Responding to the Oil Spill

I am reading the reports and my heart is weeping with sadness.

Verbal warfare.  Blame.  Frustration. Impotence...

"Urgent questions about what lay beneath"...

Assessments like "let's make no mistake that what is at threat here is our very way of life"...

Perhaps the most disturbing element, if there can be such a list when the whole situation is beyond comprehension, is contemplating what Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP meant by "a third and fourth and fifth option around both containment and elimination" when the already disastrous present solutions are not working.

I went to one of my heroes, Henry David Thoreau and found words for my swirling thoughts...

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape! 

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. 

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.

The fight to the finish spirit is the one characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers. 

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning. 

Henry David Thoreau 

What do you do when the situation is too big - too unwieldy - too far from your own hands to do anything about? What can any of us do?

I can guide you carefully through one option as I march myself through my own bodymind and witness the feelings that reside there.  Our Energetic Anatomy offers us a map to what we can do.

Caring about our world in the way Thoreau so eloquently expressed throughout his life is the territory of the second chakra.  When a feeling of care overwhelms us and becomes too big - too frustrating - too impossible for us to do anything with, we will often go to a couple of options.

One option might be to continue to care, but to do it improperly.  Rage at the world.  Call people names.  Send out redhot anger and more poison and expect that you yourself won't get burned even worse.  Rant.

Another option is don't care.  Go unconscious.  Say "whaaatever" (with a sigh...) or "I knew it all along" and be satisfied with your precognitive rationale.  Apathy is on the other side of proper caring, and it can be a successful place to hide when the feelings of caring have no place else to go - or so it seems.

We have another option, which is rather than moving sideways between caring to uncaring, that we investigate the next chakra and move upward to the third vortex territory of self-esteem.  Here we encounter the emotion of grief and the process of letting go.  Here we take a good look at SELF.  How can I make a difference in my own world right from where I stand? What will I do - today - and move myself into the ease of a shifted energy body that can (and will) function well through crisis.


When "clean-up" is the issue, as it is with our spewing oil wells, you must stay the course for yourself, and do what you can with what you've got, or you will experience the impotent frustration of your apparent inability to  save the world.

What does that mean to you?

Here are some suggestions from my heart to yours that come from the BICS framework of YokiBICS. They invite you to move the lifeforce energy of your own body, mind and spirit intentionally into Belief - Integrity - Choice - Service.

• Go clean up your own backyard
• Take a day trip and clean up your own shoreline
• Join a campaign to clean up the neighborhood - or just go outside for a walk with a plastic bag 
• Help a neighbor with their clean-up
• Investigate community action in your area
• Go use your natural resources, park, preserve, walkway.
• Donate

Let's get even more personal...

• Clean up your own thoughts of separation
• Immerse yourself in your own relatedness to the Natural World
• Be willing to extend the perimeters of your own backyard 
• Know that as you hold your own thoughts of caring, you create a more caring world - it begins with the individual and every one counts.

Try these suggestions.  Try more of your own.  And yes you can also write, vote, and act with your significant purchasing power as a consumer.  But do care. We are all in this together.

Let me know how it works out.

Namaste and big hugs to you, my neighbor.

A Controversial Diary of a Yogi

My friend Tom asked me recently why he doesn't get down on his mat anymore even though he loves yoga.

I think a lot of people feel that way when it comes to all sorts of things that are good for them.

Mostly we are told to get some discipline.  Stay the course.  Hire a trainer. Watch a video.  Buddy up with someone.  Develop a routine. Not bad, all these suggestions, and they certainly can work to alter our behaviors. Isn't it true that the disciplined yogi - the accomplished athlete - the distance runner - is better off?

Isn't it?

I had to think for a minute what kind of support I could give my friend, and in offering something to him, I referenced what it is for me to honor my body even when I don't "feel " like doing my routines anymore.

I clearly recognized that most of the time I just go ahead and give myself the rest.

That's right, I rest, recover, recuperate, relax, retire, and acquiesce more or less completely to my resistance.

Now I know this is not the popular party line. A couple of decades in the fitness industry didn't fail to leave an impression. :) Take a look at the iconic Nike slogan making all sorts of waves pushing us to "just do it" and everybody numbly nodding their heads.  

It doesn't seem reasonable for a teacher, a practitioner, dare I say a mentor in the field to say go ahead, don't do it... 

But I am saying that. 

The operative here is what's really going on when you don't feel like doing what is supposedly so good for you to do.

A few years ago when I was in the midst of huge life altering events I suspended my yoga practice.  That's right - suspended it altogether after 30 non-stop years.  Now why do that you might ask, when it would seem to be the single most needed anchor in the midst of so much challenge and change?

I did it because I needed to go in the direction of change - and I needed to do it body, mind and soul.  

It is an amazing thing to be without almost all of your familiar reference points and habits.  Life can open dramatically and you can open into it in thoroughly new and unexpected ways.  Taking days - weeks - even years off from an activity that doesn't inspire you can be healthy and wise.  Mind you, this is not the same as becoming an advocate for sloth, yet I have found there is rarely much glory is doing what is not wanted, or in refusing to listen, as if "staying the course" must be preferable to the "cease and desist" message blinking away in our consciousness.

Take therapy for example.  How many people do you know that are still seeing their therapist? Month after month - year after year.  You get a clue to the attachment in the language itself: "I'm seeing my therapist..."

My my my my my. What's the matter with us?  When did we forget that therapy is meant to be like a boat ferrying us from one shore to another...we are supposed to get out on the other side. Go! Live! Prosper!

Often the attachment we have to familiarity and the routine of a thing that is good for us can mask the need for wholehearted change.  It can take real courage to see ourselves hiding out in the weeds of the known, doing things that are "right" rather than diving into new territory. It's an (almost) foolproof method of staying stuck.  And who in their right mind will call you out on it? After all, "it's good for you!"

One of the first books on yoga I ever read was by Bubba Free John and it was called The Eating Gorilla Comes in Peace.  Hefty book that, with all sorts of new thought at the time, but the thing I remember most from it was the idea that the mat is just the mat.  The practice is the practice.  As much as we need a practice so we can grow into our best selves, in the end we are meant to BE that very self without the practice that gets us there.

Now that's an idea...

So back to the mat and the nitty gritty.

Toms problem wasn't that he had stopped his yoga practice.  That was just the symptom of something else.  Tom had disconnected from nourishing himself altogether. What Tom needed was inspiration and a thread of desire to keep him connected to what felt good for his body.

I offered him my own recipe of walks, nourishing food with lots of water, and abdominal work.  Yup, that's the holy trinity for me. Ab crunches particularly make me feel alive.  150 at a time to be exact.  Like brushing my teeth, it is a simple part of my daily - and desired - routine.

During my own separation from the mat, the crunches kept me in touch with my body as a strong physical vehicle, the healthy food and hydration an honorable gift throughout my hiatus, and the changes that were occurring in my life kept on changing.   Many an aspiring yogi will stay on the mat rather than change his heart, his habitat, his relationship or his job, all the while convincing himself that the practice and the sweat and the accomplishment leads to growth while actually the box is getting tighter and smaller and more form fitting by the day.

The inspiration to embody my physical form never left.  My own threads of desire were found walking among the trees and beside the river and around the winding blocks of my new neighborhood.  The song of my soul never quieted - just the venue for it's expression.  If I had forced myself to the mat I would have been focusing on the wrong item. More important was to keep my aliveness sacred, however it appeared.

As I let myself be and the sands settled, lo and behold the mat beckoned me again, only now it is different. More free.  Less self-conscious.  I have brought my self to the practice rather than the practice defining me.

The less of it now is so much more.

As for Tom, he reported a new appreciation of his vitality with the lighter vegetarian fare he's been eating. What started with my pea soup recipe and my husband Bob's thin crust pizza has expanded.  The crunches have given him a sense of embodiment and the walks offer time he shares with his wife.  For him, the mat is right around the corner as his desire for it grows.

Whether you are beginning a new physical practice, maintaining one you enjoy, or letting something go, the growth you seek will be found in your willingness to change in the direction of your true heart's desire.

Develop yourself

Appreciate your body.

Find what makes you happy.

Engage rather than force.

Be "one with" rather than power over.

Disconnect from needing and move toward embracing

Nourish yourself

Nourish your desire.

Love yourself and say so - in the mirror. 

Best of all, keep smiling.

Let me know how it goes.

namaste :)

Is Emotional Sobriety Freeing?

A continuation of my recent library post... and yet another result...


Having just launched one of my new children out into the world, I am enthused and embroiled in all the nuances of the subject I embraced.  One of my meanderings of late took me to the giant self-help section of my local library (we must all need lots and lots of help for this section to be so big :)  where I found a book called Emotional Sobriety: From Relationship Trauma to Resilience and Balance by Tian Dayton.

I wondered what Emotional Sobriety might have in common with Emotional Freedom, so this book came home with me - one of my borrowed friends.

All in all I found that the two subjects have quite a lot in common, though the viewpoints come from different perspectives, for the basic conclusions are the same: you must move with your emotions in order to enjoy health.  The Sobriety book focuses on the trauma that can inhibit movement.  The guided audio program I created helps the movement to occur.

I found that the last chapter of Daytons book contained sixteen habits of emotionally sober people, and from my perspective they are succinct and correct, and so I offer them to you in addition to my own program.

According to Dayton, people that are "emotionally sober" have the following traits:

• they are able to self-reflect: they take charge of their own lives
• they take responsibility for their own attitudes
• they have goals and work toward meeting them
• they consciously maintain good habits
• they have good boundaries
• they know their own shortcomings and insecurities
• they avoid unnecessary conflict but speak up when necessary
• they have realistic expectations of life
• they take responsibility for their own moods
• they have and live by good values
• they are grateful and appreciative of what life gives them
• they maintain strong relationship networks
• they are active and get involved in life
• they tend to have a positive belief system of some kind
• they live in the present
• they have a balanced and mature outlook on life

As I concluded the book I recognized the list as the series of outcomes that arrive when Emotional Freedom is expressed.  For a background of recognition on what and how you might have experienced relationship trauma in your own life, and the science behind why you might have suffered as a result, I recommend this book highly.  It can serve as a wonderful companion to the experience of Emotional Freedom and offer you great understanding of your history.

For ways to get through the movement and transformational process of the feelings themselves, I am happy to light the path that can show you the way. You can listen to a sample of Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom right on the Yokibics website (my my, we ARE getting high tech!) You will learn how to recognize which emotion is moving through you, what language you are using that holds it in place, and experience a guided meditation to move you in the direction of the positive aspect of each and every feeling you have.

Enjoy your emotional freedom today.  You won't feel stagnant, and you may find any range of feelings from high to low, happy to sad, and everywhere else in between - but that is the point! The feeling of emotion coupled with the intention to embrace the result is what makes transformation possible.

Your freedom to flow with the experience of life is the joyful result.  It is my honor to assist.

Have a great ride...
Namaste

Abundance at the Library

I 

I have a trick for changing the view of my circumstances when the perspective needs a boost in the direction of clarity and abundance.

The trick is to go visit my public library.  

Yup, that regular old-fashioned bastion of wisdom and knowledge stuffed to the brim with most anything you might want to explore.

Do any of you over the age of 10 still actually go there?  

Too busy you say? Pshaw...

It is an amazing experience when viewed from the perspective of the Mystic. Books of all sorts are available to feed mind, body and spirit - fiction,  non-fiction, biographies, art, travel, food, periodicals, and music galore!    

On my recent visit I sat in one of the big red leather high back chairs that face the fireplace in this old library building of mine, and read, and scanned, and looked, and absorbed, and enjoyed the diversity of opportunity there. In several hours I hit only the tiniest tip of the iceberg of what is actually available. 

I wonder how often we can see the wide open sky of opportunity and choice - of options and availabilities when we are in the midst of strife and struggle...?  

Go to the library - you'll feel better

When I was done noodling around, I chose two full armfuls of great stuff to bring home with me.

(These are the bonus points - my nose has been buried all week in the lushness of it all.)

And my ears!

Piano and cello and voices soar from the CDs I collected just because - and if I don't love what I hear?  Click! Time to change to another.

The thing about the library is you get to experience what you love without owning it...

Yes, without owning it.

You know at the outset that in a month you'll have to return all your new "friends."

Go ahead and love what you are reading, feeling, seeing and hearing - but don't get too attached to the box it comes in!

And even better - no clutter - the sworn enemy of productivity and clarity.

What a wonderful reminder of what abundance actually is, for we know there will be many more books to greet us and call out to us from the shelves again and again once we return.

The lessons of abundance tell us there is always more - if perhaps different in shape and size and content.

And truthfully - there is no "owning" anything at all - not really.  We use that little human illusion to make us feel safe in the face of the more enduring knowledge that no matter how hard we hang on, "this too shall pass."

May all of you open your eyes wide and see the lushness around you.

May all of you experience the fullness of your life.

Namaste

Easter and the Sacred View

Well it's the day after Easter, and I imagine that many of you who celebrated have lots of hard-boiled eggs to eat (unless you're a fan of the plastic.)  And some leftover peeps lurking about.  And maybe some ham to top it off...

I went to wiki to check out something of the origins of Easter and was near to overwhelmed with the scope and diversity of it's history. I'll leave it to you to check out   this link   and see for yourself if you're a history or theology buff.  We have countries of origin, customs and celebrations to explore...etymology, theological significance, and of course, the ever present controversies. 

For me the meaning of any holiday lies not in the symbol or the tradition or the place where it all began, though those things can bring a sense of familiarity and solidarity among the celebrants, but perhaps it serves to look beyond the symbol and inquire what you felt in your soul while you celebrated. 

Did you appreciate the opportunity to be with family and friends?  Were you grateful for the inevitable abundance of food and sharing?  Were you able to invoke a sense of the sacred while you hid eggs or cooked or visited?

Without the sacred being recognized and acknowledged we can devolve any celebration into the glitzy and/or the banal.  We can forget the reason for being there at all, regardless of tradition or custom or theological significance.

We can forget to celebrate the life we have, and to love what we have created with it.  

May all the ways you seek renewal be given unto you.

May all the seeds you have planted sprout and find their way to strength.

May your own spirit rising be all that you hope for, and all that you need it to be.

Blessings to you,

Namaste. 

The Monkey Blog

I've been pondering lately.  The question begs for answers. "What can I - who feels like a teeny, tiny grain of sand in a limitless landscape - do to insure a thriving planet for me, for you, for the generations that will come after us?"

And I started thinking about monkeys :)

In particular the hundredth monkey.

During the 60's and 70's, if you were around as I was, there was an explosion of consciousness arising from the combined forces of a personal growth movement, yogis coming to America, the fashionable rise of quantum physics, the new age and New Thought, the self-help and return to Nature movements (not to mention civil rights and more) all converging. Things were lookin' good but the possibility of total planetary annihilation was looking as bad as ever.

By the mid-80's Ken Keyes Jr., author of 15 books including Handbook to Higher Consciousness, was among the number of teachers who went viral with their work - and in particular a concept from his book The Hundredth Monkey.

In his authors dedication Keyes says:

"This book is dedicated to the Dinosaurs, who mutely warn us that a species which cannot adapt to changing conditions will become extinct. This book is not copyrighted. You are asked to reproduce it in whole or in part, to distribute it with or without charge, in as many languages as possible, to as many people as possible."

After seeing recent references popping up again and again in sources as diverse as internet marketing campaigns and Forrest Church's book Love and Death, I decided to take Ken Keyes up on his offer.

It's been 25 years since publication and we are indeed living in Hundredth Monkey times. We have all sorts of technology at our disposal, so what's so important about little Imo, the star of Keyes story - and who does this little monkey represent?

Why it's you of course.

According to Keyes "Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.

But there is a point at which - if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness - a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind."

So what IS the thought that we can propagate here?

1. individuals matter.
2. you matter.
3. what you think...matters
4. what you think - and further what you DO with what you think... matters

So I created the blog "Are You The Hundredth Monkey?" as a forum to highlight all of you "yous" out there.

(I even started a twitter group called "You Are The Monkey!!" Surely there's been many a person who clicked onto that particular notification and went bonkers (Whaaaat?? Somebody is calling me a monkey??!)

LOL every time I think of it... :)

...but hey, this is where I can link total strangers (who have yet to be friends) so they can see each others' good works among the craziness that such a network can be.
 
You or I don't need to be members of a special group either so much as we are a gathering of individuals who can feel the wave and see each other.  You can be UU or Yogi, spiritual or secular, young or old or anything in between - you can be all of it or none of it...but if you can think and share, then you are "the monkey," and YOU have the potential the be the HUNDREDTH monkey. That's the one who tips the scales toward good through your thoughts, your actions, and your sharing.

Powerful stuff I do say...

So far The Monkey blog has collected soulful stories and supportive comments from everyday people like Nancy Wolf, Jan Guarino and Phil Howard who speak of living the ordinary in extraordinary ways.  I've highlighted grandmothers, little kids and Santa Claus.  There are additional links to some serious soul food like Rev. Ken Beldon, Joanna Brandi, Dr. Shui Yin Lo and even little Georgie.

There's also a link to download the Ken Keyes book in its entirety - for free.

Each time we see something good...every time we have the courage to be "different" and share it, then we too, like Imo, have the opportunity to change the world.

Check it out.

You can soak it all in or add to the content - here or on the blog. That would really be awesome.

You Are The Monkey Blog

Namaste

The Path of Spring

I've been watching my neighbors lately as they glory - and I mean revel - in the slightest sign that Spring is coming.  Maybe it's the big snow we just saw the end of - perhaps it's just me, but I'm seeing folks showing  big desire for new beginnings.  Tiny green shoots pushing up through the ground...baby crocus heads...specks of color amidst all the brown...each sign speaking of new life in a new season.

I look at the Medicine Wheels that are found in every ancient tradition. Whether they are laid out in sand or in stone or experienced inwardly, sacred circles teach the laws of life.  A wheel turns.  Though the form may change, what you place at one point you will find again later on.  

The Mystic knows that the wheel of life returns what is given, and though it may seem unexpected, like Spring it is not entirely unpredictable.  It is just that often by the time the results come in we have long forgotten our own initial output and so its connection to the result may come as a surprise.

The Medicine Wheel invites us to face the four directions of life and relate to what we see.  In the East, Spring rises.  It brings the energy of the dawn and ushers in hope, renewal and inspiraton.  There is a drive to plant whether it is a handful of new seeds or new purposes.  The Earth surrounds us and says "if plant you will, then now is the time!"

Pay attention and tend well to the energies that are being called forth from you.  As the wheel turns, when the time is right you will see the results of what you have planted.  Your labors will bear fruit and that which needs to be put to rest will depart.

May you plant well this season.  May you too dance with the joy of new beginnings. May your coming harvest be rich.

Namaste  to you.

The Spirituality of Being Open

Could it be that spiritual growth can be likened more to having a baby than some alternate, otherworldly or angelic analogy?

I think so.

Today I'm reading A Year of Daily Wisdom, a simple rotating calendar by Marianne Williamson based on A Course in Miracles (always rich territory fyi.)  As is usual for me - and this only gets better with time - I can pick up a book, or put on a song and 'bang!' there is the exact right item to give me solace or put me back on track.

The Course lesson for today is the following:

"Spiritual growth is like childbirth.

You dilate, then you contract.

You dilate.

Then you contract again.

As painful as it all feels, it is the necessary rhythm for reaching the ultimate goal of total openness."

Ohhh, total openness.  So that's the goal.

No wonder it feels hard.  For me, I'm as open as I want to be and that varies with time...and circumstance.  I find sometimes the less intimate I am with a person the easier "open" seems to be.  I'm certainly not the first to notice that particular logic.  So knowing what the goal is is helpful to me.  I can set my sail, head in the direction, clear my mind...intend...yes, intend...

and like all good intentions, may it be blessed and may it be so - for me, and for you too.

Namaste

Love and Death

                                    

These days have been sad for me.  Very sad...and rightly so.

My parents are changing - aging quickly - growing closer to death. My father actively so in these moments. They are suffering.  Having been a twosome since they were 16 - Jo and Lo - one can only imagine what they have been through together.

My Dads' is the more obvious passing as he withers daily.  My Mom hangs in there and serves - and worries - and rallys - and serves some more.  I wonder at the worry she has carried all her life.  Would that I could take some of it from her - and yet - for better or worse, I have been the cause of much of it, so she says.

How formidable is fear when the thing feared most is staring at someone who lives life with faith as their guide?  How does one reconcile their own child living and breathing in it, while you (as the parent) look always for a more tangible reason for living - one that makes more "sense."

If only I had acted less the mystic I might have offered more to the god of fear - and pleased them.

I might have seemed more...normal.

Yet - I did not.

I stepped up and out (and often in front) especially when it scared me silly - like that first day of first grade when I bolted into school and ran up the endless marble stairs so fast that I alone burst out onto the roof! Can you imagine my shock pushing open the big, heavy door and finding wide-open blue sky?! 

In many ways it feels comforting for me to remember that moment, as if it set the stage for open sky to be my companion throughout life.  This is one of the experiences we might have shared if you were called 'different' yourself ...and the sky above would feel safer and sounder than all the money in the bank or 100 pedigrees and titles.

Another thing you would notice would be a penchant for peace; a deep need to create; or perhaps a wild desire rising within you when you sang out your song or danced your dance.  You would know it when you felt it, and know who you are...and it would be as right as rain.
   
So I've been reading about Love... and Death... and as it happens, I happily found the exact right words to offer me solace as I go into this experience of loosing the foothold of parents alive, and the big open sky before me again. (Thanks Bill) 

The following words are from the book of the same name Love & Death: My Journey Through the Valley of the Shadow by the soulful Unitarian minister Forrest Church, a deeply spiritual but always practical visionary who is a preacher, a poet and a man who calls us "to live life in such a way that our lives will prove worth dying for."

I have synopsized these passages from a series of meditations he wrote and adapted from two other of his twenty-four books (Life Lines and Lifecraft) offering them again for his readers upon learning that he was dying from esophogeal cancer.  He likened life to The Titanic and the iceberg it inevitably met.

                                  

                                    

"We are all here together in this extraordinary ship - different classes, yes - and not enough lifeboats - but when it comes to death there are never enough lifeboats.  The menus do not matter, nor do the size of our accommodations, not really - not finally. Neither does the speed our ship is going, or the weather, or ports of call.  

The ship is magnificent but one day it will sink.  It always sinks.  All hands will be lost.  

If we forget how dangerous the waters are, spending our lives rearranging deck chairs to catch the sun, we set up our lives to do only one important thing: watch them pass before our drowning eyes.

I admit, crossing on the Titanic, I wouldn’t have enjoyed myself very much just worrying …there is something to be said for routine, for semi consciousness, even for hiding.  That something is safety.  It may be an illusion, but it can be a sustained and useful illusion for a very long time. 

The over- planned life lacks wonder and spontaneity. We can want to be so safe that passion and connection are sometimes forgotten, as we choose from the wine list or worry about coming storms. 

The Titanic is a morality play, one not that different from Noah’s Flood or the fall from Eden.  By definition, morality plays teach us to be careful – but if all we ever learn in being careful is to not take chances, we will always be in the audience, and never onstage.

In other words, if life is a cruise, nine times out of ten, it will not be an adventure.  I have seen that some of you who come for counseling over the years are so wrapped up in your own and your parents underwear that I sometimes wonder if you will ever get out – if you will ever get naked.

The harder we work to get things exactly right the more cautious we become…the more careful not to fail.  Risking nothing, we stand to gain little beyond the security of a battened-down existence. 

We will know little failure - or have only “little failures” - but consider the cost.  If you are hiding to be safe, taking care not to be wrong, I commend you to ignore life’s dangers just as readily as you protect yourselves from them.

Often our most important actions are so fraught with danger that we will surely never get them exactly right, and if we don’t fire before we can take perfect aim – we may never fire at all. 

Life is fraught with danger. That is just the way it is.

Finally, the Titanic always hits the iceberg.  Hence this simple, if imprudent, bit of advice: take a few chances. Make the phone call. Pick up the gauntlet; do whatever it takes.  

Dare to live before you die.” 

  

So be it and so it is.  Namaste everyone...

Community

So lately I've been thinking about how different the world is for me these days...a notion sparked into red hot fire by an email that Larry, an online friend, sent out recently.  It contained a vid of what life was like in New York "back in the day" when we played stoop ball in Brooklyn with pinkies. 

Wait...back in the day?  I go back that far? Really?? That's epic.

Yikes...

I'm looking at this you tube he sent and I'm laughing out loud while at the same time I feel kind of surreal, like I'm watching one of the first talkies ever made. I mean, anyone still alive must be near ancient!!

(gulp...)

And there I was. hummmmmm....

After I process this information of days gone by without running away, or making it small, I arrive at a deeper awareness...

I know that in some ways I am "old" - yet in many more I am young.

In some things I am accomplished, yet in most, I am just beginning.

Quite able to remember decades of life, I am most capable of imagining the decades to come...

and then, then I remember -

how very lucky I am to be here - for many are not.  

For me, this musing invites the question "what do I really, really, really want to do with my days?"

Do you think about this too?

I love the question! So superior to "how am I going to get through another day" or "what am I gonna do to kill time" or "when's the rent due" don't you think??

Which leads me to...(tada!)...the other blog I started (just because I can) at YouAreTheMonkey.blogspot.com.

I started it for you.

Oh, I'll keep writing and musing and contributing here at The Mystic.  More than that though, I want to offer a place to capture your ideas - instances - moments - stories - anything - everything! - that demonstrates that LIFE IS WORTHWHILE and YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Maybe more than a difference -  perhaps the difference. 

Could your contribution - whether in thought or in deed -  be the "straw" that tips the scale in the direction of good?  Could your simple daily practice, when added to all the other conscious choices to live and to love, be the kind of service that creates the energy necessary to see Heaven on Earth?


You don't need a pinky to play this game, but it sure does smack of a lost commodity called community, doesn't it?

Check it out!

Let me know if there is something you would like to contribute - or comment on - or add to in one of the posts already there. After all, why not? You're part of the neighborhood, aren't you? :)

However it is for you, and in whatever way you do it, may you enjoy the grace of loving life each and every day!  Till next time,

Namaste,
ooooohhhhhmmmmmmmmm

Mother Earth

 

These days...What Would a Mystic Do?...in relating to our planet...our home?

Are we able to reverse some of the scary changes we have wrought upon ourselves? Can we? Will we?

If not reverse, then can we care in a way that matters?

Our caring nature stems from relating through the second chakra of our being - and intimacy springs from caring with action.  Whatever you can do, the time to do it is now.

Check out the video below - a beautiful call to caring action.
Enjoy!

An Elders Call

Namaste with love,
Gael

Luminous With Age

I am a baby boomer, a mother, a daughter, teacher and friend.

I am graced to be here today, fully alive, beginning new and exciting projects as my career changes and grows.  So too is my body changing, no longer the young woman I have only just come to really know - and accept.

Here I am, having arrived at the entrance of the wisdom years in my life journey...the years my first yogi spoke of when I was just 22.  He was 90 if a day, vibrant yet serene, and unafraid.  He seemed to know who he was and where he was going.  He certainly knew why he was here.

"LOVE your life!" he said, "and work hard to stay healthy. We will need your voice to be strong when you enter the wisdom years."

I don't remember him qualifying his statement with "and don't forget the botox."

How can I describe the beauty of this time through the eyes of a culture that fears the look of aging?

The wisdom years are rich with experience amd insights that can only be earned through the maturation of time.  Yet not everyone who reaches time necessarily embraces the wisdom that is meant to come with it.

  

I recently came across an email from a few years ago that I saved. The content is from some anonymous person as far as I know, but the words were edited, and repeated, and forwarded from friend to friend...

On Aging

" I am probably now for the first time the person I have always wanted to be.

Though often I am taken aback by the 'old person' who lives in my mirror, I don't agonize about things for too long.  I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly.


As I've aged I've become more kind to myself, and less critical.

I've become my own friend...


I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon, before they understood the great gift that comes with aging. 

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken...broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion.  A heart never broken is sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.


I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turn gray and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.


As you get older it is easier to be more positive.  You care less about what other people think.


So, to answer your question, I like being old.  It has set me free.


I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here I will not waste my time lamenting what could have been or worring what will be..."

So what worry would you like to let go of? Must you really wait any longer?  And if so...why??

For me, the truest anti "aging" devise has been to work on getting to know myself better and love myself more...to stand behind my most unique talents, and be willing to share my gifts.  To care less about being ridiculed and more about serving.  To give and forgive.  To laugh frequently...and loud.

Oh - and yes...to do the work of staying healthy so that I can still be here sharing my voice.

Blessings to you on your own journey.

Namaste

Growing Away

 

Today I'm thinking about how really hard it is to change the places of hurt and confusion that stem from our childhood and the ways we relate and care (or don't care) for each other.  The processing area for this kind of relating is found at the 2nd chakra, and we can spin and spin and spin at this level for a lifetime.

 

Eventually each of us needs to grow to be our own true Self in order to progress. We actually demand a new processing area in our bodymind to handle the information that can transform the wounds of relating. 

 

This is 3rd chakra movement. New territory. New rules. 

 

The 3rd chakra demands self awareness, self reflection and self esteem.  

 

The key phrase is "I let go of all that is not that into ease."

 

Let go of all that no longer serves your growth. Grief may appear.  Done well, grief WILL appear. 

 

That's ok.

The 3rd chakra area of the bodymind is the solar plexus, so breathing deep and stretching out can be a great help.

Eventually you'll find that what comes next is a true heart opening at the 4th chakra and your actions will move from fear into faith.

May you have many blessings on the journey.

Are You Ready for Fun?

I have enjoyed the beginning of this year like no other.
Something is in the air that feels like new beginnings.
Do you feel it too? I notice the sense of real ability being demonstrated with an "I can do this!" attitude.

Call it hope, or self-empowerment, I have heard many say "this is my time" and I agree. This IS your time!

Use it well and you will be lifted on unseen wings of grace if you only say "YES!"  That is the beginning.
The Mystic knows that once the commitment is made, all manner of unforeseen opportunity will follow.

Check out this video - it is one of the best New Years messages I've seen!
Sassy and soulful, it's 5 minutes well spent.

Let me know what you think...and Happy New Year in the truest sense!
 
Are You Ready for Fun

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Simple Steps: A New Years Gift to You: #40 The Lotus Flower

This post is the final installment in our 40 Simple Steps Series.  I hope you've enjoyed them!  I know you can find value here too, for the simplest step of all is the knowledge that within these words you are meeting and greeting your own true self.

In the East, the lotus flower is viewed as a symbol of spiritual unfoldment.

The lotus has its roots in earthly mud, but as it grows upward in aspiration toward the light, its petals open out in a beautiful flower.

This unfolding is the goal of reaching toward the eighth limb of yoga, Samadhi.

The Indian Lotus flower symbolizes divinity, fertility, wealth, knowledge and enlightenment.

It is associated with the goddess of wealth, Maha Lakshmi, who brings prosperity, purity and generosity.
She sits on a fully blossomed lotus flower, symbolizing purity, beauty and everything that is good.

Om Mani Padme Hum, meaning, "Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus" is the sacred mantra of the Tibetans. 

The meaning behind the lotus flower's use is beautifully articulated in the following poem by Swami Kriyananda, a teacher I studied with as a result of my introduction to the work of his teacher, Swami Paramahansa Yogananda in his book Autobiography of a Yogi.

May you breathe in peace as you read...

Todays Simple Step

Contemplating the Lotus Flower

"We were talking - about the space between us all - 
and the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion 
never glimpsing the truth.

Then it's far too late when they pass away.

We were talking - about the love we all could share when we find it -

to try our best to hold it there - 
with our love

With our love we could save the world - if they only knew.

Try to realize it's all within yourself - no-one else can make you change

And to see you're really only very small

And life flows on within you and without you.

We were talking - about the love that's gone so cold

And the people who gain the world and lose their soul.

They don't know, they can't see - 
are you one of them?

When you've seen beyond yourself

Then you may find peace of mind is waiting there

And the time will come when you see we are all one

And life flows on within you and without you."

Swami Kriyananda

May you find a way to keep walking the path of these 40 Simple Steps.

May they lead you to your destination "home" and bring you to your happiness.

As you leave this year behind - and embrace all that is present before you -  the spirit in me salutes the spirit in you!

Namaste,

Gael

Simple Steps: #39 The Door is Open

The eight linbs of yoga indicate a logical method that leads to the attainment of physical, emotional, and psycho-spiritual health.

Yoga does not seek to change the individual; rather it allows the natural state of total health and integration in each of us to become a reality.  That reality leads to joy and understanding, the result of the oneness we experience in the state of samadhi.

Todays Simple Step

What does it look like for you to walk through the door that is opening to the next step in your soul growth?

We all have a new door - a longer stretch - a deeper committment to our own truth...

No one else can really tell you what that looks like...

All the advice in the world is nothing compared to the innate wisdom you already have inside yourself.

Stop waiting for someone or something to tell you...

Take a moment now to allow yourself to know - without a doubt -

what it is that is waiting for you to say "I accept!"

In this way you will be guided, supported and attractive to the opportunities that already exist to help you find your way. In the words of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, the German poet,

"Once one is committed, and not until then, will all manner and form of opportunity arise which would not have been there otherwise."

May you have many blessings along the way.

Till next time,
ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm

Simple Steps: #38 Follow the Path

No one ever said the achievement of samadhi is easy.  In fact it is usually considered a difficult task.

The Yoga Sutra suggests the practice of asana and pranayama as a preparation for dharana, because these influence mental activities and create space in the crowded schedule of the mind.

Once dharana has occurred, dhyana and samadhi can follow.

Todays Simple Step

Take a few minutes today to follow the "yellow brick road" of links I have highlighted in the description above. 

Spend just these few minutes seeing for yourself how the steps move you from one state of mind to another.  

Once you have the ability to change your state of mind you have every possibility to change your state of being!

May you find the peace you seek in the process.

Till next time...
oooooooohhhhmmmmmm
 

Simple Steps: #37 Union with the Divine

Samadhi refers to union, or true yoga.

There is an ending to the separation that is created by the "I" and "mine" of our illusory perceptions of reality.

The mind does not distinguish between self and non-self, or between the object contemplated and the process of contemplation.

The mind and intellect have stopped, and there is only the experience of consciousness, truth and unutterable joy.

Todays Simple Step

Suppose you met a Divine guide on your journey around town today.  Suppose you were tapped on the shoulder while waiting in line.

 Would it be meaningful to you if the face of that Divine presence just lit up from within while looking at you?   Would you even be able to stand the radiance of love that would eminate from a presence so filled with the simple joy of seeing you that tears of recognition would stream from their eyes and wet their glowing smile?

Would you ... could you... see beyond the illusion of your own frail humanity to see what they see?

Give it a try.  You are so beautiful.

It is your ability to receive the truth of it that will bring you to the experience of Samadhi.

Till next time,
oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm

Simple Steps: #36 Samadhi

In our 40 Simple Step Series, we have reached the final step in the eight-fold path of yoga.

It is the attainment of Samadhi.

Samadhi means "to bring together, to merge."

In the state of samadhi the body and senses are at rest as if asleep, yet the faculty of mind and reason are alert, as if awake.

In this state one goes beyond consciousness.

During samadhi we realize what it is to be an identity without differences, and how a liberated soul can enjoy pure awareness. The conscious mind drops back into the unconscious oblivion from which it first emerged.

Todays Simple Step

We often think that the attainment of such a state is only found in a haze of blissful unawareness.

That is the furthest thing from the truth.

Samadhi IS the attainment of consciousness in an endless observation of itself.

Just for today, practice NAMASTE..."The spirit in me sees - and salutes! - the spirit in you."

See it - Be it!  This is the essence of the golden rule.

May all that you are be a blessing to you and to others.
Namaste.

Till next time,
ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Simple Steps: #35 Freedom

Todays Simple Step

A 3-Minute Meditation on Freedom...

 Stop whatever else you are doing. 

Truly. 

Stop fidgiting - hurrying - trying to fit this in.

This is special time - a sacred time. 

Offer it to yourself.

Take in a deep...full...rich...slow...breath.

Exhale.  Ahhhhhhhh.....

Take another breath  - even slower than the one before. 

Exhale. Ahhhhhhh....

Now once more - and keep all your attention on it - deep...full...rich - a no nonsense, belly expanding breath...

pause...and exhale.  Ahhhh....

Hold steady now and notice - what did you just free yourself from?  What was pressing you and shaping you and bearing on you as a "must have" or "must do" that went away for just this one moment?

The nature of freedom is not that you do nothing - the nature of freedom is that you have tha ability to choose what you do.

Yes - choose.

Choose to take on your day.  Choose to act in the clearest most beneficial way you can.  Choose your actions - your promises - your responsibilities - your job - your relationships. 

They need not get easier...they need not change! 

YOU must simply choose them.

The freedom you achieve is the answer to the peace you seek.  Notice how different you feel by simply accepting the power of choice.

You can always choose again if you don't like what you see. 

Perhaps that is the simple step for another day.

Till next time,
oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm

Simple Steps: #34 Illusion

For the yogi, there is a state of freedom that exists above all else.

It can be reached by constant inquiry into the nature of things.

Meditation becomes our tool to see things clearly and perceive reality beyond the illusions that cloud the mind.

Todays Simple Step

Give yourself 10 minutes to sit without distraction and simply observe the quiet place inside your mind.

Every time a thought arrives and interrupts your quiet space, just recognize it ("there's a thought") and let it go.

No energy. No judgment. Just going away...

Notice the feeling of peace that accompanies the quiet once you find it again.

Here is your place of power, here is your place of truth, and this is your simple step...your mind will wander, and you will notice new thoughts arriving.  Your journey is to let go over and over again.  The peace is impermanent but you will find it - simply - again and again and again.

Till next time....
ooooohhhhmmmmmm

Simple Steps: #33 Confusion

Through the practice of yoga, as we fine tune our concentration and observe our perceptions we become more aware of the nature of reality, and can perceive that the world is unreal as we know it.

The Mystic advises:

"The only reality is the universal Self, or God, which is veiled by Maya - the power of illusion.

As the veils are lifted, the mind becomes clearer.

Unhappiness and fear
- even the fear of death -
vanishes."

So how are we to arrive at this unbelievable place of serenity and peace??

Only by practicing the skills and techniques we know can get us there - one simple step at a time.

You already have 32 steps that have gone before this one...they all count toward an accumulated effect. Return to previous posts, review - retrieve whatever you need to - but don't get off the train!

Perseverance is the necessary condition to any successful endeavor.

Todays Simple Step

You are only confused when you have too much information going in too many directions and no help but yourself to figure it out.

Just for today surrender.

That's right - surrender.

Let go.

Give in to the flow of grace that surrounds you.

          Take a deep breath and once empty, ask for clarity.

That's right! Ask!

Ask for help, support, assistance and the best outcome for all concerned.

Now listen quietly for a state of peace inside of you ... and let it be so.

This is todays simple step.

Till next time...
oooohhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm

Simple Steps: #32 Consciousness Unified

During the practice of meditation, one observes insights and recognizes distinctions between objects as they are and subtle layers of perception.

We learn to differentiate between the mind that perceives and the means of perception...

We recognize the difference between words and their meanings...and the feeling of peaceful knowing is the basis of our actions.

Todays Simple Step

Just for today, be a fly on the wall observing your own actions.

Notice you watching yourself.

Observe yourself in the action of thinking.

Notice you watching yourself.

Now give the YOU who is the observer of yourself a few moments of time to be recognized, known, felt and seen.

This you is the meditator - the other is the performer.

When the two become one, and the actions you take are the result of the quiet observer stepping forward in truth rather than reactive self responding to stimulii, then the result of meditation is achieved.

You are truly present.

What a wonderful gift!

This is todays simple step.

Till next time,
oooooooooohhhhhhhhmmmm