Remedy

I have spent some time writing about the epidemic that I feel is our society's biggest threat- that which I call Soul Sickness. It spreads rapidly- we live our lives believing that our human Self is the driver of our ship and therefore we are run entirely by the chitter chatter of the mind. This is the root of Soul Sickness- we are spirits contained by a human body not the other way around.

I am about to embark on an exciting day as I have the privilege to introduce Yoga to almost 40 people! Most of them have never done Yoga, some have and some used too. I am honored and humbled to have this opportunity but wanted to share a bit of what this group will be exposed too :)

The spiritual practice of Yoga is a practice that over time brings you closer to the divinity within you.

Our bodies hold our stories: our memories, traumas, joys and so on. Although we may have talked through the not so pretty ones we still hold onto them within the fibers of our bodies. If we do not find a way to release the wounds we will perpetually run into the patterns of behavior that hold us hostage on our journey, the whole walking on sand metaphor, we move one step forward 2 steps back.

The Asana practice ( postures and movement of Yoga) is the gateway to the sacred space in which we are healed, a place where we can reside and steer our ship. The postures create a peeling back of Self much like the peeling back of layers of an onion.

You may first notice after you begin a Yoga practice that you body feels better, the joints are not as sore. The muscles are not as tight and that lower back that has caused so much grief is actually beginning to settle down. If you stick with the practice you may notice some mental changes such as a clearer and quieter mind, sleeping better, making healthier choices in regards to what you put into your body for nourishment. ( This is the stage when the light bulbs of your spirit begin to go from dim to bright- which is a whole other post!!)And finally you will find yourself confronted with a major source of stress that would usually spin you out into some chaotic, emotional hot mess place full of irrational thoughts, fear and anxiety. However if you have stuck with this spiritual practice your find that you face this source of stress from a calm, objective place of strength and grace. You face this stress as yourself in your full perfect spiritual form and your human container is there to help move and hold your spirit while you do what your divine self leads your to do.

It is only when we begin to separate from the human Ego and chatter of the mind that we can hear God. This sacred space is where we are present and when we are present the divine is everywhere.

I believe that Yoga has sustained over 5000 years because of this- through this practice you will find happiness and joy within the mundane daily tasks because you are connected home to the divine. And through this connection there is a Knowing in every cell of your being that each breath you take is a gift of life to you from your creator and it is not to be taken for granted.

Namaste

Judge Not

As I travel further and further along this spiritual path the reality that my spirit lives in a human container is at the forefront of most of my thinking. The distinction between the human part of this existence and the spiritual part is so crystal clear. I am so aware that the mind, body and spirit coexist so my thoughts are almost becoming compartmentalized into boxes for human stuff and then boxes for spiritual stuff. In most ways this is easier than before when my mind led the way, my body was dragged along and my spirit was stuffed down deep inside me and maybe just maybe if I sat still long enough I could hear its whisper. My spirit now drives the bus and man last night did it drive down the streets of my mind with a huge megaphone - at one point I questioned whether or not I should go to divinity school as I feel somewhat of a spiritual soldier or God these days :-)

Our world is soul sick and I have talked about this before, we are becoming ill and do not know why. We don't feel right, we feel disconnected, we are VERY happy followed by crippling sadness that we so quickly escape when it starts to seep in. Each of us is a bright shining spirit inside of a human container. Let this spirit lead the way, I promise you it is a much easier and happier way of life. Get out of your mind and into your body, but you have to sit still, you have to stop and by God you have to FEEL!!! And you cannot feel anything in your mind or your spirit, you feel in your body, this is why we are in human form. The mind is there to notice and the spirit is there to protect and honor whatever it is you are feeling

I had a thought about a month back about judgement- Judgement is not a spiritual practice it is a human practice, as humans we judge everything. Why? My guess is all judgements are derived out of a place of insecurities and fear, both of which are human emotions. If we begin to stop judging ourselves, our desires, our actions, our thoughts and so on- we would most likely stop judging others yes? But would we notice the judgement placed unto us by others? We would still see the judgement in the world or would we become oblivious to it? Something to ponder.......

For today can you make space to sit in the stillness if even for a short burst and release a judgement you hold for yourself? Because in the end this judgement is not real, you are already complete and whole. A beautiful bright shining light just waiting for you to begin to chisel away at the armor you have created to protect yourself from this human world.

Namaste

Mirrors

It has been a very long time since I last wrote, I have been pleasantly preoccupied with my new baby and 3 other children. This leads me to my post today and the evolution of continuing to let my heart and soul lead the way instead of my mind.

Lately there has been a lot of reflection and conversation in regards to all of us being mirrors to one another, with this being said the mirroring begins the moment we enter this world. We use this mirroring to help us develop our self worth, self esteem and so on. On the journey back to the heart with myself and working with others I can't help but notice that almost all of us feel defective in some way which has caused some major road blocks on our path. I think it is time for us to examine our parents and how they live / lived in this world. Did your Mom and Dad live with a heart wide open? Did they love themselves unconditionally? If you cannot answer yes to these questions then you most likely learned and received conditional love. This conditional love in terms of mirroring is the very reason why deep down inside you feel defective, not worthy....not good enough. If our parents could not embrace their entire selves with love they could not mirror that back to you, and because we are born whole and complete, we slowly begin to deviate away from those certain parts of the light because the love energy that radiated out from us was not returned. We only had the ebb and flow of pure love in the places where our parents were able to access. And in turn the cycle lives on in our adolescent lives and into adulthood if we have not done the work to break the pattern. Love is something that cannot and does not reside within the head, knowing we should love something does not create love....it is best to relate this concept to ourselves, if when thinking about loving ourselves your mind immediately answers with of course I love myself we are supposed to love ourselves chances are you don't. The skeletons in the closet have not been embraced and befriended which has to be done in order to live a life wholeheartedly. All parts must be included ( the scariest ones) which results in unconditional love.

If we want to change the world we must start with ourselves, think about the impact on the next generation of children if their parents loved and lived through their whole heart.  Our legacy would be leaving the next generation of kids feeling whole, complete and worth it- at that point the sky truly is the limit.

We cannot place blame on how we got to be where we are, this does not help our growth in any regard. We can however see why we are, how it came to be and then move through it, we are the captain of our ship and my god our children are learning most from our actions and how we feel about ourselves. So what are you reflecting back? Do you love yourself unconditionally? Is your heart wide open? Is the captain of your ship the heart?  If the answer is no then please know you are not alone and in fact you are the majority, but you can break the cycle, you can change. It takes courage, hope, faith and resilience but all of us came in to this world whole and we can leave this world the same way.

Lets keep our kids shining bright, keep them whole and give them a chance the most of us never had by learning to truly love ourselves again.

Thank You

I am constantly reminded that this "whole" living thing is a practice....it is always a practice. A practice in kindness, compassion, patience and so on. We are human, we trip up and that is the facts which is why we must always continue our practice.

Fear has been ever present these days- something that keeps rearing its head but last week while sitting in church I had a bit of a breaking point. While listening to part of the scripture it certainly appeared to me that the words were driving a fear that in turn would create an eternal love? How can that be? And so my practice dove deeper- I think I may have touched on this before but love is abundance, it is pure and it applies to everyone and everything no matter what. Fear creates lack, negativity and doubt love and fear cannot coexist together simultaneously or can they?

I will be continuing this practice of examining the two (fear and love) only because I know when I am purely in my heart no fear can exist, but my head is a different story. The goal is to combine and intertwine the head and heart right? So then what?

As I move slowly away from my fear and back into my heart I am awe struck at how the most simple moments can move one's entire soul. As I sit in the silence this evening I am filled with pure gratitude for the opportunity to be fully present with my little one. I was reminded of the miracle he is, the miracle we all are and with that the tears of gratitude began to flow. These are the tears that take your breathe away- that stir your soul, the blessed tears. They cannot be created in your head and cannot exist in fear....these tears of joy are from the heart. And so I am thankful for the constant opportunity to practice....

I read a plaque today that said " You have your hands full...Yes and you should see my heart" - as I embark on my latest journey - moving from a family of five to six- this statement says it all and there is nothing more.

Namaste

Wake Up and Live

As we have move forward into the new year I have started to go back and study the yogic principle of Satya- otherwise known as our truth. When I think about all the New Year's Resolutions being made I cannot help but wonder how many of them overlap from the previous year or years before? This leads me to this post- Why? Why on earth would we have overlapping Resolutions? What has held you back from accomplishing your resolution last year or the year before? In regards to my own Satya I have to ask are you truly alive and living or just here occupying the planet? This is it this one life and each year ( but really each morning we wake up) we get a chance to Wake Up and tackle our resolution- but I may suggest something else? Instead of a resolution why don't we all resolve to actually live this year. Live in the now, the present and make each day the very best day we could or at least try our best for that?

Our friend Fear rears its head in the trickiest of ways and for so many there is a belief of living and moving forward but fear has them moving at a snails pace or has them moving in circles disguised as moving forward. Fear of failure, inadequacy, being alone, lacking and even of reaching their highest potential- if Fear is holding you back or has a grip around your waist then you are not moving ahead you are stalled out waiting for life to bring you what you want- and I believe in the power of  manifestation but when Fear is involved nothing manifests! You need to become proactive and go out on a limb- be vulnerable- this is when we can truly achieve the life we desire and deserve. Because the truth is every single one of us is deserving of the life we want!!!

So I pose this question today- what is it that you truly want out of this one life? And what are you doing each and every day to go after that dream? Are you proactive and vulnerable?

Namaste

The Rainbow Connection

As I sit here in my pile of intolerance for adult behaviors that seem to continue to circle round and round and round with no apparent end in sight~ not only am I bothered by others but mostly by my own mindset. As I got up to grab some water I was stopped in my tracks my something deemed as holding little to no significance in my life- but maybe it should. The 2 sippy cups drying on the counter featuring Elmo with a smile in scuba gear and Abby as a fairy with a wand darted my energetic field with the reminder of innocence, hope and happiness.

Maybe the kids are the ones that have it right- inundated with fantastic cartoons about the joys of succeeding, being a good person in the midst of adversity and following your heart. Reminders through books and music that things get better and to "just keep swimming". We are jaded as adults- if the kids are here to save our world maybe it is time for adults to start taking cues from the little ones, more cartoons, colors, playfulness, games and the pure joy of just being. And maybe even time for the kids to stop learning from the unhealthy behaviors of our parents that we spend the later part of our lives trying to undo.

Imagine a world full of hope, innocence, color, joy, play and experience- what would you do if you could go back and be a kid again for just one day? Is there a way to incorporate that image into your daily routine now as an adult?

Now this my friends is something to ponder!!

Namaste

ONE

To continue my trail from the previous post about how life is a gift,  it is what we do with it not what we accumulate during it!  I stumbled upon a most fabulous documentary called " I AM " and I urge everyone out there to watch this movie! Talk about uplifting and refreshing but most of all it was amazing to see the validation of living through the eyes of our heart. The movie brought up the term Utopia,  which I have not thought about in ages- I vaguely remember a decade or so ago having arguments about Utopia and how it is not possible while I of course was arguing " YES IT IS" :)

This has sparked some critical and metaphysical thinking- so maybe we cannot create a Utopian society overnight - but why can't we create Utopia within ourselves? The movie talks about the magnetic field, how we all are one and how our thoughts and behaviors influence others. So if we individually strive to find Utopia in ourselves then wouldn't it make sense that it would begin to radiate to others and permeate the surface....hence a trickle down effect happening? Possibly even creating that Utopian society deemed impossible to create?

We are moving rapidly out of the masculine "doing, fixing, and intolerance for emotion"  place we have inhabited for so long and moving into the feminine. Which means it is time for us to begin to lead from our emotions towards- embracing, loving, acceptance, tolerance, forgiveness and love. Out of the head and into the heart- this is where those emotions thrive- so life will feel easier, you will move with grace and be able to ride the wave of life. Things will no longer happen within the perception of  "happening to you" because in your heart you know you are part of something bigger, something greater than yourself and if you are sad or down everyone feels it, we are all in it together, we are all supported from this heart felt place, we are not separate. 

I believe in every fiber of my being that we are brought into this world all the same, gigantic lights of heart and spirit.  Asking the heart to conform to the ways of a consumer driven machine like our society has been doesn't quite jive does it? And you wonder why we end up jaded, unhappy, discontent, lost and trying desperately to find our ways home- we are perpetually trying to squeeze a square peg into a circle space.

I pose this question;
If we are all one and have been blessed with the same gift of life how are you going to choose to live it?