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outside our walls:
toshiro miura
This month, Outside Our Walls profiles Toshiro Miura, who discovered that Kripalu Yoga works quite well in translation—both on the mat and on the page. Find out why Kripalu Yoga may be especially relevant for Japanese practitioners.
 Read Outside Our Walls.
a focus on meditation
Discover how our meditation programs can help you cope with stress, improve health, unlock creativity, and more.
Dive into stillness.
spring cleaning
It’s time to shed winter lethargy and experience spring renewal! Join nutritionist John Bagnulo for a cleanse to help you lose the metabolic clutter that’s sapping your energy. Each day of this Healthy Living immersion program includes a two-hour hike, lectures on the best energy-providing foods, and shared meals. Bounce into the new season with
Spring Deep Clean: Eat, Move, Lose!, April 8–13.
guest words
The fact that I can go to Kripalu and just be is what makes the experience of being there so wonderful.
—Natasha Y., realtor, Northampton, Massachusetts
learn how to get happier
Happiness isn’t about chance, it's about choice. Positive Psychology is a scientific field of study that focuses on optimal human functioning and providing skills that cultivate happiness and better living. Be transformed through Kripalu's exclusive 10-month certificate program, an on-site immersion and innovative online training experience. Learn to apply techniques for sustainable change with Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, a leader and pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology.
Find out more and register now at kripalu.org/cipp.
turning point: andrea beaman
Seeing her mother undergo treatment for breast cancer was an eye-opener for Andrea Beaman, as was her own diagnosis of incurable thyroid disease. Both experiences set her on a path to promoting healing through diet, lifestyle, and consciousness.
Read the interview.
Also read Turning Point interviews with Gabor Maté, Bryan Kest, and
Cathy Woods.
did you know?
Kripalu aims to become as energy efficient and environmentally friendly as possible, with projects including the 2009 construction of our green Annex building; the conversion of our heating system from oil to natural gas; and the installation of a state-of-the-art dishwasher system.
Support Kripalu initiatives like this
www.kripalu.org/makeagift
meditation and me, by danna faulds
I’ve always loved yoga, but my early relationship with meditation was far from easy. I remember my very first attempt to meditate in 1983, not long after meeting the man I eventually married. Rick had been sitting for years—an hour each morning—and his dedication to the practice piqued my curiosity.
One night, as we were getting ready for bed, I said, “If I wake up early tomorrow, I might sit with you. What should I do? I mean, how do you meditate?”
Read more.
from the archives: awakening from the trance: the path of radical acceptance, by tara brach
Perhaps the biggest tragedy in our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns. Entangled in the trance of unworthiness, we grow accustomed to caging ourselves in with self-judgment and anxiety, with restlessness and dissatisfaction.
Read more.
healthy living recipes
Morning is a great time to stoke the body’s fire with this spicy breakfast treat. Simple, versatile, and delicious, Poached Eggs Ranchero is a favorite choice for Kripalu Executive Chef Deb Morgan, and its healthful combination of protein, vegetables, and spices puts it high on Lead Nutritionist Annie B. Kay’s list as well.
Healthy Living Recipe of the Month
Poached Eggs Ranchero
desktop wallpaper
Enjoy the beauty of the Berkshires every day with Kripalu’s desktop wallpaper. Available with and without a calendar.
Easy to download.
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welcome
Happy February! If wintertime has you feeling as if you’re stuck in your own personal version of Groundhog Day, living the same 24 hours over and over again, now’s the moment to break out of your rut. In our feature article, Laura Berman Fortgang offers a pep talk for discovering your right livelihood—without ignoring the practicalities. Our new certificate program in Positive Psychology teaches scientifically proven techniques for cultivating happiness. Plus, consider a spring deep clean for your body and soul; get inspired by Danna Faulds’ essay on beginning a meditation practice; and embrace the idea of radical self-acceptance. It’s a brand-new day!
the prosperity plan
by Laura Berman Fortgang
In this excerpt from her book The Prosperity Plan: Ten Steps to Beating the Odds and Creating Extraordinary Wealth (and Happiness), life coach and sought-after speaker Laura Berman Fortgang offers her interpretation of right livelihood, along with suggestions for discovering what it is you’re meant to do.
Having grown up watching TV, images from shows I’ve seen often come up for me as metaphors for life. One that has been showing up in my mind’s eye for many years is the prairie town in Wisconsin where author Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose work inspired the television series Little House on the Prairie, grew up. The town was scant, with a schoolhouse, a mercantile area, and a few other buildings where services were provided by the town doctor or maybe the tinker. That image has served as a symbol for where I’ve sensed the world of work headed. I have long felt that we will be going backward a bit to recapture the essence of work, with each person clearly filling a need in the community. As we shift from competition as the operating system of life and work to one of cooperation, a small society makes it easier to see how each person adds to the whole. That image of the small, simple town mirrors what I see happening to work today. We are being forced, some by economics and some by our own spiritual evolution, to seek our unique contribution to the world. We are ready to get back to giving our unique offering to make the world work better and to support our lives. That is what dharma is.
There are many bumper-sticker-type slogans out there urging you to “live your bliss.” You’ve heard them: “Do what you love and the money will follow.” “Live your passion!” “Live your purpose!” I think there is truth in those statements, but the pain these platitudes cause people tells me there has to be more to it. I know of so many people who suffer or have anxiety over not having found the one thing that is their passion—that which will make them happy and make them money.
I don’t believe there is only one form that your right livelihood, passion, or purpose must take. There are many ways that it can be expressed. What has become clear to me after years of working with people so that they may recognize their purpose and right work is that it is not a matter of one project, passion, or job; rather, it is a way of being, a talent, a unique attribute you have that cannot be repeated by anyone, because no one else can be you. And that quality or strength expressed through you can fit into a myriad of job descriptions.
Ultimately, it is not what you do that will make you happy but how you feel when you are doing it. Who it allows you to be is the secret to the joy.
Chances are, there is a theme that has followed you throughout your life and through different jobs. Until it is discovered, named, and brought into your awareness, it will never register with you as being important. When you identify it, name it, and see how it has always been a part of you, you will have confirmation that you are supposed to amplify that part of yourself and allow it to be the criterion for your choice of work. The part that matters is that the fullest expression of you be made accessible to you. It is then that you will experience the joy that fosters prosperity. You will be contributing what you were built to contribute. So I’d change the motto “Do what you love, and the money will follow” to “The money will follow when you work with love.”
You don’t have to know what you love to do to do that. You just have to become the person you’ve always wanted to be right where you are and watch how your work will transform. You will make different choices. You will be given different opportunities. You may leave your current work or you’ll be released from it and be free to pursue avenues where you can be who you want to be. Just be who you truly are through your work, no matter what it is, and you will be living in the vibration that attracts the most money to you. Use what you are blessed with and the world gets to benefit—it’s a prosperity-making formula.
I know what your inner critic is probably saying: “Yeah, that’s nice, but I still hate my job.” Or you may be thinking, “If I don’t stay here, how do I pay my mortgage?” There are certainly mitigating factors and concrete realities to negotiate. Nonetheless, a state of worry and anxiety caused by any circumstance is not the most conducive to sustainable prosperity. And yet, any new venture or temporary lapse in income is nerve-wracking and anxiety producing. A catch-22. What to do? Mostly, that negative cycle is the result of being trained to think that losing a job is a tragedy and that attempting something new is asking for failure. Neither has to be true, but we are so deeply conditioned to accept those common notions that we don’t even try, once again shutting off the source of prosperity. People who get rich when they face these scenarios do so because they understand they are stepping into a plan for their greatest prosperity without waiting for the circumstances to show that they are right before they even start out. Prosperity does not grow from doubt: it grows from certainty before you even see results.
To Align with Your Right Livelihood
- What do you know in your heart you are supposed to be doing with your life? However large or small of a stretch it might be, just write it down. (It’s okay, you don’t have to show anyone just yet.)
- Alternatively, write down the dream you once had but did not pursue. Explore in writing if it is still applicable to who you are today, and if so, why.
- If that dream no longer works for you, explore the possibility that it might just be a metaphor for something that could be expressed through your work now. Also, explore if the real reason behind wanting to pursue that dream reflects who you want to be in the world. If so, that is the piece to fold into your life moving forward.
- Start immediately being more of who you are, despite the pressure your job description causes to the contrary.
- Practice the discipline of “right livelihood” in your attitude and choices daily.
- Sketch out an action plan showing how you could move further into your right livelihood over the next year.
Reprinted with permission from the Penguin Group.
www.penguin.com
Laura Berman Fortgang is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of life coaching. The founder of Now What® Coaching, she is author of Take Yourself to the Top, Living Your Best Life, and Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction. Laura has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Today, the CBS Early Show, and Good Morning America, and in the Wall Street Journal and dozens of magazines.
Don’t miss Laura Berman Fortgang at Kripalu Now What? Finding Career Clarity and Life Direction From the Inside Out, March 23–25.
spreading the word…
The Prosperous Heart
Julia Cameron’s new book, The Prosperous Heart: Creating a Life of "Enough," guides readers through a 10-week program for using creativity as a path to prosperity in all areas of life. In the mold of Cameron’s now-classic The Artist’s Way, her new book offers daily techniques and strategies for forging a relationship between creative passion and practicality. Julia teaches at Kripalu March 9–11 A Workshop on the Artist’s Way: Creative Myths and Monsters.
Find out more about The Prosperous Heart.
Good Cards for Valentine’s
This year, do good for Valentine’s Day. The Good Card is a gift card that can be redeemed as a donation to any of more than 1.2 million charities. You can send it via e-mail or print it at home—you choose the amount; the person receiving it chooses the cause.
Give a Good Card.
quote of the month
He who forgives ends the quarrel.
—African proverb
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