Anahata

Christmas season is upon and when this season embarks, I always seem to find myself reflecting on my faith and the beautiful LOVE I experienced when I said ‘YES’ to God and accepted Him as the Lord, Leader, and Savior of my life. For me, my journey toward God began with a devastation so deep I could barely conceive the notion to continue living; my brother was killed in a car accident at the age of 17. It took four years of my faithful friends loving me in my total mess and more importantly God pursuing me.  It was four years of being curious and asking the hard the questions within myself.  Why don’t I have faith? Why is this so scary for me? The things I value most in life are not seen things, so why is this hard for me? Why do I feel goals will make me happy when my life experience tells me otherwise?  I was at my best when I was giving and receiving love.  So why then was I chasing career, money, and things? Who was I? What were my passions?  I was good at achieving goals and was a perfectionist, a risk taker, and an overachiever. I was driven, a strategic thinker, and confident yet lacked a peaceful feeling inside.  How could I fix that?  Well, I said YES….and my life changed for the better in an instant. Saying YES was hard and humbling.  Surrender is a good thing, but I used to view it as a bad thing….a weak thing.

This past weekend we held another session of our 200-hour Advanced Studies & Teacher Training program.  During the course of our time together we explored the heart chakra.  It brought me back to my first few years of yoga and the struggle….my unrelenting spirit refusing to surrender.  I wrestled with every inch of my physical being, my mental being and my emotional being.  It was within this process I feel deeper in love with God and my yoga practice. I became softer and learned how brave and scary it is to be vulnerable.

Known in Sanskrit as Anahata, the Heart Chakra resides in the center of your chest. It is the fourth major energy center in the chakra system from where love, understanding, compassion and forgiveness emanate. Oftentimes, it is described as the center of your being, where the lower and upper chakras of the body and spirit unite. It teaches that love is the most powerful energy you have; it is the Divine within.  Remember, God is love!!

When open, balanced and realized, the fourth chakra allows you to experience unconditional love for yourself and others. It gives way to compassion, being in touch with your feelings, a desire to nurture others and empathy. In times of loss, a balanced Heart Chakra guides you to acceptance. It gives you the opportunity to grieve fully and experience your pain, anger and sadness so you can continue living with an open heart. At its core, the fourth chakra coincides with emotional development and being able to live "by heart."

An unbalanced fourth chakra may manifest as fear-of loneliness, commitment, letting go, getting hurt or following your heart. It can be characterized by negativity, anger, moodiness, being demanding, possessive or overly critical. Pain between the shoulder blades, tension, high blood pressure, heart pain, fatigue and difficulty breathing are common ailments associated with an unbalanced fourth chakra.

Some people choose to live in the place of grievances. They’ve been hurt in the past by parents, siblings, classmates, or loves. Maybe you’ve been there too. I know I have.  I would CLING to my grievances. I learned the person who inflicts pain on others is coming from a place of fear, ignorance or hatred, all of which represent a closed heart chakra.

When we encounter hurt feelings from our past or present, we can choose to feel them fully and let them go or hold onto them. By letting them go, we are able to open our heart to new people and new experiences with compassion, love, and understanding. Holding onto hurt harbors negative feelings and cuts us off from opportunities to love and serve. Letting go is as easy as making a choice. Our mind and our ego may tell us otherwise, but it’s as simple as choosing to let go and move on.

1 John 4:19 from The Message says, "We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.”  1 John 4: 7-10  also from The Message tells me God is love by saying, “My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.”

Author and motivational speaker, Leo Buscaglia, used to teach that we should give and receive 12 hugs a day for optimal health. BOOM!  I love hugging! So give HUGE HUGS and maybe some kisses. Don't be stingy!! Other ways we can give love:

• Smile at everyone you see daily, even if you don’t feel like smiling. It’s contagious.
• Forgive and move on. Life is too short to hold grudges.
• Give friends, family and co-workers positive affirmations and feedback.
• Try to go one day a week without criticizing anyone or anything, including yourself.

We need to take any opportunity we can to foster love and loving feelings. Love is a currency and whatever we give will come back to us.

“We are not born fluent in love but spend our life learning about it. Its energy is pure power. We are as attracted to love as we are intimidated by it. We are motivated by love, controlled by it, inspired by it, healed by it, and destroyed by it. Love is the fuel of of our physical and spiritual bodies. Each of life's challenges is a lesson in some aspect of love. How we respond to these challenges is recorded within our cell tissues: we live within the biological consequences of our biographical choices” (Anatomy of the Spirit, Caroline Myss, p.199)

Onward and as always….UPWARD
Namaste and Merry Christmas
Trish

Soul Harvest

Fall is a time of year when deep reflection seems to naturally occur.  There is a natural purging on several levels; maybe clutter in our home, clothing, or matters of the heart. It is time when we can reflect on the seeds we have panted this past year and see what has taken growth and what is dead, dying, or needs some weeding.

Let us be silent that we may hear the whispers of the gods. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I quickly found that yoga asana, pranayama, and meditation consistently led me to a place of quiet contemplation where I could dismantle the armor I had worn for so many years. Through this peeling away of patterned thinking and limiting beliefs, the true nature of who I was, was revealed.  Filled with self-acceptance and love as I exited off my mat and into my life at that time, each step reflected a different truth. And as much as I tried to maintain the peaceful, compassionate feelings that arose during my practice, eventually I would be filled with judgments, disparaging remarks, and the pain of feeling unloved and unlovable, the yogi girl standing proud just minutes before shrunk away from the reflection of who stood outside.  I believed I was the opinion one person had of me.  Someone I trusted and loved, had gently twisted me into harsh knots and turned me into something I was not, and never wanted to be.

Yoga soon taught me that the script I had been repeating over and again throughout the previous three to four years bound my entire identity.  The equation seemed logical and simple enough. The dynamic of our human experience, however, is not. We are a complex web of thoughts, emotions, and beliefs that are based on past experiences and which inform future ones. In yogic terms, these binding experiences come from the ahamkara (ego mind), the self shaped by the sensations, thoughts, and emotions that validate (or threaten) who we believe we are. Until we learn to discriminate between Truth and ego/stories, our relationship to our self and hence our actions, will lead us to suffering and unhappiness. When we use the discriminative mind (Buddhi or witness mind) to observe ourselves, change begins to occur.

Transformation rarely comes in one fair swoop, but rather slowly eases its way in without much fanfare. Similarly, each time I came to the mat my stories dissipated a little more and the voice of my soul and of God arose in a whisper. The practice taught me how to feel without reacting, to watch without the commentary, to lean in to the joyful bliss that was possible and apparent on the mat. As written in the Bhagavad Gita, “when the mind comes to rest, restrained by the practice of yoga, and when beholding the self by the self, [she] is content in the self” (6:20). Through the practice, and over time, God’s voice and my soul’s voice spoke louder and more clearly.

As seen through Western-world eyes, present day yoga has primarily become a practice of postures, diluting yoga’s deep and transformative benefits. In it’s oldest and truest form however, yoga has always been therapeutic. The technologies of yoga (pranayama, bhanda, mudra, meditation, asana) written about in ancient texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika lay a path to lead us back to our place of wholeness, connected with and to God.  We might think of these technologies as a window through which to watch – they allow us to see inside. Through that opening, we grow in our ability to cultivate compassion, self-acceptance and change.

The yoga didn’t necessarily change my body; it changed my heart and mind by creating a wider spectrum of who I thought I was and helped the stories (samskara) dissolve. On the mat, my breath moved into the darker places where normally I would hide or let’s face it IGNORE; I could feel the light inside; I could finally see myself for the fullness and wholeness that I was and that God created me to be, not just the stories of someone else or the drama of those years that defined me. The transformation I experienced as a result of yoga worked on and through me without me even understanding the philosophical or academic principles of the practice. Yet it happened!

So, how did it happen?

The Yoga Sutras state that, “The practical means for attaining higher consciousness consist of three components: self-discipline and purification (tapas), self study (svadhyaya), and devotion (Isvara-pranidhana). These practices cultivate an attitude conducive to being absorbed in Spirit and minimize the power of primal causes of suffering” (II 1 and II 2). As most of us can attest to, just coming to the mat some days takes discipline; the various yoga technologies each require a tenacious attitude to practice and watch what happens. Through the course of exploration and discovery on the mat, yoga strengthens our ability to be with what we see and feel and teaches us to open and soften to what is seen without pushing it away or suppressing it. In short, the practice teaches us to lean into trust and Truth.

Practicing yoga – and living – deeply means to understand the depth of our choices and align our actions with the Truth of our nature (God’s truth, not the reality we create); to use the witness consciousness derived out of the practice as a guidepost on the path of transformation. The practices on the mat teach the yogi how to experience surface and depth; to learn to watch the fluctuations inside without reacting; to allow the energies to rise and fall over and over without attaching story; to experience ourselves in a much deeper and powerful way. From the place of ego, seeing only what’s on the surface, we see and feel pain, fear, angst, suffering. When we view the surface from a place of depth (witness), we can see – and accept – the whole spectrum.

Yoga is experienced in that mind which has ceased to identify itself with its vacillating waves of perception. When this happens, the Seer is revealed, resting in its own essential nature, and one realizes the True Self ~Yoga Sutras, I,1-3

With another new year just weeks away, it’s easy for most of us to fall back into habitual thinking of guilt, shame, and fear that we think we will dissolve our inner demons and resolve us to change. We zealously join the gym and promise to work out, eat healthier, end harmful relationships, stop additive behaviors, take more time for ourselves, lower stressors in our lives, the resolution list goes on and on. And while these are admirable and worthwhile goals, the fact is that most people give up on their resolutions and themselves within six weeks of January 1st. And so the cycle of self-doubt and low self-esteem continues. Rather than outwardly focusing our attention on what we want, we can use yoga to direct our attention inside, to cultivate a compassionate and loving relationship to ourselves, to explore the nature of our true being. We need to embrace the notion that yoga does not wish to eradicate the inner demons and for us to completely change, rather yoga wants us to uncover and discover what was ALWAYS THERE; IT IS WHO GOD CREATED YOU TO BE.  There is so much to be thankful for and look forward to. In this way, yoga is not about gurus on some far off Indian mountaintop – it’s a path that leads us back to our soul and connects us back to God…..And from that place, transformation happens.  Let’s get to it! 

Inner Space

It seems those of us who come to yoga are seeking something....most of search for inner peace, true contentment, true joy....something to bring us to the magic place of balance and harmony.  Even yoga philosophy and science recognizes the only way we can have this is by having a relationship with God. Along the yoga path we discover and uncover our soul and when our soul is allowed to connect back with its Creator, something magical happens.  We transform and begin to exist at the soul level and see one another soul to soul.  We are created for community and called to love one another.  Thank goodness our yoga practice gives us tools for just that....connection to our soul and to Spirit.  One of these tools is what is known as Pratyahara.  Pratyahara is the pivotal point in the practice of yoga where the path leads from the exterior to the interior landscape of the body. Pratyahara translates directly as “sense withdrawal” and is the fifth limb or branch of an eight-staged yogic approach to the unification of body-mind-spirit.

Coming from the Sanskrit prati, meaning “away” or “against” and ahara, meaning intake of food or other substances, pratyahara signifies the withdrawal of the senses—turning the consciousness inward to release external stimuli. While pratyahara may seem like a difficult concept to grasp and practice, it’s something that we are already moving toward in meditation and asana practice when we concentrate on our breath. Working with pranayama (breath work) leads us toward internal awareness as we release conscious responses to externalities.  We learn to let go of the stimuli our senses intake.

Pratyahara is the fifth of the eight limbs as explicated by Patanjali, and is the bridging force between external and internal yoga practices. The first four limbs of yoga are more external. They consist of yama, which includes non-harming and truthfulness, niyama, which constitutes duties and tasks that can lead to a healthy life, and asana and pranayama. The practice of pratyahara allows us to move into the last three limbs of yoga, which are internal: dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (bliss, state of true contentment, true peace and true joy).

By withdrawing our attention from the external environment and by focusing inward on the breath, on sensations, and the emotions attached to those sensations, we still the mind and increase our awareness of the body. With this awareness and focus we can move deeper into the practice of yoga, learning to move through our limitations, fears and expectations. The key to practicing pratyahara is observing the body, breath and sensations as a detached witness, as if you were watching and feeling someone else’s body. Used with compassion and discipline, pratyahara enriches the practice of yoga and leads to deeper stages of concentration and meditation.

How do you cultivate pratyahara your own practice? Since pratyahara involves moving away from your racing thoughts and coming to a place of inner stillness, the next time you’re in a yoga class and attempting a pose that challenges you, notice whether anxiety or fear arise. You may even fantasize about coming out of the pose or the ever so popular 'suddenly needing a drink of water'. But rather than seeking escape, choose to move deeper into the pose using your breath and drishti (focal point of gaze). This will lead to an awareness of your physical body’s ability to sustain deep postures. Withdrawing from your busy thoughts will lead you to discover more subtle things happening in your body, mind and spirit. You can also cultivate pratyahara in savasana using techniques like yoga nidra,which can take you into a deeper state of relaxation and quietness.

In meditation, move toward pratyahara through pranayama (breath techniques). Simply focusing on your inhales and exhales will begin to quiet your mind and the outside world. Another technique is visualization, which can quiet external stimuli. You might visualize a vast landscape, like an ocean or a field. The absence of details in these kinds of scenes will help you from becoming distracted. Beginning your meditation in a quiet place will also allow you to move into pratyahara more quickly.

Pratyahara isn’t just good for your yoga practice. It’s a useful skill that will influence your whole life. In our overstimulating culture, we easily slip into noise, distraction and the lure of media and technology. We check our cell phones every time they beep, and we crowd our lives with diversions like television, games, alcohol and even food. Though none of these things are inherently bad, they can take over our lives even in moments where silence and stillness would more fully nourish, enhance and enrich our days. Cultivating pratyahara keeps us in the driver’s seat of life.

Remember whatever you long for...whatever you crave......whatever you can't get enough of....THAT is your God.  And so I ask you....is is it satisfying for the long haul in all situations? Is it life giving? If not, one may consider going inward.  Tune in to tune out, folks.  Your soul is speaking.

Onward. Inward. and yes.....Upward.

Trish

 

Soul Friends

A few days ago I reconnected with a great friend.  My insides felt and still feel as bubbly as a wren’s summer song. It was fantastic to reconnect, get caught up, and delve deep into inquiry. It was as if time had not passed and I longed for time to stand still.  I had missed this person so much! I loved the deep exhale into the relationship that used to be so prevalent when we were teenagers.  Although we have had many experiences since those days, from the fantastic to the darkest depths of despair, we could still see each other for who God had made us to be.  We could speak freely the truth of what we were hearing from each other and hold one other accountable to these truths, even if some of these truths found us being resistant to truly accepting and moving forward with them.  I have always joked with this friend we are destined to be together like each other’s lifelong boobie prize….stuck together for life, no matter what.  We don’t talk often at all and the last time we saw one another face-to-face was roughly seventeen years ago.  Having someone who knows you at the soul level is very comforting…even when they take you out of your comfort zone.  Being together in this life and traveling our particular journey alone and yet together at the same time is truly a gift.  

Our yoga practice is much like that. We may take time off, but when we come back to our mat we are embraced not only for the person we were the last time we met, but also of who we are now.  We can feel the support of the practice when we move outside our comfort zone in pranayama, asana, and/or meditation. The lessons we learn about ourselves are such a blessing and so is the gift of the light of awareness that is shone on things we didn’t know we didn’t know. 

My long lasting friendship and my yoga practice both are like this.  They both mirror to me that I do not have something bad inside I need to purge out, but rather I am reminded of what has always been there.  Who God created me to be has always been there and I am continually reminded, ‘Oh yeah, I forgot about that' or shown ‘Wow! I never realized that existed.’ Either way, we come home to who we were created to be and therefore can walk more confidently in the authenticity of our soul and our experience.  Once we see this within ourselves, we see it in others. It is brilliant.

Once we come home to our soul, ground ourselves and exists from that place, we can allow things to unfold and meet the crazy…the unexpected….the annoying….the devastating…the hilarious….and the fantastic with such grace. It provides freedom from the things we were attached to rather than being tethered and attached to God. It reminds us we are not alone as our Creator is forever with us, working in us and through us.

Be aware. Be present. And practice on.

Onward and upward
Trish

Never-enough ???

We all have it.  We all listen to it.   It drones on and on, all day long. It is the white noise behind our existence. Our internal chat room.  It beckons to us and delivers our ’Never Enough’ problem on various channels and in multiple languages.  It only takes a few seconds before we fill in the blanks with our own negative tapes.  These tapes run constantly and are rarely checked.  They were ever loped and established as a slow fade and barely noticeable, yet they define what we think about ourselves, how we view others, and the world.  It only takes a few seconds before our tapes final in for us our Never Enough problem whether we are aware of it or not.

They fill in:  I am never ____________ enough.

• never good enough
• never perfect enough
• never thin enough
• never young enough
• never powerful enough
• never fit enough
• never successful enough
• never smart enough
• never certain enough
• never safe enough
• never extraordinary enough

and the list goes on and on and on.

Lynne Twist wrote The Soul of Money and she refers to this as the ‘great lie.’  She writes, “For me and many of us, our first waking tough of the days i: I didn't get enough sleep.  The next one is : I don't have enough time.  Whether true or not, that though of ‘not enough’ occurs to us automatically before we can eve think to question or examine it.  We send most of the hour and the days of our lives hearing , explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don;t have enough of….Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are bracing with a litany of what we didn't get, or didn't get done, that day.  We go to sleep burned by those thoughts and wake up tot act reverie of lack….This internal condition of scarcity, this mind-set of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudice, and our arguments."

Wow.  There it is.  Our internal chat room chaos at its finest.   I encourage each of us to sit with this.  Meditate on it.  Go to your mat with it.  We are taught to bring every thought captive.   Our thoughts frame our actions which frame the state of our heart.  What comes out of mouth is what overflows from our hearts.  What do you believe about yourself?  Are you enough? Where in your life do you fall into the habit of your never-enough problem? Is it as a wife/husband, mother/father, child, or friend?  Is in in your career, finances, things you own, clothes you wear?  Check the rooms of your heart, mind, and soul effected by the drone of our never-enough chatter of very own personalized, internal chat room.  Our mind is our greatest barrier.

The Navy Seals have a 40-percent rule: when your mind is telling you you’re done, you’re really only 40% done. Quitting at 40% is commendable. At 40%, you’ve done some hard work and have something to show for it. But beyond 40% is the battlefield of blood, sweat, and tears, when your unreliable mind questions whether this was such a good idea. It is also the point where all of your 'Not-Enough' problems show up....I'm not good enough, strong enough, smart enough, successful enough, extraordinary enough....our list goes on.   Fill in your blank with what you discovered.  Once you can define it, name and own it, it loses its power bit by bit.

In this moment of realization,  if we remember to quiet the mind, go to breath and realize our mind is greatest obstacle, we can achieve more than we ever dreamt possible. When you hit your 40% marker, remember there is MUCH MORE gas in your tank and being brilliant is only a breath away.   Breathe into it and give permission for your transformation to be contagious.  Onward and upward.  #bebrilliant #surfyoursoul #Iamenough

No mud. No lotus.

We have all experienced loss.  We have all experienced betrayal. We have all experienced grief in some way, shape or form. The grief journey is a bit like walking the alleyways of life and it takes courage to do it. It's a voyage that even the most sympathetic of friends or family are likely to decline sharing, even with the promise of new life at the end. Ultimately, it's a solo trip because we are the ones who must do the work of self-examination and re framing what has been lost. If a ray of sunshine flickers in our alley, we have to find it ourselves.  Our eyes and hearts have to be open for it to be seen.  No one else can point it out or do the work for us. We have to be willing……one step at a time….to find the beauty in the darkness.

The beauty of the process is truly in the experience of the beholder. We may decide that grief is a horrible state to be avoided at all costs. We don't go there, and yet we know that the alley exists, running between the structures of our life, waiting until we have the courage to look. And once we do look, what do we see? Perhaps it's not all bad. The light shines in the alley just as surely as it shines in the front yard. All kinds of little critters run through it. The lines and shapes can be quite pleasing to the eye if we don't give them meaning beyond their reality.

If we gaze with a curious heart, what at first appears desolate can become a place of hope because most alleys are open at both ends. You don't have to get stuck there. An alley is a way through that eventually leads to the street where new life is happening. Yes, it can be very useful to observe the alley. But it is even more important to find the glimmers of hope and let the signs of life call you back to the front of the house where you can live what may now be a more authentic life because of what you allowed yourself to discover out back.

As I have walked through my personal alley of grief many times and for various reasons from the death of my brother to things that were important at the time but in hindsight are now deemed trivial.  After losing a close friend a little over a month ago,  I have been aware of an almost desperate need for the balance of beautiful surroundings. My home had become and even more precious sanctuary—not just as a place of safety but, more importantly, as a place where I could relish the lovely way the sun plays through the bazillion windows of the first floor or rejoice in how perfectly the inside wall paint complements the natural colors of trees that peak in every window as well as relish in the purity and fierceness of the love me, my husband and children all have for one another.

I notice beauty in a person, place, or thing has a calming effect—as if the essence of beauty is a quality of the soul that reminds me to choose life because I contain life and have been grated the gift of life from God. So that’s what I’m doing. Relishing life and beauty in all things and in all people….yep, even in the people I would classify as ‘a thorn in my side’. My faith is far deeper and experiencing a loss of someone so close, reminds me of how far I have come since walking through the muck and mire of my brother’s death and I still have plenty of room to be pruned back so I can bloom more fully.  Life is s gift. It is a beautifully crafted mess which leads to exhilaration and pitfalls and every once in a while we have the true honor to share space and some time with a true treasure found in a person….in their love…..and in their zest for life. 

No matter what our journey, we can always look forward to the sunshine and warmth of spring.  Without mud, there is no lotus.  Yoga on.  Explore within.

Person

Sometimes there are just moments that take your breath away and then there are moments that are so sweet....so subtle, so tender, so blessed. Moments of being vulnerable and ones of total acceptance. There are moments of encouragement and moments of celebration. Moments of tears and hearts aching so fiercely their pain creates silence in the ears. Sometimes there are moments we look forward to and those we do not.  Sometimes we know they are coming, but we hope not for a long while.

Every once in a while we are gifted with magic.  The magic can be a part of the breath-taking creation we are surrounded by each day or the magic can be relayed in the words from a stranger or maybe a close friend.  The magic may be a smell, a touch, a hug, a smile or whatever vessel you need it in to recognize it is magic….It is delivered in the perfect way and at the perfect moment in time…..just for you. Sometimes we are gifted with magic….in a person.

MY PERSON. There will never be another…..and I had no idea all those years ago just how much magic there was in a single human being. We met at a Spoga class (Spin & yoga) I used to teach a wonderful bike shop called Transition Cycle located on the lakefront of Pewaukee. She was riding and laughing and we started talking after class.  Amy was training for her first Ironman.  I had done a triathlon at the sprint distance a few times and had seen the Ironman on TV. Pretty amazing race, yet here Amy was….as normal as can be and laughing about her training which was just getting underway. She was laughing at the pure volume of it and the fact she had never gone any of those crazy distances before.  She was as crazy as I was!  From that moment forward we just clicked.  We just got each other and could speak through just a look. We both had traveled through some crazy life circumstance and we were both bloody and bruised from them, but also all the more brilliant from traveling through them. 

One of Amy’s struggles was with cancer. She had it three times…..once before I knew her, and twice during our friendship. I can not tell you how unbelievable she was through them.  How positive she charged through her battles.  How much passion she devoted to breast cancer awareness, the Susan G Komen foundation (she became a board member) and the unrelenting support of others she gave. She was a true super hero and she was my ‘Person’. And that is exactly what we called each other—Person.  We no longer called each other by name.  We acknowledged we were the same spirit living in two bodies and somehow we must…we just must be related. We could share it all….the truths and I mean the HARD TRUTHS.  We also shared a lot of laughter and I am talking the kind of laughter where you can not breathe and you swear you are going to pee or maybe you are peeing and you just don’t care and where oxygen is not necessary and you have to gasp and sound like some jet engine intake which only makes you dive deeper into laughter….that kind of laughter. Do you know what I am talking about?

A few days ago, I pulled into her driveway and was looking forward to loving on my Person with an AromaTouch session. It is an essential oils application of 8 different oils (some single oils and others are blends of oils) that lift the spirit and tend to the soul. The application makes the receiver and the giver feel so good, grounded, as well as physically and emotionally better.  When I pulled in….there they were…..cars.  Lots of them.  Amy had gone unresponsive a few hours before I got there.  This was it.  The moment I wanted for her, but DID NOT want for me.  It was beautiful and tender and loving and sad. It was breath-taking for many reasons….the honor of being in that moment with her, the reality of losing someone I held dear, the number of people who loved her trickling in and out of the house, the tender loving care we each gave to her, her husband, her son, her daughter-n-law, the love in the room, the presence of God awaiting His child, the silence, the ache, her breath……slow….labored. The experience is and will forever be a multi-faceted gem with so many sides reflecting one another.

Being present in the space of me during the space of this. Breathing into areas of my body that hold hard memories of my bother’s death, my family hurting…the blackness of it all.  Feeling the energy of my person in me, around me, and our friendship plays like a looping slideshow….snippets of it all from beginning to end.  The hurt and the ache are deep, but so is the pure brilliance of our time traveled together.  Sometimes we forget the small things and here they are rushing back at me begging me to surf their moment in time….and I do.  I surf them all.  Sometimes the waves beat me under, but other times their power makes me soar. The hard and the soft of it all….just like yoga.

Person, I am thankful for all our moments together and I am looking forward to eternity with you. See you later. My cup runneth over. I love you fiercely!
 ~Person

Get on your mat. Feel to heal. BE courageous to be present with it all for it all is a gift….one huge, giant, brilliant gift.
Onward and upward we go…..
OM

Truly. Madly. Deeply.

Here we are in the month of February….and the presence of the holiday of Valentine’s Day.  The notion of love is in the air…..

Yoga is defined as the union of mind, body, and spirit. We all have experienced the bliss and sanctuary the tool set of yoga provides us each personally.  Some of us may have the fortunate blessing of being able to share our yoga experience and discipline with someone we are close to; perhaps a spouse, family member, or friend. When we share our mat experiences it takes us to another level of relationship and common experience.  This experience may be one you can laugh about later on or one set on a daily/weekly basis and you look forward to its coming.

Relationship is often referred to as the ultimate spiritual practice: nowhere else can you  you see your own beauty and challenges reflected more ac irately than its eyes of another you care for. What is the reward? An experience of greater joy and fulfillment than can ever be experienced alone.  God made us for community!   The union, connection and intensification that relationships provided give our life meaning and purpose—whether with a child, parent, friend or in passionate communion with your spouse.

The power of touch is lodged in our brains and bodies early. When we are held and coddled as infants, we make happy sounds. The power of touch does not go away as we age; rather, touch proves we are part of a family, a group, or a people.  We live in shattered, fragmented times, rife with disconnection and  isolation. Most of us are in deep physical, emotional ,and spiritual need of the healing balm of relationship; with God, a spouse, friend, sibling, mother/father, and/or child.  We all know, at some level, that relationships are the base from which an extraordinary life of connection and happiness is built.  Yet, in today’s modern world, life is often moving so fast the our relationships are missing the depth we crave and deserve.

Touch has great power and it is known healthy touch is something humans need. Our skin is the largest sensory receptor on our body, so when someone touches us and the touch is not violent, sexual, scary, or threatening, most normally-adjusted people will experience it as a positive connection with another.  Can you imagine combining the gift of yoga with someone you love? Imagine the power of union that emerges from stepping outside of your own experience and connecting deeply with your yoga partner as you expand and transform together.  You would literally support each other as you both expand awareness through the union of mind, body and spirit.   When we break out of solitary practice, we are able to attain a new level in our own yoga and in the relationship before us. Practicing yoga with a loved one will create a new foundation; one rooted in the ability to be totally present, trusting, loving, and dynamic.

I believe there are seven gifts to be had when practicing yoga with a person we have a relationship with. We learn to trust by overcoming fear and experience safety. We can experience passion though the challenge of surrender and the gift of joy. We understand commitment through the challenge of struggle and the gift of freedom. We experience love through the challenge of vulnerability and the gift of intimacy. We have better communication as the result of truth learned through the challenge of honesty. We create vision through the challenges of our illusions and experience clarity. Finally, we have deeper union because of the challenges our ego provides and gift of grace.

Each of these gifts or points of contact are dependent on one other and will create a stronger tie that binds you both together. Without trust, passion can lead you to betrayal; without passion, commitment is an obligation; without commitment, love doesn’t have the protection it needs to deepen; without love, communication can be hurtful; without communication, there is no shared vision; and without all of these, union is incomplete.

What is also interesting is each of these gifts or points of contact are active within each other. For example, communication is necessary for trust to form, for love to deepen and for commitments to be clarified.  Love enhances passion and invites trust.  Vision supports commitment and unites partners in a common goal.  The more you transcend your ego and allow yourself to flow into union, the more each of these points of contact will be enhanced.

When you practice together it is important to:

1. Seek to see eye-to-eye with your partner.  Lock your gazes together in total concentration.  This helps you to stay focused and enables trust to form.  
2. Don’t be afraid to be seen.  Allow yourself to come out of hiding and let your eyes be the windows to the soul. 
3. Find the beauty in your yoga poses together.
4. Reflect beauty back to your partner.  Express what you see.  Tell him how strong they are or how radiant their face is.
5. Begin with the end in mind. Make each pose a work of art, an expression of vision, and an offering to God. 
6. If you lose contact with yourself, close your eyes and go back inside. Slowly open them again, bringing forth what you find within. Let your inner witness see yourself and your partner at the same time.

Yoga done with those we are in relationship with unfolds in the moment.  You discover things about yourself and the other person as you explore.  Chances are, you won’t be able to hold onto your old ways of being.  Maya Angelou once said the honorary duty of a human being is to love.   Are you ready to explore the mysterious edge where two people connect physically, emotionally, and spiritually? 

Truly. Madly. Deeply.  Do yoga….together.

Onward and upward of course…..

Happy connecting & Happy Valentine’s Day!