yoga
The Babysitter’s Near-Death Experience
While I was working out at the gym one day, I saw a little old lady who used to babysit me and my brothers when we were little children. I will never the wonderful times we had with her. She was always making it so much fun. She wasn’t on the phone all the time or watching television. She wasn’t ignoring us kids like so many of the other babysitters my mother sometimes hired for us.
When I spotted her and her daughter in the gym, I walked over to greet her, and told her that I remember her very well. I also thanked her for giving me some wonderful memories and teaching me so many valuable life lessons. The one thing I specifically remember her telling me was to always be careful about what we “put into our minds.”At a young age she had already made me realize that what we think about can either help us or harm us. I have always held on to that wisdom in my life. Because it is truly worth more than gold.
One time, I asked her how she knew so much about things. She looked at me and said,“Moon, you know what, I died once.”
“What? No way!” I responded. I went to catholic school growing up, and near-death experiences were certainly not the kind of thing we were learning about in class.
“Yes, I was in the hospital,” she continued. “I had a major operation and I could not wake up afterwards.” Apparently, she had flatlined during surgery and they had struggled to revive her.
“I am very lucky to be here,” she said and then shared some very interesting things with me about her near-death experience (NDE). I still remember that when she first left her body her parents were both there to meet her and she could hear loved ones on the other side of the tunnel having fun. I also remember she said she felt like a ball of light at the time and that it felt so good. The next moment she was being pulled back into her body. Continue reading
The Transformative Power Of Silent Meditation
Spirituality is perceived in the East with many similarities to what is believed in the West, but with an entirely different way of talking about it. For example, in terms of Easter philosophy a person’s individual identity is not their ego.
Identity is the journey of self-discovery that consists of affirming one’s individuality and being able to express everything that we are. This can be achieved through meditation, prayer, or various other spiritual and recreational practices that clear the mind through engaging in an activity that soothes us and brings us into silent contemplation.
Silence does not detach us from our soul essence. On the contrary, it allows us to be fully present and completely ourselves, without the limitation of words and actions. It is not aimed at denying our true spiritual nature. On the contrary, it is a time of authentic self-awareness and beingness.
Different Buddhist traditions refer to the natural state of mind as a state of enlightenment. In the Sanskrit and Tibetan traditions, we also find terms that speak of a clear, open mind. In Tibetan philosophy, enlightenment or awakened energy is called byang-chubs – literally purity and wholeness.
Being calm, at ease, and silent constitutes a state of mind that would happen naturally unless something is bothering us. These internal obstacles cannot be blamed on others or our external reality. Life is always complex and rarely calm.
In fact, these obstructions are seen as being nothing but habits, the result of karma, that obstruct the free and unconditional luminosity of the mind, like clouds that cover the sun on a summer day. Karma does not mean punishment. It is the result of previous actions. They are the result of what we do and what happens to us.
Take Some Time Out To Embrace The Silence
I see now, more than ever before, parents busying their children with this and that sport, and this and that activity. I sometimes wonder if they ever have time to just be children.
I see how fast time flies these days and I think we actually make it go by even faster by overloading our lives with so much activity. We over commit ourselves way too much. I have been carefully watching my world lately, and I have seen the busy lifestyles of my friends and family. I see how frantic everyone has become. Such a commotion!
I find it disturbing how we over-busy ourselves and our children, and our lives. We really miss out on what I deem as the ‘finer things’. We need to get that connection back. It’s never too late.
We need to take it down a notch. I understand there are things we have to do – go to work, pay the bills, chores to do, people to see. Sure, I get it! But there are those additional things that we sign on to do when we really shouldn’t, or don’t have the time for, and when we do it has a domino effect. Chaos. Anxiety. Stress.
We need time to unwind more, and not just when we give ourselves six or less hours of sleep. We carve time out for our kids and for our friends and family, and often there is really no time left for a few blissful moments of silence. It’s in the silence that we can know ourselves and truly learn to live with a glass half full mentality.
We are filling our days with so much unnecessary activity these days just to keep up with the Joneses. What is wrong with staying home once in a while? I think staying at home is underrated. I don’t know about you, but home is where my yoga mat has its place and I don’t have to pay a gym membership to be active in my own home. It’s also where my library is, and my family, and most of the things I love and enjoy.
Sun Salutation For Opening Your Heart Chakra
Many people have an energy blockage or imbalance with their heart chakra, because this is where we hold our emotional wounds.
The heart chakra is where we hold on to every insult or criticism from our childhood. The unbalanced heart chakra can store the energy of every rejection, anxious moment, humiliation, and fear from our teen years, as well as every break-up and every disappointment in our lifetime.
Heartbreak is a very real phenomenon. For example, sometimes when the life partner of an elderly person passes away, they will also pass from a heart attack soon after. It is tragic evidence of a disconnection of the life-long energy bond between two hearts.
Blockage in the heart chakra can also cause various health problems, including heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat, breathing problems, and problems with the thyroid, back, neck and shoulders.
The sun salutation is a choreographed set of yoga exercises that can be used to open the heart chakra and move energy throughout the entire body. Lifting your heart chakra pulls energy into the center.
Stand with your feet roughly one foot part, feet parallel. Tighten your buttocks and push your pelvis forward. Contract your abdominal muscles.
Reach your arms out to the side and slowly move them upward, as if you re scooping energy upward. Keep the arms perfectly straight, with elbows locked.
Bring your hands over your head into a prayer position, with the arms as straight as you can get them. Visualize that energy you scooped up pulsing between your hands. Then, keeping the hands connected in prayer, bring your hands down to your heart and feel that energy you ‘captured’ filling your heart chakra. Do this over and over as many times as you want.
The Power Of Deep Breathing
It is not generally understood how important deep, healthy, mindful breathing truly is. In fact, shallow breathing is linked to all kinds of health problems, including panic attacks, dry mouth, halitosis, cardiovascular issues, fatigue, respiratory problems, and sleep disorders. When we breathe with our chests, we use the muscles in our chests, shoulders, and necks to expand our lungs, which can result in neck pain, shoulder pain and headaches.
Most importantly, shallow breathing also hinders our immune functioning. The chronic stress and strain it places on the body, results in lower amounts of lymphocyte – a type of white blood cell that helps to defend the body from invading organisms. Shallow breathing actually lowers the amounts of proteins that signal other immune cells. The body thus becomes more likely to acute illnesses.
Deep, diaphragmatic breathing, on the other hand, can lower blood pressure, calm the mind, and improve sleep. It also lowers our heart rate, relaxes muscles, decreases stress, and increases energy levels.
Deep breathing also grounds and centers us. It has been proven to have a profound calming effect on the mind and body. When you are anxious, you take rapid short breaths. When you are content, you take deep, long, full breaths.
The way we breath also affects our mental abilities and thinking. Programming your brain when inhaling can lock thoughts into your memory and can be a powerful tool in our daily spiritual practice. Thinking or saying out loud affirmations like, ‘I am love and light; God and I, me and God are one; I am able to accomplish anything I want; I am powerful;’ will lock those thoughts into your psyche.
Raise Your Vibration With Love And Light
Everything is energy, vibration, and frequency. Everything! Changing your vibration changes your frequency. This can lift the veil between dimensions. You will see things differently. Your intuition will evolve.
If you think limitation, you are limitation. If you think abundance, your are abundance. If you send the universe messages that you deserve something, positive or negative, the universe will send that to you in return. Positive or negative.
I often have clients ask why they keep attracting a certain kind of romantic partner. In my experience the issue is not in the attracting of that person, but rather understanding why they stay with that person.
There are many dysfunctional people in the world. So, attracting dysfunctional people is not unusual. But keeping them in your life, putting up with them, being intimate with them, and marrying them is not about them and their dysfunction. It’s about you. Your vibration is sending out a signal that you believe you deserve that kind of person. If you believe you deserve dysfunction, you will attract dysfunction.
We all meet at least one mentally healthy, well-adjusted person in our lifetime that we were not attracted to. Why? Our vibration was low or not in resonance with that person’s energy.
How do we raise our vibration? By engaging with input energies with high vibration frequencies. If you watch television, watch ‘higher vibration’ television. Bad reality TV, violence, horror movies and crime shows lower your vibration and attract darker energies on all dimensions. Too much radiation from phones, computers and television sets also lowers our vibration.
Lifestyle choices also determine our energetic frequency. Drugs and alcohol lower our vibration. Same goes for processed food with chemicals, additives and pesticides lower our vibration. Conversations that are petty, gossipy, and negative not only degrades others, but also lowers our vibration. Fear, anxiety and anger also lower our vibration.
Balancing Sun And Moon Energies
The Sun and Moon have very different metaphysical energies and we are strongly affected by both. For example, a circumstance or event that might make you sad during the day, may completely wipe you out emotionally at night. This is because our hormones shift at night.
I worked for many years teaching prenatal Yoga and helping expectant moms. Their emotions typically ran very high at night. Their concerns about labor was latent in their thoughts during the day, but at night they would sometimes become terrified. Most women also go into labor at night and give birth during the day.
Things become surreal at night. I believe our hormones, the Moon’s energy, and a lessened ability to see in the darkness all greatly affect us.
At night, the right side of the brain is dominant. This is our spiritual, intuitive, subconscious, feminine side. During the day, the left hemisphere of the brain is dominant. This is our practical, thinking, productive physical, masculine side.
The left side of the body is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain and is Sun-based, while the right side of the body is controlled by the left hemisphere and is Moon based. The Moon exudes feminine energy. The feminine rules the right side of the brain, which is the maternal, emotional, creative, dreamy side. The Sun rules the left side of the brain, which is the paternal side which rules logic, production, protection, and work.
When you are having difficulty sleeping it is usually because the left hemisphere of the brain has kicked in when it should be inactive. This is when you start thinking about all the things you need to do the next day, or the stressful challenges you faced the day prior.