(A picture of 70 year old Dharma Mittra)

Namaste!

Surprisingly, it's a cloudy day here in Dallas. I was imagining sunshine, but it's nice to feel a little more justified in retreating within today.

It's been a busy Spring already. This weekend I'll be attending a Yoga workshop with Master Yogi, Dharma Mittra. He couldn't be here at a better time to impart wisdom, inspiration and guidance. Speaking of Spring, I've been having an insight into the cyclical nature of all things, which in Yoga is called Vinyasa. A Vinyasa, which is also a popular style of Hatha Yoga, is anything with a beginning, middle and end. Everything in life is a Vinyasa, a cycle...each breath we breathe, each day, each month, each season, year, etc. The Yogis realized the significance of the seasons which is why, for millennium, they have been honoring the seasonal shifts with the ritual practice of 108 repetitions of Sun Salutations, Mantra, minutes of Meditation, etc. 108 is a significant number in Catholocism, as well, with 108 beads on the rosary. The sun is 108 times bigger than the size of the Earth...there are many other qualities to the number 108 which you can read about here...

What's really been resonating with me this Spring, for the first time ever, is how important it is to honor each phase of a Vinyasa, i.e. the beginning, the middle, and the end. So, that means we have just completed the beginning part of the Vinyasa of Spring with the beginning phase of the cycle ending on April 20th. I have been growing in many powerful ways since the beginning of Spring, and even since the end of the Winter Vinyasa. OK, so this might get confusing here...but, in the beginning part of the end phase of the Winter Vinyasa, (so, the week before February 21st) I began activating many powerful changes for myself and my Yoga practice. These changes have given me a lot of energy and inspiration over the last couple of months. Last weekend, I began feeling fatigued...as I went throughout the week this week, I started to realize why. Not only have I been healing from a lot, including the passing of my father which is still incredibly intense and hard to believe he passed away only 5 months ago, but there have been many other changes I've been growing through, including finding the will and determination within myself to grow and strengthen during challenging times. (as we all have been challenged to do) As I mentioned in a previous post, since the beginning of the end of the Winter Vinyasa, I've been meditating daily, practicing Yoga consistently, including hot Yoga at least weekly, eating even healthier and being more active. These actions have been giving me much energy and inspiration, but when I started to feel tired last weekend I realized I would need to take time to rest. Essentially, I'd been going, going, going for about two months, including teaching Yoga workshops/classes several of the weekends. One of the blessings of loving my work is it doesn't feel like work. There are times when I look back and realize I haven't taken much time to rest...which is not what Yoga teaches. In fact, Patanjali says one of the obstacles on the path of Yoga is overexertion, as well as, overeating and overtalking. At first when this came up for me this week, I could only remember the overeating and overtalking and was thinking the 3rd obstacle was laziness. But, ironically, it turns out it is overexertion which is a really profound awareness to have in how important it is to not overdo and take time to rest.

So, I made that commitment to myself that I would take time to rest this week and so I am. It has been healing and cathartic to take time to be, breathe and feel everything I have been through and am growing through. As I made this choice for myself, I realized that perhaps what I was feeling was in some way connected to the phases of the Spring Season/Vinyasa. Anytime we complete one of the phases of a Vinyasa, it is significant. And, we just completed the beginning phase of Spring on April 20th. If you were feeling tired this week, there's a good chance it's because you have needed to take time to feel the profoundness of what you've grown through, even just since the beginning of Spring on March 20th. From now on, I am going to be more mindful of what I'm feeling as I approach the 20th/21st of any month, because at that time we are completing one of the phases, either the beginning, middle or end, of the seasonal Vinyasa. So, as May 20th approaches, I will be more conscious to remember what it is I've grown through over the middle phase of Spring. And, as Summer arrives on June 21st, I will be teaching a special Summer Solstice class at exhale to honor the powerful ending of one season and the significant new beginning of the Summer Season/Vinyasa.

May the middle phase of the Spring Vinyasa be filled with expanding Light, Love and Consciousness...

Om Shanti! Read more

Here's a couple more pics of Yoga in the H2O.

It's been a busy week. The Easter Illumination Yoga class last weekend was awesome. It was a smaller group, which I imagined it might be given the Holiday, but it was no less special. It was as meaningful of an experience to me as any class ever.

I feel so grateful to be blessed with opportunity. This weekend I will be teaching a Yoga class representing lululemon athletica at SMU for a group of women students there. I look forward to sharing the gift of Yoga with them. Next weekend, the beloved and incredible Dharma Mittra will be here in Dallas and I'm thrilled I get to study with him again this year. I can't think of a better time to be with a Master Yogi than now, when inspired wisdom and true guidance can offer us such powerful and positive direction in growing through the challenges (opportunities) we face.

I wanted to share a couple of more pics with you...(Kathleen Wilke, the photographer, named the one on the right Celestial Prayer...she edited some stars into the photo (click to enlarge it)...I love that!)

I will be back in the coming days to share more thoughts and Yoga inspired words.
In the meantime, be well...and if you paid anything for your taxes, be sure you sent your currency of money with a positive blessing connected to it. If you didn't, there's still time to align your positive thoughts with your flow. At the very least, connect a positive prayer for our country with your contribution.

Namaste!

p.s.-Oh ya...and there's a pigeon nest outside my door on my patio with two eggs in it. So, I'm going to get to watch baby pigeons hatch and grow. What a blessing to get to witness Mother Nature and the rebirth of Spring in full-effect within me and all around me. I'll post pics! Read more

(click the pics to enlarge)
OK, so I had to share a couple of these pics with you...to the great Mother who birthed us into Being...

Have a great weekend and thank you Kathleen!

Namaste!
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Oh my gosh...first of all, my eyes are burning and everything I'm looking at right now has this haze around it because I spent three hours in the pool being photographed doing Yoga poses by this awesome photographer in Dallas, Kathleen Wilke. I haven't spent that much time under water since I was a kid. And, a lot of times when I was a kid I would where goggles. I had forgotten what it feels like to have chlorinated blood-shot eyes...it burns and even makes it hard to concentrate...I don't recommend keeping your eyes open for very long in a chlorinated pool. But, I did feel like a kid again. One of my fellow Yoga friends was also photographed with me and it really did feel like we were 8 or 10 just playing in the water. It was awesome. I was just saying in class yesterday how powerful it is to consciously connect with the elements. (especially now in the Spring as everything in Nature is being energized by the expanding sunlight.) As children, we were always immersed in Nature. For most of us as adults, it requires a little more of a conscious effort. I was saying how powerful it is to practice Yoga poses outside, on the earth, in the sun, feeling the air, and if possible, by water. If we are ever feeling energetically depleted, one of the best remedies and reenergizing techniques is to be in Nature, and of course, practicing a few Yoga poses to really absorb the energy, is even more powerful than just walking, etc. The reason why the elements energize us is because we are the elements. Our body is mostly space, followed by water, earth, fire and air. We are a microcosm of the macrocosm, as we know, but sometimes we forget the reason why Nature is so powerful for us is because it reconnects us with the pure essence of ourself. No wonder why kids have such boundless energy, because they are constantly connected to Nature's infinite energy supply. So, I'm glad I got to take my own advice because I got to absorb it all spending so much time outside today...

There's so much I could write...it's been a while since I last posted. Sometimes, I want to share my whole life story with you, the True Yoga Blog has often felt like journaling to me. But, to spare you, I will say this. Life is good. The experiences we are growing through are ever-increasingly awakening us to the preciousness of life and the present moment. It's a gift to be awakened, and often, pain is one of the most powerful illuminators. What's happened in our world recently has shook us out of our comfort zone. Or, as Shiva Rea would say, it's been a Mooladhara (1st Chakra) shaking and awakening. And, we are blessed to realize our true security is not fiscal but spiritual. This teaching is scriptural and the strength of Spirit is found in ourself as we realize Sangha, the gift of spiritual friendship and community. I'm inspired when I think of the community that's evolved through the True Yoga Blog, and the community of readers that has grown as we share in these thoughts and ideas together, awakening us to new states of awareness individually and collecitvely. In one of the books I'm reading right now called The Mystery of 2012 it talks about the rapidly evolving consciousness because of the profound interconnectedness of everything these days, due to the groundbreaking pathways of communication we've realized over the past, (it's hard to believe), but, just 20 years. (not even that long)

"If you had told Mozart that in the future humans would own tiny boxes the size of a coin, made from some strange material that was neither wood nor metal, with two strings coming out of the box that, when placed in their ears, would enable them to hear any of his compositions as clearly as if they were in a room with an orchestra, would he have believed you? On the contrary, he would probably have thought you mad.

THE OMEGA POINT
One person who believed our destiny was indeed a collective spiritual awakening was the French priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Exploring the evolutionary trends toward greater complexity, connectivity, and consciousness, he argued that humanity was moving toward an "Omega Point" - the final end and goal of evolution.

He believed that the universe had been through several major stages of evolution, starting with what he called "cosmogenesis," the birth of the cosmosphere, the universe. Next was "geogenesis," the birth of the Earth (geosphere); following that, "biogenesis," the birth of life (the biosphere). With human beings, there came "noogenesis" and the "noosphere," the sphere of thought. He predicted that the final stage, the one that led to the Omega Point, would be "Christogenesis." This would be the birth of Christ consciousness, not in an individual but in the collective-the spiritual birth of humanity as a whole.

Teilhard de Chardin believed this Omega Point would happen thousands of years in the future. Like many others, he did not take into account the implications of ever-accelerating change. In his later years, he commented on the impact of radio and television in bringing humanity together. Technologies like these, he said were bringing the Omega Point much closer. Just before he died, the first computers were being developed. Perceiving the potential of this new technology, he predicted tha they, too, would bring the Omega Point even closer. If he had lived to see the emergence of the Internet, he would probably have realized that the Omega Point could come very soon indeed.

BREAKDWON OR BREAKTHROUGH?
When we look at what is happening in the world today, it is understandable that we might scoff at the very idea of a collective spiritual breakthrough. The daily news may well lead us to believe that we are heading ever more rapidly toward breakdown rather than breakthrough.

That is, indeed, one likely possibility. I do not want to downplay the dire urgency of the world situation. If we don't make some radical changes, we are surely headed for disaster of one kind or another.

I also believe that positive change is possible. If we can develop the wisdom needed to navigate our way through these turbulent times safely, the potentials are staggering and unimaginable in scope. Let's put our hearts and minds to proving that we can pass Buckminster Fuller's final evolutionary exam and become a truly magnificent species. We are, after all, our only hope. - The Mystery of 2012

One of the things you can do is take positive action. Of course being in service is one of the best ways we can take positive action. One of my teachers says the most powerful practices are Study, Service and Meditation. When we yoke these three practices together it becomes a trinity and amazing things awaken within us and around us. The one I get to be committed to, that I have yet to develop a consistent practice with, is service. It is my commitment to awaken this third practice as I grow into the Spring.

I also encourage you to take personal action, meaning, what are the ways in which you can better yourself. Of course practicing Yoga is one way. But, our Yoga practice must go beyond our weekly practice. That's why I'm encouraging each of us to cultivate a daily pracitce of Crow Pose throughout Spring. The reason why I am suggesting Crow Pose is because it is the foundational arm balance in Yoga. The arm balances are the way we awaken optimal core strength, there is simply no other way to awaken your core strength that deeply. So, the arm balances, and specifically, Crow Pose, is just a place we get to grow into and practice, consistently, if we aspire to realize real progress and positive change. What kind of progress awakens from a consistent practice of Crow Pose? While each of our practices evolve in a personal way, some of the awarenesses I've awakened to through Crow Pose are that it activates Manipura Chakra (3rd Chakra). The 3rd Chakra is the center of will and determination, self-confidence and energetic strength. It is the place where we realize our potential, what's possible when we commit ourselves to a vision. As we stoke the fire, which is the element connected to 3rd Chakra, unhealthy, heavy egoic habits are dissolved and the lightness of inspiration is awakened. It literally strengthens your energetic field (aura) causing impure influences to be impenetrable, especially the negative intentions of other people. So, yes, Crow Pose is all this and more. Start practicing it each day, for just a few minutes, and you will be amazed at what transforms within you and all around you as we grow into the Spring season of our Soul.

Namaste!


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