Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Matrices, Diversification & Awakening (Part 2)

Boston, MA - A lot can happen in one month as I pick up the threads of my last post. I'm fatigued from only four hours of sleep after returning home late from last night's Radiohead show with a frenetic LED stage show matching the dynamism of their music.

Growing up in the western culture which rewards intellectual prowess, I wonder why are we only catching up now to valuing those with huge hearts and cultivating a deep connection to the inner river of love. I am writing after having read a recent blog post by Robbyne LaPlant dated May 30, 2012 where she offers a Venus Transit ritual for all of us to let go and plant new seeds, so that we can live more from our hearts.

More and more, I am drawn into ritual and the practices and experiences that bring one in alignment with the great Spirit, flow or underlying Shakti that is breathing us, is us and animates everything in a continuing pulsation. Just yesterday, I ended up on Shakti Sunfire's blog. She is an accomplished hoop dancer, yoga teacher, and excellent writer. Her most recent blog about her experiences in Bali affirmed this interest.

So, upon further contemplation, the awakening is being able to shift between the logic-filled world of matrices and heart-filled world of love. It is not necessarily an either or but a constant ebb and flow with which we navigate our day-to-day existence.


Monday, April 30, 2012

Matrices, Diversification & Awakening (Part 1)

BOSTON, MA - Walking to work this morning after reading Sianna Sherman's "Letter from the Heart" and reflecting on Elena Brower's "Art of Attention" workshop on Sunday, April 29, the idea of "matrices, diversification, and awakening" came to me. Although the mind can turn this embodied life into a complex puzzle, what is clear to me at this moment is the simplicity of the heart and love on the path of awakening.

I've always found it hard to separate "things" into boxes and disagreed with our "culture's" bias toward "experts" and "silver bullet" cures. I've even noticed my beliefs colored by this (i.e., 'yoga teachers and "life coaches" shouldn't mix'). But I am experiencing coherence in my mind and heart.

What hit me most at Elena's workshop was her bluntness and authenticity on the preciousness of this embodied life. Through a 'short-form' of the Handel Group's "Design Your Life" Life Coaching work, Elena engaged us all in a powerful dialogue and personal inquiry into identifying our dream (ideal state) for three of 18 life areas from the life coaching work. She chose "romance" "career" and "family." I came away impressed and convinced that the "Design Your Life" work as a potent medicine to incorporate as part of one's sadhana to go along with asana, pranayama, mantra, meditation, contemplation, and whatever one has in their yoga toolbox.

My immediate insight while talking with a friend as we were gathering our bags from the storage area was this type of life coaching work was a powerful synthesis of two-to-three separate practices that I had been blessed to be guided to outside of the yoga asana space except it was an accelerated form. Attending Elena's workshop was synchronistic because I had accepted that I have a need for "life coaching" at this time in my life earlier this month before leaving for Denmark on a teaching trip.

(to be continued...)

Friday, March 2, 2012

SIMPLE SATISFACTION

Somerville, MA - As my friend and teacher once said during a men's circle, 'perfect wrecks good.' I am writing today from a cafe in Davis Square, a neighborhood business district near Tufts University and taking a moment to feel simple satisfaction in accomplishing simple tasks today such as updating the links on this blog.

The underlying lesson is that far too often I've created lofty expectations and experienced more self-disappointment than success which has led to a chronic sense of "being behind" or low-level stress.

Today, I slept-in after enjoying great conversation with Dazza and Jane, two yogis among my Boston-area community. Then, I took a phone call from my dear friend Lucy who is driving through Boston on her way back to Montreal, Canada after visiting Rhode Island School of Design with her daughter.

So, today I am reveling in simple satisfaction and acknowledging that I go through periods of productivity balanced with phases of recouperation.