Crystals for Saram Pad | The Novice | The First Stage of the Spiritual Path

Tags

amazonite, amethyst, blue aventurine, citrine, crystals, discipline, fancy jasper, first stage, motivation, novice, obedience, onyx, path, petrified wood, practice, quartz, rose quartz, saram pad, selenite, spiritual journey, the novice, transformation, turquoise, zoisite

I am sooooooo excited to be presenting this next series of posts to you! I’ve been thinking a lot about them and its simply come down to making the time to write them. 🙂

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The Top Crystals for Saram Pad: The Novice

Welcome to the first stage of the spiritual journey, according to Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan – Saram Pad: the Novice.

Essentially this is the part of the journey we all experience. It is where we are beginners and we are inspired to be on our path. We are learning and exploring something new. We have very little experience but we are excited! We follow the rules of the path we are given, and do our best.

In The Teacher’s Manual Yogi Bhajan says:

“A novice must cultivate obedience, motivation and discipline.”

When we come onto a new path or even begin a new pursuit of any kind these qualities are absolutely necessary if we wish to proceed and grow whatever the skill is we have. These expand out into all areas of our life. If you want to be a doctor you go to medical school (obedience), study for the exams (discipline) and graduate (motivation), right?

So it is with a spiritual path. Not all of us are seeking enlightenment but whatever drew you to the path will often shift away and motivation goes with it. Sometimes we will find new motivations and sometimes we don’t and we drift. These motivations are what carry us through the challenges and the hard work a spiritual path can often be.

Most paths require discipline because it is through habit we establish norms in our lives. As we establish norms we grow the seeds of our practice. Through our discipline we create a fertile soil for the work to be done, karmas to be erased and rectified, and to create a sustainable elevated frequency to operate from in our lives. Our practice grows stronger and deeper with each passing day we do it.

It’s much easier to learn when we are obedient to those who have come before us and who step into place as our teacher. We can learn faster that way, walk the path they have already tread, and come to know ourselves and the practice deeper. In our obedience we will find ourselves developing traits considered to be “spiritual”, which I like to call “more human”, naturally, as we learn to listen, experience and serve.

So what crystals can support us in this stage? What crystals can help us keep a beginners mind, create faster learning, and give us discipline? Which crystals can help elevate us to the higher realms?

Five Crystals For You

Amazonite: truth teller, speaking the truth, personal truth, boundaries, aligning the inner with the outer and vice versa.

Amethyst: gateway crystal, helps heal addictions/bad habits, helps in meditation, transmutes negativity, protective.

Blue Aventurine: self-discipline, shifting bad habits, helps one take self-responsibility, self-empowerment.

Fancy Jasper: Grounding, helps one to “just do it”, calms the mind.

Onyx:  helps integrate spiritual insights and ideas, helps with discipline and will power, keeps one focused.

Zoisite (with ruby): Strengthens the connection between mind & heart, promotes growth and healing on all levels, helps with ‘rebirth’  process, energizing, opens the heart, teaches surrender.

A Few Bonus Crystals: Selenite, turquoise, clear quartz, rose Quartz, petrified wood, citrine.

This list is by no means an exhaustive list of this part of the spiritual journey. It is however, when I reflect on it, a list of common crystals that help in the beginning of a spiritual journey. Everyone is a bit different so you may feel called to work with minerals not on this list. That’s okay.

These are the minerals that many people are attracted to that begin to open up a whole other world to them. Most of these are easy to find and easy to work with. They will bring you out of this world experiences yet help you stay inside this world.

Most importantly they will help you open up, shift, stay focused, and do what you need to do to get to where you want to go.

What crystals do you find you were first attracted to in your journey?

 

 

Releasing Childhood Anger & Insecurity | Meditations

Tags

anger, childhood, crying, dad, emotions, fear, forgivness, growing up, insecurity, mom, power, release

HOLY CROW!

These have been really intense for me! I am twenty days into doing a daily practice with both of these meditations, and have been following the videos by Catalyst Yogi.

Here’s the link to Releasing Childhood Anger.
Here’s the link to Getting Rid of Insecurity. 

Let’s talk about Releasing Childhood Anger first.

I decided to do this one because of my intuition. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had made the connection between my relationship to the masculine and the flow of money. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some challenges in my personal relationship to my dad. In my logic, beginning to work through what is held in the childhood would be a good start.

My dad is the first experience of male energy I had on this planet in this life and my mom is the first experience of female energy. All the patterns I’ve held in relationships I’ve attracted into my life have, usually, some root in the childhood connections I made with those energies.

The first week I was lucky if I could get through this meditation for eleven minutes without having a break down of some sort. I had to become okay with the fact that I would spontaneously cry when speaking with anyone (in a new city so it was mostly strangers). I was crying every day, as I had feared, but it wasn’t that bad.

I was also in a pretty dark depression (see previous post). I’m not sure how much of that depression was from the emotions processing and from life circumstance versus the effects of this meditation. I know there were several days I was weeping, saying, “I’m pretty sure this is happening because of my meditation practice.”

I’m now twenty something days in, and I feel lighter, like something has shifted. It’s a good day I can make it to 11 minutes. Sometimes my emotions get the better of me. Most days I have a leaky nose and leaky eyes, heat moving through my body, energy shifting, and I find myself mentally talking to the images I see of people I know (mom and dad included), finding forgiveness. Sometimes I am talking to myself, too!

One of the main things I saw in this meditation was the power dynamic of a child growing up. I saw on the left a parent, in the center a box labelled power, and on the right a child. The power sits between the two, and as the child grows up the parent gives increments of power to the child. The child who receives a healthy amount of power as they grow up create a healthy sense of self. The child who’s parent doesn’t relinquish the power in a healthy way has a tendency to grab for power, revolts, and rebels, etc.

The insecurity meditation amazes me almost every day. I cannot believe such a calming mediation exists! In the meditation I don’t necessarily feel calm when I start, but usually by 11 minutes I’m lost in the meditation with no worry about anything else. I feel connected to myself and like everything is going to be okay.

As someone who struggles with anxiety who has not experienced even three quarters of the normal anxiety in the situation I am in right now the past month this mediation is a godsend. I originally did it because I recognized in relationships with partners I had patterns that stemmed from insecurity (even though I tried to hide it!).

I wasn’t expecting it to take away my anxiety too! It makes sense though when I think about it.

I definitely recommend these meditations! I’m continuing to 40 days and beyond. We will see how long they feel good to do. 🙂

What is your current practice?

Depression

Tags

depression, emotions, energy, job, meditating, Meditation, moving, nelson, nelson BC, opportunity, practice, Vancouver, yoga

There are several segments in today’s post ~ look for the headings. 🙂

This is a very personal post. It does not have a lot to do with the yoga practice, per se. If you are looking for meditation and kriya how to’s and the such you will find them in other posts. This is like a journal entry.

Depression ~ The Realization

This past month, October, was a very challenging month for me. I had ample time to work on the projects I love, like writing on this blog, but I found myself in a deep depression for most of the month.

Thus, I was unmotivated, unhappy, with crazy mood swings and energy levels to boot. And no will to get up in the morning and my sleep pattern getting crazy, in the sense it was easy for me to sleep twelve hours in a single day.

Depression has come off and on for many years, and for a long time I didn’t know what this thing was. It was a thing I struggled with but always just made myself deal with life. Always just made myself get up. Made myself too busy to feel it. And disconnected myself from my body and my experience.

It wasn’t until this year, as I lay in savasana one day, questioning myself what was going on. What was this thing where I felt I had no will? What was this thing that caused me to retract from others and hermit? That made it hard to get up in the morning even though life is happening? The answer came to me: Depression.

I called one of my friends, who has a history of dealing with depression, and we talked about it. She confirmed my intuition, and it let all these pieces fall into place about my life and my experiences. It brought me back to the list of self-care items I had made a few years ago in a women’s program.

Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute I had to make conscious choices that would bring me out of the deep dark whirlpool of this emotional sticky tack. I had to move myself slowly and be okay that my best one day would not be the same each day. I had to make lists of the things I did each day so I could see I was moving forward in my life and making changes.

The Opportunity

It lasted for about three months. I really began to feel like myself again in late August and September, even though my anxiety was quite high – I was having trouble finding work.

Late September I received a dream job offer. It required I move to a new city, Nelson, BC, but the promise was a good wage, work in alignment with my passions (crystals!!!) and work that would help me to build a career.

I was excited! Everything lined up easily for me to move there, and I felt supported. I felt like things were finally flowing for me, and I could breathe again. I felt the abundance coming towards me, and it overjoyed me. No more worrying about the rent. I will become financially stable. Yes. This felt goooooood.

The Trigger

I took a quick working vacation I had planned months in advance for a week, and crashed at a good friends house when I came back for a few days. I had to organize the details. I called my new employer to arrange my start date, and he informed me he had sold his gemstone collection.

Which meant my job was gone. {Learned: ask for a contract when moving cities}

I didn’t know what to do. Do I still go to Nelson, where I had already shipped my things? Do I stay in Vancouver and keep working as a barista on Granville Island and try to find a new place to live?

I decided I would go. I decided I would check out Nelson, BC. It had been one of the easiest moves I’ve ever done, easier than moving in Vancouver, even! I had never been there but many people had expressed how much I would love it and how much they would love to live there.

Arrival

I landed in Nelson around October 11th. It was a new city, and I was grateful for a room I had sublet for the month of October and then some. Where I was to live in about a month is also an unknown. Almost immediately though I was struck by a deep dark depression. It was one of the ugliest I had experienced in a while.

I was shocked at the low energy I was experiencing (and still do experience) and the mood swings I had. I couldn’t believe how cloudy it was here, and how short the sun stays out. I couldn’t believe how I did not want to get out of bed.

I love the synchronicity that seems to brew here effortlessly though. I love how all the people seem to be on similar levels – its not a stretch to talk about crystals, yoga, or meditation. It’s a norm. I love how every second person tells me about crystal caves. I love the friendliness and the slowness of time.

Meditation Practice

A while ago I posted about the Masculine Energy and Money. I posted there I had a line up of meditations to do to help me move through my issues with the masculine. About three days after arriving in Nelson, I began that practice, despite my fears that I would cry everyday.

I’m not sure that this practice triggered the depression. I’m not sure if my depression would’ve been as deep if I had not been doing this practice. I know for certain now that I have health issues that need to be looked at that are causing a loss of energy in my day to day life.

Doing yoga and meditation when I am depressed has sometimes been the most challenging thing I can do in a day. But after I do it, I usually feel better. I feel motivated. I feel like I can handle the world again.

It can totally shift how I feel and how I interact with the world. It is so simple, yet it can be such a challenge. It is one of my self-care practices to do yoga and/or meditate every day. It provides me with a sense of grounding. No matter what is happening in a day I have one thing available that is consistent: the ability to turn inwards.

Read Part Two Next Week! Part two details the meditations for Releasing Childhood Anger and Insecurity.

Kundalini Yoga Meanderings in a New Town | Nelson, BC

Tags

class, community, Kundalini, kundalini teachers, kundalini yoga, nelson, nelson BC, sat kaur, sat kaur studio, teachers, teaching

Image done by Jodie Ponto

I’ve been meaning to write here for a while. There are few things I’ve noticed since moving to this new city ( I moved to Nelson BC October 8th):

1) There is one studio to do Kundalini Yoga out of: Sat Kaur Studios*. All the other studios tell me to go the teacher at this studio. Sat Kaur, is a wonderful maternal woman, who has been so kind and a blessing to me living in this new city. I have received the opportunity to sub one of her classes mid-November. I’m so stoked!

*If you are local you will know her classes at the Moving Center. 🙂

2) Since moving here I’ve felt the call to do more yoga with others. In Vancouver it was rare you would find me in a class. Partially it was because of transportation to/from the studio was far, partially it was because I found myself staying away from public transport as much as possible, partially it was because I couldn’t pay for the class and partially it was because I had my own practice and liked it that way.

Yup, those were all my excuses. Lol.

Here, I want to connect with others in any way possible. I want to build a community I know, love and trust here. This is not a big city. There are two Kundalini yoga classes in Nelson regularly. These are Pay What You Can. The classes are a 15 minute walk from my current home. There is not much to keep me from going to a class!

I’m quite enjoying practising in group settings. 🙂

3) Nelson is craving Kundalini Teachers. When I introduced myself to Sat Kaur one of her first questions was: Do you want to teach? Of course! I responded. And now that ball is rolling. We will see how it goes. I’ve heard from her and another teacher that Nelson needs teachers!

The community here seems large and diverse of Kundalini Yoga teachers and participants. There is definitely a familiarity with the practice. I went to one party and everyone knew about Kundalini yoga, and almost everyone had gone to at least one class. Which is pretty awesome!

It’s pretty cool. I’m excited to see where it will go! I will have a weekly class at The Women’s Centre at the end of November I’m excited about! I’ll add a link to the class info when it’s all set up. 🙂

Have a great night!

P.S.
I am personally really enjoying the slower pace offered in this smaller community and the walking distance between things – I love it! The small town feeling is great. I’m manifesting living in a place similar to this with lots of heat and sun though ~ being in the middle of the mountains is not my ideal. I have an understanding of why I’m here though ~ Watch for the next post! 🙂

 

Kundalini Yoga in San Francisco and Sacramento | Mystic Yogini On the Road

Tags

crystal infused, crystal store, crystals, evolution, growth, heart, home, kriya, Kundalini, Meditation, nelson, new, sacramento, san francisco, self-love, travel, Vancouver, yoga, yoga mats

Kundalini Yoga in Dolores Park with Sariah and Seva Simran. 🙂

Life has been a whirlwind for me the past few weeks. I’m finally in a space of settling down a bit more. I stopped doing my meditations as well ~ planning to start doing them again today.

It’s only the mind that makes things complicated. Nothing really ever is. The mind attaches all sorts of amendments to any thoughts we have. A natural way of thinking I suppose, or is it taught?

About three weeks ago I was offered my dream job in Nelson, BC, which is about eight hours north east of Vancouver. It was amazing at the grace that followed: one day later my room in Vancouver was rented, three days later my bike sold, four days later I had a room in Nelson, 7 days later a man came and picked up my stuff in Vancouver & delivered it to Nelson for $50.

Three days after that I left for Sacramento, CA because I had felt a ping to attend a small Transformational Festival called Transcendence. I was very excited because I was working as a crystal healer and teaching yoga there. I taught a Saturday 8 am Crystal Infused Class with 13 people! 🙂

It was a very still class because the set I choose was a pranayama for opening up the heart chakra, and the mediation was the meditation for self-love and acceptance. Normally I try to do a more physical based practice because many people unfamiliar with Kundalini Yoga I’ve noticed like the physicality of the practice, so I was concerned people weren’t going to like the class, however it felt right to teach these in my one hour slot. It was a fun class!

The festival got shut down on Saturday night {due to permits} and I rolled into my favourite city in the world: San Francisco. I would love, love, love to live there one day, or perhaps Santa Cruz. I just love the energy and the people in the area. There is so much happening for Conscious Dance and for Yoga and for the Crystals and Spirituality.

I feel so at home there because there are people there who can meet me and challenge me in so many areas of my own evolution and growth. I feel so much at home and the muse alive in me when I am in the area ~ I fall in love with myself all over again because I can feel myself in the fullest way possible. It’s my home & one day I plan to manifest a visa so I can live there ~ possibly even open a crystal store in San Fran because the city desperately needs it. I have a huge vision for that crystal store…

Anyways, back to Kundalini Yoga! On Sunday I discovered at Dolores Park there was a free Flash Mob Kundalini Yoga class in Dolores Park, and they brought a Gong!!! I was all over that, and enjoyed the class and meditation very much! The teachers, Sariah and Seva Simran were very welcoming and kind. It was really neat to meet some of the community in San Francisco and connect in.

On Monday I left to come back to Canada by train, and went straight up to Nelson, BC. Here I’m finding a lot of support. I’m going to check out Sat Kaur’s class at Sat Kaur Yoga/The Moving Center. That’s the place to be in Nelson, I’ve heard, for Kundalini Yoga. I’m very excited. I really like Sat Kaur.

And my yoga mats are finding a lot of support here. I’ve finally decided how I’m going to work the mats, and am setting up a page here for anyone interested in the hand painted mats I’m creating. I’m super excited about them! Check out the new page! 

Regular Posting will resume soon! Lotsa love!

Daddy Issues | The Masculine & Money

Tags

brunch, childhood, childhood anger, cliff, dad, daughter, destiny, Divine Masculine, father, finance, financial, insecurities, jump, masculine, Meditation, money, root chakra, siblings of destiny

I had one of the longest brunches of my life a couple of Saturday’s ago.

One of my fellow yogi graduates flew in from St. John’s where she’s relocated to after graduating the program. As soon as I found out she would be at brunch I knew I had to go, even though I was 45 minutes late!

We had an amazing brunch, even though there were only four of us attending. It was intimate and easy to connect with these wonderful superstars of light, all of us beaming such wisdom at each other, understanding at such a deep level what each of us was going through, and responding with compassion and full support of our journeys.

I used to roll my eyes when Guru Raj would tell the class we are siblings of destiny, and again when anyone mentioned it because it sounds cheesy. But I really understand it now. It was like no time had passed yet everything had changed. We are so intertwined in each others lives whether we want to be or not. It just happens.

And we are growing closer than we every could have in the course itself. It’s far too busy of a time to form solid friendships most of the time there!

My friend from Newfoundland, T, is a beautiful soul who can light up any room with her Newfie accent, bright smile, and quick laughter. That morning at brunch, we spoke of the one problem that has plagued me for years: financial abundance.

As we spoke it came to surface that probably, if I heal my relationship to my father, I would heal my relationship to money. It’s an aspect that I never really connected before but I’ve been immensely frustrated by the financial aspect of my life.

I’ve read a lot of the financial mindset books, I’ve done online courses, I’ve done meditations (Kundalini and otherwise), I’ve done the affirmations, and so much more. I yell at people when they suggest yet another affirmation or meditation or course. If it were a problem affirmations could fix, trust me, it would’ve been fixed a long time ago.

I sat at the table during brunch weeping. I wiped my eyes with the white cloth napkin and discovered last night’s mascara was still on my face.

“How do you heal your relationship with your dad?” T asked me. “I can just see it! I can just see that you shift this one thing and you will have no lack again! You will be swimming in so much abundance you won’t know what to do with it!

But you gotta do the thing you don’t want to do the most, and walk through that fear. You gotta find what that is, and work through it. I know that you are on the right path and doing your work, you just have to work on this one last piece and it will all click into place for you.”

Weeping, I know its true. I feel I am at the edge of a cliff, and I just have to jump. I’m blind and walking in the dark but I know I’m going somewhere.When I jump off that cliff I’m not going to plummet to the Earth and die. I’m going to spread my wings and fly as if it was the easiest thing to do.

I know the meditations I need to do next to work through this. They scare me. They feel big. They feel like they are life changers. I’m not sure when to begin them because I’m quite enjoying the three I’m doing right now. On the other hand I’ve been struck with insecurities and if I’m ready to for what the meditations are bringing me right now.

However, I have decided when these meditations fall away they will be replaced with these meditations, videos on You Tube by the Catalyst Yogi:

Meditation to Heal Childhood Anger
Meditation to Heal Insecurities

Stay tuned for updates. It will be life shifting. 😉

Research Connecting Father to Money

I related this story to a couple of my personal friends with whom I study business and tantra with and they said it totally makes sense. Because money is a masculine thing, so if my relationship to the masculine is damaged it would affect the flow of money in my life. I never made the connection before!

I read an article I didn’t like the style of at all so its not linked to here, but the author made the relation that healing father issues heal root chakra issues.

Charles Eisenstien Money & the Masculine Essay
Informative article on the Father Daughter Relationship

Meditations Change Everything | Power of Kundalini Yoga

Tags

ancestral karma clearing, ardas bhae, challenge, change, grace of god, Meditation, shift, surrender, unknown

As it often happens, I’ve noticed, when you do a lot of Kundalini Yoga meditations it begins with me not noticing anything really changing. I do one for a week and I add another one. And then I add another one.

Suddenly the world is moving fast. I’m in a stream of energy holding by breath as I hang on to the crest of the wave. Around me everything is changing. Its changing fast, its moving almost effortlessly, and its often overwhelming.

When people ask me how I am right now I don’t know how to answer them. There are so many amazing things happening in my life right now. I can only grin at you. More than one friend has heard about my life as of late and asked me, “What ARE those meditations you are doing?”

And to be honest, I blame all the changes on the meditations I’m doing.

But when you ask me how I am, I don’t know how to answer you. I am freaked out. I am changing. My life is changing. How I perceive myself and the world around me is changing. The way people respond to me is changing. What I do on a day to day basis is even changing.

And I am walking into the unknown right now.

And I can’t tell you where I will be in a month from now.

Because right now, every few days, there is a major shift occurring in my life.

It is amazing to witness. I realize part of what I’m learning is to be okay with the unknown. To be honest, I am surprised I have such trouble with it. I love adventure. One of my greatest fears though is that I will end up homeless again.

Yet I feel the need to surrender to this process and do my best to trust the new path opening up before me will take care of my Earthly needs so much more than anything else.

P.S. I’m still doing the Grace of God, Ardas Bhee and Ancestral Karma Clearing meditations. They actually make a really beautiful combination.

Sunset Kundalini Yoga in the Park | Value | Teaching

Tags

body, flexibility, karma clearing, kundalini yoga, lake, morning sadhana, park, sunset, sunset yoga, teaching, value, yoga in the park

I wish our sunset was this beautiful. It was just a regular ol’ sunset though.

The other day I found myself communicating in a rather harsh way to a new person in my life presenting a new and exciting opportunity. She handled me very wisely and I appreciate her wisdom, however, when I got off the phone I thought to myself, “What was that about?”

I checked in with my body and realized it felt tight and tense in areas that should be relaxed. My jaws were clenched, my shoulders held up, my nervous system shaking. At least I think it’s my nervous system. I felt into the anger that I’ve been feeling come up in my day to day life increasingly.

I realized I’m tired of trying to convince other people of my value. It seems like I’m consistently doing that as a writer, a yoga teacher, a nanny, an entrepreneur, a dancer, a partner, even as a friend. In all aspects of life I walk around trying to convince people I’m worth something of value to them.

The question followed: What do I need to do to convince myself of my own value?

My mind became blank. I don’t know the answer to this question. It’s a very important question though. I’ve been witnessing my value and acknowledging my value for the last month since realizing I don’t value myself. This feels like another layer though: I’m tired of convincing myself and others of the value that I have.

In the silence I decided I need to do yoga. There my answer will come. Or at the very least all the tension and anger in my body aching to be released will be gone.

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Yoga in the Park

I headed over to the park, direct to my favourite spot to do yoga, praying it would be available. With gratitude I pulled out my mat and sat on the dock breathing in the fresh lake air as the sun played on my skin and water. A duck swam up to me looking for food.

I closed my eyes, tuned in, and began my daily meditation series, which includes quite a bit of chanting. The dock moved each time a person or dog walked on it. Their energies shifted my meditation or I shifted their energy. The smell of a joint filled my nose. I couldn’t help but wonder how the meditation was affecting the person smoking the joint. Flies landed and walked on my skin and I tried not to move.

The smell disappeared replaced by the fresh water scent of the marshy lake. A presence came onto the dock and I could feel immediately intense curiosity directed my way. I kept still, focused on my meditation, even though the presence was a huge distraction. I want to look at who it is!

Finally complete I open my eyes to find a middle-aged man whittling a stick. He looks up from his work, “Do you mind if I sit here?”

“Do you mind if I do yoga?”

“Not at all.”

“Perfect.”

After a moment: “Your chanting was beautiful. What was it you were singing?”

I explain to him Ashana’s Healing Ancestral Karma meditation and we sit in quiet for a few more minutes. His curiosity is intense.

“Would you like to do yoga with me?” I ask.

“Really?!”

“Yes.” I smile at his excitement.

He tells me he’s been recommended yoga for his injuries from an accident and that its his first time doing yoga. I explain to him Kundalini yoga, and choose one of my favourite sets to do, Morning Sadhana.

We tune in, and find our sweet spot. The set takes fifteen minutes longer than usual because we stop and chat between postures. We talk about yoga and he tells me what is happening in his life. I’m honoured and I know I’m hear to listen and to introduce yoga to this man. What better way than on a dock on a lake as the summer sun is setting across the water and trees swaying behind us?

During the set I’m amazed at my body. My body has retained flexibility I wasn’t expecting it to since I stopped doing physical kriyas for about a month. It felt great to move in my body in that way – stretching, elongating, flexing, strengthening each muscle. Paying attention to the way my body is moving and where its tight, where the breath goes, where I unconsciously hold myself “together”.

We end our time together, and he says, “Wow. This felt really good. You beat me up you know? I’m going to be sore tomorrow.”

I smile, “That was an easy set.”

He laughs. “Wow.”

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I know I have a lot to offer. I can see it in my day to day life. I feel like its often not recognized though nor is it helping me pay my bills in many cases. It’s an internal conflict and I don’t know all the answers or where to go from here. I feel it inside of me, like I’m cracking a code to a safe, slowly but surely the layers unravel to reveal more.

It all works in tandem. If I don’t see my value, others don’t. If I don’t take actions to recognize and honour my value, others won’t. I feel like as this shifts I will find myself stepping into the true abundance the Universe has to offer because I will see my worthiness.

What can I do to help with this?

Yoga!

What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any suggestions for kriyas or meditations or other ideas?

Sadhana | Daily Practice “Problems” |

I’ve pretty much stopped doing the physical practice of Kundalini Yoga which is a problem for me. My body needs to be stretched and exercised more, and I know it. I’ve been making up excuses which I need to stop doing. I’ve noticed the following things effect how easy it is for me to get myself doing the physical practice:

Having a clean, beautiful, calm space to practice in

This seems to be really important to my subconscious. Last year when I did my first 40 day challenge of physical yoga I was able to do the majority of my practice on a dock of a lake with water lilies blooming. There were tall trees surrounding the dock overarching it, and the was shining every day. It was warm and blissful.

When I woke up in the morning I was up almost instantly and excited to do my practice. It felt good! I looked forward to soaking in the sun and breathing the fresh, clean air, and looking at the water and flowers.

Right now I live in rainy Vancouver. It’s an urban setting and sometimes I can get to a park near my house to practice in, depending on the day. There are a lot more people here though so it can be challenging finding a nice, quiet, out-of-the-way spot on evenings and weekends. I’ve done my practice beside drunk people, beside people fishing, beside arguing couples, with dogs, and surrounded by screaming children.

My house doesn’t have a yard appropriate to practice: concrete back yard, messy front yard. I can do my practice inside my room when my other projects are not taking over my space. Painting a yoga mat though takes up most of the available floor space in the room for the day.

Because of all of these reasons, which are really excuses, my mind will play the card that there is nowhere to practice. Or it’s too much work or time-consuming to find the space to practice. Therefore I shouldn’t practice.

Not feeling pressured for time

As soon as I feel pressured for time it’s challenging for me to relax. I find myself rushing through the postures, and it’s very challenging for me to calm down my mind, which in itself could be and is a practice.

I really dislike feeling I have only five minutes to lie in savasna. I like to have a leisurely practice where I can snooze in savasna if I feel like it, and roll over to journal if I want, before getting up to eat something.

Do the practice in the morning

If I don’t do my practice in the morning I feel off kilter in some way. I also have a harder time fitting it into my day once my day has started. It’s like I’m on a different flow and its hard for me to stop that flow once its going (I’m a bit of a workaholic too probably).

Problem Solved!

Traditionally in Kundalini Yoga your morning practice should be at the time of Sadhana, 4 am to 7 am. These hours are the most potent time for your practice to be done because the sun is just rising and the energy on the planet is strong, clear, and refreshed.

I’ve also been listening to podcasts of people I’d like to emulate and the one thing that keeps coming up is to have a morning practice. I’ve even met people recently who have lifestyles I’d like to be living, and they speak about their morning “hour of power”, etc.

My practice fluxes throughout the day because I’ve refused to change my lifestyle to match the KY lifestyle. I party too much (I love to dance) so often on weekends I’m home at three or four in the morning. Which would make practising at that time an interesting endeavour.

Nonetheless, I’ve decided it must get done when I wake up in the morning. I feel better the earlier in the day I do my meditations, and I feel best when I am doing my meditations and a physical Kundalini Yoga practice. I have been working for the last week and a half to change my sleep pattern so I can get up at 4 am. I’m currently getting up at 5.30 am – slowly but surely!

The setting of my practice space is so important to me. When its dark, lighting a candle and allowing myself the time and space to go inside is a beautiful experience. Feeling my body expand and release the stress it holds from the day before and the distant past is a freeing experience. As my shoulders become more relaxed, my posture straighter, my hamstrings more flexible I fall in love with the practice all over again.

What do you notice stops you from doing a daily practice? How do you resolve that?

Mystic Yogini Interview

Hey there!

Random news, but my yoga mats were featured as part of an interview I did on Hello Vancity! The interview was primarily about my main business, The Crystal Matchmaker, but the yoga mats came up too!

Check it out here!

Pretty exciting!  Never been interviewed before for a newspaper!

Lotsa love!