Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

Welcome to my blog.  To give you a little background about myself, I am a yoga instructor, teacher and mother.  I am a triathlete, a sewer and a reader.  I have been teaching aerobics for about 15 years and started teaching yoga about three years ago.  The more I learn, the less I know.  It is the journey I am traveling that I would like to share with you.  Every weekend for the next year I plan to post a reflection.  I teach yoga on Sunday mornings and I bring my thoughts for the week to class.  Sometimes the reflection is personal, other times it is a look at the world around us.  Please share your thoughts as we travel together.

For my first posting, I want to tell you the story behind Shanti Designs.  Last December I was looking at gift ideas in Yoga Journal and decided to make my own yoga mat bag.  I love to sew and could never find anything that really thrilled me.   I played with the pattern and ended up with the bags I currently sell on Etsy at www.shantidesigns.etsy.com.  It was also around the same time that my best friend was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after giving birth to her second child.  I was devastated.  I had only heard horror stories about ovarian cancer and knew she was in for a painful, life altering journey.  Again, I was reading Yoga Journal and came across the mantra Om, shanti, shanti, shanti.  Shanti means peace in sanskrit.  I was drawn to the far reaching implications of this mantra.  By chanting shanti three times you are invoking peace.  The first shanti invokes greater peace within yourself; the second, peace in your family and friends and with the third, peace on the planet.  The immediate impact I felt was a feeling of hope for my friend.  I knew I had to maintain peace within myself to help those around me.  While I am but one person on our large planet I know I can make an impact.  I am trying to send peace out into the world with good deeds, kind thoughts and friendship.  So as you go through your day, find peace in yourself and those around you.  Go out and create peace.
Dawn