Tag Archives: why we’re here

Sweat Your Prayers, Dance For Peace

Challenges, Hoop Dance, Inspiration, Sacred Dance, Self Care, Spirit, Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,

 

Last week, I attended a beautiful meditation for world peace on November 11th, 2015. Two days later the Western world was rocked when the terrorists attacked Paris (I only heard about the earlier Beirut attacks after that).

It was so difficult to wrap my mind around.  Violence in the Middle East always seems so far removed, but Paris…. I grew up learning all about France, in school, in countless movies and books, through the food I eat and the wine I drink. I have spent time there, and since I speak French, I feel a kinship with the place, in a way I don’t always feel with the far flung reaches of the globe where I’ve never been.

The news of the attacks hit me, and a whole lot of people I know hard. I cried, and wondered how it could happen, why and how could we stop it from happening again? What can we do? I became more educated about what has been happening in other areas of the world, the things our media doesn’t always report and my heart grew heavier still. Then people began reacting in fear,  with many condemning the people who need our compassion the most and my heart felt like it might break.

I refuse to let this harden my heart, or to change what I believe. I know that peace is possible, but we will never defeat darkness and hate with more of the same. Only light can drive out the darkness and only love can conquer fear and hate. This world needs more love, not less. More compassion, not less. More understanding of each others humanity, not alienation and xenephobia.

These terrorists use, well, terror because their hearts are hurting so badly that lashing out in anger is the only thing that might bring them some relief from the pain of their lives. How many of us can even comprehend suffering of that magnitude. Their pain is immense and must seem practically insurmountable.

I, and so many of the people around me are lucky enough to have lives filled with joy and love. Our basic needs are beyond met and we have the room in our lives for fun, and creative self expression. Heck, I get to dance for a living, and dancing is my living praying. It’s how I connect with all that is. It fills me up with so much love and joy that it just burst out of me.

I am lucky enough to be able to facilitate this joyful movement for others as well. In my Hoop Flow class last night, our theme was Dancing Your Essence. We were moving with the intention of expressing our unique light. We moved through several exercises, including Sway and some blindfolded hoopdance, and went into a 25 minute dance journey with a wide variety of music, allowing our bodies to move and interpret the tracks in whatever way authentically arose. We moved through melancholy, desperate, sad music into the hopeful, happy and joyful. You could feel the energy in the room shift, and the happier the music, the higher the vibration. People were grinning from ear to ear, myself included as I felt overwhelmed with gratitude for this kind of healing tool .

After a short rest, we concluded our dance journey with a song dedicated to world peace. With our intention, we filled up our hearts with so much love that it just couldn’t be contained, and then sent it out into the world around us. This was the track we danced to: https://soundcloud.com/revolvr/youve-got-the-love-remix

We can begin to change the world by starting with our own hearts. First emptying them out, through our movement, sweat and tears. Then filling them up with so much love and light that it just spills out of you. Then from that place of fullness, you can go out into the world to do your work. Obviously it isn’t enough to just pray and dance. There is work to do on the ground. This is how I start though. This is how I do my healing work for my own heart, filling it with love, music, movement, joy, compassion, community and gratitude. This is also part of my work out in the world. Helping others fill  up their hearts, filling up their cup so it’s overflowing with love, so they too can go out into the wider world and meet all those they meet with love as well, treating each person with dignity, respect and compassion.

It starts right here, and begins with you.  Paraphrasing the wise words of Gabrielle Roth, healing happens when you lovingly move through your pain, sweat your prayers and let go of the past. Once we have done this, our hearts are open, full of love and  we can work together to create peace on earth.

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Emotional Oneness: The Inner Sacred Marriage

Inspiration, Self Care, Spirit, Wisdom from Within, , , , , , , , , ,

Matt Khan, my guru, inspiration and favorite champion of the Love Revolution has done it again.

He always manages to take concepts that I have been working on, working with and teaching, and take them to a whole ‘nother level. His most recent video on Emotional Oneness distills everything right down to the root it all.

Take the time to watch this video. It might be the most important thing you ever see. It basically boils down all the essential components to peace, joy and oneness in one hour long orgasm of awesome.

The main teaching is that emotional oneness (a precursor to the cosmic oneness that so many people on the spiritual journey are chasing) comes from a sacred union between the mind and the heart. If the heart and mind aren’t on the same page, he says you’re basically in the middle of a battlefield. The way to get reunite them is actually by deepening your relationship through your inner child, which is your soul’s innocence.

He goes through more of it in the video, explaining how you can reconnect and deepen your relationship to your inner child. He also explains how our shadow side is just our inner child acting out when we haven’t given it the attention it craves… He notes hilariously how it can turn every bit of spiritual wisdom you’ve ever learned against you so nothing separates  you from it.

The crazy part of it is, your inner child, your innocence, is the guardian of your soul.  Once you do this healing work and your inner child feels listened to and trusted, it starts to open up all the doorways to abundance and cosmic oneness that were closed to you before, which is the real secret to creation and manifestation.

All the inner child wants  is honesty and self love. Oh, and to play. It needs to play, to express, be and be loved!!!

This is the what I’ve been working and saying for the last couple years, but I always couched it in terms of my body  and my soul. I’ve done a little inner child work, but obviously not enough!!! The exercise we did together halfway through the video had tears streaming down my face and I felt something in me shift and I’m so grateful to have experienced this teaching. It really is the most important thing. The thing that will help everything else dance gracefully  into place.

Matt is a master, who is here to guide us with revolutionary ideas about spirituality. He breaks down old paradigms and old ideas and replaces them with new, simple tools for the new energy and paradigm we’re in. It all starts with loving yourself, one ‘I love you’ to your heart at a time. It’s the love revolution!!!! Please join us!!!~

 

 

 

Fall: Time to Celebrate How Far We’ve Come This Year!

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With the fall equinox just a week behind us, it already feels like we’re deep into fall.  The equinox is one of my favorite times of the year, with a perfect balance of light and dark in the day. Now, the days are getting shorter,the leaves are turning and we’ve had to turn on the heat every night this week. Oh, also, we’ve already had many people bitching about the cold weather on facebook (what are you guys going to do when it snows?) ,

I’ve always loved fall. I love the colors, the back to school energy, the fact that Halloween (my favorite holiday) is right around the corner! I also love the return of scarves, my favorite clothing item!! My studies this year have given me an even greater appreciation of the turning of the seasons, and what they represent. The fall equinox is a harvest festival, when we get to reap the seeds we’ve sown throughout the year. It’s a fantastic time to take a minute to appreciate all the work you’ve done, and honor how far you’ve come.

I woke up the day after the Equinox with a very deep knowing that I am going to write a book about this year. It’s actually going to be my next project. I’ve always had the idea that I would write about this experience in the back of my mind but it didn’t occur to me that the prime time to do it will be right after I complete the year, while it’s fresh.

It’s an exciting feeling. When I think about it, I can feel this energy coursing through me. I’m sure it’s going to be a pain in the butt, but writing is a book is definitely on my bucket list. I was always just waiting till the time was right and I had something to say. Well, it’s been such a hell of a year so far, I have lots to talk about, and the year ain’t over yet. More adventures are just around the corner. But I’ve traveled all over the world, and deep into my inner landscape. I’m confident that I have some interesting stories to share. I also think it will be an amazing opportunity to really digest and appreciate the crazy amount of growth as a person I’ve had this year. Thinking back and reflecting on things isn’t my forte, so this will be an additional layer of growth for me personally. I’m sure the insights I’ve gained this year will be deepened through the process of recollecting and reflection.

Even though it’s not usually in my nature to stop and reflect, I’ve been guided through the process throughout these last few weeks in some of the classes I’m taking. It’s been incredible and exhilarating to look back at what I’ve done this last year seeing how I’ve grown and developed, and what I’ve learned.

I encourage you to take a few minutes to do the same today.

Look at where you were at  the beginning of the year. What have you accomplished? What have you learned? How have you grown? Take some time to pat yourself on the back for all the hard work you’ve put in! In fact, let me pat you on the back too. You’ve done a great job my friend. Even if you’ve had a rough time of it, you’re surviving, learning and most importantly, you’re still breathing, so you have the chance to integrate all you’ve learned as you go forward.

Earth school is tough. Just the fact that you’re here makes you a brave warrior soul, slogging it out in this dense energy in order to learn and grow for your soul’s evolution.

Let’s celebrate that together!

Me Last year at Hawrelak park by Stephanie Toast
Me Last year at Hawrelak park by Stephanie Toast

Dance. It Makes You Better.

Hoop Dance, Inspiration, Sacred Dance, , , , , ,

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This awesome stencil that I found somewhere on facebook really says it all. I don’t know where it came from (if it’s yours or you know who I can attribute it to, please let me know). But it’s so succinct, I had to share.

‘Every time I dance, I turn into a better version of me’.

Here’s an example:

A couple years ago, two days before my wedding, I was getting a little stressed out about the details. I was snappy, defensive and felt like everything was a looming disaster.  My husband and sister couldn’t talk me down, so they just handed me a hoop and said “Dance! We’ll be back in an hour or so. Just dance it out.”

Of course after 15 minutes of moving to music everything seemed right in the world again. An hour later, I couldn’t even remember what I had been upset about.  (BTW, I wasn’t a bridezilla at all. That was one of only two times I kind of freaked out. I was a chill bride, I swear!)

Anyway. Some people run to blow off steam, some people knit. I love to dance, with or without my hoops because it makes me better in every way, every time I do it.

It’s great exercise obviously, and it gets all your endorphins going, so you feel good doing it (and afterwards), but unlike just running or doing yoga, I get to be creative. It’s easy to drop into that beautiful flow state  that sends my conscious mind to the back burner while my body and spirit take the wheel. I feel a sense of peace and oneness that transcends the personal experience I’m having and puts me in touch with the greater picture.

Dancing makes me happy. It feels celebratory. Or, it can feel incredibly emotional in other ways; sad, angry, lonely, scared… But dancing out those emotions is so cathartic that it swings back to happy. Or at least peaceful.

For years, whenever I’ve asked for guidance (from above, from my inner self, from the universe, which ever), the message I almost invariably receive is ‘Dance!’.

Not only does it make me better, it makes the world better. Every time you dance, you make the world a better place. Even if it’s a dance of sadness, of pain, of anger or frustration, it makes the world better.

Dancing is the expression of your essence. As you move, you let yourself be known.

“Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.”

Ted Shawn

This art, this essence expression makes you a better version of yourself. Every time you move authentically, you level up at life. You are here to be you. Every time you dance, you let your soul qualities shine through. Through dance, you  allow your most radiant self to shine through.

“As we let our light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others.”- Marianne Williamson

 

Imagine a world where everyone allowed their most radiant inner light shine through.

What would that look like?

What would that feel like?

Imagining it gives me  warm fuzzies and chills all at the same time.

Our joyful movement raises the collective vibration and illuminates the world.

Our dance is revolutionary.

“Just Dance.”

-Lady Gaga

I’ll leave you with a great hoop dance jam I had the other day.

I found some music that moved me, almost to tears and I had to hoop it out.

A Day of Radical, Spontaneous Forgiveness (Big, Small, Nothing At All)

Inspiration, Spirit, , , ,

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Today I’ve been guided to spend time releasing old irritations I’ve had with everyone in my life, including myself. I’ve never really been one to hold a grudge, and I’ve forgiven all the major grievances I’ve ever had with anyone, but I hadn’t given much thought to those minor grievances and annoyances.

I have been rereading Doreen Virtue’s book “The Lightworker’s Way“, and I came across a section that I must have just skipped over last time. I seem to recall reading it and thinking I would come back to do the exercise, but never did. The basic premise is that holding any unforgiveness creates blocks in your energy field which will interfere with your intuition and your health. To begin clearing this energy, write down the name of everyone who has every irritated you. The list will probably be pages and pages long. You can include yourself, people you haven’t thought of in years and years, even pets! Then, in a distraction free environment, go through the names on your list one by one, holding the mental image of the person as you say (aloud or in your head) “I forgive and release you. I hold no unforgiveness back. My forgiveness is total. I am free and you are free.”

It might take a half hour to go through the list. I started by speaking aloud, but eventually switched to speaking in my head. As well as individuals, I started picturing whole buildings (like former places of employment), and cities (all the cities in which I’ve lived). After this process, I felt incredibly light and definitely free. Like I cleared out so much gunk in my soul and being, which feels awesome. I feel like I made more room for all the awesome stuff like love and joy as I released resentment and irritation which had been with me for years!

Doreen also recommends doing a quick version of this every night, before going to sleep to clear the energy field. I imagine I’ll sleep better after doing this  and I can’t wait to try it.

Shortly after doing this exercise, a video came up in my facebook newsfeed from one of my favorite spiritual teachers, Matt Khan from True Divine Nature. It’s called The Ultimate Surrender: 

I highly, highly recommend watching this, to have forgiveness re-framed for you entirely. In fact, watch everything he has on Youtube. He transmits a beautiful, relaxing divine energy when he speaks, and the energy reminds me that there is nothing to forgive, as everything, including you,  is perfect as is.

 

Lessons From Movement Meditation Challenge (How This Challenge Changed My Life)

Challenges, Inspiration, Sacred Dance, , , ,

I challenged myself to do a movement mediation every morning for a week.

I had no idea when I accepted said challenge I would be taking on something so life changing and monumental! The second day of in, I wrote this post ‘I didn’t expect so much Awesome!’ http://wp.me/p32wA4-3x

Unlike the junk food challenge which ended exactly seven days after it began, this challenge is going to be extended indefinitely.

It transformed almost immediately from a challenge into a practice, and I can’t imagine starting my day without it already.

Every morning practice has been different. Sometimes I spend a lot of time just shimmying, stretching and breathing into any places in my body that are sore. Sometimes I wind up rolling around on the floor and there were a few times I wound up incorporating my hoop.

Whenever I am fully absorbed in the movement, in flow- my mind seems to quiet and open to messages from my inner wisdom and from the universe. I received a lot of affirmations and inspiration. There were also many messages about opening to and embracing the divine feminine. I spent a lot of time sending love and gratitude to my body when I was moving and stretching. I found that when I touched my skin as I danced, gently tracing my body with hands and genuinely appreciating the beauty of my spirit’s  earthly container I would fall deeper into a joyful and peaceful ecstatic meditation. It was the kind of blissful union of mind, body and spirit that breaks the heart open and spills love out through the world.

I did notice that it was much harder to have the transcendental meditative experience if anyone else was around. I’m a little too self-conscious and easily distracted.  I don’t have a private space yet, but I will in a few months, so it was easy to accept that on mornings when my stepdaughter or husband were around I was going to spend more time stretching and grounding into my body rather than dancing in ecstatic union with the divine. Either way, it was still a fantastic way to start the day!

Going to bed knowing I will have that time to myself in the morning to process whatever I need to process lets me sleep more easily. My body feels better, more open and less stiff. I spend a little time stretching now every day, instead of just thinking “I really should stretch later!”

I also find that I am far happier, more centered and grounded throughout the rest of the day. It’s not like this is shocking, I suppose I expected that, but actually feeling the difference it makes to my mood and to my stability is incredible. I also feel far more creative and excited about life! I am super grateful that I am finally in a place where I am ready to commit to having a daily joyful movement practice ’cause it really is so much awesome. What’s even more exciting is that I know I’m just scratching the surface, and that there will always be more to discover and ways to go deeper and deeper, with more to discover!534254_354664434622396_1395651147_n

Radical Self Love

Inspiration, Spirit, Wisdom from Within, , ,

I figured it was time to explain the subtitle of my blog, Radical Self Love.

Now, it’s not quite as kinky as might sound, but it definitely deviates from social norms.

It’s about loving one’s self completely and utterly, even as society inundates you with messages that you need to change. To be more, to have more, to do this or that. Radical Self Love rejects all the messages from the world that say you are not good enough!

Radical Self Love means knowing that you are enough.

You are perfect in your imperfections and you don’t have to be anyone other than who you are.

It doesn’t mean you stop trying or striving to learn and grow as a person. It simply accepts that wherever you are in your evolution is where you should be.

For me, it means I have to stop being so damned hard on myself. I have always held myself to a very high standard. A standard so close to perfection, I inevitably fall short again and again. Every time I did, I would condemn myself to angry and hateful admonishment. I said the most awful things to myself.  I would never, ever speak like that to another person. But I saved all my compassion and understanding for everyone who wasn’t me. I called myself a fat, lazy stupid bitch more times than I care to remember just for being human.
The whole time I was being awful to myself, I was growing in my spiritual understanding. I came to recognize that the source energy underneath everything is love. I could feel the radiant love it all and loved everything right back. I had countless transcendental experiences where the love swept over me and the illusions of separation dissolved. With this oneness came unbiased, undefined, unending love. I felt the love sweeping into the darkness, the shadow sides of life and I began to understand them to be an integral part of the experience we are choosing to have.

I also came to know the essence of God within me; the same light and love- the source energy that resides within all of us. I started to remember who I really was. A spiritual, eternal being having a human experience, the universe, experiencing itself.

But I still sometimes treated myself like garbage.

The idea of loving myself as completely as I love everyone else didn’t occur to me until recently. I thought that in order to be a good person, to grow and evolve my soul, I had to be hard on myself. No one else would be, so it was up to me. The unconditional love I had only extended outward. The love I saved for myself was conditional.

Eventually, I started to connect the dots. If we’re all one, and all is love, then I must be as worthy of the loving compassionate kindness as every other being in the universe.

So, I decided to love myself as hard as I could. To strip away all conditions and love myself anyway.

It was a radical thought.

I also realized that to love myself fully, utterly and completely, I have to honor myself as well. I have to listen to my body as well as my heart and soul. I can’t ignore all the guidance I receive. I have to respect myself enough to believe that the messages I get from my body and my intuition are correct and wise. The project I’m working on this year, to listen to myself and my inner wisdom has made it much easy to honestly love myself. There is no dissonance to overcome, no loving ‘in spite’ of something… It’s all one love.

swami stream cc by 2.0
swami stream cc by 2.0

Radical Self Love is a radiant love.

It is compassionate, understanding, forgiving, peaceful, respectful,  joyful and divine.

It is steady, ongoing, inexhaustible, patient, present and kind.

It means listening to all aspects of the Self- body, mind and soul.

Being gentle with yourself.

Trusting yourself and the universe to fully support you.

Surrounding yourself with people who love and support you and removing yourself from negativity.

It means taking  care of yourself with proper feeding, watering, sunlight, exercise, fresh air and whatever else your body asks for.

Nurturing your abilities, and allowing your creativity to flow.

It means you are enough. You are perfect, even in your imperfections.

It means remembering and celebrating your divine nature.

It means you are free.

Dear Human

Spirit, , , ,
by windpacer04, found on Deviantart
by windpacer04

Dear Human: You’ve got it all wrong. You didn’t come here to master unconditional love. That is where you came from and where you’ll return. You came here to learn personal love. Universal love. Messy love. Sweaty love. Crazy love. Broken love. Whole love. Infused with divinity. Lived through the grace of stumbling. Demonstrated through the beauty of… messing up. Often. You didn’t come here to be perfect. You already are. You came here to be gorgeously human. Flawed and fabulous. And then to rise again into remembering. But unconditional love? Stop telling that story. Love, in truth, doesn’t need ANY other adjectives. It doesn’t require modifiers. It doesn’t require the condition of perfection. It only asks that you show up. And do your best. That you stay present and feel fully. That you shine and fly and laugh and cry and hurt and heal and fall and get back up and play and work and live and die as YOU. It’s enough. It’s Plenty.”

Courtney A. Walsh

I read this on facebook quite a few weeks ago. It was shared by one of my favorite pages ‘Be A Part Of The Shift 2012’. Of course, it was exactly what I needed to read at that moment. This was before I had committed to really listening to my body. I had been quite hard on myself for the few days leading up to reading it and the words moved me to tears.

It is a message I’ve heard over and over recently. I am enough. I am an imperfect being, but perfect in my imperfections. Just coming here, to what I call Earth school is a brave move, but I back here because I wanted to be here and I wanted to learn. I want the lessons that come from being in this messy world, with our imperfect bodies and our challenging lives. All we need to do is be here, and do our best to love as hard as we can, imperfectly.