Emotional Healing Through Yoga

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Have You Laughed Today?

BBC Funny Animals always makes me laugh! Take a moment to lift your spirits....

Have You Luaghed Today?

BBC Funny Animals always make me laugh!

Hilarious...

“Humility and gratitude go hand in hand. The feeling of gratitude is an interaction between the mind and the body. Both will benefit from it. Awareness increases so that we become grateful for everything we are given. We have to learn, literally learn, to be grateful for what we receive day by day, simply to balance that criticism that, day by day, we voice because of powerful emotions.” Swami Sivananda Radha

Be Kind By Being Silent

Well, maybe not the entire time. I’m not talking about taking a vow of silence on Thanksgiving , although that may not be a bad idea for some of us, particularly for some relatives. (haha) I am talking more about reflecting on the life for which you have to be thankful and appreciative. When your mind is busy telling you all kinds of things, it is difficult to appreciate how beautiful everything really is. How can you be listening when you are talking? How can you hear what others are saying? Are you sitting at the table waiting for your sister to finish her sentence so you can jump right in there without even hearing what she has to say? Do you drink merrily until you don’t know what your saying? Some useful things I’ve learned over the years:

1. When someone else is talking, wait until they finish, take a full breath, and then speak.

2. Listen to the conversation at and around the dinner table. You might learn something new.

3. Remember, everyone is important, even the relatives you don’t care to be around. Everyone has value.

4. Offer to help whether is setting the table or cleaning up or both.

5. Try not to poison your body with too much food. Leftovers are great.

6. Try not to drink too heavily. It’s just ugly and it poisons you body and your mind.

7. Be mindful. Listen. Appreciate.

Let People Know Who You Are

Sorry. Does that sound confusing? Here I am telling you to observe silence, but also speak up. Hmmm… Here’s the deal. Practice the above and your friends and relatives just might see a side of you they normally wouldn’t see if you were talking too much. (I speak from experience., haha.) It would be nice, when you do choose to speak up, that you speak kind words. After you have intently listened to another that you could actually engage in a meaningful conversation, one in which gives value and meaning to the person with whom you are speaking. By being mindful of what goes in your mouth and what comes out, you open yourself up to new possibilities. Maybe the people that actually annoyed you seem less annoying with your new compassionate eyes and ears. Maybe by being mindful, your less annoying to those around you. If you are saying to yourself, “Well, Donna, you don’t know my family”, let me say this, we are all the same, yet we are all different. We all struggle with insecurity, self-worth issues and basic problems in life. It’s all relative. We’re all a pain in the ass and we’re all really wonderful. We are all important.

So take fifteen minutes and meditate in awe and appreciation for all the things that matter like:

How well your body just keeps on ticking

How your body just knows to keep breathing even when you are sleeping, when you are unconscious

How the universe is holding you up right under feet as soon as you get up in the morning

How wonderful it is that your corky relatives and friends want to share Thanksgiving dinner with you

How wonderful it feels to be loved

How wonderful it feels to give love

How wonderful it feel to just give

How wonderful it feels to receive with a deep sense of appreciation

How wonderful it is when someone thinks to appreciate you and then lets you know

How fabulous the heart really is! We love. It opens. We expand in ways we never thought possible.

You can think of lot’s of wonderful ways to appreciate and be thankful, right? Use the comment box below and let us know what you appreciate this Thanksgiving. What are you grateful for this year?

Baskingin the morning sun with my beautiful son Liam. He's so cool!

What Do You Say To Your Ego When It Tries To Mess With You?

Just a short note about what the ego does when it's trying to pull you back in and how I respond...

Isn't it something how we can practice our yoga and beebop along and think everything is getting better and I'm feelin pretty good and I'm really practicing my stuff...and then all of a sudden, I look in some mirror and see something that looks so ugly to me? That's what happened yesterday. So do I stop looking in the mirror? I don't think so. Next time, I think I'll look back and say to the mirror (the 'not my real voice' ego), "I don't know what you're trying to pull here, but I love this girl! She's beautiful."

For more on how to handle your ego...www.emotionalhealingthroughyoga.com

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The Path of Unconditional Happiness
by Michael A. Singer

The highest spiritual path is life itself. If you know how to live daily life, it all becomes a liberating experience. But first you have to approach life properly, or it can be very confusing. To begin with, you have to realize that you really only have one choice in this life, and it's not about your career, whom you want to marry, or whether you want to seek God. People tend to burden themselves with so many choices. But, in the end, you can throw it all away and just make one basic, underlying decision: Do you want to be happy, or do you not want to be happy? It's really that simple. Once you make that choice, your path through life becomes totally clear.

Most people don't dare give themselves that choice because they think it's not under their control. Someone might say, "Well, of course I want to be happy, but my wife left me." In other words, they want to be happy, but not if their wife leaves them. But that wasn't the question. The question was, very simply, "Do you want to be happy or not?" If you keep it that simple, you will see that it really is under your control. It's just that you have a deep-seated set of preferences that gets in the way.

Let's say you've been lost and without food for days, and you finally find your way to a house. You can hardly make it to the doorstep, but you manage to pull yourself up and knock on the door. Somebody opens the door, looks at you and says, "Oh my God! You poor thing! Do you want something to eat? What would you like?" Now the truth is, you really don't care what they give you. You don't even want to think about it. You just utter the word "food." And because you really mean it when you say you need food, it no longer has anything to do with your mental preferences. The same goes for the question about happiness. The question is simply "Do you want to be happy?" If the answer is really yes, then say it without qualifying it. After all, what the question really means is "Do you want to be happy from this point forward for the rest of your life, regardless of what happens?"

Now, if you say yes, it might happen that your wife leaves you, or your husband dies, or the stock marker crashes, or your car breaks down on an open highway at night. Those things might happen between now and the end of your life. But if you want to walk the highest spiritual path, then when you answer yes to that simple question, you must really mean it. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It's not a question of whether your happiness is under your control. Of course it's under your control. It's just that you don't really mean it when you say you're willing to stay happy. You want to qualify it. You want to say that as long as this doesn't happen, or as long as that does happen, then you're willing to be happy. That's why it seems like it is out of your control. Any condition you create will limit your happiness. You simply aren't going to be able to control things and keep them the way you want them.

You have to give an unconditional answer. If you decide that you're going to be happy from now on for the rest of your life, you will not only be happy, you will become enlightened. Unconditional happiness is the highest technique there is. You don't have to learn Sanskrit or read any scriptures. You don't have to renounce the world. You just have to really mean it when you say that you choose to be happy. And you have to mean it regardless of what happens. This is truly a spiritual path, and it is as direct and sure a path to Awakening as could possibly exist.

Once you decide you want to be unconditionally happy, something inevitably will happen that challenges you. This test of your commitment is exactly what stimulates spiritual growth. In fact, it is the unconditional aspect of your commitment that makes this the highest path. It's so simple. You just have to decide whether or not you will break your vow. When everything is going well, it's easy to be happy. But the moment something difficult happens, it's not so easy. You tend to find yourself saying, "But I didn't know this was going to happen. I didn't think I'd miss my flight. I didn't think Sally would show up at the party wearing the same dress that I had on. I didn't think that somebody would dent my brand-new car one hour after I got it." Are you really willing to break your vow of happiness because these events took place?

Billions of things could happen that you haven't even thought of yet. The question is not whether they will happen. Things are going to happen. The real question is whether you want to be happy regardless of what happens. The purpose of your life is to enjoy and learn from your experiences. You were not put on Earth to suffer. You're not helping anybody by being miserable. Regardless of your philosophical beliefs, the fact remains that you were born and you are going to die. During the time in between, you get to choose whether or not you want to enjoy the experience. Events don't determine whether or not you're going to be happy. They're just events. You determine whether or not you're going to be happy. You can be happy just to be alive. You can be happy having all these things happen to you, and then be happy to die. If you can live this way, your heart will be so open and your Spirit will be so free, that you will soar up to the heavens.

This path leads you to absolute transcendence because any part of your being that would add a condition to your commitment to happiness has got to go. If you want to be happy, you have to let go of the part of you that wants to create melodrama. This is the part that thinks there's a reason not to be happy. You have to transcend the personal, and as you do, you will naturally awaken to the higher aspects of your being.

In the end, enjoying life's experiences is the only rational thing to do. You're sitting on a planet spinning around in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Go ahead, take a look at reality. You're floating in empty space in a universe that goes on forever. If you have to be here, at least be happy and enjoy the experience. You're going to die anyway. Things are going happen anyway. Why shouldn't you be happy? You gain nothing by being bothered by life's events. It doesn't change the world; you just suffer. There's always going to be something that can bother you, if you let it.

This choice to enjoy life will lead you through your spiritual journey. In truth, it is itself a spiritual teacher. Committing yourself to unconditional happiness will teach you every single there is to learn about yourself, about others, and about the nature of life. You will learn all about your mind, your heart, and your will. But you have to mean it when you say that you'll be happy for the rest of your life. Every time a part of you begins to get unhappy let it go. Work with it. Use affirmations, or do whatever you need to do to stay open. If you are committed, nothing can stop you. No matter what happens, you can chose to enjoy the experience. If they starve you and put you in solitary confinement, just have fun being like Gandhi. No matter what happens, just enjoy the life that comes to you.

As difficult as that sounds, what's the benefit of not doing it? If you're totally innocent and they lock you up, you might as well have fun. What good does it do to not have fun? It doesn't change anything. In the end, if you stay happy, you win. Make that your game, and just stay happy no matter what.

Monday, November 22, 2010

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John Of God and the Power of Healing through Faith, Meditation, Love, Spirituality, Energy and Matters of the Heart

"People around the world have credited John of God, and the spirits that they believe work through him, with miraculous healings. Others have accused him of impropriety. Despite his detractors, those whose lives he has touched say he is a simple man with a gift. John of God charges no fees and takes no credit for what he does. He says it is the power of God working through him."

Dr. Jeffry Rediger, a skeptic psychiatrist, witnessed first hand the power of belief, "If you can say something to the effect that 'I believe this in my head, but I don't believe it with my heart, I don't get it, it's too much,' and then a little incision manifests on the skin over the area of your heart...that means none of this is what we think it is."

Whether John of God's work is a slight of hand or actually a miracle, Dr. Rediger says it's clear that the power of faith is something that needs to be explored more.

"I believe the power of belief, the power of the mind, are far more powerful than we have begun to explore," he says. "I believe that's an unexplored wilderness in terms of research."

This touches on what Michael Singer talks about in his book, The Untethered Soul. We are all energy and the heart is the largest energy center in our body. The good Dr. Rediger wraps up his experience with a beautiful statement regarding the heart, "Perhaps the real heart in us in not just a pump. Perhaps the real heart in us is about love and faith. Perhaps the physical body is not who we really are. Perhaps we are these invisible souls walking around, and the body is just an instrument or metaphor for something we are trying to learn."

Love and Hugs,

Donna Marguglio

www.emotionalhealingthroughyoga.com