by admin | Nov 21, 2012 | Uncategorized
Whistling comes from a state of feeling positive and content. Contentment is what we strive for. A neutral, sweet state of harmony. We are here and we are present in this moment. There is limitless potential, but there’s also no hurry. That feeling of having a twinkle in the eye and a warm heart. There is something ethereal and sublime about the integration of whistling into a yoga and meditation practice. As with the sound current that we use in Kundalini yoga through mantra, whistling emits a frequency that serves to change the chemistry in the brain, to bring us into a meditative state. The use of whistling in a meditation serves to open the heart chakra. The heart chakra is linked to the neutral mind. In a heart space, we are open to all – coming from a ‘beginners mind’ state. No judgement, we see beauty in all things, there is no right or wrong. When you whistle you neutralise your energy, whistling activates your higher glands; the pituitary gland, pineal gland and hypothalamus. All of these glands serve to monitor the whole endocrine system in the body. They also are linked to intuition and access to deep states of meditative bliss. Yogi Bhajan, who mastered Kundalini Yoga at the age of 16 years said when we whistle, we call in God. There are numerous kriyas and meditations that use whistling. Here is one of my favourites. A simple and very beautiful meditation to open the heart. Meditation for Balancing Mind & Heart Unto Infinity Sit with a straight spine. Bend your elbows and place your palms against...
by admin | Nov 15, 2012 | Uncategorized
“If you understand that you are Ten Bodies, and you are aware of those Ten Bodies, and you keep them in balance, the whole universe will be in balance with you.” ~ Yogi Bhajan THE TEN BODIES 1st Soul Body 2nd Negative Mind 3rd Positive Mind 4th Neutral Mind 5th Physical Body 6th Arcline 7th Aura 8th Pranic Body 9th Subtle Body 10th Radiant Body WHAT ARE THE TEN BODIES? You can visualise your various bodies as layers of clothing, the physical body being the overcoat you wear for a lifetime. We know we have a physical body; we can see it, touch it, and feel it. We also have other bodies that are equally real, if not more so. The human body is made up of ten bodies: the physical body, three mental bodies, and six energy bodies. Each of the ten bodies is significantly interactive with the others. Kundalini yoga moves energy through the body by using the pranic force facilitated by the breath. This strengthens the aura and the arcline. Changes to the arcline affects the soul and subtle body. These changes improve the way we think and perceive life. In short, through the practice of Kundalini Yoga we aim to balance the ten bodies. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEN BODIES First Body: Soul Body The part in you connected to the Infinite. Your inner infinity. Humility, Creativity. Key Phrase: “Heart over Head.” When balanced: Come from a place of great humility, relax in to the flow of universal energy and use it to create beauty. If weak: Come from the head instead of heart; feel stuck, not able to access...
by admin | Nov 8, 2012 | Uncategorized
I describe a crystal singing bowl sound healing as something like an internal massage, working at a deep energetic level to deeply relax, so both emotional and physical healing can occur. I’d like to describe a little bit about what happens for me in a crystal singing bowl session and how I experience the playing out of the process that takes place. Yesterday I played my bowls for a client who was struggling with a high level of stress. The anxiety that came with the stress was making him feel seriously ungrounded and detached. He said he felt uncomfortable in his body and the simplest decision was beyond his ability to make! His head felt tight and tense. He was unsure even if he could be still enough to lie down and receive the bowls, but was hoping for the best. For the session he lay down comfortably next to seven of my crystal singing bowls. I have seven bowls that are tuned in to a frequency that resonates with the seven chakras. Chakras are energy centres within the body that relate to specific physical and energetic symptoms and/or experiences. I sat in the middle of the crystal singing bowls and emptied my mind. Allowing intuition and a certain clairsentience to lead the playing. Clairsentience is ‘knowing’ by feeling. That’s mainly my point of reference for intuition – is how things feel. I often pick up on what’s happening for my client by tuning into to what I feel in relation to the clients experience. Each time I play the bowls I’m unsure of what will happen or what...
by admin | Nov 3, 2012 | Uncategorized
What is creativity? It’s intuitive, sometimes illogical. The creative space is that space entered where I’m not sure where it will go. It’s open, with possibilities. A flow that I move into inspired by a knowing, some kind of faith that the direction I’m moving in is where I need to go to find something out. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” describes the outcomes of some wide ranging research he undertook to discover what makes people happy. He found that people felt most elevated while they were in what he refers to as a state of flow. A state of being immersed in a ‘rewarding pursuit’, the pursuit being challenging, but not too challenging so it causes stress. Rather, it encourages focus and that internal space we enter when we’re focused. That creative space. He also talks about how this state is one that is often missed out on in our society. He puts forward the idea that we move through our day out of touch with a sense of what’s really happening in our bodies and with our emotions. We bounce between two extremes – feeling anxious and pressured by obligations during the workday and then feeling passive and bored in moments of leisure. He proposes we challenge this way of existing. I am a passionate knitter. I love wool – the texture and the colours. It inspires me. The smell reminds of a sheep, an animal, it breathes and provides warmth. When I knit I just like to knit, without a pattern. For me that’s all I want from knitting. To...
by admin | Oct 28, 2012 | Uncategorized
We rely so much on our vision to direct us in life. Because vision is so dominant in all that we do, the other senses of sound, touch and smell fall to the wayside, meaning we miss out on a lot that goes unnoticed while our vision dominates. A great way to alter our perception and heighten our less utilised senses is to simply DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY. I used to take myself off to the park of an afternoon now and then. I’d choose a wide-open space, put my headphones on and turn my music up, close my eyes and run as fast as I could without opening them. It was thrilling, scary, and the purpose was to challenge my perception of things. At the time I was suffering from some fairly dark days in my life and this was a part of moving me through my depression to reach a point of feeling invigorated and momentarily alive. Sure, it wasn’t until I addressed the real reasons behind my depression that things shifted more permanently, but it certainly helped me until I found a way to do that. I have explored this idea of shifting consciousness via the senses quite a bit in my life. As a facilitator of Creative Arts Therapy workshops, I use multi-modal methods of self-enquiry; this might include movement, sound, voice, writing or visual art. I found for myself, and often for the people I have worked with since using this method, that the most effective modality is the one most unfamiliar to the user. The reason for this is simply that they are using...
