Drama Kids

They're starting to wear on me at rehearsals.

I can't stand the constant singing of musicals. Or the loudness.

Part of it might have to do with jealousy. I wish I could sing as well as they and I'll admit I am a tad jealous of their comraderie.

But mostly, I think it's just annoying.
They'd be so cool if they just didn't sing all the time! That is why I have never been into acting before.

And why I decided to not go to BYU (ha ha, you know that you know the type of kids there who bursts into random song and dance).

I must bear my burdens, the show must go on!

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Journal #4 Transformation

These past few days have been another of those cool life moments where things come together from different areas of your life to focus on one idea. Last time I mentioned it, I was thinking about wellness. This time it is the idea of transformation.

I helped my AMP mentor on Saturday with the matinee of Ririe-Woodbury's Circle Cycle. For my help, I got a pair of tickets to the evening show. It was a wonderfully playful but also thoughtful performance. Like the title declares, the dances are about circles and cycles. One was about the transformation of a catipillar into a butterfly. That dance, along with the other dances got me thinking about cycles and changes in our lives.

And then, low and behold, for our yoga journal question this week, we were asked about transformation. What we thought about it, if we have gone through a transformation, what transformations we would like to attain, and how yoga might support those transformations.

You can read my journal entry below.

I missed class on Monday and felt so grateful for it. Wednesday. I could feel the affect it had on my body. Everything was just a
little bit stiffer. From this experience, I see the benefit of maintaining a regular practice several times a week. I like the half sun salutations that we worked on. The cycle is refreshing.

I am trying to incorporate more of the breathing into the movement and poses. I find myself forgetting about the ujjayi breath as we get into more involved pose work. I am trying to focus on keeping a continual and mindful breath throughout the class. It is so much easier to focus on it and keep it smooth while just sitting. I want to be able to keep that level of mindfulness
of breath throughout the movements. It will help me stay in the moment and focus internally.

I read the fifth chapter of Farhi's book this week. It was about slowing down. This is something I have been trying to do recently, even before this class. I think slowing actually helps me fit everything into the day. Or at least it lets the important things fit instead of letting the little stuff get in the way of the big stuff. Slowing down makes you value the sweetness of
interacting with other people and getting to know yourself as well. I like how yoga incorporates slowness and attentiveness to ourselves. The movements are in relation to your own body's breath and natural desires instead of being dictated by the outward models of time or imposed counts or time limits. I like the idea of making life more like that as much as possible. Of course, we still need to respect time and be punctual to classes and work and meetings but in the inbetween, we can focus more on the moment as it happens rather than the way in which we measure the passing of moments.

Transformation. I like that you asked about this. I went to a dance show performed by Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company this weekend. It was called Circle Cycle. There was a dance about transformation and life cycles of butterflies. Since then, I have been thinking about it and the idea of circles and cycles in our lives. I used to think transformation meant becomming something completely different than what you were before but now I think it is more like expanding and becomming something that we always were inside but didn't necessarily know or comprehend just yet. Like a catipillar, which is a butterfly at birth but just hasn't manifested that aspect of its DNA to us yet. The being is the same, but the physical manifestation has changed forms in response to changes that happend within itself. I don't know if that makes sense but it is something I have been thinking about.

I have transformed in my spirituallity and am still transforming. I think most recently, yoga is supporting this change but previously, the change was supported by discussion, inquiry, and the beginnings of intellectual exploration into faiths and mythical ideas and non-mythical ideologies that were previously foreign to me.

I would like to continue in my spiritual transformation which I feel is still underway. I would also like to transform so that my physical wellbeing becomes a more prominent aspect of my life. I want to continue to make physical activity important and improve my mindfulness with food. I think that yoga will help by slowing me down. A lot of the time, I feel like there is no time to excersise or I skip breakfast in the morning for lack of time. If I were able to slow down not only on the mat but in life, I might be able to refocus and allow myself to have time for those important things by cutting out less important things and focus more on what my body needs. When I take care of it, it will take care of me and I will have the energy and time to take care of the other important stuff.

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