The angels
Angels.
We have all heard of angels right, but how many of us actually embrace the angels in our loves?
Well to be honest until 12 years ago, I doubt very much I gave much thought to angels, other than to bemoan the fact that I clearly didn't have any in my life because life always seemed like such a struggle.
And then I met Ally, my Reiki Master and very good friend, and this all changed. She turned up at a yoga class I had started attending and advertised a new meditation class she was starting. I had wanted to get into meditation so I dragged my boyfriend at the time along with me. There were only 3 of us at that first session, my boyfriend, me and another lady who later would also become a good friend.
I remember that we got to lay down on the floor because I remember my boyfriend commenting that he was happy coming along with me each week for GBP5 because it meant he could havea snooze! At the end of the session, Ally and the other lady started swinging pendulums and talking about crystals, which was certainly a new thing for me at that time, before bringing out the angel cards.
Now my boyfriend was fairly easy going about all this but the combination of pendulums, crystals and angel cards sent him into a bit of a spin and I can still remember him laughing all the way home. Angel cards indeed!! But the angel cards had a huge impact on me, because they always seemed so appropriate.
I started having Reiki sessions with Ally and the stuff she "picked up" from a session really helped me to heal and open my life to a new world of potential and possibilities. Each session always followed with an angel card and these spookily reinforced our chatter, and was invaluable - for me - in assisting with the healing process. Sometimes the best healing happens when you feel that someone is properly listening - here Ally and the angels!
Over the years my angel cards have been a source of great comfort for me, they provide invaluable feedback in terms of how I am living my life, so that they have helped me to connect more, and trust in, my heart and indeed my intuition. I have travelled with them around the world, and lately Elijah helps me to pull them.
More importantly perhaps the angel cards have helped me to strengthen my connection to the angels themselves. We have all sorts of angels in our lives, and whether we recognise them or not I guess is neither here nor there, although recognising them, does help us to be a little more gracious for their help.
I have a number of regular Earth angels helping me out, and then there are those other angels who just crop up and then they are gone. I will never forget arriving into Tokyo on my own, not understanding a word of the language, not having a clue where I needed to go and here I was at a train station with people rushing all around me, and I needed to find a particular train and out of the crowds this older Japanese man appeared, like the angel he indeed was, and approached me and calmed me and led me to where I needed to go and then he was gone. I have never forgotten how much he just appeared at my side when I needed him.
Another incident that I shall never forget, took place about 5 years ago now, when I was travelling around the world and was in Byron Bay, Australia. Ewan and I were on a break at the time and it felt like my heart had literally broken. I was really sad and miserable and just kept bursting into tears for no apparent reason. I was corresponding with my cousin by email and I could tell she was worried about me and she asked me to try and remember 5 good things that happened each day and to let her know.
Well that same day, I was sitting on the beach just before sunset, feeling desperately alone and unloved and dejected and was having a bit of a lost faith in the world and the angels and everything in fact and along came a dog and literally kissed me on the lips. It was the strangest thing, and I remember telling my cousin about this later that evening and she responded telling me it was one of my angels, and it dawned on me that she was right, because that action changed everything for me, it re-installed my faith and made me appreciate that there is a rationale to the process, even if we do not understand it at the time!
Over the years it has become normal for me to pray to the angels and give thanks to them and express my gratitude each day, and of course to ask for their help and their guidance when needed and for signs to light the path.
It is amazing what happens when you do ask. All of a sudden you will start seeing signs of them everywhere. You will notice white feathers suddenly appearing in random places, or robins will come into your life or you will see coins. All of this stuff is the angels way of trying to get your attention and to make you aware that they are there to help you...but you have to ask...so don't forget to ask...
And when you do ask...well look out for the assistance that comes to you. It will rarely be in the way you expect, but you may find that a book jumps off the shelf at you, or a new job opportunity appears, or perhaps you get stuck in traffic which makes you late, but because you are late you bump into someone who brings you an answer to your prayers, or a study course will drop into your mail box, or a song comes on the radio and the words are meant for you (pay attention to songs that come into your world when you have asked for help) or you notice the same thing three times (there is no such thing as a coincidence where the angels are concerned).
And please do not forget to ask the parking angels to help you find a parking space - just make sure you ask when you are leaving home...it really works....but you have to ASK for HELP.
Here is an angel card for us all now...
Omega - "Victory! Your desire is coming to fruition, keep up the good work!"
Congratulations! You have chosen to follow your Divine Guidance, and the Universe is flowing in natural rhythm with your decision. When you listen to the messages that your heart whispers, you swim in natural synchronicity with the tide of your life's purpose. Stay relaxed and confident, and keep moving forward with happiness and grace.
if along the way, you notice problems occurring, then it's time to stop and center yourself. When problems occur, it simply means that you're temporarily out of sync with he Universe's rhythms. There is no need for analysis or shame when this occurs. Simply pray or meditate, breathe deeply, and wait until you feel strongly about your next move. Your victory is inevitable in this situation, so you needn't worry that temporary problems will thwart your desire. Whatever happens is supposed to happen, and when it happens is the correct time. Release your doubts to Heaven, and rest assured that a happy outcome is yours".
If you think this all sounds a little crazy, well perhaps just notice the feathers and have a go at asking for help yourself!
x
x
Our inner goodness
It is funny how things work out but I have been reflecting for a few days about this concept of our own inner goodness, and the fact that so many of us, well most in fact, have forgotten this, or forget it when things get tough.
I have also been re-reading this fabulous book by Caroline Myss called “Why people don’t heal and how they can” and last night, I was sitting up on our bed watching (umm, dare I admit to this!!) EastEnders on BBC iplayer (ok I admit it, I LOVE EastEnders…) after a late yoga class and I shared a quote from this book on the Beinspired facebook page, all about self-love and what this really means.
And then it suddenly struck me, I don’t binge eat anymore. Not at all, no relapses, no urge, no drive, no nothing to tempt me back down that old path. It was such a huge part of what I did for so long, so exhausting on so many levels, but essentially all about my distinct lack of love for myself.
It made me reflect a little.
I was 17 when I developed an eating disorder. Until that point I had a perfectly normal attitude towards food and my body. I ate when I was hungry, I exercised because I loved playing sport and surfing, not because I wanted to lose weight, and I was unaware of the size of clothes I was wearing, I wore that ones that fitted, simple as that really!
And then I went on a school field trip to France and all of a sudden, spending time with other girls who were more conscious of their bodies, I started to become a little more conscious myself, but more so that my body was okay as it was. And then a few months later I went on a geography field trip and I started becoming conscious that my waist was not as skinny as one of the other girls who were also on the trip and had a boyfriend (which I didn’t!).
Then probably one of the greatest influences. I was a dedicated surfer back in those days and I developed a crush on a surfer boy a few older than me, you know the obsessive crush, which would find me regularly cycling past his house, dragging my brother along with me come rain or shine, or telephoning the house on the off chance that he may pick up the telephone and then putting it down (this is normal behaviour right?!). I was absolutely obsessed, he was all I thought about, I was IN LOVE with this guy (not that I had ever talked to him or anything like that you understand!).
Anyhow I still remember the moment. It was a Monday and I was at home sick and one of my friend’s telephoned me from school (this was in the days of pay phones and – if you were really lucky – telephones in your bedroom so that you could come home from school and continue talking to your friends for the whole evening, about what I have no idea, seeing as we had spent all day chatting at school too, but you know how it is!) to tell me that this boy, surfer boy, was now going out with the most popular girl in our year, let’s call her Lara.
So Lara was one of those girls that just got right under your skin and just made you feel really rubbish about yourself. She was a twin and she was pretty and popular and slim and the boys called her a princess and she was just brilliant at everything and got all this attention and everyone knew her and all the boys fancied her and all the girls were in awe or jealous of her. And now, lo and behold surfer boy and Lara were an item. And not just any old item but a very dedicated item or so it would unfold.
Lara lost a lot of weight and appeared to exist on diet coke alone. This made me consider that if I lived on diet coke alone perhaps I would be as beautiful and gifted and lovely as Lara and perhaps I would end up with surfer boy instead – the mind is crazy huh, that whole thing of “when I do this or that, this or that will happen when I stop doing this or that, then this and that will happen”, it shows up all over the place right, this is the stuff of diet industry dreams, and new year detox retreats and "healthy" juicing companies, there is a whole heap of people making a ton of money out of us for this very (nuts) reasoning...
Anyhow so this whole Lara diet coke/surfer boy thing also coincided with a particularly stressful time in my life, namely studying for A-Levels and applying for University. I was a conscientious and hard worker and I was failing at French which I feared and dreaded and loathed all in one go, plus I was scared of leaving the Island and going to University. My life felt a little out of control, so I guess it was no surprise that I developed an eating disorder to try to bring some (false) sense of control in my life.
So I lost weight, I calorie counted to extreme, I deprived myself of food, so that I wasn’t just controlling things but I was also harming myself really. My parents grew increasingly concerned and there were visits to the doctor and an attempt at seeing a psychologist, and endless dinner time rows as I became increasingly sneaky about how I disposed of food to make sure it did not enter my mouth. It was all very tiring and very silly I now realise and I feel very sorry for all the heartache I created for my parents and indeed the stress for my poor younger brother living in such a fraught environment for that year of his life.
Fortunately I could not sustain this way of living and that fact my periods stopped kind of made me wake up a little and realise that this was not a good way to live. But the damage was done and every day, every meal involved a lot of mental energy and every time I ate more than I thought I should I would berate myself and be hard on myself. I would look at my naked body and be cruel to that too, this was too big, or this was not big enough, endlessly comparing myself to others and considering I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
It was like a mantra. I am not good enough. I am not good enough. I am not good enough. Imagine how that felt over time, being so cruel and nasty to myself all the time.
Interestingly, a good many years ago now after an intensive few months of practicing yoga in Australia I lost weight and my periods stopped – this says a lot about how even yoga, to extreme is not healthy, how we can in fact use yoga to promote our imbalances rather than ease them, but that is another story. So my Reiki Master is also a hormone specialist and back then she lived in Guernsey and she ran some saliva hormone testing for me, which indicated a hormonal imbalance but also suggested that I had cysts on my ovaries.
I went to the doctor who said she very much doubted this diagnosis as I did not look like a lady who had cysts on her ovaries, I was not over weight, I did not have excessive hair on my face etc, but she sent me for a scan nonetheless and lo and behold the scan showed that I had a whole heap of tiny cysts covering both of my ovaries. The doctor was surprised and said that there was little that could be done, if I wanted children then they may need to intervene then but other than that, well you just carried on.
I wasn’t very comfortable about this and being very much into the alternative healing world by then, a Reiki practitioner myself in fact, I came across Brandon Bay’s “The Journey” and before I knew it I had booked a session with a practitioner in Jersey and was on the boat for a day trip. From what I can recall, essentially, the practitioner takes you on a journey into your body and to the area of dis-ease.
So we journeyed to my ovaries and can you believe it, lo and behold, covering my ovaries was all the emotion, the anger and resentment and envy I felt about Lara and her relationship all those years ago with lover boy. Seriously! All that inadequacy I felt, all the self-loathing, all the comparison with Lara, all the pain and all the stuff I had carried and sat on all these years, on my ovaries, can you believe that?! On my ovaries. This was a huge lesson for me, a huge realisation that it is true, unexpressed and unprocessed emotions do really sit in our physical bodies causing energy blocks and dis-ease.
So we worked it through, I went back into all that pain and suffering (created by me may I add, my reaction to, and perception of, Lara and the whole broken dream with surfer boy – I was so angry and heartbroken) and I felt it and I processed it…You have to go back into it sometimes to truly let it out. That is the reason healing is often painful, true healing that is, because you have to release that which is trapped inside, the emotions have to find their way out be that through tears, an anger outburst or a momentary depression, it has to come out, be processed, all gone.
In any event at the next scan, no more cysts. And when I thought of Lara, there was no emotion attached, no comparison, no feeling that she is better than me…I moved on. The body is quite amazing!
Anyhow back to the story. So at University I developed bulimia and would starve, binge and take laxatives, starve, binge and take laxatives, starve, binge and take laxatives….I discovered alcohol and cannabis too, which helped enormously in numbing my pain and I learned to smoke cigarettes, which certainly helped with the starving bit – I’d live on cigarettes and black coffee and I loved nothing more than smoking cannabis, listening to Deep Forest or Pink Floyd and writing poetry, “We are all lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year”. That was me. The lost soul.
A few weeks after I graduated I ended up spending the summer in and out of hospital with gallstones, most unusual for someone of my age, and I ended up having to have my gallbladder removed in the end and there were complications so I was really rather poorly for a while. The gallbladder is representative of bitterness and I recognised years later that I had been carrying a huge amount of bitterness within me due to an event in my late childhood and no doubt towards Lara too! If only I had been into the alternative world back then I may still have a gallbladder!
Still it was a wake-up call about the eating disorder and I dropped the laxatives immediately and I started to try and try and try again to sort this all out. But the thing is, it was all so deeply ingrained. So deeply ingrained. That actually the eating disorder was with me until only a few years ago really. Things started to improve when I first discovered Reiki and yoga and I visited Carol Champion to see if she could help me manage my depression through diet. She was incredibly helpful and this was the first time I had considered that we are what we eat. That food is for nurturing and healing and energising, rather than something to be feared.
It amazes me now that I used to live my life so ignorant to the power and importance of good nutrition. My Mum is a fabulous cook and she made incredibly healthy and balanced food for us growing up but when I went to University and had to fend for myself it all went wrong. I would live on super noodles with peas, diet yoghurts, jelly tots, pick and mix, crumpets and baked beans. It was not healthy in the slightest. Especially not with the cigarettes, black coffee and cider!
Back here in Guernsey I did eat much better, fortunately when I was not living with my parents I loved with my brother who is also an amazing cook. So we ate well, but I still used to consider the calorie and fat content of food rather than considering whether it was actually any good for me, you know how those diet foods are actually full of so much rubbish really, insane that we all fall for it!
So yoga helped to wake me up to eating better but it also helped to promote my eating disorder in those early years. I would spend a few months away at a time indulging in anywhere between 2 and 6 hours of asana practice a day and so inevitably this would tone my body somewhat but I would also skip meals and as I started to lose weight I would get hooked into the feeling of being in control again and I would skip even more meals and put myself under a ton of pressure to sustain the new, somewhat unsustainable weight, at least unsustainable back home in Guernsey where I wasn’t practicing 2-6 hours of asana each day in Australia or Nepal or any of those warmer places I happened to be.
It was not healthy but sadly the yoga word is rife with it. Yoga, especially the more active or heated forms of yoga will always attract women who have body issues and especially those with eating disorders and sometimes it can actually provide them with an excuse for eating as they do – “I don’t eat dairy, sugar, wheat, meat blah blah blah”, and not because they have insensitivities but because it means they can mask their disorder more easily amongst friends and family. You probably know someone yourself, there are a ton of yoga teachers out there who feel they have to be skinny to be deemed to be doing it right and a whole ton of yoga practitioners who feel that they are not good enough because they are not as skinny as their yoga teacher. Bah!
As to my eating disorder, well it is like everything in life, the pendulum swings one way and then it swings another and it can be very challenging finding the middle ground. Which is the reason I really like the teachings of the Buddha, because it is all about the middle path, the middle way, not too loose and not too tight, and for those of us who have a tendency for perfection, the classic A-type personality, well it cuts you some slack, gives you a place to settle, and asks you to forgive and live with compassion. What is not to like about that?
It also teaches goodness. That at our core, we are all filled with goodness. But on the whole most of us have forgotten our own goodness. We think other people are full of goodness but we fail to recognise it in ourselves. We do not feel we are worthy. Of life, of love, of peace, of happiness. This shows up time and time again in our habitual patterns, which take us further away from this place. The things (lies) we tell ourselves, the negative thoughts we have about ourselves and the choices we make. The patterns we create from our sense that we are not good enough in the first place.
This shows up in healing time and time again. Anxiety, depression, a lot of it created by the self, we allow that little inner voice, the negative one to run rife, telling us time and time again that there is something wrong with us, we are not pretty enough, we are not good enough at this or at that, we are not deserving, so that we lose all sense of connection with the joy and strength of the Universe and the Earth, so that we lose out stability, our clarity, our grounding, our sanity and we become anxious and our spirit becomes depressed and we wear black to fit in (not stand out, must not stand out, nor embrace the colour and brightness in life) and we lower our gaze when we walk because we are not worthy enough or too self-conscious and self-loathing to look anyone else in the eyes, so that over time our heart well and truly collapses in on itself and our posture shifts so that our upper back rounds and we can’t open our chest in yoga so well and our neck hurts and our spirit sinks and our shoulders are tight and our stomachs feel empty on the inside.
There is a fabulous quote in Caroline Myss’ book which reads, “Our belief that we are damaged at our core is accompanied by the belief that we are not worthy of any kind of help, human or Divine, or of acting on any of the help offered to us. Cutting loose from this emotional anchor takes real effort….Don’t fear the despair or exhaustion that you will inevitably feel along the way. No one can remain positive and strong all the time, not even under the best of circumstances. Books can make healing sound as if there’s nothing to it – just change your mind, get positive, get active, and eat right. Would that it were that simple! But it is not. Again and again, you need to look inside, confront the myths in which you believe, and clear out your fears and negative patterns. You need to continue to practice this even after you heal…In truth, we have no choice but to move even more closely into ourselves – the only way out, as the expression goes, is to go in”.
And that is all we can do really. Go inside. Practice. Go inside. Practice. Notice. Pay attention. Go inside. Stay still. Don’t run. Stay awake. Don’t go back to sleep…it is too painful staying all tight inside…compassion, forgiveness, compassion, forgiveness, compassion forgiveness, self-acceptance, self-acceptance, self-acceptance….letting go, letting go, letting God (The Universe, the Angels, Mother Goddess…) in. Open hearts. Open minds. Love.
So through our practice, day in and day out on our mats and cushions, we start to get familiar with our tendencies - we notice our hooks, the things that draw us away from our own goodness, the habits, the recurring story lines, the things we tell ourselves, the trigger of our fears and self-doubt, how everything arises, abides and dissolves again (like a vinyasa), the impermanence of everything, our attachments, our aversion, our ignorance.
It is only in getting more familiar with our tendencies - increasing our awareness and learning how our mind works - that we can move from negative habits and seeds, letting these go, and move towards accumulating positivity and going back to a place of recognising our own goodness. It is only in recognising our own goodness that we recognise the goodness in another person.
It really is up to us, people can guide us sure, but we have to do the work. No drama. Just practice in a grounded, sane and ordinary manner. Breathe in and breathe out, breath in and breathe out and listen and pay attention. And ask yourself, can you be in your practice without wanting it to be different or without losing awareness and drifting off with your thoughts reflecting on the past or planning into the future. And can you be ok with yourself. As you are. Now.
And you know what, give yourself a break. Social media and the “I” generation that we find ourselves living in have a lot to answer for. All the time we are bombarded with messages and images of who we need to be and what we need to look like to be “successful”. Everyone wants to be someone – look at the names children are given these days, everyone wants to stand out, or for their children to stand out. But with that comes a huge insecurity and sense of failure and loss of connection with our inner goodness.
So when you identify the triggers, be it the toxic “friends” on facebook, or facebook itself, or celebrity magazines, or whatever and whomever it may be who makes you feel inadequate, well then drop that from your life. You have a choice. You want things in your life that remind you of your own inner goodness, people and environments which promote this…have a read of this fabulous extract from Caroline Myss’ book:
“Self-love is a relatively new and much misunderstood concept...At its best, self-love is the capacity to take care of ourselves, to make choices within our present lifestyle that nurtures us and renews our vitality. For some of us, that may mean maintaining a steady exercise routine, while for others it may mean taking off for the country every so often. Still others need the regular healing touch of a massage treatment, a monthly facial, or something more social. You may require the company of an entirely new social group – for instance, people who are dedicated to maintaining the environment, living organically, or maintaining a spiritual practice of some kind. Or you may find that you need the freedom to live alone and to get to know yourself apart from ordinary social pressures. In some cases you may express your self-love by making a vow never again to allow abuse to come into your life. “
I am not perfect, not by a long shot. But I also don’t strive to be perfect. I embrace the middle path. And my yoga and meditation practice help me to do this. And over the years, bit by bit, the practice has chipped off quite a few of the jagged bits and its smoothed a few of the ridges, those well-trodden paths, the same dipositive behaviors patterns and negative tendencies which found me going around in circles, like the eating disorder that never seemed to go away…
…but over time it eased, it transformed and then it went away. But I have to work hard. I have had to practice and face many a dark night of the soul. And there will be more I am sure. But it has been worth it because life is lighter and brighter and there is more awareness and freedom and joy and peace. I can recommend it. It is time to embrace your inherent goodness, you have made it this far. Practice. Show up. Breathe in, breathe out. And pay attention. And Love Thy Self.
x
Arises, Abides, Dissolves
So this weekend workshop with Cyndi was based on the classic teaching of Upekka, or equanimity, a 7-fold practice that literally "shifts the ground of one's existence, away from the habitual drama and towards what Buddhist texts call, "the radiant calm of the mind"".
Cyndi is a great believer (as am I, which I guess is why she resonates so much with me) that asana (postures) provide the perfect vehicle for this practice because as she says, "you can't get radiant or calm or present or strong without your body".
Hoorah for me, a whole weekend therefore on and off my mat, going slow, getting a little faster, up and down, pressing here, reaching there, noticing the relationship between this part of my body and another, paying attention, waking up, listening, learning, moving, lying, sitting, laughing, and being reminded by Cyndi that you should "not buy into everything you think because it is all impermanent.". Bliss.
There is so much sense in this practice, a Vinyasa practice at that, moving with the breath, in and out...everything arises, abides and dissolves again...including us one day (now being reminded of that helps to keep one's feet on the ground), and Cyndi likes to mix things up, to keep us present, and to pray attention to precise alignment.
You know BKS Iyengar told Cyndi (and 899 other students in a worksjop she attended - see never moan again about the number of people in Monday evening's class!) that he spent his whole yoga life, say 70 years or so studying the relationship between his big toe and his sternum. That was his life's work. Paying that must attention. That's incredible really. How any of us have an awareness of how our big toe is affecting our practice? Well we should, because I know from my own personal experience that it makesa huge difference. Seriously!
Anyhow so there we were. A whole weekend of practice intended to help us to pay attention, to feel more centred, grounded and stable and better placed, therefore, to cultivate equanimity so that we can "stand in the middle of all this" and see what is going on without getting hooked in. So we learn a little more about our hooks, the things that draw us off centre, away from our grounding, the things that prevent us from experiencing equanimity.
The hooks show up on our yoga mat all the time. The things we like - "I am so attached to this [pose]", and the things we don't like, "I am averse to that [pose]" and the areas where we are ignorant, where we have little awareness (like the fact I have been completely ignorant to the fact I have been hyper extending my fingers all these years in downward facing dog until Cyndi pointed it out and initially I went into denial and concluded I knew best (ego) and then I worked with it and I realised (woke up to/accepted) that she is right) and where we are stuck.
This is the reason I love yoga. It wakes us up. And all we have to do is get on our mat and pay attention. Simple as that.
So anyhow there I was on Monday, after a weekend of embracing the concept of equanimity, doing fairly well I thought, to find that I had reversed the car alongside a granite boulder at Sausmarez Park and scratch our new car. Within half an hour I also unintentionally scratched my son's face when I tried to catch him (not very well it would seem) when he threw himself at me off one of the play apparatus (this is his new thing, jumping without notice off anything at me).
And then 2 hours later I managed to ping my hamstring. Now it has been a long old time since I injured myself in my yoga practice, and in this instance I was demonstrating (too much it would seem) in class that evening.
The funny thing is (or not as the case may be) that my intuition had been whispering about the granite boulders and the car and about giving my hamstrings a break...but that aside, I kind of think it was all meant to happen because it gave me the opportunity to put into practice the practice. And there was certainly a shift.
I didn't react.
No drama about the scratched car. In the past I would have spent hours and hours replaying the whole moment in my head and considering how I would have/should have done things differently and beating myself up and being down on myself. Nope. Nothing. Oh well. Slightly annoying. But it happened.
No drama about unintentionally scratching my son's face. Not ideal I know. He didn't even notice. And I accepted it for what it was. An accident. No need to beat myself up and berate myself for being a terrible mother. I caught him after all.
No drama about the hamstring. Not ideal. But it means I will need to work with it and figure out a way to heal it, and also gain a whole heap of awareness (I suspect) of how much one uses one's hamstrings in a yoga practice.
So you see the practice works. But I know that already. I have faith in the process. This is a practice about being grounded, stable, sane and ordinary. All we have to do it practice and learn a little of how our mind works and get that little bit more familiar with it. Finding that gap. That gap between thinking or getting stuck or losing our way...and not filling that gap with distraction and stuff, but just staying there in that awareness.
It makes me laugh how the Universe provides us with opportunities to put into practice our practice. Not only the situations above but the people in your path and what they bring with them so that you can clearly see the drama, and the mania when people have lost their centre, when they are drawn from one hook to another with no gaps and no stillness and lots of craving (for things to be different) and lots of resistance to how things really are (right now). I am quite sure the lessons will continue for me and for you to learn and the opportunities will present themselves for growth. The mirrors are constantly reflecting back at us.
We meditated with our eyes open, which is a new one for me, but the practice that Cyndi was teaching. With meditation people think we are trying to rid our minds of thought but this is not the case - at least not in any of the meditation studies I have undertaken. In this instance we are just watching the breath coming in and out, feeling it on the top of the nostrils, in and out. And we think. A lot. But we try and catch ourselves when we have started to think and we come back to the breath. Over and over again.
It is actually very simple. But incredibly challenging. Breath in and out. Lost in thought. Breath in and out. Hooked by a thought. Breath in and out. There we go again, planning the future or reflecting on the past. Breath in and out. And on and on. It can be awfully boring. And physically painful. On and on. Thoughts. Breath. Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, ah ha yes, back to breath. We just keep coming back to the breath time and time again.
Cyndi made me laugh (a lot over the weekend as it happens but in this instance) because we had a question and answer session and the questions about meditation came in and people were complaining about the eyes open approach and Cyndi said something along the lines of, "every question about meditation is basically saying, "I don't really want to meditate but I was the results"". So true!!! Who really wants to sit still and watch their breath for hours on end?! Well I mean you do, once you start to experience the positive benefits but this still doesn't make the process any easier!
So its all about the middle path anyway. Not too loose and not too tight. On our mats and in life - let us not forget that what happens on our mat is generally a reflection of what happens in life - our likes, dislikes, the manner in which we create our own suffering, how we berate and judge ourselves, how we distract ourselves from what is actually happening NOW. What is happening NOW?
Arises. Abides. Dissolves.
It all passes. This too shall pass.
With much love and gratitude
x
A week of rainbows
I cannot tell you how amazing it felt to see a rainbow over Stonehenge, one of my most favourite spots, it just has some energy, something about it, some history, some thing that draws me, and indeed Ewan, in. It felt an auspicious moment. I love rainbows too, the chakras shining brightly in the sky, an angel smiling at you, a reminder of the impermanence of all things and the fact they make us incredibly present moment and positive, for the sun is shining despite the rain, and there is a wish to be had in there and a happy time.
We visited Salisbury too, there is something about the cathedral which draws us. I have always felt much comfort from sitting in this wonderful place and praying, its like the prayers are elevated somehow, and the energy in he stones is just so calming, centring and grounding to the touch. It supported us during the IVF treatment for Elijah and we took him to say thanks for the second time this year.
Glastonbury I have already mentioned. Crystals, ley lines and nature based living, you can't beat it. I have recently posted a whole heap of photos on the beinspired Yoga facebook page.
And then on to London for a truly inspiring and amazing with Cyndi Lee, who I first met in her Om studio back in the day in New York a few years ago now, and I attended a workshop with her when I was 7.5 months pregnant with Elijah. This time around Vicki joined me. There is something incredibly light about Cyndi's sequencing that finds you able to access poses in a very light manner.
As a practicing Tibetan Buddhist Cyndi shares her wisdom and knowledge in a very approachable manner, with humour and lightness, not too tight, not too loose, so that there is an expansiveness to the whole practice, light asana, grounded sitting following the breath and an appreciation, in fact a complete awareness of our own basic goodness - our natural state of being...if only we can recognise this.
I love what Cyndi writes: "Yoga is not a magic pill to calm your irritation or stimulate your boredom. It is about riding the waves of life with resilience, strength and basic goodness. Over the weekend, Cyndi will roll out the classic teaching of Upekka, or equanimity, a 7-fold practice that literally shifts the ground of one’s existence, away from habitual drama and toward what Buddhist texts call, “the radiant calm of the mind.” Asana is the perfect vehicle for this practice because you can’t get radiant or calm or present or strong without your body. Be ready to go slow, or a little faster, to pay attention, and not buy into everything you think because it is all impermanent."
Impermanence. We can all do with remembering that from time to time. And keeping it light. And having fun. Yoga is just amazing. Truly amazing. I am incredibly grateful to Cyndi and to all who have shone a light on the path this week and led us from one ley line to another, from one vortex of peace to another, and for all the challenges that present us with a real life opportunity to practice...in every moment...of every day...in every breath...Om Namah Shivaya
With love and gratitude x
and with her Buddhist practice and approach to and her awareness of mind, well the whole approach resonates with me hugely and has left me feeling light, inspired, stable and centred. Long may it continue...equanimity, equanimity, equanimity...
Glastonbury's energy
We've been visiting Glastonbury on a much needed break and an opportunity to check out a retreat centre I am intending to hire next May.
It is a great spot, highly charged and not without its craziness, but a craziness that is fascinating, well to me anyway. I just find this whole energy thing quite amazing. Elijah was absolutely wild in Glastonbury. I spoke to An Angelic Reiki Healer, who explained to me that if people - and especially children - are sensitive to energy then spending time in Glastonbury can make them a little wild, they need to find a way to ground the energy down and that is the reason so many succumb to alcohol and drugs.
Elijah was conceived (albeit via IVF) on a full moon. I gave him Reiki from pure essence, when he was implanted into my uterus as a blastocyst (a day 5 quality embryo) and daily ever since. We both received Reiki, reflexology and massage throughout my pregnancy and we practiced yoga daily (he was in utero at the time, now he just jumps on me!). For a while I have considered that he may be sensitive to energy and his behaviour in Glastonbury brought this home to me.
Ewan and I were a little wired off the energy too, after a day and a half in and out of the town, in and out of crystal shops, in and out of organic and sustainable cafes, we felt we needed some grounding too and we took up the Tor before taking refugee at the retreat centre, 3 miles out of town and by far one of the most incredibly calm, healing, peaceful, grounding and centring places I have ever had the fortune to stay, the energy was just right, we could see the Tor but we were far enough away that we were not overwhelmed by the energy in Glastonbury itself.
Glastonbury lies on St Michael ley line, and at points meets with the St Mary ley line, these are two really powerful energy lines which are said to create a vortex where they meet. As Mano Warren (a healer in the town) says, "What's interesting about Glastonbury, and what I feel makes it so powerful, is that this double line crosses itself in three places in the town, creating an area of ground of the full polarity of energy. If you go and stand on these spots, you get a balanced energy message from the earth, which is often a feeling of peace or balanced harmony."
One of these spots is the Tor, which will explain why we all calmed down when we made it up there (my head was spinning when we started out but I was most definitely must more in body and grounded on the descent). The Tor is also believed by many to be the largest 3D labyrinth in the world - if you look at the Tor, it has terraces on its sides. The belief is if you follow this path to the centre, you go on a journey of re-birth and come out as a new person.
Whether I will return to Guernsey a new person or not is not clear to me right now, but I do know that there has been a shift of sorts, certainly an expanded awareness of the way in which we so easily lose energy with our attachments and trends and frenetic ways of living and our hanging on and our dramas and distractions and all that stuff. All that stuff. All that stuff.
It has reminded me of something I wrote a while ago about conserving energy, which reads a little like this: Invisible, intangible energy is affected by everything in your life: your thoughts, your choice of friends, your colleagues, family members, and how much fun you are having at the time. Having lists of incomplete jobs drains your energy. Worrying and any kind of anxiety rapidly depletes your reserves.
Conversely, some people and places make you feel energised, enthusiastic and positive. The trick is to identify the people who regularly drain your energy and distance yourself from them as much as possible. Choose to spend more time with those whose company you enjoy and who understand and inspire you. There are a number of steps you can take;
Throw out clutter, regularly clear out piles of paperwork and magazines that build up;
Keep your thinking positive;
Vary your routine, doing something different each day;
Move around as much as possible during the day, especially at work;
Make the effort to do something you love, taking time to enjoy yourself;
Set goals, so that you have something to work towards - perhaps make a vision board;
Create time and space for yourself to complete tasks by turning off mobiles and responding to emails or messages only at designated times during the day;
Do not let anger build up – if someone is angering you, express yourself and discuss it with them and forgive, forgive, forgive.
Avoid stimulants such as tea and coffee late at night, get enough sleep, plenty of nutritious food and regular exercise;
If you are Reiki attuned then give yourself Reiki for as little as 15 minutes a day to keep your energy level high;
Spend as much time as you can outdoors enjoying fresh air – natural light makes you feel good, whilst artificial light drains you. If possible, keep plenty of plants in the room where you work, so your environment is oxygen rich.
My experience in Glastonbury took me a little beyond this though. To see how our every action has a result - the butterfly effect (when a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world it can cause a hurricane in another part of the world) - so that the attitude or the state of mind that made a decision to take action, has such a significant effect on our energy levels and the energy of those with who we interact and indeed the energy of the world as a whole. It really is so simple. If only we could see the energetic effect of everything, well how different our initial thoughts, or at least the ones that encourage an action, would be.
But it is even more than that. I feel we - or us as society then - would benefit from elevating everything a little more. Seeing life, situations, interactions, from the higher perspective, a more detached state of consciousness perhaps, a cleaner vibration, "interpreting the events in our lives [and the decisions we have to make] as spiritual challenges that are meant to enhance our growth" (Caroline Myss)
It is truly fascinating.
One things is crystal clear to me - there is a LOT to be said about ley lines. They are incredible and we will certainly be embracing them again...
"The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep" Rumi
With gratitude x
Clearing memories
Clearing memories
You got into my head,
my heart, my soul, so
that I did not know where
to go, how to be, except
with you, with
your energy.
And while your touch sent
shivers down my spine, you
laughed when I said I
simply loved your mind, that
you made sense to me.
But it was too much,
so no slow boat to China
for fear took hold and
you ran where I
could not follow, and I
ran too, aimlessly.
So our love lost is love
lost a lifetime
with you.
But still we smile
because we must to
appreciate what was,
and embrace the certainty
of what will never be, so
thank you, my heart, sincerely.
Tuesday 8 May 2008, Ghandruk.
Moon watching
The Moon has received a huge amount of attention this last week and with good reason in my opinion. Not only did we have a Super Moon, but a Blood Moon and a Lunar Eclipse too!
I am quite sure that I am not the only one who felt its powerful effect as it shone light on the shadow side and enlightened us a little of the nature of our relationships - shone a light on these too, so that we may have gained greater awareness of those no longer serving us - the ones that drain us then - and opened the doorway for new relationships instead.
Not only that but there was an acute sense of groundlessness, so that everything was up in the air. I feel it will take a few weeks now for everything to settle back down again and I wouldn't be surprised if we find ourselves moving in new directions, with greater courage and conviction, heart then, than we may have done previously. This truly is a time to embrace the concept that we can create a more harmonious and authentic reality.
Those who know me well, will know that I am very much a fan of the moon and her beautiful Luna Goddess energy. She is a powerful thing, to all of us no doubt, but especially those who embrace the feminine. It amazes me however, how long it took me to gain this connection, to notice how much the rhythms of the moon affect my own rhythms and the rhythms of others too. Now I love to moon watch and like to know its cycles. It is looking pretty stunning at the moment as it wanes down to a new moon.
The waning moon certainly offers us the opportunity to let go of what no longer serves us - clear out wardrobes, social network and real life 'friends', clutter (in our minds as much as in our houses), letting go of anything inauthentic and draining, so that we can create greater space in our lives (and between our thoughts), so that we may more clearly connect with our Divine self. I don't know about you, but I just want to sit and move quietly and gently on my mat.
That aside, for those who have never watched the moon, well it is a wonderful way of knowing and living with the circular movement of nature. Each of the thirteen moons in a year has its own name and is in harmony with the month it appears in bringing with it seasonal energy.
Since the beginning of time people have been influenced by the moon and its phases – everyone is “moon touched” although some more than others. The moon can influence our energies in a powerful way as I am sure many are aware. For our ancestors moon watching was a part of life as it helped to light the skies and guide hunters, warriors and travellers safely through the dark and back to their tribes.
Furthermore as our ancestors looked to the heavens, they saw how the moon waxed and waned, how night turned into day, spring into summer, and summer into winter. They saw the seas ebb and flow; plants bring forth grain and life burst forth from the womb. Everything in nature seemed to move in harmony with the phases of the moon, including women’s menstrual cycles and pregnancy.
In fact for women, governed by monthly cycles, the moon was particularly significant and still is, as women we subconsciously know our connection with the moon through our bodies. The feminine qualities of the moon are highly celebrated with many moon goddesses linked to “her”. In fact the Great Goddess worshipped in old Europe became equated with the moon, in whose divine light she was reflected. As the moon waxed and waned, so did the inherent power of the Goddess.
he mystical moon ‘influences’ that people once used to use to improve their lives are still important to many pagans and natural spiritualists today. For example, many people are turning once again to the principles of lunar gardening, something that was developed over 10,000 years ago and handed down over generations until they became ignored and forgotten with the development of chemical fertilisers in the 20th century.
Significant moon times are:-
The new moon – this can be a great time for starting new projects, planting seeds, setting out intentions for the moon cycle. Sit outside, burn candles and incense and connect with flowers and plants and seasonal fruit and vegetables.
Waxing half moon – the energy is building so this is a good time to take steps towards realising plans and intentions, a good time to try new and challenging ventures. Get out there and walk in wild places, connect with the birds, animals and signs that nature puts in your path.
Full moon – the day and the night of the full moon is a time when the energy is most powerful. This is a time of great fertility and increased psychic awareness. It is a wonderful time to celebrate the moon and its seasonal gifts by outdoor evening meditation and enjoying drumming, fires, gazing at the moon and singing and dancing with friends.
Waning full moon – as the energies of the moon become less, so it becomes a good time to think of letting go, banishing those things from our life that we no longer need, those things that hold us back. This is the time to do less and reflect more, contemplation, meditate, listen to music and tend to the seeds that you have planted.
Dark moon – this is often a time to take the pressure off, give into the low energy that you may experience, it is a great time to reflect on where you want to go next in preparation for the new moon. So give yourself a break and enjoy sitting outdoors and allow quiet into your life.
Enjoy the moon and her Goddess energy, cleanse your crystals when she is full, and star gaze when she is new.
xxx
The choice for Love (versus fear and anxiety)
I was listening to a talk given by Marianne Williamson (a spiritual teacher) last week, in which she said:
"What is happening in the world today is people are seeking in yoga and in spiritual practice, a place to get out of the insanity. I don't know how people are making it today if they don't have a spiritual practice. But of course we know the answer - the huge success of the pharmaceutical companies who would like to place pharmaceuticals in the hand of every man, woman and child."
This is both interesting and concerning. I agree with her as it happens. I don't know how people are making it today either, and the trouble is, people aren't making it today, at least not without the use of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety tablets
I remember a friend of mine in the UK who worked as a beautician saying that two thirds of the clients using her clinic were on anti-depressants. That's insane. Quite literally!
But the world is insane. It is frenetic and busy and full of distraction and just too fast. People are plugged in and on 24/7, accessible, no down-time with immediate turn-around time. That is a lot of mental movement, let alone sensory movement in a short space of time.
Rather coincidentally, this week alone, a number of ladies have shared how anxious their children have been in recent weeks, from the age of 3 upwards. And students too, suffering with bouts of anxiety. Let alone adults of all ages and all walks of life. Anxiety seems to get the better of many of us at times.
I mean we all get some anxiety right? But for some the anxiety becomes a prevalent and indeed restricting factor in many people's lives, so that it truly stops people living life to the full, in fact it is a constant companion, or indeed enemy of sorts.
It is funny because one day last week I was feeling a little out of sorts and so I took to my mat and sat with it. I could feel this slightly uncomfortable feeling deep in my tummy, this slightly unnerving, butterfly like, empty feeling. Like something wasn't quite right. It dawned on me that it was anxiety showing up. So I sat with that and dropped deeper into the feeling (rather than running away from it as I may have initially preferred) and I guess I wasn't so surprised to find that beneath the anxiety was fear.
FEAR - False Evidence Appearing Real. So I started to sit with it, I knew why it was there, but I quickly realised that I needed to shift my awareness up out of it and into my heart instead. And that is when it all eased. Because in my heart, feeling its beat and texture and the reassuring depth of its nature, well it was a bit like one of those "ah ha" moments, when I realised that where there is love and faith, well there is no space for fear...and certainly no place for anxiety.
There is a lot of strength to come from faith. Marianne Williamson knows this. And I do feel it is incredible that people are making it through life without a faith. And I am not talking religion here, for me religion seems grounded in fear. I am talking about the kind of faith, both in yourself and in the greater scheme of all life, that you actually feel, like deep withinyou, in your heart and soul.
It was this that saved me when I was lost in a bout of intense anxiety a few years now. It surprised me actually as my hi-story has always been depression, so to be diagnosed with anxiety was new on me. It was a horrible, horrible feeling. The depression found me tearful and floundering but the anxiety left me feeling unable to sit still or interact or get out the house or function like a normal human being (whatever that is!).
I did some cognitive behavioural therapy, which was incredibly helpful, but what really made a difference was getting back in touch with the earth and connecting, connecting, connecting. My head was so hectic, the thinking was relentless so that I could not sleep at night, my adrenals were shot and my nervous system was far too wired, and I had to keep moving, my legs were constantly jittering and I couldn't focus on any one thing. These were frenetic times indeed.
What really helped, however, was working with the soil, getting my hands dirty and my heart connected, somehow to the earth, and spending time out in nature so thatswam in the sea and felt the sensation of he cold water on my skin, I sat on rocks and felt their strength and stability beneath me, I watched the stars and the moon and I sat in awe at their magnificence, I walked in nature delighting at the beauty around me, I slowed down, I started to notice the natural flow of all life, the changing seasons, the birds in flight and the trees moving in the wind, and I started to feel a connection again...
I sat in churches and on the fairy ring and I prayed. I moved on my yoga mat and I breathed and I embraced yoga nidra and the benefits it offered in helping me to connect to my body as I felt the earth beneath me. There were crystals too and Bach's Rescue Remedy (these potions are amazing) and some Reiki and reflexology and homeopathy, all helping me to connect, connect, connect.
So that over time my faith was restored again and with that a healing...strengthening, anxiety easing. And a whole new perspective on living. You see things had to shift. That was the point. I had outgrown the life I was living, but I was not listening. My heart was trying to tell me, but I bought into the fear rather than having faith in the process of everything. So I resisted life, tried to control things, and with that lost my faith and connection to the earth beneath me. I was seriously ungrounded, as you would expect!
And I guess that is the reason I am always so keen to share yoga and nature and a spiritual practice because I know much it can help to keep us not only grounded to the earth, but grounded within ourselves, so that when life does get very hectic and frenetic, we can literally keep our grounding.
Interestingly it is worth noting, for me at least, that during this whole anxiety and anxiety recovery time, meditating was even more ungrounding for me, my thoughts were too hectic to sit still and actually it would have ben counterproductive to force myself to sit there with my energy too much in my head, which is the reason a grounded yoga asana practice was so helpful to me, that an conscious breathing and guided relaxation.
I worked quite a lot with Reiki and people suffering with anxiety and depression and I noticed that their energy was never very balanced. There was a lack of connection to source above and a lack of connection to source below and a huge amount of mental activity so that they often didn't seem to be in their bodies at all. And I wonder sometimes if this is the reason people cut themselves, not least to harm themselves, I get that, but also to try to feel a presence, a connection then, pain or no pain, in their physical bodies, a way of trying to ground down.
Of course it is different for everyone, I know that. And we each have to find our own ways, because we are each on our own journey, albeit part of the collective so that our journey will impact on others, and theirs on ours too.
So again we come back to this idea of a spiritual practice. Faith. Love. It is all there. I just wish there was a way I could share this with the anxious children starting school for the first time and the anxious parents dropping them off for the first time. The greater our faith in the process of everything, the more grounded we are, the more we live from the whisperings of the heart rather than the voice of fear, the less anxious our lives will be. Oh and switch off the news and any programmes which stress the nervous system and give you bad memories!
All of this reminds me of a beautiful poem from Emmanuelle's Book II - The Choice For Love:
"What does the voice of fear whisper to you?
Fear speaks to you in logic and reason. It assumes the logic of life itself.
Fear tells you, "I want to make you safe". Love says, "you are safe".
Fear says, "Give me symbols, give me frozen images, give me something I can rely on".
Loving truth says, "only give me this moment".
Fear would walk you on a narrow path promising to take you where you want to go.
Love says, "open your arms and fly with me".
Every moment of your life you are offered the opportunity to choose - love or fear, to tread the earth or to soar to the heavens.
Faith and love.
x