Chet Day

I receive an email periodically from Chet Day.  I don't really know much about him but I love his simple meditation techniques.  This is one that I was honored with today.  It is so fitting to speak of nature as spring is in the air.  I am compelled to spend quiet moments here and there just laying on my back deck and soaking up the sun while breathing in "I,"  and breathing out "am."

For today's meditation, as we did last week, we again turnto one of my favorite poets,
Rainer Maria Rilke, who writes...

And if the earth no longer knows your name,

Whisper to the silent earth:I'm flowing.

To the flashing water say: I am.

Breathe deeply several times and compose yourself.

Repeat and slow down, way down.

Become one with the flow of your breath.

As you inhale,think "I"

and as you exhale think "am."

Between breaths, flow with the silent earth,

with the silent universe,

with all that is.

Ah, there.

You are.

I am.

Until next time,

  Chet Day Editor,

EarthRain Meditations

Beautiful, huh?

Backbend into Greater Love

Oh the Backbend,

the beautiful backbend! 

I am most passionate about the backbend right now. 

It is my FAV of the day.

I was intrigued when I read an article about falling backwards into a backbend.  It takes great strength throughout the core to drop into a backbend  and I decided that I want to emphasize that in my practice. 

 So how do you go about it? 

 It takes time,

 it takes warming up,

 it takes building strength,

 it takes asana practice such as upward facing dog, fish pose, a standing back bend, bow pose and a wall to walk your hands carefully down.

You simply have to start where you are.  This is an acceptance of what is.  Accept where you are, today, right now, and just be.  When you resist "where you are," saying/thinking phrases that begin with "shoulda, woulda, coulda," you get tangled up in the chaos of the mind.  Simplify life.  Start where you are.

The backbend can do wonderous things, physically.
1.) It gives more flexibility to the spine.
2.) It gives strength to the muscles all along the spine and shoulders. 
3.) It allows that spinal fluid to lubricate the spinal disks.
4.) Backbends stretch the front of the body allowing more space for the digestive tract, liver, pancreas.
5.) The abdominal muscles stretch and lengthen. 
6.) The ribs expand and the chest opens allowing more space for the heart where the fourth chakra resides.
.

The Heart Chakra

Now let me take a minute here and give the heart chakra the attention and love that it deserves.  For this is one of the main reasons I am so happily attuned to backbends right now.  This is where I am discovering the mental benefits.
The heart center is associated with love, trust, compassion and acceptance.  It is where we bring about healing.  When we open the chest and expand the heart, we create more room for the heart and the positive energy flow. This expansion also bleeds out the negative, the blockages, the distrust, unacceptance, doubt and fear.  When you open the chest and allow the heart to shine :)  through breath and intention, you are doing more than strengthening and stretching, you are opening to the greater gifts that you have.  You are cultivating the river of unconditional love, trust, forgiveness, letting go, inspiration, confidence and acceptance that the heart holds within.  These emotions are now more readily able to flow out into the world.

Bend the back and breathe into the heart opener.  Feel these emotions stirring.  Feel the heartache and negative melt and release into the atmosphere as it rises up and dissipates.  Allow all that is good to increase and spin and radiate outward. 

Backbends. 

Oh sweet backbends. 

Open heart.

Deeper love.

Greater acceptance

Of yourself,

Of the world.
Try one. 
You know you want to.

Just five minutes can change your day

I ran across this little Namaste yoga clip. 

 I love the background, I love her voice.  It is so soothing. 

Try this five minutes of yoga breath and stretch.

Take another five minutes in a meditative, quiet state to scan your body and be aware.

It will bring more peace and happiness into your day.

Seriously, try it. 

You've got ten minutes.

Smiles and hugs,

Namaste.

From Within

“When you’re experiencing peace, it’s coming from within you, you’re ‘doing’ peace. And this is true of anything else you might be looking for. Love, happiness, contentment, well-being come from within. Nothing external needs to change for you to have what you want…..If you want to be happier – be happier. If you want to be more relaxed – relax. If you want more friends – be friendly. Sounds simple. It is.” Cheri Huber

Love this.

 So simple

Yet so powerful.

The Blue Sky

I was teaching a class the other day.  My clients whom I was serving have been diagnosed with some pretty heavy stuff.  My goal was not a typical western mindset goal of burning calories and building muscles.
This class was more about calming the mind, turning negative into positive. 
It is about feeling the sensations in the body,
witnessing them without the emotion,
without frustration,
without pain. 
We are breathing and calming the senses to better handle the issues that come with dibilitating diagnosis.  Once we can calm the mind using the breath, then we can begin to change the body.  My hopes that these people will begin to change awareness from doubt and hopelessness to that of control and power over the body and the disease.
We go about the class with this intention.  We gently stretch. We deeply breath.  And we let go, into the realm.  We do this for a typical class length, that of about an hour.  And finally, we release into savasana so the body can absorb the benefits from the asanas.

I always love reawakening my clients after this final relaxation and looking into their faces.  There's a calmness, almost a sleepy look, a gratitude for that sacred hour of destressing and setting all the daily worries aside.  For this is a place of nurturing oneself.  People simply don't nurture themselves enough, if at all.  When they finally do, it shows on their faces.

These two clients, in particular, upon wakening, opened their eyes and noticed the blue sky.

(We had practiced outside on my back patio.) 

When my clients awaken and notice the blue sky?  Yep. I have helped shift their consciousness to that of a positive nature.
It's like the saying,  "You had better notice the flowers in the vase, not the dust on the table.

If only for the hour and a bit of afterglow time, maybe longer,

they feel at  peace. 

Hopefully the peace within will grow deeper and the pain will lessen. 

Hopefully each practice will bring about a deeper release and a wider opening to the greatness of the world. 

And if this is so,

 than my own world will shift, as well, to a deeper release, and a wider opening in which to serve the world,
up to the bluest skies,
 through my yoga students.

The Inspiring Words of Seane Corn

I love Seane Corn.  She is my favorite hero right now.  Her selfless dedication to the preservation of humanlife is inspiring.  Not to mention she is beautiful.  Those beautiful natural curls of hers are every straight haired woman's dream.  I digress.  I read her blog as she is making the world a better place in Africa right now and I took these few words from her blog.  She was addressing how she and her fellow friends are starting each day...

For this experience to be sustainable and deeply meaningful, it is essential that we spend time every day connecting to our bodies, breath, each other and God. By invoking the sacred, we can be reminded of what our purpose here is, beyond the obvious, which is the service work we'll do in the field. Through grace, we can remember that we are all connected, all one, and are here dignify the human experience, as it is, with love.
Seane Corn

For me, these are powerful and convincing words.  When I start my day with a beautiful intention and mindful connection to myself, others and God, my day has greater meaning.

When I dedicate some time, whether it be ten minutes or 90 minutes to asana, breathing, meditation with an intention such as love, patience, strength (or whatever I want to cultivate into the day)  I am reminded of what MY purpose is here.

My little world of doing laundry, packing lunches and planning the neighborhood easter party, all takes on such greater meaning.  From the phone call I make to reschedule my kids conference to making a boo boo better on my baby's knee,  I do with a deeper intention of love and gratitude. 

When I have taken that morning time of mindfulness, my daily interactions are charged with good intention and I hope that it shines through my skin and is heard through my words. 
Some people may be open to receive what I have to give, others may not. 

Regardless,
I know that I feel it. 
I know that my kids feel it. 
I see it in their faces. 
I see it in mine.