Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

ReikiFlyerTitle: Reiki Class
Location: Devanand Yoga Center
Link out: Click here
Description: Lori has always had a deep passion for the healing arts and a great love for the adventure of life, and has been offering a number of different holistic modalities with heart and soul for the past 15 years. She fell in love \’at first touch\’ with Reiki, and moved into Mastery 8 years ago, adding the element of teaching the subtle yet powerful healing art to her practice. Lori is also a Registered Professional Counsellor with the Canadian Professional Counsellors Association with a Master\’s Degree in Transpersonal Psychology, and a Registered Yoga Teacher who studied Interdisciplinary Yoga in Nosara, Costa Rica in 2004. She brings great respect and reverence to the richness of the healing journey in all of her work, feeling called to integrate the energies of mind, body, and spirit through the various healing art forms she feels blessed to share with others. The depth and grace of Lori\’s personal healing journey combines beautifully with her skills and talents as she assists people in the journey of powerfully and compassionately transforming the obstacles standing in the way of their best lives, assisting them to live fully, authentically, and with great passion and purpose. Lori is at the heart of Esencia Awakening Arts (www.esencia.ca) – offering Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Reiki, Healing Flow Massage, and Yoga + Meditation. She is very excited to have just finished writing her first book that is in the process of becoming published, entitled: The Beauty Way: Living From The Awakening Heart. Feel free to contact Lori at: lori@esencia.caand at 647.637.3586
Lori Myles, Reiki Master, M.A. Transpersonal Psychology, Registered Professional Counsellor, Certified Aromatherapy Health Therapist, Registered Yoga Teacher.
Date: 2009-12-06

Title: Yoga in the Park
Location: Memorial Park, W Memorial Loop
Link out: Click here
Description: Free yoga class in the open air!! Come practice with us. Bring long sleeves and a blanket for the ground.
Start Time: 10:00am
Date: 2009-11-14
End Time: 11:30am

“Rain is purifying. Rain is a blessing from God.”  I was reminded in class this week on the words of Swami Devanand. Like a seed, those wise words have stayed and grown with my heart. Almost 20 years later, I am reminded beyond the words, but through the energy and intent, that all we need to do is remember and never forget Gratitude and Love.

Yoga has affected so many aspects of my life. I look back and realize the beautiful experiences it has brought to me, so undeservingly. I have traveled many places, met many saintly people, practiced spiritual retreats, shed many tears of joy, and celebrated spiritual friendships. Last week, I was reminded of one of my first retreats with Swami Guru Devanand in the heart of the island of Dominican Republic.  I traveled to the mountains, within the heart of the island. The retreat was in one of the most magnificent locations, with so much green, so many sounds, such breath taking views. Furthermore, it also was very rustic lodging, no solid food, lemonades with honey, showers at 3:30am to be ready for our 10 hours of daily meditation. Seven days to simply be with oneself, in complete silence, with no books or distractions, except being with oneself.

I do remember struggling through the meditations, my knees reminding me constantly their need of attention, and my mind writing the most decadent cooking book. I cannot say it was easy. I cannot say it was pleasurable. I do remember clearly a midmorning meditation when the skies broke loose. The rain poured over the tin roof in the designated meditation hall. My most intricate pizza recipe was interrupted, and I had to listen. For the first time I had to pay attention, away from my thoughts and my struggle to maintain the presence of my mantra. In that moment I was awoken by the incredible force of nature. God had to remind me to pay attention. He wanted me present in the sounds and the silence, to the struggle and to the embrace, the hunger and the fulfillment, to the void and the love. I was able to surrender and listen to my heart.

I step onto my mat every day, and I am reminded of the sacredness of every breath, of every movement, of my surrendering mind (many times not so much!). I am even more humbled and awed at the yoga center we share. This center goes beyond individuals. This center instructs and loves me at the same time. I am especially touched to see the sincerity of the 1 (or 28 students) in class. I feel all the yogis around the world that had come through and have left their heart and vibrant energy with us. Their experiences live in it, and so their opened hearts; the loving intent of so many is still present. I am grateful to all of you. I am grateful to God for talking through the rain.

Thank you!

The Thanksgiving season is speeding toward me faster than ever this year. So of course, I haven’t started planning it yet, but this writing is certainly making me think about it. So besides the usual things to plan like figuring out what am I going to cook,(it’s never the same menu since I like to make it easy on myself ☺), making lists of needed supplies, etc., this holiday does make me think more about my actual thanks giving or its kissing cousin: gratitude.

Sabrina's casserole is almost as good as her chaturanga dandasana!

Gratitude has not always been a conscious part of my life. I learned, sometimes the hard way, that gratitude was earned just like anything else. I thought life owed me a free “Happiness Express” card and of course, it needed to be platinum or is it black now? That may be a good sign that I do not know for sure. So, with consciousness and “showing up” ability, I realized more and more that gratitude was like a muscle (hopefully not the arm muscle) because for the life of me I cannot seem to get the arm balancing pose of Chaturanga Dandasana. It’s the four limbed staff pose that usually follows our all time favorite: the plank pose, just in case you were wondering.

So anyway, as the cliche says: if we do not use it we lose it. And so it is with gratitude.  Even when I am having a not so good day, I will make an effort to see that even in such a day there is a reason to hope. Like with yoga, the more I practice it the stronger I become.  The art of thankfulness follows suit. The more I practice it, the more I can see something that I can feel gratitude for, thus strengthening my spirit,The art of thankfulness follows suit. The more I practice it, the more I can see something that I can feel gratitude for, thus strengthening my spirit, mind and body ever more. It’s a win, win, win situation!

You are probably wondering why this piece is titled “Not On My Thighs”. Well, in conclusion of this little writing, I wanted to share with you this little poem that came across my readings. The poem made me smile and hopefully it will make you smile as well.

Thanksgiving 8000 Calorie Poem

May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey and/or tofurky be plump

May your potatoes and gravy

have nary a lump

May your yams be delicious

and your pies take the prize,

and may your Thanksgiving dinner

stay off your thighs

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thank you Devanand Yoga for providing such a loving, peaceful place for yoga practice. Namaste!

A picture is worth a thousand words. Without warning it will incite your inner child. Often, if you leave your mental post, it will talk to your heart. One such painting left me spell bound. In the November 2009 issue of Yoga Journal (p.67), a quiet Shiva stands out in earth sky tones and reminds me of the mud of India. Like the sweet simplicity of crayons, or the joy of tracing Devnagari letters in chalk, it transported a sense of beauty I could not resist. I wondered why. Why did these colors produce such a profound sense of oneness in me? It might be that the artist had used a palette straight out of my childhood, the water colors unfolding with the same flow of when we were children, when we loved all those shades inside a single box of paint and dipped freely in them without worry. A child paints for the fun of trying out how small round pigments will look pressed out against an impression of sky, an impression of water, an impression of a shape form or figure. In this artist’s rendition of Shiva, a similar style invokes a childlike joy. Shiva, balancing in Hastasana, gazes out at his world from his wondrous Prakruti. Without discrimination the mountains, hills, water, and the supreme Yogi express themselves playfully, with no consciousness of right or wrong, only the feeling of joy for the vision of paint, and a fresh new shade. Thus love rolls out of the innocent imagination of the maker, without an intermediary of thought or judgment, only the intense feeling, ‘rasa’ for manifestation. Like childhood paint running over the plastic rims, the magentas, yellows, blues, and reds in this painting stream out of the body of Shiva into surrounding nature, infused with the artist’s own craving for beauty- for those steep undulating brush strokes of his/her inner child. Then as slender hands rise up to touch the sky, Shiva pulls out an oversized red gold flower like it were the whole point of creation- that God manifests himself and then offers his awesome gift to mankind, so that mankind may gaze, even as God gazes back, in praise and gratitude.

Dancing Shiva

That is why this painting moved me so much, its colors still wet to my touch and the more I smudged it, the better it got. From the brilliant petals to the delicate saffron folds of fabric, the picture initiated a desire to want some of that bright blue sparkle for myself, to rub off on me from touching it and drinking its beauty again and again- to become, you know, as colorful and sublime as the fluid invitation of Shiva.

You may find Vidula teaching in Katy ISD, cooking delicious food, teaching the cooking class on Nov 7, or chating beautiful kritana at the center.

The idea was first presented by Edward Lorenz, an American mathematician and meteorologist, that the flap of a butterfly may affect the formation of a tornado in Texas.  Scientifically this is based in the chaos theory.  Scientifically this means that events are highly sensitive to the initial conditions.  I believe I have felt this effect in my life.

Many times I have doubts on the importance of my daily events.  How it is that in my commute honking the horn may affect the day’s events, mine or the other person’s?  How does smiling to the clerk at the coffee shop (although I do not drink coffee!), or the stranger in the elevator may have an effect in someone’s life, including myself?  How can my little simple actions and thoughts may have any effect in the world?  In MY world?

What if I actually woke up and made a conscious decision to smile?  What if I decided to be courteous to all drivers?  Be polite and generous with all “strangers”?  What if I held all other influencing factors in my live the same, except that one… I wonder what would truly happen?

What if I just go deeper than my mind?  I could just take a few seconds in the morning and breathe.  I could fill my heart with gratefulness, devotion, with love.  The mind will follow my heart.  My small or big world might change.  I can start being, as Mahatma Gandhi said, the change we need to see in the world.  I have many times failed at this – ok, most often.  But I know that life always presents an opportunity for improvement, where I can leave my ego behind, and focus on my heart.

Can we make a difference?

I see hope, in every yoga class, in every breath, in every person on their mats, in every vibration created in every class.  Hope that that we all start changing our world.  I see hope that we all begin taking healthy responsibility for the wellbeing of the bad driver or stranger in the elevator.  I can have faith that the flapping of our wings, of one or two, together, will create a new whirlwind of kindness and love in our world.

Expect to find Sabrina lovingly attending her garden, her pets, practicing yoga, and cooking wonderful food!

The Garden. It’s been a love and hate relationship. It has tested my patience, my need to control, as well as my expectations on how things will turn out. The Garden is a challenge, yet it keeps seducing me back because of its whispered promise of better things yet to come. 

I come from a line of female gardeners: my grandmother and my mother. Talk about green thumbs! They made it look so easy. I’ve had to work harder. I came into gardening out of spiritual necessity for I was in a place in my life that was thirsty for a  spiritual connection.  The traditional church home was not my answer so Nature,  dressed in all its finery, extended an invitation to me into its welcoming home. There, I learned I could restore and deepen my senses and therefore my spirit. 

Early on, I discovered that one of my favorite activities in the garden was the weeding process because weeding offered me instant gratification. Wow, I thought, I can make this chaotic space look quiet and serene so quickly and besides it so appealed to that side of my personality that found comfort in order! As my expertise in weeding grew, I realized that I was meditating. I came to look forward to my weeding dates because I discovered I was onto something. Gardeners define weeds as plants that are just unwanted because they are in the wrong place. They tend to leach out energy and therefore hinder the normal growth of nearby plants that were intentionally placed there by the gardener! And so, the more I weeded, the more I recognized that the weeds in my mind where just like the weeds in my garden:  misplaced and in need of attention. 

So without expectations of how things will work out, I finish in my garden of weeding by composting the weeds and my worries as well. A feeling of contentment fills me because I’ve just cultivated my garden within and feel so ever grateful for Nature’s sincere invitation in her most welcoming of homes, the Garden.

 Could life have developed anywhere else in the universe? We’re not asking about UFOs. Do you believe that it’s possible that life exists on another planet?