The Art of Skillful Living

As a yoga practitioner and teacher for over 20 years, my biggest takeaway from the practice is how to live more skillfully.  If I were to say I am a skillful living coach, people might question what that means.  I want to share what I think that means as a way to convey how helpful it can be to cultivate life skills in ways most people don't think about.

My definition of skillful living is using techniques, knowledge and insight to engage in life more fully, with fewer obstacles, and more efficaciously.  Living skillfully results in more harmony, peace, serenity, and confidence.  

Some of the ways I have developed skillful living is through the cultivation of heart qualities.  We can cultivate a more loving presence, a joyful spirit, a peaceful demeanor, more patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control.  We can cultivate softness, steadiness, balance, expansiveness, strength, flexibility, gratitude, fortitude, persistence, mindfulness and the list goes on. 

I guess this is my introduction into how to live more skillfully through the cultivation of certain qualities so that we may experience more bliss and fun in life.

I could do a blog post on each one of the heart qualities and share exercises in how to cultivate the qualities.  They all take practice.  Over and over again.  In my yoga practice, we revisit these themes regularly to remember.  The qualities are already there, we just bring them out through awareness and practice. 

Here is an example:  To cultivate a more loving presence, sit quietly with your eyes closed.  Bring your hands in front of your heart in "prayer" position.  Take your attention to your heart and begin to breathe deeply from your low belly, through the rib cage and into the upper chest.  Feel your chest, shoulders and arms open as you breathe in.  Lovingly let go of the breath slowly, keeping your attention on your heart.  Repeat at least five times.  Notice how open you feel.  Try doing this one exercise once or more per day or week.  Over time, you will begin to feel more loving towards yourself, your family and those around you!  

If you want some help in navigating life and cultivating amazing heart qualities, schedule some time with me.  Invest one hour of your time with no money exchange and see if coaching is right for you. 

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