Morning Pages Update

"KNOW THYSELF"

As I promised I will do updates on the Morning Pages Challenge so we keep the discussion going, we continue going deeper and we stay focused and motivated. Here are a few personal experiences and thoughts on it that have come up so far.

We started the Morning Pages Challenge on Monday and am observing quite a few things happening in my consciousness.
I am just 6 days in and there has been quite a few SHIFTS already. From the first day I started going deeper in the layers of consciousness. Usually this type of awakening awareness is first greeted with resistance, then maybe aggravation; it can be upsetting or just throw you off a little bit.  I have always been a person that does not fear continuously going deeper and lifting the veils of unconsciousness. Every single one of us has parts of their consciousness hidden. It's our path to continuously get to know ourselves on a  deeper level. With no fear. Accepting and allowing yourself to be "you". So generally whatever our "next level" of consciousness is that is what is hidden from our waking self now. The moment we lift it - that's an a-ha!- moment and then we go off to a deeper or higher place, however you wanna call it. There is always deeper to delve in. The moment you get to know your true self in fullness that's enlightenment and you have no more work to do here on Earth. So for most of us there is quite a bit of work to be done still :)
Anyways, the first few days of the Morning Pages Challenge have held space for deepening of my awareness. They brought light to areas of my psyche that were not on the surface and it also dug up frustration or unease. To be honest I wanted to quit because as much as I wanna be quietly aware of the machinations of my subconscious sometimes theres just so much other work to be done that I don't wanna deal with feelings. I stuck it through and like a veil lifted all of a sudden on day six. Optimistic truths were revealed. I am at heart an optimist so it quite common for me to understand life with an optimistic perspective.

Other observations - on a more mundane level: I did get to plan each and every day while writing my morning pages and I seem to have had higher productivity. More of my chores got done during this week.
I have had a lot of creative ideas and new ideas in general. 

In the quiet moment of the first waking seconds - when we are still not fully awake we seem to understand things with a different perspective. first thing in the morning we don't filter WHAT IS through the mind as much. I have had a more quiet, clear perspective on things.

Also I am writing down some of my dreams. I seem to be remembering more of my dreams. 

Another thing- this is my second time doing the morning pages so writing has been flowing. The first time I did this "exercise" there were days that were very challenging. And it would take me 40 minutes to fill out 3 pages with huge letters. :) 

Then when things were just getting good I got Sofie. So first thing in the morning I'd be cleaning poo, pee and vomit from the floor, so quiet writing was out of the question for a while.. She (Miss Sofie) just didn't seem to be into it haha
Please share your experiences.  Give yourself the permission to experience depth. You are not supposed to always do everything in an I-AM-SO-HAPPY manner. You are not supposed to always be happy and positive . Rather be free to be bare and naked with yourself and get to know yourself. And going deeper and deeper should not be a breezy process. It shouldn't be hard either, but for sure it should be profound.

This is my actual Morning pages Journal. I didn't even notice the writing on the front. Cool synchronicity :)

NAMASTE

Spirituality, Vanity, Evolution and the Physical Body

Q: So I have been going through a predicament. Over the past few days, I have been becoming less and less inclined towards working out, whether it is power yoga or going to the gym. The reason for this is because I can't think of a reason to do either of those things in a spiritually authentic manner, as both tend to focus more upon the physical and mental aspects of discipline rather than contributing to growth of an essential nature. I also have been wondering how karma might affect this. Given that you are obviously spiritual in your practice, I was wondering if you could grant me some perspective on the subject? Thanks much (p.s. I do really enjoy your videos and practice notwithstanding :P)

A: I can totally see where you are coming from. I have gone through exactly the same dilemmas. And I even had to stop drawing when I was 17 because I saw it as an external practice, a validation of form. I have come a long way since then and yoga has bought me to respect the physical; the form. My feeling is that we are here on Earth, having a human experience, in a physical body so that we can learn to integrate, weave the physical, mental and emotional in order to allow our soul to grow and experience deeper level of enlightenment (speaking of enlightenment as a never ending process) (yoga means a union between mind and body and the divine essence)

So this right here and now (IMO) is just one more stop our soul makes and one more lesson we must learn before we continue with our evolution as a spirit.   And this is an important stop, and an important lesson we must master before we continue on our way. 

When we workout there is of course vanity involved and that is what's discouraging to you.  But we all agree that we must take care of whats hosting our soul in order to offer the best tools and the best medium for it's journey. I hope this is not too vague an answer and it gives you as many answers as it opens questions for you. 

You will notice that you can affect your state of emotion, consciousness and connection with source though physical practices such as fasting, sitting zazen, doing yoga, karma yoga, opening the heart with backbends or even running and going into that place of profound "EMPTYNESS" (which is ironically "everything-ness").  Acting from a place of soul "connectivity",  heart-openess and grounded presence can only allow you to be more available for others. 

Not to mention that a toxic body can provoke toxic thoughts and prevent us from connecting to the wisdom within. 

And maybe you think to yourself "what is the point in putting all this effort in something that we will eventually lose and it will disintegrate?".  This is a long discussion but all I can say is that not taking care of it leads to more suffering and sometimes suffering that will not hold space for the soul to grow in the most optimal way.   So to be extremely blunt- you just have to haha ... or it just leads to more suffering if you don't.  It's almost the same question as do we need to work, eat, shower etc... In a zen way it's simple you just do it! You "chop wood, carry water" you don't question it and you get enlightened along the way :D

To conclude this; even if we are not spiritual at all we all notice that a clean body leads to a brighter mind and a lighter heart so being healthy allows you to turn it from a self serving practice into an opportunity to be of service to the whole while being grounded, centered and "connected"... and therefore connect with the divine and grow. 

NAMASTE

Any continuation on this discussion, difference of opinions, additions are really welcome! 

P.S.  As some of you mentioned taking care of the physical is an act of unconditional faith as some/most or maybe all of us realize; this is a very temporary arrangement and it can seem as if it doesn't matter. So being devotional to our bodies is an act of gratitude and faith.  On a practical level you serve yourself first only so you can be there for others and and lift up others with everything you have learned along the way. 

Here is an excellent contemplation by Debra :
 What a great discussion! Vanity is a motivator for some but not for all. The body is a beautiful gift from God and it is the vehicle in which we travel this portion of our spiritual journey. Caring for the body, feeding it the most healthy foods, getting plenty of rest, keeping it strong and flexible and declining to poison it with toxic substances is devotional; an appreciation to the provider of all for this beautiful gift. Take care of your piece of the garden and more will be added unto to you. Also, yoga and other forms of movement are/can be a form of meditation. Running, swimming, even weight training all require one pointed focus which trains the mind to be in the present moment, an admirable spiritual practice. As well, only when we are healthy and happy can we be at our best to help others and do great work in the world. Finally, there is great joy in physical existence. Seeing a beautiful sunset or smile, hearing beautiful music or the sound of a loved ones voice, the aroma of a flower or a wonderful meal, the taste of fresh food, the touch of a baby's skin, grass under your feet, the joy of expressing God through dance; all of these experiences are available because we are in physical form. So keeping the body healthy is an act if gratitude for all of these blessings. Just some thoughts from a simple soul

Interview with Zen Master Osho Watanabe

Namaste Beautiful Yogis, 

I had a total blast doing this interview. Zen Master Osho Watanabe is so welcoming, kind, present and lovely that being in his presence really uplifts you! We talked about basic buddhism, zen buddhism, zazen meditation, Love, God, Jesus Christ, Buddha, the origin of Buddhism, Hindu Gods, life, death, karma, reincarnation, Shiva, non sectarian Buddhism, his opinion on UFOs, psychedelic drugs, a vegan diet, non violence, and so much more. 

You can read more about Osho on his website http://www.zenyoga.org/about_osho.html

We laughed and kept things deep yet light just the way Zen can be. I love the simplicity that a zen perspective can bring into things. 

For more on his philosophy, ideas and contemplations this is Osho's blog http://zenyogaorientalphilosophy.blogspot.com/

You can watch the Interview here: 

After the interview he showed me his Photography. He is an excellent photographer and musician. 

 Then we talked about sumo wrestling in Japan and bulgarian sumo wrestlers getting very popular there :)

I got some amazing gifts and oils from his shop. The monks and him make their own incense in the temple, all handmade and that's part of their karma yoga. 

 You can get his framed photography and incese and oils at his gift shop http://www.zenyoga.org/gift_shop.html
I am a total sucker for anything sandalwood, amber, vanilla, coconut and the "Special Sandalwood" is exactly that. Musky sweet resin-like bengal and mysore sandalwood, vanilla, amber, rose, coconut. 

AAAH!


There was so much wisdom spoken off camera that I am eager to go back and do a few follow up interviews. His non dogmatic, simple, wise, grounded approach to things is truly a rare gem.




I am off to do yoga now :)

LOVE AND BLESSINGS TO ALL 

NAMASTE 

SOUL JOURNEY

“Though the road's been rocky it sure feels good to me.”
― Bob Marley

The intention for next practice: contemplating our journey as souls; our path as energy clusters...

The path we as humans walk every day isn't easy. It's filled with uncertainties, insecurities and doubt. We all hope that this journey we are on together brings us contentment, crystal clarity, understanding of the essence of all things and those wonderful feeling of connectedness and liberation. People we cross paths with can greatly affect the outcome of our journey. And sometimes we come across some truly amazing people; and we share a brief moment of eternity with them and they leave imprints so deep that you can't help but see them in everything you come across thereafter. And every time you turn around and look back and remember the steps that got you to where you are at now you see those souls and you can't help but to SMILE. And then the steps you are taking start setting  heavier and deeper into the ground and pain and suffering and sadness and loss sets in. So feeling conflicted you keep going; and you keep growing; and you keep learning and you keep knowing. And the knowing liberates you, frees your soul and wipes you clean again so you can again experience pure joy in spite and because of all that your soul has been through. And your path is what lets the true YOU shine through.

“You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are.” 
― Joss Whedon

NAMASTE 

THE KEY TO HAPPINESS

OK I am gonna come right out and admit there is no key to anything let alone to happiness. Further more there is no happiness at all. There is ecstasy and there is contentment. Happiness is an elusive idea that is making everyone in the western world so unhappy....

I like to simplify things in a deep way (yes, I meant to say this haha) Once you have spent a sufficient amount of years trying to understand yourself, analyze yourself, go in, go deep then you need to let all of that go and get out of yourself. Look at others, look how you can serve and help, look for ways to listen, to be there for others. Lose your self importance! The most important realization I have had about happiness has been to let go of my self.

So here are my steps to attaining "happiness":

1. Forget about your Self. We live in a ME-CULTURE, ME-SOCIETY. Everything revolves around our own happiness, our own spirituality, our own enlightenment, self healing, self realization, self, self, me, me. The pursuit of enlightenment has become one of the most selfish and self serving behaviors I have observed in my life. It's a trap and a prison that has been laid out by the NEW AGE literature and so many have fallen into it.
Let me explain. We have all heard the concept of the HUNGRY GHOST REALM. A place of insatiable desire/hunger that cannot be fulfilled. Chasing a physical satisfaction, an addiction with a body that does not fully emerge into the physical realm. So physical fulfillment becomes an elusive, self serving desire for satisfaction that can never be attained. So what does all of that have to do with our desire to grow on a spiritual level? Trying to attain happiness through a self serving desire to achieve spiritual growth can become an elusive place where happiness cannot be achieved... THE HUNGRY GHOST REALM. The desire to achieve enlightenment is in fact a selfish desire to begin with. And that's where the trick is because we go into spirituality with this new found enthusiasm to grow when in fact this can turn into a selfish motive. In Buddhism desire is the cause of all suffering. And the key is to seek liberation through enlightenment without attachment to the "wanting" . 

Letting go of your self importance will liberate you. It will not make you less important or diminish your significance as a soul instead it will liberate you enough so that you stop being a victim and become a glowing, serving, caring, loving, burning with inspiration creative heart :D You will not grow to know yourself less just because you think about yourself less. You will instead realize that your purpose here is to grow through serving the whole rather then separating yourself from the whole and you will grow to "SEE" yourself from a deeper place. You will grow to know yourself on a soul level. And the illusion of separateness will vanish.

2. Stop looking for happiness outside of yourself. Stop looking for external validation. Everything you need is within and yoga is here to teach you that. All you need is your body and you can delve deep into the layers of your consciousness. Just be quiet and observe. Don't draw conclusions as that's from the mind.


3. Stop looking for happiness period. You are already happy! You are where you need to be at this moment. And you are missing out on your lessons for as long as you are reminiscing about the past or day dreaming about the future. You are here and now, the sun is caressing your skin daily, the air is bringing vitality to you now, the sky is as blue as ever (minus the chemtrails), and your body is serving you 24/7 so that you can breath, move, smile, taste, think, love and be ecstatic.

4. Be empty. Allow the constant chatter in your head to dissolve into nothingness. Unhappiness is a state of thinking and not a state of being. There is a stream of your own consciousness that can step out and away from the chatter and simply observe the chatter happening. It is called "the witness" 

5. Realize that you are here with a mission and a purpose. And everything else is insignificant. You are here to serve and contribute to the growth of all of humanity and all of your problems are nothing in the great scope of all things.
We are all in fact evolving. And part of your evolution is serving. 

Think about your problems from a 200, 300, 1000 year perspective. Would they matter? 99% of them won't. So in essence you are happy. You just need to realize it :)
Love is the only thing that matters and the only thing that will matter 10,000 years from now. And I am speaking about universal love, true love that emanates from your heart, deep divine love. 


NAMASTE
LOVE YOU ALL

EXCELLENT ADDITIONS BY YOU GUYS:
An idea:
Stop worrying about things you can not change an accept them how they are.

Change the things that bother you if you can, instead of postponing it.

And have the wisdom to separate one from the other!

Oh and: Making other people happy makes you happy! But try to apply the "can not change thing".. Some people are resistant :D 



...most of the unhappiness we feel comes from the fact that we "constantly seek happiness itself." 

"Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness." Chuang Tsu

"Happiness is not what makes us grateful. It's gratefulness that makes us happy." ~ David Steindl-Rast

HAPPINESS IS NOT THE DESTINATION, IT'S THE WAY :)

THANK YOU GUYS

The moment of enlightenment! Becoming a really free human being!

“I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can 
get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple 
witness of your thought processes. 

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. 
Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you 
judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this 
is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process. 

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once 
the gap is there, you are in for a great suprise, that you are not the mind, that 
you are the witness, A watcher. 

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as 
you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start 
disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for 
the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.” 
― Osho

Intention for the next Advanced Vinyasa Class - THE SECRET

In this very breath that we take now lies the secret that all great teachers try to tell us.
Peter Matthiessen

VINYASA INTERVAL FLOW FOCUSING ON BACKBENDS, HEAVY PLANK SEQUENCE, ARM BALANCES, DEEP DEEP DEEP HIP FLEXOR STRETCHING, HIP OPENERS AND INVERSIONS.
SCHEDULED TIME FOR THE CLASS TO BE UPLOADED ON http://www.youtube.com/user/YogaIntervals19 - THURSDAY JUL 18th, 2013

The class was very challenging yet brief- a lot of core and leg work, very deep stretching throughout the class. After the class I actually felt as if I just got a deep tissue massage and a lot of toxins were released specifically from hips, hip flexor area. A lot of areas in the hip regions opened deeper for me. 
Looking forward to hear your experience with it after Thursday.  :)

Namaste 

THE ESSENCE OF TRUE BEAUTY

YOUR AUTHENTIC YOU IS PURE EXCELLENCE!

Accepting all our limitations as an expression of our unique perfection is the way of YOGA!

NAMASTE

SAVASANA CONTEMPLATION

While in SAVASANA SURRENDER TO YOUR HIGHER SELF. Allowing all judgement and self criticism to dissolve. Letting go of self doubt.Allowing the heart to open and allowing yourself to love freely, openly and fully. Free of fear and judgement. Because only Love is real... everything else is an illusion...Magical things can happen when we allow ourselves to let go of illusions. :)

NAMASTE 

AS WITHIN. AS WITH OUT

CONTEMPLATION OF TODAY'S YOGA PRACTICE!
 OUR BODY IS A REFLECTION IMAGE OF OUR STATE OF MIND AND EMOTIONS. WE ARE NURTURING THE SOUL TO EXPRESS IT EXTERNALLY AND BUILDING THE BODY TO NOURISH THE SOUL.
NAMASTE

THE ESSENCE OF YOGA

 THE ART OF LIVING! YOGA TEACHES US TO BE PRESENT AND MINDFUL. EVERYTHING ELSE IS RE-DISCOVERING OUR OWN PROFOUNDNESS.

YOGA MEDITATION OF THE DAY

A contemplation during our yoga practice today!

I aspire to be inspired, to inspire and to serve humanity!
Hold this thought in your "heart" during your yoga practice. Or set it as an intention in the beginning of your practice and at the end sealing it in!

NAMASTE

NO LINEAR EVOLUTION

NOTHING IS LINEAR!!!
NO PATH, NO SPIRITUAL TEACHING TEACHINGS, NO LEARNING CURVE!
WE HAVE TO WALK A WINDING ROAD TO SELF DISCOVERY!

Contemplation of the day!

Lets bring our hands a few inches over the heart and allow the energy between the hands and the heart to flow and circulate freely! Turning our gaze towards the heart and just silently observing the moment. Stay in a place of no inner dialogue, no judgement, no doubt no self-criticism. Fully loving and embracing yourself with no judgement. Contemplate this feeling for a few moments. Set an intention for your day to fully and completely love and accept yourself today. To not judge yourself and then go on with your day and extend this attitude towards all sentient beings.
Namaste