5 Ways to Thrive this Holiday Season December 15, 2009
Posted by catalyst yogi in Stress, relationships.Tags: calm, christmas, family, meditation, Stress
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The holiday season can be a joyous time and a time of great stress for many people. Here are a few suggestions to keep your dignity and grace intact.
1) Focus the holidays on the act of giving - encourage “gifts from the heart” that focus on service to other family members. Give gifts of time to your friends. A hand-made coupon for lunch or a movie with you will mean so much to close friends.
2) Be aware of Family Dynamics – we all play roles within our family of origin. Roles such as scapegoat, clown, golden child or black sheep. Refuse to play your role and help your family become more authentic
3) Let Go of Expectations – of how things should be or how people should behave. There is much mythology about the holidays via popular media – TV, movies etc. Watch if you have unrealistic expectations like receiving an ‘expensive, thoughtful gift ‘ means that person loves me or ‘my family of origin should all get along because it is the holidays’.
4) Laugh at Yourself – Stay conscious and alert – when you catch yourself falling into old habitual patterns with people – don’t take yourself so seriously – stop and laugh at the human drama.
5) 3 Min Meditation – When one of your family members says or does that thing that drives you crazy and pushes all your buttons. Don’t react. Go to the bathroom and do a Kundalini Yoga Meditation for to Release Emotions of the Past - in as little as 3 mins you will be calm and neutral.
Feeling like a ’scardey cat’ these days? September 23, 2009
Posted by catalyst yogi in Aquarian Age, Stress, meditation.Tags: afraid, emotions, fear, meditation, release fear, Stress
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The intensity of life seems to have amped up a few notches this month.
As a humanity, we are experiencing major challenges and old ways of coping are no longer working. These challenges can be experienced as insomnia, anxiety, accidents, not enough time, addictions, health crisis, relationship upsets or financial difficulties.
CHANGE IS NOW RAPID AND MOVING AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT.
With all these changes, we may feel stress. Underneath the stress is fear. This fear is the fear of the Unknown. What’s coming next? Can I handle another change in my life?
Once you understand that fear is simply an energy - a force – then can you transmute this energy for your soul’s journey.
5 Ways to Transmute Fear
1. Embrace the Mystery
The ancient yogis say that only 20% is known to our conscious mind and 80% is unknown to us. This 80% is what causes a lot of our fear. Embrace that 80% unknown in every situation – trust the Divine is guiding you each and every moment. Imagine yourself as a great adventurer on planet earth – a spiritual being here to have grand adventure.
2. Pranayam
One of the ten yogic bodies is called the Pranic Body. A strong Pranic Body keeps fear at bay. Consciously breathing will strengthen your Pranic Body. Slow down your breath. Inhale ten seconds. Suspend the breath for ten seconds and exhale ten seconds.
3. Kundalini Yoga Meditation
When you feel overwhelmed by life – practice this meditation anywhere or anytime. You can do this in as little as three minutes. MEDITATION TO RELIEVE FEAR. (3 MINS)
4. Take a respite from the news
Including newspapers, television and Internet. Read inspiring and uplifting books.
5. Express Yourself
There is a misconception that we are the only ones feeling fear and everyone else has it all together. We all feel the same range of emotions. Be authentic with trusted people in your life – share some your worries and fears – you will be surprised how similar we all are.
Let Go of Worry May 29, 2009
Posted by catalyst yogi in Aquarian Age.Tags: 2012, Aquarian Age, Releasing Anxiety, Stress, the Mind, worry, yogi bhajan
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Worry is a low grade fear which will make you feel small and powerless. Worry begins with one thought. Do this meditation to let go of worry and connect with Universal Intelligence. Don’t Worry – Be present. !
7 Ways to Thrive this Holiday Season December 18, 2008
Posted by catalyst yogi in Stress.Tags: haribhajan khalsa, holiday, Kundalini Yoga, relationship dynamics, Stress
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The holiday season can be a joyous time and a time of great stress for many people. Here are a few suggestions to keep your dignity and grace intact.
1) Focus the holidays on the act of giving - encourage “gifts from the heart” that focus on service to other family members. Give gifts of time to your friends. A hand-made coupon for lunch or a movie with you will mean so much to close friends.
2) Be aware of Family Dynamics – we all play roles within our family of origin. Roles such as scapegoat, clown, golden child or black sheep. Refuse to play your role and help your family become more authentic
3) Let Go of Expectations – of how things should be or how people should behave. There is much mythology about the holidays via popular media – TV, movies etc. Watch if you have unrealistic expectations like receiving an ‘expensive, thoughtful gift ‘ means that person loves me or ‘my family of origin should all get along because it is the holidays’.
4) Make time to be Alone – the holidays can be non-stop socializing which needs to be balanced with a self care. On suggestions is that you go for a walk every day by yourself. Self-first is a way to keep yourself together.
5) Laugh at Yourself – Stay conscious and alert – when you catch yourself falling into old habitual patterns with people – don’t take yourself so seriously – stop and laugh at the human drama.
6) Don’t Bite the Bait – When one of your family members says or does that thing that drives you crazy and pushes all your buttons. Don’t react. Repeat to yourself, ” I will not bite the bait” over and over again. Breath long and deep. If emotions get the best of you – go to the bathroom and do a Kundalini Yoga Meditation for Emotional Balance – in as little as 3 mins you will be calm and neutral.
7) Breath Long and Deep
Enjoy your holidays,
Letting Go As A Spiritual Practice October 22, 2008
Posted by catalyst yogi in workshops.Tags: Aquarian Age, Letting Go, Now, Racing Thoughts, Releasing Anxiety, Releasing the Past, Stress, the Present
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There’s no way around it. Life is a constant flow of beginnings and endings. We humans have a way of welcoming and celebrating beginnings: births, getting the job, getting the man, buying the home. Graduations aside, we have a much lower opinion of endings: death, divorce, being fired.
We find something and we feel blessed. We lose something, we feel cursed. We try to clear the clutter and find our new mantra is “I might need that some day”. We stubbornly cling to people, things and stories that no longer serve us.
Begin to think of letting go and saying good-bye as a spiritual practice. When you clean a closet and fill boxes for the thrift store – you are practicing the fine art of conscious dying. Be aware of your feelings as you release roles, objects and relationships that have defined you. You are becoming fearless and showing the Universe that you trust.
Yogic teaching tells us that all our spiritual practice in life is to give us one chance at a conscious death. Gandhi died as he lived. In the face of his assassin, with no time whatsoever to think, uttered Hey Ram as he was being shot. In doing so, he blessed his killer with forgiveness and himself with the conscious death he had prepared for all his life. **
“To die is an art. Everything on this planet, every act is done so that dying may be graceful. All knowledge of spirituality is to mend one thing only – that when we die, we die in grace, without fear, without vengeance, without desire. We should just love to die, that moment…at that moment, everything is decided.”
Yogi Bhajan
Join us for a
Let Go of the Past – Prepare for the Aquarian Age Workshop – November 22, 2008 @ Shanti Yoga Therapy Studio
**To this day there is politically motivated argument over Gandhi’s last words – leaving us to decide what is likely, given his life.
Manage your Energy not your time with Kundalini Yoga August 20, 2008
Posted by catalyst yogi in Aquarian Age, inspirational message.Tags: Aquarian Age, manage your energy, Releasing Anxiety, Stress
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Do you feel like there is never enough time? Do you feel the pressure of more and more demands with less and less time? Get used to it. As we approach the Aquarian Age (2012) this experience will intensify.
Time is time. There is no more or less time than there ever has been. What’s really speeding up is the vibrational frequency of the planet. This increase in vibrational energy makes everything feel more intense.
You don’t need time management – you need energy management.
The old ways of handling life (controlling the external or escaping from reality) no longer work.
There is hope. You must become a clear channel to deal with the intensity of the times. Then it can be a joy – instead of madness. Kundalini Yoga and Meditation (based in the chakra system) is a powerful technology to help you become aware of and manage your energy.
Our energy system consists of eight major chakras. Chakra is the Sanskrit word for wheel. Chakras are spinning vortexes each radiating a particular energy that is important to our health, happiness and well-being. Each chakra is associated with a gift or skill that can serve to enhance our lives.
“Men of great knowledge actually found out about all these chakras – their workings, their petals, their sounds, their infinity, their co-relationship, their powers. They found out what the chakras were.
And, they found out that life of a human is totally based on these chakras. They developed it into a whole science. This total science gave birth to Kundalini Yoga. This is how Kundalini Yoga was born”
- Yogi Bhajan (master of Kundalini Yoga)
When a chakra becomes unbalanced we block the energy from vibrating and that can manifest in disease or distress. For example, if your 5th chakra is unbalanced you may experience throat problems, sore throats, dental problems and thyroid disease. The 5th chakra is the area of expression – how we express our Authentic Self. If you were not encouraged to speak or express your true self in your family of origin you will be unbalanced in this area. Or, you may speak a lot, interrupting and not listening to others — this is also out of balance.
Want to learn a more about your Chakras and how they are running your life ? Join me for a Kundalini Chakra Series starting September 10, 2008. This 8 week series will explore each chakra through the ancient technology of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Learn to manage your own energy, tap into your innate power and courageously meet every challenge in your life. All classes include an in depth handout for each chakra.
Visit Kundalini Yoga Chakra Series for more information.
Recommended Reading
If you want to learn more about your chakra system from a Kundalini Yoga perspective check out Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa’s Book. It also includes meditations and exercises you can do to balance each chakra.
Go ahead and request this book at your library or purchase it at your local book store.
