YOGAHEART

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

It happens every morning.

I wake up, it’s a new day. Sounds simple, but it’s quite curious really… My eyes open and I transition from dreaming to… well, dreaming. I’ve noticed that daytime dreaming seems to shift mostly from what’s next to what happened and back, but rarely a thought to ‘this’.  And how curious it all is.  Rarely do we notice how ‘open’ the moment actually is, how ‘empty’ this actually is of all we project onto it.

What a good time to stop…

…and notice.

Spending a little time each day actively shifting attention towards this open and empty quality reveals the greatest open secret, that peace is already here.

namaste’
Mandee

Although most of us celebrate New Years on one day in January, we might also like to acknowledge that every day, every moment really, is fresh, brand new. This is not just some lofty idea or a nice thing to say, but when you reflect on newness, it is actually happening all the time.

At first glance maybe this sounds weird. Nothing seems new! We wake up most days and slide into our daily patterns and on one level, this is very healthy. It’s one of the things we try to provide for our children and our pets, some sense of stability and routine. The heart beats, the body has a rhythm, the planets and stars follow precise patterns and cycles, and yet today could never be like yesterday, maybe the same, but never the same.

What seems to happen though, is in our current busy world of rushing within our routines, we tend to be on autopilot. While we are doing something, we are already planning the next thing or reflecting on the last thing. But freshness or newness does not reside in our thoughts about past or future, rather it is something that can be sensed, experienced, precisely when we take time to slow down, breathe, and notice the aliveness, the newness that flows within the patterns.

Some may even suggest that this is, in fact, what we are, the freshness in the form, the aliveness in the story.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yoga and meditation is a wonderful method that helps us to take ourselves off autopilot and wake up to the freshness of our aliveness in the newness. Happy New Moment Everyone!! Peaceful blessings and good wishes to you today and everyday. namaste’

Good thing yoga classes are starting this week! ;o)

Article in today’s Chronicle Herald.

On some level, there is a truth to change and aging.  And yet, on another level much of what we experience is based on what we believe.  I was working with an elderly woman the other day and she mentioned that her doctor said that her torn rotator cuffs would never heal. Body in large part serves the mind, so if we believe this, it is certain to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I was asked recently, “What has Yoga done for you?”

This was a difficult question because it is a lifestyle and reaches every aspect of my experience, and yet I responded, “The air is sweet, my body feels good, and most of the time I can meet what arises with an open mind and heart.”

My body feels good! And strangely… even when it doesn’t. It’s hard to explain, but Yoga helps us to become more aware of the amazing magnificent mystery of the body, so then even the aches are a type of miracle.  But moreso, when you see the body for what it is, the caretaking of it becomes quite natural and more care generally has predictable results.

Natural caretaking is different that the goal driven attitude of whipping the body into shape. This common approach to fitness and health is a short term vision that often has stress and injury in its path. Yoga cultivates a reverence for the body that motivates our practice for the long term in a way that can bring joy, compassion, and longevity of a body well cared for.