December 31, 2011
Finding Balance on New Year's Eve
Balance of life-work
Balance of body in yoga
Balance of breath in pranayama
Balance on the water
Balance in trusting my intuition
Balance in teaching and learning
Balance in loving who I am and loving others
Balance in sharing experiences with friends, family and on my own
My intention is to carry forward this balance as I welcome 2012, The Year of Being Present.
December 30, 2011
Filling in the Blanks in Memory Lane
Driving past my old apartment I had to stop and catch my breath. My life was so different then. I lived so poor and had no vision for the future. It was a sad time. My life is so much more illuminated now. Thankfully I am fearless about change. Otherwise, what and who would I now be if I continued living that life, or the subsequent others?
December 29, 2011
December 27, 2011
Yoga Mats on a Line
December 26, 2011
December 22, 2011
The Year of Being Present
Being Present means using my senses. My default is to think about the past and future, building fantasies. This is essential to who I am because I am a creator, imaginer, facilitator, and teacher. However, my intention for 2012 is to stay grounded in the present by using my senses and experiencing what is happening in the moment. At the same time, I will tap into my strong intuition to Be Present in how each sense contributes to my Being. My habit has been to be lost in ideas, not sensing how I am being impacted in the present, ultimately missing the moment.
Examples of using my senses include:
- Seeing others and knowing that I am being seen. It has taken me 42.10 years to realize that I think that people do not see me and that I am cautious about making eye contact.
- Hearing and knowing that I am being heard. Speaking deliberately, clearly, thoughtfully, and allowing time and space for others to do the same - students, friends, family, and even strangers.
- Touching and allowing myself to be touched. For example, when a friend reaches out to tap my forearm to make a point or get my attention. I've started leaning into these touches instead of instinctively pulling away.
- Tasting and savoring what I eat. This is an inspiration from my sister's blog post: Eating in Sacredness. Slow down, enjoy and honor what I taste and smell.
- Feeling and recognizing emotions. Sometimes my emotions can be overwhelming or confusing; Being Present with what I am experiencing and honoring those emotions is my intent. The same is true with others' emotions. I do not have to fix them or take them on, just allow the other person to know that I see them, hear them, respect them, and perhaps I can even reach out and touch them.
- Slowing down. I think fast, move fast, act fast, and respond quickly. I wear these actions like a Badge of Honor for Cleverness. This is the perfect ingredient for being wrapped up in me with no room for seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or feeling what is happening now. As another of my inspired yoga instructors, Vickie Russell Bell, says "Notice, what is happening now?"
December 21, 2011
Winter Solstice
December 20, 2011
View From School
December 19, 2011
Svadhyaya: Self and Study
December 18, 2011
Bush Yoga
Vacation Irony
December 15, 2011
Have you married, dated or worked for a Gaslighter?
The following article A Message to Women From a Man: You Are Not Crazy, by Yashar Ali, is copied from Huff Post Women. In it Ali explores the concept of Gasighting - being manipulated to think that you are crazy for reacting to inappropriate behavior. I am learning how to recognize these interactions and am no longer tolerating them. This is hard work, but necessary. I'll be honest, I've had women and certainly students implement these hurtful tactics, likely I have also been a Gaslighter on occasion. I pledge to do it no more.
***
You're so sensitive. You're so emotional. You're defensive. You're overreacting. Calm down. Relax. Stop freaking out! You're crazy! I was just joking, don't you have a sense of humor? You're so dramatic. Just get over it already!
Sound familiar?
If you're a woman, it probably does.
Do you ever hear any of these comments from your spouse, partner, boss, friends, colleagues, or relatives after you have expressed frustration, sadness, or anger about something they have done or said?
When someone says these things to you, it's not an example of inconsiderate behavior. When your spouse shows up half an hour late to dinner without calling -- that's inconsiderate behavior. A remark intended to shut you down like, "Calm down, you're overreacting," after you just addressed someone else's bad behavior, is emotional manipulation, pure and simple.
And this is the sort of emotional manipulation that feeds an epidemic in our country, an epidemic that defines women as crazy, irrational, overly sensitive, unhinged. This epidemic helps fuel the idea that women need only the slightest provocation to unleash their (crazy) emotions. It's patently false and unfair.
I think it's time to separate inconsiderate behavior from emotional manipulation, and we need to use a word not found in our normal vocabulary.
I want to introduce a helpful term to identify these reactions: gaslighting.
Gaslighting is a term often used by mental health professionals (I am not one) to describe manipulative behavior used to confuse people into thinking their reactions are so far off base that they're crazy.
The term comes from the 1944 MGM film, Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman. Bergman's husband in the film, played by Charles Boyer, wants to get his hands on her jewelry. He realizes he can accomplish this by having her certified as insane and hauled off to a mental institution. To pull of this task, he intentionally sets the gaslights in their home to flicker off and on, and every time Bergman's character reacts to it, he tells her she's just seeing things. In this setting, a gaslighter is someone who presents false information to alter the victim's perception of him or herself.
Today, when the term is referenced, it's usually because the perpetrator says things like, "You're so stupid," or "No one will ever want you," to the victim. This is an intentional, pre-meditated form of gaslighting, much like the actions of Charles Boyer's character in Gaslight, where he strategically plots to confuse Ingrid Bergman's character into believing herself unhinged.
The form of gaslighting I'm addressing is not always pre-mediated or intentional, which makes it worse, because it means all of us, especially women, have dealt with it at one time or another.
Those who engage in gaslighting create a reaction -- whether it's anger, frustration, sadness -- in the person they are dealing with. Then, when that person reacts, the gaslighter makes them feel uncomfortable and insecure by behaving as if their feelings aren't rational or normal.
My friend Anna (all names changed to protect privacy) is married to a man who feels it necessary to make random and unprompted comments about her weight. Whenever she gets upset or frustrated with his insensitive comments, he responds in the same, defeating way, "You're so sensitive. I'm just joking."
My friend Abbie works for a man who finds a way, almost daily, to unnecessarily shoot down her performance and her work product. Comments like, "Can't you do something right?" or "Why did I hire you?" are regular occurrences for her. Her boss has no problem firing people (he does it regularly), so you wouldn't know from these comments that Abbie has worked for him for six years. But every time she stands up for herself and says, "It doesn't help me when you say these things," she gets the same reaction: "Relax; you're overreacting."
Abbie thinks her boss is just being a jerk in these moments, but the truth is, he is making those comments to manipulate her into thinking her reactions are out of whack. And it's exactly that kind manipulation that has left her feeling guilty about being sensitive, and as a result, she has not left her job.
But gaslighting can be as simple as someone smiling and saying something like, "You're so sensitive," to somebody else. Such a comment may seem innocuous enough, but in that moment, the speaker is making a judgment about how someone else should feel.
While dealing with gaslighting isn't a universal truth for women, we all certainly know plenty of women who encounter it at work, home, or in personal relationships.
And the act of gaslighting does not simply affect women who are not quite sure of themselves. Even vocal, confident, assertive women are vulnerable to gaslighting.
Why?
Because women bare the brunt of our neurosis. It is much easier for us to place our emotional burdens on the shoulders of our wives, our female friends, our girlfriends, our female employees, our female colleagues, than for us to impose them on the shoulders of men.
It's a whole lot easier to emotionally manipulate someone who has been conditioned by our society to accept it. We continue to burden women because they don't refuse our burdens as easily. It's the ultimate cowardice.
Whether gaslighting is conscious or not, it produces the same result: It renders some women emotionally mute.
These women aren't able to clearly express to their spouses that what is said or done to them is hurtful. They can't tell their boss that his behavior is disrespectful and prevents them from doing their best work. They can't tell their parents that, when they are being critical, they are doing more harm than good.
When these women receive any sort of push back to their reactions, they often brush it off by saying, "Forget it, it's okay."
That "forget it" isn't just about dismissing a thought, it is about self-dismissal. It's heartbreaking.
No wonder some women are unconsciously passive aggressive when expressing anger, sadness, or frustration. For years, they have been subjected to so much gaslighting that they can no longer express themselves in a way that feels authentic to them.
They say, "I'm sorry," before giving their opinion. In an email or text message, they place a smiley face next to a serious question or concern, thereby reducing the impact of having to express their true feelings.
You know how it looks: "You're late :)"
These are the same women who stay in relationships they don't belong in, who don't follow their dreams, who withdraw from the kind of life they want to live.
Since I have embarked on this feminist self-exploration in my life and in the lives of the women I know, this concept of women as "crazy" has really emerged as a major issue in society at large and an equally major frustration for the women in my life, in general.
From the way women are portrayed on reality shows, to how we condition boys and girls to see women, we have come to accept the idea that women are unbalanced, irrational individuals, especially in times of anger and frustration.
Just the other day, on a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a flight attendant who had come to recognize me from my many trips asked me what I did for a living. When I told her that I write mainly about women, she immediately laughed and asked, "Oh, about how crazy we are?"
Her gut reaction to my work made me really depressed. While she made her response in jest, her question nonetheless makes visible a pattern of sexist commentary that travels through all facets of society on how men view women, which also greatly impacts how women may view themselves.
As far as I am concerned, the epidemic of gaslighting is part of the struggle against the obstacles of inequality that women constantly face. Acts of gaslighting steal their most powerful tool: their voice. This is something we do to women every day, in many different ways.
I don't think this idea that women are "crazy," is based in some sort of massive conspiracy. Rather, I believe it's connected to the slow and steady drumbeat of women being undermined and dismissed, on a daily basis. And gaslighting is one of many reasons why we are dealing with this public construction of women as "crazy."
I recognize that I've been guilty of gaslighting my women friends in the past (but never my male friends--surprise, surprise). It's shameful, but I'm glad I realized that I did it on occasion and put a stop to it.
While I take total responsibility for my actions, I do believe that I, along with many men, am a byproduct of our conditioning. It's about the general insight our conditioning gives us into admitting fault and exposing any emotion.
When we are discouraged in our youth and early adulthood from expressing emotion, it causes many of us to remain steadfast in our refusal to express regret when we see someone in pain from our actions.
When I was writing this piece, I was reminded of one of my favorite Gloria Steinem quotes, "The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."
So for many of us, it's first about unlearning how to flicker those gaslights and learning how to acknowledge and understand the feelings, opinions, and positions of the women in our lives.
But isn't the issue of gaslighting ultimately about whether we are conditioned to believe that women's opinions don't hold as much weight as ours? That what women have to say, what they feel, isn't quite as legitimate?
This piece originally appeared on The Current Conscience.
December 14, 2011
The End of Marriage?
"The Pew report finds the median age when people finally walk down the aisle is at an all-time high — 26 for women and nearly 29 for men. And it's higher still for the college educated. On the other hand, for those who do marry, there's an upside to waiting, at least for women. Coontz says for every year a woman delays marriage — into her early 30s — she reduces her risk of divorce."
I'm constantly pondering this question and it feels good to know that I am not alone in questioning the longevity of marriage, especially for GenXers.
December 9, 2011
December 7, 2011
December 4, 2011
Hottest Guys on the London Tube
December 3, 2011
This is What I Really Look Like
December 2, 2011
Arrived in DC
December 1, 2011
November 29, 2011
Off to Atlanta
Pop-up Stores in Oldtown Oakland a Brilliant Idea - reprinted from The Bay Citize
You’re familiar with the idea: seasonal retail shops that suddenly materialize in once-vacant storefronts to sell Halloween costumes in October. Christmas trees in December. Remaindered calendars come January. More recently, big box shops have pounced on the idea of flash retail as well; to promote its Rodarte clothing line a couple of years ago, Target launched Target to Go—mini-shops in carefully selected locations that opened and closed within three days. Google is cashing in on the trend, too—opening temporary retail spaces in airports this fall to hand-sell its new cloud computing laptop.
November 26, 2011
November 25, 2011
Scariest Street in San Francisco
So, I am now eating a very expensive dinner at a nearby restaurant as I wait for Lynn. Usually I am in bed at this hour.
November 24, 2011
November 22, 2011
Grateful for Tomorrow's Leaders
November 18, 2011
My Favorite Mistake by Ricki Lake
This piece by Ricki Lake, featured in the latest edition of Newsweek, reminds me to love myself first and not try to "find a relationship" for love. Ricki was already at the top of my list of amazing women because of her hard work on Dancing with the Stars where she demonstrates integrity and generosity - clearly an open-hearted woman.
My Favorite Mistake
Ricki Lake on falling hard for a jerk she met online.
November 15, 2011
November 14, 2011
Being Generous with Touching
I feel that this yoga practice requires generosity and I believe that will be my theme for next year. Generosity can be applied to me and how I treat myself and of course how I treat others. This is my intention for 2012.
I Don't Understand Occupy Oakland
"If they take over the camp, we're going to reoccupy. Our objective is for them to keep spending money. We are not going to stop."
Whose money does the protester think the city is spending? This is not fat cat money, this is taxpayer money. Every penny the city spends related to the Occupy Oakland protest is money that is not going to maintaining and perhaps improving the city itself. The 99% lose out in this protest if the objective is to spend taxpayers' money in this way.
November 13, 2011
November 12, 2011
In Honor of 11.11.11
November 10, 2011
Spare Change for a Frappuccino?
November 9, 2011
La Raza Chronicles Radio Archive
Goal for 2012: Learn to speak Spanish!
November 8, 2011
Hear Me on La Raza Chronicles Tonight
November 5, 2011
Organized Oakland
Occupy Oakland
November 4, 2011
Gluten Free Mac and Cheese
Les Femmes du Maroc
There is no easy way to describe her work except that it gives you goose bumps - both for its poetic beauty and because you have to wonder what life entails for the women who are literally captured in her images.
November 3, 2011
Owning a Food Truck
This is a photo of the food trucks circling at UN Plaza in preparation for Thursday's market. Cuisines range from Kung Fu Tacos to BBQ and Cupcakes.
Now to design my ideal food truck.
October 28, 2011
Oakland Riot Cat
October 25, 2011
Work-Study
I believe that work study is an important experience, a rite of passage. It helps you be part of a larger system and to be accountable to your teachers. Instead of the assumption that you are owed an education, you have to earn it, as you would hope to earn respect and additional responsibility.
October 21, 2011
Three Years Have Flown
Plus, noticing I lost a lot of weight, although I never thought I was heavy. A happier life means better health. 42.5 is treating me very well. There is nothing I would change about who I am or what I am doing.
My life has landmarks and one is Before London and After London. There are many before-and-afters, which I'll tuck away for a while.