Yoga, Meditation, Chanting, Peace

A beautiful way to peace, stillness, and presence is through the practice of yoga, meditation and chanting. From all three of these practices comes a quieting of the mind. We race through life, running errands, doing (sometimes) meaningless chores, never stopping to rest and rejuvinate.

I have had several friends lately try one of my yoga classes or come to a yoga class with me, and now they are practicing regularly. They too have found a place to call home! A place where no other thoughts enter the mind. A place to be totally in your body and reconnecting with the true self, the perfect self. What a gift!

Meditation and chanting place the focus on the breath or a thought or phrase or mantra. Meditation and chanting ask us to let go of the constant chatter in the mind and sit quietly, peacefully and surrender. The energy and vibration that's created is stunning. It is truly palpable.

These are no easy tasks. They all take time and effort and dedication, but are so worth it. Make it a part of your day to start incorporating just one of the three into your life. You (and those around you) will start to notice a beautiful, peaceful glow surrounding you. I can't imagine anything more beautiful!

Finding Peace

I guess the title of today's blog describes where I've been for almost 2 months! Digging deep, reading books, meditating and doing volunteer work at Shambala Mountain Center, focusing on my beautiful daughter and gift, Lily, and being vulnerable:busting my heart wide open. The shift to groundlessness has occured; when I realize nothing is solid, nothing is stagnant, nothing is changeless. What a relief. All that struggle, attachment, high expectations, assumptions, fears...they've loosened their stranglehold grip on me and my mind. They have not totally vanished (goodness, I'm human!), but they've noticeably backed off. I realize I have absolutely nothing to lose, because I don't even own any of it in the first place.

Buddhists believe that we cause our own suffering, samsara, by believing things to be permanent, changeless. Freedom comes from just allowing, being, trusting.

It's nice to be back...but not on solid ground!

The Goddess of Wisdom

"In youth we learn; in age we understand."~Marie Von Ebner-Eshenbach

Yes, I'm finally starting to "get it," this amazing school called Life, with its many lessons, if only for the awakened. Lately I've had this surreal sense of peace and understanding of the bigger picture, the universal consciousness. I now understand what is meant by being the witness. I can sit longer in silence, internal and external; my compassion and unconditional love is expanding; my ability to take it as it comes, without my input, is blossoming; I'm softening to what is. The Buddhists speak of egolessness. I definitely am not there, nor will I probably ever be, but I've glimpsed a tiny slice of what I think it means, and it's beautiful.

Through yoga and meditation, I'm learning to acknowledge my thoughts, without judgment or obsession, and then come back to just being here! Sigh...

Yoga and Meditation

Yoga has changed my life; well, actually, I have changed my life through what I have learned by doing yoga and meditation. I am forever grateful to the amazing teachers that have impacted my life: Tunde, Stephen, Trista, Valerie, and of course Richii Jai.

I am reciting from Yoga: Discipline of Freedom, The Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali Translated by Barbara Stoler Miller. "At the heart of all meditative practice in Asia is what Indians call yoga, the system that 'yokes' one's consciousness to a spiritually liberating discipline. In his Yoga Sutra the ancient Indian philosopher Patanjali presents us with the possiblity of complete psychological transformation through the discipline of yoga." RIGHT ON, Patanjali!!! I am a living, breathing example of this transformation! Of course that transformation is still a work-in-progress, but I can't imagine where I would be in my life right now, at this very beautiful, precious moment without my yoga practice and teachers. (they remind me always, it's yoga PRACTICE, not yoga PERFECT...metaphor for life???)

Alignment of personality with the soul

Wow, what a heavy thought. Is my personality in alignment with my soul? How would I know if it is? My emotions! I must be aware moment by moment of what I am feeling and the decisions I am making. Once again, awareness is the key here. Turning inward and exploring. Without awareness of our emotions, aren't we just drifting? Being thrown about by the waves of our experiences? Reacting based on past programming? Our emotions are our teachers, painful, blissful, angry, happy, you name it.

Next time you experience an emotion, feel it! Make note of where you feel it, how you are feeling (blissful, peaceful, restless), if you've felt it often, and begin to contemplate its message. Meditate, meditate, meditate!