Karmic Seeds Body Mind & Spirit

BY   #DAILYCUPOFYOGA   Silvia Mordini , E-RYT,  Happiness is a direct experience of enthusiasm. Remember, it is not how or when we accomplish something that matters most, it is the sense of enthusiasm during the process that demonstrates our quality of life. As Bo Bennett puts it, “Enthusiasm is not the same as just being excited. One gets excited about going on a roller coaster. One becomes enthusiastic about creating and building a roller coaster.” What are you enthusiastic about? If you wake up dreading the day, worried about the hours ahead and already wishing you could be done with it and back in bed, well, that’s just not cool. The first thing we reach for in the morning shouldn’t be our i-device or Droid; it should be  consciously choosing the most positive thought that stokes our energy to excel for the entire day . Since our conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time, this singular thought can inspire the quality of the rest of our day thr...

We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change. – Sheryl Sandberg As soon as you are aware that your situation is intense and you may be getting swept away into emotion or feeling overwhelmed, notice the natural rise and fall of the breath. Allow the breath to smooth out. Relax the body. If in an asana, pay particular focus to areas that don't need to be involved in the actions of the pose, such as the jaw, forehead, brow and belly. Soften and relax. Feel the sensations in the body. Stay with the sensations, noting how they feel moment to moment. Watch or witness your experience. Note the mind's reactions and let go. Release judgment and stories and return to watching your experience. Allow your experience. Release efforts to manage or control it and simply allow. Surrender. Say yes to it. For anything new to be born, the existing arrangement of particles and situations must die. ...

Jamie Varon  Writer based in Los Angeles You don't need more motivation. You don't need to be inspired to action. You don't need to read any more lists and posts about how you're not doing enough. We act as if we can read enough articles and enough little Pinterest quotes and suddenly the little switch in our brain will put us into action. But, honestly, here's the thing that nobody really talks about when it comes to success and motivation and willpower and goals and productivity and all those little buzzwords that have come into popularity: you are as you are until you're not. You change when you want to change. You put your ideas into action in the timing that is best. That's just how it happens. And what I think we all need more than anything is this: permission to be wherever we are when we're there. You're not a robot. You can't just conjure up motivation when you don't have it. Sometimes you're going through...

She Let Go a Poem by Rev. Safire Rose She let go. She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go. She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go. She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go. She didn’t search the scriptures. She just let go. She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do
it just right. She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope...

David Hawkins Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender First , picture a big chain around your ankles that prevents you from moving toward the life you desire.  Second , think of the similarity between a peanut butter sandwich, a satellite signal, and a thought. They are all forms of energy. They only differ by the wavelengths at which they vibrate. Negative thoughts and emotions are aligned with low, slow-moving energies. Positive thoughts and emotions are aligned with high, fast-moving energies. Third , put it all together by using the energy of thoughts and emotions to eliminate attachments. . Stress is our reaction to a stimulus, and our reaction depends on our belief system . This means that instead of trying to “treat” stress by focusing on its aftereffects (e.g. muscle relaxation) we need to remove the source of the underlying tension, which is repressed and suppressed negative feelings. Healing from an unpleasant event or loss will be a lot easier if we focus o...

bY  BRITT B. STEELE You practice your yoga and drink your greens. You’ve memorized your mantra and you know the true meaning of “namaste." You’ve even made ghee once or twice. Yet each day you still find yourself seeking—looking for answers, but not just any answers. You want those answers that will nourish you, sustain you, and bring you peace during tough times. There comes a moment on the yogic path when the thirst for depth becomes insatiable and the poses we take on the mat are no longer enough. Instead, the desire to carry the “yoga high” off the mat and into all of life’s varied experiences becomes the primary motive for practice. How do we access and sustain that “yoga high” off the mat? There are no shortcuts to embodying all that yoga can offer. However, there is a simple, clear path that does not require the mastery of Sanskrit or of any particular pose. A desire to move one's yoga practice beyond asana, the third of the eight limbs of yoga, may signal...

by  Kathleen Bryant   “Be yourself.” Haven’t we all been given this advice at one time or another? Self-realization is one of the aims of yoga, described by Patanjali in the third sutra: “Tada drastuh svarupe avasthanam” or as B.K.S. Iyengar’s translates, “Then the seer dwells in his own true splendor.” Looking more closely at Sutra 1.3, we see that tada means “then.” Drashtuh is from the root “drsh,” which means “to see” (familiar to many as the root of drishti, a word often used in an asana class). Sva is “one’s own,” and rupe is “form” or “nature.” Avasthanam has been translated as “abides,” “resides,” “dwells” … or as I learned from Tucson meditation teacher Sanjay Manchanda, it’s that aspect of us that endures, that carries a sense of “always here.” But first we have to still the choppy waves of chitta—the mindstuff (see Sutra 1:2). Considering the mind’s relentless chatter, we are fortunate to catch brief glimpses of this enduring Self, denoted with ...

How well do you know your own mind? Yoga traditions teach that mind has four parts or functions,but the part we know best—or  think  we know best—is  ahamkara,  the ego mind. One of the aims of yoga is to spend more time in  buddhi,  often referred to as higher mind. But how do we distinguish between the two? As mediators can confirm, trying to grasp the mind is like trying to catch a slippery fish with your bare hands. As long as there is movement—i.e., thought, judgment, emotion—the ego is in play and higher mind is tantalizingly out of reach. We’re often told that we need to cut off the ego, like Ganesha’s head. Not only is this unlikely, it’s not fully advisable. A more practical approach is to learn to recognize the ego—come to know your own mind. Consider the Sanskrit roots of  ahamkara :  Aham  means “self” and  kara  (from  kri ) means “doing” or “acting.” Thus,  ahamkara /ego is the self that is doi...