From my hOMe office...

Whoa. I've heard and read about bloggers getting lots of responses to a post. Having inconspicuously posted for a few years on the yoga work connection both here and in my WebMD LifeWorks blog, I've always been delighted when people respond. But since yesterday, I've been blown away by the number of folks responding to the notion of me being back in the "working for the man" saddle was pretty mind-blowing. I got a total of 18 phone calls, 33 personal emails and 11 comments/messages on Facebook alone, not to mention the ones I haven't even looked at yet that are coming in through Linkedin.


Yahoo peeps are convinced I'm working for Yahoo. AOLers and former AOLers sent sympathy notes to hear I'm back with the walking man. In fact, the only folks who haven't voiced conviction that I've joined their ranks are the over 300 NYPD officers I taught to meditate last year. Although, you know, I was once in the Army so it's possible...


Given this morning's announcement about October jobless rates, anything is possible. The unemployment rate, calculated using a survey of households as opposed to companies, rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2%, the Labor Department said Friday. While I know I'm not alone in counting blessings that we've averted a 1930's crisis, these numbers served as a reminder that I'm also not alone in having to be crafty in order to keep my puppy fed, the cat litter fresh, and my own sweet self in new shoes when I have a Gala to go to.

So let's get a couple things out on the table:

First of all, NO, I'm not abandoning my passionate quest to champion mindfulness and mastery tools at work. In fact if anything I'm getting more fired up about it and thinking of a new offering I want to launch in January. Stay tuned on that...

Second of all, NO, it really doesn't suck. It never did. It never will. Even when co-workers come up and say "Gosh, isn't that stuff we have you doing just so AWFUL?" Truth be told, it doesn't even suck even a little - I can think of lots worse ways to spend the day.

Third, I wouldn't be much of a yogi if I let it suck - you know? This is where I get to see if I can really walk my talk satisfying a curiosity I've had for years. Sure it's easy to be "enlightenment girl" in a quiet room with drawstring pants on, a great sequence in mind and a killer quote to get the asana party going, but conjuring enlightenment while doing data entry I could have done as a freshman in college while folks around me are frustrated literally to the point of tears - NOW THAT'S PRACTICE!


Which brings me back to the central point about this recent turn of events in my life and similar challenges in the lives of so many others: it's no big deal. The reason I left corporate America so many years ago is that it was painfully obvious to me that most of the things people make themselves miserable about at work are really no big deal. Consider food lines and shanty towns of the 1930s, look at your own hardships and repeat after me: it's no big deal. Listen to global news and think about your worries and repeat: it's no big deal.


Because here's the takeaway I've learned in 13 years as a corporate executive, 8 years as a consultant and 4 days of a temporary stint in cubiclelandia: you must decide that "it's no big deal" AND work with complete focus, complete contribution. Sweep streets as Shakespeare wrote, MLK Jr exhorted. The Bhagavad Gita tells us to work with your heart singing, no matter what. Corporate yogis, it doesn't matter how many times you make it to practice this week, meditate, pour over the words of Eckart Tolle or other guru of the month, or eat right for your blood type. If you haven't put it all into the MLK/Bhagavad Gita perspective your practice is functioning an escape mechanism rather than mastery tool.



And that's what I was reminded of within the first hour of the first day by that coffee machine: whatever is bugging you at work is really no big deal. Get to work with that in mind. Don't wait for your the world to be perfect for to decide to remember it. Your real job in all you do is taking care of your state of being, and that's what I'm hoping you'll always find me doing no matter what job I happen to be doing.

Thoughts Made Visible

I taught yoga today at one very scrutinized company - no names to protect the innocent. Not suprisingly, the participants are all regulars . After all, it's a community-forming activity that participants quickly come to depend upon, so much so that even an ex-employee who is now a vendor is known to drop in from time to time.

While teaching I noticed one of them whom I'll transparently refer to by the psudonym "Bob" was more impatient and had less endurance than usual. Even in poses and sequences he knows easily, he'd give up, lose his balance, and otherwise huff and puff. Not normal for Bob.

I figured maybe it was from recently getting married. But even that didn't seem to explain his lack of tolerance. I observed and continued teaching, wondering what was up with him. It wasn't until after class when he made a joke about maybe "it would be great if I got reorged in my sleep more often" that the issue became clear. That explains it. Waking to a new boss, new organizational structure, new team members isn't an easy thing. His current boss didn't even know about the change.

Going through stuff? Don't wait to get on the mat to recognize just how destabilized you might be. Take a breath. Slow down. Nothing will put the world back together as it was, and NOW is always the time to make sure to put yourself back together moment by moment. After all, the one thing you can control is how you become present with yourself. And that, if attended to, is what can make the difference between poor reactions and grounded ones.

Balancing Action

Just a few minutes ago I sat down to do crank out some ideas for my blog. Let's be clear about the situation: here I am, Balance Integration founder, and after a nice weekend in the mountains with family, the sun is setting over beautiful Chelsea NYC, and at my feet is a sweet puppy I KNOW would love a walk - what am I doing? About to crank out ideas for my BLOG?????

Luckily our new branding gimmies came last week and I gotta say, these little blue glass stone balance reminders actually WORK! With a big bowl of them strategically placed by my laptop, one caught my eye and reminded me to be conscious of my choices and the actions I take and to do so in this very moment.

So damming the idea vesuvius from erupting into a molten mass of hours immersed in writing, I'm going to ask a question instead: what books do you LOVE that relate work to yoga or apply the concepts of the practice of yoga to the workplace? I have a couple in mind - so in honor of Labor Day quickly approaching I can't think of a cooler list of books to take to the 'zon or bn.com in prep for the long weekend than ones that reinforce yoga as a householder (ie. regular folks like you and me) practice and everyday ticket to blissful being.

Send me your suggestions and if you take a moment to email me your name/address, I'll send you one of these blue balance stones with a big huge karmic hug sprinkled in for good measure.

You never know - strategically placed it could just save you from a beautiful night lost in the cool glow of pixelated images.

With that, I'm OFF!