by admin | Mar 31, 2015 | Uncategorized
This post is inspired by women leaders out there who are offering their wisdom and standing behind their truth to influence world change. Women are the ones to create lasting change for the better –for ourselves and our daughters, nieces and friends by honouring our own personal truth in all the little or big situations we find ourselves in daily. Positive, effective change comes from women who are comfortable with, and who know themselves enough to answer only to their truth. Just a small ask! – considering all the conflicting incoming cultural, lineal, feminist/post feminist/new feminist images of what represents power, strength and impact that we are presented with across the globe. But then again, it’s also far from impossible – I’d like to highlight one aspect of change-creation that is a starting point for action towards what we, as truth-seeking heartfelt yogi practitioners hold dear (whatever that is for you). This aspect is the power of saying “NO” and/or the power of NOT doing. If you attended my Pleasure & Emotions workshop a week or so ago, we focused on this idea quite a bit – the negative space and the not doing as a source of great power – which is also a guide for what to do when you don’t know what to do. Our workshop homework is to practice saying “NO” with grace and I’d like to encourage that homework practice with you all too. Shiv Charan Singh details this idea in his book “Let the Numbers Guide You” saying that “our sense of discrimination is most awake when there is...
by admin | Feb 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
I recently heard part of a talk Eckhardt Tolle gave on deflating the ego (the thinking mind) in which he gives a simple but profoundly energising tool, being; “live each moment as if you have chosen it”. Quick example: you want to be home with shoes off, but you’re in the supermarket shopping – you can either mull over the awfulness; which drains your energy – or you can live the moment ‘as if you have chosen it’. Life’s moment to moment clashes between what you want and what you are presented with can take up quite a bit of energy if you let them. If we let the ego have it’s way, it will get quite busy reviewing where things went wrong, how things ‘shouldn’t’ be and (at a deeper level) what you’ve done to get yourself there. This takes time and is a completely unnecessary energy drain. We all know this right? But the decision to be conscious about this mental game-changer, makes all the difference. This one tool, ‘living the moment as if you have chosen it’ is what we use once we’ve made the decision to be more conscious. The keywords are the ‘as if’ part of the intention. The whole idea that we create our experience can get a little heavy sometimes, and we can get caught up judging ourselves about what we’ve done or not done to find ourselves in whatever situation we feel trapped in/ unhappy with / victimised by. This simple practice frees up the hows, whys and buts and moves you beyond that straight into the now – deflating the ego...
by admin | Feb 2, 2015 | Uncategorized
What do you feel passionate about and what change would you be want for your world? What do you consider to be fair or right and what do you consider to be unjust or unacceptable? As you awaken your inner warrior to fight for what you believe in, I encourage you to consider the following: Are you fighting FOR or are you fighting AGAINST? – in other words- is there a personal truth to your fight, backed up by dignity, grace and honour, or are you just fighting? If you find there’s a touch of ‘just fighting’, perhaps it’s time to dig deeper and find out what you truly stand for. The worthiness and the awareness of that may take you far further towards a result than simply hitting up against walls because you’re angry, …about something… I believe it is more and more important to stand up for yourself and others; to stand as graceful warriors and get behind what you believe to be your personal truth. ‘Where there is love there is no question’ Yogi Bhajan more blog posts image:...
by admin | Jan 9, 2015 | Uncategorized
‘Just be yourself’ – the advice you get when nervous, fearful, anxious about something your attending. Good advice, but who is that self? How can we find that me to be? I’ve come to realise, through personal experience, and through working closely with others on this very thing – that when I recommend taking time for oneself, many of us are not sure how to really do this. How long has it been (I hope it was in the recent holidays) since you have gone on holiday and let go of the ‘doing’ and instead basked in the sweet moment to moment? After some time, you say “ahh, I feel like myself again” – That comfort, that settling, that content feeling of connection. There’s nothing like it right? So how do we lose sight of that once back in the world? How come we just touch on it like some other reality and live mainly in the land of ‘who am I?’ We need to take time to keep that connection / or make that connection. Essentially by listening – to your own soul self. That inner space, heard through the silence of the heart. Create a connection there. That connection is seeded through love for yourself. Compassion is the seed of permission to love, permission to be you. Set aside, just for now, the need to become someone better, become richer, become an improved version of yourself. Instead, make time to reach for yourself, to find that inner quiet. ‘The secret is, don’t discover yourself, don’t transform yourself and don’t recreate yourself. Nurture yourself and see what you...
by admin | Aug 11, 2014 | Uncategorized
Think of all the commitment, stamina and focus required to maintain an 11 minute meditation that challenges you mentally, physically and emotionally. Transformational yes? Now, we all know the image of the peaceful meditator, a yogi sitting in a sublime space, with soft eyes, heart smiling; Beautiful – but, I’d like to suggest this image creates an unrealistic goal for us meditators, dedicated to the gritty reality of developing self awareness and personal growth. This image of the peaceful yogi, sets up an easy opt-out for practicing meditators as we decide a meditation is ‘not working’ if we feel distracted, uncomfortable, irritable, bored, challenged – all good reasons to go do something else – however absolutely missing the point. I say this, as it’s important to recognise the magnificent achievement of sitting in an uncomfortable space and holding that space for yourself. It’s in this process that we become stronger, more aware of our niggles, our mental barriers, of how our emotions play out, how our thoughts influence our lives. Meditation is an accomplishment of will. Developing the strength to stay with a process creates a holding space, so we can then surrender to grace. The silence that comes from moving through the grit is sublime. But best we leave behind the notion that it is the end goal. Rather, see it as a little flag that you have courageously passed through some pretty big challenges and achieved some degree of self control and mind mastery. Something to be considered, to be pleased with, but far from the finish line – there just is no finish line. Do you...
