TIME OUT-DON'T WORRY-BE HAPPY-SLEEP WELL-ENJOY A PEACEFUL LIFE!

WORRY – I actually looked this up in a real dictionary as my Google was not working at the time. 1. "to feel uneasy or anxious; to fret; torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts. 3. To make uneasy or anxious; trouble; torment with annoyances, cares, anxieties,etc.” These are some of the dictionary definitions of worry.

This brought up interesting questions for my mind,

1. What does worry mean to me?

2. Why would I want to feel anxious?

3. Why am I willing to torment myself with disturbing thoughts?

While exploring these questions in my mind I remembered a quote from one of my favorite Spiritual teachers, Iyanla Vanzant. In her book Until Today: “What you make in your own mind is what you put your faith into just to prove to yourself that what you believe is correct."

Here is a good place to ask - 

4. How important is it to me to be RIGHT?

I have known some people who would go to great lengths to be RIGHT!  As a matter of fact, I perhaps, have been in the past, one of those people.

There have been several conversations in my life recently revolving around worry. These conversations ignited my thinking mind, and I began to wonder at what age did we learn to worry? And then I wondered what exactly is worry?

It seems that at a very early age we learned that worry was connected to love. I'm sure that many of us remember the admonition from our parent “Be sure you’re home on time; when you're late I worry!” And so it seems that many of us began to believe that if we loved someone it was proven by how much we worried about them. So consequently we have trained ourselves to worry!

Being older and wiser now it seems to me that when we contaminate our time worrying about the past or the future, rather than being aware of the infinite possibility in the present moment, we are apt to be filled with stress and agitation. We find our relationships become strained and our creativity seemingly blocked. Worry about the future or the past means that we can't really focus on the peace and happiness available today. For instance, when we are worrying about our self or a loved one, because of an illness, or  upcoming tests, our doubts and fears will be transmitted to all those around us, thus destroying the peace of mind of all concerned and losing any joy in the time that we are together, the now moment.

I personally made a decision a while back, after hearing the quote "Worry is misplaced faith." I decided that I would prefer to have faith in the good and the wonderful, that I would like to prove my love in other more productive and peaceful ways. Being a student of Ernest Holmes teaching , “Change your thinking change your life,” indicated I had some work to do. I resolved to change my thinking. I soon discovered this is easier said than done!

I have found that to change my thinking I must first become aware of what I am thinking, again not always so easy. I have been able to do this by being very faithful with my yoga and meditation time. One of the things I have learned is that our mind is very powerful and often divided. There is what I call the ego mind, that part of our mind which is very attached to the world, which is by the way, the mind that convinces us to do the worrying. Then there is  our Spiritual mind which knows of things beyond this world and has the ability to bring good things into our life if we will get the negative worry thoughts out of the way.  I will share with you that the ego mind is usually much louder than the Spiritual mind. Thus the scriptural teaching "BE STILL and KNOW."

For many of us the “being still” often comes when we crawl into bed and just want to sleep. This is the time our ego mind gets very busy with all of the worry things. The  awareness of our ability to change our thinking will help us to still the worry thoughts. Then we can begin to work with our incredible Spiritual Mind and think the things that help us feel Good. I personally feel that Good is synonymous with God; therefore we are always offered an opportunity to let go and let God.

If we are to let go, we must stop ruminating. Ruminating is meditating on negative thought. We find our mind running in circles chasing the negative thoughts around and around gathering evidence for problems and disaster in our life.

Here are some techniques that have worked for me. I share them with you with a sincere desire and knowledge that you too can become worry free!

1. When you go to bed each night take some time to do some deep breathing and give yourself permission to relax and to feel good.

2. Express gratitude for another day of living. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, another great spiritual teacher said "Nothing new can enter your life without gratitude."

3. Find at least 5 things that you can be grateful for, make sure that one of those things is your wonderful, awesome Self.  Some people find it helpful to keep a gratitude journal by the bed and writing a gratitude list. These can be very simple things like good food to eat and good water to drink, a kind word from a friend, a smile from a stranger.

Talk to your mind as though it were a little child that you were in the process of training. When your mind says negative things, say “Thank you for those thoughts, but I don't believe they are true.” Then take a deep breath and replace that negative thought with a positive thought. Be very patient, for just as with a stubborn child, you may have to repeat yourself several times before the message is finally received. Perhaps hundreds of times, even more – don’t quit - it is worth the effort.

And most of all remember, We all, no matter where we have been or what we have done have the ability to experience anything and everything good that we desire. This requires faith, a believing that our good is always there waiting for our acceptance.

Start each day with this affirmation,  “Today I am devoted to bringing my mind and life into alignment with all the good that I can imagine.” Now begin to image in good things and allow yourself to enjoy life.

It works for me and it will work for you! So go ahead be brave, step out of your comfort zone and give it a try.

Remember you are loved
YOGA YaYa



 

WOULD YOU BE OFFENDED!

                  

If I told you, “you are not all here? “

What if? I told you, “You are MISSING something IMPORTANT?”

 

Well that’s exactly what I’m telling you! You have become a slave to your past.

You are missing YOU!

You are not connected to you - I’m talking about the real YOU - THE AUTHENTIC YOU – the YOU - you came to be.

                HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??

 This disconnect began when you made your entry to planet Earth.

                 ACTUALLY

Even before you made your entry they were already making plans for who you were to be.

They began immediately telling you who you should be and who you should not BE - how you should act    not ACT.

   (Seen and not heard - nice and not naughty)

 

They even told you how you should and should not think! (Who do you think you are?)

 

This is how we all got buried in a big pile OF should - they should all over us and being quick learners we then began to should all over ourselves.

 

We have enslaved ourselves to someone else’s dreams, ideas, & wishes.

 

Dr. Martin Luther King said, “as long as the mind is enslaved the body can never be free.

Psychological freedom and a firm sense of self-esteem is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery.”

 

Self-esteem cannot be found when we are not being true to who we are.

                   ENOUGH is ENOUGH

I truly hope that I have offended you enough that you will push pause and take a serious look at your

Self – ask yourself is this really who I am??

 

 I believe it is time for you to be you - for you to be all you were created to be

 

I am suggesting that we get off the “should train,” that we change every should do, to a could do IF I wanted to!

 

You have my solemn problems that when you begin to be true to you, when you become the authentic you. There will be a wonderful change your life.

 

When you take this step to freedom people all around you will begin to change - this freedom will bring the peace you have been seeking and peace like a river will flow.

 

I would like to close with a quote from Thomas Jefferson “on matters of style, swim with the current. On matters of principle stand like a rock.”

 

Join me as an advocate TO PEACE by making it a principle to be you. We will not find peace in the world until we have made peace with our self.

 

There is no other like you in the entire universe.

 YOU ARE AN AWESOME CREATION

 

RIGHT – WRONG

Right, wrong, good, bad these are all personal beliefs and most of these beliefs are not really our beliefs! Our beliefs were passed on to us usually from our parents, grandparents, teachers, friends and environment.

 

Our attachment to these old beliefs can cause a lot of stress in our lives. Most of our conflicts in life are created over right, wrong good, bad!

 

This week as Ron and I took time for our weekly exploration of where we are in our relationship, right, wrong, good, and bad were at the top of our list. As Ron and I came from very different backgrounds our list of what's right and wrong, good or bad are sometimes very different; this could very well lead to conflict and, I will confess, has done so in the past.

Some might say Ron is a very moral person and I can sometimes seem very immoral. You could say we see many things from a totally different viewpoint. It stands to reason as most of his beliefs , come from his mother's belief system, and I emphasize his mother here because she seems to have been the strongest influence in his life. Ron's mother was a very strong woman and she basically saw life as black or white, and she was very clear in her belief of good and bad.

I grew up in the midst of general chaos, there was very little black and white, many shades of color, and a lot of gray; therefore I am not so right, wrong, good or bad oriented. I often color outside of the lines and in the forbidden colors!

Somewhere between the 60s and 80s I began to awaken. I began to realize that most of what I had been taught did not make sense. As I began to search for something that did make sense I was led to the study of metaphysics. Metaphysics teaches us to go beyond the physical. I believe that most of you would agree that we are more than just this physical body. Therefore it seems to me that our body, our physical being, is just a vehicle that we can use for interaction on this planet called Earth. I believe that we each chose our body type, our parents, siblings and others that would present to us the challenges and the securities that would help us to complete the mission we came here for. Metaphysics teaches us there is no right or wrong; there just is what is, and the opportunity to change it to what we want it to be.

What this means to me is there really is no good, bad, right, wrong, for these are all simply judgments and usually judgments made without seeing the complete picture and most often these judgments are learned from our past. It is also true that the majority of the judgments we make are aimed at ourselves. Whenever we find ourselves judging someone else's behavior it is a signal that we need a timeout to assess how we're feeling about ourselves. For our natural human tendency is to project our feelings onto those around us.

As we open to a new awareness in our lives we begin to see ourselves more clearly and this I believe is one of the most important steps that we can take to ensure ourselves better relationships with all people.

Conflict comes first from within ourselves whenever we are feeling confused, insecure, needing to blame and needing to be right. Usually when we have these feelings we will choose the person closest to us to blame and make wrong so we can feel right. I'm sure that you will find, as I have, this doesn't work really well, but it usually results in a conflict with someone else which then helps us to feel guilty, to feel angry, to blame and feel justified and when that wears off to feel really, really bad.

Ron and I are working our way through a book I highly recommend called The I of the Storm in which author Gary Simmons quotes Hindu ascetic Muhru  “What makes us so predictable is that attention and awareness continuously reframe the present moment in the context of past influences. Who we are today is what sets tomorrow's stage . . . If consciousness is in bondage to the past or if attention is mesmerized according to ingrained patterns of awareness, the future is simply an extended line from here into tomorrow – and that's what makes the future predictable." This means then, that if we wish a different future, a different life, more love, more fun, more peace, we must change our thinking and thereby our life.

When we begin to see that we spend a lot of our time reliving and re-acting our past, still fighting the battles that we fought with our parents or our teachers or exes, on and on and on, then we begin to see a need for change.

Question is how do we change this behavior? I believe the first step is AWARENESS! When we become aware of certain behaviors that create stress in our life, understanding usually follows and we can begin to change the behaviors that no longer serve us well.

Since conflict seems to be everywhere we look in today's world, it only makes sense from my understanding that you and I must find a more peaceful way to live our daily life. A wise teacher once told us that “As it is within, so it is without.”

Trust me, 76 years has taught me conflict will come and conflict will go, however those we love may not always be here on this planet with us. So let go, turn loose of right and wrong, tune in to love, peace and acceptance and I assure you, you will enjoy your stay a whole lot more.

I share with you today from the place of much love and appreciation and a heartfelt desire that together we will make a difference. My vision is PEACE on EARTH will you join me?

Namaste’

Yoga Yaya

P. S.

Having reached this delightful older age I find there are even more colors than I knew, and many more lines to color outside! I have learned that what might be very, very right for me might not be so right for someone else! What this means in our relationships is that we each have to be aware of what judgments we are making and who those judgments belong to.

You see Ron was drawn to me because of my seeming immorality and my different way of thinking, because he was wanting to explore and color outside of some lines, move beyond some boundaries, explore what he thought was truth, and in his world of truth I seemed to be an enigma.

When we met Ron had just graduated from massage school and there I was with an established, successful healing center practicing massage in ways that were “Not Right” according to what he had been taught. He, however, was brand new in our relationship and it was to early to begin changing me.

Here we are some 23 years later and experiencing some frustrations basically because I still just won't do it right! 

But what I do, DO RIGHT is love you Ron Clark.

PEACE, LOVE! 

PATTERNS

Patterns begin probably at the time of our conception. We learn sleep patterns, eating patterns, loving patterns and even fighting patterns. Most of our early patterns are well ingrained and stick with us throughout our life unless we make a conscious choice to change them.

Studies tell us that if we can stick with something 40 days it will become a pattern. What I have experienced is those new patterns that I decide to establish, things I feel that will surely benefit me, are  difficult to stick with for 40 days. I will confess I personally have worked on a number of these 40 day plans and even completed some of them. These were plans that I felt would really improve  my life. They did not stick unless I really was ready for change!

Now there are other patterns that have stuck; that it seems took less than 40 days to stick like glue! These, as you might guess, are the ones that did not serve me well.

I bring up this discussion about patterns because I have noticed recently in my life and in the lives of others there is a pattern that often creates discomfort, DIS-EASE, and much stress. It is that pattern that  when things are going well, our life is really feeling good, we suddenly find ourselves feeling agitated, irritated and wondering why???

I call this "waiting for the other shoe to drop”. Growing up in a dysfunctional, alcoholic home it was always a given that if we had a good Christmas morning, we were going to have a disastrous Christmas Eve. This definitely applied to any other holidays or special occasions.

When I married I was determined it would be a very different life but that did not happen; the pattern was so deeply embedded in my life I took it with me.

It was many, many, many years later that I realized how well ingrained this dysfunctional pattern was in my life. I did what we all do. I lived what I had learned and followed the pattern that my parents, and their parents, had laid out so many many years before.

Thank God! For awakening and for many great educational books and teachers and especially, Louise Hay, author of Love Yourself, Heal Yourself. I inhaled this book; read it and reread it. Studied and taught it. And finally! GOT IT.

In order to have a different life, a better life, I had to first believe that it was possible! Then the next step, even more difficult to believe, was that I deserve it and then that I could do something about it. I could change the pattern; I could change my life.

I quickly learned and am now a firm believer that the first step to making a change is to recognize what needs to be changed.

The second step is to become very clear about what kind of change I want to make.

I have found that change is a very scary word. CHANGE. It used to be when I heard or thought about CHANGE, my heart would pound, my gut would tighten and I would often put it off, whatever the change might be.

In 1984 as I was experiencing my awakening time. This is a poem that came through me,

FEAR it's not always here!
Sometimes I awaken in the morning
and it's gone.
Then some time midst  the day
it stealthily slips in!

Sometimes I catch it before it
settles in and I send it out.
Sometimes I welcome it with open arms
and revel in it – cuddle with it -
hold it closely to me.

It protects me – when it's here
I am paralyzed
being paralyzed is pain
but! Movement might be more painful

Stay here fear – I don't want to move.

So yes indeed, change does often bring fear. I found another great book titled Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. It's another one of those books I read and reread and still read.

I know there are patterns in your life that need to be changed. I encourage you to explore and find the many ways in which you can do it differently.

It is time for change in my life, in your life, in our world. Today is the day to begin.

YOU DESERVE A GREAT HAPPY HEALTHY LOVING LIFE!

You are the Artist

When your life seems overburdened and exhausting, too much to handle – it’s time to look and  see what brushes you have been painting with, what scenes you have been focusing on.

As a novice in the painting world I often find myself experimenting with brushes, with colors, and different strokes. In the world of living I'm not always so brave.

One artist I have studied uses a brush with two colors on it at the same time and she has marvelous results, that method does not work as well for me! So it is with our lives we must each discover our own satchel of tools and experiment with our own creating. Always remembering you are a free artist and can create in any medium that you choose, you are free to use any of the different styles colors designs, sizes, shapes, the choice is yours!

Would you like more pleasure in your life, more money, more love, greater health, loving supportive parents, spouse,friends, children, neighbors? Are you interested in a world of peace, power, and plenty? Then it's time to get out your satchel and begin to create the things you want in your world.

You are an artist and the world is your canvas, your mind is your tool for creating, your thoughts and your words are the brushes you use for your paintings.Paint your world Lush and growing and wonderful, full of peaceful, loving, happy, people and places things.

Now is the time and right where you are is the place. Begin right now!

I am here to serve you, if I can help let me know.

Namaste’

Yoga Yaya

I AM AN ARTIST My meditation this morning was focused on how can I use my talents to increase my income? I suspect that question is kind of a universal pondering in our world today. What was given to me was "you are an artist and people are your canvas! Your business is about helping people find the right tool in their satchel to create their bliss. Now I have been playing at painting off and on for several years, but I had never considered myself an artist. So, getting this message was a thrill as well as intimidating. It was similar to when I was ordained and could call myself a minister, it was only after five years of ministry that I found myself believing I was really a minister. It was the same with becoming a mother, it was after seven children, a paraplegic son, and many, many years later that I knew I was really mother. Looking at this from those perspectives I see that we are all artist and the world is our canvas and our beginning creations may not be anywhere like our later creation. As we change, so changes our level of perception and our ability to create more of what we really want to see and experience. I am beginning to realize with my painting that my brushes are way more important than I knew, so I am in the process of trying out brushes to see which ones serve me best, which ones will help me create a clearer picture of what I want to create. And with this outer realizations comes my inner acceptance that I am indeed an artist and so are you! I am an artist and my world is my canvas. My love is working with people and helping them discover the tools they have in their satchel that they can use to create their bliss and then follow their bliss and discover their full potential. Realizing that we are all here on this planet earth to create our own destiny it helps to accept that The Master Creator created us all, and our purpose is to create that which will bring us joy. As a beginner in the world of acrylic painting I find myself wondering which brushes I can use to create certain effects on the canvas. I find it is the same with choosing which brush to use in creating the next chapter in my life. One of the lessons that I've learned is that I can look at what I'm experiencing right now and that will tell me what scenes I have been painting.

I have also found that acrylic painting with acrylics is a very forgiving art, if I don't like what appears on the canvas I can quickly and easily paint over it and VOILA!!!  A new picture appears!


How about taking a look at your life, is it bringing you joy? Do you like what you see? Is it time for something new?

Remember you are the artist what you create is up to you

Won’t you join me in creating a world of peace! Remember it begins with you!

Love you lots

YOGA Yaya

This is a correction of the preceding blog entry

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD

Have you heard of THE SEVEN WONDERS of the WORLD?

What are the seven wonders of the world? That seems like a simple question until you go to Google!

First we find The Seven most remarkable structures of ancient times; the Egyptian pyramids, the mausoleum erected by Artemisia at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes, the statue of Zeus by Phidias at Olympia, and the Lighthouse at Alexandria.

Most of these I have never heard of and had some difficulty pronouncing.

But that’s not all!

There are also,

· Seven wonders of the modern world

· Seven natural wonders

· The new seven human made wonders

Did you ever wonder why these things are called wonders? And did you ever wonder who make these choices?

Obviously they did not ask me, I do indeed think there are many wondrous things in our world.

Having given birth to five children and worked as a laborer and delivery nurse for a few years and I can tell you birthing a child is an incredibly, awesome wonder!

When you see what a woman endures to bring that child into the world that is indeed a wonder!

Then when you see that woman willing to do it again What a Wonder!

The first time that baby looks at you and smiles!!! That my friend is a Wonder of the World!

Having birthed five of these Wonders I’m here to tell you the fact, that they survived me as their mother is another of the WONDERS of the WORLD

Reach out your hand and gently touch the back of your other hand. TO TOUCH, now gently stroke the back of your hand.

TO TOUCH - TO FEEL these are WONDERS of the WORLD!

I am speaking to you now and you are hearing me.

I stand before you and you see me

To SPEAK, TO HEAR, to SEE, are THESE wonderful - WONDERS of the WORLD?

To smell your favorite food simmering on your stove an Awesome Wonder.

To touch, to feel, to see, to hear, to smell, to taste these are wonders that are offered to us every day !

But the most wondrous of wonders is available to you right now

TO LOVE - TO LOVE YOURSELF – TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR – TO LOVE BEYOND WHAT YOU KNOW –

BECAUSE WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE!!!

These are the Seven Wonders of the World I would like to find on Google!

Thanks for reading - tell me about a Wonder in your World,

Together we can make a difference!!

Yoga Yaya