Full Moon
Toe Balance, full moon, find your inner strength, and just be… Breathe…. set one intention for this coming Moon Cycle and let it go. Let the Moon Goddess take it in and surrender the outcome to her.
remember, Peace in =’s Peace out!
It’s a doddle 🙂
I thought it was time to post; it’s been over a month. So where have I been? I’ve been in training to become a certified yoga teacher. Spending most of my free time working on my studies, AND I LOVE IT!
I can’t quite explain what yoga does for me; it started 5 years ago as I worked one-on-one with a yoga teacher who has since become my treasured friend. I’ll never forget my first downward facing dog, thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding, this is a resting pose”…. But alas, I love it! Yoga taught me to become friends with my body again, this unique body that houses my divine light, my connection to God. Yoga teaches me to take care of my house, not only on the mat but off the mat by what foods I eat, what words I speak, in every aspect of my life, Yoga has touched some core of it and continues to do so as I continue to grow and learn. The learning is endless so the growing is as well.
You rush into a yoga class, lay your mat down onto the floor and you sit, get quite and breathe…………………………………. Your seat roots to the ground, your spine grows tall, and you expand your chest and close your eyes. The crown of your head reaches up to the heavens and you breathe………….you become centered…………………your mind quiets and you become fully present in the NOW… … We are born with this, it is our birth right, but our busy lives and our monkey brain try and keep us in the ego world, the me world, the I world….. Yoga brings us back to the Devine world, the Godly world, the peaceful world. Yoga brings us back to our truest self, which is pure divine light.
I urge everyone to find their yogi within, it’s not about truing your body into a pretzel, and it’s not about the perfect pose, it’s about being fully present, breathing and connecting to the stillness that is already inside you…….be still, get quite and just be……..the rest will come …..
Peace in =’s Peace out!
Merry Christmas
Ink and Paper
Merry Christmas Bloggers. I wish you a wonderful safe season of Love, Peace, Joy, and….calm…. Remember to pause and breathe….just be in the moment….and ever thankful for now. There is a reason for this season, let us never forget.
Peace
Learning to Meditate
I find that so many people are afraid of the word, Meditation. “I can’t quiet my mind; I can’t sit with my legs crossed for hours on end. I just can’t do it, it’s not for me” I hear this over and over when I talk about meditation. I find that people are either willing to do it, or they’re not. It saddens me because there are tremendous benefits from meditation.
Yes, our brain is the biggest supper computer there is, we have thoughts and thoughts, visions, and visions over 60,000.00 a day. WOW…. Talk about megabytes. Meditation is taking a pause, a break from all the data input and output of the brain. To sit and simply breathe is the first step in meditation. You don’t need to go out and buy anything special. You don’t need any degree or special training to begin.
So what do you gain by spending time in meditation? You gain calm, peace of mind, a new since of awareness, you lower your stress level, calm your nerves, and you rejuvenate your body and your mind, yes…it’s like defragmenting your supper computer of all the junk it’s stored. You are spending time on your breathe and reconnecting it to your body, which in turn reconnects it to your spirit, which in turn reconnects you to the Universal being. LOVE…..you are giving your entire body love.
Simply start and give yourself no time limit, Find a place to sit, in a chair, against a wall, legs crossed, or touching the ground, whatever is most comfortable. If you want music, just make sure it has no words. You don’t want the choir in your brain to be activated and start singing or some distant love song to pop up a hidden romance. I do find it funny what type of thoughts tend to show up when I sit in meditation…..the key is to simply breathe and then sweep that thought away with the breath.
Sit, have your palms facing up and open to connect with the universe or facing down upon your thighs to connect deeper within yourself. Shoulders are always back, head of your shoulders slightly down, and your heart is always open. Breathe in slowly via the nose a few times, while releasing the breath via the nose. Keeping your eyes and mouth closed and you’re tongue resting down. Make the sound of the ocean as you breathe in-and-out, focus on this sound. And simply breathe, taking a deep breathe in, pausing, and exhale, pausing. Feel the rise and fall of your body, bringing all your attention and intentions on the breath, our life giving force our Prana. And as you sink into your breath and your body without realizing it your breathing will become quite. When thoughts come rushing in at you, just breathe them away. If you cry because something has been released, then let it go…… sometimes meditation brings up issues we have not been willing to let go of.
Don’t grade yourself, this is not a test, simply just sit, breathe, and be…. for however long you can be….
Meditation has helped me in my stress levels; it has taught me the art of patience’s, calmness, love, compassion.
My favorite meditation guide is DavidJi and I would recommend his book on “the secrets of meditation” to everyone who has ever been interested in learning to meditate. It’s an easy read that covers just about every form of meditation possible, and it’s written in an easy light format. A must Read. http://www.davidji.com/
Just like trying anything new, it takes practice, please find time in your day to carve out a space for meditation. When you rise in the morning, during your lunch break, when you arrive home from work, or before you go to bed, anything worth doing is worth doing.
Happy meditating and remember Peace in =’s Peace out
Acrylic on Canvas Meditation Sign
Sit in Quiet
Sit in Quiet and just be. Don’t fight your thoughts. Don’t control the situation, just sit…….and………..breathe….Start by sitting in any position that is comfortable, as long as you don’t collapse your heart. Try to keep your shoulder’s back and your heart open. If you need to sit against a wall at first to keep your back straight and your heart open, do it… make yourself comfortable. Sit, close your eyes and breathe slowly in-an-out. Try to pause between each breath. As you breathe see with your MIND’S eye, follow that breath, as if making a figure 8 inside your body, in-an-out…become one with the movement of your breath as it slowly goes in-and-out of your body in it’s figure 8 pattern.
Ink and Watercolor on Paper
It’s Called meditation and you just did it. Meditation does not need to be complicated. You do not need to twist yourself into a knot to reach clarity of mind. You just need to do it. Try a few minutes each day and as you get better, then you can try different sitting styles and maybe someday you’ll even want to tie yourself into that beautiful knot position. And if the word meditation scares you, then don’t call it that. Just sit in quiet and breathe…
Find the Doodler in You
I have always been a doodler, give me a pad of paper and I draw something. I love shapes, patterns, and nonsense. People are always stating that they wish they could draw and I tell them, “Yes… you can draw.” It becomes this back-an-forth banter between me and whomever I’m talking to. Everyone has the ability to draw, it’s the brain, the mind, the ego that tells them, I CAN’T. Turn off the brain, and let the hand move. Don’t judge your form of expression, It’s your form of dance, it’s your form of song, it’s your creation not theirs and you are a wonderful singular creation and what comes out of you when you doodle is one of a kind.
Joy 🙂 enjoy JOY
A doodle for me is another form of meditation, it’s the connecting and creating and being in the present moment. It’s often an enlightening experience when you sit down to create something, you can see what place you’re emotionally in by what comes out on the paper. Try it, sit down in a quite area, paper and pen, and just create…. create….. don’t judge… be the line, be the circle, be the squiggle….but most of all, just be… and breathe 🙂 never forget to breathe.
Just Breathe
watercolor and ink on paper
Did you pay attention to your breath today? Make sure you always take time to pay attention. Maybe set your timer on your stove, watch, cell phone, computer. Every hour or so have it ring and when this happens, Say 4, and slow down and breathe.
Breath- in through your nose to a count of 4, hold to a count of 4, exhale to a count of 4, and hold to a count of 4, and do it again 4 times Try to do it slower each time Let’s breathe together right now………………………………… You just released stress, created more blood cells in your body, energized your mind, and probably stood up a bit straighter and have a smile on your face… don’t you feel better?
My friend leaves sticky dots around her home to reminder her to stop and breathe. I have painted rocks around my home and at work to remind me to breathe. It’s amazing how it catches on too, my students are always telling me to ….breathe….
Together we stay grounded.
Peace-in =’s Peace-out
Becoming one with the Moon
The Moon rules the left side of our body, our Female side. Whenever you are feeling hot, nervousness or stressed out, try closing the right side of your nose with your finger and take some slow breaths with the left side of the nose. Breathe in slowly, pause, and exhale it out slowly. Close your eyes and feel the cooling energy of the moon coming into your body as you breath in. As you release out, all the hot stressful energy leaving your body. Feel yourself getting cooler and cooler as you do this. Repeat the breathe-in and pause, breathe-out and pause, for a count of 10. This is a great tool to use before meetings, speeches, events, or whenever you need to “cool down”. A great place to practice this is in your car before interacting with others.
If you have trouble sleeping at night because of body heat, also try sleeping on the right side of your body, this will keep the left side ( the nose) open and will cool you down as you breathe-in and out via the nose.
Watercolor and Ink on Paper
Breathing in and out via the nose is what regulates our body temperature and is very important for good health. I recommend everyone take a yoga class on breath work at some point. We’re all in such a hurry to take a pill for what causes us pain and suffering, why not try another way. the Yoga way. Open the mind and the body to a natural state of healing. Happy Breathing
Art & Inspiration 