This flux is not new. The flow from one experience to another is part of the timelessness of our existence. That we have changing needs, changing habits and changes in friendship, career and location is all normal.

And yet it feels as if there are bigger changes afoot all around us right now.

When we feel a new and dynamic form of energy start to affect us, sometimes we embrace it, and sometimes we just want to shut it out. When it’s an unknown sensation, and there’s no one who can explain it to us, the quick reaction would be to ignore it, or to avoid it altogether.

As one of many species on earth, we have been preparing for the BIG changes set to come our way in this magical year of 2012. I believe that feeling the magic, instead of retreating in uncertainty, is our call to Love.

The most certain way to find a sense of stability as we shift from forms of fear into forms of Love, is to look toward what our gut instincts, or our Intuition, have
to tell us…

I will be speaking about this at the Virtual Yoga Conference “Yoga, Meditation and the Philosopher’s Stone” this February. My talk is on Using Intuition in this Dynamic and Passionate Time of Change. We will look at ways to work with what we know, but don’t always acknowledge, to give us a sense of purpose and safety as we transition to the magical new awareness we are opening to.

Breathe, meditate, play, and accept the opening which you have been craving.

Tags: Anatara, changes, love, 2012, Intuition, transition, flow, Virtual Yoga Conference

Everything about the giraffe’s body is built for one thing: reaching towering heights. As the world’s tallest land animal, they have an unrivaled reach. With legs that are taller than many humans — about 6 feet — to a neck that weighs over 600 pounds, the whole structure enables the giraffe to eat tasty treats unavailable to others constrained closer to earth.

Yet you don’t see other animals lamenting the fact that they can’t reach what’s easy for the giraffe to reach. The zebra or lion don’t appear to be jealous. You don’t see them being melancholy over the fact that they are height-challenged in comparison.

It seems a purely human trait to compare ourselves to others, only to find ourselves lacking in one way or another.

I do consulting work at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, the largest and most established retreat center for yoga, health, and holistic living in North America. On any given day, I can look around the cafeteria during lunch to see lots of fit, young bodies. I notice my mind comparing my middle-aged body that gave birth to two children to those younger bodies.

Those thoughts are, of course, useless. But they are there nonetheless.

Wanting to cultivate a peaceful approach to my maturing body and do less comparing, I shared my experience with a friend of mine. I wanted some advice from this wise woman I admired. We chatted as we walked the grounds of Kripalu after lunch, confirming that yes, indeed, no matter how well you eat, no matter how much yoga you practice, the body ages and changes.

It’s like the shirt I saw on an older person in the Kripalu cafeteria. It read, “I eat well. I exercise. And still I’m gonna die.”

Well, that’s it in a nutshell, right?

As my friend and I walked, we started laughing. Unfortunately for me, I did not take a bathroom break before our walk. So as our giggles ramped up, so did my need for a stronger bladder muscle. Since those muscles have never been the same since giving birth, I improvised. I did what every woman instinctively knows to do — I crossed my legs and squeezed.

There I was, right in the middle of the picturesque road leading to a meditative retreat center, hunched over my crossed legs hysterically laughing for everybody driving by to see.

Which only made us laugh all the harder. Then my friend let out an unexpected burp.

All we needed was a good old fart to finish off the image of two aging bodies out of control.

All ended well. I made it to the bathroom without incident, and my friend’s excess gas was worked out. And the laughing fit continues to nourish me any time a thought arises about the maturing process. If I can still laugh hysterically because of bathroom humor, all is not lost.

Even as I write this essay, I am laughing hysterically. Laughing really is the best medicine.

Yes, the giraffe can reach great heights. But what happens when he wants to get a drink of water? His height hampers. He becomes vulnerable to attack as that long neck that can reach the heavens cannot reach the earth, causing him to spread his legs wide or even kneel in order to drink. In fact, the giraffe’s jugular vein contains a series of one-way valves that prevent the back flow of blood when the head is down to drink water, thus preventing a blackout.

No great gift, like the height of a giraffe, comes without a corresponding downside. The great gift of maturity is perspective. The downside is a weak bladder.

I can handle that.

Tags: comparing, self confidence , vulnerable, giraffe, stretching, human, trait

As far as the sun knows, it is now giving us, the inhabitants of the Northern hemisphere, a little more light every day. Every day will have a few more minutes of sunlight than the previous one.

I wonder if we notice this.

Do you notice this subtle change each day?
Or do you realize at some point that the sun is setting later than it was a month earlier?

Becoming aware of the subtle changes around us, as with the sun’s movement north, is a perfect reference point for an understanding of the amount of attention we apply to all things. What kinds of change attract your attention?

Do you notice changes in your family members, or with your friends? Do you notice a new sign on the street, or that the trees are starting to bud in late winter?
Do you notice changes in your mood, your health, your desires, your appearance?

What things stand out for you when they shift and change?

When you notice a change, does it feel harmonious to you or discordant?
Do some changes please you while others are disturbing?

If you like, make a short list of some of the things that you see change and how you perceive these changes. Notice how you feel about these things. Notice whether you become more centred, or are thrown off balance by certain events and things changing.

There are clues in your feelings about change, that describe you as an individual.
As you become aware of change, and of the ebb and flow of your life, it can be easy to see where you hold onto things that you don’t really need anymore.

The sun’s light diminished for us, and it is now returning.
Changes occurred in our lives, which have either diminished our brightness or brought us into a state of greater light and well being.

Which is it for you?

Let the sun’s return signal the return of your own light.

Is there anything that you want, or need to do to live in a ‘brighter’ way?
Shine away, this is what we are all here to do!

Blessings for a fantastic new year of Light!

Tags: sun, changes, more light, equinox, mood, ebb, flow, vernal

In my last blog, I talked about the first and second causes of disease. The third cause of disease is considered the most important of all, time. “Time” means living according to the rhythms of nature and understanding the symptoms of change, which Patanjali also speaks about in his Yoga Sutras III-13 to III-16. As the sun moves and changes in quality and form, it governs specific functions and abilities. For example, the rising sun and its quality and function of creation; the mid-day sun and its quality and function of sustaining and nourishing life; and the setting sun and its quality and function of transformation. The same sun shines through each one of us, like unique pieces of stained glass, mirroring the same changes throughout the day, season and lifetime. Yoga practice is primarily for balancing the qualities of the mind, and Ayurvedic practice is primarily for balancing the qualities of the body.

They overlap and interconnect, as both are the synergy of understanding how the body and mind, with all of their qualities and functions, are subject to change. An example of this is given by Swami Shyam in his Patanjali Yog Darshan: the transformation of water into vapor or ice and back again is representative of time, or the natural movement and change of the water element. Thereby, living according to Time means living according to the time of day, the season, the age, the constitution (dosha), and the condition of the individual — and this brings and maintains balance and health.

This is a fundamental principle of Yoga and Ayurveda and a prominent feature in Ayurvedic treatment. The formation, vitiation, aggravation, and alleviation of doshas or biological humors or elements, organs, tissues and waste products are governed by this alchemy. The Ayurvedic treatment process and the Yoga Sequencing is based on this principle of balance, and the purification and harmony that these practices together achieve. The removal of these obstacles to health also creates the environment for the individual to know who they are, bringing the freedom to be fully alive and one with creation.

All changes at any level of the body and mind are influenced by the forces of time and intelligence, as well as one’s ability to live in this awakened state of pure consciousness. This in turn allows for clarity, infinite wisdom, longevity and good health.

Ayurveda Defines Three Root Causes of Disease

Three Root Causes of Disease 1 – 2

Chaya offers Yoga and Ayurveda Wellness and Panchakarma Retreats, her book Yoga of Action, a good tool for those wanting to understand the synergy of Yoga and Ayurveda along with modifications and adaptations for those with special needs and is available for consultations by phone or skype. You can contact her through her website www.ayurvedaalternatives.com

Tags: Ayurveda, Chaya, Conscious Living, harmony, awaken, pure consciousness, disease

I presumed that no one in the restaurant could tell I was packin’ (a catheter, not a pistol/piss tool).

Using my Diaper Dude super powers (Act Four), I began visualizing and imagining all of my fellow diners with a cornucopia of unseen devices: prosthetic limbs, pacemakers, bags for all reasons, transplanted organs etc… When it began to resemble a Fellini film, my mind returned to dinner.

I was grateful that Medicine (my profession) has provided people the opportunity to function and live good lives, even though there were issues with tissues (body parts). I appreciated how people were capable of dealing with adversity and moving forward, many quite gracefully.

It was time to make a decision about the supra-pubic catheter. It needed to be removed because of potential infection. But what if my urethra was not up to the task? Would it let me down again even though I thought I had fixed the issue by removing the tissue? Another catheter would have to be reinserted immediately along the same track. Otherwise I would have to begin catheterizing myself, or go back to the operating room and have another tube inserted under general anesthesia. I didn’t want any of these options so I worked diligently, on all levels, to succeed. With a week to go, I was super confident. With two days to go, I started having separation anxiety.

At the appointed time I entered the doctor’s waiting room, positive that it could be removed. Unfortunately, I had to wait a little longer than usual because there were others ahead of me with unscheduled, complicating maladies. This gave me just enough time to question most of my confidence. I felt a slight feeling of suffocation, which I relieved by stepping outside multiple times to focus and breathe semi-fresh air.

I entered the doctor’s office, once again sitting on the side of the desk nearest the plastic representation of the exposed male genitalia (Act Three). I told my doctor I wanted the tube out but I didn’t want to risk the consequences of a system failure.

Accounting for our seated positions and the distance across the desk, the aforementioned genitalia model was occupying the visual space of my doctor’s face. In the brief instant between my statement and his response, I wondered if he had the same visual from the backside?
Things became surrealistic as his voice seemed to be coming from the plastic genitals. ”Sometimes”, it/he said, “the tube has to stay in for months, and sometimes people have to be catheterized for life”. Even the funny visual didn’t prevent the wave of nausea.

We decided to do an objective test and leave the decision up to scientific data. I was comfortably back in my element: test taking (which I have done all my life). I lay on the table in my now very familiar position while the doctor used the supra-pubic catheter as a conduit to fill my bladder with fluid. I could feel it filling up and stretching my abdomen back into my prior pregnancy state (Act one). Now it was my mission to empty the same amount of fluid he had inserted. If it emptied, the catheter would come out and I would be free. If not, we would remove this one and place another one in immediately.

Houston, we didn’t have a problem.

Everything worked. The doctor said “congratulations” as he cut the suture, which had secured the catheter to my abdominal wall. The catheter was pulled without any of the pain I had anticipated. My Mother would have been proud had I been able to tell her I’d “aced” my urine test.

I am now fully into the healing mode; accepting challenges, avoiding complications, learning when to push and when to flow, and accepting that I am not totally in charge. Sometimes my energy is high when things are going well. Sometimes my energy is low when I feel like I am not progressing. I am now four months out and still healing. I was told it takes four to six months.

Injury and illness, although different in specifics, have many things in common related to healing, setbacks, ebb and flow, highs and lows, unexpected issues that seem to pile on.

Throughout the process I recognized some things that helped me. Maybe some of them will help you.

1.Be prepared:
Physically, mentally and spiritually. Obtain the knowledge of how the treatment should progress before, during and following the procedure.

2.Be in Gratitude:
The more one remains in that “state”, the easier it is. When pain or suffering is peaking, finding things to be grateful for will take you to a better place. Thank everyone along the way.

3.Support system:
Even if you don’t tell everyone, just know they are there and allow people to help when needed.

4.Have a good doctor and office staff communication

5.Perspective:
When the overall garden may not look so good, search for some beautiful flowers to enjoy. Other times, a weed may appear but it is still a beautiful garden. Appreciate all the things that are working correctly in your body, mind and spirit.

6. Be Relevant:
Begin doing something related to your vocation or a hobby as soon as possible.

7.Peaks and Valleys:
They are going to happen even if unrelated to the main event. Just when I was starting to feel almost normal, my father died.

8.Humor:
Look for humor and fun stories to share in every part of the journey. You might have a great blog or book in you. It may help others.

9.Posture and Alignment:
Try and regain or remain as close to your natural alignment as possible. Being out of alignment can cause new problems at a time when you are trying to heal from something else. Things flow better when in alignment.

10. Hygiene:
Stay clean, don’t increase the opportunity for infection at a time when your immune system might be struggling or compromised.

11.Choose the right words and thoughts:
Words actually do mean something. Just changing a word made me feel better about the experience.

12. Food is medicine, medicine is food. (Hippocrates-lite):
Eat healthy, small portions. Eat very slowly (M.Pollan-lite).

13.Pet therapy:
I didn’t have any for this one but I have had in the past. Your pet will love you unconditionally.

14.Make Changes:
Evaluate who you were (physically, mentally and spiritually) and what may have been contributing factors leading to the event. Consider making changes.

15.Healin’ and Dealin‘:
Try to make most of the issues you have to deal with about healing. If you are dealing with an issue that is not about healing, make the decision with healing in mind.

16. “Oh blah di, Life goZon” (McCartney-lite)

Magical Medical Tour:

Act 1 and 2: Signs and Symptoms

Act 3: A Nightmare Week

Act 4: Surgery and Superheros

Act 5: Healin’ and Dealin’

Glen Wollman, Healing, Gratitude, Positivity, prepared, humor

Inspiration struck at the grocery store. I was heading for the checkout counter when my eye was caught by a photo on a greeting card: a darling baby with her bright, sparkling eyes peeping over the top of a bucket, above the words, “Give us dreams a size too big so that we can grow into them.”

I bought that cute card.

Dreams are never meant to be toned down to what is reasonable, comfortable, and in a size that fits you now. Dreams need to be bulky, unwieldy, a bit too big to hold, with plenty of room for a growth spurt or two.

Dreams are meant to be bold.

For some reason, growing up seems to translate into growing out of big dreams. Youth seems well suited for energizing pie-in-the-sky thinking. Growing up usually means replacing big thinking with “being realistic” — a known killer of creativity.

Like Goldilocks looking for just the right fit, reaching out for your dreams means trying new things on for size so that you are constantly stretching your heart and head. Dreams don’t need to be limited by anything as mundane as geographic or financial constraints. They just need something simple to be nurtured — they need a “yes” from you instead of a “no”.

Saying “yes” to a dream means answering the call. Dreams are always calling, whispering of a new way, a creative possibility, a grand adventure. Dreams require many “yeses” and “I do’s” along the way. Just like any committed relationship, you don’t say “I do” once and walk away. Everyday actions either solidify that “yes” or break it apart.

Your dreams are worthy of that daily “yes,” aren’t they?

Tags: dreams, unwieldy, big, yes, stretching, heart

My dear, dear uncle has finally transitioned to his new journey.
The last few months, we spent several hours a week together.
Not the same as when he was staying in my home, but still it was wonderful to laugh together and — being Portuguese — eat together!

He was the favorite of my uncles and aunts.
He always brought laughter into people’s lives.
He did little things that no others would think of doing.
He loved children and yet was not blessed with his own.
A forever prankster.

He shall be missed as we say farewell to him.

Now it is time to welcome him back into my home.
This time his Spirit.
Strong and yet gentle.
His love continues to surround us.
We are blessed.
The candles continue to burn bright as we celebrate
his new journey.

His Spirit and Grace will live forever within our hearts.

Tags: new journey, transitional, spirit, grace, memories, fondness, favorite uncle

The other day on our daily walk, we noticed that our neighbor had just cut back her roses. These are the roses we stop to smell together every morning. Pink, red, white, yellow and — our favorite — mauve, which gives the most incredible scent.

Well, this morning there lay a pile of stems, flowers, petals, leaves. My son was sad, looking at this pile as he questioned why they were cut off. It’s not like he hasn’t seen this before, but at each stage of his life he sees it with a new set of eyes.

He asked me if we could take the cuttings home. I told him we couldn’t as they were old, wilted and falling apart. I kept walking onward. He did not. I turned to see what was happening. I must have been 100 meters ahead of him by then. I called out but he did not move. He was still squatting down looking at the pile. I called again. He stood up and held his hand high, holding a beautiful white, fully blossomed rose. He proudly ran up to me, sharing this slightly wilting rose.

“Mummy, this one is still really good, right?”
“Oh Yes”, I said, “very nice.”
He was adamant. “No, it’s beautiful and it still smells good”.

This was another one of those moments when my “Zen Master” has reminded me how so much beauty in this world goes unnoticed. It’s also a reminder of how society looks at aging. How so many of us are only concerned with how we look or judge others for how they look, especially as people age.

We spend so much time and energy worrying about aging — oh, the vanity of it all.

Let us be reminded that it is not the wrinkles and sagging skin that define our beauty, but what is on the inside. I looked at my 92-year-old uncle that evening and truly saw what a wonderful and beautiful being he was.

Have you taken a moment to smell the roses lately?

Tags: inner beauty, through child eyes, rose, cast aside, stop smell roses,

We have established previously that the breath is not only vital to the survival of our physical being, but that it is also vital to the sustenance and maintenance of our spiritual and emotional bodies.

When the breath is fluid within us, encountering no obstacles or blockages, we can utilize the oxygen, prana and renewing energy of the breath, unencumbered. In this case, the breath is pure nourishment. It feeds all of our systems, physical and other, allowing us to be ready and available for whatever the day asks of us.

We become ready for physical activity, we are full of vitality for emotional interactions…spiritual openness flows through us. Our intuition is free and clear of encumbrance to its purity and clarity.

The breath is therefore required for physical survival and is equally available to support our emotional survival.

Pause for a moment… contemplate your breath as it is right now. Close your eyes and become aware of the sensation of the breath as it flows in, and as it flows out. Be aware of how it is entering your body. Are you breathing in through your nose or through your mouth?

Where does the breath flow to next? Can you feel it moving through your throat, into your chest, or into other parts of your body? Do you notice that it flows easily in some places, and becomes glitchy, shortened or strained in others? Do not be aggressive or judgmental with this evaluation and assessment…you are observing how you breathe, no more and no less. There is no “right” or “wrong” to the way you are breathing.

There is a way to become aware of how you do breathe, and to become aware of what that means to you in your life. These are some of the things that we will continue to explore.

Before I asked, were you thinking about your breathing at all? Or was it flowing in and out of your body without conscious awareness on your part? I am by no means suggesting that we have to be aware of the breath in every moment. But we can be.

Imagine what it would be like if you always had some sort of awareness of your breath. You would always know, through a part of your consciousness that is also tuned into other things, how your breath was flowing (or not flowing)

Our breathing reflects the way we feel, physically and emotionally. It is a constant source of information about how we are doing in any given moment. Pay attention to your breath for five minutes at a time, at intervals throughout your day. Notice if you are at ease or agitated, and then notice what the flow of your breath is like at those times.

Notice if there is a correlation between the breath, happiness, or stress. In the next discussion, I’ll start to describe how to utilize the breath for comfort, and how to create equanimity and action depending on what you want.

The breath will develop into a voice for your needs and a solution to some of your questions.

Check in with your breathing now and then. Make note of what is happening around you and inside you, and how it correlates to your breathing. Allow this exploration to be interesting and fun! See what it can inform you about.

Tags: breathing, conscious, correlation, happiness, stress, flowing

Ayurveda’s first cause of disease is a mistake or misuse of the mind, where one observes or perceives incorrectly. When we try to solve it by suppressing or thinking what to do about IT, that creates further fragments and divisions. Observe holistically, observe the whole movement of life as one; then conflict – with its destructive energy – not only ceases but also, out of that observation, gifts a totally new approach to life!

The second cause of disease arises out of its first – mistake of the mind or, even more specifically, the misuse of the intelligence, which is the misuse of objects of the senses. We can also view this as wrong relationships to such objects like people, places, things, activities, and even our own mind, including its thoughts, emotions, perceptions and conditioning.

To be alive is to be in relationship, and we are in relationship to all things based upon the health and condition of our five physical senses: hearing, sight, taste, smell and feeling – plus a sixth and subtle sense, the mind.

The practices of Yoga and Ayurveda work synergistically, and traditionally. Ayurveda cleanses and balances the bodily humors or the material body, and Yoga cleanses and balances the mind and the subtle body. The mind can take the senses, and thereby the physical body, in any direction. When total awareness is achieved, and you know who the driver is, you can go in the direction that you, the real you, really wants to go.

Stay tuned next week for the third cause and the relationship of all three as a road map to awakened states and self-healing.

Ayurveda Defines Three Root Causes of Disease

Three Root Causes of Disease 3

Chaya offers Yoga and Ayurveda Wellness and Panchakarma Retreats, her book Yoga of Action, a good tool for those wanting to understand the synergy of Yoga and Ayurveda along with modifications and adaptations for those with special needs and is available for consultations by phone or skype. You can contact her through her website www.ayurvedaalternatives.com

Tags: Ayurveda, Chaya, Conscious Living, Holistic, self-healing, awakened states