This blog post is part of The Business Yogi series – inspiration and thoughts for business based on the philosophy, principles and practices of yoga.

“No mud, no lotus.” – Thich Nhat Hahn

Running the Digital Assistant Academy has been one of the most challenging things I have ever undertaken. Training women who have never considered using the web to work to be freelance digital assistants in only eight weeks, does seem at times to be an impossible task.

But just as the lotus rises from the mud, so our most triumphant moments in yoga bloom from our most challenging experiences.

After five weeks of nearly crying with exhaustion and frustration after most of the training sessions, yesterday just … flowed. Applications were installed with ease, new ideas gushed, exercises were completed with enthusiasm and skill. It’s all starting to make sense. One of the women commented that she is now rethinking how she spends her time and no longer wants to waste time on Facebook as she can see the wider  business potential of the web.

The past five weeks have been challenging for both me and the women. There have been tears both in and outside the classroom. One women quit before our half term break as she could not cope with the course and raise three children at home. As someone without children, I find it hard to advise my trainees on how they can find the time to study and eventually work at home when they have a family. Two of my inspirational women speakers to come are both busy freelance working Mums so I hope that we can learn how they push through their ‘mud’ on a daily basis.

As for me, I believe deep down that this project can help some of the 110,000 single parents (mostly women) who the current Government will force to seek work – or risk a benefit cut – without availability of jobs, adequate job-search support or childcare help. So even through this work is unpaid and sometimes feels unappreciated, days like yesterday remind me that something worth doing is never easy.

I can see the Lotus emerging. And it feels great.

[image with thanks to virdi via CC]

 

Running your own business can be challenging at the best of times. Being solely reliant on yourself and your ideas to generate a pay check can cause sleepless nights, especially if others rely on you to bring home the bacon.

This week I am interviewing the women who applied for my Digital Assistant Academy pilot project which will enable six low income women in East London to generate additional, flexible income for themselves and their family around their existing commitments. Over an eight week period, the six women in the pilot will learn the necessary skills to become freelance Digital Assistants working from their own home with a laptop computer and broadband.

The women who have applied for the opportunity are diverse. Some of these women have not worked for a long time and have lost their confidence; others are single mums who want more flexible work to fit around their children; others are young women desperately trying to get on the job ladder in a terrible job market. However, they are were really positive about the project. One of the women wrote about the opportunity:

“I am keen to take part in the academy as I want to begin the rest of my life. I aim to become independent of state benefits and support my family whilst being a strong, positive role model for my children. I feel that I will be better equipped to do this if I am working and building a career.”

But I can see some sleepless nights ahead for me. No work is guaranteed, especially for freelancers. Am I setting these women up to fail by encouraging them to work for themselves? I have to admit that at least twice a year I consider packing it all in and getting a ‘real’ job – one where someone else can worry about how to pay my salary.

In these moments of self-doubt and fear, the yogic concept of tapas is a useful one to meditate on. Tapas is translated literally as ‘fire’ or ‘heat’ but it is taken to mean in this context sacrifice, discipline and perseverance.

In our asana practice some of the more challenging poses can create a lot of heat and fire in our body. The immediate reaction is to resist this and move back to a place of comfort. Tapas invites us to go through the heat and accept it. Feel the fear and do it anyway, if you like.

Through asana practice, meditation and self-study, yoga asks us to feel our discomfort and stretch beyond our perceived limitations. Only by going through our fear, not around it, can we begin to transcend it.

We have good and bad days in our yoga practice. Some days the postures come easily; we deeply connect to our breath and the world off the mat melts away. Other days, we cannot concentrate on anything and the simplest of postures frustrate us. This is normal.

What we have to remember is to get back on the mat.

[image with thank to marmotchaser via CC]

 

This blog post is part of The Business Yogi series – inspiration and thoughts for business based on the philosophy, principles and practices of yoga. [This is a guest post by Leila Sadeghee] 

I felt it for the first time yesterday; an edge of anxiety, a certain density in the atmosphere, the look on the faces of people on the streets - from Ladbroke Grove to Chelsea, from St James' to Fitzrovia; the felt sense is ...

Summer is over : (

The days are discernibly shorter - even though summer doesn't technically end for another three weeks - and the pace is starting to pick up. London is collectively preparing to make the jump to light speed for the autumn-to-Christmas race. 'Here it comes …' we all seem to be feeling.

In this last bit of lull before all of the action commences, I am taking time to re-focus and recalibrate my intentions. I giving myself some space to filter through my desires - what do I really want to create in the next phase of my practice?

As usual, in all my contemplations, the need to be fully creatively self-expressed keeps coming up. (And the desire to sharpen my organisational structures). Last fall was a brilliant creative explosion for me and some members of the Kula (the yoga community) - we started classes in Marylebone, and initiated 'Project Upshift', which was a way for many of us to make changes and transform our lives towards greater happiness and abundance. What does the Kula need this autumn? What do I have to share that can help uplift us and open new doors?

As we prepare to go back to school*, back to work, and back to the everyday after the summer holidays, we could use a little reminder of the nature of flow, and the role of fluidity in our lives. Having luxuriated in the natural lull of summer’s rhythm, and the brightness of summer’s leisure activities, our intentions and goals for the year may seem far away, and we might be host to the 'end-of-summer-blues'.

I feel it is so important now, more than ever, to focus on the essential. What are my highest aspirations and goals, and how can all of my words and my actions and choices support them? John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, mandates his teachers to think 'Highest First' - what is the expression/action that is aligned with the highest, the divine? The trick is, think 'Highest First', and move from there.

And so in this lull before the whirlwind, I would invite you today to think about what you're you focusing on? How are you opening to new possibilities? Or are you renewing commitments to fulfil goals and intentions from before the blast of summer leisure? What do your 'Kula', your community, your clients need? What is 'The Highest' for you this autumn?

*(Have a look at the post I wrote in August 2010 outlining how to do a ‘back to school’ review of your business).

Leila Sadeghee is an Anusara-Inspired Yoga Teacher and Therapeutic Bodyworker based in Fitzrovia, London.  Her teaching is inspirational, bio-mechanically savvy, superbly fun, and driven by a deep commitment to serve people in opening to their highest potential, both on and off the mat. Join Leila on 3 September at The Life Centre for an afternoon of recalibrating your intentions for the rest of the year, moving with music that supports those intentions, and charging your inner radiance so it can spill over into all that you do in the months to come. http://www.leilasadeghee.com/

 

Leo Babauta from Zen Habits is writing new book, The Effortless Life, publicly on the web (using a shared Google Doc in case you are interested). Reading it this week, I was reminded of the Tao concept of Wu Wei.

Wu Wei is literally translated as 'non-doing' or 'non-action' but the meaning is closer to 'action of non-action'. What appears to be a clear paradox - how can you have action of non-action? – is actually describing a state of ‘flow’ and ease when our actions are effortlessly in alignment with the ebb and flow of life, the natural world, and the rhythm of our bodies.

Much of our time at work, and in our lives, we are taking action. We are setting ambitious goals, deciding on priorities, and writing long to-do lists of tasks. As a productivity geek I will admit that I am as guilty of this as the next person - in fact this is part of what I teach!

However, sometimes I feel that I am pushing too hard up against the world, constantly striving, continually running. Can Wu Wei teach me another path?

This is what I have been experimenting with this week. Whether it's a summer slump or post-holiday blues, for some reason I have been finding it hard to get though my Big Rocks and daily allocated tasks. As a pretty focused and motivated person, this was initially worrying. But a strange thing happened. When I started to deeply listen to what I wanted to do, rather than what I thought I should do, things just got done. They may not have been exactly my planned priorities for the week, but there were still important work.

In the practice of yoga, this concept of non-striving is very important. Yoga is a delicate balance between effort and relaxation. Too much effort and you will hurt yourself. Not enough effort and you will not progress in your practice. One of my teachers talked recently about not falling in love with the shape of the pose. What he meant was that with the right effort the shape will come, but if we focus on just throwing ourselves into the shape, we have lost the benefit of the pose.

So in our busy and action-orientated world, how can we incorporate a little Wu Wei into our life? Here are seven ideas I have been playing with:

1. Instead of being a slave to the alarm clock, get up when you wake up naturally. (Obviously don’t do this if you have a train to catch or an important meeting first thing!)

2. Kill your to-do list and implement the One Thing System. Get up in the morning and decide what it is that you are excited about. Do that One Thing while your energy and motivation is high. Spend the rest of the day doing other tasks.

3. Rest when you feel tired. Don't keep working because it's work time. If you feel like a nap in the middle of the day, take a nap. Go to bed when you are tired, not before.

4. Work on setting an intention for your business (read my previous post on Intention, Alignment and Letting Go) but then letting go and not being too attached to the outcome.

5. Practising 'non-doing' in meetings; instead of trying to fill the space with words, try to use the space to really listen to what the other person is saying. You might be surprised at the insights you will gain.

6. Listen to when you are trying too hard. Take a step back and breathe.

7. Take the motivational signs and project reminders (or is this just me?) down from the walls around your desk and work in a clear and Zen space. (This is something I have been trialling since I got back from holiday and I like the headspace it’s giving me, especially when it comes to writing or thinking.)

Do let me know your thoughts on Wu Wei in the comments. An interesting idea or a waste of time?

 

[This is a guest post by Leila Sadeghee]

You know.

That is what I have been teaching in the yoga room this week. Because, recently, I have seen clients in my private practice and students on the mat who have been feeling like they don't know. Don't know what to do, how to feel better, how to make a change, how to communicate with someone. The anxious state of 'I don't know what to do!' has been a common occurrence in my treatment room - and in my own life!

One of my therapists used to say - when I turned up in his treatment room, week after week, saying frantically, 'I don't know what to do!' - 'Well, when you don't know, you don't know.' It's funny how all of our habits seem to be organised around a need to know what to do and how to be right now. A need to take action in situations that are either painful or uncomfortable.

And yet, how often is the action we take when we are in that state one that leads only to discomfiture?

When my therapist kindly, repeatedly delivered his statement of fact, he was urging me to yield to the way things are, just as they are. To soften in the face of discomfort, to settle with whatever feelings of uncertainty I was experiencing, and allow.

This is such an important way that I choose to practice Anusara Yoga’s First Principle, Open to Grace. Radically opening to the way things are - especially when they seem really messed up - opens me up to something I spent so many years without - a sense of inner knowing. Kind of a paradox! Through my practices of meditation, yoga asana, working with clients, and just paying calm and close attention to my own process, it has become more and more clear that there is, underneath even the fiercest anxiety and discomfort, an inner knowing that sits in the heart. That knowing is a quiescent rhythm of perfect intelligence. It's not the same thing as knowing with the thinking mind, but I have found that - when I listen to it closely - I can cognitively discern what action to take, if at all.

Often the wisdom has been in the waiting.

I do know - because I watched this deep understanding open in the hearts of clients and friends, and because I have seen it open in my own life - and because I know - that this knowledge belongs to everyone. I have found that very special things happen when we choose to align with that sweet intrinsic intelligence. The ordinary becomes magical.  Synchronicity and coincidence become the norm.

And we feel more connected, centered, and empowered in every aspect of our lives. Effortlessly.

You know.

Leila Sadeghee is an Anusara-Inspired Yoga Teacher and Therapeutic Bodyworker based in Fitzrovia, London.  Her teaching is inspirational, bio-mechanically savvy, superbly fun, and driven by a deep commitment to serve people in opening to their highest potential, both on and off the mat. In her private work, through awareness techniques, bodywork, yoga asana, and deep listening, she assists people in doing the sweet work of coming home to authenticity and empowerment, one revelation at a time. Students and clients continually marvel at how much better they feel, how much more aware they are, and how powerfully graceful they feel in facing life's challenges. Unique to Leila’s work is the way that the transformation takes place at the level of embodiment; clients literally change shape and move differently, opening to radical freedom in the body, the mind, and the heart. http://www.leilasadeghee.com/

 

Readers of this blog will know that I practice a style of yoga called Anusara yoga. Started by John Friend in Paris, it means 'open to grace' or 'following your heart'. It's a really physical but very light hearted practice and Anusara yogis believe in the inherent goodness of people, something that sits well with my personal philosophy.

Every Anusara class starts with an intention. We use this intention to align our practice with the Universal Principles of Alignment. But although we set an intention for our asanas (poses), the idea is not to grasp at it but let it go and focus on the process. That way we try not to get upset or frustrated if they do not happen the way we wish.

This is a wonderful lesson for business. Setting our intention for what we want to achieve and how we want to operate is essential. Once we set our intention the Universe aligns and it will start to happen. Energy follows intention so we find once we have set our intention that action follows.

This may sound a little too much like ‘positive thinking’ or creating one of those ‘vision boards’ where you manifest yourself with a great job, partner and lots of money. But there is a crucial difference.

In yoga when we set an intention, we also let it go. We do not cling to the idea of the outcome and become frustrated when it does not happen. Intention sets us on the journey but we do not know that exact nature of the path. In effect we are investing in the process rather than clinging to the defined outcomes.

I have seen this fully in my own life recently. A year ago I had an intention, a goal for a certain type of business and life. A year on I am not where I thought I would be but I am in a wonderful place and feel that the skills I have learnt and the people I have met this year are aligning into something amazing.

Intention creates energy and energy creates positive action but by not grasping to the outcome we can open ourselves up to whatever the Universe decides to throw at us and roll with it.

So I would invite you to take a minute today to set your positive intention for the rest of the day/week/year. Breathe. And let it go.

[image with thanks to mikecpeck via CC]

 

This blog post is part of The Business Yogi series – inspiration and thoughts for business based on the philosophy, principles and practices of yoga.

Do you consider yourself a perfectionist? Do you find it hard to decide when a piece of work is done - when it is 'good enough'?

If so, then you are not alone. Many entrepreneurs have a strong perfectionist trait. In a sense this is a good quality to have. You want others to value your work and want your clients to be happy. But perfectionism has a tricky side too. The side that keeps you working long into the night when no-one but you would notice the extra work you have done. The side that neglects social commitments because you 'need' to do that seventh re-write of the report. The side that uses perfectionism to avoid doing work you find difficult such as calling a potential client or sorting out your finances.

At a recent CUBELUNCH at co-working and innovation space THECUBE, Nathalie Nahai from web design and psychology company We Make Them Click talked about a strong link between how our parents viewed perfectionism and our own. Many perfectionists had a perfect parent that they learnt from and subconsciously are trying to emulate and please. Others had a chaotic parent and being perfect is a way of distancing themselves from this. Either way it is clear that our relationship with perfectionism is a complicated one.

In yoga, we look at the idea of perfectionism in a slightly different way. In Anusara Yoga, the type of yoga I practice, we focus a lot on 'perfect' alignment as it gives a solid foundation in poses allowing protection from injury and flow and energy in our practice. But 'perfection' in asanas or poses is not something to fight for or struggle against your body. The Sanskrit word for perfection is purnatva.  Literally translated this means ‘fullness in the moment’. Perfection is a yogic sense therefore means doing the very best you can do whatever your mental or physical state at that moment, on that day.

Purnatva means that each moment, even the ones when we seem to be failing, is perfect as long as we are being as full as we can be in that moment. Some days are harder than others and the joy of purnatva is that it teaches us to be OK with 'imperfection' while still striving to be the best we can be.

Namaste.

This blog post is part of The Business Yogi series – inspiration and thoughts for business based on the philosophy, principles and practices of yoga.

In last night's yoga class, we were working with the lovely yogic concept of 'Shri'. Shri is a Sanskrit word that means "That which is life-enhancing” – the radiance and beauty of life.

What a great sentiment!

My always life-enhancing teacher Leila spoke of those magical moments that are starting to happen now that winter is fading and spring is starting to unfold: the first crocuses, the warmer days, the expanding daylight. All of this serves to remind us daily to breathe in the life-enhancing, expansive beauty that is all around us. 

In business too we can identify those activities or projects or people that make us feel expansive rather than contracted. Running the From Apps to Zen mentoring groups is one of those activities for me - being able to provide a supportive and safe environment for others to get to grip with the wonderful but sometimes messy and confusing world of the web, is truly expansive work for me.

And so I would invite you today to consider how you can discover a little more 'shri' in your daily work. What are the activities that you find expansive and life-enhancing? How can you plan to do more of them? And where work or life is throwing you some challenges, consider how you can use this experience to become more self-aware and expansive.

Namaste.

[image with thanks to morning_rumtea via CC]

 

This blog post is part of The Business Yogi series – inspiration and thoughts for business based on the philosophy, principles and practices of yoga.

After a month in Amsterdam researching mindfulness at work (watch this space for further news), I returned this week to London and to my regular Thursday night Anusara-yoga class at YogaPlace here in East London.

One of the asanas or poses towards the end of the class was one of my least favourite - Hanumanasana, or The Splits. Even supported with blocks, I find this to be one of my most challenging postures. While we were wiggling into position, the teacher told us the story Hanuman, who as a naughty Hindu child god used to play tricks on all the other gods. As punishment, he lost his ability to remember his power and strength. Years later, as a adult, his wife was kidnapped and he set off around India to find her. After hearing that she was on the island of Sri Lanka, he was devastated. How could he cross the ocean to get to her? He asked the gods for help and, taking pity on him, they reminded him of his power and strength and he jumped from India to the island:

"It was the greatest leap ever taken. The speed of Hanuman's jump pulled blossoms and flowers into the air after him and they fell like little stars on the waving treetops. The animals on the beach had never seen such a thing; they cheered Hanuman, then the air burned from his passage, and red clouds flamed over the sky . . ." (Ramayana).

This pose then, in which the legs are split forward and back, mimics Hanuman's famous leap from the southern tip of India to the island of Sri Lanka.

We are like Hanuman sometimes. We forget our own potential and greatness. We forget what we are capable of. 

Non-yogis may have a misconception that yoga is not physically challenging as a practice. In fact yoga is all about going to the edge of your potential, breathing there, and then going a little further.

This is a wonderful metaphor for business and life. Too often we find ourselves staying in that comfortable place and not pushing ourselves that little bit deeper. With the New Year upon us, what ambitious goals have you set yourself for the coming year that will take you to the edge of what you think you are capable of and then gently go further? What makes you uncomfortable? Is it valuing your work properly? Is it picking up the phone and following up on sales leads? Is it sitting down and finally starting to write that book or blog?

In an interview yesterday for the 37signal's blog, Signal V Noise, Tim Ferriss of the Four Hour Work Week fame echoed this idea saying:

"Usually, the most important thing to do is the one that people need to act on soonest".

So take some time today, like Hanuman, to remember what you are capable of and identify one important thing that you can do today to begin the journey to the edge of your potential.

Good luck!

This blog post is part of The Business Yogi series – inspiration and thoughts for business based on the philosophy, principles and practices of yoga.

Yesterday was one of those days.

A long (but great!) dinner with friends the night before meant a late and fuzzy start to the morning. Reviewing my planned work for the day, there were reports to be written, research to be done and clients to chase. But for some reason I didn’t feel up to it all and spent most of the day in my Inbox and busying myself with inconsequential matters. Instead of putting the day to bed and starting afresh tomorrow, I ploughed on until late, increasingly frustrated and unhappy with my day and myself.

Through my digital wellbeing company 8fold, I help people use digital technologies to be more effective and balanced and create time in their day for focussed important work. And here I am unable to do the same. What a failure!

This disastrously unproductive day had me reflecting on the topic of today’s post: self-forgiveness and importance of compassion for ourselves (as well as others).

As small business owners we can be incredibly hard on ourselves. We have no ‘boss’ taking us to task if we waste a day, but we feel the guilt more acutely now we work for ourselves then we ever did as employees. Having those odd ‘off days’ seemed justified when it was on someone else’s time but not on your own watch. Sound familiar?

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are an ancient text that provide the backbone to the philosophy of yoga and consist of 4 chapters or books containing 196 aphorisms or sayings that allow us yogis to reflect on and improve ourselves.

One of the Sutras says that feelings such as doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, mind-wandering and missing the point are all normal distractions of the mind.The goal of yoga is not  to beat ourselves up for feeling this way but instead to clear these disturbances from the mind and free ourselves from the despair, nervousness, and disordered inspiration and expiration that co-existent with these obstacles.

Yoga Sutra 1.33 helps us with this goal by suggesting that we cultivate friendliness towards happiness and compassion towards misery and offer ourselves, and others, compassion, friendliness, delight and, ultimately compassionate detachment.

Can we forgive ourselves when unhappiness fills our day? Can we delight in the moments, however fleeting, of feeling we accomplished something, however small? Can we be as compassionate towards ourselves as we are towards others and forgive ourselves? These are good questions to reflect on when we are feeling like a failure.

A note of caution here. If everyday we fail to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves, then all the self-forgiveness and compassion in the world is not going to make us feel any better. I would suggest that with a compassionate heart, we keep in our minds the yogic concept of ‘tapa’ or self-discipline voluntarily imposed by yourself. In yoga practice we refer to this as ‘getting back on the mat’ – be compassionate to yourself if you have disappointed yourself but the important thing is to move on, and get back on the mat.

So that is what I am doing today - getting back on that mat!

I wish you a wonderful weekend.

Namaste.

[Image with thanks to Denise Carbonell via Creative Commons - Denise is a New York based artist that sells these beautiful hands via her website Metal and Thread]