"Oklahoma" rosebud in October (barefoot photos)

One of my teachers offered a teleconference course on sacred self-care. Oh, I thought, this is pushing things a bit, I mean, really sacred self care?

Furthermore, why should I sign up, I already teach self-care. Certainly I know how important it is to devote some time everyday to the important task and pleasure of taking care of myself.

Well, it was time for me to wake up to the essence as well as the deep importance of self-care practice.

The journaling and meditations I did highlighted long held resistance to my own self-care. Could I be hard-wired to NOT take care of myself? I wondered. Was it a genetic trait? Am I simply and incorrigibly lazy?

As the class progressed week by week, I found a deep well of pleasure arose in my bodymind whenever I gave myself a gift of self-care. It’s possible to tap into that well as a means of motivating myself to continue developing self-care practices.

This week, our homework was to identify one self-care practice to focus on and try to develop it. A small step it would seem, but progress and transformation happens in small simple steps repeated time and again.

So, what am I working on? My negative self-talk. I’m growing my mindfulness around the times I call myself names or otherwise speak poorly to my beautiful self. It’s tough. Sometimes I catch myself disparaging the voice that catches, “Oh, there you go again, you idiot.” Yes, I can even use mindfulness against myself! So I’m continuing to practice softening and then softening again. I need a lot of practice. Unfortunately, it seems I’m giving myself plenty of opportunity. Grrr.

I do recognize how terribly important this is though. It forms the foundation of the spiritual path. Think about it. Better yet, conjure up the feelings in your body of an abundance of self-care. Then ask yourself what would happen if you had that available all the time….

Here’s hoping that you are floating in nirvana-land with me on this one. It’s just a little bit of self-care away!

If you are jazzed by the thought of floating on a cushion of wondrous self-care, READ MORE; visit LUMINOUS HEART.

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Sutra 2.45: samadhi siddih isvara pranidhanat

Samadhi: contemplation. Siddih: power, accomplishment, realization. Isvarapranidhanat: through devotion to the Lord, positive behavior and the ritual act of devotion.

Contemplation and its powers are attained through worship of God. (trans. Bernard Bouanchaud, The Essence of Yoga)

QUINCE BLOSSOM, Fredonia NY (Barefoot Photos)

A final Niyama or lifestyle guideline, focuses upon one’s relationship with the Divine.

Many undertake yoga class as a means of physical fitness or mental relaxation. And that it is. In time, however, yoga’s effects reach deep into our sense of self.

Though yoga itself does not espouse a particular religion, and though most practitioners would not consider themselves the least bit spiritual when they undertake yoga, hopefully, they will find seeds of a higher power or at least an inner life developing as they continue yoga asana and meditation.

Moment by moment, practice by practice, breath by breath, we learn to relinquish our boundaries and all that limits us in this world.

As we “grow” our awareness in asana or pranayama, and with what is happening in our body in space, we also start watching what our minds and hearts are up to! The energy of the others in the room feels almost physical. Slowly, we understand how our energy is interacting with the other folks’. How did we miss all this before? With new found certainty, we understand that we are more than the group of isolated individuals we once thought we were.

After class we stroll outside and notice the grounded energy of the trees and the vibrant, vibrating colors of the flowers along the path. There is a creek nearby that flows, imbued with an unseen force that is not exactly alive, nor dead.

If we are Christian, we begin to see grace everywhere.

We can feel the creek, the trees, the flowers as a sense of kinship develops. A little unsettling at first, this humming inside grows gently blissful. The heart center blossoms open and limitless.

We ARE yoga now.

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carolyn and priscilla lasecki kieber

Death reminds me that there is really only one way to live. From the heart of love.

Returned last night from burying Mom in North Carolina. A devoted Catholic, Priscilla Lasecki Kieber embodied the heart of bhakti yoga.

Whether she was sitting on the beach, enjoying the beauty of the rolling oceanic waves, preparing cake for a crowd of company, or volunteering in a community group, I’ve always admired the way she lived beyond the fray of “talk.” From a steady and patient center, she infused her relationships with the steady gift of herself.

Her home was was filled with Madonna icons and crucifixes ~ symbols of the objects of her love. She seemed happiest when she was in church, whether at daily Mass or evening novenas. A blessed string of rosary beads were never far away from her praying hands. If she missed a Sunday service, she was heart-broken. How soon would she return to the abode of her Beloved?

Her devotion to the Divine gave her a steady stream of wisdom and strength throughout her 87 years.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church window, Amherst NY

Friends sent me poems of comfort this morning. Here is a short stanza from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran:

Only when you drink from the river of

Silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain

Top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your

Limbs, then you shall truly dance.

In death, as in her long life, Mom is surely dancing with her Beloved. It is through taking small steps and opening our hearts, one kind word at a time, and refraining from one little meanness after another, that we can join her in this Blissful Tango.

Mom would have loved this video of Henri Nouwen’s sermon on THE BELOVED.

READ MORE: a lovely blog post on a bhakti workshop by one of my fav German yoginis, Lilylotuswillow: http://lilylotus.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/david-newman-workshop/#comment-312

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Yoga Sutra 1.13 : tatra sthitau yatno’bhyasah

Bernard Bouanchaud’s translation: Persevering practice is the effort to attain and maintain the state of mental peace.

Patanjali tells us here that practice IS the effort to maintain inner peace. I’ve often wondered how I could maintain anything when I am twirling off into anger, or joy, or sadness, or confusion, or any of the other myriad emotions that flit through my being from one moment to the next. Then I re-read this sutra. There is nothing here about annihilating emotions. The practice is the work of maintaining equilibrium of the Self.

I’ve been working a lot with my emotions lately, wondering how do they fit into an awakened life? When am I processing an emotion and when is an emotion taking over? How do the stories I spin in my mind, in reaction to events in my life (shenpa), stir up emotions and feed them? How much leeway can I or do I afford any given emotion on any given day? For years, I’ve sat with the meditation:

I am not my thoughts.

I am not my emotions.

I am not my body.

Though I sat and repeated these phrases, I knew that on many levels I really DID identify myself as any or all of these aspects of my Self and I had no clue HOW one could do otherwise. Really, I know that my body continually changes, ages, and grows tired, but isn’t that big hulking tired person my Self? It’s hard enough to IMAGINE my self with a different body, much less to de-identify with having a body at all!

Thank you meditation.

Thank you savasana.

Thank you restorative yoga.

When I do these practices, I am often able to disengage from identity, whether intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual (yes, I get caught identifying myself in those trips too!). I can breathe into the larger Self, the connection of us all. It is a spacious place. It is a place of joy. Compassion. Expansion. Beauty. Rest. Stillness. Energy. Awareness. It is nowhere. And everywhere.I am no one. And every one.

In this TED video (yes,I’m becoming a TED junkie Eve Ensler speaks eloquently about the importance of maintaining an emotional life. And true to form, I was crying halfway through. Thank you Eve, for reminding us of our wholeness in this age of fracture.

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What is it that I am waiting for? Why do I think I am not good enough or strong enough or smart enough or beautiful enough or kind enough? Why is the ripeness, the fullness of my existence so difficult to accept?

Why do I think someone is more ~ or less ~ then my self? Why do I not see the wholeness in the world around me?

Why is union so elusive?

There is a beauty and joy as the trees in the northeastern US give up their leaves every fall. The world ripens. My prayer is that I may accept and be grateful for the ripeness that is me ~ that is you. However momentary that may be.

Here is a video produced by A Network for Grateful Living (ANG*L) of Poet Jane Hirshfield performing at the Poetry of Gratefulness event at the Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, CA, February 3, 2008. I recommend a visit to: http://www.gratefulness.org…a non-profit organization dedicated to the practice of gratitude. You may want to check out some of the other very worthwhile videos while you’re there!

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You don’t need to espouse Buddhism or Hinduism or any religion at all to practice yoga and meditation.
However, we can learn much from the Buddha’s life and the practices he developed and incorporate them as a means of deepening our own spiritual journey.

Here is the fascinating story of Siddhartha’s life from the BBC and Discovery channel, directed by Clive Maltby. I found it on You Tube via dharmicjourney. The story of the archeological finds which helped piece together the Buddha’s human life is interesting in its own right. Hold on for the second half of the film which explains the obstacles Buddha faced during meditation and how he dealt with them.

Before you begin the film, pour yourself a cup of tea and make yourself comfortable so you can settle in for nearly an hour. It’ll be worth your while.

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Poetry can be used as a wonderful tool for your meditation. There is a layer of a good poem that is “off the page.” When I teach poetry, I ask my students to try to understand, not only the literal interpretation of a given poem, but also whatever levels they find off the page.

Often, we read this layer with our hearts and have a difficult time explaining that level of the poem to another person; we’ll say it’s hard to put into words or we’ll say “you know” a lot while nodding our heads. It’s the layer of the poem that speaks to us the loudest and with a universal message of what it means to be human. We know, and again it’s a nonverbal knowledge, that the other person understands, or maybe I should say FEELS what it is the poet is trying to convey.

When listening to or reading poetry, RELAX open your heart center, and invite your Self to become the poem. If that sounds too airy-fairy to you, just sit back and softly focus your awareness on each line of the poem.

The first video, created by IshqDaFakeer, contains the lovely Soundtrack: Oceanic (Part 1) by Anoushka Shankar.

Here is the transcription of the poem:

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

The second poem-video, “Say I Am You” was created by rahmama2. The music is by the composer, Eleni Karaindrou, and is the theme music called “Eternity and a Day” from the movie, Aggelopoulos.

And if they don’t speak to you, don’t worry, I’ll post something completely different next week.

After you have “experienced” each video, you may wish to sit quietly with your eyes closed for a few minutes and let them reverberate in your heart and mind. As you do so, welcome whatever bubbles into your awareness consciously. Then let that thought go as you create room for whatever else may come before your mind. Do this as long as you feel comfortable.

If you’re inspired, by all means pick up your pen and paper, or head to your keyboard and let loose. Mevlana would be pleased with your efforts, I’m sure.

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Today’s post comes from blogger, twitter-friend, yogini, coach, mom, and gratitude chick, LaSara. She posted it on Mar. 13, 2009.

Catholicism influences my practice and teaching in many subtle and grand ways, hmmm — food for another post!

Anyway, I am honored to reproduce La Sara’s thoughts on Lenten practices here. Be sure to check out the complete post on her blog as well as all of her other website goodies.

This year in the hustle and bustle, I missed Ash Wednesday, and Lent. You may deduce from this that I’m not Catholic. Matter of fact, I’m not strictly Christian – or for that matter, strictly religious.

But I love ceremony, observation, ritual. I love ages old traditions that allow and offer insight to our daily practices in life. Lent is one of these.

So, this week, when I realized Lent had passed me up, I chose the full moon as my own marker, and Monday as my own Mardi Gras. My husband made Welsh Rarebit with lamb, and I ate the last red meat I will consume until Easter Sunday.

But in addition to this offering up to God, I also take the time to give up something else that is dear to me. Something I cherish, but that would make my life better were I to sacrifice it to the greater power.

A couple years ago my Lenten commitment was to not speak ill of others. (See my addendum here titled 2008). It changed my life. This year my chosen sacrifice is judgment.

Different from discernment – I pledge to just witness what choices people make (self included). My commitment is to be in observation. And to withhold judging.

There’s a short-list in my head of the hardest this will be to practice with. My own name is highest on that list, for sure.

May practice liberate us! And may your Lent serve you, as you serve God.

Enjoy the post from 2008, and the poem that follows. (Also by me.)

From 2008:

I love religious observation. The thought, and feeling, of practicing a right of purification, for example, with millions of other people at the same time fills me with a sense of gratitude, and of being held by faith. Religion is a housing for the heart of what prayer and practice offer. So I enter through the many doors, and into the same room.

I am observing Lent this year. I have decided to give up red meat for the next 40 days, and also have made a commitment not to speak ill of anyone during the Lenten fast.

And today I fast, giving myself the chance to remember, as I do once a week, what it is to choose. What it is to reflect instead of doing what exerts itself.

Self-control. There have been years where that concept even was anathema to my self-expression. My sense of self was all about the raning forth. The destruction of boundary. The surrender to desire. The practice of excess.

I seek a balance point. And practice prayer, practice choice, and lead myself deeper into the heart that is no where localized, and everywhere present.

May your observations serve you. peace.

-LaSara
www.lasarafirefox.com

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Yoga and prayer…do they go together…do YOU bring them together? Yoga asana IS prayer for me. It’s the prayer of the body in motion. It’s opening my SELF to the grace of the universe.It is working to create a sustainable body/mind/spirit and therefore family/friendships/community/nation/world.

Sitting meditation – is it a prayer? Yes’m indeed. We sit to develop compassion; all practice is for compassion. Imagine if those in the West Wing sat everyday, hell, sat once a week and practiced Lovingkindness meditation.…Imagine (as John Lennon did but the world has not quite grasped the work involved yet…Imagination + Prayer/Practice =  a more loverly world!) ahhh, for today – as we enter upon the inauguration of a new era – just imagine….

This post is dedicated to another Jersey girl, a member of the original Mater Dei yoga club back in 1971: “White Cathy” – and the benevolent work she has done and continues to do! It’s a blessing and inspiration to know you.

Yoga and meditation teach us to open ourselves; to free ourselves from the confines of our “programming,” of what we have been inculcated by society. The practice informs us of a greater existence, a greater SELF that we can aspire to and it is a SELF that we all belong to in this great human family – some would say in this family of all sentient beings.

Do you believe in the power of prayer to change the world? Do you act on that belief? How does it affect your life? – or the lives of those around you?

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