Sharing Yoga Inspiration

Hello,

I wanted to start sharing ideas with yoga students and teachers and opening up a discussion with you about different topics.

The idea started in conversation with two other yoga teachers and one asked 'how do you keep the classes fresh?' and 'how can you keep the student's engaged?'

I had a moment when I thought, but you're a teacher, you know. And then I realised what an assumption that was. Many teacher's teach what they have been taught, but when that has dried up your own interest, and you feel like you need inspiration, other people's perspective can help a lot.

So, here I am, offering my years of experience in teaching yoga, meditation and public speaking. Please feel free to comment, engage in conversation, ask questions.

After Acceptance Comes the Plan to Regain Health

I've been writing about my failings as a fitness professional and my weight gain and feelings of depression. And that is all part of it, but it's not the only part.

Since the middle of December 2015 I've been taking vitamin d, vitamin b, iron Floridix, spray magnesium and white Kwao Krua.  

I've been sleeping better thanks to my daughter Lydia sleeping better.

I've increased my exercise time. Weight bearing exercises at least three times a week and play ground fun with Lydia a minimum of three times a week too. Plus what ever else I can fit in.

I've dropped the amount of bread and pastries I'm eating and although I'm still sneaking in a few, I go for the small bite and make sure I have a hearty healthy snack for the 6pm rage of hunger that overcomes me. I have also started planning our meals again, and increased fruit in the mornings and vegetables all day.

I started drinking coffee again.

I've started to limit my internet, especially in the evening and the mornings.

I've replaced normal hair dye with henna! This I'm so happy for.

I've begun to feel a lot better over all. I'm feeling good, energetic, started to get my apartment in order. Started my old Flylady routines. Overall, I'm feeling great.

I don't seem to be losing weight, but I'm ok with that for the moment. All I care about is feeling better, more energetic.

Over the next few weeks I'll write in detail about some of the changes I've incorporated and see if it's something you'd like to do too.

Thanks for your support.

Releasing Pain From The Past

After Dreamland 
So this morning I woke in pain. Piercing pain over the right eye and up into the head, my right shoulder had an inflamed pressure point and my tonsils were sore.
Then I immediately remembered that I had a sore throat and tonsillitis frequently when I was a child and that reminded me about chakras and I put on a 5th throat chakra necklace to help balance out the energetics. 

Yoga Therapist 
A friend of mine wrote to me the other day about some personal issues she was dealing with, and in meditation she heard 'Physician Heal Thyself', and I hear her telling me the same thing. 

I'm sure some of you know, but for those who don't, I'm a yoga therapist. That means I use what I have learnt from yoga (and other disciplines) to help people heal in body and mind. If I had to treat myself, as I do right now, then the first and easiest point to start is with childhood memories, chakras, asana practice and affirmations. Then I usually see how we go from there. I've also started practising tapping, and have found it really helpful. Since Lydia's birth I've also dappled in Homeopathy with the help of Kate and Janet, and this is a totally new world to explore. 

A student/friend of mine suggested I start offering these types of consultations via skype, so perhaps in the next few months we'll get that up and started. 

Why Pain? 
In some painful moments like these, I wonder why on earth I'm digging through heaps of old rubbish just to feel rotten again. I mean, what's the point?

And the truth is, I feel it's my duty. As a person who has chosen to try to be as conscious about her life and life choices as possible, it's my responsibility to clear away as much debris from my life as I can. In clearing my debris, I help clear my personal patterns, my families patterns, and the patterns of the world. In my small way, I am changing the possibilities for our future. And because of that, I must go through these clearings. 

Acceptance is Key
The pain is a release. I have been sitting on fear and repression for many years. It has never been allowed to be expressed. And now, in the safety of my adult arms, it can release itself. All of the pent up emotion, all of the fear, all of the struggle jumping out of the recesses of my memory and my cell tissue like the horrors of Pandora's box. But you know what, once they are released, I've still got something left. Hope. This magical word, ready to to inflame creativity, passion and life itself. 

So yes, sometimes it really does get a bit worse before it gets better. But keep your eye on the goal. It is a process. And right now its painful. Sit with it. Honour it. Give it space to be allowed to exist with no judgement. Breathe deeply. Be gentle and kind to yourself. We can do this. 

Photo Credits Tiffany Jones

Beginning the Spiritual Journey

 The questions that come up these days is ‘where did this all begin?’, and ‘what was the impulse that has driven you to ‘here’?’

Rage, frustration, impotence, hatred. I guess these were the driving emotions that took me out of the city. I just couldn’t take it any more. I felt the whole world was driven by lies upon lies and it was killing me. It was like I was frying in my own outrage.

I left university to live as a caretaker on a farm in Nagambie.

While I was there I wrote a lot. Asking myself questions, trying to come to some kind of peaceful resolution. Just trying to live.

I don’t know what I thought would happen. All I knew is that I had to get away from people.  I had to have space in my head. I had to have space to breathe.

Then one day, the world changed. It’s when I had what I took to be a revelation. The things of the world really did reveal some sort of underbelly, or inner quality that I had never guessed at before. I saw what seemed to me at the time the deep reality of the situation. The interconnectedness of all beings. The ultimate Oneness of all.

And in that moment, there wasn’t more to do about it. It was only later, when I started thinking again, that I created a story around it.

The experience itself was quite simple and heartbreakingly profound, but the story I created, the meanings I started coming up with were ridiculously complex.

During the last 6 months, I’ve returned to the simplicity of the experience. I’ve dedicated my living to returning to direct experience and allowing it to unfold without interpretation. To let it penetrate my being without labels and without a story.

Its like nothing I imagined. I kept thinking that it has to be a certain way, that I would need to be able to describe it and that I would need to be able to teach it. But its not like that at all. It’s a funny thing, but there is nothing to teach. It’s more of an unteaching. A removal or a returning of some sort that takes place, but there is no need to express in the way I thought there would be. We’ve already got the thing we are seeking. Now how to express that to a society geared towards attaining? That’s the rub.

Of course, that is part of the prologue too, isn’t it? Well, I’m going to discover something in spirituality, and its going to fit a pattern that I’m familiar with in some way. Its going to fit my ideas. And when it doesn’t, its almost impossible to believe or trust.  It really is easy to overlook. The simplicity of Being.

For more information, you can listen to Adyashanti talking about ‘life without a story’ in one of his free audio downloads. Take a look at the Adyashanti link on the sidebar.  He explains everything much better than I can. 

Photo: Canyelles, Tiffany Jones

Canyelles, Tiffany Jones

India, Albert Vila

A New Beginning - Adyashanti's Invitation

"Its the beginning of a new way of life. Instead of a life lived from the separate ego, from the illusion of the egoic personality identity,  its the beginning of life lived from a conscious recognition of our true nature as spirit. And that's a truly new life. That's a beginning. Its the end of  identification with egoic personality, but its not the end of spirituality as some people think. Its actually the beginning of a new way of life. Its the beginning of the discovery, an ongoing discovery of what's it like, what is it, to recognize that you are spirit appearing as a human being. What is it to begin to live life from that recognition. That is a journey all of on itself. How does one express that recognition?"

Transcript from Adyashanti's audio CD True Meditation.   If you have Spotify.

Itchy Legs While Running - a Solution!

I started running again about 6 weeks ago. Every day I'd start off with a positive attitude and a sporty gait, and after about ten minutes my skin would start itching to the point of madness. I've read some forum stories of women ripping their skin open in an attempt to ease the discomfort.

It turns out that the itchiness is usually caused by the capillaries expanding upon the introduction of blood to the surface of the skin. That is hot blood moving into the cold and contracted surface of the skin. Some people don't notice it at all, and others can have a lot of problems with pain.

I read some of the online advice and decided against an antihistamine 30 minutes before my jog, or just putting up with it. I thought about the problem and decided that if it was a hot and cold problem, if I started jogging when I was already warm, the problem might be avoided.

A Warm/Hot Bath!

So, before I've been jogging, I've taken a hot bath for ten minutes and I then massage my legs and 'scrub' them with ex foliating gloves.   This stimulates the skin and makes the blood flow to the surface. I then don my normal jogging attire and I have had no problem since. Nothing. Nada. No discomfort.

Now its just a matter of lung capacity, and that I am working on.


Photo: Granollers Half Marathon 2009, Tiffany Jones

What if?

What if I told you, that every step you took, you stepped into God?

What if I told you, that every breath you took, you were breathing God?

What would you say, if I told you, that every person you met, was God?

What would you say, if I told you, that you were God?

God is beyond judgements of 'right' and 'wrong'.
God is beyond the thick layer of fog between our hearts and minds.
God is All.  All is God.

And what if I told you, shhh, don't tell anyone. Its a secret. Could you keep it?

Photos: Tiffany Jones

The Dolmen as a Gateway to the Underworld

I’ve been reading the Inanna story intently. There have been moments of ‘ahh’ throughout this whole experience.

I keep seeing flashes of the beginning, when I was laying on the floor of my bedroom last year, feeling myself dying and struggling and finally breaking. And then back to the present, with the moon as my guide, and a little bird as my friend and mentor.

We stopped the car in the right village at the right church. While we were waiting for Albert to see if the tourist office was open, a dragonfly alighted upon the side mirror of the car.

Dragonflies were my messengers last year, following me everywhere and bringing me great love and joy. Little winged serpents. Dragons that fly. The earth and the heavens in one.

This reminds me that I did my English Literature thesis on D. H. Lawrence and the search for self in Women in Love and The Plumed Serpent. Do not mistake coincidence for destiny, as Mr Echo and Locke say…

The walk is two hours. We’re going to see a Dolmen, called ‘the gentle stone’.

We see some beautiful trees and plants.

The path is quite easy most of the way.

Jett sees the hill first and runs up calling to us ‘this is magnificent’ and ‘this is really something’. I was starting to think this pile of stones was going to be huge.

A tomb, to people long gone.

I greeted the area respectfully. Approached with all ears open and sat down beside the rocks to meditate and offer my silence, my receptivity.

I heard that the land was chosen up on a hill, because it was closer to the heavens. The stone was used because it was to endure, like the gods and like the spirit once we die. Its not the same material to be used for when we live.

I heard that the stones were from the earth, dug up. As symbols from the under ground. Offerings were laid upon the flat rock above, as appeasement to the gods.

I heard that I could feel the details of the ones inside – but in fact, it was the same. It was life, and death. It was light, and darkness. It was creativity, and suppression. It didn’t change. I felt pain in my right hand. I placed it upon the rock – and let it go.

We said our thanks. We walked home and looked up into the glorious green of the canopy above.

From Light to Darkness - The Tao Within

By all accounts, I was a happy sunny child.

Life shone upon me, and I grew into a hard blend of Artemis and Athena. Withholding and defending my light with arrows of judgement and eternal virginity. Hunting for more of my kind. People to believe in what I had become.

When I questioned my coldness, the light grew stronger and stronger and shattered my image until the all became One and one became All.

Then the Darkness arose, for I had returned home to claim my sorrow, my guilt, my incomprehension, my fears and offer my love and forgiveness to myself and all.

The Darkness was so deep into my blood, it began to turn into Light. The light and the darkness merged and I saw that it was the same, but different.

The Golden Tao.

The threads of my new life begin to create the new form for this phase. Its delicate shape arises little by little with threads of gold from the extraordinary of the ordinary.

With Love and thanks for all that has been, and for all that has yet to come.

Wage Peace

Wage Peace
by Judyth Hill, September 11, 2001

Wage Peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble

Breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red-wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists

Breathe out sleeping children and fresh mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen and breathe out life long relationships intact.

Wage peace with our listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothing pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music; learn the word "thank you" in 3 languages.

Learn to knit: make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries.

Imagine grief as the outbreak of beauty or gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the word seemed so fresh and precious.

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.

Celebrate today.

(Thanks for posting this OS - its just what I need)

Bread of Life, Wine of Wisdom

Bread of Life

Wine of Wisdom

I put the bread into my mouth and

Saw the golden heads of wheat sway.

And She said ‘It is my body.’

I felt the old traitor rise his head around

My leg and say ‘I’m not worthy of thisss.’

She smiled and showed me the digestion

Process. Chewing, the body consuming,

Leaving the waste behind.

The seeds being replanted, into the waste.

The growth is dependent upon the waste

Of the past – without doubt.

Do not be fooled, She said, tucking the hair

Behind my ear.

You consume me – present, past, future -

Entwined.

You are eating the past, right now,

For your future. Your waste will prepare

The ground for your future. Without doubt.

I can not-

Shhh. All in good time. One step. One step.

I look up – and the wine?

Her smile, so gentle.

Is there anything more obvious? Have you

Burst a ripened black grape between your fingers?

Have you seen the skin stretch and burst

And let the liquid touch your fingers?

Have you seen?

I am mesmerised by your beauty. I can barely breathe.

Ruby red – like freshly drawn blood.

Blood is your life force incarnate in physical form.

The wine is mine – drink – feel Me enter your blood.

A half sip is all you’ll need. I am the wine of wisdom.

Drink of me – fill your self with Me. One we are.

On Arrival (part III)

On Arrival

(Part III)

And yet part of me weeps

For the little losses.

The ideas of what should be.

The boxes with people inside.

Part of me feels afraid

To live this life without walls

This freedom seems to send

Me mad with Expanse.

Part of me scoffs

My little fears,

But mostly my fears

Are me.

Take me, so I can Be.

Break me, so I can Be.

Push me, so I do not stand.

Suffocate me, so I do not breathe.

Hurt me, so I do not Hurt.

Crush me, so I can not see.

Fill Me, so there is no me.

Erase me, so there can be Me.

Silence. Love.

The Pulse of Beauty.

Become All Surrender

Happy the one who has become like us;
who has become all surrender and contentment;
Who has become the pledge of love and madness;
who has become a jewel in the sea of purity.

Rumi

Falling Slowly

See Falling Softly on youtube.

I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can't react
And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You'll make it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me

And I can't go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I'll sing along

Energy from trees

My family here – my parents, were about to cut down a palm tree. They don’t want them there. I have an instinctive dislike of this chopping – and since I have awakened my sensitivity – its harder to deal with – I feel almost like its murder.

So, I turned my face up and asked my guides – who ever would like to answer me, what could I do to help?

They said – and yes it sounds crazy, and yes I did it… ‘go and put your hands on the tree. Explain what is going to happen – give it a change to shift its energy and with draw itself.’

I went and stood by the tree – and did what I was told. Nothing happened – that I felt – and after a minute or so – I suddenly felt this large pulse of energy come streaming into my hands and forearms. I directed the tree to send it down into the earth – to finish its draining.

At least I felt better. The tree is no longer there…

Chew your food girl!

Entering into a new state of awareness, every day – is funny, challenging and odd. In Entering the Castle, Caroline Myss poses the question ‘what are you willing to change in your life? If God comes knocking, do you shut the door because you’re happy as you are and are afraid of the changes that may occur?’
Of course, being an eager beaver, my mind went into hysterical affirmations that I’d do anything… just ANYTHING that comes to me. Those anythings could be donating what little money I had to a charity, could be giving up a weekend for ‘cleaning’ or helping somewhere…

But what if your inner guidance just says ‘chew your food?’

It wasn’t quite what I was expecting…

So, there I am, eating my toast. I was walking with my food into the dining room and chewing and swallowing and I felt the little lump in my throat as I swallowed - and actually, it hurts sometimes, but I don’t listen – and today, I listened…

Take smaller bites and chew it.

So I took a half sized bite, chewed it, and still it hurt to swallow.

I took a smaller bite again, chewed it, and slowly, without having to have the awkward ‘swallow’ I usually contend with, it just kind of slide down my throat without a complaint.

‘Really?’ I thought to myself, ‘I have to eat such small bits, and chew so much?’

Suddenly there was a gentle smile and the words ‘it gives you time to appreciate the food, appreciate where the food comes from, give thanks with each mouthful. A lot of work has gone into each piece of food you mindlessly consume. Go slow, be thankful.’So – now I have a different lump in my throat – and go slow I will.

The Gospel of Thomas

I was highly inspired by some quotations I read yesterday in gospels not included in the New Testament.

I’ve never read them before. If you know of other gospels I should read, post them, thanks...

The ones here are from the Gospel of Thomas –

"Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"

"Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."

"Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."

50. Jesus said, "If they say to you, 'Where have you come from?' say to them, 'We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.'

77. Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there.
Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."

113. His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"
"It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."

Bringing back the power of the talisman

Its funny, how we’ve been fighting to bring ration into the world – fighting the backward thinking of the past – and now the self is so superficial, we have to dig up the old traditions to bring some meaning back to our heartless state.

My son is sensitive. He’s fearful and susceptible to negative suggestion.

We were walking around a market today – and he saw a bracelet that he liked. It was made of wood – and quite bulky for his little wrist. He wanted to buy it.

Before I could think (often a good thing in my experience) I explained that because the bracelet was made of wood – it would act as a protective tree force for him. That it would help him to feel safe and connected to the earth – that it would give him strong roots, like a tree. If he wore it…

He wanted it. We bough it – and as he put it on, and waved his hand – his eyes lit up – ‘mum- I felt an explosion! I waved my hand and just here (at his heart area) I heard an explosion.’ His eyes were shining – and he kept touching the bracelet.

Later, I explained that he’d need to ‘charge’ the bracelet again – by putting at the roots of a strong tree he admired where ever he was. He needed to visualise the bracelet being zapped with positive energy and regaining its positive effect – and then it would be strong and clean again…
He’s been patting it and taking very good care of it since.

Honestly, he looks happier and more relaxed than he did before. The words came out of my intuition – not from my rational mind…. And I’m realising how much my own disbelief in my intuition has hurt him. He’s a natural emotional and intuitive person – and because I didn’t validate myself – I didn’t validate him… and he knows this – its why he doesn’t feel safe in this world. Because I don’t let him.

But now – its going to be different… Today he’s said he loves me three times – with real delight and intensity – and I know its because I let him be him – just as I am letting me be me…

Thanks be to all for letting this miracle open up and change our lives.

dealing with criticism

Well - everything that happens to me - comes with words of wisdom, and maybe I don't follow it 100% as soon as I hear it, but it efffects me positively from here on in...

Today I went a bit too far in sharing information with my partner. He doesn't even believe in god, or a creator - so how can he beleive and understand anything I am talking about - and talk, trust me, I do.

Usually my partner is open minded, non judgemental - and incredibly relaxed about what I say. He says he refuses to beleive or disbeleive.

However, today he just looked me in the eye, and took my hand, and said, what I was saying, was completely impossible.

I was talking about 'singing colours'.

I have been drawn into thinking about and experimenting with healing with my voice. My voice as a vibration- and when I asked my guides how to practice this - the reply was 'sing colours' - I was delighted - what a fun project... :)

I was laughingly talking with my partner about it, thinking it was just a fun thing to do - and he answered sharply that it was impossible.

I felt it like an emptying balloon... I felt myself deflated - I heard, in my head 'its just words', 'he's allowed his opinion' - but I still feel so sensitive and vulnerable about my growth - I feel myself to be 'silly' and happier than before - but I do suffer moments when I think I've just gone loco.

Tears came - my body felt weak - I felt beaten.

How to deal with this -
First of all I asked some friends online to send positive energy my way for helping me not to judge my partner, for helping me to release the hurt, and helping me to forgive.

Then I thought - words are just words - in this instance - he's allowed his opinion. If I am strong in my self - his words wouldn't hurt me.

Increase your love, increase your forgiveness, increase your submission to follow your heart.

I feel better - the lack of judgement is essential for my growth - I know it as I breathe.

If you have any ideas about how to deal with these things, from family and loved ones - please share.

Meditate online

I just saw an online meditation by Caroline Myss.
Give it a go - I did - and I will tomorrow, too -