Fear

We cannot experience fear if we live in the present moment. Fear is always about the future, and the future does not exist. Only this moment exists. Everything else is made up in our imaginations! Right? False Experience Appearing Real! (FEAR)

"The true person sees what the eye sees and does not add to it something that is not there."~Chuang Tzu

If we shine the light on the darkness and ignorance, all that imagined fear shrivels up and dies. So be with the fear, look carefully at it, recognize it is not real, then begin to experience freedom from it! Fear not!

A New Year...A New You??

I don't believe the statement which is the title of this blog post today. It should read A New Year...The Real You...The Original You...The Forgotten You. On the path called life, we eventually will find we have come full circle, back to the divine, beautiful, perfect self. We all already possess everything we need. We've just forgotten or been brainwashed by the constant chatter (chitta vrita) in our minds.

One of my focuses of late has been to be the "observer," the "witness," of my thoughts. I've noticed that I don't even believe the old tape recordings that I continue to play over and over in my mind. We all become so programmed, tuned out, shut down to these thoughts. I've started noticing, hitting the stop button, then the erase button, and letting go and moving on. I'm not hard on myself so much anymore.

Do you still need to worry? Live in doubt? Fear? Can you trust? Do you believe? When is the last time you revisited these questions honestly, presently?

"Only I am responsible for what I think. It is at this leve that I exercise choice."

Gettin' upside down (and those tricky arm balances)

Wednesday night was filled with more group practice teaching, (we test out in 2 weeks! I will be a certified yoga teacher in 2 weeks! A dream come true, thanks to you, my generous friends)then playtime with Matt, a mini workshop in inversions and arm balances. As you all know, strength (both mentally and physically) has rarely been a quality that I lack. Fear, on the other hand, is another story.

I've been working on overcoming my fear of being upside down. Well, actually, getting upside down. Will I fall over? Hurt myself? Land on someone and hurt them? The king of asanas, the headstand or sirsasana, is one of the most powerfully beneficial postures for both body and mind. It is largely a matter of conquering your fears and believing you can do it. B.K.S. Iyengar says in his section on sirsasana in Light on Yoga, "The best way to overcome fear is to face with equanimity the situation of which one is afraid."

Wednesday night, I put my head between my hands, lifted my feet off the floor, and was in a headstand before I even had time to think about it! It was so frickin' easy! Handstand is another story...still working on that one. But my fears surrounding handstand have lessened now as well. Masaru Emoto said, "When your heart is open to possibilities, you start to notice small things that can lead to enourmous discoveries." "What we imagine in our mind becomes our world."

If we approach life (and inversions and arm balances) with playfulness and an open heart, with no attachment to the outcome, imagine the possibilities! Sat Nam

Impermanence

"Nothing remains the same for two consecutive moments. With impermanence, every door is open for change" ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The only constant is change. Everything changes; nothing is permanent. And our need for attachment to things, people, and situations will only cause suffering and "stuckness." Suffering takes away from our greatness, from our purpose, and it is optional!

Behind our attachment to the known, to permanance is fear; fear of the unknown, fear that we can't do it ourselves, fear that we're not good enough...fill in the blanks.

"If you look deeply into impermanence, you will do your best to make her happy right now. Aware of impermanence, you become positive, loving and wise." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh