real Change.

http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/2014/11/fiction-gratitude-and-real-change.html

I hope you enjoy it, and that you have a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend.

Namaste

Tracy Weber

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT is available for preorder now. MURDER STRIKES A POSE is available at  book sellers everywhere! 

Your Inner Dialogue

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This week’s blog entry was written by guest author Sarah Smith. Sarah is a graduate of Whole Life Yoga’s 200 hour yoga teacher training program and a student in our advanced training. She can be contacted at sa***********@***oo.com

Communication is powerful.  Just like the knife that can be used in a beneficial way to prepare food for nourishment, or a surgery to heal the body, or used against some one to harm them, communication can be positive or negative.

Sometimes when I am leading a yoga class I will bring the class to standing and ask them to close their eyes and think of one thing they love about their body.  A few more asanas later, coming back to standing, I will ask them to say one kind thing to their body.  At the end of the practice just before ‘namaste’ I will ask them to think of one thing they are grateful for or appreciate about their body.  Other times I will ask them to think of something they love about themselves.  Not surprising is how many people come up to me later and say how hard that is for them.  They are unable to think of one thing they love about their body or their self.

In our daily life how others speak to us has a powerful affect on us.  People who are our well wishers, are encouraging and point out our gifts and talents empower us in our endeavors.  People who invalidate, criticize, judge can throw us into a downward spiral that takes the wind out of our sails and can make us feel as if the life is being sucked right out of us.

Our internal dialogue is incredibly important.  We sometimes get into patterns of thinking that affect us in ways that we don’t realize.  “I have a bad knee” versus “I have a knee that is trying to heal itself.  I am so grateful for the healing power of my body”.  We may find ourselves mentally focusing on our ‘failures’, thinking they define who we are.  This life, this body did not come with a manual.  Maybe taking the word failure out of our vocabulary and replacing it with ‘great lesson’ would put us back in the driver’s seat.

Notice what you would like to have others say to you, and begin to give that to yourself. Words and thoughts that are kind, loving and honoring help our bodies to heal, and ourselves to grow into the spiritual beings that are who we truly are.  It takes practice, but that is why we call it yoga practice, not yoga perfect.

Sarah

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT is available for preorder now from Whole Life Yoga. The first book in the series,  MURDER STRIKES A POSE is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble,  and book sellers everywhere!

100 Happy Days/Persevering Practice

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This week’s blog entry was written by guest author Jeanette Sanchez. Jeanette is a graduate of Whole Life Yoga’s 200 hour yoga teacher training program. She can be contacted at je*******@***il.com.

“Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth.” – Pharrell Williams

I was being a good yogi doing my persevering practice of trolling Facebook. What I should have been doing was working on my dissertation, grading papers or even doing yoga. That was when my close friend threw down the gauntlet: 100 Happy Days.

100 Happy Days (http://100happydays.com/) challenges people to be happy for 100 continuous days and to share that happiness by posting photographs of things that make you happy on social media or just with them.  They say, “The ability to appreciate the moment, the environment and yourself in it is the base for the bridge towards long term happiness of any human being.”  Of course, this sounds familiar, it sounds like one of the results of meditation and persevering practice which we, yogis, know brings on a state of nirodhah (control of the random fluctuations of the mind).

Sutras 1.2-4

Yoga is the process of ending the random fluctuations of the mind. Then (once we are in nirodhah) the seer will be established in our own true nature (we can see clearly). Otherwise, what we see is a product of our own conditioning, not what is really there.

Coming into a state of nirodhah means adopting a persevering practice (other yogi’s practices have been highlighted in this blog previously). It can be any practice that is sustained over time. I have experimented in pranayama practices, flossing practices, and making my bed each morning practices all with good results.

Sutras 1.12-14

Control of the mind’s random fluctuations comes from persevering practice and from non-attachment. The state of nirodhah is stabilized through sustained effort. Moreover, that practice must be done for a long time, and without interruption; with eagerness and sincerity.  Then it will become a stable platform from which you can grow.

So nearly three months ago, I accepted the challenge to find 100 things to be happy about 100 days in a row. I have posted them on my Facebook and enjoyed watching my friend post hers.  And for a while it was just fun. Lots of pictures of my husband, my pets and my pets and … my pets…

After about a month, I realized how reliant I am on my dog, in particular, to make me smile during the day.

I felt guilty that I wasn’t out there going on hikes and seeing the beautiful days we’ve been having and spending oodles of time with my husband in the sun doing all those wonderful outdoor things people do up here in the Pacific Northwest.
Then I realized that after one month of “being happy,” of working on this challenge, I had spent more than 20 hours in the library working on my dissertation.  I’d filled pages and pages of sources in my bibliography. I’d found a way back into my work. And so I persisted in my practice.

I found time to start doing my breathing practices more often. As a result, I slept better. I also found other regular practices that made my life better.  Chamomile tea before bed with my husband on our deck as we catch up with each other, walking to work rather than parking as close to the door as I can, and eating different varieties of apples each day. All of these things make my days more fulfilled and as a result, happier.

I will be finished with my persevering practice of 100 Happy Days by the time this blog goes up. I am nearly done with my bibliography, caught up on grading, have a happier husband because I spend time with him and sleep, and the bed is made every day. I will need to find a new practice to fill its gap. It is something I look forward to with happiness.

*The writing of this blog post was accompanied by repeated playings of “Happy” by Pharrell Williams (http://youtu.be/y6Sxv-sUYtM), much to the amusement (read: annoyance) of my husband.

**Another great Happy resource is The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It is an amazing book. Her practice of giving yourself 15 minutes to work on tasks has dramatically changed my cleaning house lifestyle.

Jeanette

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT is available for preorder now from Whole Life Yoga. The first book in the series,  MURDER STRIKES A POSE is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble,  and book sellers everywhere!

Thriving after Trauma

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This past week I participated in an interesting discussion on the Sisters in Crime Guppies Yahoo group.  The thread coincidentally began while I was preparing to lead the next Yoga Sutra discussion for Whole Life Yoga’s advanced yoga teacher training.

For those of you who don’t know, Sisters in Crime is an organization that supports crime writers, like yours truly. “Guppies” stands for the “great unpublished,” of which I’m gratefully no longer a member. Many of us continue to hang out together even after we’re published because, frankly, we’re heck of a lot of fun.

This particular discussion centered around current backlogs of DNA evidence and how such backlogs might be incorporated into our future crime novels.

The confluence of these two conversations got me thinking, and when I get thinking I inevitably get myself into trouble. This time, I considered this age old question:

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Many spiritual teachings, including the Yoga Sutras, have an answer.

For their own growth.

Many of you know, either from the Guppy thread or from past conversations, that I survived something almost two decades ago that was, to put it mildly, painful. Some of you know the specifics, some of you don’t. Honestly, they don’t even matter. There isn’t a person alive over eighteen who hasn’t known trauma in one form or another. At least no one I’ve met.

The question is, when we experience said trauma, how do we deal with it?

The Sutras say that we have no true control over what happens to us or around us. The only thing we can control is how we react to it. An easy enough concept, if sometimes seemingly impossible to put into action. But the teachings go on later in Chapter 2 to hint that anything that happens to us has a purpose. The bold font and words in brackets have been added by me

Sutra 2.18:

“The seeable [our experiences, good and bad] has the characteristics of brightness, activity, and inertia. It is embodied in the elements and experienced by the senses. It exists so that the seer [you and me] may experience it and then become free.

About a year after my personal trauma, I met with a counselor. I told her that I knew there was a purpose for what had happened to me, but I hadn’t found it yet.

She looked at me, deadpan, and asked a question.

“What if there isn’t?”

My answer came from a place so deep inside of me that, until that moment, I didn’t even know it existed.

“Then I’ll have to create one. The alternative is too awful.”

That was the day I began to heal.

Who knows why bad things happen to good people? I sure as hell don’t. But can we find growth, perhaps even peace, in spite of it? The sutras say yes. I’m inclined to agree with them. I wouldn’t trade my life for any other on earth, in spite of the traumas (and like all of you, I’ve had more than one) I’ve experienced along the way.

I’ll leave you all with one final comment, also from the Sutras. This is for those of you who are now feeling cranky with me. The translation is my own.

“Individual results may vary.”

May your life’s experiences—good, bad, beautiful, and challenging—serve as a springboard for your growth.

And ultimately, may you find peace.

Namaste

Tracy Weber

          A Killer Retreat

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT is available for preorder now from Whole Life Yoga. MURDER STRIKES A POSE is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble,  and book sellers everywhere! 

An Ode to Turning Fifty

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Today’s article will be a short one. No book news, no personal insights, no great yoga tips. I’m giving myself the day off. Last Thursday was my—gasp—50th birthday. I spent the day in bed with a nasty head cold, cuddled up on the floor with my dog, who was suffering from a nasty 24 – hour intestinal bug.

All in all, the day could have been…

A whole heck of a lot worse.

Any day I get to spend in my beautiful home with that gorgeous creature, knowing that my hubby will soon be home from work to harass us, is a good day indeed.

My 50th birthday wasn’t the most pleasant day ever, but I wouldn’t trade my life for any other on earth.

Enjoy the life you’re given.

That is all for today.

Namaste

Tracy Weber

          A Killer Retreat

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT is available for preorder now from Whole Life Yoga. MURDER STRIKES A POSE is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble,  and book sellers everywhere! 

Ode to a Sunflower

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Today I did what I seem to do best lately.  I procrastinated on writing my next novel by taking a silly Internet quiz titled “What Flower Are You?” Evidently, I am a sunflower. Here’s how the grand, all-knowing Internet describes me:

sunflower

“You are the eternal optimist, always looking up. Nothing can shake your sweet, happy spirit. Friends enjoy your company because they find your joy contagious.”

Although I’m sure many people would argue with the results, the truth is, I do try to look at the positive in life. And the test reminded me of a blog article I meant to write about a recent dog walk with my husband.

My husband and I walked our dog Tasha to Green Lake about a week ago. Marc and I ambled along the same sidewalk. We were surrounded by the same items. Yet our experiences were significantly different. I took in brightly colored tulips, sweetly scented flowers, the warmth of the sun, and the joy in Tasha’s expression as she explored the fascinating new spring scents. In the same fifteen minutes, my husband noticed a used condom, a discarded, dangerous looking knife, and several piles of un-picked-up dog waste.

Honestly, these differences between Marc and I aren’t all that uncommon. I tend to notice the lighter side of life; he notices the darker. Who is right? The sutras would say neither of us; I say both. Seeing the bright side allows me to have more short-term pleasures in life. Seeing the dark allows Marc to avoid its inevitable sorrow. After all, I was the one who stepped solidly in the middle of the dog waste.

The goal in yoga is to see clearly. To be able to enjoy, without attachment, all of the bright, beautiful, luxurious parts of life while also being conscious of its perils. Together, Marc and I make a fabulous team. Separately, we are both blinded. Through the practice of yoga, I hope to maintain my sunny outlook, while improving my ability to see clearly.

A worthy goal for all of us.

Have a wonderful week and enjoy your life, whatever your flower may be.  If you want to find out, here’s the URL to the quiz that I took.

Let me know what flower you are in a comment.

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle, and check out my author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  MURDER STRIKES A POSE is available for now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Whole Life Yoga, and other retailers!