Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Or as I heard it put so well on the radio: "What's not to love about a made-up holiday about food?" Whether made up or not, I love Thanksgiving. Yes, I love food. And this holiday used to be about food, family, friends. And it still is.

Fade to black. lights up. A few days later...

I started this blog on the actual Thanksgiving Day.  I actually had some pretty inspiring words to share. But true to the moment, that was then, and this is now.

On Thanksgiving Day, I was in the midst of a flu that as of Saturday, I'm now on the other side of. But I still felt grateful. I still felt that even spending the first half of our Bahamian vacation gargling with salt water, tripping out on vertigo due to ear congestion, and sleeping whenever I saw an available cushy spot to get prone, was well worth everything it took me to get here. No, not to the Bahamas!!! Well, ok, that too... :-)   But to get HERE in this life where I am less and less concerned with what others think of me, and other things that used to make me stress out and worry, and more interested in asking myself what i Really want, who I Really am, and what I'm Really doing here. Besides stocking up on Vitamin D, eating fresh fish, and washing cold medicine down with Pina Coladas. Ok, not the Pina Coladas part. But I would if I thought it would help!

I have a really long list of shout outs, but for now let me hold you all in my heart, hold you with the closeness of One who Knows and Is, and bathe us in the light of gratitude. And if you are wondering whether or not I'm grateful for you, I am. 

Am I doing enough?

How to decide if you are doing enough? Play the worst case scenario and ask yourself- "could I live with myself if X happened and I had done nothing or didn't do what I thought I should do? When we act from a place of no attachment, we are acting not expecting outcomes to be according to our personal plans. There may be a bigger picture that we have no control of. So focus on doing what you need to do so you don't drown in guilt later. Cuz a drowning person is just one more thing that "needs saving." Save yourself so someone else can spend their energy saving their own ass. When you are deciding what is your next "right action" from a place of center, you are not attaching to outcomes, just doing what you personally need to do in order to look at yourself without judgement, remorse, guilt, or other. 

What exactly is "Toxic?"

Toxic - it may not be what you think.

https://soundcloud.com/user-168113093/toxic

Listen and Learn

Listening is being willing to digest what is being said and growing. Listening is not about showing up in a room and not talking. Just because a person isn't talking doesn't mean they are listening.    More listening please. 

Am I willing to be the one that doesn't have an immediate response? Am I willing to be Ok with my own digestive timeline? Am I willing to commit and listen from center as I hear what is being said from the sides?

How to be a Spiritual Gangsta

How to be a Spiritual Gangsta.

https://soundcloud.com/user-168113093/spiritual-gangsta

Be more than a fashion statement. 

Psychic Centrifuge

In this psychic centrifuge of life, we churn. We churn to mix, to digest. We also churn to separate, discern, to differentiate so we can see what's in there.

I know that as the speed of this centrifuge has kicked up, it has been humbling as well as awe-inpiring to see what has been buried inside. We get an opportunity to see where our glitches and buttons and unresolved material lay dormant (aka our karmas). Also, we can see the past karmas (thoughts, glitches, buttons, material) and how they've digested. What I mean by "digestion" is that we have worked with the material until there is no longer an emotional hot button attached to the issue, and we are able to actually see the perfection of the situation. And when we can see our digested past, we can be less reactive in the present.

Because we have gone through the process of having and digesting judgmental thoughts, thoughts of hatred and rage, thoughts of victim and dominator, thoughts of greif, sorrow, doubt, we are able to better understand others when they have similar thoughts or mind-sets. We can actually see ourselves in others. Not from a place of greater than or less than, but from a place of understanding how they must be feeling/thinking, and we remember that we had to go through our own unique process to get where we are now. In this way, digestion helps us build our capacity to see a bigger picture.

And when that centrifuge kicks up, instead of freaking out, I've learned to get curious and start asking "why" until I find an answer that pulls me out of my little s self, and helps me see the Bigger Picture and perfection.

Why do you think what you think?
Help me understand
So I can better understand instead of undermine
So I can how I fit into
To the Wholeness of our situation

Churn to learn
As we learn, we churn
Yes, we may burn
But there is also water in the mix
As we create a solution

Churn to Learn

Churning is rajasic (rajas loosely means "movement" or "activity"). Rajas moves from a state of inertia (tamas) to either a state of increased tamas, or to a state of sattwa (loosely means illumined clarity).

Can we say YES to the rajasic nature of this time of change and use it to help separate ourselves so that we can see the Whole more clearly? So that by witnessing separation, we can understand the Whole organism? So that we can see ourselves as part of this Whole? That understanding, in my world, would be a state of illumined clarity and to me, that is well worth upsetting the apple cart for.

Digest and get into present moment

Build capacity to digest fear and doubt.

https://soundcloud.com/user-168113093/2016-election-night-dharma-talk-intro-digestion

Audio file from Nov 8, 2016 Transformational Flow class. Recorded and posted by request.

I'm testing out this audio file thing. Let me know if it works from a technical point of view, and also if it works for you in general. Or stick with written word? Video?
thanks!

The Salve of Fire and Light

Feel your fire burning through the dust, the thickness of thought forms. Feel your light slide through as you relax and get clear. Let go of tension. Feel your muscles - relax. Your organs - relax. Your face -relax. As you drop tension, feel lighter. Feel clearer. Feel your center line. Rinse and repeat.

Politically Correct?

Politically correct? Possible oxymoron here.

Maybe the election was a partially a backlash and reaction to all of our increased "political correct-ness." Maybe it's time to be less concerned with being "politically correct," and take the politics out of "correctness." In the yoga sutras of patanjali, there is extensive discussion around "right knowledge" vs "wrong knowledge." This is NOT about emotionally charged judgement calls of good/bad, right/wrong, hero/villain. "Right knowledge" simply means that a being remembers who they really are, that they are Wholeness and they feel a state of equanimity. "Wrong knowledge" means they forgot those points and are identifying with their ego, personality, job title, and other qualifying markers based on comparison. If we move into being simply "correct" in our thinking, aka "right knowledge," instead of being "politically correct" we may shift our focus from "trying to get it right because we don't understand," to actually understanding because we have embraced and experienced, or at least believe and recognize that we are Wholeness, and the result of that is that we recognize it in others.

Politics is not the boss of me. Politics is not about seeing each other as Whole and divine. Politics has been about separation, territory, greater than/less than, good/evil. When I look at it that way, there is nothing "correct" about politics, so why should I spend my energy being politically correct? Especially when I look through the current lens of politics today.

I'm not saying get rid of politics and that politics sucks. I'm not making politics wrong. I'm just saying it is not the basis of how I see myself, others, our nation, and the world. I'm going with patanjali on this one. "Patanjali correctness?" Hmmmm...  Kind of rolls off the tongue....

Now what?

Ok we did it. We proved that anyone, regardless of experience or understanding of the constitution can become president. Now what?

Now is the time to get real with your Self and what you are doing here. If a reality show personality can become president, is that exciting? Scary? Or something else? Stay alert. Stay present. Stay out of judgement. This is one big ass opportunity to grow. Do we say yes to the fear and doubt menu? Or can we walk the center line and dig deeper to see our part in this reality show of life?

America voted for change. Whether this is the change we were seeking or not, it's the change we got. Now what are we going to do with it? Will we sit back and let someone else's version of change be what we accept, or will we follow the voice within and be willing to Be the Change we seek? How many are actually willing to do that much work?

To me, this appears to be similar to Americans going into another country, upsetting the apple cart, and leaving before a new plan and system is fully established. There is a big empty space now. Do we, the change-seekers, have the chops to fill it, and with what? Because unless you happen to be a 2 year old, we can scream and cry for what we want, but how are we going to get it? What are we willing to do to get what we want? Usually things don't drop from the sky, and part of this change we seemed to be seeking is that we didn't like what mom and dad were doing in that big White House, so we elected one of our own to run it, and without a viable plan. So we did that. Now what are we going to do about it? No blame. Just looking at the cards we dealt ourselves.

One thing I do know is that every organsism makes choices that are in it's own best interest. Whether that be each of us as people, the organism of a culture, a country, a planet, a solar system. A choice was made, and now it's up to us to grow from it.

One reason I haven't been super radical in politics is because I know I don't have time, money, or bandwidth to give these issues the energy they need to actually make some change. As a yoga teacher, I play for the " long game" even if it means that students may not get instant gratification of handstands or head stands. Yet, I know if they take their time and work systematically, we get there. And this is small stuff- yoga - one person. Not an entire country. I'm not the one to play the political long game- I don't think I have the drive for that. But if you do, then play it well, play it hard, play it long. I'm thinking that changing the attitude of a nations thinking might take longer than learning a headstand. And for most, a headstand takes more than a year to learn.

So be that political change. Or don't. But decide today that you won't be swayed by someone spouting rhetoric that leads you into an abyss of fear or erodes your faith with the corrosion of doubt. Walk the center line and dare to be the one that doesn't sling blame. Dare to be the one that is solution oriented. Dare to be the one who listens to both sides, sees that they are both right, and puts forth a point of view that illuminates. Dare to enlighten yourself by watching those tendencies to blame and judge and freak out with fear. What can you control? Control that. Or learn how. 

Another thing I know is that it's perfect. Does this mean that I do nothing? Not necessarily. It means that I stop blaming and freaking out and figure out what the next steps are. And build my capacity so I have the fire to execute them from a place of min-judgment. Other option: I stay the same and ignore the opportunity to grow. But something has got a lot of people's attention. And that is worth looking at. We got our attention, and if we don't look at it now, it will mostly likely come back around at some point, bigger, louder, more dramatic.

Voted my conscience

I'm going to get publicly political, which is not my style, but here it is. 

I voted. For Hillary. And that was me voting my conscience. Voting for a 3rd party candidate may be voting one's conscience, but will it change anything? No. Merely voting for a 3rd party candidate will not change this system. To me, voting for Trump, or anything that points to Trump, is saying Yes to fear, doubt, and blame. And it all trickles down from the top, so if that's what we want setting the tone for our country, then yes, Trump is the answer.  Not my answer. Not my conscience. But to each their own. Which is the beauty of our country.

A vote for Hillary is a vote for someone who has spent her whole life in public service, who has a love and knowledge of the law, and the constitution. She has demonstrated repeatedly that she is capable of hearing both sides, and seeks win-win solutions. I believe she honestly wants to serve, and she is qualified to do the job. She doesn't accuse and sling blame. She seeks solutions. It's easy to pontificate and inflame the masses, especially when they have been fed a strict diet of fear and doubt. My hope is that she is elected, and we can begin to nourish ourselves as a country, and recover from the diseased thinking that has been sweeping through like a plague, especially in this election season. 

Regardless of who is elected, we must fight to overcome this fear/doubt/blame. 

How can we be "land of the free home of the brave" if we are bound by fear?