Turning Shit into Shinola

The highest compliment that I ever received from a reviewer when I was a choreographer/dancer of my own small company was, "Lynn Rescigno certainly knows how to turn shit into shinola." My company had an extremely small or sometimes zero budget and I had to go out and look for dancers that were let go from other companies. The dancers considered themselves flawed but my strength as a director was uncovering hidden beauty in other companies' castoffs. The secret for doing this was letting go of what "proper/correct/beautiful" dance was supposed to be like. Lots of unexpectedly wonderful things came about when I was able to play like a child instead of work like a boring rule-fixated perfectionist. When you look into things instead of at them, then hidden secrets are revealed to you.


I would say that the biggest problem-solving skill that we can ever acquire is the ability to let go of controlling any certain outcome. This is difficult for us because then we are vulnerable----like a child. But that is the point.

Look at something as if you are seeing for the very, very first time.

By letting go of control, the things we need can come to us. An example of this is the breath. You can say an exhale is letting go and an inhale is receiving what it is that you need. It's really that simple.

One of my teachers says that we don't have control over anything at all. We can respond to events that come our way but we can't control them. Our responses then become our practice. When we respond with a sense of opportunity rather than with a sense of crisis then we make shit into shinola.

An example of this happened to me just the other day when my car would not come out of PARK. I walked to work and taught my classes, then i was going to use my AAA membership and then use my money to pay a mechanic to fix the car. I had a sense of control about my circumstances.

But because of all the walking and teaching, i was too tired and needed a break from everything. I walked to Starbuck's in Red Bank, NJ. At Starbuck's, I saw a friend who owns a really old car(1978) and he knows many things about repairing cars. He was more than happy to look at what was wrong with my car. We got out the owner's manual and just played with ideas for a while. It turned out that a fuse was blown and was very easy to change and fix.

I did not expect things to be solved so easily and maybe the things that you face aren't this easy but letting go of trying to take complete control of everything will allow for solutions to be made possible.

My being prepared with money and AAA were not even part of my solution. The best thing that happened that day was accepting the help that came my way. For everything else there's VISA, but letting go of control is priceless.

I know many people will say that they are not able to trust that their needs will be met without their attention to controlling anything and everything possible. But they will be.....

Amit Goswami, my teacher and quantum physicist, uses the example of M.C. Escher's "Drawing Hands". The two hands draw each other into existence.......You can't tell which hand is actually the hand of causation since they are both existing simultaneously. They are both being created and are creators of each other. They exist because of each other and are the answers to each other's questions. So actually, your problems and your answers are existing simultaneously too. Don't blame me for this........I did not make the world but this is an idea of how it works. This is just basic tantra.

On Facebook recently, Terry McClusky posted a picture of his food at a diner in L.A. It was a picture of scrambled eggs and a piece of chicken on a plate. He wrote,"The answer to the age old question of which came first the chicken or the egg, they both arrived at the same time."

Intrigue & Miracles in the Present

It is extremely important to learn to live in the present, we also must learn how to do so happily. Living in the present unhappily is really no better than being miserable due to resentments regarding a time gone by, or fearful and anxious due to the imagining of a time yet to come.
We must learn to be fully present and completely detached at the same time--just like watching a play or a movie unfolding. Being fully present means paying attention to what's happening.
We will succeed in staying in the moment only if we really want to be there. How can we do this???? especially when things are seemingly not going right, when unwanted things occur, or when we are confronted with a present that doesn't seem so desirable.
One way is to try to see everyone we meet and everything that happens to us---even or especially the difficult people and incidents--as special and meaningful. If we do so, we will be much more interested in the unfolding events of our lives. We will be aware of the synchronous miracles which keep us perpetually intriqued and excited by what's happening in front of our eyes. We will be living a sacred and meaningful life rather than a profane and meaningless one. Things are not intrinsically or inherently ordinary and common and we can see clues pop into our awareness like "messages in a bottle."
Swiss psychologist, Dr. Carl Jung called this experience "synchronicity". Synchronicity is the phenonmenon of "meaningful coincidence" and it helps reveal the meaning behind the events of one's life.
Scientist David Bohm said," Everything is connected to everything else. We are not sure how this connectedness works, but there is a certainty, there is a separateness without separateness."
Being interested and aware in the unfolding of our days events, we can take the next step or say the next line without confusion or stress. Acting in the moment is acting without having to think and acting on how things feel.
The method of learning to be happy in the present is an extension of what's called "guru yoga"---of deriving teachings and guidence from everyone we meet and in everything that happens to us. The word "Guru" is sanskrit for one who removes your darkness.
In addition to learning how to stay grounded happily in the present, we also need to sort of float above it. We must learn how to keep up with change. Time never stands still. Being overly attached to what's happening now is guaranteed to bring unhappiness when what's happening now ceases and something new occurs.
We need to be at ease with what might seem to us to be paradoxical or contradictory instructions. In terms of living happily in the present, we have to be grounded and detached at the same time----riveted to the present because of the miracles and teachings that are potentially all around us all the time: but also with a relaxed attitude about the passage of time and the fact that everything is in constant flux.

The Post Breakup Blog

There was a very famous, wise, and fullyy enlightened yogini in India named Anandamayi Ma. She used to cry at weddings, but not for joy. She could see the newlyweds projecting all of their hopes, desires and grandiose expectations on to each other, each one blind to the fallacy of the lofty fantasy.

I have been doing a lot of listening lately. Listening to people talk about the things in their lives that are not making them happy.

A common theme is that they are looking for love that is eluding them. many of them believe that someone else is going to make them happy and fulfill all of their wildest dreams. But here's the pure yogic truth: the love or happiness you experience at any time with any person is not coming from them; it's coming from you.

Actually, as my teacher Geshe Michael Roche says," everything you are experiencing in your outer world is just an out -picturing of your own mind." If you want your world to change; you have to change yourself at the level of mind.

Changing the way your mind thinks takes much effort on your part. Since your world is produced by your habits of thought, you have to break the habit of thinking in a way that is causing you pain. You have to sit down each day and work out the antidote to your particular suffering. You must create in your mind how you want your world to be and then you have to practice being it yourself. This will definatly involve you giving what you want to other people first. As Gandhi said,"Be the change that you want to see in the world."

I have just gone through a breakup recently and it was very different than any other breakup i ever had, at least from the stand point of mind. i have been practicing yoga as a science and not just a hobby for about thirteen years. The scince of yoga is about learning to perfect your relationships; with yourself, with others, with community, with the earth, with the cosmos etc. Learning about a knee joint is learning about a relationship; when it's working in harmony or when it's not working in harmony for example.

My ex was a musician living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His life was an out-picturing of want he wanted: gigs, fame, money, rootlessness, short term pleasures and perhaps a show like VH1 ROCK OF LOVE.

My world was changing too but in the other direction. My business was thriving with students that were dedicated, longterm practioners. I basically created a family that valued quality, stability, good humor, intelligence, creativity and presence of mind. I was able to see the out-picturing of my own mind. I was getting back what I was giving out. Even in this terrible economy, I have a 30% increase in attendence from last year and my prices are on the high end of the spectrum for yoga classes.

Without a doubt, you get the picture that you hold in your mind. Many people have said this phrase in one way or another: Patanjali, Iyengar, Dharma Mitra, Bob Proctor. They are all masters , they know what they are talking about. You should listen to them and quit complaining about everything.