Month: March 2020

So it has been 11 days since I stopped reporting to my workplace due to the Coronavirus and I have to admit  I have been feeling pretty relaxed.  I made a vow to myself that every day I would take time from  the things I felt I needed to do to exercise and do things that uplift me.  I have found a routine that is quite useful for me and one that I wanted to share with others.

Do things for yourself that make you feel good and bring you real joy.

For me that has been following a daily practice of some type of exercise (a yoga practice, stationary bicycling or taking a walk) along with yoga nidra meditation, chanting with Deva Premal and Miten and their community (on Facebook live at 4 pm EST) and doing a gong meditation (recorded on Facebook with a local yoga teacher) before bedtime.  This has been helping me to keep my energy and spirits high, along with eating good home cooked meals, and reducing my watching of the news.  I am working on maintaining my positive mental state and controlling the things I have some control over while not letting the things I have no control over get the best of me.  So far it is working and I am not obsessing over the fact that I can’t dictate how long the stay at home order will be or when I will be able to return to work.  I am just doing my part to help to keep our streets clear from people that don’t need to be out, which will hopefully this to pass more quickly and to keep a Positive Mental attitude which ultimately helps to keep my Immune system stronger and keep me healthier.

Find your virtual online community of people who do what you love to do and participate in whatever way you can as it helps to keep you from feeling isolated.  We are beings that love to connect and this home-bound time  is keeping us feeling separate, so do something that uplifts you on a regular basis and make the time to do it every day.  You will be amazed at how such a small thing will make a huge difference in your attitude.  One small step can lead to so much more.  Use your time creatively and positively and feel the difference it makes.  When you are more relaxed, then you bring a more peaceful attitude to your home, your family members, your community and the entire planet.

Find your joy, do it daily.  No excuses, Just do it!

 

So I might be one the craziest people to say that I have been enjoying the stay at home order that we got from our state Governor a week ago.  I am enjoying being with my small family, cooking, having time to exercise, doing yoga and meditating. It has been a dream of mine to be able to get back to how I used to work when I was self employed – more on my own schedule and at a pace that felt more natural and comfortable to me.  

At the end of 2004 and the start of 2005, I moved from my home of Rockville, Maryland ( a suburb of Washington DC)  and moved out to Big Sky, Montana. In my mind, I was moving to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and start a yoga and fitness business and what I got in reality was a self created break from all things.  I did a little work and a little bit of volunteering with an organization that helped individuals of all ages with disabilities learn how to get out and participate in Snow sports. My schedule and life were so much more relaxed as I jumped off of the hamster wheel and was just living.  My days were spent doing what I wanted to do in pretty much whatever time frame I chose. I didn’t realize how much I needed to just relax and just be. I had made a small group of friends that I met through various activities I participated in and spent quality time with my dog and cat. It sounds pretty dull as I write this but was some of the most amazing times I can recall.  This past week reminds me of that time, in a sense, I am waking when I want, I have no set agenda and I am choosing to make time for some of the activities I love along with preparing nourishing home cooked meals each day. Dan and I have time together and time apart in the house to do our own activities which fit our individual personalities.  

Yes there is the stress of the unknown and the worry of finances for the long term, but I am realizing like all things in life, there is balance.  I am choosing to accept the things I have no control over and letting my faith in God and the divine plan just work itself out. I realize that whether or not I am happy or not happy, the circumstances will remain the same.  So I am choosing to make lemonade from the lemons that we have, or in our house chocolate banana bread from the old bananas we had in the kitchen.

The past few weeks have been challenging while preparing for the eventual lockdown in our state of Maryland.  As of Monday March 23rd, as a collective, we went into a lockdown of non essential personnel to stay home and try to reduce the number of people who would get sick from this Pandemic. My profession of Physical therapy  is considered essential, however, I decided to not go to work.   This  time has been an interesting opportunity for self reflection, as I made the choice not to go out and be in harms way or to be part of the problem of spreading potential germs and possibly being a carrier and getting infected.  Initially as things were ramping up, there was a lot of busyness to get the nest ready to stay home for an undefined period of time, and now as we are supposedly in it, we are just doing things to keep ourselves occupied.  My first several days have been  spent to just find ways to meditate and to be in community with like minded souls in my Sangha ( spiritual community) in my local area, friends who I know in the country and others who I don’t know.  there has been a great source of comfort for me in meditating with others and try to stay relaxed.

It feels weird to be on a cycle of no real routine, except to do the things I feel need to get done and realize that is so arbitrary.  My cycle revolves around mealtime, meditation and doing some work that feels productive.  Even when I had a time in my life that I was not working a regular job, I had routines and I didn’t feel so much like I had to be a ” Human Doing”.  I know  it took time to get to that place and I will again find that rhythm of not needing to be productive at all times.  For now,  I am just following my own rhythms and being in a household with my husband and our 4 cats who also have their own schedules.  It will be an interesting time to see how I use this opportunity for growth and to maximize my free time to study, work on my blogging, and to just get back to being a Human Being.

There are many tools that I have been using during my personal healing journey. Some have been picked up off and on and some are used on a regular, ongoing basis. I have found in the past 20 years or so, that I practice some form of yoga and/or physical exercise to keep my body healthy, limber and strong.   I have preferred something of a moderate pace, like walking or swimming to activities that are super intense. Yoga with an emphasis on breathing and holding postures for a moderate length of time, suit my temperament and body type. I have tried many other types over the years, but have found for the past 10 or so years that this works best for my body now.   In combination with the moderate types of exercise, I believe that performing some form of meditation is critical for me. I find that it varies based on my mood and daily needs. I know that having a set routine is probably best, but given my lack of routine in the overall schedule this also seems to work. I will go into further detail of these separately, but they can include Yoga Nidra (guided meditation), seated meditation, kirtan (spiritual singing or chanting) or meditative coloring. Yoga falls into the two categories of a physical and a meditative practice given the style of yoga I practice and teach.

My goal each day is to have a schedule that includes quiet time with some meditative activity, some physical activity, time to prepare some food that we will eat, some time to just “be” with my husband and cats and of course time spent working. In order to have control over what goes into my body, I try to cook several times per week, food that we can have for at least 4 or so meals. It is my goal that we don’t eat more than 2 meals out per week and usually less. In my desire to have control over what we eat and to manage our finances, it makes the most sense to prepare our own meals. Over the course of my life I have enjoyed cooking and meal preparation. Coming up with interesting meals and variety along with eating healthfully is always a challenge, but one that just needs to be done. I joke that I spent much of my free time grocery shopping or in meal planning & preparation.  We try to make it an enjoyable activity since we do it so frequently and I am fortunate to have a partner who shares in the workload. How we eat and how we think of food impacts how we feel and our whole life, thus the need to be happy about it. We have a small family unit of 2 and are both interested in eating similarly, so it is not a huge challenge for us to maintain a healthy lifestyle

  Daily Options of my Self Care routine:

• Physical Exercise: stationary bicycling, swimming, walking
• Yoga
• Meditation techniques including : Yoga Nidra, Seated meditation, mantra repetition, meditative coloring
• Body awareness exercises & relaxation techniques
• Angels, Guides, Masters ( through card readings or books)
• Reiki or Energy healing
• Essential Oils
• Crystals
•   Receiving Bodywork- Massage & Craniosacral Therapy
• Spiritual reading 
• Music: kirtan – chanting, singing, playing  various instruments
• Healthful eating
• Right Company

Every day is different, but each week has elements of all of these things. It keeps my life interesting and allows me to satisfy my need for body, mind & spirit renewal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After meeting Yogi Desai  in 2003 and discovering Amrit Yoga, I became interested in exploring the more spiritual aspects of yoga and energetic presence.  Amrit yoga teaches you how to get in touch with energy and how to stop wasting your own vital life force. (More on Amrit Yoga in another blogpost or see links to AYI for more information)  To get deeper into my own practice, I started to work with more than just the postures and explored the breathing exercises (pranayama), yoga nidra (guided meditation) and nada and kirtan (yoga of sound & chanting). I have been incorporating items such as crystals and essential oils and sound (singing bowls & chanting) to work with increasing my vibrational frequency.  I have found this to be helpful for healing at deep and profound levels and I continue to discover new ways to work with them.

We are energetic beings and there are many tools that are available to help us to heal and create optimal health, many of which are not recognized in our traditional model of health.

 How we use our bodies, how we think and what we think about, who we associate with, what and how we eat are all directly related to the health and well being of our body-mind spirit complex. It is suggested that we use a minimal portion of our brain in our daily life, we repeat the same thoughts over and over (most of them negative) and do not use all of the senses we have on a regular basis. We have the ability to change and to grow and to create new neural  pathways in our brain in order to keep learning and using more of our brain and especially in more useful ways.  It is our job to learn how to tap into all of the resources that we have available to us, including our under-utilized sense of intuition. This is an area that is not taught to us in traditional ways and I believe we are born with it just as we are born with our other senses. Some people remain tuned into it and learn to live and make decisions from it, while others shut it out or totally ignore it.

I have started to work to engage this sense again and use it as I do my other senses. It takes time and a sense of curiosity to engage with, but I feel like it is the missing piece to my inner intelligence.  I believe that my guides and angels have always been there protecting me and guiding me, but I have been at a complete loss how to connect with them.  This is slowly changing with my desire and practice.

 Over the years my yoga practice has given me the space to develop my spiritual side and contemplation and for creating quiet space in my life. My journey continues to evolve as I discover and become more engaged with my energetic presence, nurturing it and using it in the  healing process for myself and others.

The tools and techniques I list in my next  post seem like they are many, but they really are just ways to enhance your interaction with your energy body.  This has been an exploration over many years for me and one that has been intuitive and internally driven! 

I believe that it has been my soul’s journey to remember these tools to help me to become awake and aware in the ways I now am, and to live the life my soul came into existence for.  The journey has been a long time in its evolution and has required all of the experiences that I have been through (good and bad) and continue to go through to amass the knowledge and wisdom that I am sharing.  

I have had my share of traumas to my body and heart, as we all do, which has created the opportunity to evolve and grow. I do know that love and security has helped me to get to the place where this has been possible. Having a wonderful partner, my best friend and husband Dan, has allowed me to evolve individually as we grow together. He has been a nurturing presence in my life which has allowed me to make this journey to wholeness

I have been fortunate to have people over the years to keep me on my path and to teach me skills and to give me guidance. There is one person in particular, who has always been there to keep me moving in the right direction. He has helped me to recognize how important it is to finally share my journey and share my  own personal “Journey To Wholeness”. Without his loving “kick in the pants”, I am not sure I would have finally found the discipline to make the time to densify the information, as he always tells me. When ideas are in thought form, they are not action, as he always tells me I must put it down (on paper or in my blog) to make it happen. So for you Rev. James  DeBiasio…. here is the start of sharing my journey.  I hope this ongoing process of sharing will help you to start your own inner journey to wholeness.

The journey of life has been an interesting one over my lifetime of 50+ years.   It has taken many unexpected twists and turns that I could have never anticipated.   The best and the most fulfilling part has been since I have been awake and on a conscious path.  My life has had waves of ups and downs ( as we all do) with some being really big and forceful and some more gentle. The biggest and most difficult ones were certainly the most challenging to navigate but provided me with the greatest lessons and led me to the greatest realizations.  Those that have been my greatest teachers and led me to learn and to utilize the skills I rely on a daily basis.

 Being a  survivor (not a victim)  has taught me to take the lemons that life has handed me to make the sweetest lemonade I could imagine. For it is only when I struggle that I can really appreciate the beauty and the joy that life has to offer.   In this blog, I will be focusing on sharing the wisdom and the gifts of the difficulties I have survived in 2 near death experiences along with the other gifts of blessings I have received in life. I have learned how to live happily and  joyfully while sharing the gifts I have been blessed with and use the techniques I have learned on a daily basis to overcome the challenges from the traumas that I experienced that still reside in my body and mind.

For the past 37 years I have used a variety of tools to heal  all the aspects of my being: physical, emotional, spiritual and mental. Working with and  healing these parts of myself, came gradually and at different times along the journey, through the help and teachings of many along the way.

  Physical Self:

When I was a younger person, I felt that “perfecting” the physical body, through exercise classes ( participating and then teaching), weightlifting & competing in bodybuilding, training for and competing a triathalon, was very important.  Along the way, I received a degree in Kinesiology from the University of Maryland College Park, which gave me useful information about how the body works. For about 5 years, I worked with others to become more fit and healthy as I worked in many fitness centers in Washington DC and Maryland, teaching exercise classes and doing Personal Fitness Training.  During that time, I realized I needed to have a better working understanding of the body and decided to pursue the path of getting an education in Physical Therapy.  

  Little did I know that would take longer than anticipated due to an unknown obstacle that would prevent me from starting school right away but would make me a much better and more empathetic therapist and human being ( more on this later).  I became involved with Yoga while I was the director of an exercise program at a fitness center on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, around 1987. I studied Iyengar Yoga at Unity Woods Yoga Studio (one of the top studios in MD ) and learned the physical form of the practice of Yoga for a decade.  In the early 2000’s while I was teaching other type of exercise classes, I took a short Yoga Teacher Training, so that I could also teach Yoga. I was mostly interested in the physical side of life and taught Yoga classes for many years in a variety of settings: mostly fitness centers and community centers.  Yoga had not yet become the IT thing yet that it is today, but was starting to become more mainstream than it had been since the 1960’s! It was not the business enterprise it is today where there is a class or studio around every corner! 

Spiritual Self

 Fast forward to 2003 and I started to become curious about my spiritual nature and delved deeply into “finding out about who I am” and what that actually means!  The first time I remember doing this as an adult is when my father had a serious illness and a very close brush with death. At that time, I had a conversation ( or prayer) with God or someone I didn’t really know much about.  I grew up as a Jewish child, and I had interest in my religion, but young adulthood and a broken family diverted my attention from all things spiritual and religious. I had dabbled in reading about religion over the years after my Hebrew school training as a child, but had no formal experience with going to Synagogue, Church or belief in one method of accessing God or divinity after about the age of 15.  I decided to have this conversation with the unknown ( as many people do when they feel unable to handle things on their own), and make a deal that if my father survives his emergency surgery that I will accept him as he is and try to be the best daughter that I can. Now at that time remember I don’t even know what I am asking or who I am asking this to, I just know I should pray or ask. That is a long story, but will come back to this too eventually,  I just realize I am starting to get beyond the Physical self and start to recognize myself as a Spiritual being. At the time when we are trying to get my dad situated in his life and establish a new normal, I realized I want to study Yoga in a more thorough way so I found out about Yogi Amrit Desai and inquired into the teacher training program at Amrit Yoga Institute. I knew nothing about him or his teachings but for some reason, I felt compelled to look into the training with him.  I spoke to a few people on the phone and after going with my gut reaction I realized that I should study with him. This was my first time really connecting with my intuition in a positive way after many years of shutting this down. So I signed up for what would be a life changing experience with Yogi Amrit Desai, founder of the Amrit Yoga Institute in 2003. I went through the 500 hours of training to become a Yoga teacher and eventually studied Yoga Nidra with him and his daughter Kamini Desai.  This began a lifelong connection with them and my sangha ( spiritual family) which helped me to deepen my connection to my own spirituality. This is a process that continues today and each and every day as I understand that I am a spirit having a human experience, rather than a human having a spiritual experience

 

 

 

 

 

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