•6:09 PM
1. Why re-invent the blog, when All That Matters has already done the work for us? Meaning: I am borrowing, er, "lifting" the weekly posts from the All That Matters 40 Days blog we used when I did the program there. It covers each weekly theme, instructions for the week, and the excavation questions (read: journaling prompts) from Baron's book.
2. Once you have accepted the invitation to be a blog author, you can post whenever you like. Just go to your main Dashboard and click "New Post." This may be unnecessary info., since I think most or all of us are chez experienced bloggers, but if not, let me know and I'll give more specifics. The thing I want to emphasize, though, is that you should feel free to post at will, ask questions, write your thoughts or experiences or feelings or whatever you want, add to the links sections, post photos or videos or whatever you feel like. I want this to be a collaborative blog.
3. I have no idea how to get rid of the annoying Photo Bucket ad at the bottom of each post, but if someone else does, please feel free. It is making me question my blog design choice, and you know I already spent enough time obsessing over that. There are too many boring, dark, and overy-whimsical blog designs, I'll tell you that. I wanted an autumnal design featuring trees. Down-dog trees. Why? I'm glad you asked.
4. What is the Down-Dog Tree? The Down-Dog Tree is an ancient mythical tree revered in India in mystical underground cults. It is thought to be extinct, but rumored to be cultivated by a secret society of monk scientists deep in the Indus Valley... Just kidding. I made it up.
5. So the blog title comes from...? Yesterday, Erin and I went to 8am yoga practice at Santosha. Classes there are nice because they integrate yoga postures as well as meditation. During our svasana at the end of class, the instructor started this guided meditation about how your feet are heavy like a rock, your legs are heavy like a rock, your head is heavy like a rock, etc. It was sort of hard to hear because the heater kept kicking on, and Erin was apparently falling asleep at this point, and I very nearly was, so it was a little hard to follow when next she started saying we should imagine a woman sitting on a rock. Erin was asleep by now and missed all of it, but I was very confused: who is the woman? Am I the woman? Am I still the rock? Is a woman sitting on me? This third-person confusion was really distracting me from being able to enjoy my meditation. Not only was the image confusing, but if you know me at all, you will understand that my writerly analytical instincts were busy at work over the very specific nature of how this was a third-person POV violation, and how the teacher should really work on this in future meditation sessions. So then she said there's a pine tree over us, growing out of the rock. She guided us to look up at the pine tree. This convinced me that yes, I am in fact the woman on the rock in question in this scenario. But I was also distracted by the image of the pine tree. I would have preferred a different type of tree. So I started thinking about what other kind of tree I would prefer in my vision. But then she was talking about the pine cones, and I realized the only thing that was going to get me through this meditation successfully was not getting distracted by my own narrative revisioning, and I needed to really commit to her pine tree. In other words, I had to let go and stop trying to control everything. Which reminded me that, yes, this is exactly one of the reasons I'm doing this 40 days of yoga, because I know I need to let go of this need to control everything. This is a much larger issue that I'm sure I will get into more later. Anyway, the point is, Erin and I laughed about all of this after class, and I decided to name the blog 40 Days of Down-Dog Under the Pine Tree as a reminder. But I found there to be a real lack of good pine tree blog templates, and I really wasn't comfortable calling this a Pine Tree and using a picture of a Maple Tree. I mean, let's be real. But calling this 40 Days Under the Maple Tree just doesn't make any kind of sense, concretely or abstractly or symbolically or whatever. So it became a Down-Dog Tree. Aren't you glad you [didn't] ask?
6. What are NBABPWAQs? Never Before Asked But Probably Wondered About Questions. Obviously.
2. Once you have accepted the invitation to be a blog author, you can post whenever you like. Just go to your main Dashboard and click "New Post." This may be unnecessary info., since I think most or all of us are chez experienced bloggers, but if not, let me know and I'll give more specifics. The thing I want to emphasize, though, is that you should feel free to post at will, ask questions, write your thoughts or experiences or feelings or whatever you want, add to the links sections, post photos or videos or whatever you feel like. I want this to be a collaborative blog.
3. I have no idea how to get rid of the annoying Photo Bucket ad at the bottom of each post, but if someone else does, please feel free. It is making me question my blog design choice, and you know I already spent enough time obsessing over that. There are too many boring, dark, and overy-whimsical blog designs, I'll tell you that. I wanted an autumnal design featuring trees. Down-dog trees. Why? I'm glad you asked.
4. What is the Down-Dog Tree? The Down-Dog Tree is an ancient mythical tree revered in India in mystical underground cults. It is thought to be extinct, but rumored to be cultivated by a secret society of monk scientists deep in the Indus Valley... Just kidding. I made it up.
5. So the blog title comes from...? Yesterday, Erin and I went to 8am yoga practice at Santosha. Classes there are nice because they integrate yoga postures as well as meditation. During our svasana at the end of class, the instructor started this guided meditation about how your feet are heavy like a rock, your legs are heavy like a rock, your head is heavy like a rock, etc. It was sort of hard to hear because the heater kept kicking on, and Erin was apparently falling asleep at this point, and I very nearly was, so it was a little hard to follow when next she started saying we should imagine a woman sitting on a rock. Erin was asleep by now and missed all of it, but I was very confused: who is the woman? Am I the woman? Am I still the rock? Is a woman sitting on me? This third-person confusion was really distracting me from being able to enjoy my meditation. Not only was the image confusing, but if you know me at all, you will understand that my writerly analytical instincts were busy at work over the very specific nature of how this was a third-person POV violation, and how the teacher should really work on this in future meditation sessions. So then she said there's a pine tree over us, growing out of the rock. She guided us to look up at the pine tree. This convinced me that yes, I am in fact the woman on the rock in question in this scenario. But I was also distracted by the image of the pine tree. I would have preferred a different type of tree. So I started thinking about what other kind of tree I would prefer in my vision. But then she was talking about the pine cones, and I realized the only thing that was going to get me through this meditation successfully was not getting distracted by my own narrative revisioning, and I needed to really commit to her pine tree. In other words, I had to let go and stop trying to control everything. Which reminded me that, yes, this is exactly one of the reasons I'm doing this 40 days of yoga, because I know I need to let go of this need to control everything. This is a much larger issue that I'm sure I will get into more later. Anyway, the point is, Erin and I laughed about all of this after class, and I decided to name the blog 40 Days of Down-Dog Under the Pine Tree as a reminder. But I found there to be a real lack of good pine tree blog templates, and I really wasn't comfortable calling this a Pine Tree and using a picture of a Maple Tree. I mean, let's be real. But calling this 40 Days Under the Maple Tree just doesn't make any kind of sense, concretely or abstractly or symbolically or whatever. So it became a Down-Dog Tree. Aren't you glad you [didn't] ask?
6. What are NBABPWAQs? Never Before Asked But Probably Wondered About Questions. Obviously.
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