Good morning!

It's Tiki here, wishing you a wonderful day! I've had a wonderful week myself - I got to go to the studio, watch lots of classes, and play with my friends at the SNAP and Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre fundraiser last night.

One of my favorite parts of my day is running around the studio before class, greeting all my yoga friends. There are so many people who want to pet me, and this makes me so excited that I just have to run around as fast as I can and play with everyone. But inevitably, my mommy calls me and tells me that it's time to get into my house because class is going to start. Now I love relaxing in my house, too, but when I'm running around like crazy sometimes it's hard to think straight. I find myself running towards the house, then forgetting where I was going and getting distracted by another friend who needs to pet me. I totally lose my focus. Then my mommy calls me again, and I remember where I was headed, so I start running towards my pretty pink house, until I get completely distracted and forget where I was headed again. This usually happens three or four times before I finally get close enough to my goal of the pink house that my mommy can scoop me up and guide me to where I'm supposed to be.

Now I know we all feel like this at times. We have these great goals, and we're charging towards them, but then we get distracted. We lose our concentration and our focus, and it ends up taking us a lot longer to get where we're wanting to go. One of the beautiful things I've noticed about yoga is that it requires intense concentration. When I'm watching a yoga class, I can tell that sometimes you're totally focused, in the zone, and enjoying each pose to the fullest. And then there are some days when all you can think about is sitting on your comfy sofa when you get home. I can relate because I, too, find it hard to focus sometimes. But the more we practice our breathing and our yoga postures, we find that our minds quiet down so that we can maintain our concentration and stay in the moment, whether it's at work or during a yoga practice. And as we maintain our concentration and fully enjoy each moment, we find that we're exactly where we need to be to reach our goals.

So this week, if you're finding it hard to concentrate, just relax, breathe, and firmly but gently bring your awareness to whatever it is that you're doing. You may find that you have to do this a few times, but the more you practice maintaining this focus, the more you'll be able to stay in the zone, enjoy what you're doing, and run charging towards your goals. Now be sure to stay focused long enough to pass this along to your friends and family so that they, too, can be reminded to keep focusing on those goals and keep running towards their own pretty pink houses!

Namaste,
Tiki