You have nothing to lose. You never had anything in the first place.-Bikram

Day 1 of a 30 day yoga challenge.

Strength isn't about how much you can handle before you break. Its about how much you can handle after you break.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” - Wolfgang Von Goethe

Before I went to Las Vegas for Bikram Yoga training I was practicing twice a day everyday. My body was prepared for the intense college of India. My mind on the other hand was going crazy. I couldn't believe I was leaving , I was scared , everything felt unknown.Once I arrived things switched, my body kept giving out and my mind was content. In the yoga bubble I mastered my thoughts , and didn't let my peace be disturbed.

"Nothing can steal happiness, peace away from you: if anyone does make you angry, you are the loser; if someone can allow you to lose peace, you are the loser"-
Bikram Choudhury
 
When I returned from Vegas my body was really strong and my mind wasn't. Reality set in and I didn't feel like the same person. Before I went to the training my good friend Tabitha asked me what I wanted out of the next  teacher training and I said to come back a different person. I did , just not who I imagined. I finally have reached a point where Id like my mind , body and soul to be connected and strong. This is my life , and I kept forgetting I'm the one "steering the boat" as my sister always says.
 
I'm so excited to share YOGA at the actors foundry- http://www.actorsfoundry.com/training/weekly-studies/the-actors-yoga
 
COME NEXT TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 2ND and begin your yoga journey.
 
The connection Ive found in my yoga and acting training is TRUTH. You find out the TRUTH about yourself. The more your heart opens the more truth you find about yourself this directly leads you to your passion. A simple sense of self.
 
"You can liberate your misery from your past and go forward. You can liberate your soul to be FREE live happily , and get the most from your spirit." " You need to make your greatest weakness your greatest strength"- Rajashree
 

Body, Mind and Spirit Connection

One of the many benefits of Yoga, including Bikram, is the chance to get the mind and body in harmony and on the same track, increasing the awareness of one’s self. Most every Bikram class opens with controlled breathing exercises, designed to help align the body, mind and spirit with good health.



“The simplicity of Bikram's poses is one more way to avoid being distracted from myself,” says Time Magazine’s Lise Funderburg. “To spend this much time slowly and gently stretching is a luxury that I enjoy nowhere else in my life.”

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/health/fitness/articles/40572.aspx#ixzz0xq02cUJF

In Vegas I met UNBELIEVABLE minds. The 300 people from all over the world had such amazing lives and stories that lead them to this training. I am forever grateful from my Bikram family.

You begin to search for yourself outside of who you are. You search for what you believe you don't have:justice,beauty,happiness and love, when all of these were always inside you.- The Four Agreements ( MY favorite book-do read it!)

Your NEVER too old,never too late,never too sick,never too bad to START from scratch and BEGIN again.


This is how it works-your young until your not, you love until you don't, you try until you cant, you laugh until you cry, you cry until you laugh,everyone must breathe until their dying breath. You peer INSIDE yourself ,you take the things you like and try to love the things you took and stick it into others hearts.

When you solve everything INSIDE yourself, you can solve everything out there.- Colin Uppal

J

Failure is not an Option.

Best friends are like diamonds, precious and rare. False friends are like leaves, found everywhere. -Henry Adams

Summer is coming to an end. Time to get back to class, the gym and a routine. Looking back over the past year I feel so grateful for all the amazing friendships in my life. I just spent a weekend in Whistler with some of the most amazing women. Each so unique and full of life. I am forever grateful for that Birthday weekend. Great way to begin a new year.

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.”-Dr.Seuss

I have always found inspiration in my friends. One of my friends spent the summer with me. She scattered joy through my entire life. We met in Film School and became the "ugly step sisters". Portia and Joy . I'm sipping apple cinnamon tea and missing my friend.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own.And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”"

-Dr.Seuss


 
She is so kind. Last year during Bikram training she sent me weekly gratitude lists . An email would come to my phone.In my sleepless , half alive state I kept a perspective of being thankful .I started writing grateful lists at night. Id find reasons to highlight blessings and smile everyday. I encourage everyone to sit down at night and think of 5 reasons to be grateful before your head hits the pillow. In the morning don't let your feet hit the ground until you found a reason to smile and start the day....


“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”
-Dr.Seuss

I'm grateful for all my wonderful friends you have helped shape me into who I am today.

J

Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes.

One of my best friends sent me this the other day, Self Acceptance must come before self improvement or you wont feel like you deserve more.

Every time a birthday approaches I use it as a chance to reflect .Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes.How do you measure a year?In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights?In cups of coffee?In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife? Measure your life in love.

I went to see Eat,Love,Pray last night. My initial love for acting comes from that two hour escape. It made me laugh , cry and honestly want to do more with my own existence.

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it."


— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

"When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost. For the longest time, you can convince yourself that you've just wandered off the path, that you'll find your way back to the trail head any moment now. Then night falls again and again, and you still have no idea where you are, and its time to admit that you have bewildered yourself so far off the path that you don't even know from which direction the sun rises anymore."


— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat,Pray,Love)

After the movie I thought about where I assumed I would be at in my mid twenties. A well traveled journalist or an actress shooting great scripts. Doing humanitarian work. Married to the love of my life. Children on the way. Building a cute little beach house. Walking chocolate labs.Learning to cook and.............. well.... that's simply not my life at the present moment.

So age 24 , always a good time to shed light on past mistakes so I learn and set goals for the upcoming year.

"First say to yourself what you would be and then do what you have to do"-Eictetus

"God does not command that we do great things , only little things with great love"-Mother Theresa

Take responsibility for my life.

There are no justified resentments. If I remove blame then no one else is responsible for what I'm experiencing. If someone else is responsible for your mind you 'll have to wait until they change for you to be better. Control your thoughts,select good ones.

Id rather be kind than right.

Chinese proverb - "If your going to pursue revenge dig two graves."

What other people think of you really is none of your business.

"I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems, which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never not coming here. This was never not going to happen."


— Elizabeth Gilbert

I am so grateful for god , my life, family,and friends.

Trust the Process.

J

Live the Life You Love.

Thanks to the many teachers that have inspired me.

Life isnt about waiting for the storm to pass ... its about learning to dance in the rain-Miss Barb

http://66.147.242.191/~actorsfo/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/the-WORKING-actor1.pdfhttp://66.147.242.191/~actorsfo/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/the-WORKING-actor1.pdf

Twenty

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=magazine&src=me

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick.-Gwyneth Paltrow

http://goop.com/

My Favorite Blog.

"I love living"-Will Smith

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLN2k0b3g70

Mirror , Mirror on the Wall.

"People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave. A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master..."

— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

Arrange Whatever Pieces come your Way-Virginia Woolf

"Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful"-John Maeda


A year ago I felt like I was running on a treadmill going a thousand miles an hour and getting no where. The average person is said to have 60,000 separate thoughts everyday. Your thoughts create your reality because your thoughts determine how you respond to situations in daily life.I was always thinking and doing. I could never just-BE.

I came across a quote : NEVER -too old , too late,never too sick,never too bad to start from scratch and BEGIN again.-Bikram

Growing up I always felt like I didn't quite fit the mold. I watched television shows and found characters I could become. From Joey Potter to Marrissa Cooper their skin was much more easy to live in than my own.I thought a career in acting was a ticket to escape and be someone else.Turns out its a pursuit of truth and compassion for real life stories.After peeling back layers during my actor training I created a character to be me.At a certain point I just felt so lost. Id look in the mirror and be confused who is looking back. My mom always says everyone else is already taken you have to be yourself. Ive always known that progress would be impossible if I always did things the way I've been doing them. I wanted a transformation from the inside out. I removed all physical masks ,practiced yoga twice a day and kept myself present. You can only hide from yourself for so long. "There is just one life for each of us;our own"-Euripides

Its essential in this fast paced world to slow down and breathe. In one of Wayne Dyer books he describes a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing. Open to everything means being peaceful , radiating love,practicing forgiveness, being generous , respecting all life and most important visualizing yourself capable of doing anything that you conceive of in your heart and mind. Letting life come and go as it will. Enjoy it all but never make your success or happiness dependent on an attachment to anything , any place , and particularly any person.

Lifetime pursuit of happiness. I often hear I would be happier if I knew what my purpose is. I think happiness is a choice. Its an attitude rooted in gratitude for what we already have. "As soon as you trust yourself you will know how to live"-John Wolfgang Von Goethe It starts with the question of ,what is your passion? What stirs your soul and makes you feel like its why you showed up in the first place? Whatever it is one can make a living doing it and simultaneously provide a service for others. Its hard to take the path less traveled but it may be worth it in the long run.We all enter the world with nothing. We leave the world with nothing. All of your achievements and materials can not come with you. Therefore the only thing left to do in life is ---give it all away.

J