Laughing Yogini has been linked to a couple blog awards by the fabulous BLISSCHICK, my neighbor on the web. Just in time for Valentine’s Day XOXOXOXO What a perfect way to begin my warm and fuzzy journal!
The big blank book was sitting on my desk, waiting to be filled up with good stuff because some of us — and I won’t mention any names here, but you know who you are — need ways of reminding ourselves that we are as multi-faceted as any shimmering jewel. Now how YOGIC is this??? The point being that when we feel like crap — we also feel divine — somewhere.
The creation of the warm & fuzzy (or a COMFORT JOURNAL as virtual lifecoach diva, Jen Louden calls them) collection can then become a physical reminder that there always exists places, happenings,thoughts of beauty in our lives. These don’t go away just because we woke up feeling like a MACK truck and ran through the day like a MACK truck filled with cayenne-laced diesel!
In bloggy spirit, I am passing on these awards.
Here are the Rules for the recipients:
1. Put the logo on your Blog.
2. Nominate at least 10 Blogs that show great Attitude and/or Gratitude.
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this Award by commenting on their Blog.
5. Share the love, link to this post and to the person from whom you received your Award.
I’ll post on the art award tomorrow (gotta go teach now!). In the meanwhile, check out these cool sites by sisters journeying alongside you.And be sure to tell us what you find.
carolyn at Lake Erie State Park (David Kieber photo)
Wide Whacky Happy Relaxation
~Try to expand your idea of what relaxation is – get beyond what relaxation is – get beyond what you think should be doing.
~Bring that sense of your self back intoyour body - that precious body you have – let the twinges become a portal to your body
~Ask yourself: Am I now? – not needing to know – because the mind is not always the way to know…use the mindful questions in mini-relax sessions…Where Am I?
~Get out of your “comfort” rut – Be open to new ways of achieving relaxation e.g. read poetry instead of the newspaper or a novel
~Sometimes you need ACTIVE Relaxation like the KAlI face: Sound “ahhh” and cactus arms & stomp around to get the energy moving. You need to meet yourself where you’re at and move it to a place where you have more choice
If it’s uncomfortable/edgy, etc. – look beyond the story or specifics of the discomfort and come back to the mood behind it. Be with that feeling – just SIT with it. Don’t focus on WHY – focus on the FEELING.
The concept and practice of RETREAT goes back to the primate females separating form the tribe when they had menses, because the bleeding would attract other animals. Some say that’s when thinking began to bifurcate.
Nate relaxing in Guadalupe Mountains (Mark Knight photo)
FRIDAY NIGHT
Pema Chodron: “Things are always in transition.”
~Notice the transitions….What did my body ( my breath, mind, feelings) do when I am in a moment of change?
~This is often when the Shadowmonster . …the Time Monster takes over
~We forget that we have the right to CREATE OUR LIVES
~Pay attention to the small moment to moment transitions so we can prepare for the big ones (divorce, death, diagnosis)…WE continually practice paying attention to the small stuff. We practice LISTENING then.
~On retreat there is no pressure, so we can lean into the baby transitions and open ourselves to the invitation
~You can practice this uncertainty and apply it to other areas of your life
~Another way is to ask yourself mindful questions. Just spend a minute asking yourself…Replace the negative questions with POSITIVE ones. “Practice HONORING the right to choose your life.” What do I want. Be friendly about whatever comes up.
~Use the body and heart brain when you ask yourself mindful questions
~Just reminding yourself that you have a body is pretty monumental. The way IN is through the body. It can be simple, like massaging the ears. Then recall a positive emotion, a memory – maybe even look at beloved pics. & recall the feeling and the sensations of the time and breathe a little into those feelings. Then, from that space, you can drop the question, WHAT DO I WANT TO DO NEXT- just the next thing. What does my instinct, my feelings, my desire want to do next?
*Get audio at the life organizer.com
About deepening the retreat: the retreat usually brings up deep patterns! So it’s a time to welcome dark feelings. Write about them, draw them, observe them because you are in a safe place during retreat.
~Free Write about this and your answers….musings….machinations….
Then answer from your adult self: I am in charge here.
Ask yourself the intention question you began with as a way to deepen your retreat.
Garden Buddha (Studio Panterra -Westfield NY)
HEALTHY COMFORT
~Don’t wait for resistance to go away. It is a part of life. When you feel secure and safe, it recedes …When you feel uncomfortable or scared, Resistance rears up!
SO just notice resistance. Don’t beat yourself up over it.
RESISTANCE HAPPENS,
Resistance does not have to tell us What to do!!!! We don’t have to give it permission. Acknowledge that perhaps you don’t trust COMFORT.
Yesterday I embarked upon a “vision quest” of sorts: a virtual retreat with Comfort Queen. I AM SO PUMPED! Four days I am giving over to bursting outta ordinary life in order to sit with my existence. It’s a time to look long and with new slant at how I do things, especially how I live my life and WHY. Ah, yes, I’ll even spend some time pondering the BIG QUESTION and if you don’t know what the heck THAT is, well, there’s probably no need for pondering on your part. For types like me, it is a darn-near obsession and one that I welcome iotas of answers. But then, there I am in the retreat and I find out that what it’s all about is ASKING MORE QUESTIONS! What gives with this?
I follow the guidelines in the How to Create Retreat Space doc….light pretty candles, gather colored pens, 2 notebooks (lined and unlined…just in case, I go journalling wild), create seating possibilities, including a small rocking chair that I bought at Salvation Army, yoga mat and blankets for impromptu practice and warmth. My space was comfy and safe, good for looking deeply sans interruptions from myself or others.
Jen Louden, retreat diva, led the first session and my oh my,it was exhilarating. I’d never been on a virtual retreat so it was a relief, both that I could figure it out (OMG as simple as making a phone call) and that I’d be inspired to do the work I felt needin’ to do. My excitement burbled after the call as I wrote in my journal and then headed upstairs to eat lunch and take care of a few other tasks. .
While happily munching away on my leftover stuffed delicata squash, something inside nudged me to go downstairs and blow out the candles, candles shouldn’t be left unattended and all that. Starting downstairs, I gasped upon nearly being flown into by a large black bird, a starling, for gosh sakes—in the basement! I ran upstairs, closed the door, breathed a few, and tried to think about how it got there…and how weird, one has never come into our house in winter, never in the basement…but it is zero degrees outside and I guess the poor thing was freezing.
I’m on a vision quest and a STARLING FLIES INTO MY SACRED SPACE!
It actuallyalightson the yoga ropes! Was it feeling the gorgeous spaciousness of retreat time and space? Was it connecting with re-treatants around the globe, seeking calm, confidence, and contentment with comfort? Hoping that at the least, its purpose will shift away from GRAND SUET MONGER at my feeder to something more uplifting like SINGER OF GOLDEN ARIAS, but not sure that THAT is in Starling’s DNA.
The symbolist in me immediately connected this bird with the poem Jen read at the opening. Even though underground and the wild wind was growling with buckets of snow belting outta the gray sky, I could feel the forest inside with the Wren and Raven’s presence when she read. Human- nature boundaries dissolved. Poetry holds much the same purpose as yoga —connectiveness.
Here’s the poem; sorry the spacing is off. It’s a lovely by one of my fav poets.
LOST
By David Waggoner
Stand still. The trees and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
FF to Day 2 of the Comfort Retreat: it’s mid-mornin’ and I’m setting up my “Stuff” and notice that there is a god-awful smell in the room. I call Mike down and we figure out that it’s coming from the furnace pipe (the day before we didn’t actually know HOW Starling got in…today the poop on the furnace was a dead giveaway). We hear a fluttering and realize that this bird is stuck inside the pipe!!! This is a horrible SAD disgusting unthinkable way for a poor defenseless bird to die. And since it’s our pipe, we are feeling kinda to blame. Mike puts on his gallant face (the one I LOVE so much) and informs me that he’ll take the pipe apart and retrieve the poor thing. I’m free to go upstairs and listen to theretreat call that is starts momentarily.
While I’m dialing-in, my head is screaming: GOOD LORD, THERE IS A BIRD BURNING IN MY PIPE!!! How very SHIVA-esque! Do I need a stronger metaphor for transformation???? Am I that dense? Did the universe really need to like bang me upside my head with a life on fire? The smell that now permeated the house? like Pashupatinath, the burning ghats in Nepal…GROSSSSSS.
Ahh, the second bird was only singed. It flew freely outside. The smell remains to remind me to let go of the past, to open, AND TO LISTEN to that which is my heart’s desire.
Which bird will you follow today? The one that flew towards the heat of the blue flame and found an opening into freedom, openness! Or the one that tried to retreat when it grew too warm and then became stuck in the pipe, singeing its feathers in the process?
Laughing Yogini has been linked to a couple blog awards by the fabulous BLISSCHICK, my neighbor on the web. Just in time for Valentine’s Day XOXOXOXO What a perfect way to begin my warm and fuzzy journal!
Here are the Rules for the recipients:![[Reuse options]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.png){kind=small}
