Day 1: Bhakti Challenge

Welcome to DAY 1~  Start connecting to Love now.

Let’s jump in!  Has this ever happened to you-- you are having dinner with a loved one and both of you are laughing and enjoying your connection to each other. Your heart feels warm and open to them.  Then, a touchy subject comes up and they say something that upsets you.  In fact, now every word feels hurtful.  Soon your chest tightens, the breath becomes shallow and the doors of your heart slam shut.  The ICE queen or king has landed. Where is the LOVE now? ... because its getting cold in here. (I will come back to this..)

During this 15 Day Challenge I will refer to the Narada Bhakti Sutras-- a 1,000 year old text with heart-centered reflections that inspire us to awaken a deep and eternal LOVE that resides within all of us. Sound complicated?  Its not, anyone can do this.  All you  need is 15 minutes.  Remember, nothing will change if do things the way you have always done them.  Try this 15-minute practice everyday for 15 days.  It will be your experience that will empower you to share your heart like a peaceful warrior of LOVE.

Where did the LOVE go anyway?  The Sutras says that the LOVE inside all beings never leaves.  Yeah, but... you may be saying.  Bottom line is that for something to ring your TRUTH bell you must experience it for yourself.

Try this:

Part 1. Imagine someone your deeply cherish and feel overflowing warmth toward.  It can be a  newborn child, close friend, spouse, a beloved pet.  Breathe in deeply and notice where you feel the sensation of LOVE in your body.  Spend 30 seconds breathing into this LOVE.  Close your eyes and do Part 1 now before moving on.  

Part 2. After you have connected to the Love inside from Part 1 let’s go on.  Now imagine someone that is a challenge for you.  Take 30 seconds to notice the sensations in the body that arise.  Close your eyes and do this now. 

What happened to the Love?  I bet if you did Part 1 again that the Love would arise just as it did before.  It truly never left. The Love is there waiting to rise up again should the heart be open to receive it.

Bhakti Sutras say that this wellspring of Love inside of us is ever-flowing from the center of our heart. When we feel warmth for someone that we Love that it truth we are witnessing the joy of their existence-- that presence that is the Divine inside of them.  We catch a glimpse of the radiant, glowing Spirit that is the essence of who they are.  In fact, going even further, they arereflecting your own radiance back to you.  How divine!!   And, in that moment there is a sense of connection, an abiding Love and even a sense of Oneness.  Let’s bring this in to practice.

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Bhakti Practice for Day 1:

Dedicate a quiet corner in a private room for your Bhakti practices.  If you have a cushion, mat, altar, or candles feel free to use them. 

1.  Do 5 minutes of movement and breath. A few yoga sun salutations or easy stretches will work well.  Move and breathe mindfully.

2.  Do 10 minutes of the Radiant Heart Meditation.  Sit comfortably with good posture.  Breathe deeply and draw fresh air into your lungs.  Fill the lungs in all directions-- expand the back body, allow the ribs to fan out and soften your chest.  Long flowing, nourishing breaths. Stay focused on the chest rising and falling with each breath. Now,  imagine an image of the SUN -- a radiant, light-filled, glowing sun.  Place the sun into the heart. Breathe easy and full. Notice what happens over time.  Stay curious, remain open, and allow the Radiant Heart practice to reveal something about the nature of your own heart to you.

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Doing the practice is essential.  Remember your intention to practice. Were you wanting more LOVE in your life?  Are you wishing that the world was a place of LOVE not war? Then allow your experience to bring forth your own personal truth about your Heart and the LOVE inside. And sit in dedication to this Sangha knowing we are more powerful together.

*  Keep a journal of your own experiences.  

*  Sign-up for the Bhakti Blog online to receive updates.

*  Share your experiences or questions on the Blog.

Until tomorrow, Namaste~ 

Sienna

Reference-  Narada Bhakti Sutra translation Exquisite Love by William K. Mahony Anusara Press 2010.

15 Day Bhakti Yoga Challenge

You have arrived! I am thrilled to welcome over 40 people to our online Sangha.  You all are stepping up to claim you right to deeper LOVE for yourself and for the world. My teacher Gary Kraftsow says "we are here but a blink of an eye, make every moment count". And here you are, making this moment count. 


Close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths to feel your intention for being here. Come fully present to the energy inside. There is an inner pulsation called PRANA (life force) that permeates all things~ and that life force is connecting us all now through our powerful intention to LOVE. Connect your intention to the group. Feel the energy of all who signed up with a similar intention~  to cultivate and express a deeper LOVE for themselves and the world.  That is powerful! 

Love connects, Love heals and Love is the only thing that will bring us into balance with each other and the earth. It is an inside job that we all must step up to.  There is no time to waste.  This is not the pink puffy heart us girls use to doodle on our homework pages in school... this is serious work.. which can bring serious intimacy and joy to our heart. The path to LOVE is not for the faint of heart~ it is for the warriors that are willing to SEE, to FEEL and to BE who we truly are.

A daily practice is the key to staying connected to Spirit, Divine, God to nature to whoever or whatever is your highest. And I believe it an be done in 15 minutes or less.  Over the course of this Bhakti Challenge try it for yourself and see.  Your personal experience is the only way to know what is TRUE for you.  May these practices cultivate your inner Guru~ grow your personal Truth~ and illuminate your path to Love! 

See you on Monday, August 15th!
Namaste~ Sienna

Resolve to the Limitless

Thrive in 2011. The aliveness, joy and happiness that many of us seek with the coming of a new year will not come from surface resolutions. One resolution I find to be the grand daddy of them all is the intention to know myself better so all my choices are anchored in the deepest truth of who I am.  The resolution to discover my own essence in its totality-- goes straight to the root.  Where roots live underground and rarely seen in a darkness that can cloak the mystery of who I am-- I go on a search to see what is truly nourishing me.  There lies my personal truth, which no one else can define, like a precious mineral in the barren soil waiting to be recognized, absorbed and assimilated into the living animation of our material form-- the body and mind.  There are many 'truths' like many minerals in the soil, some will do a satisfactory job but there are often precious few and even one that just shouts “Bingo”!!  It is the one that catapults the seedling upward on its perilously journey, piercing the earths crusts and growing tenaciously and vigorously toward the light no matter what the circumstance.  It is the truth that will nourish and feed you in all kinds of weather.  

For some it is a truth that at we are all interconnected. Consequently, the choices and the actions that follow are attempts to affirm and live from this truth. Knowing that your imprint on this earth, the words that you speak will create a ripple outward eventually affecting all beings everywhere direct your actions.  One of my deepest truths is that we are all beings of supreme love and that pure goodness and light is our core essence.  When I am feeling healthy, happy and well this is an easy truth to behold.  But occasionally my truth is tested and the roots gets yanked out of the ground and dangle lifelessly in thin air.  When this happens I instantly feel “ungrounded” and “up-rooted” and my body manifests this immediately and I sense a “pulling” up from the inside.   I begin to walk around like I reverse balloon-- sucked up from the inside. My organs pull up, my pelvic floor tightens and even the skin on my body grips tighter.  With roots above ground I am no longer close to the source of my nourishment-- my mind becomes foggy and my body starved for nourishment.  If I make an important choice from this place it will certainly be one made with lack of clarity and one from fear because that is the state I am in.  

Being aware of these sensations are key first step as awareness always proceeds change or transformation of any kind. Once I feel this happening I pause to see what truth I am operating on.  Can I find my deepest truth still alive inside of me .. somewhere.. anywhere?  A pause is the next most important step toward replanting the roots and all too often this pause gets put on hold like a call coming into a busy doctors office.. “please hold, you are caller 127, we are taking calls in the order received” then the hideous elevator music (or worse the trying to be hip, alternative music station comes on with the latest grind and grunge).   A PAUSE of this nature.. one that is questioning the very core of who you are is not to be put off.  I swiftly move this one up to the primo attention spot and let the others reorganize themselves. 

The pause creates space to breathe and the spaciousness softens my mind that has severely constricted around all the analysis and cloak of control it is clinging to.  The pause defies the frenetic active flow around me and freeze-frames the chaos that swirls between the dangling roots and the soil beneath. The pause allows the truth of bodily feelings, sensations to arise and guide me back to nourishment.  I notice that my body never lies--  my gut, muscles, skin and breath all tell me exactly how well I am assimilating the life I am co-creating.  And, it is the place that can bring me back to the ground-- the earthy existence of real life.  And, reveals how to best express and celebrate my truth in this material form.  With the breath and meditative movement like yoga or dance I begin to feel the natural magnetic pull toward the earth, like gravity’s invisible yet steadfast draw into the earths core that pause pulls me back toward my center.  My thirsty roots plunge back into the earth and feel gratefully to be back home.  A deepening breath and sigh of relief signals a softening of my skin draping it like silk over my body while my organs settle and nestle back into the inner caves of my relaxed chest and pelvis.  From this centered place I re-connect with my truth.. I sense if it is still true for me.  My body reflects the answer through its steady, calm, deepening breath and the joy that begins to bubble up from the ever-present geyser inside.  And, all this can happen in a matter of seconds when I am in a place of knowing myself.  Seeing the places I get hung-up, hung-out and rung-out to dry I honor the old wounds of my life. I  also laugh at them more these days... a great side effect of allowing my flag to fly free catch the wind and occasionally get batted in storms over  years. 

My resolution of resolutions is to take the time to see, to feel and to inquire about my deepest truth.  It is the truth that sends me on an inner quest to know myself. A truth that guides me upward toward the light and reveals the essence of who I am.  And, that is a gloriously deep resolution worth making.

By, Sienna Smith

Full Spectrum Beauty ~

Last day of the yoga therapy immersion with John.. more tears and more laughter.  The ends of the spectrum became more full and the container more expansive with every passing day.  People speaking of terrible accidents and illnesses while also sharing incredible moments of joy, humor and heart.  Simultaneously laughing, crying and smiling all at once.  Now, that is a robust life lived to the fullest expression! That is life with all the colors of the rainbow and that rainbow is arched across the whole damn sky where the shiny, golden sun beams pierce through the puffy white cotton ball clouds. What made the rainbow?  Thunder, lightning and the soaking wet rain in the sky. All aspects create the fullness.  That is the most profound gift that life has given to me... the ability to see and feel the edges of life more fully.. the immense pain and suffering and the most profound beauty and joy.  

This became clear years ago-- I was grieving from the loss of my marriage and was crying on and off for weeks but then one day, mid-sob, I sucked in an enormous amount of air into my lungs and burst out laughing.  It was the strangest thing, my mind said-- wait!  I am sad, I am really supposed to suffer here, life is horrible.  Then I felt the edges of my mouth turn up and I began to smile.  My next thought was-- is it possible for me to feel both immensely sad and joyful at the exact same moment?  Must be because it was happening.  Then a surge of energy came through me and I felt completely free.  It was like the cage door flew open, I jumped out and spread my wings on the invisible air and took flight. It blew my mind because everything I knew about suffering and joy changed in one gasp for air. The grieving was necessary, it tore down the walls that blocked my view and the joy inside of me had never left.  

Life is magical, it has given me exactly what I need to free myself from my limited view and to see the full spectrum of who I am.  I wish for myself, my loved ones and all beings everywhere that we continue to be reminded-- as many times as it takes-- that we are spirit in material form.  We are an embodiment of the highest.  Namaste, Sienna

Love heals

John and the fire goddess Pele are cooking the whole kula today like a well done tapas pie! Tears, perspiration and shiny smiling faces were everywhere. What a tremendous honor to hear the personal stories of the local people that came through the ‘Friend-ly’ clinic today and to witness their healing. Earlier he worked with a man that snapped his achilles tendon five months ago and had it sewn back together. He has not been able to walk comfortably since. After 5 minutes with John he started to jump up and down on his foot and then took off jogging around the room, hands in the air and cheering. Later today he worked on a 71 year old woman who had a long list of symptoms that stemmed from a 30 year old trauma to the head. After 20 minutes she felt more alive and full of hope than ever. Ok, how much did John pay these people? I would be asking the same question too if I haven’t seen John do this many times this year and even experienced it myself. John says, expect a miracle.. apparently he is not kidding.

On one level it is simple, people need a compassionate, healing touch from someone who sees and affirms their true nature as one of pure light. Never underestimate the power of this above all technical therapeutic knowledge. This kind of potent energetic healing can free up years of suffering and you don’t need a medical degree to do it~ truly anyone who can see the truth with unwavering eyes can be a healer.

Another level of healing happens through steady effort. John says it comes down to this; “how badly do you want to be Free?” You have GOT to want it bad! You have GOT to be so sick of being stiff, immobile, depressed or in suffering of any kind that you will do anything to be free. This work of re-aligning the body requires effort but through effort heal can happen.

To find freedom from stiffness or injury first open to something bigger than ourselves- whatever you call it- spirit, God or higher Self. Then I teach students how to properly engage the muscles by hugging them evenly to the bone (what a beautiful practice to hug yourself from inside). This takes specific, skillful action done with steady attention and it works. We open through stability and it creates a sense of safety in the nervous system that the body can then release in to. Since bringing these teachings into my class I have received more emails than ever about how peoples bodies and lives have opened up. I am jazzed for them. I am also grateful that the teachings are coming through to help in some way. To the highest.

Namaste~ Sienna