WEEK 4: Restoration
Author: Unknown
•12:00 PM

Week 4 Restoration

"As we remove the rocks that block our wisdom and light, we find that we are able to set more and more time aside for the things that restore us: time spent in nature, solitude, meditation, intimacy, having heart-to-heart conversations that heal. These moments spend in restoring ourselves are signposts of our progress in health."
This fourth week, we will begin the three day fruit cleanse. Be sure to find time for yourself this week. Separating ourselves from the hurried activities of our lives will help us keep perspective and give us the healthy detachment necessary for optimal health and well-being. This is the week to get a massage, sauna, find quiet time to read a good book.

"Remember to stay in the moment and relax in all of your activities. Put aside your focus on outcomes and meeting expectations for right now. If you get stuck in tension and toxic behaviors...Realize you are in over your head and unconditionally surrender everything over to God."

Week Four Yoga:
Keep doing what you are doing! Seek a restorative yoga class, gentle stretches, deep breathing.

Week Four Diet:

Three day fruit cleanse. See posts related to the cleanse. Be careful to come off the cleanse gently. Slowly introduce foods back into diet...don't shock your system too quickly.

Week Four Restoration Meditation:

To-do:

  1. Twenty minutes morning, twenty minutes evening.
  2. Our goal is to notice how often we get lured into the activity of our minds, away from stillness.
  3. Get comfortable and anchor your mind to the now moment.
  4. Notice the ceaseless images in your mind and their efforts to distract you from being still and restoring in quiet.
  5. Don't fight these thoughts. As soon as you notice them, step back into the gap between you and your thoughts and let them go.
  6. You may need to do this again and again. That is ok, meditation is all about beginning again.
  7. We are learning to know the difference between thinking and being lost in thought. Our goal is to learn the truth and experience the curative beauty of seeing life through a clear lens of present-moment consciousness.
Week Four Excavation Questions:

  1. What excess baggage am I carrying around with me? What thoughts, feelings, worries, or past situations am I clinging to that drain me?
  2. What do I most need to let go of? What are the things that I would be relieved to finally release? Anger toward someone in my life? Stress about money? Fears that arose from a past negative experience?
  3. Do I really give myself enough time to relax and restore myself? How can I carve out more time for this?
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WEEK 3: Equanimity
Author: Unknown
•12:00 PM

Week Three: Equanimity

"When we become centered enough, we have the ability to accept the things we cannot change, and are able to instantly and humbly admit that our willpower and ego are ultimately powerless over most of the realities in our lives."

Notice how much time we spend each day in reactive mode. "We spill coffee on ourselves...we react. We hit a traffic jam, we react. The boss takes out his or her mood on us, we react. Our kids act up, we react....the endless cycle of stress, reactivity, and blame."

"Equanimity is the art of meeting life as it meets you-calmly, without drama, or fuss."

Our efforts these last few weeks have prepared us for this next step. By practicing presence and seeking our True Self, our Vitality, we are ready to address our reactive tendencies. What pushes your buttons? Does it change based on how you are feeling? I am more reactive when I have not gotten enough sleep, eaten well, had time for myself, or just plain feel disorganized or out of sorts. I personalize, argue, attack. Baron encourages us to practice staying centered amid the inevitable highs and lows of life.

Baron asks: "Can you see yourself as the same person who maintains composure on a sinking ship, which allows you to help save the lives of others on board? In truth our equanimity is full of courage and can save lives."

This week we will focus on equanimity...when we hit our thresholds...in yoga, work, relationships...lets not fight it, lets learn to stay centered and move through it "The winds of grace will carry you."


1. Week Three Yoga Practice: Keep doing what you are doing! Be sure to create ease, back off as your intuition guides you.

2. Week Three Balancing Diet: "In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires." Benjamin Franklin
    1. What is your comfort food? When do you reach for it? Stress is the perfect trigger for overeating, indulging in unhealthy foods. Then add the guilt we pile on when we indulge. It's a no win situation. There is nothing wrong with enjoying good foods, as long as we are conscious. Most of us tend to deny ourselves and then overdo it when stressed. We crave sweets and then feel guilty when we indulge. Bad combination.
    2. Baron also suggests that we overeat as a reaction to a deeper, spiritual emptiness. We shovel food in, without awareness, the moment an uncomfortable feeling arises. We are too afraid of riding out the storm of discomfort. What are we afraid of? With the mindfulness that comes with presence we should learn that our worst fears will not be realized if we feel what we feel. In fact when we step out of our comfort zone, without fear, we are more likely to start to feel our true selves, the person we know we are deep inside. The one who doesn't run and hide. The one who knows God and knows that this is enough to ride out any storm safely. Let's give ourselves this gift this week.
    3. Week Three Diet To-Do
      1. Continue to choose fresh, whole food to balance your body.
      2. What does sweetness mean to you? When do you crave sweets? Do you resist what comes up in life, and fail to meet it as it meets you?
      3. When you have a craving for sweets, take a moment to be still, breathe, and seek the truth of what is really going on.
      4. Interrupt your habitual pattern and ask yourself honestly what is causing it. Did you get bad news. Trying to numb out?
      5. This is a study in the art of staying...you won't die if you don't have that chocolate bar. Stay and breathe.
      6. Craving for salt is different than sweet cravings. We crave sweets for energy and comfort. We crave salt for minerals and grounding. If you crave salt, incorporate more mineral-rich food such as fish, seafood and green leafy vegetables into your diet to bring you into balance.

3. Week Three Equanimity Meditation:
"The greatest challenge to our equinimity is our reactivity."

"A calm, equanimous mind does not react to circumstances or sensations around it and cn turn a poison of distraction and aversion into nectar for growth."

Meditation To-Do Week Three:
1. 15 minutes twice a day.
2. Set intention to sit with strong determination.
3. Simply and gently notice resistance to meditate, desire to stop or get up.
4. Notice the urge to fidget, move your posture, scratch an itch.
5. Resolve not to give in to these feelings.
6. Stay present, stay conscious, just STAY.
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WEEK 2: Vitality
Author: Unknown
•12:00 PM

WEEK TWO: Vitality


"Vitality is very simply an energy that comes from living a life of enlightened knowledge and action. When we do what we know to be right and true, we are revitalized and renewed right where we live."
I think about this in terms of the glow, or radiance we project when we are living honestly, gently. You know the feeling, it is without ego or insecurity. It is the condition of whole joy. By staying present we will begin to notice that we are right-minded in our thinking and we will be guided to right-action. This must lead to an increasing sense of peacefulness and joy. That is our heritage of Vitality, which we have forgotten in our hurried lives.

We do not have to try to, or pretend to be Gandhi, Jesus, Buddha, or Mother Teresa. With an open mind and heart, our true paths will be revealed to us. Not everyone is called to give up all worldly possessions and minister to the poor, or take on great causes. All paths are valuable and essential if we are to play our part in guiding the world home to its rightful place of perfect peace.
The Buddha’s wife noticed:
“You radiate a different light. Your presence is totally new and fresh; your eyes are pure and clear....(but) could you not have attained it right here at home in your palace? Did your home and family somehow prevent you from finding truth and transformation?”
And the Buddha learned:
“I could have done it right here at home...There was no need to go to the mountains, no need for me to go anywhere. I had to go inside myself, and that could have happened anywhere.”
1. Week Two Yoga Practice:
See pp.103-117 in the book. Most of us are practicing 5-6 days/week, so we do not need to review this section.
How did you feel in your practice last week?
2. Week Two Balancing Diet:
“The chief pleasure in eating does not consist in costly seasoning, or exquisite flavor, but in yourself.”
Let’s seek Vitality in our food this week.
Last week we identified our current dietary tendencies, hot or cold excess, a need to cleanse or build. How did you do? If anyone needs support related to last weeks ideas, please post here contact Joan.
“The nutritional equivalent of Vitality is Fresh Food.”
This week we begin to look at our food choices. Are we seeking the quick and easy (usually processed foods), or are we carefully preparing our meals from non-processed whole foods. The further removed our food is from it’s source, the less it has retained it’s nutritional value.Baron cautions us that this may take a little more time, but this is not a sacrifice...it is a joy!. That could become an excuse. I challenge you to look at your schedule. I’m sure that we all could find those extra 5 minutes to create meals that nurture us “wholly”. If you are interested we could share recipes and ideas.

WEEK TWO DIET TO-DO

  • Make fresh, whole foods the focus of your diet this week. Incorporate whole fruits, vegetables,lean meats, fish, and whole grains into your diet.
  • Avoid the middle aisles at the grocery store, stick to the outer aisles.
  • Begin to give thanks for your food, it’s source and it’s strengthening power for you.
3. Week Two Vitality Meditation: (10 minutes twice a day)
It often happens that we backslide a bit as we begin to see and feel our True Self, our Vitality, emerging. Just when the yoga practice, diet, and mediation start to have a noticable affect on us, physically and emotionally, bad habits, behaviors may start to tempt us. Now we are ready to run. Let’s stop and think of this, instead: We merely feel that the light is too bright, and we are scrambling to shut the door. It is actually our beliefs about our worthiness that are getting in our way.Our beliefs are rearing their ugly heads.
This week we will begin to change those tapes or beliefs that seem to start swirling around in our heads just when we start to feel good! Or they appear when we are down to “prove” to us that we got what we deserved. Let’s confront those tapes directly and see if they can stand up to our honesty!
“These tapes are programs and conditioning from our past, and holding on to them robs us of our vitality and energy.”
Meditation-to-do for this week:
· 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening.
· As you sit, begin to notice the top 10 themes that play in your mind.Simply observe them, without judgment. Be lighthearted.
· Label them if it is helpful: “the victim tape”, “the worrier tape”, “the people-pleaser tape”, “the blame tape”.
· Meet these tapes with an open heart.
· Gently let these labels, patterns go.
· Begin to notice how draining these tapes can be, and how much more vitality you experience when you let them fade away.
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Act as "if"
Author: Anne
•3:05 PM
I've been struggling recently with keeping my anxiety at bay. One of the key things I've been working at is this: even if you feel like complete shit, act as "if" you don't. This is all from William James, but you can see the influence in lots of contemporary self-help manuals, blogs, articles, therapies, etc.

Do one small thing to counteract the negative voice inside that says, "No, no you can't. You're a failure already. No." Act as if your inner voice always says, "Yes." Act as if. And when you act as if, your brain will follow your body. Your action is a physical, bodily movement that ignores the doubts, the worries, the fears, the hurts, and just says, "I do. I act. I move." If we act as if often enough, we begin to build habits that structure our brains away from the doubts and toward something better: a world where we can say "yes" to ourselves.

It's an Emily Dickinson kind of day, so I'll just close with this:

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –
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A Sharper Mind
Author: Anne
•1:17 AM
This 40-day challenge comes at a perfect time for me, since I recently began taking a class on mindfulness and meditation. I've also been reading a biography of William James, one of the American scholars who founded the discipline of psychology here in the U.S. One of his big ideas was that mind is activity. I really like this idea, and it's been something I can't stop thinking about lately. I'll try to explain more about why I think this concept is so fascinating, but for now, let me say that it's a big reminder to me that when I'm feeling down, I need to do something. The brain needs movement/activity/exercise as much as the body. And at the same time, the brain needs very particular kinds of movement and enough rest to counter the stresses of the world. I hope that meditation fits well into my plan to make my mind healthier and happier.

I've just begun practicing meditation using a 10-minute meditation CD that I got from my meditation teacher. My goal is to practice with this CD once a day for the next week. I was glad to see my recent issue of Cooking Light emphasize the importance of meditation in an article called "5 Mantras for a Sharper Mind":

Studies of Buddhist monks gave the first indications that meditation--deep breathing, focusing on the moment--can help change brains for the better. There's evidence that as little as half an hour a day of meditation can increase gray matter density in areas of the brain associated with learning.


I'll let you know how it goes, but for now, I'm working on building meditation into a habit. I'll be thinking about you Rhode Islanders doing your downward dogs and sleeping on the yoga mats. Tonight at my meditation class, we did 30 minutes, and aside from my foot falling asleep, I didn't notice how much time passed.
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FAQs (or rather: NBABPWAQs)
Author: Unknown
•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.
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WEEK 1: Presence
Author: Unknown
•5:14 PM

Week 1: Presence

Week 1: Come into Your Body through PRESENCE

Beginning Monday September 24
"In Week 1, your focus in on waking up and becoming fully present to your body, mind, and life. Most importantly, though, begin to see the underlying factors that are contributing to whenever you feel stuck in your life." Baron urges us to look beyond the form that the dysfunctions in our lives take: the overeating, self-sabotaging, dramatizing...whatever. Instead, become present to what is under these behaviors, "Seek the Truth". And he reminds us of a quote from the Bible "When you know the truth, the truth will set you free." It is time to stop trying to "heal deep wounds with surface Band-Aids." We need to get quiet enough to see the Truth. Then we will see beyond form, we will begin to know the Truth of ourselves.

1. Yoga Practice: See this section in book. Most of us will be doing our regular classes throughout the 40 days. If you have any specific questions about the practice or postures, bring them to your yoga teacher. Commit to at least 20 minutes of yoga, 6 days this week.

2. Week 1 Balancing Diet: Before the start of the 40 days, please read pages 93-98. This will help you identify your personal dietary tendencies, hot/cold, deficient/excessive. You will know what is right for you. This is good, because we are slowly eased into the dietary adjustments...nothing too drastic this week.
To-Do:
Identify yourself in the patterns of hot/cold, deficient/excessive.
Begin to include some of the foods that your body needs into your diet.

"You don't have to overhaul your entire diet all at once-this is using the brute force of your will,...willpower does not work. If you start to make the changes in smaller chunks, at whatever pace feels intuitively right for you,...you will rediscover a sense of rightful balance...One thing that will help support making these changes is your daily yoga practice. Your mat becomes a mirror, and as you step onto it every morning, you will be able to start seeing the direct effects of your diet."

3. Presence Meditation (5 minutes)
"Meditation cultivates presence." Read pg. 99. 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at night.
The focus of this week's meditation is to direct our mind to the moment at hand. Using right aim and right energy (neither too much, nor too little) we practice presence. We do this by focusingour mind on this breath, not the one before or the next one, simply this breath.
Direct meditation questions to Dr. David Dwyer, or your yoga teacher.

4. Week 1 Presence Excavation Questions:

"The excavation questions will shine a light on the dark corners of your mind, where we all store the beliefs and patterns that are holding us back in life."
Remember, friends, we are committed to full participation in this process. We may believe that our thoughts are "healthy" , but our underlying beliefs are sabotaging us, unconsciously. That explains why we continue to think we are suffering, on any level, from "The world is against me, everything is wrong", to "I know I would be really happy if just this little adjustment were made...I lost 5 pounds, so-and-so did or said the right thing, I found the perfect partner, if I had more money, the right job, house..." and on and on. These thoughts reflect an underlying dissatisfaction. So lets challenge ourselves to examine those thoughts.
Please consider these questions as the week progresses, comment as you feel guided to do so:


a. How much am I taking responsibility to learn and grow from the experiences, both easy and difficult, that I have in my life?

b. What are my beliefs about:
  • My body (Do I believe it is too heavy, too weak, or just right? Do I believe it serves me well?
  • My relationships? (Do they nourish me? What purpose do they serve in my growth and in my life? Do I believe I am treated as I want or ought to be?)
  • My work? (Is it fulfilling?)
  • Spirituality?(Do I believe in a higher power?)
  • Sex? (What role does it play in my life? Do I experience shame or joy around it? Do I misuse it? Do I see it as a vehicle for spiritual and emotional expression?)
  • Money? (Do I believe it is the root of all evil, or does it simply give me freedom to do what I want in life? Do I have a lot of fear around making it or keeping it?)
c. When in my life am I fully present? In my job? With my partner or kids? When I am working? When I am playing? When I am alone?

d. Where in my life am I hiding? In other words, where do I privately know that I need to take more responsibility and/or become fully present?

e. Where in my life am I flirting with disaster?
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