Today's Joyful Affirmation

I see no fear.  I see only love.

A Gift of Peace

There is no better gift than to give.

This afternoon I led a complimentary holiday yoga class. The room was almost completely full despite school being cancelled due to an ice storm last night.  The turnout spoke to the need so many of us have for time to ourselves, time to unwind and let go of stress.  We desperately seek peace in our lives. A few moments of stillness amid the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, baking, traveling, cooking, cleaning, and wrapping.

At the beginning of my yoga classes, I usually invite people to set intentions for themselves and make dedications to others who would benefit from the healing powers of their practice.  Today, I offered the following...

When we make dedications we typically make them to others, and this is a beautiful thing.  But today, if it resonates with you, I invite you to dedicate your practice to yourself.  Taking care, healing, and loving yourself is not only a gift to you but a gift to everyone you encounter.  The love that you have for yourself translates to love for others, for if you cannot love yourself, you cannot fully love others.  So this afternoon, open your heart to love for yourself and for others. Give yourself permission to be healed, to be at peace, and to be loved. 

There is something to be said for nurturing ourselves, and its something we don't do nearly enough of, and yet its so vitally important to take care of our own selves.  If you've ever traveled in an airplane, you've likely heard the following: "Should the air pressure in the cabin drop suddenly, your mask will drop from the compartment above. Secure your own mask before helping children or those needing assistance around you.” I used to wonder why on earth I wouldn’t be instructed to help someone needing assistance first. The answer makes perfect sense of course – if you can’t breathe, how can you help anyone else?  If you don’t care for yourself, mentally, emotionally, and physically, and if you do not love yourself, you cannot find peace. Without peace within, peace cannot be shared without.  

"The only way to have peace is to teach peace...Teach only love and learn that love is yours and you are love." (A Course in Miracles)

Today's Joyful Affirmation

Life is perfect exactly as it is.

Today's Joyful Affirmation

React only with love and there will be only peace.

Namaste

If there is good, there must be bad. Or so we tell ourselves.  Is this really the truth?  It is if we decide it to be.  A situation is only good or bad if you choose to give it that label.  The label we place on it then determines how we react.   Labeling and reacting is nothing more than a form of resistance.  The only way to react to whatever situation comes our way is with love.  Through love, we encompass and extend joy, forgiveness, and compassion.  We project no blame, no anger, no sadness.  Even in the most seemingly dire of times, we are at peace.  Significant loss, such as the loss of a loved one, often challenges us in this understanding more than any other circumstance.  But even in these times we can be at peace.

I attended a wake a few months ago.  As I knelt in front of the casket, looking at this person I had known since childhood, I understood something that I've heard over and over in yoga, but had not entirely grasped - that we are not our body.  Looking at this body, I could feel the emptiness inside of it.  But this emptiness was not a bad thing.  It was exactly as it should be.  The body had served its purpose and held a life inside of it.  Just because the body, which is temporary in this world, was no longer functioning, didn't mean the life was gone.  How could it be?  It simply doesn't make sense for everything that we are to just go away when the body no longer works.

Several years ago, I had a very close friend who was killed in a car accident.  He was in his mid-20s.  I remember going to his funeral and looking at him in the casket.  The first thing that came to my mind was that this was not the friend I knew.  It was an empty shell that held his life.  And now, that life is free.  It, like every life that leaves the body, is with us now more than ever.  When we lose a loved one, they don't leave us.  Not being able to physically touch, hold, or speak to them doesn't mean they are no longer there.  We just think that we need this proof of them in order for them to be with us.
This doesn't mea that death shouldn't or doesn't make us sad or in pain.  But when we can accept our situation and let it be what it is, then everything will be ok.  And then we will find comfort and peace.

As soon as you stop resisting what IS, you have given life permission to work for you.  In yoga practice, we end with "Namaste" which means 'the divine in me recognizes and honors the divine in you.'  That divine is the light within each of us that we all share and have in common.  It is what connects me to you and you to every person you might ever (or never) encounter in your life. It's what connects and continues to connect each of us to our loved ones who have passed forward.

Today's Joyful Affirmation

I have compassion for myself and for others.

Today's Joyful Affirmation

When I allow good things to come to me, they do.

Today's Joyful Affirmation

I have only love to give and I give it freely.

The Road You Travel

Circumstances and events don’t just happen. They are placed in front of us to teach us and they are all connected.  "One Truth, many paths." Our journey is to find our path.  Doing what you love is finding out who you are. We often feel that everyone is trying to tell us the life we should live. Only YOU can determine that. We spend an unhealthy amount of time wondering and worrying what others think. In any situation, with any decision, ask yourself, "Are my intentions good? Am I being honest with myself and others?" If you can answer yes, then you can only be following the right path. And that path doesn’t have to be consistent. It probably won’t. You might think you’ve found your path and then it might change. And that’s ok. Each road we walk down is part of the greater path. Whenever you are faced with a decision or challenge, know that you have the answer already, and it will become crystal clear exactly when you need it to.  

Today's Joyful Affirmation

I am filled with peace, happiness, and well-being.

Ready, set...be still

One thing we can ALL be sure of is that something is happening.  Maybe you've felt this "happening" before - its something inside us.  Its beautiful and blissful.  It wells up, then trickles away. It arises from a place of stillness, a formless potency and joy.  It is your heart opening. And yet, if you've ever felt this extreme love and joy, it eventually fades aways.  When we get to a state where it never trickles away?  In yoga, it happens when we reach Dhyana, or meditation, where we can hold our attention in this place of stillness. The content of what is holding our attention does not matter. This will only happen when you are open and ready.

The Buddhist approach guides us to find that stillness and joy in the world in which we live. We can function in our illusionary world of going to work, raising our children, being with friends and loved ones, all while being still.  It comes back to being the “watcher” of the mind. Stepping away from the ego and simply observing. From here we can find stillness.

Today's Joyful Affirmation

I am at peace and all I see is peace

Today's Joyful Affirmation

No matter what happens, I accept and honor all that today brings.

Today's Joyful Affirmation

Good things are everywhere I look.

Today's Joyful Affirmation

I accept joy into my life.

Today's Joyful Affirmation

I have an abundance of love to give and to receive.

Thank You

As we prepare for our Thanksgiving holiday, we are reminded of those things for which we are grateful.  Of course, its important to remember and show gratitude for all of those things and all of those people every day, not just around the holidays.  A simple gesture, kind word, or smile has enough positive energy behind it to change the mood or outlook of someone you come across.  Try it today and see what happens.  

When you are playing bumper carts at the grocery store as you stock up on all of your Thanksgiving dinner needs, smile, and be thankful that you have the means to have food on your table.  When you catch yourself grumbling about having to park on the far end of the parking lot to do your holiday shopping, smile, and be thankful that you have a car to get you there and legs to carry you across the parking lot.  When you moan and groan about shoveling your driveway and sidewalk, smile, and be thankful that you have the strength to clear that path.  When you become irritated with travel delays on your way to visit family and friends, smile, and be thankful that you have family and friends to visit. And when you find yourself overwhelmed, tired, and stressed, smile, and be thankful that you have permission to sit down a take 5 minutes to practice this gratefulness meditation...

Sit comfortably, in a quiet spot, eyes closed.  Inhale slowly, letting your lungs fill completely with air.

Exhale slowly.

Continue breathing this way for several breaths, quieting your mind, relaxing your body.

With each exhale, let your bellybutton fall towards your spine, releasing any toxins or impurities that do not serve you.

Release attachment to thoughts and emotions, focusing on your breath.

Continue as you allow your body to relax and your mind to be still.

Inhale and draw a column of light in through your body in front of your spine.

Exhale, and see yourself surrounded by the light.

Continue to hold this image for 5 slow and steady breaths.

Now, with each inhalation bring your awareness to your heart center.

See light emanate from this sacred space.

As you exhale, allow the light to cleanse you and remove impurities, physical, mental, emotional.

Feel yourself glowing with the pure light that both fills you and surrounds you.

See the light flow effortlessly from your heart center.

Bathe in the light, feel it cleanse and renew you.

SAY TO YOURSELF SOMETHING FOR WHICH YOU ARE GRATEFUL

Bring that thing or that person into your mind’s eye, let it into your heart center. See…feel…hear…smell…that for which you are grateful.

Continue to hold it in your heart. As you inhale, breathe in these strong feelings of gratitude. With a strong exhale, send those feelings to that thing or that person. Do this for several breaths.

Continue to bathe in the light. Feel the warm embrace of peace and light.

Begin to bring your awareness back to this space. 

Slowly allow your eyes to open.

No matter how you say it, giving thanks and showing your gratitude is a positive emotion that unlocks the fullness of your energy.

Think gratitude, give gratitude, receive thanks and love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cultivating Compassion

“If you want to be happy, practice compassion”

~Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama teaches that compassion is recognizing that someone else is just like you.  We may look different, speak different, like different things, come from different backgrounds, but none of this matters.  What matters is that all any of us really want is to be happy and safe. The moment we realize that all other people are just like us, compassion has room to be cultivated.

Yoga means ‘union’ – the union of the material self and the Divine Spirit that is within each of us. I also see it as the union among every one of us.  A Course in Miracles teaches that “If you are grateful to your brother, you are grateful to God for what He created…one moment of real recognition makes everyone your brother because each of them is of your Father. Love does not conquer all things, but it does set all things right.” Regardless of where you are in your own spirituality, I find this a beautiful way to make peace with everyone who you perceive as having wronged you, irritated you, hurt you, or upset you in any way.

It’s a reminder that we are all connected and we are all the same. We all suffer, face conflicts, have doubts, and experience fear.  When we truly realize that connection, we experience what Buddhists call bodhichitta, a state of awakened consciousness in which the barriers we set up between ourselves and others are removed and we experience a deep and profound inner connection. Our egos fade, and our true selves shine. Having compassion and love toward others in turn means we have compassion and love for ourselves. When you withhold love from others, you withhold it from yourself as well.

Feeling compassion brings one tremendous joy. But it can also bring great pain. To feel another’s suffering is to feel your own, and this frightens us. We so often fear our own pain, our own vulnerability.  But when, as yoga teaches us, we recognize and honor the Divine Spirit within us, we know we have nothing to fear because fear cannot reach the Divine and therefore it cannot reach us.

Sometimes that pain comes from trying to feel compassion towards someone with whom we have had a difficult time. Hatred is a powerful emotion but it’s not real. It’s merely something the ego created to protect itself. Hatred allows us to blame others for our life situations. When the ego has been hurt, insulted, or threatened, it points a finger at the culprit. Placing blame on others relieves the ego of its responsibility, making the ego “right.” Blame and hatred can do nothing to cultivate compassion. It can only destroy it. Non-compassion does not lead to happiness. It prevents it. And why would we ever choose to be unhappy?  It is not for our own egos to judge who is deserving of compassion and who is not.  This is simply a battle of one ego against another. When we bring yoga into our life and accept that we are ALL united, that we are not our egos, then we will have and demonstrate love and compassion for everyone.  

“The truly helpful are invulnerable, because they are not protecting their egos and so nothing can hurt them.”

~A Course in Miracles, Ch. 4, VII.8.3