Sierra Sunrise Wednesdays – Gratitude

The Sierra Sunrise Wellness Group is ecstatic to officially announce our partnership with Pure Yoga Boutique Studio!!

Mother’s Day has already passed this year, but I am still celebrating my dear mama, and on Sunday, I dedicated my very first yoga class to her, the final exam before I graduated and became a certified 200-hour trained yoga instructor!! The cherry on top of that beautiful Sunday, was that I  taught [will now regularly be on the schedule!!) at Pure Yoga, a studio that I became co-owner of in January, and that is located in the same building as my beautiful new private practice office and the location for the Sierra Sunrise Wellness Group!! I have worked so hard for this moment to become a reality, and yet, the moment itself is completely surreal. I feel really, really proud of myself, and that, wow… that is a feeling that I especially feel immense gratitude for.

Today, I am filled to the brim with pure and utter gratitude for my life, this moment in time, and for there being such a thing as “being,” because I thank goodness that I, in fact, “am.”

In every moment, I am doing the best that I can, and that is the very best that I can do in any given moment. I love who I am in this moment, and the juncture at which I have arrived in my life as the gift of the “present,” my right here and right now. What is, IS, and it is deliciously congruent with my every sense of being. The “should be’s,” “could be’s,” and “could have been differents” are a part of my contrast of the present moment’s circumstances, but are they what is? Who am I? Where am I? Why am I?… I only know that at this present moment, I am. I am the flower; I exist.

As a requirement for graduation, I had to complete several writing assignments, including an essay on the book If the Buddha Got Stuck by Charlotte Kasl, Ph.D., and a letter to myself at 16 years old. I was faced with a moment of raw honesty about who I was then and who I have become in my here and now. I was aided in my conceptualization of myself by the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, the Eightfold Path, and the Yamas and Niyamas.

The 4 Noble Truths state:

1. “The Truth of Dukkha: Life inevitably includes suffering or difficulty.”
   

   Thank you to Dana at PhotoZen for your fantastic collaboration!

2. “Life is Painful or difficult because of our attachments”

“The concept of attachment also relates to your emotional experience. To push away natural expressions of grief, sorrow, anger, and hurt is to shut down against one’s humanness, or you could say it becomes an attachment to not feeling. As a result, you become habituated to holding back, avoiding, or disowning parts of yourself, which creates holding patterns in the body. These manifest as repetitive responses to life situations – automatically becoming afraid, defensive, resisting change, or tightening up throughout the body. These patterns are conveyed through your body language, movement, and voice – there is an incongruence or sense of being off center. This leads to what Buddhism refers to as samsara – the wheel of suffering – having unconscious, repetitive emotional responses to life’s situations… a.k.a. being stuck” (20.)

3. “Ease and peace of mind are possible”

4. “The path toward greater ease and peace is found on the eightfold path”  (Kasl, If the Buddha Got Stuck, 18-20.)

The 8 Fold Path: 

1. Right Understanding

2. Right Intention

3. Right Speech

4. Right Action

5. Right Livelihood

6. Right Effort

7. Right Mindfulness

8. Right Concentration

The Yamas include:                                                                                                                        And the Niyamas include:

Ahimsa ~ Non-violence                                                                                                                              Saucha ~ Purity

Satya ~ Truthfulness                                                                                                                          Santosha ~ Contentment

Asteya ~ Non-stealing                                                                                                                           Tapas ~ Self-discipline

Brahmacharya ~ Non-excess                                                                                                                Svadhyaya ~ Self-study

Aparigraha ~ Non-possessiveness                                                                                                Ishvara Pranidhana ~ Surrender

At sixteen years old, I was experiencing one of the most traumatic moments during the entirety of my existence, so far. I watched as people, pets, and objects quickly slid out of the realm of this existence, and into seeming oblivion somewhere beyond the veil of my reality. I was intimately acquainted with sadness and grief, which left me in a perpetual state of wonderment for “what the meaning of it all” was. Despite [or perhaps because of] the pain, I pushed through to find the deeper purpose, because there had to be a greater meaning to it all, there just had to be… because if there wasn’t… then… what was the point?

You have THIS moment to begin the rest of your awakened life <3 

It was in my adolescence that I began the journey towards honing in on how my awesome ability to cope is an asset that at times has been more valuable than money. In fact, at sixteen, I felt sure that one day, I could have it all. Many days, I feel entirely overwhelmed and terrified, but then, I adapt accordingly. I am most always of the habit of pulling myself back up, finding the energy to get through what I perceive myself as needing to overcome. I am hard on myself, but I get a LOT done.

So, what’s the point? Well, more concisely, we have THIS moment, right now, to accomplish our goals. It might not all come into being right this very moment, but we can build towards the moments in which we have done it, we accomplish what we set out to do.

I can lift myself up, and I can look people in the eyes, because other people are my equals. We might hold different jobs, genders, races, values, beliefs, cognitive abilities, physical abilities, and a plethora of other differences, and yet, at the end of the day, all of our days will be done; perhaps not at the end of THIS day, but at the end of one day, some day, soon. The details might be a bit tedious, a bit too mundane and ordinary, but those are the clues of information that guide us towards what we need to do in the here and now with the hope that we will make the most of today, so that we can make the most of tomorrow, and more grandly, what I can do to make the most of my life.

I am determined to believe that there IS a deeper meaning to all that we collectively experience.

At sixteen, I would have traded all the money in the world for just another moment, another lifetime preferably, with Dad, and that is still true, to an extent. The truth is though, although it felt like it then and even sometimes now, I didn’t fully lose him. I was imbued with his deeper wisdom and insight, which now augments my own.

I couldn’t have this beautiful life I have now had it not been for the beautiful hopes, dreams, and desires of my sixteen year old self. To tell the truth, the honest, honest truth…At 16 years old, I wanted to die, but I also so desperately wanted to live. It was so hard holding onto what felt like false hope that anything would improve, and yet, it did… buuuut it took time, it’s bittersweet damn time. A decade later, and I have become exactly the person that I want to be. I love that tomorrow, I will have another sunrise full of potential to live the life I so greatly love. I have an enormous amount of gratitude to my 16 year old self for the contribution of not killing myself, in one way or another. I could have, but I chose not to. I chose to keep trying, and for that, I am so, so, so immensely grateful and PROUD. <3

Nora Ann Shannon in Anuvittasana

This moment has been a bit of a surprise, because never did I think that yoga would become something that now feels so integral to my soul and my sense of being, living, breathing. The world is not stagnant, and although we might have a tendency to think that THIS moment is the only moment, there truly is SO much more to do and to experience. However, in THIS moment, I feel content. For my own standards of good enough, I have done more than enough. I can finally relax, close my eyes, feel the sun shining, nurturing my sweet soul, safe and sound, and… accomplished. I AM what I had always hoped I could be, and so much more, too. THAT is a moment of being worth striving toward, worth living for.

You have THIS moment to begin the rest of your awakened life <3

Thus, my message to you, my friends, is this: Despite the inner critic that often negates your brilliant ideas, you have managed to overcome and prove to yourself, first and foremost, that you CAN endure, because you have made it this far. Now, follow through on your dreams. If one cannot fulfill his or her own dreams, then the pressure falls to someone else to do it; but not this time. The jealousy of others is illusion, because what does anyone else have that you don’t? Perhaps the perceived difference is funding, because if you had money, then maybe your dreams would be easier to build into being. Yes, there are those with amazing houses, gorgeous cars, or whatever else, but never have I ever seen a hurse followed by a u-haul. There is only our souls that we bring back to source, so what we accomplish internally means a great deal more in TRUTH, which has to have greater tangible value than the dis-illusionment of paper, coins, and plastic.

“Of all the losses rupturing the human soul today, this alienation may be the most alarming because it separates us from the very roots of our existence” (Anodea Judith, Eastern Body, Western Mind, 54.)

The level of dismissal that we may place on our personal growth and level of priority is a cultural epidemic. I am materialistic. I am attached and dependent on objects, including money and what money can buy. I am also aware of my attachment to people, and the fact that I am always preparing to say goodbye. Objects act as my solace, representing the antithesis of death. If my material items, things that I own, are not sentient, then they cannot die. Material objects do not have a given death date

Death is a part of life. It is everywhere, and yet, much of the time, I am able to step around the realness of it because of the habituation effect of the under-appreciated mundane. We are all ghosts; echoes of the past the reverberate throughout the entirety of eternity as the paradoxical future looms before us, just up ahead. If I were to die tomorrow, I could be at peace, because I have loved this life, this journey, this amazing trip. It has taken a great deal for me to go with the flow of life, and to have faith that there is indeed some sort of Divine place, some rhyme or reason that gives sense for everything having turned out exactly as it needs to in every stop along the way.

 I wish you all good luck, good health, good faith, good well-being, good intention, good family, good friends, good food, good yoga, good love, good scholastic endeavors, good travels, and oh such a good and beautiful life.

Thank you to beautiful mom for protecting me and teaching me that I am beautiful, capable and strong. I would also like to say thank you to my yoga teacher trainers and trainees. The last six months have been absolutely incredible, and I am so proud of all of you who are both my mentors and friends. I am eternally grateful for our moment in time together, and I am especially looking forward to all of the places across the world we will practice our asana together. Love, love, love you all. <3

All that is light, and love, and peace, and grace within me, honors and acknowledges all that is light, and love, and peace, and grace within each one of you.

<3 Nora Ann 

Pictured: (L) Nora Ann Shannon (Co-Owner of Pure Yoga and Owner of Sierra Sunrise Wellness Group), (C) Kelly Aguilera (Manager of Pure Yoga and Executive Administrative Assistant of SSWG), and (R) Cia Greene (Co-Owner and Founder of Pure Yoga)

THIS is indeed your moment. Savor it, my love <3