Blog – teaching chakra balancing
Working with people one-on-one is so fulfilling because you get immediate feedback and it’s easier to understand if they ‘get it.’ It’s totally okay to not ‘get it,’ but if you don’t speak up in a group class, you may stay in the dark about what you are trying to learn. Teaching chakra balancing is a way to bring my friends and family deeper into the light, and I recently learned the beauty of sharing it one-on-one. Similar to yoga and nutrition, I see personal energy management as essential for a balance wellbeing. If nutrition is the driver for physical health (body), and yoga is the driver for spiritual health (spirit). Then the mind or emotional health is driven by energy management. Energy management sounds technical, but here I mean it in its most metaphysical form. Since our bodies are generating electromagnetic fields, just like the Earth and Sun, we have the ability to manipulate that energy field. It can pull us down or lift us up. It can also become blocked or clogged by social distress. Therefore, knowing how to read and balance your chakras is an essential component to everyday wellbeing. I recommend beginners work with a pendulum to make visible the rotation of your individual chakra centers. There are 7 main chakras that align with your spine. Bring your full awareness to them one at a time and ask the pendulum to show you how the energy is flowing. It could be strong, weak, open, or closed. Identify the chakras that require a fresh flow of energy and visualize that center filling with white light. It can get way more complicated than that, and I’ve started a video series to show these steps in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr8rCSKiqZ0 Enjoy and Namaste
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I want to share a little starlight with you. I recently experienced the most beautiful mirror of my own gentle soul. While relaxing on the porch among my girlfriends, my dear sister Michelle asked me to lead the small group of us in a moon circle. The New Moon just graced us with her passing and we’ve been passing the idea around all weekend.
Just those few words, ‘lead us,’ struck my most tender desire to share my path. It was a true honor to be recognized for the talent I want to share the most. Better yet, this personal win required no paid advertising, and no social networking campaigns. Just authentic connections among friends. The small request felt like a whole new vista opened up around the bend in the trail. My intentions are no longer met with resistance or indifference. My heart’s song is now being drawn out by loving admirers. What more can a yogi desire? That’s a trick question. A yogi’s path is towards releasing attachment to desire, as well as suffering. Interestingly, my desire was met once I released it as a conscious attachment. Last month I put a lot of pressure on myself to be recognized as a spiritual teacher. That got me no success. So I released that stress, and then it came to me naturally. I’m still not recognized monetarily, but that’s also just a matter of perspective. The genuine enjoyment my girlfriend received met every desire for filling my heart with unconditional love and acceptance. Last night brought strong rain showers at 4pm, which continued through 6pm. I know the farmers market crowd holds steady rain or shine so I made my way over prepared to teach yoga at 7pm. Upon arrival, it was a ghost town. But sure enough, my regular crew was there with smiles shining strong.
My most recent yoga sequence creation involves standing and saluting each direction to begin class. Facing the western setting sun, we began by place our hands on our low back to arch our hearts into the void. Eyes closed, soaking the rays in through the third eye. Turning north, gentle arm swinging and torso twisting to feel the wind under our wings. In this standing pose, I brought up the imagery of a corn stalk in a storm, tall and loose. Feet rooted, arms swinging in the swirling winds. With our backs to the setting sun, we did three sun salutations facing east. Finally, to close our medicine wheel facing south, we activated the bottom of our feet then circled it above the Earth to join our energy with Mother Earth’s grounding flow. Then we sat and continued to awaken our awareness of our bodily sensations with a dry bath. Rubbing our long bones and muscles with rapid up/down strokes of an open palm, and warming our joints with circles around the sockets. On the front body we circled our low bellies to stimulate our stomach and liver. On our low back, we said hi to the kidneys with some warm, tight circles. My two companions and I really enjoyed this warm-up sequence. It felt like natural yoga movements with a layer of shamanic symbolism. I’m not interested in creating my own style of yoga. I am actively practicing being a model of creating your own path of yoga-or any other wellbeing ritual or spiritual practice. Today I woke up knowing my biggest priority was teaching yoga.
I worked with one student, and we both shared a heart-filled practice. I love working with Candler Park Yoga Studio because of the giant plants on the south facing wall. Every time I envision YES Yoga in the flesh, I see a wall of plants. The time is ripe to work with our greatest ally-Mother Earth! Today, I am grateful that I have a garden at my doorstep to nurture and admire. I see birds and bees visit my garden, and my palate has relished in the divine play of flavor parades from my gardens yield. For years I have acknowledged the healing and invigorating space of morning walks. Like first activity upon waking. I used to be the only solo human being out walking at 7am. Now I have a dog, and feel more grounded. It’s easy. To connect more with the Earth, spend time with her. Make your mini dates a daily ritual. Morning or evening doesn’t matter. Intention and presence make the impact. Now, I am in a space of connecting with the Earth as a conscious practice. Folding into the flow of mother nature. I interact with my plants and trees daily. I also tend to a few plots in the neighborhood community garden. That’s where I hope the beauty I create melts more than just my heart. But every beings whom shares the air of the green field. Every soul who crosses the threshold of Reynoldstown. My success today was making money teaching yoga. For so long, that was a dream. Today I’m living my dreams. And I’m thinking, what if it’s not enough? I’m paying rent, but not creating an abundance to save for the future. For dreams not yet envisioned.
Today, August 5, 2015 was a special day. I taught a class in the studio where I took my very first yoga class, eight years ago. The class was worthy of such an exquisite tittle as ‘explorative restorative;’ we went everywhere from triangle-against-the-wall pose to supported bridge pose. I found a rain stick in the studio and turned it during long moments of surrender. In the evening, I met fellow players of the BALANCE game for a pep talk from Day. He delivered some nuggets of wisdom related to the concept-becoming excellent. /// He introduced the idea that we often run a negative mental program that success is having a lot of ‘___’. We can update that with an intention of being successfully. Being has five dimension, which can be measured: Mental, Spiritual, Social, Health, Fitness. In the BALANCE game, measuring success can be done by observing who you are becoming along the way. Successful living is 20% having and 80% being. /// I’m really glad I’m attracting fellow users of the evolution of success like Day and the other BALANCE game players. It really is our choice. The more of us who chose happiness, joy, empathy-the less power goes into fear. The beauty of being success rather than having success, is that being is contagious. When is the last time a baby smiled at you and you didn’t smile back? |
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