Be Yourself, cont.

                One last thought from the “I sure have not done enough with my life” whine fest.  God keeps sending messages.  Yesterday I went to the library to pick up a book for my son and found that a friend who works there had reserved a book for me, Sister Theresa: the Woman Who Became Saint Theresa of Avila.  He thought I might appreciate it and rightly so. 

                I couldn’t put the book down.  There were so many ways to enjoy it. Most importantly, it slammed the door on my inner complaint department.  At one point in the novel, Saint Teresa is depressed.  She says “… now He seems to have forgotten me.  Don’t you ever feel that way, Angelica?  Like God has abandoned you?”  Her companion answers, “You can’t force God’s hand.  Leave things alone for a little while.  Don’t try to do God’s work for Him, Theresa.  God knows what He’s doing.  Leave things to Him.”   With those lovely thoughts, I leave you with hopes for days of restful, peaceful good work, leaving worry over results in His hands.

Be Yourself

                As I’m sure many people also feel, doing my taxes was wildly depressing.  In quantifying and categorizing all that I spent and all that I received for my business, I felt like a failure.  How could I be in business for 4 years and not understand business?  Everyone leaves a reiki session with such great feelings and positive messages, how could I still be such a beginner in the financial realm?

                I prayed and soul searched, but was so loud in my longings I was never quiet enough to hear God speak. Sometimes when one persistently misses the point, God arranges things so it cannot possibly be missed.  I had that kind of Tuesday.

                Each Tuesday I meet with a friend to discuss our current religious book, and then toddle off to teach yoga.  We are reading “Story of a Soul” by St. Therese of Lisieux.  One passage that we each had highlighted discussed the saint’s problems with the seemingly inequitable distribution of gifts.  Why are some saints, and others just struggle through life without all of the graces God gives the saints?  She said “…every flower created by Him is beautiful, …the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy.  I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would lose its springtide beauty, and the fields would no longer be enameled with lovely hues.” 

                With these words I could feel the pitch.  God was throwing the ball to me to use as I would.  Did it mean go back to doing less?  Is being a daisy closing up shop?  Wouldn’t have been easy if that is what He meant.  But clarity was soon to come…

When I arrived at yoga, I was greeted with a huge bouquet of daffodils of every shape, size and hue that bloom in early spring.  From the tiny yellow Tete a Tete to the  bold white Mount Hood, each was beautiful by itself, but when they were all together, now that was amazing.  It struck me powerfully that denying my call to energy healing, returning to “normal” (though I never really was normal) or getting a “real job” would reduce the variety in life.  A huge bouquet of yellow King Alfred just has one note, a bit monotone, and I love variety.

So I hit the pitch, recommitting to my healing business, and we’ll see how far it gets.

Out at the Heel, Yoga Theraputics part 1

                Here is the first of the fruits of a marvelous class by Sianna Sherman, given the last week in February 2012 at Shine Yoga Studio, Cincinnati, Ohio.

                Starting from the ground up, let’s begin with a great way to get your feet in alignment.  In tadasana (i.e. standing, or more properly, mountain pose), we are taught to stand feet hip distance apart, second toe in line with the midline of the heel.  For many of us, it feels a bit pigeon-toed at first.  This is because the hip rotators, which help rotate the leg out (or externally) are so strong, they have taken over some of the role of the hip flexors (which lift the leg forward, as in walking).  You can discover if this is true for you by taking a little test.  Walk around a bit, and then come to standing.  Without moving your feet look down.  If one or the other (or both) of your feet are pointing out (even just a little bit), learning how to tame the hip rotators is the lesson for you.

                When instructed to come into tadasana, we are often told to look down at the feet to make sure they are parallel through the midline.  Should this not be the case, we are told to bring them into alignment.  Since my big fall on the ice 5 years ago, I have never once looked down to find this alignment though I have practiced hard to rediscover it.  This weekend I learned a good step to repatterning this area of the body.

                First, let’s experience the feelings of different kinds of motion. Starting from your standing position (tadasana), turn one foot out to the side.  Lift the toes and turn the foot into alignment with the other.  Which muscles move the foot when you move the toes?  For me, I notice most of the sensation in the quadriceps (front of the thigh).  Turn the same foot out to the side.   Now, lift the heel (rather than the toes) and move it outward to bring the foot into parallel.  As the heel moves out feel how the lower back opens, freeing the tailbone and decompressing the piriformis muscle.

                To expand on this idea, apply it to many other areas.  When stepping the feet wide for standing poses, always finish by widening from the heel. As you step forward to utanasana (standing forward bend) from lunge in your sun salutation, widen the heels slightly.  After this class, I noticed that my right leg turned out when operating the gas pedal in my car, so I have begun to periodically check and move the heel out when necessary.  Look when you wash dishes, brush your teeth, stand in church.  All times are fair game to teach your body divine alignment. 

Who Just Said “I Can’t?”- Wait, That Was Me

I love it when Sianna Sherman comes to town.  She is my favorite travelling yoga teacher.  I save up to take her classes and rearrange anything short of a wedding or a funeral to make sure I can attend.  You would think that the mental preparation would be as important as the physical, but somehow I was mentally unprepared for the classes I took during her February visit to Shine Yoga Studio in Hyde Park.

I show up to class, new mat in hand, ready to learn everything that she could teach so I could pass it on to my students.  The classes were so full there was only a few inches of floor between each mat in every direction.   There were two dedicated teachers just to help adjust the numerous students.  The first afternoon was devoted to therapeutics.   We worked with partners, each giving and receiving guidance and therapy.  I enjoyed working with my new friend, learning all kinds of different ways to help my students and clients release the tensions within the body.  Our teacher called it clearing, just like we talk about clearing blocks in Reiki.

                On the way home, I realized something embarrassing.  One of the teachers who was adjusting posture really got on my nerves.  I actually told her “I can’t” twice and I didn’t even realize it.  There is no “I can’t” in my vocabulary! Or maybe there is, but it’s not something I want in there.  I didn’t want to miss the next class, but the teacher would be there so I needed to figure something out to fix my issue.

                In any relationship there are two or more people.  Unfortunately the only one I can fix is me.  Wouldn’t it be great if everyone else would just accommodate me?  Not gonna happen.  As I started to ruminate on the problem, I just couldn’t get a handle on what was going on.  In a blinding flash of the obvious, I realized that I didn’t have to.

This is one of the true gifts of reiki.  There is no need to figure things out.  Just send reiki to “whatever is the cause of the behavior I don’t like (insert the name here).”  I spent some time Friday night, then Saturday on the ride back to the studio just sending reiki to whatever was blocking my reception of her gift of teaching.

The transformation was nothing short of miraculous.  What a great class, only due to the gift of reiki.  My body has had many falls and minor car accidents. This makes it hard to find the yoga motions within my own body, though I can see and find them in others as I teach.  Now I have a template within my body for the actions I create in others.  There was so much energy moving in my body, I’ve had a hard time speaking for several days after class.    My thanks to my guides and all the experiences that brought me here.

The Incredible Edible Egg

I am sitting here, eating breakfast with a smile that goes from my toes to out the top of my head!  My egg is delicious!  Last night I picked up eggs from a friend of mine who has a large family.  The children keep chickens that lay some very happy eggs.

                It was so great to pray over them.  As I blessed those who “…sowed, harvested, and prepared this food…”  I could see the faces of the kids as we talked last night.  What a gift I have been given.  I hope you all have as good a day as mine has begun.

Careful What You Ask For

For years I have been praying for, working towards and sending reiki energy to many goals- flourishing business, having good friends, helping my son with the Forensics team- all with only moderate success.  I wasn’t really floundering, but it seemed all of the energy was not hitting the target.  I began to feel like the plate spinner in the circus.  I’d get one aspect of my life really moving, like the plate balanced on the end of a stick, held up only as long as it keeps moving.  It seemed I could only do one plate at a time.

                Starting about two weeks ago, more plates began to spin at once.  The products I believe in began to sell.  I was invited to give a presentation.  I started receiving more emails.  Part of the Forensics team began to practice at my house.  My son wrote a good speech about something he really cares about.  Yeah! Aack!  I was overwhelmed!

                All of the details that come with success, better accounting, returning emails promptly, crafting talks targeted to your audience, and helping with speech revisions began dancing in my dreams.  I kept trying to keep all of the plates spinning at once.

Last Sunday morning, the day after my talk, I woke up in a sorry state, feeling just miserable.  I pulled off my Pendant of Eternal Light necklace and it looked like I felt.  The pendant is a coiled piece of metal with 3 crystal balls and a piece of lodestone inside.  If you are not careful, the chain gets caught up in the coil and it ties itself up in knots.  It had never gotten this bad before, maybe I should just cut it free.  That felt a little extreme so I went downstairs, made a cup of coffee, blessed it and began to unravel my pendant.  First pulling on one piece of chain, then on another.

 As I worked and massaged it back to freedom, I began to see the parallels with my life.  Each knot needed to be addressed as an individual, without worrying about all of the others.  Each bit unwound made me feel more hopeful.  Being present, in the present moment, with the present task made all of the difference.  Now I just need to remember it and enjoy the plates as I keep them spinning.

Be Yourself

“…every flower created by Him is beautiful, …the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy.  I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would lose its springtide beauty, and the fields would no longer be enameled with lovely hues.”

Story of a Soul, St Terese of Lisieux