Yoga Nidra Dyad

Yoga Nidra Dyad

What’s a Yoga Nidra Dyad, why can’t you make a Yoga Nidra script for a dyad, and why are Yoga Nidra dyads so transformational?

Yoga Nidra: The Yoga of Sleep

Yoga Nidra is called the “yoga of sleep” but don’t let the name fool you, it’s actually a pathway to waking up. What you wake up from is the illusion that your life is ordinary, predictable, and broken. What you wake up to is the magnificence of your True Nature, that of Awareness itself. This “waking up” not only makes for transformational personal and spiritual growth, healing, and wholeness, but most satisfyingly helps you to live your current life, rich with joy, clarity, and presence.

Yoga Nidra is a pathway to inquire into and cultivate a tangible relationship with your most eternal and perfect Self, that of Awareness itself. To rediscover your essential Self, one must cultivate greater Awareness by first dis-identifying as all illusory parts of our being, our ego. The ego in this context is any finite, limited, or changeable part of being, e.g., body, energy, thoughts, etc. In other words, your ego is anything that’s not your eternal Self, the part that comes from Source. In Yoga Nidra, another name for the layers of your ego is the maya koshas, a Sanskrit word meaning “the sheaths of illusion.”

Maya Koshas: The Layers of Illusion

Yoga Nidra uses the maya koshas, the sheaths that obfuscate your True Nature of pure Awareness, as the essential tools to illuminate Awareness. This happens because through all the things you can be aware of, you illuminate Awareness itself. Yoga Nidra leads you to be aware of your body, your emotions, your thoughts, etc, the shows you that what those all have in common is that you’re aware of them. Essentially, instead of identifying as the costumes, the changeable and illusory elements like body emotions, thoughts, etc., Yoga Nidra helps you understand yourself as the thing that underneath the costume, Awareness. BUT, since the costumes are part of our existence, we get to put on the costumes again but with increased clarity, purpose, and perspective. Yoga Nidra is an incredible practice that helps you live more fully because you’re more sure of your True identity.

“Great, I’m Awareness. That that still doesn’t explain how one practices Yoga Nidra.”

Well, most often Yoga Nidra feels like a guided meditation where the practitioner invites you to relax and helps you do so by layering your Awareness. In other words, the facilitator invites you to be aware of your maya koshas which are (but not limited to) body, energy/emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and even bliss. Practitioners are invited to merely witness whatever arises in their field of attention (so long as it feels safe and doesn’t trigger trauma), whether by the facilitators suggestion or if it arises spontaneously.

You’ll often start a Yoga Nidra practice with an intention for practicing called a Sankalpa, establish an inner-sanctuary through a brief visualization, then the facilitator will invite you to be aware of your maya koshas by leading you through something like a body scan, then onto your prana layer, emotions, thoughts, etc. all the while practicing merely welcoming, recognizing, and witnessing whatever arises in your Awareness.

This gets a little meta but hang with me …

How Opposites Reveal the Oneness

Throughout the practice, a facilitator may invite the practitioner to be aware of opposites—feeling right hand then left hand, for example. At first, the facilitator invites the practitioner to merely witness the two objects as separate sensations. Then, the facilitator may have the practitioner experience them simultaneously. The part of you that can witness two seemingly opposite things is that which does not exist in the realm of opposites. The part that can feel both simultaneously is the part of your that is the Oneness, Source, Awareness itself. See where I’m going with this??? This action of holding opposites overrides the rational thinking mind, one of the most pernicious koshas—great for studying for the bar exam, terrible for experiencing the realm of Oneness.

The maya koshas such as the mind are illusions because they are changeable, here one moment gone the next. They exist in a realm of binaries, one of this or that, have or have not. What ancient wisdom teaches and what Yoga Nidra helps you to experience (not just theorize about) is that the part of you that never changes is Awareness. It’s also Source itself. So, Yoga Nidra helps practitioners identify as unchanging Awareness rather than the changeable koshas. Read more about how opposites reveal Oneness

Awareness is your True Nature, that which is aligned with and as Source. It’s your most natural way of being. It’s just that we naturally tend to identify as all the stuff that we can feel, touch, see, think, emote, etc. The problem is that all that stuff is changing all the time and can never be the eternal, most real part of our Being, the part that always is. But don’t despair because those parts exist as the best tools we have to illuminate what we truly are, Awareness itself.

“Ok, cool. I can experience myself as Awareness by layered awareness and by negating opposites. What is a dyad again?”

So, a Yoga Nidra dyad is essentially doing what Yoga Nidra is so good at doing, coming to know your True Self (Awareness) though all the objects you can be aware of, but instead of following a facilitator’s suggested layering of objects to be aware of, the practitioner instead indicates what they are aware of in the moment and the facilitator helps them to simply witness those things. In this way, instead of the facilitator leading the practice, I like to think that it’s the practitioner who is directing the show.

Why Dyads Are So Effective

The facilitator’s role is to inquire the practitioner what the practitioner is aware of, invite them to merely welcome, recognize, and witness whatever that is, and track the changeability of those objects. Perhaps the facilitator’s most important role is to keep reminding the practitioner that they are Awareness itself experiencing themselves in the form of whatever they are aware of.

This process of reflective awareness provides an incredible clarity and perspective about any objects which present themselves in a practitioners life, from emotions, events, physical or energetic or spiritual ailments. Essentially, when one knows themselves as Awareness itself—pure, whole, and complete—life’s problems seem to have a finite context. Great insight, healing, and transformation comes readily when someone is presented with their whole and complete Self. This process of clarity happens more readily because the facilitator can help the practitioner follow that which is most present in their field of Awareness, that which is actually calling the practitioner to wake up and pay attention.

Each object in your field of attention is actually inviting you to do one thing and that is to wake up and pay attention. Each object is arousing your capacity for Awareness. A dyad is so powerful because instead of inviting the practitioner to accept this or that into their field of awareness (as organized and deliberate as that method is to promote awareness), instead, the facilitator follows what is naturally and most poignantly asking the practitioner to wake up and pay attention to.

This is huge! It shows us that whatever we’ve been looking for in life is right around us at all times. It’s like having a massive wake-up moment, like a near-death experience or something, where you see the purpose of it all, then go back into your regular life and see all the same stuff but with new eyes. Certainly, not everyone comes out of every session having, “seen the light,” but it’s remarkable how many people experience incredible and lasting transformation from their very first session, either in a commonly led Yoga Nidra experience and especially in a Yoga Nidra dyad.

Why You Can’t Have a Yoga Nidra Script for a Dyad

You can’t make a script for a dyad because there’s no way you could predict what would arise in the practitioners awareness. It takes a broad perspective and understanding of Yoga Nidra as well an intuition and sensitivity to skillfully and compassionately lead a practitioner through a Yoga Nidra dyad.

Would you be interested in learning how to facilitate Yoga Nidra dyads? You can join me Saturday, September 26th from 9 am to 12 pm MDT for a training and practice of doing just this. The workshop will be recorded so you can watch it later in case you can’t make the live session.

You’ll learn:

• Why dyads are so effective

• How to practice them safely with your clients

• The essential guide to dyads, The Yoga Nidra Dyad Roadmap

• How to ascertain your student’s needs in the pre-screening

• How to use the koshas as tools to affect transformation

• The art of reflective Awareness

• How to ground and navigate your student’s awareness

• How to manage and facilitate emotions

• How to help your students process and integrate the experience

• Helpful professional, logistical, and tech tips.

This will be a virtual and recorded workshop via Zoom. You’ll have the opportunity to practice dyads with each other in breakout rooms. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask specific questions to your experience after your practice.

The world needs expert Yoga Nidra teachers. Become a masterful Yoga Nidra facilitator by learning Yoga Nidra dyads

Each person who registers will receive a recording of the workshop so even if you can’t make the time work for you, you may register and watch the training at your own convenience.

Counts as continuing education with Yoga Alliance!

Change is In The Air

First day of fall. School has started (Zoom kindergarten is a blessing and a curse). Schedules are changing, becoming more busy, even despite the pandemic. The crescendo of political, social, and global noise is getting louder.

Leaves are changing.

Things are always changing. I don't know about you, but for me it's easy to get caught up in the momentum of this motion of change to the degree that it becomes impossible to avoid feeling constantly rushed, out of time, and strained. Ever find yourself asking, "When can a person take a breather?!"

I think once we realize that there is a possibility of stillness IN the change, we will find our mooring against the tides of change. We can skillfully navigate all the vicissitudes of life by creating a grounded seat from which all this change may happen around us without making us lose our center.

With a grounded relationship to change, you'll find yourselves not only able to navigate change but even thriving with change.

Here are a few ideas to help us stay grounded amidst change.

Simple Meditation Technique

Find a quiet place where you can possibly be undisturbed for a few moments (sometimes this is sitting in your car). Sit comfortably and set a timer for 10 minutes. Close your eyes and begin to count your exhales. If your mind wanders or you lose your count, start over with the counting. The objective is not to count to some outrageously high number, but rather to continue to come back to center when you leave. We all wander so there's no judgment when you do. Try doing this every day. You may want to extend the time to 15, 20, or 30 minutes.

Get Outside

Make a point to go on a gentle walk and leave your phone behind. Find the joy in walking for the sake of walking. Inform yourself of the natural world and notice the trees, sky, flowers, etc. Wallace Stevens said, "Perhaps the truth depends upon a walk around the lake." When placing yourself in nature, you often remind yourself both of life's natural cycles as well as your own belonging to this beautiful and complex world.

Find an Online Yoga or Meditation Class

Find an online yoga class to class or roll out your mat and begin to move and breathe. I teach a few classes a week (including one today at 12 pm MDT) which you can join virtually and/or watch the recordings later. I also teach one class a week at Mosaic Yoga (Mon. 5:30 pm) where you can join live with a responsible socially-distanced protocol.

If you're practicing poses on your own, match your breath with the poses that your body seems to crave. If you’re practicing on your own, don't worry about practicing for a certain amount of time, just practice whatever feels the most natural. Allow your body the pleasure of gently warming up then release tensions with some long, slow, deep stretches. Give yourself several moments to rest in savasana and then go about your day.

With some help is keeping us grounded, we'll find ourselves ready to meet the changes that are unfolding.

Your Brain On Mindfulness

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An 8-week course to help you dissolve stress.

My friend and fellow-teacher Rachel Posner is going to be offering her incredible course Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive. I love Rachel’s work. She’s an incredible teacher, really knows her stuff, and I think will get a great course if you register.

Rachel and her family just spent two years in Spain during the same time that me and my family were living in France. Rachel and I even did a workshop about reducing stress for the holidays together.

I wanted to help her spread the word about her course and would encourage you to take a look.

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Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive

A course by Rachel Posner

This is the online course for people who want to permanently reduce stress.

Launches on September 28th, 2020

Register before Saturday and type earlybird  when it asks you if you have a coupon and get $200 off!

Does This Sound Familiar?

I often feel stressed and overwhelmed.

I lose patience with myself and my friends and family more than I want to admit.

I beat myself up for not being or doing “enough”.

I know there’s a lot of good in my life and a ton to be grateful for, but I’m too stressed to pay attention to any of it.

You deserve to feel calm, present and happy in your life. Your Brain on Mindfulness is what you've been looking for.

Your Brain on Mindfulness is a comprehensive online course designed to completely shift your relationship to the stressors in your life. We'll work with evidence-based practices that help you feel calm, even when life is chaotic. These mindfulness techniques will create lasting change and support you in feeling more calm, present and happy.

Your Brain on Mindfulness

• www.rachelposner.com

• Dashboard

Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive by Rachel Posner

Buy for $695

Buy for 2 payments of $350

Your Brain on Mindfulness: 8 Weeks to Dissolve Stress, Build Resilience and Thrive

This is the online course for people who want to permanently reduce stress.

Launches on September 28th, 2020

Are you ready to find calm amidst the chaos?

Make Real Change

Commit to your own well-being

Enroll Now

Does This Sound Familiar?

• I often feel stressed and overwhelmed.

• I lose patience with myself and my friends and family more than I want to admit.

• I beat myself up for not being or doing “enough”.

• I know there’s a lot of good in my life and a ton to be grateful for, but I’m too stressed to pay attention to any of it.

You deserve to feel calm, present and happy in your life. Your Brain on Mindfulness is what you've been looking for.

Your Brain on Mindfulness is a comprehensive online course designed to completely shift your relationship to the stressors in your life. We'll work with evidence-based practices that help you feel calm, even when life is chaotic. These mindfulness techniques will create lasting change and support you in feeling more calm, present and happy.

"It’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it."

- Hans Selye

Lots of people teach classes to help you relax. Relaxation techniques are definitely important, but they’re not enough.

I’ve spent the last 20 years helping people reduce stress and be more happily engaged in their lives and I know what it takes to truly change your stress response. If you want to create lasting change, you need to approach stress from a variety of angles.

The solution isn’t to get rid of stressors, but to change the way we respond and relate to those stressors.
I’ll teach you techniques to rewire your brain to handle stress differently so that you stop paying so much attention to what isn’t working and instead focus on what’s already great in your life. 

Truly the nicest thing I’ve done for myself in this lifetime.

"Your Brain on Mindfulness was like a curated tour through my brain that allowed me to stop and re-wire synapses along the way. Rachel’s presence created a safe place for me to laugh, cry, discover and nurture my best self. Truly the nicest thing I’ve done for myself in this lifetime."

Corbin / Musician

Have you said any of these things lately?

• I yelled at my daughter in the grocery store yesterday and then felt totally embarrassed and ashamed.

• I’m burned out and I’m tired of taking care of everyone else. What about me?

• Lately I feel nervous or even scared for no good reason.

• If one more person tells me to take a deep breath, I’m going to scream.

• I feel like nothing I do is good enough.

• I really wish I hadn’t said that to my husband last night. I just lose my temper so quickly and it’s like I don’t have control over what comes out of my mouth.

• I just can’t catch up. It feels like there is never enough time in a day. 

• On a stress scale of 1-10, I wake up at a 3 or 4 and by the time I get to work, I’m already at a 5 or 6.

• I’m just not as patient as I used to be.

• I feel like I’m always behind and can never catch up.

• I’m so tired all the time. I’m always up late trying to get stuff done but when I lay down, I either can’t fall asleep or I can’t stay asleep. It seems like as soon as I close my eyes, there are a stream of worries bombarding me.

"No matter how educated or wealthy you are if you don’t have peace of mind, you won’t be happy."

-Dalai Lama

Find more ease in your life

We all have stressors in our lives - in fact stress is at an all time high and America ties for #4 on the list of the worlds most stressed-out nations. In other words, our exposure to stress isn't going to change. But how we experience that stress can change. The practices in this course will help you:

Feel Calmer

• Decrease your stress and anxiety levels 

• Feel safer and more at peace

• Breath better

• Wake up in the morning feeling more rested and less stressed

• Be less reactionary and have more control over you temper

• Stay calm even when life gets intense or chaotic

Feel More Compassionate

• Take better care of yourself

• Feel less self-judgement and self-doubt 

• Feel more self-compassion and self-confidence

• Be more patient with yourself and others

• Feel more compassionate and less angry towards others

• Feel less “burn-out” - drained by the pain of others and the state of the world

Feel More Joyful

• Feel more connected to yourself and others

• Notice life’s small but beautiful moments throughout the day

• Pay more attention to what is wonderful about your life and focus on nourishing and growing what you love.

• Embrace all of it!

By decreasing stress we are able to grow what we love about our lives and change what no longer serves us.

Rachel’s offerings are an indelible resource to longtime practitioners as well as the newbie.

"Rachel’s course synthesized information for me in a way that made complex and challenging material accessible. Her depth of knowledge shines through experiential activities thoughtfully assembled and presented with warmth and authenticity. Rachel’s offerings are an indelible resource to longtime practitioners as well as the newbie." 

Steve / Psychotherapist

Join Me

Enjoy learning from the comfort of your own home.

Enroll Now

So how do we do it?

How do you embrace your life so that you can both address your stressors and challenges head-on AND keep growing what’s already good? The answer is not one-size fits all.
Sometimes we need to build our stores of self-compassion, sometimes, we need to work with practices that take us out of our fight/flight/freeze response and calm our nervous system and sometimes we need to track the underlying patterns that got us here in the first place.

Your Brain on Mindfulness is a unique approach to mindfulness that takes YOUR mind/body/brain into account. You’ll explore a comprehensive range of practices that will help you gain understanding and perspective so that you can get grounded, build resilience and thrive!

Rachel Posner MA, C-IAYT, ERYT-500

This course is the culmination of my 20 years of teaching yoga, practicing yoga therapy and counseling, and designing and guiding wellness courses and retreats. 

With so many courses out there, what makes this one different?

1. I excel at taking complicated information from yoga, mindfulness, neuroscience and psychology, and presenting them to you in a way that is easily digestible and actionable.
   
   
   

2. I’ve created a unique blend of evidence-based practices that will rewire your brain to handle stress differently so that you can focus on growing states of calm, presence and joy.
   
   
   

3. You’ll learn the “why” and “how” of the practices. When you understand why a practice works, it increases your belief and confidence in the practice itself. The mind is extremely powerful and studies show that when we believe in something, it works better. YOUR understanding and belief in the practice will make it more effective and the change more significant and long lasting.
   
   
   

4. I’ve been teaching this course live for years and can say with absolute confidence that it works!

Curriculum

Module 1

Your Brain on Mindfulness:The Big Picture

Module 2

Finding Your Center:
Practices To Turn Off Your Fight / Flight Response

Module 3

Deep Calm: 
Reversing The Negative Effects Of Stress 

Module 4

Self Awareness:
Grounding In The Power Of YOU

Module 5

Self-Care:
The Art Of Paying Attention

Module 6

Compassion:
The Neural Networks that Build Happiness

Module 7

From Compassion to Optimism:
The Neuroplasticity Of A Cup 1/2 Full

Module 8

Where Do We Go From Here?

What does it look like?

• Every Monday morning you'll receive a new module filled with the exact lessons, tools and practices you need to start changing the way you deal with stress.

• You'll receive additional emails throughout the week with reflection questions, poems, articles, bonus practices and inspirations.

• Online does not mean unsupported. Through office hours and email support, a private facebook group, live chats and optional add-on sessions I'll be here to guide you through the process. 

I am full of gratitude to Rachel for being my mentor, my guide and my brain’s best advocate.

"I have enjoyed the physical and psychological benefits of a yoga practice for over a decade, but it was Rachel Posner’s “Your Brain on Mindfulness” class which brought into sharper focus, the latest neuroscience research available to enhance my practice, calm my mind and enlighten my interactions in the world. Rachel shared the latest scientific evidence showing how one can actually create new “grooves in the brain” to interact in this increasingly chaotic world in a more complete, calm and healthy manner. Through examination of the research, class interaction and practice, Rachel shared how it is possible to consciously change our brains through meditation and mindfulness in order to create a more open, accepting, positive and joyful frame of mind. I am full of gratitude to Rachel for being my mentor, my guide and my brain’s best advocate."

Sally / Retired Librarian

Is this course really for you?

Changing your relationship to stress takes commitment. If you don’t think you are ready to carve out time each day this is not the course for you. I recommend you:

• Take 15-20 minutes a day to explore mindfulness meditation practices.

• Turn practice into action by consistently implementing what you are learning throughout your day with 3-5 minutes "practice pauses".

I want to be clear that without actually practicing these techniques, you won’t likely see results. Please make sure that you are at a time in your life that you want and are ready to commit to a regular mindfulness practice, so that you can create the changes you desire.  

REFUND POLICY

I believe this course is highly effective and am committed to offering you with a valuable and positive experience. That said, I know that it may not be for everyone. Therefore a full refund is available if you notify me via email, rachel@rachelposner.com by October 5. After that deadline no refunds will be permitted. No exceptions. Before requesting a refund, please go through the module 1 lessons and practices to ensure that this course is not the right fit for you.

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Register before Saturday and type earlybird  when it asks you if you have a coupon and get $200 off!

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Healing with Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is like a guided meditation that leads people through deepening layers of Awareness through a very relaxing process of listening. Different from many other forms of meditation or mindfulness, Yoga Nidra does not insist a person focus on any one thing at the exclusion of others. Rather, the direction in the practice is to relax and simply welcome into your Awareness whatever arises, to acknowledge that object for what it is and without assessment, then to merely be the witness of it. Such a practice helps you to dis-identify from the things you might be aware of and find yourself aligning as Awareness itself. You become Awareness itself trying all the things you may be aware of like a costume. The effect of this expansive Awareness practice is not only very illuminating, it’s also incredibly relaxing. What’s even more interesting is that Yoga Nidra can be extremely therapeutic and has been known to facilitate broad-spectrum healing of body, mind, and spirit. 

Practitioners regularly assert that Yoga Nidra has helped them heal from myriad issues and maladies including, insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure, grief, and even trauma. How does this practice which acts like a relaxing guided meditation help practitioners to arrive at greater wholeness in body, mind, and spirit? 

To discover the ways in which this fabulous and relaxing form of mindfulness heals, it’s important to understand the essential purpose of the practice. The purpose of Yoga Nidra is to dis-identify with what we typically and erroneously feel is us—our body, emotions, thoughts, etc.—and learn to align yourself with your True Nature which is Awareness itself. Truly, you are Awareness in the form of all the things you can be aware of, such as body, emotions, thoughts, etc. You are the beautiful marriage of infinite consciousness married to the finite form of your body and suchness of your life. Yoga Nidra is an easy, practical, and enjoyable way to develop a tangible relationship with that marriage of consciousness and form. 

Yoga Nidra leans on ancient wisdom (Tantra) which suggests that everything in the Universe, including and especially ourselves, comes from Source. Source is whole, full, complete, and rests in a state of boundless equanimity, a quality that feels like an eternal love—one big, fat YES! from the Universe. This ancient wisdom also suggests that our True Nature is synonymous with Awareness. If you are Awareness, the more you lean into your essential being by practicing prolonged states of attention and by welcoming, acknowledging, and merely witnessing whatever presents itself to your Awareness, you gain a cosmic perspective about the current circumstances in which you find yourself. This alone has the almost magical power to lift you out of the cyclical hamster wheel of emotional turmoil. Furthermore, it gives you the wherewithal to respond rather than react to your circumstances, grounded from a place of practiced presence, one of deep and loving compassion. Once you know who you are, you start to align your life in the direction that befits such a noble and divine being. 

Another way that Yoga Nidra has the power to heal is that once you align with your True Nature, that of Awareness itself, you lean into that part of you that is already whole, complete, and healed. You know how you start to act like the folks you hang around with? Well the more you are in the presence of wholeness, it’s incredible how you simply stop entertaining all those parts of you that don’t serve your highest being. With a regular exposure, to wholeness you start to align to your own most natural way of being, your Source Nature, and feel yourself healing in body, mind, and spirit.

Here’s the thing: yoga, meditation, and Yoga Nidra don’t give you anything you don’t already have. They simply take off some of the conditioning, the layers, or forgetfulness we have around our already perfect self. 

Well, can Yoga Nidra cure acute, chronic, or even terminal diseases and conditions? I’ve heard my students tell me how Yoga Nidra has helped them cure everything including: sexual dysfunction, insomnia, heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and anxiety, substance abuse/dependency, stage fright, trauma, and serious emotional abuse. Moreover, what Yoga Nidra helps you to heal is the fundamental human malady which is feeling separate from Source. When you know that you are fundamentally whole, despite any finite condition you may have in body, mind, and spirit, you live your life richly and fully knowing that each thing that presents itself to you is an opportunity to lean into witnessing, into presence, into experiencing yourself as Awareness. So yes, Yoga Nidra can help you heal in the traditional way of healing and it can also help you experience a level of wholeness that extends beyond what any regular physician would deem as whole. 

And at the end of the day, one of the superpowers of Yoga Nidra is that it offers you concentrated rest. They say that 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is the equivalent in rest as a solid 2-hour nap. The entire mode of Yoga Nidra is to use relaxation to enter into the “Nidra” state of mind, which is like a daydream state. This state acts as a special pocket of consciousness wherein you can gain incredible insight, rest, and healing. Rest is the first order of operations for any kind of healing in body, mind, and spirit. Just by the fact that Yoga Nidra is restful in nature, it helps facilitate healing. If you or someone you know is convalescing due to any circumstance, try doing some Yoga Nidra. At very least you will get a solid bout of conscious rest. I can assure you that you’ll feel better when you’re done. Doing this regularly will be like adding currency to your wellness bank account. 

Once, I was asked to give private yoga lessons to a man who was working with stage 4 colon cancer. On our first session together, I told him that while what we do may or may not help to cure his cancer, our goal was to become as healthy as possible given whatever circumstances and allow the process of healing to unfold as it does. We did very gentle poses, some breath work, and a LOT of Yoga Nidra. Together we had some transcendent experiences, some of the richest and most enlightening experiences of my life. I remember seeing my client-turned-life-long-friend emerge from some of these practices, wide-eyed, and crazy looking and almost shouting, “What was that! It was incredible!” My friend eventually succumbed to cancer but he soaked as much life and vitality as possible with the remaining years we had practicing yoga together. I believe that despite the fact that he eventually died, he experienced a level of wholeness that many people only dream about.

Experience this practice for yourself and enjoy the healing that comes through Yoga Nidra.

Barn's Burned Down

Years ago, Seneca and I had just started dating when she invited me to her birthday party. I was completely smitten by this woman and was thrilled for the invitation. It would be our second date.

The party was at Sonya’s house, her good friend who lived in the Salt Lake City Avenues. Sonya’s backyard was beautiful and lush and adorned with 5 formidable, old pines whose branches reach high into the calm summer evening’s sky.

Strung between two of these beautiful trees was the most alluring hammock whose siren song lured Seneca and me to lay down side-by-side and flirt as we swayed in the easy breeze, drunk on the scent of pines. Unbeknownst to us, we were laying the foundation of an extraordinary relationship, an incomparable love.

Who would have guessed that 5 years later, Seneca and I would be married, with a 1-year-old son, and the new owners of Sonya’s house in the Avenues. Fortunately, the trees were sturdy enough and the hammock large enough to now hold three of us.

Fast forward a few years, we were living in France, renting out our house, and we got a dreadful message from our renter. He said that our beloved pines looked sick. We called the tree whisperers who examined them and determined that all five of them were stricken with bark beetles. All five had to be cut down before they fell down and caused damage to persons or property. The several thousands of dollars to have them cut paled in comparison to the grief we suffered to lose them. They were our elders, our family and they were dying or dead.

When we returned to Salt Lake City in January, right in time for Covid, we moved back into our house in the Avenues. The first thing we did when we came home was to go into the back yard and see the destruction. As we looked over the decimated yard, we were gut-punched. We stood watching the living nightmare that was our yard—a few remaining branches, massive blankets of sawdust, and the scars of five starkly shorn stumps. It was like seeing a family member who had recently lost a limb—five limbs.

We grieved sorely over the loss of our trees.

We knew that after our grieving, eventually we would have to replant and rework our yard. It was going to take a LOT of work to heal the damage. The project became known as “Yardmageddon.” Little did we know that we would have several months of quarantine ahead of us which would afford us pleeeeeenty of time to rework the yard. I ordered another yard waste container from the city.

We would have never chosen it, but given the circumstances, what we were given in this bleak, newly-exposed backyard, empty of its beautiful trees, was a blank slate. We had no choice but to create the kind of space that would suit our family. No longer was it Sonya’s yard, it would become ours.

We planted herbs. We pulled neglected vines. We resurrected the dormant hot tub.

One day at the beginning of the summer, I was hacking away at a jungle of Virginia Creepers when Sylvia, one of our delightful neighbors, kitty-corner to and just above our house, came over to our house to talk through her Covid facemask about our trees. She and her husband moved from England to their current house in the Avenues 35 years ago. Sylvia, too, lamented the loss of our beautiful trees. As she spoke of our trees with such familiarity and affection, it dawned on me that she had known our trees for 3 decades longer than we had. She told me how she missed our beautiful trees, “But,” she added, “it’s the first time in 35 years that we can see the Wasatch mountains from out our back window and there’s nothing like watching the moon rise over those incredible mountains!”

Neither of us would have chosen it. Still, what a gift.

Last week, northern Utah was ravaged by hurricane-force winds, including Salt Lake City, blowing over literally thousands of trees. Our 5 trees had been removed the year before. Otherwise, I’m confident that in their compromised state, they would have all come down causing unspeakable damage. Another hidden gift. They were harvested with the blessing of time and care.

Last week, after the storm died down, that evening we went out on our nightly walk around our neighborhood to see the damage. It was a horror scene. We were dumbstruck to see armies of trees uprooted and felled across lawns, spanning entire streets, and ripped from the ground, leaning on the houses they once shaded as if to die in the arms of those who loved them so dearly. Debris littered the sidewalks, streets, and lawns.

A week later, many homes are still without electricity. Throughout the day, one can hear the constant buzz of chainsaws busy amputating the limbs of these mighty beings so their trunks can be cut into smaller places and removed completely, leaving only the scar where they once grew. People are clearing, replanting.

Whatever storm you may be facing at the moment, it may be difficult to see the gifts embedded in your circumstances. Certainly, Covid has amplified every struggle we endure, struggles we might otherwise take in stride.

It’s important to remember that what’s true is true. What is…is.

I believe it to be our task, what our mindful practices have prepared us for, is to acknowledge what is—including grief, including the hidden gifts of our sad circumstances— and to learn to simply be with the information at hand. Then, from the grounded and real place of observation, compassionately respond with steps forward. Replant. Life is a blank slate.

I’m confident that if we are patient, we will see the gifts of these circumstances on the rise. Perhaps, if you live in Salt Lake City, you may see one of those gifts tonight as it rises brightly over the Wasatch.

“Barn’s burned down—

Now

I can see the moon.”

— Mizuta Masahide

Women's Safety Online

Since COVID hit, many of us yoga teachers have tried to keep the practice going with online, FB live, and Zoom classes. A few of my female colleagues have been recently targeted by creeps online making inappropriate and sexually explicit comments or suggestive comments. And while the sad truth is that this is nothing new, it’s nonetheless COMPLETE BULLSHIT! It agers me to no end that anybody, especially women, are subject to harassment, prejudice, and hate.

As a community of yoga teachers, we are working to find helpful solutions to the problem of pervy trolls commenting or showing up in our online classes but what are some of the things that we can all know to make sure that women are safe online?

Through the help of a great article on Comparitech, I’ve discovered both some alarming statistics as well as some great and helpful information to help keep women safe on the Internet.

Below is an excerpt from the article and encourage anyone interested in reading the entire thing.

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Are women at higher risk to online scams? Online harassment statistics

Ever wondered who is more likely to be targeted by online scammers? We reveal some surprising internet safety statistics as well as easy to follow advice to protect yourself from online scams.

by AIMEE O'DRISCOLL

We use the internet for pretty much everything these days, including connecting with friends, working, banking, entertainment, shopping, dating, and more. With our communication moving more and more online, unpleasant behaviors such as cyberbullying and online harassment are also becoming more common. This combined with online scams can lead to users feeling unsafe. In this article, we’ll explain the most common types of online harassment as well as how to keep yourself safe online.

By discussing a range of studies and statistics we will demonstrate the different experiences of online culture based on gender. We’ll also reveal how attitudes to online harassment can vary between men and women.

What dangers do users face online?

Women face many of the same dangers as men online. For example, things like phishing schemes, ransomware attacks, and various types of online fraud are commonplace for everyone. However, statistics show you are much more likely to experience some types of online abuse if you are a woman. Below we take a look at the online scams which target women more frequently than other genders.

Online harassment

Online harassment is loosely defined as the use of the internet to threaten, harass, or embarrass an individual or group. It can come in different forms and many of the other topics we discuss here such as cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and doxing fall under the umbrella of harassment.

Women tend to encounter sexualized forms of online harassment at higher rates than men. These can include things like sexualized bullying, unwanted sexual requests, revenge porn, and sextortion.

A 2017 study by Pew Research Center found that 21 percent of women aged 18 to 29 had experienced online harassment. The figure for men was less than half of that at nine percent. More than half of women in the same age group had received explicit images that were not requested.

Attitudes towards online harassment differ by gender with 70 percent of women and 54 percent of men believing it’s a “major problem.” And while 50 percent of women say that offensive content online is too often excused as not a big deal, 64 percent of men think it’s taken too seriously. More men (56 percent) tend to think it’s important to speak their minds freely online while women (63 percent) value feeling safe and welcome on the internet.

Source: Pew Research

What’s more, of women who have experienced online harassment, 35 percent say it leaves a strong impression and that recent encounters have been either very or extremely upsetting. The figure for men is less than half at 16 percent.

Cyberbullying

Online bullying involves any type of bullying that occurs in the digital world, for example, through social media networks or forums, or via emails or text messages. Cyberbullying can happen to anyone, but it’s especially common among teenage girls. Female students are three times as likely to be bullied online or via text than male students.

Catfishing schemes

With the increased popularity in online dating, there are a ton of schemes out there targeting unsuspecting victims looking for love. While many men fall victim to dating scams, the majority of victims are women.

A popular tactic used in dating scams is catfishing. This is where scammers create fake profiles that they believe prospective victims will trust and fall for easily. For example, they might create a fake profile of a doctor or member of the military.

These scams typically end up with the perpetrator swindling the victim out of money or property, or in some cases, roping them into some type of illegal activity.

Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking (also called online stalking) may be defined slightly differently according to various countries’ laws, but it generally involves using electronic means to harass, bully or threaten victims.

This crime impacts a surprisingly large number of men and women, but victims are more often female. A Canadian study found that the most likely targets are women in the 15–24 age group.

Source: StatCan

Sextortion

As you can probably guess from the name, online sextortion is extortion involving material (typically images or videos) of a sexual or intimate nature. Sextortion can take a variety of different forms, but the motivation is usually sexual gratification or monetary gain.

A 2019 study found that males are more likely to be targeted when the motivation is financial greed, while the victims in sextortion for sexual gratification crimes are almost always female.

An alarming 2017 study by Thorn revealed that 45 percent of sextortion perpetrators followed through on their threats. The same study found that 40 percent of victims met the perpetrators online.

To Whom Are We Beautiful As We Go?

"I wish I knew the beauty of leaves falling.

To whom are we beautiful when we go?"

Excerpt from "Three In Transition" by David Ignatow

And to whom are we beautiful as we go? I love this poem. This poem seems to point to the fact that even in our failing, even in our demise, there is a part of creation and therefore a part of ourselves that can grant a magnificence to any loss. Such a beautiful concept. Such a bittersweet truth. And perhaps this is why Autumn is so colorful: it is the opulent funeral procession of the death of so much. It is the rush of fireworks before the quiet stillness of winter.

There has been so much that has changed this year, not only because of COVID, but also because life's only constant is that it's in change. Things are meant to pass away, including leaves, including people and including old ways of doing things. There's no business as usual in the roller coaster of life.

Yet this inevitable demise points to something much more beautiful. It may be difficult in the moment yet will unfailingly create the conditions for a new birth in your continual upleveling of consciousness.

Many of the Hindu statues tell stories. The Dancing Shiva is a story-telling icon depicting Shiva, the creator of the universe, and illustrates the five acts of Shiva.

The concept is the same whether you call the creator, Shiva, God, the Universe, or anything else. In this statue (seen in the background of the above pic), these 5 acts are depicted by his many arms, one of which is celebrating creation, another that is sustaining his creation, another is allowing death, and another that is not only inviting things back to life, but to live again with a higher consciousness than before.

This statue reminds us that our job is to allow Shiva to lead in this dance of life, to follow along as we are slowly refined into greater beings. It reminds us that death is a part of life and with a broader perspective, we can, to some degree, appreciate it as a necessary part of the cycle.

Mary Oliver writes about learning to accept death and loss in her poem, Maker of All Things, Even Healings. I love the title of the poem because it suggests that the healing, the bringing back to life for a fuller measure of life as in the Dancing Shiva, comes only after accepting death which she does so humbly.

Maker of All Things, Even Healings
by Mary Oliver

All night
under the pines
the fox
moves through the darkness
with a mouthful of teeth
and a reputation for death
which it deserves.
In the spicy
villages of the mice
he is famous,
his nose
in the grass
is like an earthquake,
his feet
on the path
is a message so absolute
that the mouse, hearing it,
makes himself
as small as he can
as he sits silent
or, trembling, goes on
hunting among the grasses
for the ripe seeds.
Maker of All Things,
including appetite,
including stealth,
including the fear that makes
all of us, sometime or other,
flee for the sake
of our small and precious lives,
let me abide in your shadow--
let me hold on
to the edge of your robe
as you determine
what you must let be lost
and what will be saved.

As we celebrate the coming of fall, may we, too, remember the beauty of leaves falling, the beauty and magnificence of this amazing dance in which we are all twirling, living, growing, dying, and being reborn into something greater.

May you see your journey through many cycles of death and rebirth as beautiful as the panoply of changing leaves.

If you are experiencing grief due to any sort of loss, may I suggest watching/listening to my free Yoga Nidra for Grief practice.

Yoga Nidra for Sleep

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I’m super happy to have an article published with Yogi Times about the benefits of Yoga Nidra for sleep.

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Click the photo to download this relaxing, 25-minute practice.

a zombie in class

One night a few years ago, a zombie showed up to my Yoga Nidra class. Haggard and vacant, she rolled out her mat on the back row and sat there trying to look like a normal, living person while other students were busy arranging their yoga mats, blankets, and eye pillows in preparation for our relaxing Yoga Nidra session.

As always, I asked the class if anybody needed anything in particular from this Yoga Nidra session. The zombie in the back row, trying her best to look normal, lifted a timid and tired hand, looked at me with dead, bloodshot eyes, and announced that her name was Suzie.

“Please,” she begged, “I haven’t slept—I mean really slept—for almost 6 months. I’m going crazy. Can Yoga Nidra help me?”

“Suzie, you’re in the right place,” I responded enthusiastically. I then explained to her and the rest of the class exactly how Yoga Nidra can help work its magic to promote excellent sleep. To prepare for Yoga Nidra, first I led the students in a few gentle asanas, then some relaxing pranayama, before instructing them to lie down, close their eyes, and relax.

Next, I led them through a 35-minute Yoga Nidra practice, and Awareness practice which acts like a guided meditation, where I focused on helping people achieve deep, peaceful, and nourishing sleep. I made an audio recording of the Yoga Nidra practice and sent it home with the students as homework. Suzie received the recording gratefully.

The next week, Suzie came back to class though I almost didn’t recognize her. The zombie that had come the week before had transformed into a vibrant human being with bright eyes, a warm face, and a wide smile.

Like normal, I asked if anyone in the class needed anything in particular from this Yoga Nidra practice. Suzie raised her hand again and excitedly reported to me and the entire class how the previous week’s Yoga Nidra practice helped her to relax more than she had been able to relax in a very long time. She also talked about how that night she went home and experienced an utterly fantastic night of deep sleep, and that she had been sleeping well ever since. 

(Drop the mic.)

Have you ever suffered from sleeplessness? Of course, you have. Everybody does. In the United States, 50–70 million adults of all ages and socio-economic classes suffer from regular sleep problems (Reference). Before you go get a prescription drug to help put you out, consider Yoga Nidra is an excellent, effective, and completely natural remedy for sleeplessness. Though it’s not addictive in the pharmaceutical kind of way, once you try it, you likely come back for more.

What? How?

I know what you’re thinking: what is Yoga Nidra and why is something like a guided meditation even called yoga? Also, how does lying down, closing your eyes, and listening to someone lead you through a guided meditation help you sleep better?

To understand what Yoga Nidra is, it’s best to start with the definition of yoga. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, (written between 500 BCE and 400 CE AD), says that the experience of yoga is to connect body, mind, and spirit to eliminate the disturbances of the mind and arrive at a state of Awareness called Samadhi, or Oneness. This state of Oneness is synonymous with wholeness. It’s rich. You might need a glass of milk to wash all of that down. And while Samadhi may sound quite lofty, ancient wisdom also says that it’s actually our most natural state because it’s our Source.

Be warned: the practice of yoga is different from the experience of yoga mostly in that the practice merely sets the conditions for the experience of yoga to occur. You can’t “make” Samadhi happen but regular practices of body, mind, and spirit connection can help us remember our Source and achieve regular glimpses of Samadhi. Then one day I guess you piece together all those glimpses to realize that you’re living Samadhi…

Satva: The Goldilocks of Everything

The Gunas

Classical yoga philosophy says that the universe can be described by using three main humors, called gunas. These gunas are Rajas, Tamas, Sattva. Everything in the Universe from hot to cold seasons to hot to cold personalities demonstrates some combination of these gunas. Understanding these principles of the gunas can help you find a yoga practice and live a life that feels perfectly balanced for you.

Fire

The first of the humors is called Rajas and is generally considered the quality of building, full of fire, energizing, active, prone to change, etc. Think of summer as the season with the most rajas—it’s hot, things are growing (building) and thus changing. A stage of life that demonstrates a lot of rajas is the years when you’re learning the most and growing the most or demonstrating a lot of ambition to make your way in the world, the early and mid-adult stage.

Ice

The perfect counterbalance of Rajas is Tamas which is generally known as grounding, calming, and inert. Tamas is demonstrated in seasons like winter when everything is still, cold, and frozen. The stages of life that demonstrates the most Tamas are early childhood (think cubby baby that sleeps a lot) and when we retire from work or start to slow down in our later years.

Rajas and Tamas are not only demonstrated in major periods of life, but also in your day-to-day energy, feeling, and attitude. Regardless of stage of life, you might generally be a very active person but due to a lot of busyness or a heavy workout, you might be feeling a little Tamasic and need to chill out on the couch with some ice cream and Netflix. Other days, you might be feeling gobs and gobs of energy and want to tackle a project. This is Rajas.

Balance

Now, the balance between Rajas and Tamas is called Satva. Satva is the perfect “Goldilocks” of the two extremes. Satva is what we are aiming for in all of our physical, mental, and spiritual practices. Sometimes we must skillfully negotiate our efforts or ease in these practices to find ourselves demonstrating Satva. Satva feels balanced—energized but not spastic, clear and open-minded without being lost in the clouds, energized without feeling out of control.

In the ancient text of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali the author suggests balancing all of our efforts between effort (Rajas) and ease (Tamas) to find the perfect middle way and to find success in our endeavors. Doing so promotes longevity, productivity, and joy in the practice.

Even after a vigorous asana practice, savasana is the essential balancing act at the end that helps you to walk away feeling Satvic for the rest of the day. Similarly, after a Restore yoga practice it might sometimes helps to go on a gentle walk. Just like Goldilocks, the middle way feels most comfortable, the most like home.

For those of us who love to bliss out on Rajas and train or play really hard, don't worry. Just remember that there is a time to sit and meditate too. Also, those of us who could indulge in Tamas and stay on our cozy meditation cushions all day long and then celebrate with a box of Hatch Family Chocolates, well, maybe you could try at least try going for a walk afterwords.

If you’d like to explore more Rajas in your life, try one of my live, online, and socially distanced vinyasa classes like Monday night at 5:30 pm at Mosaic Yoga, (live or FB livestream) or Tuesday/Thursday at noon MDT (online only), a class I share with Kim Dastrup.

If you could use more Tamas in your life, try one of my live, online Yoga Nidra classes, Wednesdays and Sundays.

All of my weekly offerings can be accessed by anywhere in the world.

Best of luck as you search for your own Goldilocks rhythm of life and practice.

Yoga Nidra Training: Ready to Go!

I love to teach Yoga Nidra trainings. I feel that the world needs more Yoga Nidra and needs more qualified Yoga Nidra teachers.

Something I hear all the time is teachers who don’t want to end up being a rote version of their teachers. Or, that in order to learn how to write their own scripts that they have to wait for and PAY for another training.

I believe that each teacher will be most impactful if they can teach from their own experience and voice and not from a rote script. But teaching Yoga Nidra does require understanding the basics principles of Yoga Nidra. I believe that when you understand the what and why of Yoga Nidra, you’ll know how to use your practice, teaching, and life experience to be not only an effective teacher but and EXTRAORDINARY teacher, able to connect with students in ways that ONLY you can.

It’s like an artist who seeks to find expression on a canvas or a jazz musician learning to improvise—you can’t go out there and just start throwing notes out your horn. By learning the rudiments and principles, the what and why of the underlying form, it actually FREES you to go out and make the music you want to make. The same goes for teaching Yoga Nidra—once you understand the basic principles, you’ll find the freedom to MAKE YOUR OWN YOGA NIDRA SCRIPTS, to be optimally effective for your students.

After you understand the what and why of Yoga Nidra, I’ll take you through a meticulous understanding of how all the elements fit together to teach a class based on your students’ particular needs to facilitate true transformation.

And while I will teach you how to write your own scripts, I’ve provided over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts that you can use, alter, and modify as you’re looking to find your own voice. These will serve you to be able to teach great, impactful Yoga Nidra classes from day one, but also give you a transcript for an effective class which you use to analyze what makes an effective Yoga Nidra script as you learn to write your own.

What’s In My Yoga Nidra Training

I currently have a great online Yoga Nidra training that is a digital recording of 20 hours of a live training, a 60+ page manual with discussion notes, links, mantras, etc., plus, a PDF booklet with over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts.

ALSO, I’m in the process of revamping the entire thing! I’m re-recording audio and video and adding several sections, including some key, breakthrough information about how to teach Yoga Nidra like an expert. Also, I’m including some sections about how to offer Yoga Nidra during times of COVID both for 1:1 students as well as live, online classes, etc. This should be done by the end of August.

I’ll be charging more for this new product because effectively, I’ll be doubling the content. However, I’ll be offering my new training to anyone who has purchased my current training for no additional cost.

If you’re interested in teaching Yoga Nidra, please give my Yoga Nidra training a look. I think you’ll love it.

Click the pic below

Gifted

My good friend John Louviere just wrote a book. It’s a wonderful compilation of his writings, stories, poems, and lyrics. One of the things that I love the most about John Louviere is that he’s a gifted singer/songwriter. As a musician who has worked for many years to find my own voice through the end of my saxophone and clarinet, I really love and relate to this story. I’m offering it here below with his permission.

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One afternoon, while sitting at the piano and tripping through the notes of “When The Saints Go Marching In,” I found myself singing along with my erratic melody. It was at this moment, as my foster mother was walking past me towards the kitchen, that a question involuntarily flew out of my mouth like a clay pigeon, "Do you think I have a good voice?" Being an expert marksman, she didn’t miss a beat. Looking at me with a mixture of shock and perplexity, she loaded a cartridge and quickly pulled the trigger. “No,” she said emphatically, “I do not think you have a good voice.” Her blunt response hit my solar plexus, and I sat back, dumbstruck. Smoke lingered in the air as she left the room, having no idea the impact of her words.

But more long-lasting were the effects of what I did immediately afterward. I lifted myself from the piano bench, walked into my bedroom, closed the door, and knelt down next to my bed. I then placed my elbows on my mattress, pressed my palms together, and out of my mouth came the following prayer: “God, if you give me a good voice, I promise to sing to you for the rest of my life.”

As a fourteen-year-old born-again Christian, my God was a God of miracles and wonders. And in this moment, I was as certain as Elijah on the mountain that I would be returning to the piano with a new and God-touched voice. We’re talking edge-of-my-seat, “I can’t wait to try out my new voice” certain. When I finished praying, I got off of my knees, walked out of my bedroom, and sat back down at the piano. I carefully placed my fingers on the keys and began pushing them through the melody. And then . . . I opened my mouth and began to sing.

Isn’t innocence a beautiful thing? And ignorance—what bliss.

Being able to pinpoint the moment you lose them both—this is not a day for the faint of heart. It is, for everyone, a day of tragedy and a rite of passage. When I opened my mouth to sing, indeed, a miracle happened. I heard something I had never heard before: No matter which keys my fingers played, I could hear only one note coming out of my mouth. I was aghast. Nothing made me happier than singing to God. And yet, I had just discovered that this child of his had the voice of a happy elephant. My sorrow did not last long because spring arrived. And along with it, baseball season. I ran happily back into the familiar, comfortable world I had known since I was a child: recreational sports.

When I was a freshman in college, I decided to sign up for a talent night with a couple of friends I had just made at a campus ministry group. A fellow named Mike and I decided that he should write a few progressions on his guitar and I should try to write some lyrics and sing them. Though I had continued singing like a happy elephant since the day of my prayer, my insecurity and nervousness were profound (after all, the last time I sang in front of anyone, the crowd was pretty rough). But when it was time, our names were announced, and up we went. I held the lyrics in a quivering hand and the microphone in the other, Mike’s rhythm drove us forward, and we finished our short set relatively unscathed. But after the glad-patting and jovial banter, everyone started stacking chairs, making plans for the rest of the evening, and slowly exiting the room. It was then that my friend Janice walked up to me. She had been waiting to talk to me. She said, “I don’t want this to sound weird but . . . I think I just saw what you’re supposed to be doing with your life.”

Two years later, during my junior year, I was walking the mile or so down the road to the same campus ministry group. I had just discovered Bobby McFerrin and could not stop playing rhythms on my chest and body, singing improvisational songs to God. All of a sudden, I stopped in the middle of the road and said another prayer, “God, would you please give me some way to express this rhythm?” I was thinking, in particular, about the drums. But mostly I was just so overwhelmed with my love for rhythmic expression.

Later that week, Melissa, the leader of the music group, got up and declared that she was offering free guitar lessons. Guitar? Hmm, I once had a roommate who played guitar. And I had seen the large group of guitar players that Melissa led each week as we sang devotional songs. But it had never occured to me to pick one up. As she gave her announcement, I remembered Bobby McFerrin and my moment of prayer. I found the sign-up sheet and wrote my name down.

I borrowed a friend’s guitar and arrived at my first lesson to find about fifteen other students awkwardly holding their cumbersome instruments. Melissa showed us three chords and one rhythmic pattern. We were told to come back the following week, show our progress, and we’d be given three more chords and a new rhythm. I spent most of every waking hour that week with my arms around that guitar. As I played chords, I rested my head against the wood and listened to each sound reverberate into my ear. It was love at first strum.

I arrived the next week to find that I was one of the only students to have practiced. Before I left that day, Melissa gave me the master list of all the chords, a chart for creating my own rhythms, and I never went back. In the quiet of my room, I began to write song after song after song. I took the chords Melissa gave me, broke the patterns apart, and made up my own chords. I played rhythms on my body and then transferred them to my guitar.

The only thing that interested me was making sounds that were pleasing and writing words that came naturally. And to my great surprise, what came out of me were rivers and rivers of sorrow. Sorrow as I had never known. Emotions I had no idea were inside me.

I have been writing songs for almost thirty years now and am living proof of the power of music. If you want a good voice, you may just get what you’re asking for. As a child, my idea of a good voice was one that was pleasing to listen to. As a man, my idea of a good voice is one that tells the truth. Music is tricky because it’s a bit of both. It’s a rhythm that requires pressure and time, weight and levity, push and pull, doing it over and over thousands and thousands of times until it is a language you speak fluently.

The great hope (besides love) is that in moments when you’re remembering clay pigeons struck by quick words that left your heartstrings feeling off-key, you will understand more fully—in tones that have been both beautifully and truthfully embedded in your body—that it was all a part of bringing you here, exactly where you were meant to be.

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Yoga Nidra: Learning To See Self

How does yoga, Yoga Nidra, and meditation help us learn to see and understand ourselves?

Master teacher and author Donna Farhi wrote in her book, Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living

One of the most devastating consequences of skewed perception is the longing that grows in us for someone to see us as we really are. We long to have someone, somewhere, even for a moment, really see us. When someone sees the “us” that is our essence, we say that we feel loved. My teacher taught that the primary thing to learn is how to be this loving, accepting presence. . . . When this longing to be seen by another is great, we become susceptible to chronic manipulation of our image. We may continually rearrange and reinvent ourselves in the hope that this new rendition will please our audience. Instead of being present, we perform. (pp. 179–80)

In Clear Mind, Wild Heart Poet David Whyte says, “To be constantly explaining who you are is a gospel of despair.” He further invites us to simply be ourselves and in so doing give permission to all around us to do likewise.

In yoga, Yoga Nidra , and meditation we practice self-witnessing as we breathe, move through poses, and become mindful. Without this self-witness you can’t understand the real you. No amount of exposure or popularity, no amount of others seeing or perceiving you will compensate for the lack of knowing yourself. It’s the paradox of rock stars: so popular but often feeling so lonely. A friend once told me, “ It’s as if in our quest to experience and really discover/remember who we are, we feel like being seen by others is synonymous to being. There must be something there to see, right?”

But being witnessed isn’t witnessing. Yoga philosophy suggests that who we are fundamentally is the ability to truly witness ourselves.

Yoga Nidra is perhaps my favorite way of seeing the part of me that never changes, the part that just is. Yoga Nidra is one of my favorite ways of practicing just BEING. Yoga Nidra is a method of self-inquiry that helps you to practice simply witnessing all the things that you are aware of as the first step to learning to illuminate Awareness itself. In Yoga Nidra philosophy (tantra) you’re true being is Awareness.

“Thanks, Mr. Oblique Yoga Philosophy Guy. That’s some awesome yoga thought but give me some real-life ways to relate that to getting up in the morning and facing another day of work and family and the every-day.”

Well, the easiest way to apply this is to just pay attention to your life. What does it feel like to sit in a warm shower and let the water flow over your skin? What do the blossoms smell like when you walk down the sidewalk? What does your breakfast taste like? What does it feel like when your boss walks by? Yoga practice is simply a condensed and refined way of paying close attention.

Besides yoga makes us feel great, helps us have a healthy body, calm mind, and open heart. Here’s the deal: once we start practicing this self-witnessing business in yoga, we won’t stop at Namaste. We’ll be feeling our hamstrings in practice one night, and wake up extremely aware of the way the shower feels or maybe start to see the deep feelings in your heart. These are the most real ways of just being. The deeper we pay attention, the more we notice what’s behind the surface, what’s animating the outer form, what’s sensing, what’s seeing. Eventually, with practice, we become more and more familiar with this Inner Self. What’s amazing is how this knowledge of our inner-self gives us amazing confidence to just be. We stop trying to produce the image of ourselves, and we just be ourselves.

It reminds me of tales of Mark Twain. Often when he delivered lectures, like one would expect he would walk out on stage the crowd would applaud and then quiet down listening intently for what he would say. But what people didn’t expect is that often, Mark Twain wouldn’t start talking right away. He’d stand there in front of a packed auditorium and stare down the audience. Each second that passed wound the tension tighter and tighter. One man looking at thousands. He didn’t have to perform. He didn’t have to say anything. He was Mark-Freegin’-Twain! Finally, when the tension became almost unbearable, he would say but one word and have the entire audience in his hands. Now that’s presence!

Writers and poets, yogis and meditators all have one crucial thing in common: they’ve developed a keen attention to themselves and the world around them.

May you practice some of this self-witnessing in whatever form you love to be present.

Maybe this is what John Lennon meant when he sang ,“Let it be.”

Learning To Be Lost

Paris. Summertime. Rush hour.

I was crammed into an aisle-seat near the back of a hot and crowded bus, staring out the window, hypnotized by the waves of afternoon traffic, as the City of Love passed me by. It was a complex modern ballet of busses and bikes, cars and pedestrians.

A sharp bump on my shoulder ripped me from my daydream. I glanced up to see a man in his late 50s or early 60s wearing a crisp, starched shirt, a broad smile, and the unmistakable opaque sunglasses of someone who is blind.

“Excusez-moi!” the man said with an assured and happy tone, my annoyance instantly neutered by his obvious good nature. “Pas de problem,” I responded sincerely and watched as he proceeded to literally bump his way, inch by inch, body by body, toward the front of the tightly-packed bus.

It was a labored birth of bumping, squeezing, and "excuzez-moi-ing" to arrive at the front of the bus but I didn't sense any embarrassment or self-consciousness on part the of the blind man. I could only hear his good-natured, "Excusez-moi!" echoing regularly through the bus. The man’s happy heart was contagious and soon it had brightened the bus’s entire atmosphere.

At the front of the bus, the blind man leaned in and spoke a few essential words to the driver and a few minutes later the bus made an impromptu stop. “Merci,” the blind man offered to the driver as the hydraulic doors hissed, opening like some giant whale ready to spew Jona back out into the raging sea of afternoon traffic. The blind man groped the handrail as he shuffled toward the door. Standing on the lip of the bus, he probed the space beyond with a deft toe, trying to gauge the distance to the street below and not finding it, I watched his faith appear like wings as he released the handrail, falling in the darkness for a half-second before his foot found terra firma. He landed doing a few quick tap-dance steps to find his balance. I watched from the bus window as he walked in short steps searching for the sidewalk. His feet found the curb and he stumbled up onto the sidewalk entering the rapid of foot traffic.

I worried for this man. This was the kind of traffic that required all of your senses to be on high alert, and perhaps even a guardian angel, to manage safely. The blind man didn't even have a walking stick. In this dense current, it would not have helped.

Once planted firm on the sidewalk, he stopped and stood mid-current as busy passers-by swirled around him and continued down stream. He stood like a fly fisherman, legs firm against the flow, then lifted his bright face upward above the din of the crowd and made some sort of plea above the deluge, perhaps asking if someone might point him in the right direction.

As if cued by some cosmic Paris City stage manager, no sooner than making his ask did a beautiful woman materialize from the busy crowd, smartly-dressed wearing heels and a light floral skirt and blouse. A complete stranger. She met the blind man with a gentle touch on his arm then casually wrapped her other hand affectionately through his bent elbow. After no more than a few seconds, the new pair made a quick quarter-turn and started strolling arm-in-arm across the crowded Pont Neuf, chatting and laughing as naturally and casually as if they had known each other for years and were on their regular date to promenade the Latin Quarter for an opera matinée.

The smile on the blind man’s face never waivered once. It was as if he had expected his beautiful angel to escort him across the bridge. A reluctant voyeur, I nonetheless wished like hell that I could somehow hear their conversation as they walked down the street. As I watched them stroll away, walking together, I felt their combined light.

Though the man’s eyes were blind, clearly he had honed other essential senses, like those hinted at by the wise fox in The Little Prince who said, “One can only see well with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.” This blind man’s palpable heart light was evidence that he could see the world in ways that many others could not.

This was several years ago, though I replay that scene often in my memory. Sometimes, I feel like I'm blindly stumbling through life, walking around busy streets, tripping off the bus, bumping into the sidewalk, and graciously, not without some self-deprecating humor, asking humbly for some kind soul, some angel of light, to give me direction, to hold my arm and steer me to the other side of the river, over the bridge, toward something new.

And sometimes I pray to hidden angels: “Let me learn to be blind, if only for a while, so that I may feel rather than analyze my way through life. Let me learn to see a different, more essential kind of light. Let me learn to ask for help. Let me know of some deeper magic within. Let me learn to trust my deepest heart’s direction.”

Amid the current of life, sometimes I stumble onto my yoga mat or my meditation cushion and practice going inside. There I practice seeing what is essential. There, I discover a whisper of faith telling me that more important than mapping out each step of my life in meticulous detail, my true work lies in learning to know the light in my heart. By closing my eyes I find true sight.

Armed with inner-sight, I can feel my way toward where I need to go, knowing I’ll find my angels along the way. Then, all of the details and particulars of my life will naturally grow and evolve as they should.

My heart tells me to go ahead and make my plea to the Universe against the din of the world’s rushing current, to ask for what I want and where to go and what to do. Then to watch what emerges. My heart tells me that I must learn to be lost, to ask directions, and ask permission. I must risk a little. I must risk it all. I must learn to fall. I must keep my heart open. I must learn to say I’m sorry. I must have faith. I must learn to love despite it all.

Wherever you might be stumbling in life, I hope you stumble onto your mat or meditation cushion and practice finding your inner vision. Don’t be surprised when your smartly-dressed angel materializes from the current to greet you at the corner of hope and I don’t know what.

May we all link arms as we move blindly through this life together, illuminated by some deeper light, while crossing the bridge from old to new on our way in this opera of life through the City of Love.

Habits Make Or Break You

I love to trail run. Even when I'm slogging up a big hill it never feels like work. At the start of my run, I look at my watch and estimate how much time I GET to run. When I come back, I like to roll out my yoga mat and throw down some of my favorite poses. It feels utterly amazing!

Consequently, I'm getting healthy in body, mind, and spirit by doing something I love!

I've said it for years and we all know it's true: your habits will either make you or break you. Practice being healthy in body, mind, regularly. Drink enough water, eat your veggies, do something physical. Practice yoga. Meditate. Practice gratitude.

Set up a weekly routine of general eating habits, your regular yoga and meditation classes, and general way of being. You don't have to be perfect in this—it's is a lifestyle, not just a challenge. That means once in a while it will be your birthday your normal routine will be shot—all you'll consume will be booze and sugar. You'll probably be reminded that what you really wanted for your birthday was to do what makes you feel great. But then the next day you start back up and there's no judgment, no problem.

After weeks, months, and years of regularly doing what you love and what is healthy for you, you will realize that you've made some pretty big strides toward being the person that you knew you always were. it's your habits that form your health, character, and happiness.

This week in one of my live, online Yoga Nidra classes, one of my students who has joined my online sessions for many months commented with great happiness about the cumulative effect of doing Yoga Nidra regularly.

There are some lessons which can only be learned through a cumulative effect.

So choose those things that love which are also healthy for you in body, mind, and spirit and make them a habit.

What is true is that we are in the time of COVID and that we will be here for a little bit. If you've been resistant to online classes, give them a try. You might be surprised at some of the hidden advantages such as, many of my classes are recorded so you can do them when fits with your schedule, if you do join live how thy are still quite interactive, and the commute to class only a few steps to your living room. You can join me from anywhere in the world. All pets are allowed to attend virtual classes! They'll love that. That and you can choose to turn your camera off so you can practice in your underwear if you wish.

If you are looking to establish some healthy habits in your life to promote your own wellness in body, mind, spirit, I think you'll be quite pleased at some of my offerings. I'm even experimenting with some livestream/live-socially distanced classes. Check them out below. I hope you have a great week, everyone.

Yoga Nidra: Living Courageously

I write for a great online publication called Conscious Living News. I just published an article this week about using Yoga Nidra to learn to live your live courageously. Take a look!

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Often when we think of courage, we conjure ideas of running into a fiery building to save someone or jumping out of an airplane however, perhaps an even truer definition of courageous means to live your life connected to your heart. Through mindfulness practices like Yoga Nidra meditation you may learn to connect to your heart to listen to the message of your heart, and to have the courage to prioritize your life according to what matters most to you. In so doing, you share your heart's gift with the world. 

Living Full of Heart

Courage comes from the french word, Coeur, meaning heart. Therefore, courageous means being full of heart. Living courageously means loving the world and bravely prioritizing what you love. It means having the courage to share your heart’s gift with the world. Howard Thurman was an author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader who once said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Giving your heart’s gift to the world means offering your love and the fruits of that love as a gift. You give it because it’s a joy to do so, whether or not there’s any reciprocity. 

How do you give your gifts to the world? Do you prioritize sharing your gift? The world needs what only you can offer. Some people's gift to the world is very public and for others it's quite private. You might love the world through music, raising children, or practicing law—there are countless ways to love the world. The way you love the world might simply be the way you can observe and appreciate it. Regardless, every one has a gift to share the world and that gift is equal to the way in which you love the world.

Sourcing the Heart

In searching for our heart’s gift for the world and how to share it, sometimes, we need to gain wisdom about ourselves, wisdom that may lie deeper than our conscious, rational thinking mind. Yoga Nidra is an excellent (and relaxing) practice to plumb these depths and hear the secret message of our heart. It does this by placing you into a state between waking and dreaming, one of relaxed alertness, which acts as a secret doorway to visit the Source that is within you. It’s like a doorway to your heart. This is why I’ve dedicated several sessions in my live online Yoga Nidra class (on Wednesdays and Sundays) to explore sourcing your heart’s gift and set the conditions necessary to hear the wise Oracle inside you whispering what your gifts are for the world and how to share them with the world. 

The Oracle Inside of You

The Oracle Inside of you, whispering your gifts of your heart, may be closer and easier to hear thank you think. I'm passionate about Yoga Nidra, a relaxing form of meditation that uses layered Awareness and relaxation to tune into hear your heart's message to yourself. Please enjoy this free Yoga Nidra practice: Waking from the Dream, Opening to Awareness. I've made it just for you and hope that by listening to it you too will learn to hear what's inside of your heart and how to courageously share it with the world.

What's Alive In Me

Photo by Alex Adams

How are you? I hope you are well and grounded and connected to your heart. I wanted to let you know about my incredible live, online Yoga Nidra training I have planned for this weekend but I'd be remiss if I didn't share what's truly alive in me first…

What's alive in me today is some recent news about serious health issues concerning a member of my family. Without going into details to protect privacy, I'm optimistic for a good outcome while also being realistic about the hard work ahead. We have a family motto: "We are a family who can do hard things!"

What's also really alive in me today is our desperate need for social revolution in this country for our BIPOC (black, indigenous people of color) and LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters. Specifically, I know that the work starts with me and that I need to listen and learn. For me, this social crisis marks a new practice of drawing inward to a journey of greater self-discovery, one that will help me to do my part to heal what's broken in myself, to recognize inequality that is embedded unconsciously within me so I can learn to love it, respond to heal it, and act to do my part to heal our country and world.

Like I mentioned in my email/blog post last week, The reLoveution Starts Within, hating on or discriminating someone else, even unconsciously, is some backward way of finding wholeness. It's the autoimmunity of humanity. There's no way to get to where we are going unless we heal the fundamental illusion of separateness.

I get totally overwhelmed facing the teeth of such a big and snarling issue. It's easy to go all deer-in-the-headlights and simply freeze. I know that if it weren't an important issue, I wouldn't be afraid of it. I suppose it's the difficult but necessary growth that I must take which I fear. But this is me making that first step, resolving not to quit until we all get there.

Nonetheless, I'm hopeful. I believe that time is an illusion, that we've all already made it to perfection, that we are all already enlightened and this human experience is like rewinding the tape to see how it all happened. What is happening now is some big and necessary growing pains but that we are doing it! This doesn't spare us from the really hard work ahead of us, just that we are assured success for the inevitable difficulty. We are on this journey together so let's hold hands, brush ourselves off when we fall, and keep moving forward!

We are waking up!

To my BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) as well as queer brothers and sisters, I'm listening. I want to understand. I want to do the right thing, even if I'm kinda clueless. I may not say the right things or fully know exactly how clueless I am, but I'm willing to learn. My heart is open. I'm humbled by the importance of this issue and I'm willing to do what I need to do to heal my own issues. I'm reading, meditating, writing, and acting toward the healing of this issue.

I invite you to do likewise.

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Yoga Nidra Training

reLOVEution Starts Within

What To Do?

Tragically, George Floyd is now a household name. I’m sick to my stomach with grief, anger, and fear over what’s transpired in the last week. I fear what we are—as a nation and as a people. There’s no us vs. them. There’s only us—all of us. Together. And unless we can unite in wholeness, in peace, and in unity, we all suffocate from the weight of intolerance, ignorance, and hate. That and change starts from within. 

As much progress as we’ve made toward racism in this country, it’s nonetheless perilously woven itself deep into the fabric of our institution in both subtle and overt ways. But how do we start to make things right for people of color, black as well as brown, yellow, red, oh and let’s not forget women, LGBTQ+ folks—so basically anyone who’s not a white man, right? How do we as a nation even begin to reconcile with those who have been disenfranchised? 

First, I’m Sorry

Personally, I think a great big fat public apology is in order, an apology from everyone who’s benefitted from the racist hierarchy. Not that it would immediately make things right. But it wouldn't hurt and would be a step in the right direction. 

Here’s mine: I’m sorry. I’m sorry to George Floyd. I’m sorry to his family. I’m sorry to any person of color for the ways that this country and the people in it treat them differently. I’m sorry to our indigenous people on whose land we live. I’m sorry to our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters and those who are non-binary. I’m sorry to the women and children who all too often end up with the short end of the stick. I’m sorry because as a white, straight man, the system is set up to work in my favor and I benefit from it in ways that are both obvious and subtle.

Whether by my choice or not, I’ve benefited from this reality because as much as I love everyone on this earth, regardless of color or sexual orientation, I’m nonetheless a white man and that has undoubtedly given me privileges which have changed my reality more than I’m sure I can ever know. I’m not ashamed of being white no more than anyone should be ashamed for the way they came into this earth, naked, vulnerable, and hopefully wrapped in the loving and protective arms of their mother, which is the way we all deserve to live every day of our life, treated like the most valuable human being that has ever come into existence. Because you are. We all are.

Heart Revolution

Whatever the answer is for this complex and heart-breaking issue, one thing is for sure and it’s that violence is not the answer. I just came from living for a year in France where protest is a national sport. Since long before the French Revolution, the people in France have been telling “The Man” where to stick it. I think peaceful revolution is healthy for society, especially when that revolution is rooted in love and acts from a place of responsiveness rather than reactiveness. 

If yoga, Yoga Nidra, and meditation teach us anything, it’s that we must take the information we have, learn to invite it into our Awareness, acknowledge all the ways it affects us, and observe it. Then we must know how to respond to that information. As we do so from the place of observation, every step forward is from a place grounded in our innate goodness, from the portion of Source or God which resides within us which is inextricably connected to LOVE.

WWGD? 

Gandhi, perhaps the world’s greatest social revolutionary, understood very well the primary yogic principle of Ahimsa, or non-harming, and insisted on leading the world’s largest social revolution with non-violence at it’s foundation because he understood that no lasting change could happen using the same backward power that had oppressed them. Something that Gandhi understood very well, and which I think this is the kicker here, is that we can’t get there from here, meaning we can’t stop violence and stop hate with more violence and hate. Is it warranted? Of course it is. But to what end? To perpetuate more violence and hate?

But how do we do it? Enough is enough, already! How do we get a little justice around here?! When are we going to start seeing some real change in this world?! (insert your favorite, cathartic expletive here). 

For real change, the kind that we all desperately need and, sadly, few believe is even possible, we gotta come at this crucial world-problem from an entirely different mindset. Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” To change this desperate world-problem, we gotta up-level our consciousness and that means starting with ourselves. It means doing your yoga and meditation to discover the goodness that is within you to share that with the world. 

I believe the first step to creating real change is to stop pointing the fingers at someone else and demanding that THEY change, that they are responsible. We all must choose to be responsible about the solution. Lemme get all yogi on you, here: lasting change in the world can only come from within YOU. Gandhi also said, "If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man (or person) changes his (their) own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him (them).... We need not wait to see what others do." (I added the PC language.) 

In a world that has had ENOUGH of hate, the thing that is going to change things around here is love and the place to start is with our own heart. 

Love Yourself

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Before we start throwing social distancing to the wind and hugging everything with a pulse, we gotta first do the challenging work to learn to love ourselves. We have to heal our wounds of self-loathing, guilt, and shame. We need to person-up and apologize to others and ourselves for wrongs done, forgive ourselves and others, and learn to really love ourselves first and foremost. This is the first and crucial step to be able to extend that love to others. 

Psychologist, author, and world-renown peacemaker Marshall Rosenberg, in his incredible work on non-violent communication, says that in order to love another person, you must first learn to love yourself through positive self-talk, self-image, and affirmation.

When we can learn to love ourselves, we can then extend that love toward everyone, especially those who have been disenfranchised. Then (steel yourself, here) we can even learn to love the oppressor. 

Now listen, I believe that black lives matter. I am sick and tired of seeing police brutality, especially toward people of color. I believe that those who use excessive violence should be corrected and denied the privilege to wear the sacred badge of a protector of our society. I believe you shouldn’t get another chance to “protect and serve” if you’ve proven yourself unable. Forgive, yes. Remain on the force, no.

I also believe that being a cop is a very difficult job and that the great majority of law enforcement in this country serve very honorably and put their lives at risk all the time. And I believe that they do this despite the fact that there is institutional racism woven into the system. So cops, hats off to you. 

Can we just all agree to stop the violence inward and outward and just love? It’s that simple. We are all people. We are all somehow One. Fighting another member of this great organism called humanity is like an auto-immune disease, one part fighting another in some doomed attempt at wholeness. It’s as trite as it is true: love is the only answer. Who cares if there have been a billion cheesy pop songs about it. It’s still true!

My prayer:

May we first learn to love ourselves. May we then extend that love to those around us. Then to those we don’t know, and possibly don’t trust, most likely because we don’t know. May we mindfully ground ourselves in love and with that firm foundation stand our ground against all oppression knowing that everyone, everywhere has that same love within them somewhere, even those who have forgotten where it is. May we source the most magical power in the Universe, one exponentially greater than violence, that of love, and may we wield this power to change the world. 

Start with yourself and start today.

Please take a moment and listen to this free Loving Kindness for compassion recording I’ve made, especially for these times. It will activate your heart and put every person involved in this issue, including yourself, on the sacred altar of your heart to heal us all from the illusion that we are separate beings. 

I love you. 

Thank you and namaste.

Yoga Nidra: Follow Your Heart

To lead up to my live, online Yoga Nidra training I’ll be hosting June 12–14th I’ve been on a kick lately, writing about the fact that we have a heart’s gift for the world. For some of us, our heart’s gift to the world is rockin’ out like Prince, others of us choose the arena of raising kids in which to rock. We all have special talents in this world and the way we love the world is the way we give back to it. But what do you do if you’re not quite sure about what your heart’s gift for the world is or if you do know, how to share it with the world? One sure way to discover the answer to either of those questions is to follow your heart.

Follow Your Heart

Photo of Acoustic Music SLC

A while ago I wrote something called Unique Tunings for Guitars. It’s about how a guitar string is tuned to ring at a certain frequency when plucked. But if I’m playing, say, an A on my sax, all the way on the other side of the room from the guitar hanging on the wall, the A string which is tuned to ring at the same frequency, will hear its song sung by my sax and spontaneously begin to sing along, even though nobody touched the guitar. Often, I’ll pull my sax outta my mouth and hear the guitar humming happily in the corner all by itself, like there’s a ghost in the room who just couldn’t help herself from playing along to my sultry sax playin’. I know, crazy.

Well, I believe our hearts strings are tuned in a similar way—tuned so that they sing when they hear their song. Perhaps the best way to approximate what Source is—Source is what I’m calling that thing we all come from, where we go when we die, and exists within everything in the Universe—the best way to approximate what that thing is would be to call it love. So, when you love something or someone and you feel your heart strings a hummin’, well, that’s Source hearing it’s song. To find out what Source has in mind for you in this life, what your heart’s gift for the world is, just notice what you love.

What resonates with you, what do you love? Even if you don’t know what your heart’s gift for the world is—your purpose for life— loving the world IS your purpose.

Period.

Focus on what you love and prioritize your attention on those things. Do you love ceramics? Do you love to ski? Do you love to teach? If it feels like the only thing in the world you love is your cat, then maybe your heart’s gift for the world is to love that cat for all you’re worth. Lucky cat. Give up the notion that you gotta be Gandhi or Lady Gaga to bless the world. Someone’s already been assigned that job. You’ve got your own job and it has something to do with what makes your heart sing. That’s it. It can be that simple.

Can Your Heart’s Gift To The World Change?

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Keep in mind, though, that everything in this Universe is in some sort of orbit and subject to change, even your heart’s gift for the world, so don’t get too attached. Be connected enough to Source, to the love that is within you, to know when you might be called to love in a different direction.

Whether you know your heart’s gift for the world or not, it often takes gobs of quiet, heaps of introspection, and about a metric shit-ton of courage to learn to know it and/or organize your life in order to share it with the world.

Maybe discovering what your heart’s gift for the world is takes being a little more familiar with Source. If you and Source aren't really on a first-name basis, you might want to try some meditation. But sitting down, lighting some incense, and closing your eyes, while trying to focus despite the scratchy licks from the textured tongue of your beloved cat, may not instantly open up that deep wisdom you seek from your heart. Sometimes, to hear those secrets from your heart, you gotta set the conditions right to “listen.” Sometimes this means starting with some movement, some breath work, some gratitude, and then do your meditation. Even still, the message might not come right away but as you regularly draw inward, slowly, you’ll learn to hear the quiet but sure voice of your heart. As you do, it will undoubtedly tell you what your heart’s gift for the world is and how to share it. I promise.

Please enjoy this optimization practice and Yoga Nidra practice I lead during one of my live online Yoga Nidra classes. It consists of a pranayama (breath work) practice, a mindfulness exercise (with gratitude), a few gentle poses, and a nice long and expansive Yoga Nidra practice. Enjoy!

Sourcing Your Heart's Gift: You're a Rock Star

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Ever see someone do something really really well and think to yourself, “That dude was BORN to mow lawns!” or “that kid plays Rachmaninoff like it’s her JOB!” or that woman is the APOTHEOSIS of a math teacher”?

Something magical happens to us when we witness someone else do what they are meant to be doing in this world. Seeing them do their thing moves us because somehow it gives us permission and nudges us to find and/or do what we were meant to do.

Emily Dickinson’s gift to the world was poetry. Michael Jordan’s gift to the world is playing basketball. Oprah Winfrey’s gift for the world… is being Oprah Winfrey.

A heart’s gift for the world is what you were meant to do. It’s a gift because you give it to the world to make the world a better place and it’s a joy just to give it, regardless of reciprocity.

Everyone has a heart’s gift for the world. Some of us know it. Some don’t. Some people’s heart’s gifts are very public, others’ are private. Someone’s heart’s gift may or may not be how they make their living. Sometimes you get a job and then through that work, it reveals to you something you didn’t know about yourself, the gift that was hidden inside of you. That’s true for me and teaching yoga and meditation. Through many years of teaching it, I’ve discovered how much teaching yoga and meditation makes my heart sing. It’s taught me volumes about myself and I absolutely LOVE it. If I were stranded on a desert island I’d still practice yoga and meditation and probably teach the sea birds everything I know about the subjects.

To discover and express your heart’s gift to the world means you gotta be connected to Source, the portion of Source that’s inside of you. Source— you know, Creation, The Universe, God, the Great EVERYTHING, Krishna, Sarah The Magical Unicorn, whatever you want to call that thing that is at once inside of you while simultaneously inside of EVERYTHING else. After all, the Divine is waking up to know itself through and as YOU. The Divine is using your hands, your mouth, your talents to move this whole Universe along and to grow into discovering itself. So if Source is coming to know itself as you, don’t you think you ought to know a thing or two about Source so you can help yourself be what you were meant to be?

And think about it, if you were God and could express yourself in any way you chose, why wouldn’t you come to know yourself, at least in part, through playing the guitar like Joni Mitchell, or Eddie Van Halen, or Prince? Answer: there’s no way you WOULDN’T be Prince cuz Prince was badass and he made the world an incredible place with his music, God rest his soul.

Well according to Source, you’re just as much a rockstar as the artist formerly to this world as Prince was. Your gifts may not be as public as Prince’s but you gotta remember, to the gladiolas in that garden of the little white house on the corner— you know the one, it’s the one with nary a weed, the one where the most feral of cats wouldn’t even dare to trespass to do their business in there, the one where you make excuses to walk by it, socially distanced of course, just so you can be near its beauty— well, to the flowers in that garden, the little old lady that keeps that Eden is nothing short of a rockstar. The same Source exists within you as it did Prince and those stunning gladiolas.

Yes, you are a rockstar, though your venue for rocking might be raising kids, might be litigating corporate fat cats, or hosting peace rallies. Maybe your venue for rocking is simply the way you appreciate the world— it’s your style. Whatever it is, you are called on to rock and the world needs your heart’s song.

Philosopher and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman once said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Giving your heart’s gift to the world means offering your love and the fruits of that love as a gift. You give it because it’s a joy to do so, whether or not there’s any reciprocity.

What’s your heart’s gift for the world? How do you begin to find it? What does it look like to follow it?

What if you don’t know in which arena you are meant to rock? What if you feel that you haven't found your “Raspberry Beret?” How do you find your heart’s gift for the world? One secret to finding your heart’s gift to the world is to simply follow what you love—discover what gives you joy, pleasure, and what vibrates your heart strings.

In searching for our heart’s gift for the world and how to share it, sometimes, we need to gain wisdom about ourselves, wisdom that may lie deeper than our conscious, rational thinking mind. Yoga Nidra is an excellent (and relaxing) practice to plumb these depths and hear the secret message of our heart. It does this by placing you into a state between waking and dreaming, one of relaxed alertness, which acts as a secret doorway to visit the Source that is within you. It’s like a doorway to your heart. This is why I’ve dedicated several sessions in my live online Yoga Nidra class (on Wednesdays and Sundays) to explore sourcing your heart’s gift and set the conditions necessary to hear the wise Oracle inside you whispering what your gifts are for the world and how to share them with the world.

Please consider joining me on Wednesdays at 6 pm MDT and Sundays 9 am MDT for my live, online Yoga Nidra classes. Each person who registers will receive a recording of the discussion and Yoga Nidra practice to continue the process of heart-discovery after our class.

In the meantime, enjoy this free Yoga Nidra practice which leads you progressively through relaxing into deeper Awareness and through a beautiful visualization where you hear the Oracle within you speaking your heart’s purpose for the world. I’d love to hear from you about your experience.

Stay tuned for more about sourcing your heart’s gift by learning to follow your heart…

Yoga Nidra: How Opposites Reveal Oneness

I’ve been teaching Yoga Nidra since 2008. While I initially took Dr. Richard Millers iRest Yoga Nidra training and have the deepest respect for that method, I do not teach that method. Instead, I’ve learned volumes about the fascinating and spiritually illuminating subject of Yoga Nidra by simply doing the practice and studying many teachers. I have since developed my own Yoga Nidra training and Yoga Nidra scripts which I feel gives teachers the power of understanding Yoga Nidra’s “what” and “why” so that they can deliver the practice in their own voice based on certain essential principles derived from their own experience.

My teaching style is based on using the koshas to explore the ego as a tool to illuminate the other half of your being, your Awareness. I encourage students to welcome anything and everything that arises into their Awareness, to acknowledge it for what it is with as much objectivity as possible, and learn to merely observe it. Doing so opens practitioners to the magical opportunity of responding rather than reacting to stimuli, not only in the practice of Yoga Nidra but more usefully in the practice of life. After all, Krishnamurti said that “The highest form of intelligence is the ability to observe without evaluating.”

I teach that what we seek to accomplish in Yoga Nidra is to wake up to our True Nature, one that is not bound by the limits of the ego nor is that of pure consciousness, but rather what I call the Both And Nature which is the beautiful express of consciousness meets form.

One of the tools I use regularly to arrive at the beautiful experience is using opposites during a Yoga Nidra practice.

We use the practice of exploring a binary and then attempt to hold the opposites in our Awareness in order to pop out of ego consciousness, limited to experiencing the world as this or that, and instead experience ourselves as Awareness itself. Ego exists only in a realm of this or that. Awareness is the Singularity, the place where everything exists as part of the larger whole. There are no opposites in Awareness, it's non-binary. Holding opposites together in your Awareness is a simple and useful tool to help you experience yourself as Awareness itself. Eventually, this will then lead you to experiencing your life in your Both And Nature, the marriage of the ego and Awareness.

After establishing the feeling of being Awareness itself, perhaps arrived at by holding opposites like the sound of my voice and the feeling in your heart, you then reinforce and deepen this feeling throughout your Yoga Nidra practice as you go move further into your layered Awareness by exploring the koshas. Remember that whatever you are aware of reveals Awareness itself. You can use opposites to illuminate Awareness in the realms of body (anamayakosha), for example, by first bringing attention one's to right hand, then left, then holding right and left simultaneously in Awareness. You can do this in other koshas too by holding opposite emotions or thoughts or beliefs. 

I tend to start a Yoga Nidra practice with an opposites exercise because it's great to begin the practice with a felt sense of Awareness, even if it's mild or somewhat contrived, rather than arriving at it in the middle or end of practice. I believe it works best to do this because we experience deepening awareness in layers rather than in a linear fashion. In other words, start by inviting the practitioners to feel themselves as Awareness right off the bat, perhaps with an opposites exercise, then continue doing it here and there

throughout the practice and in each koshas. (Remember that you don't have to do it through every koshas. Each kosha is just one way to anchor your Awareness.) Each time you invite the practitioner to experience themselves as Awareness, perhaps by doing the opposites exercise, it deepens the practitioner's Awareness. They will therefore experience the practice from that point forward with increasingly deeper Awareness. Even if you were to repeat a body scan a few times in a row, each time you go through it, provided they were reminded of being Awareness iteslf, they would experience it differently because of the layered nature of Awareness. 

Again, you're not trying to divorce the ego and seek to experience yourself as only Awareness. Rather, you're using the ego to illuminate that which you would otherwise not know about yourself, the Awareness part of you, the part that always is and never changes. Ultimately as you come to know both ego and Awareness intimately, you give birth to a third thing, what I call the Both And Nature, the marriage of Awareness and form. 

To continue explaining it, the ego exists in a binary, a state that sees things as this or that, me or you, have or have not. We naturally tend to identify as the ego because we define our reality by what we can see, taste, feel, etc. What's more is that it's our natural psychology makes us differentiate ourselves from other objects from an early age. Why would we know anything other than the ego? Well, we come from the place that is beyond ego, Source, and no matter how much of a seeker you are or how "spiritually minded" you want to be, we are all constantly reach to come back to our Origin, Source, home, be that consciously or unconsciously. We search every discipline imaginable to tell us what it means to be. 

The Awareness part of us has no form, cannot be seen, felt, etc. This is tricky because typically we have heretofore defined everything we know as "real" based on the criteria of the ego, that which we can feel, see, taste, etc. So how can we possibly come to know ourselves as Awareness and not just the ego?

The ego is the perfect and balanced opposite of Awareness. The ego cannot exist in a vacuum any more than Awareness can. We don't transcend the ego to understand ourselves only as Awareness. In fact, the ego is our greatest tool that illuminates our Awareness and the experience of the marriage of the two gives us our True Nature, our Both And Nature. I like the analogy of a marriage, consciousness marries form and the love child between the two is YOU, a spiritual being born of Awareness and form. You are the Divine, up-leveling itself to wake up know itself more intimately. You are giving birth to yourself as you practice presence. 

But arriving at experiencing yourself as this holy marriage takes a practice. We must learn how to not identify only as ego but rather as this third thing. But since ego is what we are most familiar with, what we pay most of our attention to, it actually serves as perhaps the best way to illuminate that which lies beyond the ego. 

In Yoga Nidra we can practice experiencing our Both And Nature by first establishing a binary to bring opposites into our field of attention, opposites like inside/outside, me/you, body/sound. Doing so leans into the practiced attention to ego and refines your focus and attention on one thing and then the another. Then, as you try holding them together, simultaneously in your Awareness, your ego freaks out and experiences cognitive dissonance because it only knows a world of this or that and never the twain shall meet, at least according the the ego. While these two things seem like complete opposites, they share something so obviously in common that it's as easy to miss as the nose on your face. What these two apparent opposites have in common is that you are aware of them. What you're aware of reveals Awareness itself. When you hold opposites simultaneously in your Awareness, your consciousness is forced to leave the realm of the binary to experience that which exists in the grand Singularity, Awareness itself. 

Learning to regularly experience the Awareness part of your being through practices such as Yoga Nidra, forever alters your self-concept. You no longer feel yourself as only ego. Instead you begin to feel your Both And Nature, the beautiful marriage that joins finite and infinite, body and spirit, form and consciousness. Living life in your Both And Nature doesn't make you blind to the ego, the natural textures, emotions, and vicissitudes of life. Quite the opposite. Living life from your Both And Nature helps you to begin to see every molecule in the world as an opportunity to practice presence, Awareness. The entire world, with its flavors, textures emotions, and even challenges, exists as a testament to your own Beingness. Every sunrise, every rainy afternoon, every breakup is somehow a love letter from the Universe, form whispering to consciousness, "Wake up! Watch this! I've made it just for you!"

Truly anything that helps you to be present has the capacity to do this for you but Yoga Nidra is a great and easy way of doing it. Powerful and effective. Plus relaxing. The opposites exercise is just one mechanism to help practice.

This reminds me of the Sermon of the Flower, origin of Zen Budhism where the Buddha gathers his disciples and without a word holds up a single flower. Most are mute with confusion by this gesture but Mahakasyapa smiles with understanding. He understands that this flower has the same beingness as everything else in the Universe. Words cannot explain this knowing. Mahakasypa experiences the marriage of form and consciousness. He hears what every object in the universe is whispering, including this humble flower is whispering the truth, that every thing exists in the marriage of form and being.