Breathing Project: Let's Start

Welcome friends! Today's blog entry focuses on the ever-important topic of breathing. Yes, we all need to breathe, but we have the amazing ability to breathe in ways that are beneficial more than we may realize.

This Blog Has Expanded

Before we take this deep breath into breathing, I wanted to officially announce the opening of the Peace and Health Cafe, www.peaceandhealthcafe.com! It's your online source for advice and products to help you navigate today's challenging world. Check it out and keep in touch to let me know what you think.

Breathing Project

The "Breathing Project" here at Peace and Health is a mini-series focused on the importance of breathing for inner peace and good health. As many of you know, the practice of Yoga is the melding of movement with the breath, and a great deal of the focus is on breathing: Deep breathing, rhythmic breathing, breathing into certain areas of the body, etc. Yoga brings to the front of your awareness this simple act of breathing.

Perhaps you discover that when you think about it, you're not breathing at all! At least for many seconds, holding it tight. When you realize, "Hey, I am not breathing am I?" your breathing is then a big relief as you take a nice deep inhalation. You feel your whole body sighing and feeling great. "Why don't I do this all the time?" you say to yourself. Well you can.

While working on my new site, Peace and Health Cafe.com, there were many moments when I was so hyper-focused on tasks that I found myself not breathing much. It can happen to all of us, being so distracted that we aren't grounded in our bodies.

So, in this mini-series called "Breathing Project," let's start with Awareness. Become aware that you are breathing. If you can go a step further and really feel what it's like to breathe in and out, perhaps noticing things like your belly expanding and contracting, and the sense of relaxation or peace that occurs naturally, that would be fabulous.

On the "Exercise" page of the Peace and Health Cafe ("ADVICE"), you'll find further inspiration about breathing from Tony Samara.

As always, stay in touch with your thoughts, successes, and suggestions! Enjoy this quote from today's passage in my daily reader, "More Language of Letting Go:"

"Change often slips in when we're relaxed inside of ourselves."

Spring Cleanse for Home and Soul

Suddenly, it's May! And spring is the perfect time for this cleansing ritual for both your surroundings and your soul.

Some of you may have heard me share this practice in the past, but it's good to be reminded of such a lovely way to restore balance. I learned it from friends who attended Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. And I've performed this simple ritual with excellent results when I've moved into a new home – to flush out the old energy and bring in the new – and usually once or twice a year when the seasons change or I have a desire to get past stuck or challenging times. It helps not only you, but family members, co-workers and those close to you in your environment.

Cleansing Ritual:

You will need a candle, a bell, and incense. First, open all the doors and windows of your home including closets and major pieces of furniture. Light the candle and incense and invite a friend or family member(s) to join you as you walk in and out of each room ringing the bell and allowing the candle light and scent of the incense to have a gentle presence in each space. What you're doing is setting an intention for the old energy, the stale, stuck, or negative, to exit through the windows and doors and allowing new energy, the fresh, light, and positive, to enter into your home. When you've walked through all the parts of your home from top to bottom, blow out the candle and incense and close up the doors and windows as you see fit. You've completed a gentle, simple ritual to make the switch from the old to the new, a perfect way to ring in the new season!

This cleansing works for the office, too, and I've known people (including family members) who have literally rid their new home of ghosts with this ritual, it's that powerful!

Please stay in touch and tell me if you try this cleansing ritual and experience any positive changes in your life in the days and weeks ahead. I wish for you all to enjoy happiness and the courage to live truthfully. This is a chance for each of us to "clean the slate" and begin anew.

We Can Start Again Every Moment

Hello My Friends,

After a long absence from "Peace and Health," I'm back! It's so good to be among you all again.

Like you, I have been surviving and thriving in combinations of both. Like you, riding the ups and downs of life.

And like you, I am a sinner, not perfect, and could be a better wife, friend, daughter, sister, and member of my society. And of course, like you, I am doing the best I can.

During my absence of about four months, I have studied, practiced, read, listened, meditated, and thought. Plenty. I realize that at the end of the day, literally and figuratively, I (and you, too) can start anew, accepting gladly that what we did today has already become the past and our present can inform our future. We can try again tomorrow to be more compassionate, more kind to ourselves, be a better listener to those who need help, and perhaps recommit ourselves to our work, our relationships, our community.

I admit it's hard sometimes to be upbeat when the weight of world events is crushing our spirit. There are many books I've discovered that help me get through rough patches, some of them new, some of them ancient teachings. The practice of yoga and going for long walks in the fresh air makes a big difference, too, along with making sure I am rested and eat a very healthy diet that is right for me at this time in my life. All of the daily practice I do – the daily routines I have adopted – make a very big difference in how I "right" myself, get myself straight, smooth my feathers so to speak. Knowing something intellectually is only part of the picture. The rest, "life is the teacher," proves that experience tells us what we can trust.

We each have goals, dreams, and expectations. The Buddha's first noble truth is, "Life is suffering." It's hard to argue with that! Attachments to people, things, outcomes certainly bring us up, and down. Finding a way that helps you accept the changes that occur (with, or without, our consent or control) is a way to live the "middle path." I'm not a Buddhist, but have a reverence for what Buddha taught as a next step beyond yoga which is what he studied, predating him. Yoga is more than postures and breathing and meditation. Both yoga and Buddhism are forms of tough love that in the end show the sweetness of life.

Here are some links you might enjoy checking out. Till I write next, keep in touch! To me, that is the most important reason to live, to know we are meaningful in the eyes of others.

Video of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968, "Life finds its purpose and fulfillment in the expansion of happiness." Watch till the end... he embodies what he says.

http://www.maharishi.org/

Video about fear, an informal interview with a teacher named Tony Samara:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnnvUDI4nQ0&feature=related

Declaration of Human Rights

Have you felt how much is going on in the world? I don't mean nature-wise necessarily, but the energy and dust being kicked up by humans in an ever-increasing way. The politics in this country are angering and frustrating a great many average citizens and our over-crowding is starting to have a serious impact on our ability to peacefully co-exist in a clean environment. In today's The New York Times, I read a startling article about how the earth's inhabitants, in digging, drilling, and tearing up the earth for its resources like minerals, oil and other fuels, is creating a climate for military leaders to gear up for future conflicts in order to protect our share of these earth resources in the name of "national security."

Human activity is reaching and devastating formerly pristine areas in the rain forest, the Arctic, under the sea, inside mountains, everywhere practically. Nothing is sacred. Except our consumer way of life. Be grateful for the (gulp) clean water available right now because it might not last. Make sure you don't run the tap longer than you need to! Most of us feel this information is "old news," yet it is persisting to a greater degree. We are not cutting back on this sort of devastating activity--it is going on and on and on.

I don't need to mention the economy and the astonishing and overt level of greed that is sinking our country from under us.

But in defense of the greatness of the United States of America, there was a time when we had some outstanding citizens.

Over sixty years ago, Eleanor Roosevelt helped form the League of Nations which became the United Nations. And this body, with her involvement, created a "Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Did you know this existed? I didn't until I read a biography of Eleanor. I have included a link to the United Nations site with the entire declaration. I implore all of you to read it thoroughly. It's amazing that this document exists and yet it is not honored fully, still, all these years later.

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

How will peace prevail on earth? It starts with YOU.

The "Pain-Body": Never Too Old to Learn

My birthday is coming up this week (Dec. 9th) and I'll be 54 years old. Holy crap! Oops, sorry. I really don't mind having birthdays since the only way to escape aging is to croak. So, since I am a living being aging comes with the territory.

But none of us is too old to learn about ourselves. I have spoken several times in the past about reading the books of Eckhart Tolle, a current spiritual teacher and writer, and not to go on and on about his teachings like I'm obsessed, I find that the way he presents his very knowledgeable ideas resonates with me. He describes the human condition in a way that I experience and recognize it.

On a fundamental level, we humans are subject to being driven by our egos and are living as "pain-bodies." Sounds kind of like "the Borg," doesn't it? There is the collective pain-body which consists of horrible things we humans have done to each other throughout history such as waging war, torture, raping and pillaging, and utter destruction and violence that bring pain and suffering. This stuff is in our DNA. Then there is the pain and suffering we inherit from our parents who have their own share of pain, as well as the environmental experience we have as children at home and in our society. Some people are born with dense pain-bodies and tend to be sensitive, empathetic, and of course very disillusioned with our dysfunctional world made up of others with their pain-bodies. Some people have egos that feed on the negativity and do a good job of inflicting their pain onto others.

I find that there are certain "triggers" that touch off a spiral of anger first, then morphing into feeling like a victim, then lashing out at others, basically inflicting pain because I am in pain. Being in the grips of my pain-body is the height of unhappiness. My ego then tells me stories about how worthless I am, how my life has no value, how other people don't care about me, how horrible the entire world is, etc., and this feeding frenzy of negativity is what the ego wants most. Finally, I discover what is going on and it diffuses the ego's grip and I find it was all a bunch of self-created hooey.

Triggers can be family members (for me, my mother) or friends who are in such emotional pain themselves, so out of touch (unconscious) with themselves that they inflict their pain onto you in the vulnerable spot in your soul or psyche that hits like a poisoned arrow. Triggers can also be expectations about events or experiences or people who let you down.

As the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece was inscribed over the doorway, "Know Thyself," there is no greater power of life-force than being conscious of who and what you are about. I know I am not too old to keep learning about myself in my quest to be happy, of course. Ah, but then happiness is only one component of the ultimate state of being: Contentment.

World Wide Web

The Web, as we know it (the Internet), celebrates an anniversary: 20 years ago the term was coined to describe this sharing of information, for its "likeness to a spider's construction." I was immediately reminded of how apt that is today, as we learn the positive and negative aspects of our world-wide web of interconnections, and how amazing it is that we are able to talk about it here, via the Web! We are connected in a way that is stupendous, unthinkable not long ago.

Chief Seattle is a noted American Indian leader who gave a famous speech in 1854, and I wanted to share with you this call-and-response text from a church service I attended a few years ago and kept the page from the program to share one day. It is a beautiful example of how we are part of a whole, interconnected as if by an invisible web:

Minister: Every part of this earth is sacred.
Congregation: Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and every humming insect is holy.

Minister: We are part of the earth and it is part of us.
Congregation: The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle – these are our brothers.

Minister: The rocky crests, the dew in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, humans – all belong to the same family.
Congregation: This we know: The earth does not belong to humans; humans belong to the earth.

Minister: This we know: All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.
Congregation: Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of earth.

Minister: We did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand on it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
Congregation: What are humans without the animals?

Minister: If all the animals were gone, humans would die from a great loneliness of spirit.
Congregation: For whatever happens to the animals, soon happens to humans. All things are connected.

I truly believe that when each of us is healthy in body, mind and spirit, it affects us so positively that we can't help but affect those closest to us for the better, perhaps inspiring by example. Each thread in the web gets stronger and easier for us to connect with each other. If you think your poor eating habits are your own business, and you are ill, think of those who care about you and are unable to enjoy you more. If you think your lack of rest doesn't matter, think of how crabby you are to people around you. If you think eating animals who are treated cruelly in factory farms doesn't matter, try putting yourself in their position and consider how awful it must be for them. If you act selfishly without considering what is sacred, you spoil things for everyone. If you act "selfishly" in order that you might keep fit and fed in healthy ways and allow yourself to feel the sacredness of life, you make a positive impact on the world-wide web we all share.

You Are Welcome

On Friday I took my regular yoga class after missing it for two weeks while allowing my injured heel to heal (no pun intended!). At the end of the class, as we all were laying on our backs in the very relaxing svanasana (corpse pose), the teacher went student by student to gently push our shoulders down into the matte which releases that last bit of tension from the body. With my eyes still closed, I said, "Thank you," to her and she softly said, "You are welcome." Perhaps because she is from Colombia and has an accent, she didn't say, "You're welcome," but "You are welcome" in three distinct words. It struck me that the meaning is so different from the response we say automatically when someone thanks us.

Here I had missed the class for several weeks and felt like I would be out of shape, even though I know yoga is not meant to be competitive, and found I was still very strong and capable. It was great to be in this nurturing environment again and how nice to have this special "ah-ha" moment at the conclusion. You Are Welcome. I wish more people stated this in the beginning of our encounters with each other! Imagine walking into a store and the staff greeting you with, "You are welcome!" You would feel special and enter knowing your presence is important.

I had read in yoga texts a number of years ago that it is good to walk through every doorway as if entering a temple. It immediately reminds me that I am a divine being walking through life with respect. I can extend a warm welcome to those who enter my home or step into the space I am standing wherever that may be, treating that person with friendliness, hospitality, and respect.

On the eve of Thanksgiving, we will either host a dinner or be a guest, and have the opportunity to say, "You are welcome" or feel welcomed in someone's home, walking through their doorway into a temple. This alone is worth giving thanks as it is foundational for how we can all live together in peace in this world. I give thanks to my yoga teacher Francesca who has allowed me to see the value of three little words.