Meditation: A Mantra

/
Meditation: A Mantra

//Mantra: a word or a phrase repeated over and over to aid in staying focused during meditation.

//Meditation: a formal, scientific practice of turning your attention inward, away from external distractions, toward a concentrated focus on a single point of reference, such as the breath. Utilized to increase self-awareness, enhance presence in daily living, promote relaxation, and understand the most basic essence of peace and bliss.

Language is a powerful tool that I am in the process of learning how to wield in my daily living and in my mindfulness practices. It is one gateway between our inner world and our outer world. What we say has a great impact on how we think and act. When I contemplate the correlation between my thoughts, my words, and my actions, I see an open channel with each element flowing through and into the other. We can use language to permeate both our thoughts and our actions.  In doing so, we can connect back to and manifest what inspires us and our truth, or sankalpa, in its simplest form.

Read More

The New Year: Sankalpa

/
The New Year: Sankalpa

//Sankalpa: a vow, a resolve, and a commitment we call upon to nourish our highest self.

The year is new.  In the moments following the countdown, and the clinking of glasses, resolutions are made to be different and to live differently.  These goals, ranging from weight loss to finances to relationships, typically start with a haunting sensation of our shortcomings and imperfections.  Thus, we build goals from the shaky foundation that we are not enough as we are, with the egocentric expectation that we will be happy once we get what we want from the universe. Thus begin the days of forcing ourselves to do something and then feeling guilty when we don’t. I, like many others that I work with as a health coach, have failed at this way of existing and changing because its roots are shallow and they do not connect to what we truly desire and who we really are. It is a conditioning, a system, and an industry built upon acquiring, rather than upon being and becoming, to find true joy.  Oftentimes this leads to an empty wallet, more stuff, and less peace.

Now we are days into twenty-seventeen, and if you find yourself already failing at manifesting the statements of “I will,” “I’ll try,” or “I hope,” Yoga offers you another way with sankalpa.  Sankalpa is a vow, resolve, and commitment we call upon to nourish our highest self.  It is built on the fact that you already are good enough, and that you have everything you need to fulfill your life purpose. Recognizing and proclaiming our true nature in its deepest and most mysterious form as an integrated human - mind, body and spirit - will connect us to the divine that lives within us and all around us. Ultimately, it will guide us to our divine purpose in this crazy world without force, but with ease and certainty.  

Read More

Gratitude Practice: Three Good Things

/
Gratitude Practice: Three Good Things

We are thinking creatures. The job of the mind is to formulate thoughts. Although, not all thoughts are held in equal standing. Negative experiences and images are more heavily weighted in our being than positive experiences of the same intensity.  This is due to an evolutionary concept called negativity bias. Simply put, our brain has a much greater sensitivity to negative occurrences than positive ones.   In certain situations this is a useful tool to avoid and prevent danger.  For those times when we are not being chased by a wild beast or being burned by a flame, negativity bias can pose as a danger upon our attitude, emotions, and our relationships, if we allow an untrained mind to rest in that space. We all know the festering feeling that can turn our mental state south, stunt our ability to forgive others, and steal joy.

A practice in gratitude can begin to override negativity bias by outweighing it with more pleasant sentiments.  A helpful technique called “Three Good Things” is described below.  Before practicing, I would recommend revisiting my post on gratitude from last year.  This will give you the proper framework for what true gratitude is and what it is not. As you begin this practice it is important to reside in truth, in the what is, rather than in a false ideal by discrediting pain and suffering. This is a practice about acknowledging the positive that too often gets overruled by the negative.

Read More