YOGAHEART

Each moment, each breath.
Could it be that simple?

This moment…   saying Yes or saying No?

Stopping. Thoughts dissolving.
Each breath, a homecoming.

What is this without a word?
Without a thought?

Aum!

Yogaaaahhhh!

In this time and all times, in this culture and all cultures, variations of the sound ‘Ma’ have represented the energy of Mother. This curiously reveals something fundamental not only in the sound, but in it’s essence that touches all life on earth deeply.

Just as we were all born from a mother into the physical world, into our individual families…  we were also born, into physical existence, into our bigger family of humans, birds, other animals, plants, insects, and trees.  We all draw upon the nourishing love and gifts of Mother Earth for our health and wellbeing.

Much of yoga involves expanding our awareness from the individual to the wider view. This Mother’s Day, perhaps you might want to chant to the great Mother of us all, which includes all the mothers, and express your love and gratitude with the Sanskrit words, ‘Jai Ma!’

namaste’
Mandee

May we walk in the light of full awareness and gratitude of the gifts of Mother Earth… from the pebbles to the emeralds, from the oceans to the sky. Thank you Great Mother for the unconditional love that surrounds us always.

I just had a really good on-air conversation with Billy, a native elder in the Mi’kmaq community along with Florestine Bird, Spiritual Water Walker on the Yogaheart Radio Show. It was a beautiful afternoon about a hard but wondrous topic, Water. It felt good to talk about something that seems to require our immediate attention. Then again, it does seem like everything could use a little attention, love, and gratitude these days.

So we talked about the water and the upcoming Water Walk on Sunday May 8th at 1pm in Point Pleasant Park.  And we also talked about the potential of further ‘exploration’ of shale gas in Nova Scotia, it’s hazards and disastrous effects on the environment.

What is hard for me is not the words or the ideas about what is being seen right now. Let’s talk about things!
What is hard for me is not even the what, why, how or who might be steering these mighty corporate industries… Let’s expose things!

What i’d like however is to see an emerging and far-reaching ability to just Stop.
and breathe.
…on equally epic proportions.

We say that ‘they’ cut down trees, as we buy, as they cut, as we drive, as they drill, like mirrors in the dance of activity… Perhaps, indeed, we are all innocent, and learning, and not quite sure what to do about it all, yet it seems the time is now–always now–to open… to wake up.

I wonder what would happen if we re-aquainted ourselves with the simple joys, and just Stop.
and breathe. Couldn’t hurt to just …  do less.
And love more.

… YOGAHEART’s April 2011 e-newsletter due to be sent out shortly. If you are not on the list and would like to subscribe, the Newsletter Signup is to the right of the screen –>

… here is an excerpt from the March 2011 | YOGAHEART e-newsletter:

True Peace has little to do with outside circumstances… I am forever amazed with the unceasing waves of experience.  Some waves can be quite thrilling and others, well, some waves can be quite uncomfortable.  Yoga & Meditation does not smooth out the ocean, but raises a mast.  A steady center, not free from the movement, but free to sail into beautiful expanse, upright and present.

True Silence has little to do with sound... this Universe is humming with unending activity.  Even in the meditation halls, the walls are alive, the heart beats, the mind thinks its neverending story.  Yoga & Meditation does not blot out the noise, but reveals a grand Symphony! This shift in perspective calms the sound of Resistance and brings a space of Silence that is free to hear the music of life.

True Nature has little to do with who you think you are… a table is not a table, a bird is not a bird. These are the definitions we use to help us to communicate.  Although communication has great functionality, simultaneously everything is ultimately free of our ideas about them.  It can be mind-blowing to discover that this includes ourselves!  For so long we have been living our lives based on who we think we are and what we think this is. Yoga & Meditation can spark an inquiry into the definitions of life where we begin to see that, naturally and innocently, our conceptual framework of thoughts and ideas have been passed down, and haven’t come from direct seeing. When we discover the empty aspect of ourselves in the here and now, we find a spacious presence, our True Nature, that is not only, not boxed in by identity, but cannot even be described. Instead of allowing the mind to yet again, try to define it, Yoga & Meditation helps us to sense Nature, Peace, and Silence, and to acknowledge that this is the life we’ve been living all along.

~ Mandee