In the book Like Water for Chocolate the heroine is a wonderful cook whose feelings end up in the food. When she’s sad, the diners end up in tears. When she’s angry they get indigestion. When she’s amorous, they can hardly keep their hands off each other.

Life is a little bit that way. Our anger or joyousness gets into our words and actions and the outcomes take on their flavor. Likewise, when we act while ungrounded or uncentered, our words and actions take on that uncertain quality and the hoped for outcome is at risk.

When we act from a conscious place - that is calm, clear and connected - the work to be done is simpler and the outcome more positive than we otherwise might have hoped.

One of my favorite examples of this is the buffet dinner. If we collect ourselves for a moment and discern what we're hungry for before we get to the food, we make selections that are satisfying. If we jump in and start picking everything that looks good, we invariably take an odd assortment of things that is far more than we need and end up with a belly ache.

At the Conscious Living workshop I hosted this weekend, one participant remarked "Oh, I see, conscious living is actually easier!"

Other participants shared stories that showed that while little moments (like going shopping or cooking dinner) were drastically influenced by our frame of mind, the bigger the issue and the more important the outcome (parenting, career moves, getting married), the more critical it is to find inner calm before acting.

We closed the workshop with this poem by Lao Tzu from the Tao Te Ching. I think it eloquently points to the crux of the matter:

Do you have the patience to wait,
til your mud settles
and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving,
til the right action
arises by itself?

The big question, of course, is how to settle your mud. For that read about the Namaste Mantra and come to yoga class.

I Do Yoga offers Kripalu-style classes in Watertown, Concord and Bedford. See the calendar for more details.

The next I Do Yoga workshop Deep Listening will be held Sunday March 19 from 2-4 pm at Serenity Yoga Studio in Bedford.

Namaste, a Sanskrit word used at the beginning and end of yoga classes, is often translated as "I honor the light in you."

Namaste, with a slightly different translation, provides a wonderful tool for helping us into a calm, clear and connected state from which right actions will spring.

The Namaste Mantra is particularly helpful when the challenges in life are interpersonal. The Namaste Mantra will shift how you feel about yourself, the other person and the whole situation and it will open a course of action that is clear and the outcome assured.

If you are facing a challenging situation, try this Namaste Mantra meditation.

• Find a comfortable position.
• Place your hand on your heart.
• Thinking about yourself, silently repeat "I see the God in you. And I praise you, I praise you, I praise you."
• Keep repeating the Namaste Mantra until you feel a softening in your heart.
• If there is another person involved, call them to mind.
• Direct the Namaste Mantra to them, "I see the God in you. And, I praise you, I praise you, I praise you."
• When you feel complete, release the other person and come back to yourself.
• Listen inwardly for the right course of action.
• Release the meditation.