Filed Under: Blogs, VLogs Tagged With: career, create, decision, direction, discover, focus, fulfillment, happiness, intention, job, life changing, life purpose, searching life, video, youtube
Many people are confused about their purpose in life. Here are some tips that helped me which might help you too!
Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: adventure, brain, breaths, Columbus Day, discover self, heart, internal journey, nervous system, thoughts, understand self
What better way to honor Columbus Day than to discover yourself? Our Western selves often seek ventures outside of ourselves, rather than take an internal journey to get to know our own minds and bodies better. If I asked, how many thoughts you had per day, would you be surprised that the average person has between 30-70,000 thoughts per day? If I asked you how many thoughts you had that you were aware of, would you be surprised to find that most of us are unaware of 90-95% of our thoughts? If I asked you how to access the 90-95% of your cognitive thinking, would you be able to tell me how? If I asked you how any breaths you take per day, would you be surprised to know that most of us take about 21,600 breaths per day? If I asked you where your pancreas, liver, and stomach are, would you be able to tell me where and what functions they have in the body?
It is only through yoga that I’ve discovered how much of me I don’t actually know, and there’s a lot. As I delve deeper and deeper into my own mind, through daily observation of my reactions, desires and aversions and through meditation, I have begun to understand and appreciate all that I am-the good, the bad and sometimes the ugly, without judging it, but simply by watching myself. After practicing yoga and meditation for years, I try to watch how well I chew my food, or how often I engage in meaningless conversation (sometimes with food in my mouth), or how well I hydrate myself throughout the day, or what triggers my nervous system, or what are my intentions for the day, or how my words or actions potentially make others feel. Knowing more about my internal body and mind, I rely less on others and other things to make me feel valued, healthy or fulfilled. I try to understand and disable my ‘automatic pilot’ reactions to different external conditions or inputs. As an example, I am much more aware of when I’m holding my breath, usually an indication of anxiety, and am able to return my breath back to normal, thus restoring my nervous system.
Delve inside today, and see you what you can uncover about yourself. Don’t forget-we are a microcosm of the macrocosm. There is so much for us to discover about the macrocosm, through discovering ourselves. Happy Columbus Day! Enjoy the adventure!
Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: aging, autoimmune disorders, cancer therapy, conscious relaxation, depression, diabetes, digital meditation, harmony, heal, health, high blood pressure, illness, inflammatory condiions, insomnia, meditation, mental hygiene, mindfulness, nervous system, pain, psychic sleep, relax, yoga nidra
“Nidra” means sleep, but is distinguishable from the “sleep” we know of in the West. Yoga Nidra is “The Art of Conscious Relaxation”.
True relaxation without an external source prodding us into slower brain waves, has been one of the biggest challenges of our adult stress-filled lives. And what’s more is that most of the “relaxing” activities that our society engages in, don’t actually relax our mind and bodies, but merely stimulate the senses, which counters the intention to relax.
In a society where most individuals become victims or slaves to technology and the “instant-gratification” nation, stress-induced disorders have become epidemic or are on the rise, affecting the health of our people.
Enter center-stage, Yoga Nidra, or ‘psychic sleep’. ‘Psychic sleep’ is a state between wakefulness and dreams. It means that I, you or anyone else can self-induce our minds and bodies to receive relaxation beyond the active beta wavelengths that most of our brains are drowning in during waking hours. It means that not only can you slow the activity of your brain (inducing alpha, theta or delta wave-states) and mind through relaxing the body, but one can also actually heal present and past emotional, physical or psychological pain trapped in the subconscious and unconscious minds, thought to be more powerful than the conscious mind. It also means that diseases can be cured, the nature of the mind-personality can be re-structured and creative genius restored.
As the physical mediator of consciousness, the brain has a profound effect on one’s body as it links body, mind and emotion into one unit.
In a balanced person, the brain induces a harmonious unification between body, mind and emotion. But in a person who is hyper-active, stimulated or even traumatized, there is no balance between activity and receptivity, leaving an energetic residue or toxins in the body. Yoga nidra affects the brain and its chemical output while calming the nervous system through heightened awareness of the body. Specifically, the progressive movement of awareness of individual body parts, in a systematic manner, not only induces physical relaxation but can also clear all the nerve pathways to the brain. And for many of us, our mind’s manner of thinking and being is a result of childhood and adult conditioning, which tends to emphasize materialism and pleasuring the senses, while negatively impacting our health.
There are also numerous scientific studies showing the benefits of Nidra for pain, insomnia, depression, anxiety, cancer therapy, high blood pressure, aging, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, inflammatory conditions, and much more.
If you’ve never tried Nidra, perhaps today’s the day? If you are interested in more information, please email me or comment below. A 45- minute complete practice is also available for purchase under “Digital Meditations”.
Namaste, and have a restful day!
Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: embarrassment, guilt, health, look inward, people pleaser, pleasing others, potential, programmed, self love, shame
Are you a “People Pleaser”? If you are, then it is likely that you are living your life according to others’ standards at the cost of your own. Pleasing others is exhausting, and it simply fails as a formula for your true measure or happiness. How so? Because others expectations are either changing or dreadfully stuck, and then one is constantly second, third, fourth and fifth-guessing if one has said the right thing, or sent the proper thank you gift, or impressed the ‘right people’. Pleasing others is setting yourself up as ‘not-so-mighty mouse’ on a treadmill, now called, ‘your life’, with ‘the others’ hand at the wheel. It’s mental suicide eventually.
Do I sound dramatic? I hope so, because it is drama. A whole crowd of people and their words or opinions, mostly authority figures-especially those of our families (generationally as well), government and teachers-live in our minds and have told us from ago zero how to think, react, judge and achieve. Some of us have been told who is bright and gifted and who is not. Some of us have been told who to marry, and who not to marry. Some of us have been told which jobs are respectable and which ones aren’t. Some of us have been told what class or race of people are respectable and which ones are not. And to gain approval of those authority figures or others who we seek approval from, whether conscious or unconsciously, changes the way we think about ourselves and the choices we make.
It took me many more years before I ever realized how programmed I had become to think, react and judge. I had not wanted to understand how deeply I had lived my life in fear of not pleasing others, especially my family. If I chose to please myself, to free myself, I’d have to free myself from a prison of limitations, that were now self-imposed, a life of 40 years, automatic to the conditionings of my life. It is then that I stood in my heart’s voice and chose to become a yoga instructor. It is then that I realized how far against the grain I was going and how many people I didn’t please or impress with my choices. I started to rid myself of the toxic icky guilt, shame or embarrassment I’d felt as a result of those who had knowingly or unknowingly ‘de-valued’ me or my potential. But their eyes no longer mattered. I had started looking inward. And, I found a little girl who just loves and wants to be loved, without condition of acceptance or not. And I’m lovin’ her, have accepted her and allowing her to flourish as she now so chooses. Because that little girl’s heart has wings attached, and we both want to learn how to fly!
Are you a People Pleaser? Who do you please and why? And at what cost?
Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: break habit, change habit, free from bad habit, habit, mind, neural pathway, new pattern, re-wire brain circuitry, relaxed
We all have some lurking habit that annoys even ourselves, and even though you know why you have your habit, you still cannot break away from the trigger source and not sure why.
I’ll shed some light here as I’ve grappled with this myself. When habits are created, so are neural pathways in the brain. What ‘wires together, fires together’, with its opposite true as well. So in order for you to start ‘wiring’ what is unwired and disconnect what has been firing, several things are important to sculpt new neural pathways into your brain. Here are some tips how:
It may take some time to create a new neural pathway, but it can be done. It is in the quantum field of possibilities. Set the intention with true emotion. It’s the brain and heart working together to make the possibilities appear boundless, and they are.
Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: balance, confidence, courage, fearless, harmony, judged, path, people pleaser, rejection, self love, unloveable, unworthy, value
Feeling rejected? Well, know you are in good company as every single person on this planet has experienced rejection in one form or another.
If you take rejection poorly, (I have vascilated between well and not so well), then you are putting value in the person or entity that has rejected you. More value than you put on yourself. If that is the case, then you are likely a people-pleaser or lack confidence in yourself and want people to like you. (No judgments, I’ve been there and still am to a degree.) Rejection means that the other person or being does not understand you or connect with you or themselves, perhaps, and it is therefore a useful tool to affirm that a harmonious relationship is not possible. That is wisdom. Other times rejection allows us to improve and try again. Again, wisdom. Or, perhaps rejection is an indication that something is not quite right, so it helps us to ‘wake up and smell the double espresso.’ Yup, wisdom. Instead of applying wisdom though, many view rejection as a permanent obstacle to our goals or desires and then, either give up or go to desperate measures with dire consequences to get what or who we want from life.
Rather than see it as an opportunity to transform, and become alchemical, many stay stuck in old beliefs systems that no longer work and keep us unconscious of our inner potential.
How one handles rejection is often indicative of the beliefs one holds. Often, a belief of pleasing others or being perfect, or feelings of abandonment provide a solid foundation for feeling unworthy, unlovable or unacceptable. Feelings of rejection are likely deeply seeded from our developmental years. It could be that we were abandoned, neglected, unloved or viewed as imperfect or ‘wrong’. But you must shine the light of consciousness on it with focused concentrated attention in order to see and release it.
Imagine if you could feel that rejection is a good thing, a wake-up call, or possess a mature understanding that balance could not be achieved, it’s beyond your control and that you have all that you need within you to walk your own path, vibrating in harmony with the energy of others, not against it. Believe in the Universe. Believe in you. Walk your path with courage fearlessly, and never doubt your self-worth.
It’s time to pull yourself up from your bootstraps, kick out the ‘pity partiers’ and throw yourself a party celebrating that you now know what doesn’t work. It doesn’t mean you’re wrong, bad or pathetic. Life is ever-changing and nothing lasts forever. If you can understand that letting go is one of the healthiest and wisest things (and also one of the most challenging things) you can do, you will begin to love yourself, organically, and know that you don’t have to be a victim of your life. Keep yourself in the Now and work with what’s in front of you. From the ordinary you can create extraordinary, just don’t give up. I tell myself this as much as anyone else, as I await to hear from some publishers this week!
