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Going Grounded (not postal) at the Post Office

A blue Post Office sign above a white buildingWe teach kids and teens how to find humor in every day life and how awareness leads to amusement in even the most mundane places. This event took place this morning and it’s what I taught in my Grounded class this afternoon. I shared the story, taught the poses and we had an awesome, authentic experience. The kids were inspired to write down their own personal stories and the poses that prepared them to handle real life with ease. They loved using the pose stickers to illustrate their writing. Find all the details about these poses and more in our box of 84 Grounded Elevator Series Pose Cards. Enjoy!

I was at the post office this morning at 8:30 am GET UP, which in itself is funny since I’m a night owl and it’s summer and I abhor standing in the long lines. So much so that I use stamps.com (worth it!) and my own postage scale and printer. However, this particular package was international and I did not have a customs form at home, nor could I figure out the correct form to print from the USPS website. NO WHINING. My son runs every morning with his team and the park is across from the post office so I decided to beat the crowd and go on the way home from picking him up. WARROR III WITH INTENTION. He’s a champ to agree to sit in the hot car after running 8 miles. Anyway, it’s early and I’ll just be a minute. TWISTED TOGETHER. I packed up our wonderful Grounded materials at home using an official Flat Rate box, WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK, and carried it in, happy to see that there was only one person in line. GRATITUDE. It was even my turn before I had a chance to finish eavesdropping on a conversation between a city police woman in full uniform, including a holster packed with two guns, a taser and two containers of mace/tear gas or something that would surly knock some sense into anyone fighting this extremely well armed woman. DON’T ROCK THE BOAT. She was telling a post office employee that she had filled out a card for her mail to be forwarded while she was away but has since lost the paperwork and can’t remember the address to which she had her mail forwarded. ? . LAUGHTER MILKSHAKE. With a smile, I approached the older gentleman behind the counter and looked for his name tag in order to say hello. He didn’t have one because, as I soon figured out, he was new. NICE TO MEET YOU. I put the box on the counter and told him that it was ready to go to Australia other than the customs form and postage (the amount of which I already knew because it was a Flat Rate box and the website lists the prices for international Flat Rate boxes.) TRIANGLE WITH WISDOM. “Well” he said, “I’m not sure which customs form to use but it’s gonna cost a lot since it’s going all the way to Australia.” HOLD ON A MINUTE. I asked him to please find out about customs and I would gladly step aside to complete the form because by now, from the sound of violent breathing behind me, I could tell someone very cloaked was in a hurry. ROOT TREE RISE. While my post office man went in the back, I turned around just in time to see the mouth breather raise her hands and shout at the before mentioned police woman and her post office person “Our tax dollars at waste!” CAT SCRATCH FEVER.  The officer replies “You got somethin’ to say to me?” PLAYING WITH FIRE. The human brain is the most amazing computer ‘cause I can’t even count how many scenarios ran through my head at that instant. YOU’RE UP THEN YOU’RE DOWN. My man returns with a form just as she who may snap at any moment throws a floppy white envelope on the counter and stomps away yelling for him to mail the stupid package. GO TO YOUR ROOM. Without missing a beat, my mail man calls out for her to “have a nice day” with all the innocence of someone’s first day on the job. RECTANGULAR RELATIONSHIP. So, with wide eyes, I take the form and ask if I could possibly have a few more to take home so that the next time I need to mail something internationally, I can already have the form completed. TWIST AND TARGET. He tells me that he doesn’t know if that is allowed because he is new and I send things all the way to Australia, but that I can find out on the USPS website. JUST BREATHE. I’m processing this info and hearing Australia over and over in MY mind but with Oprah’s voice when another employee steps out of the back and hands me a stack of forms. My man, the new guy, then asks for some help since he’s never mailed anything to Australia before and he wants to give me the best price since it’s heavy and going all the way to Australia. OOMPA LOOMPA. I feel compelled to remind him that it is a Flat Rate Box, but it is too late. They are already discussing the options. BRING IT ON. I decide to go fill out the form so I missed out on the end of that conversation. It ended rather quickly because before I entered the description of each content, the other employee screamed to all 2 people in the building, me included, “does anyone need to pick up a package from the back? Pick up a package from the back? Anyone?” FORWARD FOLD. This shout out continued every few minutes for the next 40 minutes, no matter how few (1) other people were there. DOUBLE CHECK. I bet you are wondering why I was in the post office for 40 more minutes. Here are the ingredients to the rich icing on my not so easy bake post office cake. FLAT LIKE A PANCAKE. 1 new guy, 1 pair of tiny reading glasses, 1 extremely long customs form, 1 rule that all handwritten custom forms must be entered into the computer, 2 hands but only one finger typing, 3 beeping sounds from the computer after each incorrect entry, a package in a Flat Rate Box weighing 11.3 lbs going all the way to Australia and 1 yogini with 11 years of practice. ROCK N’ ROLL.  So, I wait and I breathe and I observe and I stretch and I connect and I AM WHAT I AM. Today I was at the post office for 45 minutes to mail  our inspiring materials to a woman in Australia ready to receive and get grounded. NETWORK. They say that when you start practicing yoga you either transform or quit. I’ve become aware of the LIFE in life. The humor, the diversity, the commonality, the joy, the depth, the darkness, the vibration of people’s energy, the Grace. I’m GROUNDED for LIFE and loving it.

More to Explore

  • Namaste

    Said my young friend who wants a connection: “I wave. I shake hands, with no objection. No pain, no remorse, no one intervening a choice I make without much thought or meaning~” “…Is there a gesture that honors each other? That celebrates greeting sisters and brothers? Can you show me HOW to express happiness with social and spiritual significance?” YES, my dear friend, I can show you a mudra~ a gesture of sorts, for kings, friends and sudras. Place hands together from fingers to wrists~ like a knife, cut through difference that may exist. This immediately gets you to the shared ground~ of ALL people, of all cultures, of all sound. It’s a recognition, a united force~ that honors equality of all from the Source. Close your eyes and tune into your own inner light; your divine spark that forever burns bright. That’s the key, my dear friend, you must see your OWN in order to recognize others’ light shown. BLEND your five fingers of action on the left~ with five fingers of knowledge on the right~ to achieve the symbol of perfection the union of opposites; interconnection. FInd the Connection of your brain and your heart; your sun and your moon; your stop and your start. Marry together reason and emotion~ unite thoughts and feelings, stillness and motion. Join positive and negative; hot and cold~ theory with practice, silver with gold~ Wisdom with Method, intellect with instinct~ talent with genius, and feelings with think! Exhalation and inhalation, ,brain and heart~ Align in harmony, right from the start! There is indeed no sphere of our existence untouched by the symbolic significance~ of Namaste~ Namaste

  • Snow White Yoga

    {Tada drastuh svarupe vasthanam}
    Patanjali’s Sutra Chapter 1, verse 3
    Then the SEER abides in it own NATURE
    Surely, it’s meant to BE~
    To ABIDE in our own SPLENDOR~
    The mind must get real quiet;
    it needs to uncover the truth
    and go on a Cloud free Diet.
    No need to grasp for light
    For it is already here and there.
    Let’s thin out the distorted clouds
    Of ignorance and despair.
    Let’s work with the muddled mind,
    Accept that clouds are blocking,
    Train to be more observant
    Of thoughts that keep on talking.
    Just like the sun up above
    Our LIGHT never dims to slur.
    It does get covered up.
    And distortion may occur.
    Dwarfs mine for diamonds
    In the classic tale SNOW WHITE.
    We mine for JOY
    It’s our undivided RIGHT.
    SNOW WHITE sings joyfully,
    As she tidies up the cottage.
    Birds and animals dance along
    And MiIRROR her BLISSFUL wattage.
    SNOW WHITE glistens KINDNESS,
    and undisturbed PURENESS,
    That exists at the core of her being
    Her true SELF, that’s for sureness.
    In yoga, we use our practice
    To support the removal of clouds~
    To ground into our inner brilliance
    And shine out free from the shrouds.
    “Just whistle while you work
    And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place
    So hum a merry tune
    It won’t take long when there’s a song to help you set the pace ”
    Keep your ankles in line with your knees
    And your knees in line with your hips.
    Clasp your elbows behind your back
    And rise up high on your toe-tips.
    Bend steady your knees.
    Stay high up on tiptoes.
    Whistle or hum a tune
    While you work to hold this pose!
    “And as you sweep the room
    Imagine that the broom is someone that you love
    And soon you’ll find you’re dancing to the tune
    When hearts are high the time will fly
    So whistle while you work”
    Clean the sand trap of cluttered thoughts
    With camel pose in a chair.
    Sit on the edge of your seat
    Place your hands behind you with care.
    Lift the sides of your heart up
    And the back of your heart high.
    Pull your head of the arm bones back.
    Soften both sides of your throat and sigh.
    Sigh your throat back,
    And LIFT YOUR HEART HIGH.
    WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK
    And allow time to fly.
    Place hands on your lap
    Lift your head back over your heart
    Ground your thighs and feet,
    And Feel the clouds depart.
    May we whistle while we work.
    May we notice our inner states.
    May our inner states be bright.
    And lighten our outer updates.
    May the sound that whistles tunes
    from within our deep heart’s abyss
    Ring loud and ring clear~
    OUR OWN TRUE NATURE IS BLISS!

  • The Royal Mind

    Hmmm, Our Monkey Mind
    Our Mind Monkey~
    Is restless, and random,
    Rebellious, and junky?
    Silly, and scattered
    Like a toddler in its movement~
    Won’t settle down,
    And needs vast improvement?
    The mind is a problem,
    That we need to control.
    It’s random, and restless
    And a bit of a troll?
    That’s nonsense, we say!
    And quite derogatory!
    The nature of the mind
    Is going for glory!
    The mind is evolutionary,
    progressive, dynamic.
    Always seeking and moving
    toward that which is magic.
    So, think NOT monkey mind
    More like, mind is royalty~
    A King to Serve
    With Love and Loyalty.
    But, how can we Serve,
    The Great Intelligence of our minds?
    By meditation and mantras
    And movement refined.
    By exceptional quality
    Of the company we keep,
    What we see, what we hear,
    How well we do sleep.
    By lavish feasts of sutras,
    Of songs, and of silence,
    Of settling, and stillness
    And speech for your Highness.
    Much of your activity
    Will settle in bliss~
    Yet portions of Royal Mind
    Will continue to hiss.
    And that, my dear friend~
    Is the Great Intelligence~
    It wants more and more
    Of higher elegance.
    The Discipline of yoga,
    Now, you see,
    Is in permitting and inviting
    This process~ to BE.

  • Little Bo Breath

    Little Bo Breath has lost her depth, And can’t tell where to find it: She closes her eyes, tunes inside And breathes from hips to armpits. When you feel shallow and dull, deeply breath to get more full. Settle your seat and settle your feet. Close your eyes and visualize a cave in each armpit; …