Happy (day after) Mother’s Day!  Or, uh, should I rename it “Disappointment Day?” 

I can’t take credit for that name—it was Philippe’s brainchild.   A few days before Mother’s Day I saw yet another ad for “Don’t forget Mom!” and said jokingly to my family, “Hey!  It’s Mother’s Day this Sunday!  Hope you’re prepared!” 

Philippe, always the jokester, replied wryly, “Oh, you mean ‘Disappointment Day?’”

We all laughed and then my stomach dropped a little because a part of me was like, “Uh oh, have they forgotten?  Do they have anything prepared for me?”

And that, in a nutshell, is why Mother’s Day, a birthday, an anniversary, or any day on which you place an extra ordinate amount of expectation and pressure, can become “Disappointment Day.”

What to do?

Stop expecting.  Stop anticipating.  Stop being attached.  Take whatever it is as it comes, find what you love most about it, and ignore the rest.

Our culture has built up Mother’s Day so much that every Father is pretty much screwed.  For him to “live up to” the expectations of most Americans is, well, not too likely.  And that ain’t the best ever.

Mother’s Day is a practice like anything else.  A chance to do your best.  To stop, breathe, and enjoy—the little miracle(s) that you created.  Yeah, you DID THAT!  You CREATED THAT LITTLE PERSON!  And you nurture and raise your creation(s) 24/7 and for that, I say YOU ROCK SUPER-MOM.

We all do it differently and that’s cool.  We’re all Super-moms because we show up, day in and day out, and do our best with breath.

Have the best day ever!

Namaste!
Taylor plus 5

Ps.  Happy Birthday to Super-mom.com.  4 years old on Mother’s Day 2012.

I laugh a lot.  Mostly, what I laugh at are:

Myself

My kids

Seinfeld DVDs

Modern Family DVDs

Myself:  Philippe and I had just had a meeting at a big sporting company that had asked us to potentially partner with them.  I’m usually the talker in meetings (no surprise there) and this meeting was no different.  Driving to pick up the twins at preschool after the meeting Philippe and I were laughing about my way with people.  Philippe was imitating me and how now matter where I am and whom I’m talking to, I go on and on about, well, you know:  yoga, Deliberate Creation, Prana (life force) . . . .  He was imitating my voice and how I had all the VIP’s in that meeting listening to everything I was saying even though I had moved the conversation quite far away from the agenda and toward creating the best life ever. I was laughing so hard that I was crying and it occurred to me––I’m laughing at myself.  And I do so all the time.  It’s healthy to laugh and to laugh at yourself.  Best ever!

My kids are a constant source of entertainment to Philippe and me.  We keep a Google doc called “Best Family Quotes” and whenever any of our plus 5 say something that makes us laugh, we type it in.  Notice and cherish those who makes you laugh.  And spend more time around them.  Laughing is a very high vibration.

Seinfeld DVD’s:  There’s a reason why it was the most successful sitcom in history.

Modern Family DVD’s:  How can you not laugh with and adore Cam?

So take a step back today and take some time to laugh.  At whatever.  It don’t matter what it is, but lighten up and the laughter will come easily.  Lighten up, laugh more, appreciate more, all is well.

Have the best day ever!

Namaste!

Taylor plus 5

Quote of the day:

“It’s all about the power of the focus of your mind.”

When I was little my mom used to make me eggies n cheese.  This was after I’d ice-skated from 5-10 am.  I was training for the Olympics at age 5. Then I’d go to kindergarten.

A lotta other stuff went on during my childhood. Not the best ever.  Even as a little little child I understood the power of focus.  If I thought and talked about and focused on something bad, I felt bad.  And more bad stuff appeared.  If I thought and talked about and focused on something good, more good stuff appeared.  The abuse didn’t stop, but I noticed that the more I focused on good and happy stuff, the more good and happy stuff I lived.  And so even though I dealt wit some serious sh**, I manifested some pretty awesome sh** too.  Like my tennis coach inviting me to come live with him in Florida so he could train me to go pro (for free—my parents were broke).

I used to think that I was magic. That I could create things with my mind.  Now I know that this is true and I’m here to teach it to you.

And as a special added bonus, my childhood gave me the incredible focus that has helped me to create everything I have.

Have the best day ever!
Namaste!

Taylor plus 5

A quick and friendly tip from one Super-mom to all you Super-heros out there.

1.  Get on your yoga mat.  Often.  I get up at 4am to do it daily (Come join me at Prana at my predawn practice seven days a week!), but whatever you can do.  It’s what you do most of the time that matters.  Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do it daily.  Do what you can.

2.  When you’re in your favorite pose, feeling amazing—feeling the stress and the fear melting off of your body, the past and the future fading into the distance, the NOW ever present and a feeling of peace and “all is well” enveloping you, really FEEL how this feels in your body, mind, and Spirit, and take a Spiritual “snapshot” of it.  Really feel the essence of it.

3.  While you’re feeling the essence of this feeling, visualize yourself moving through your day feeling this feeling. See yourself in different situations, both easy and fun and challenging and annoying, still feeling this feeling.

4.  Watch what happens. 

Have the best day ever!

Namaste!

Taylor plus 5

How are you gonna celebrate Mothers Day this year?  Breakfast in bed?  Trip to the park?  Yoga at Prana?  Picnic on the Charles?  Walk in the woods?

Rock on!  Whatever you do, remember that as a Super-mom, what you do matters, and you are loved and respected.  Also remember that the day don’t hafta be perfect, and after celebrating many of em, I’m here to tell ya, it usually ain’t.   Lol. There are stories there, but I digress….

In my humble opinion, another great way to celebrate Mother’s Day is to help a Sister out and let other Super-moms know how much they are needed and loved.  A fun and easy way to do this is Meals4Moms, a Mother’s Day gift offered by Community Servings, a leading nonprofit organization that delivers nutritious, medically tailored meals to the critically ill and their families.

Through this program you can purchase a Mother’s Day card for $25 or chocolates and a card for $50.

Each card is handwritten with a personalized message that is sent in time for Mother’s Day.  Just as important, the $25 gift means a week’s worth of hearty, comforting and healthy meals for a mom battling a life-threatening illness.  A $50 gift provides two weeks worth of meals to Moms throughout Eastern Massachusetts.

More than half of all households Community Servings serves each year are run by single women, mothers and grandmothers who are struggling with illness while caring for their children and grandchildren.  Meals for Moms participants play a critical role in helping to ensure that these women no longer face hunger and sickness alone – on Mother’s Day and every day of the Year.

Orders will be taken online at www.meals4moms.org, or by phone at 617. 522.7777 through Wednesday, May 9th at 5pm. Purchases can also be made in-person at Community Servings (18 Marbury Terrace, Jamaica Plain) or at Fastach (598 Mount Auburn Street, Watertown) through Friday, May 11^th.

Have the best Mothers Day Ever!

Namaste!

Taylor plus 5

A friend of mine was telling me that he takes his family on vacation every single year—his whole family, which includes his three grown children, all of their kids, and his in-laws.  I was impressed and inspired by his generosity and commitment.  He’s done it “forever” he said.

This year, he took em to the Bahamas because it was cheaper, he said, to take em to the Caribbean for a week than to take em skiing in New Hampshire.

Whuuuuut?

Say that again?

Nine round trip plane tickets n a four-bedroom condo on the beach in the Bahamas was less on his Am Ex than a week at Breton Woods.

He reminisced about years past when he used to ski in New Hampshire “in dungarees” and it was something everyone could afford.  “Now everyone’s all fancy in their designer ski clothes and it’s exorbitantly expensive.”

Apparently so.

I asked my friend what the lesson was.  He said, “What?”  I said there’s always a lesson.

“The lesson is . . . stay warm,” he smiled.

That’s why I teach hot yoga. 

Have the best day ever!

Namaste!

Taylor plus 5

Last Spring I was noticing some beverage “shrinkage” in our yoga studios.  Shrinkage is a fancy word for stealing.

We sell water, coconut water, and Kombucha at Prana Power Yoga and, well, the numbers don’t lie.  But apparently some yogis do. 

I wrote an email to our amazing Prana family explaining that they needed to pay for their beverages before consuming em, and a few instructors came to me and apologized.  They said they’d been grabbing em and not paying, and they wanted to pay me back.  That took guts and integrity.  I told them so, and asked them to stay in integrity from now on.

Fast forward to the late summer.  We had sold our restaurant and I was talking to one of our studio coordinators about setting up an account with a supplier to deliver beverages to our three Mass studios and two NY studios.  When we’d owned the restaurant we had ordered the beverages through it for our Mass studios, so a new account needed to be set up.  It ain’t rocket science to set up an account and order beverages but do you know how long it took to actually receive shipment?

Six months.

Six months!

It was one thing after another.  Glitch, mess up, and, well, the company we’d signed on with just wasn’t delivering.  Literally or figuratively.  Time to choose another company, but it’s tricky with Prana because we have three studios in Mass and need three delivery locations.  There are minimums and other details to figure out and wow, it was taking forever.  Meanwhile, our students were THIRSTY.

Finally, when we received our first shipment of beverages since we’d closed the restaurant, some six months later, it occurred to me:  I’d MANIFESTED this.

“How and why?” you ask.

HOW:  by focusing on shrinkage (stealing) of beverages the previous spring.  I didn’t obsess about it by any means but I focused on it, albeit briefly, and Sister is a strong manifester after lotsa practice.  So by feeling that contrast, and focusing on it, I unconsciously decided I’d rather have NO beverages than have beverages that were being stolen by my own staff.
WHY:  Because I was UNAWARE.  I was UNCONSCIOUS.  I manifested this unconsciously, as many of us do.  How can you tell you’ve manifested unconsciously?  When something appears in your life that you DON’T WANT.
So step back and take a look.  Take a good hard look at yo life.  What are you creating that you don’t want?

Then take a big inhale and a big exhale.  Step on your yoga mat.  Set an intention to let it go.  And begin to manifest what you DO want in your life.

Have the best day ever!

Namaste!

Taylor plus 5

My four youngest Kids were on a disney cruise with Philippe and his Mom so I could finish my book and to say that Super-mom was super focused on writing is an understatement.   When you’re kids are occupied n happy you make the most of that time. You leverage it. I get more done now in an hour when my kids are sleeping or on a play date or at school than I did in a day before I had kids (as all the Super-moms out there nod their heads in agreement).

So I was at the Y in the early am writing on cardio on my phone and a woman next to me asked if I owned Prana. I smiled, said yes, and continued to write.

Well Sister wanted to chat. She told me all about how she does Pilates but she can’t find any good teachers and do I do Pilates and why do I do yoga n OMG she talked on and on. At first I felt resistant. I was like, “Listen Sister, I gotsta write.”. But then I surrendered to what was unfolding in the moment. I surrendered to the higher flow and let go of what my mind had “planned.”

And with that surrendered energy and high vibration I ironically wrote more that morning after my nice chat with my cardio neighbor than I had even hoped or planned to.

Have the best day ever!

Namaste!

Taylor plus 5

Please read Part 1 from last week before you read this.

I get a lotta emails everyday. Don’t we all. Sigh. But this email, this email caught my eye even though it was a group email.

A Prana teacher was asking if anyone could adopt a five year old cat. Her friend was moving to Israel n couldn’t take her.  ”That’s India!” my Spirit told me clearly.

But it don’t end there.

My husband required some convincing. He’s not a cat person and when we got two kittens four years ago it didn’t go well, and then one day when theyd grown into cats the coyotes got em. We were heartbroken.

I told him this was India.  I knew it!  Philippe kept going over all the “issues” as he saw them with having a cat.  I pointed out to him that if we did that about having kids we never would’ve had em!  And just look at the sheer joy they give us every day.

I asked the owner a buncha questions about kitty and well she sounded like a dream. Philippe still wasn’t convinced.

My heart sank and I dropped it, but not before mumbling one more thing as I was getting out of the car to teach at Prana Brooklyn, “Oh yeah, and she’s five years old.”

“Whuuuuut?” Philippe asked. “Did you say she’s five?”. (“Yeah.”). “That’s our cat!  That’s India!”

You never know what’s gonna seal the deal on whatever you’re wishing for. So stay on the path. And believe.

Have the best day ever!

Namaste!

Taylor plus 5

Philippe and I have five kids ages 1-14. We adore them. I recently stopped nursing our twin one year old sons at 21 months. So now is the first time in about 15 years that I haven’t been nursing, pregnant, or trying to get pregnant. There was a few year period during a transition when this wasn’t true but you get the idea.

To say I feel a tremendous sense of freedom is an understatement.  (As all the Supermoms out there who been there nod in agreement n say, “Mhmmmm, Sister!”)

Philippe wanted to have more kids. And on one hand, I did too; however, I didn’t wanna “lose” a year with my five kiddos while I was nauseous n throwing up n exhausted. I want to be 100% there with them n now that I’ve tasted how it feels to REALLY have my energy back, well….

So we talked about it a lot and once I was considering it seriously in a moment when I was I now think temporarily insane n the Universe shot me a virus so intense that I didn’t leave my bed for two days. The symptoms?  Severe nausea, vomiting, n exhaustion. Point taken.

But we couldnt figure it out, because we’d both felt a Spirit, named India, who would join our party of 7.

Part 2 is next week.

Have the best day ever!

Namaste!

Taylor plus 5