Yoga for Youth, Beauty and Wellbeing
In my opinion, yoga is the best form of exercise for health, beauty, emotional/spiritual wellbeing, and of course flexibility. The practice of yoga stretches and strengthens the body while conditioning the mind.
Yoga opens blocked pathways so that blood, nutrients and oxygen to the organs, tissues, glands, cells, bones and nerves can be circulated to more effectively. It also encourages the clearing of energetic passageways for emotional, mental and spiritual well being.
In addition to muscular toning and elimination of excess body fat, yoga beautifies the skin (the largest organ of our body), brightens the eyes, and takes years off of our physical appearance.
In order to attain all of the benefits of yoga, it is important to be mindfully aware of the body and breath throughout the practice.
A mindful practice not only deepens the physical benefits of yoga, but it develops our ability to control the thought patterns of the mind. This is very valuable because when we give ourselves the ability to control our thought patterns, we put ourselves in control of our emotions and consequently the direction of our lives.
For most people this can prove to be challenging at first, but like everything else, with practice we can master anything. The important thing to remember is that it is perfectly normal for the mind to wander numerous times during a yoga session. An integral part of the practice is to keep reminding ourselves (without self-judgment) to bring our minds back to the feelings in the body and the rhythm of the breath.
In order to develop a deep yoga practice including control over a wandering mind, I strongly recommend Kundalini Yoga. This form of yoga makes the body/mind integration easy to learn and understand.
My favorite yoga DVD’s are by Ana Brett and Ravi Singh. They have produced many different programs which can be modified according to ability and energy level. The best part is that they offer instruction for physical and mental direction throughout every DVD.
Please check out the links below, and make a commitment to improving your life with yoga today! Sat Nam.
Instinct as a Guide toward Pure Being
Our higher self aka the Universe aka God offers guidance through instinct toward that which serves our best interest. By trusting ourselves, we are more receptive to those instincts; and when we follow them, everything else easily and gracefully falls into place.
Although we are conditioned, through our focus on what we know of the material world, that instinct is predominantly necessary for protection from harm and the will to survive, our higher self has infinite other aspects expressed through instinct. The world is only hostile to the extent that we make it so, and when we focus on our need for protection and accomplishment predominantly, we hold ourselves in vibrational patterns that attract more of the same.
Most of us only know God as protective and reactive because these aspects are the most relevant to what is “known” in the material world. We can move beyond these two God-aspects when we open ourselves to guidance toward a state of peace and pure being - which is the birthright of everyone.
Here are the steps I take to explore the more spiritual aspects of instinct:
- Meditation – with eyes closed, a quiet mind and attention to breath, our source energy can communicate directly with every cell in our bodies. This allows our whole body to receive information that will direct us toward the realization of our true desires.
- Acceptance – by allowing everything to be as it is now, we are open to new and ever-expansive possibilities.
- Gratitude – appreciating all that we are projects a vibratory pattern that attracts more to appreciate.
- Faith – knowledge that all the beautiful and wonderful possibilities that we can imagine have already been given. This minimizes doubtful thoughts, thereby allowing us to be more aware of our guidance.
- Joyful action – doing what feels inspired at the time from a perspective of expecting to always create deeper joy throughout our journey in this life experience.
- Love – allowing ourselves to see everything and everyone through the eyes of love is the truest expression of God into the life of the world. When we are in love with everything, we are one with everything, and then we can experience God as pure being.
Perfect is Not Necessarily Desireable
Everything is always the perfect manifestation of our focus up to this point in time. Of course perfection does not mean everything is to our liking.
When we experience something that causes us to want improvement, that is a wonderful thing because a shift in our focus brings that improvement into reality. On the other hand, by focusing on what does not please us, we create more undesirable reality.
Economically, if we decide that the whole system or certain sectors are crashing, no matter how hard we work, we create that reality. Conversely, if we focus on a strong and stable economy, we create that reality - with seemingly little effort.
In relationships, if we mostly focus on the things that need to be "fixed" about a person - our reality will include more things about people that we feel the need to fix.
While no reality can be more perfect than another, we do have the power to create that perfection into alignment with our desires. When we practice with belief in the power of joyful focus, our actions naturally bring about a more desirable reality.
I Saw God
Victor Wooten sings about how God is you and me. This is a delightful song with a wonderful message!
You and Me
I've heard or this line several times throughout my lifetime: “Here's to you and here's to me, and I hope we never disagree. But, if that should ever be, to HELL with you, here's to ME!”
[Everyone is just a conscious part of the same energy that creates everything. Separation is an illusion. If you have not yet been exposed to this concept, please Click Here]
Saying "to HELL with YOU" is the same saying to "HELL with ME"!! I would change it to "if we ever part ways, I will send you LOVE and ask that YOU do the same for ME”...but that wouldn't be as funny!
The original line is great because it exposes a huge source of human suffering - the illusion that we are separate from everything else. This view of self is the number one reason for tumultuous relationships, whether those relationships are between two people or two countries.
If we disagree and even part ways with people while still loving ourselves and everyone else, we will find peace of mind and make a difference toward a more peaceful world.
Consciousness
It would only be logical to begin at the beginning…but there is no beginning. You are an infinite being, a aware aspect of the same energy that creates and sustains everyone and everything known and unknown in the universe and beyond. As such, you have no beginning and no end…you are forever.
Not only are you part of everything and everyone, you are also everywhere. In fact, the person that you see in the mirror is not the real you, but an expression of individualized energy of awareness which you have created to represent you in this material environment.
For this reason, your cells are of great importance. Not only do they make up every part of your material body and sustain its health, but their outer layer (membrane) has many tiny receptors specifically tuned to your energetic vibration so that your essence can be transmitted into the life of the world. In a manner similar to the way radio stations are tuned to specific signals, your cells are tuned to your nonphysical energy which is always being broadcast throughout the entire universe.
While the cells of your material body are always receiving and transmitting your essential energy, thoughts which arise from your focus in the material world also instruct and influence every cell of the body. If those thoughts are in harmony with your core knowledge, there is harmony between you and your physical form, and you feel joyful or loving. If not, those thoughts create resistance which you feel as many different degrees of disharmony – from excited and hopeful to desperate and depressed.
In addition to the vibratory information which your cells receive from you and your thoughts, cells also receive information from the many tiny particles which create their physical environment.
Because you project through a single organism into this reality, it appears to your senses that you are separate from everything else. However, you are actually part of everything, everything is part of you, and you are co-creating this reality. For that reason, it never benefits you to harm any person (including yourself), to hold a grudge, speak or even think disparagingly about anyone or anything.
You have chosen to project through a material body into this time-space reality in order to experience the physical sensation of joy, and you will experience much more joy when you choose thoughts, nutrients and environment with awareness and gratitude. Being conscious gives you the ability to recognize what direction to move in order to deepen the connection to your true essence as you journey through this lifetime.
Curing a Bi-Polar Life
Our reality consists of polarities – everything contains its opposite. But we are more than mere passengers on the ride of life. Whether we know it or not, we are creating our reality with every thought.
When we pay attention to things in our lives that provoke extreme emotion, we attract more extremes in our lives. By habitually shifting our attention to those things in our lives that evoke joy, and toward our perspectives for creating more joy, we can control our emotions and thereby diffuse the extremes in our minds and in our lives.
Part of God
I am part of the real God. Not like those tyrant gods invented by human mind, who rule people and demand to be worshiped.
We are all part of both the creator and the creation - which are always evolving. Loving everything is the form of worship that directs all creativity toward an increasingly joyful reality.
The gifts of insight and understanding (which we give to ourselves) allow us to live from our souls. Without them, we simply become possessed by the rational mind.
Its true that when we live from the heart, our lives and our world continue to improve. But when we live from the head, we do not suffer a wrath from an external oppressor.
We simply attract experiences that match our frequency. The closer we are to being ourselves, the better our lives become.
If reading or discussing these things feels uncomfortable, there is something in our belief system not making sense -which could cause physical and emotional blockages.
Only through exposure to our own consciousness can we begin to unravel the self created by mind, and allow our true selves to be preeminent. It doesn't matter whether we give God a persona or not.
It's more important that our beliefs are strong and flexible enough to be exposed and challenged regularly.
Homemade Ice Cream!
Two little boys from the neighborhood were playing in our backyard with my sons yesterday, when Blaze asked me to make homemade ice cream. We took a vote between strawberry and chocolate – with chocolate being the winner.
To my kids, homemade ice cream is just normal, but the neighbor kids were very curious. They took careful note of the ingredients: eggs, honey, cacao powder and cream – all of which were raw/unheated/uncooked.
They asked if those ingredients were used to make the ice cream they eat at home. I told them probably not, but I assured them that my ice cream would taste the same or better than what they are used to.
Everyone loved the end result, and the ice cream was incredibly tasty if I do say so myself! I shared the health benefits of eating my version of raw ice cream, and they shared about a time they had “healthy” pizza by using broccoli as a topping – and how much they disliked it.
I agreed that broccoli is not something that goes well with pizza, and I also shared that using it as a topping imparts little or no health benefits. They were also relieved to know that being healthy and staying fit does not involve eating anything we don’t enjoy.
Conscious Resistance – Our Path to Peace and Freedom
Emotional resistance is the catalyst for expansion. In order to form a perspective for improvement of any kind, it’s necessary to first experience feelings that are less than joyful, also known as emotional resistance, around a particular subject matter.
Our predominant thoughts - around any subject we focus upon - emit a vibratory pattern which either attracts or repels every possibility experienced in our reality. While emotional resistance around a controlling or oppressive force is necessary to create our perspective and the possibility for improvement, we perpetuate that which receives most of our attention - especially when that attention is accompanied by powerful feeling.
Peaceful awareness of the source of our “dis-ease”, focus on our perspective for well being, and willingness to take action if so inspired easily brings about the improvements we seek.
By becoming aware and spreading awareness about how we are creating and sustaining powerfully oppressive forces in our reality, we begin to give ourselves the power to easily defeat those forces. While it’s true that we cannot “save” anyone from their individual lack of awareness without exercising control, we can present information which will be available if and when they choose to seek it.
Once we have individual awareness, we can begin to focus on the improvements we seek in order to develop our belief in an improved reality. With belief comes joyful expectation, and our perspective for peace and freedom becomes powerful enough to endure even the most convincing physical evidence to the contrary.
True belief coupled with joy in the possibilities we have created, inspires action which produces a special form of resistance which weakens the forces of the egoic state of mind that currently prevails in our government. Just as eating optimal nutrients resists decay in the body by promoting physical health, so too does peaceful assertion of individual rights resist controlling or oppressive governmental forces by promoting freedom.
Conversely, repetitive focus on the current state of government - which originally caused our perspective for improvement – prolongs and intensifies our emotional resistance. Instead of diminishing the forces that perpetuate our current reality, emotional resistance works to strengthen those forces.
This is true because the vibratory pattern we offer through emotional resistance harmonizes with whatever is the subject of our negative focus, thereby attracting more of it into our experience. Just as we cannot expect to create physical health by focusing on illness in our bodies, we cannot expect to create peace by focusing on control and oppression in our government.
For this reason, feeling good about what we predominantly focus upon benefits us more than anything else. Until we can feel joyful about a particular subject matter, our most effective efforts are those which seek to improve our own vibratory offering.
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