A Simple Yoga Sequence for an Afternoon Break

The Key is Breathing

        The simple routine in the video embedded below is great for getting up from your computer, disengaging your neck, arm, and shoulder muscles, as well as your eyes, from that static "computer pose."  The key here is to breathe deeply in concert with each gentle movement.  Linking the breath to the movement is what makes it so relaxing.  You don't have to be a regular yoga practitioner to do it.  This routine would also work well as a morning warm-up upon arising, or as before-bed decompression from the day's stresses.

        If you're at work, you won't be breaking a sweat with this so you could do it in your work clothes (you might have to tuck your shirt back in afterward, though).  If you don't have a private office to work out in, just do the standing sequence only at the first part of the video, which you could at your chair or outside in the smoking area, and then skip to the final meditation.  Save the floor sequences for home.

        If you do the whole routine it would take all of fifteen minutes or so.  The video itself is over twenty minutes long, but that's because the instructor is pausing frequently to give direction.  Once you learn it yourself, it could go a lot quicker.

        I find it very balancing and centering.  I feel regrouped, and ready to continue with the rest of the day.  Hope you find it beneficial, too!

On Past Lives and Karma

Sanskrit writing for "karma."  Unlike this
beautiful artwork, our karma isn't written
in stone.  It is an organic, ever-evolving
story of how our souls have learned to love 
ourselves and others here.

        The word karma itself comes from the root karm, which in Sanskrit is the verb "to work," which is derived from kri, meaning "to do."  For instance, a "karma yogi" is one who works on helping others.  That's their "yoga," their union with Spirit.  

        Mother Teresa is a famous example of a karma yogi, but there are countless unsung heroes every day who work silently for the welfare of those around them.  With past lives, the concept of karma is used in the sense that all of us work, from one lifetime to the next, on balancing our soul's energies.  It's about cause and effect.

         It's not always that past lives come up in a reading.  Sometimes they do.  Our souls are constantly evolving and even if one doesn't believe in the concept of past lives, just the story of a past life he or she has lived could be of great value due to its healing metaphors and lessons.

The Way a Thing Starts: The Throat Chakra and Speaking One's Truth

"The way a thing starts, is the way it will go, and the way it will end."  -Venus Andrecht

An artist's interpretation of 
Vishuddha chakra.

        I absolutely love that saying.  Venus Andrecht is an intuitive reader who has a down-home, motherly way about her.  She's that scolding but loving mother we all know and love.  I'm not sure she actually thought up that saying herself, but the first time I heard it, she was the one who had spoken it, so I credited her with it.

        But, it struck such a chord within me.  Relative to my life experiences, I instantly took it as not merely a clever saying, but as a "truth."   Invariably, I can say that the way a thing has started in my life, the tone it took from the very beginning, was in deed the way it continued to be as it progressed.  And it tended to end the way it began.

        And I have learned through brutal trial and error not to ignore any "hunch" I experience, through feelings or through visions, be they pleasant or unsettling.  I've made so many mistakes by not listening to my hunches, not paying attention to my feelings and visions.  The truth is, if it doesn't feel right to you in the beginning, it probably isn't right for you, whether it's a material thing, a person, a food of some sort, an event, or anything else that requires a decision on your part.  Conversely, if it does feel like the right move to make, if it does feel like a healthy, loving direction in which to steer your life, then don't allow your analytical (and usually critical) "monkey mind" to talk you out of it; just go for it!

        Often, we allow our chatty left brains to talk us out of what our wise, intuitive right brains are desperately trying to tell us, those sweet little Venus Andrechts sitting upon our shoulders trying to keep us true to ourselves.  Speak your truth.  Let your life reflect it.

         What Not to Do

        Fear is an interesting thing.  Our fixation on it causes us to believe in or express  untruths sometimes, the reasoning being, "I have to lie about this, because if I don't, I fear that that will happen."  But we often learn in the end that in life, you just gotta deal with the consequence of speaking your inner truth.  And there usually is a consequence of some sort.  But owning up to your truth is part of "being an adult."

        If you start something in a disingenuous way, that tone of deceptiveness will permeate the rest of the entire endeavor or relationship.  You learn that this is what not to do, since eventually, someone will find you out and the deceptiveness you brought to the table in the beginning, is the very thing that "does you in" at the end.  Or, along the way, you may actually get disgusted with yourself, which would actually be a good thing, a sign that your soul wants to live its truth, not live in lies anymore.

         Holidays tend to bring out the best and worst in people, so they're a great chance to observe what to do, and what not to do.  For example, one day a week or two before Christmas, this handsome, ostensibly intelligent guy walks into the metaphysical store where I work.  He haphazardly stockpiles in his arms yoga- and meditation-related items.  Anything we recommended he just picked up.  He had no clue.  At first, I and the other lady on the sales floor thought he was just an ambitious guy with good intentions, and his enthusiasm seemed, for a brief moment, charming.

         But then, something didn't feel right about him.  His presence began to feel kind of "seedy" to me and to the other lady, as I later found out when we compared notes.  After a while, his true motivations began to slowly unravel.  After admitting the items weren't for him, but for a woman he met, he then pulls me aside.
        "OK, what do I get to get her, you know...." he mumbles.
        "Get her what?  Sorry, I'm not following you."  By this time, my Creep-o-meter is beeping quite loudly.