I entered the Chapel, approaching the open casket at the same time as a nurse I had previously worked with in the Emergency Department. Our attention focused simultaneously on the Friar in repose. I put my hand over the area of his anatomical and energetic Heart. She gently caressed his face and cheek. After making our connections, I broke the silence, whispering ”He looks beautiful”. She responded “He looks dead”. We were both right.

We took our seats. The Congregation consisted of Friars, Brothers, Nuns, family and friends. The casket, now closed, was carried up the center aisle and placed before the altar. My eyes and mind focused. He was in there – that plain pine box defined the total mass of his physical embodiment.

The funeral service followed, with eulogy, remembrances, hymns, liturgies and various readings accompanied by appropriate responses from those familiar with the prayers and protocol.

In the Emergency Department, I had the occasional privilege to be in attendance as people transitioned from being alive. I always noticed a light or energy vacate their eyes.

The energy in the Chapel seemed to be filling up, increasing and getting brighter as the chanting commingled with the incense swirling around us and rising towards the stained glass windows and vaulted ceiling.

This energy was not about birth or death as much as it was about journey. My friend’s journey was a great one because it had great purpose.

Each of us receives the gift that allows us to make the journey (in body, mind and Spirit) and we have a mission to give that gift purpose.

And in the the end, the physical mass is small and lifeless. The energy, however, may expand, stay the same, or contract, depending on one’s journey. What will your energy do? How will your mass transit?

Tags: Albert Einstein, Energy flow, physical mass, one’s journey, birth and death

I am not happy about the loss of the document. Maybe I’ll search through my backups and see if it was somehow captured there, although that just feels like too much of a distraction right now.

But then inspiration struck…

Why not ask my readers to share their favorite quotes? That way, I can start a whole new document, and we can share as a community our favorite quotes that inspires us. We’ll all benefit!

To share your favorite quotes and sayings, just hit the reply button below.

Inspiration strikes at odd times, and often when you’re feeling low (like when data is lost). The loss forces you to think differently, to try a new approach, to consider a way around the obstacle. I had no idea I was going to write this blog post until inspiration struck with the loss of my inspirational document (that irony is not lost on me).

Following your inspiration when it arises ensures that more will come. Why would inspiration visit if it kept hitting a brick wall?

The quote I was getting ready to add to my lost document came from a good friend and business colleague, Leslie Nolen. Leslie had sent me a beautiful card when my sister passed away with the Sufi quote:

The heart weeps for what it has lost;
The soul laughs for what it has gained.

That will be the first quote in my new “favorite sayings” folder. How about helping me build that new inspirational document? What’s your favorite quote?

Tags: inspirational quotes, favorite quote, inspiration, Sufi quote, favorite sayings

I’ve come to realize that my tsunami was a result of catering to the needs of others. It was necessary for them to proceed in their flow…not mine. Upon realizing this, I have now had to stop and make changes. I need to move and flow in life and business at my pace and not necessarily at the pace of others.

Uncomfortable, yes. I’m not quite used to putting myself before others.

Megan McDonough has written a book titled “A Minute for Me.” I have yet to read the whole book as I keep getting distracted, but I keep it by my side. Why? Because it reminds me to be conscious of decisions that I make and the repercussions of how it will affect my flow.

I have always known that we are in charge of ourselves. We are in control of how we create our balance. I have always known this, but to actually put it into action continuously – or to be conscious of it – has not been easily done.

For me, the change is now. It has already begun.

Tags: a minute for me, megan mcdonough, focusing on my life, take a moment, my life, how to take care of myself

When I asked him what he thought of my activities, he looked at me sideways with his eyes slightly rolled up, as if disgusted. “Mom” he said, “you lead a very boring life.”

Such is the glory and adoration of motherhood.

He’s right, of course. I’ve often thought that myself as I’m picking up his dirty socks. It must be very freeing to whip off those socks at the end of the school day and fling them to far corners of the room or under the couch.

Life as an adult means responsibility, and that can definitely be a big bore.

As I write this I’m sitting on my back deck. The laundry that’s never done is hanging on the clothesline. It must be seventy degrees — very warm for the first week of April here in New England. It feels like we’ve moved right into summer and skipped over spring.

The neighbor’s rooster is crowing. The songbirds are twittering, and the dryer is humming with the clothes I didn’t feel like hanging on the line.

I suppose you could call this boring. But I’d much rather be doing this than sitting in a classroom like Jonathan, or working in a cubicle like many other Moms and Dads.

Whether you’re going to school, have a high-powered executive job, are doing Mom things, or simply writing, it can all look boring from the outside. And it can feel boring at times on the inside.

Boredom has some redeeming qualities that are easy to overlook in our desire to be entertained.

Boredom can come from doing the same thing over and over. That’s called practice. Maybe Mozart got bored with composing. Or Amelia Earhart got bored of flying. Or Bill Gates got bored of computers.

It may look exciting from the outside, but boredom happens in every human life. It’s part of the human experience.

In his book “The Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell wrote that getting to be the best at something has to do with the magical number 10,000.

Give any skill 10,000 hours of practice and you’ll be an expert at it. In that period of time, I bet you would feel bored at some point and want to give it up for something more exciting. And maybe your son would tell you that your life is boring.

Sometimes boredom can be a wake-up call, inviting you to do something exciting, new, and adventurous to break out of a routine. But sometimes boredom is just the price you pay to get really, really good at something you value. Then a day comes when you surprise yourself by your level of expertise, not really sure how that brilliance came out of such drudgery.

I still don’t see how picking up dirty socks can lead to an expertise (and I really don’t care at being at expert at housekeeping, thank you very much). But I can see how showing up for the writing day in and day out, even when it’s pure drudgery to do so, makes me a better writer.

That’s a skill worth working at in my book.

What are you practicing over and over again? What’s the skill you’re willing to be bored with as you work towards the 10,000 hour master level?

During the course of a life we’re all spending that amount of time on something — whether it’s 10,000 hours of complaining, living deliberately, building a business, or mothering.

Whether or not you find it boring at times is not at all important. It’s just part of the journey. The real importance is that thing you’re giving your 10,000 hours to cultivate. Is it a skill you feel is worth it?

Tags: boredom of life, outliers, story of success, Malcolm Gladwell, boring life

Being a kid at heart myself, I have a blast. If the weather’s good, we’ll have it in the garden but, if not, we hide the eggs and hang the piñata in the basement – where weeks later, my husband will fish a chocolate egg out of one of the pockets of his precious pool table!

Fun times…except that the kids have all grown into teenagers now and consider themselves too old for Easter egg hunts and piñatas. Shame – they may not miss them but I certainly do.

So this year I was resigned to just having Easter lunch and foregoing the hunt and piñata. But then friends of ours from Edmonton called to ask if they and their two children, ages nine and five, could come for Easter. Perfect – as my husband pointed out, I was probably more excited about their visit than they were.

They arrived last week and we’ve been having a wonderful time. The kids are terrific – well-behaved but very, very active (no surprise there). To say they were excited when they heard about the Easter egg hunt and piñata would be an understatement. So off we went the other day to buy a piñata – after careful deliberation (and polite requests to see just about every piñata in the store), they selected a caterpillar, which I duly proceeded to fill up with chocolates and other goodies.

On Saturday, they helped us decorate the house and then we cooked up a storm. On Sunday, before everyone came for lunch, we got our priorities right and went to Church to express our appreciation and gratitude for everything that God has blessed us with.

Our friends’ kids could barely contain themselves throughout lunch, although my older nieces and nephews kept them entertained with stories of past Easter celebrations. Thank goodness the weather held out so we could have the hunt and piñata in the garden. We had such fun watching a new set of kids rush around, helped by the teenagers, who showed them where to find eggs and taught them the best way to swing at the piñata. All in all, a wonderful fun-filled day.

For me, though, the best part of my day was listening to my nieces and nephews share their recollections of previous Easters. I guess I never realized how much they appreciated and enjoyed them – and how these memories of times shared with us have been indelibly woven into the fabric of their lives. What a true blessing.

Happy Easter everyone!

Tags: pinata, easter, good frieday, Easter lunch, Easter egg hunt

I remembered as a teenager being told that high blood pressure was genetic in our bloodline. My father had passed away from a heart attack – not from his first one, but from the last of several attacks he had had over the years.

I remember worrying “Is it truly genetic? What does that mean for me? I am always sick already, so will this make me even more susceptible in my adult life?”

What does a teenager know at that age? Since I was already always sick and regularly on some sort of medication, I questioned everything to do with health.

Well, the years went by and I became focused on one very important goal – to change what I was told I was destined for. At first, my thoughts went along the lines of “why live if I am going to be ill all the time?” Then I realized that I had to take responsibility for my own health by gaining some knowledge and insight. Western medicine wasn’t doing anything to help me. In fact, I knew somewhere deep inside me (that little voice that speaks to all of us if we choose to listen) that I was overdosing on too many drugs.

So I began to reach my goal by exercising. Running long distances, Nautilus training, playing racketball – you name it, I did it. Exercising was not that easy because I was dealing with severe asthma. But I persevered.

When I’d saved up enough money, I went to Asia on a quest to find out more about Chinese medicine – herbs and acupuncture and whatever else I could encounter in the forms of natural remedies. I wanted to learn to be aware of what could affect my body and my clarity.

So far, so good. I have been able to circumvent ingesting many drugs. Out of my whole family, I am the only one who’s not on any medication at all. I only take supplements. I do get my annual check-ups. I do have my blood tested, etc. so that I can find a balance between the different modalities of medicine.

I have written before about the power we, as individuals, possess to make clear, conscious choices. Follow your heart and listen to what it is telling you. Are you willing to make the effort to change, to shift a lifestyle, to adjust your eating habits?

I told my family member that even though the doctor had prescribed the medication, as a preventative – yes, a preventative – each of us has the choice on whether we want to take it or not. We have the choice to make the change. If you put a bandage on a wound that has not been cleaned first, it will only fester. We need to clean out what is causing the wound, to take care of it, find the reason for the problem, and work on clearing it completely so that we won’t need a bandage.

Your choice.

I know it is not always an easy one, but why not give it a chance? After all, it’s your health and well being.

Your quality of life.

Tags: quality of life, prescription drugs, health, medication, acupuncture, well being, heart attach, high blood pressure

]]> http://www.yogahub.com/blog/prescription-drugs/feed/ 2 http://www.yogahub.com/blog/crystal-energy/ http://www.yogahub.com/blog/crystal-energy/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:08:30 +0000 Christina Souza Ma http://www.yogahub.com/blog/crystal-energy/ I thought I’d follow up on one of my recent blogs, where I talked about the incredible energies that I had experienced from various plants and my surroundings during one of my trips to Vancouver, Canada.

Well, the last time I was there again was during the holiday season, when Vancouver was experiencing the heaviest snowfall in decades – it just engulfed the entire city like never before and almost everything came to a standstill.

The airport had to be closed because of the weather, and many people were left stranded as flights were canceled. Luckily, I was able to make it through, but I was stunned when I arrived and saw all the chaos caused by the multitudes of people stranded there. Once we stepped outside, however, all the noise faded as we were introduced to the muted, muffled sounds that snow always produces.

As the car approached the North Shore of the city, which is nestled at the base of the mountains and is the area in which I stay, the snow came down in droves, covering the highway and all the surrounding area.

We managed to make it to my destination, but it was at a slow and steady pace. While the driver maneuvered carefully through all the snow, I looked out the front window of the car and was amazed and inspired by the sight. It’s been a while since I’ve seen snow flakes of this size. Everything was pure white, except for the occasional tips of pine trees that peeked through.When we finally arrived at our destination, we got out of the car and walked into the most amazing world of white bliss. It was as if mounds of sparkling crystals were covering everything.

As we made our way through the beautiful soft padded walkway, our steps didn’t make a sound. The stillness was amazingly grounding. It was soothing, and yet there was an excitement that whirled around us.

Coming from the warmth of LA, we weren’t quite dressed well enough for the cold, so we hurried inside to get warm. Since it was late when we arrived, we decided to go to bed almost immediately and enjoy the snow the next day. But while we rested in the quiet of the night, we made sure we left the blinds open so that we could take in all the beauty of the continuous snowfall.

Tags: snow, energy, snowfall, crystal snow, vacation, trip, canada

]]> http://www.yogahub.com/blog/crystal-energy/feed/ 1 http://www.yogahub.com/blog/lazy-day/ http://www.yogahub.com/blog/lazy-day/#comments Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:05:42 +0000 John Sovec http://www.yogahub.com/blog/lazy-day/ It is very rare that I spend a day doing nothing. I wonder why. Of course, there’s usually a lot to do each day. There are many things I am passionate about – but occasionally I decide I need a “do nothing” kind of day.

On those days, I like to sleep, listen to the sounds of the house, watch the dog sleep, and in general not push myself. On those days, I often find that I’ve become more aware of my physical, emotional and spiritual being because I’ve given my body a little more space to speak to me.

And I never plan in advance when I’m going to take one of my “do nothing” days – that’s the fun part. It’s like winning a second prize in a box of Cracker Jack.

They always make me smile!

Tags: awareness of physical being, do nothing days, lazy days, emotional being

]]> http://www.yogahub.com/blog/lazy-day/feed/ 2 http://www.yogahub.com/blog/living-teepee-style/ http://www.yogahub.com/blog/living-teepee-style/#comments Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:00:48 +0000 Paloma Chavez http://www.yogahub.com/blog/living-teepee-style/ In Eagle Rock, a small neighborhood in Los Angeles, Amy Woodruff, who is of Chocktaw and Cherokee descent, has chosen to live life in a teepee. Amy was raised on a family farm in California and lived in New York for a few years, but she has no regrets about giving up the fast pace of that city to enjoy a tranquil life in her outdoor home.

An artist and a naturalist, Amy has found a renewed spirit by making the airy 16- foot diameter teepee her home. “It is really special to be able to see the stars at night through the top hole, and to be able to hear birds in the morning,” she says.

Amy recently began taking Kundalini yoga classes five times a week from the renowned Golden Bridge Yoga Studio in Hollywood. She reflects that “You really begin to find out who you are when you do yoga, and things from the past come up when you are working on your self.” This newly found sense of self has inspired her to learn more about her heritage, which is reflected in the Native American-inspired jewelry that she creates and sells in selected stores, as well as online.

Choosing to live in a teepee also allows Amy to fold up her home and head out on the road to explore new open lands. She is currently enjoying travels through Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon, while taking time to share Kundalini yoga with her fellow travelers.

Tags: Amy Woodruff, Kundalini , living in a teepee, Chocktaw and Cherokee heritage, self-awareness, spirit of yoga

]]> http://www.yogahub.com/blog/living-teepee-style/feed/ 1 http://www.yogahub.com/blog/homeless-gracious-offerings/ http://www.yogahub.com/blog/homeless-gracious-offerings/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:38:28 +0000 Christina Souza Ma http://www.yogahub.com/blog/homeless-gracious-offerings/ Here I am, worried about finding the courage to overcome the Neti Pot while the world continues to move forward around me.

My beautiful son is a constant reminder of the newest, joyful adventures in daily life. Every morning and evening, we go for walks, as this is my way of spending some quality time with my partner and son. It’s a balance that we have learned to start and finish the day with.

On our walks through our neighbourhood, we always make it a point to greet everyone we come across. Well, yesterday morning, a really beautiful event happened. We came upon several homeless individuals gathering to share some food that the local grocery stores had saved for them. As we approached and said good morning to the gentlemen, I commented on what a nice gathering it was – a time of sharing. We come across these individuals regularly so, by now, we know some of them by name. They excitedly showed me the items they were sharing and offered some of their goods to me.

Even when I said “no, thank you and please enjoy them yourselves”, they generously continued to offer other items, hoping to find something I liked. I finally accepted a bag of croutons and was touched to find that my simple gesture of acceptance brought beautiful smiles to their faces.

These generous and gracious individuals taught my family and me that no matter what we are faced with in life, it is not necessary to lose our love, joy, and laughter in the midst of whatever we may be dealing with.

Tags: giving, graciousness, homeless, food, love, joy, generosity

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