Viewing entries tagged
creativity

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Svadhishthana Chakra: Feel creative with second chakra

Sacral Chakra, do I feel creative now? Or is there something that you know is trapped inside me? Am I living the life you meant me to live?

This pose, Eka Pada Sirsasana, is on the theme of softness, grace and melting into your true self. Often times I can see how my efforts create tension that hold me back (in yoga poses but also in life). Since I've been doing this pose every day for a long time, and it's possible because of open hips, It made sense to dedicate it to the 2nd chakra.

You are my sexuality, creativity, intuition and self-worth. I feel you as my inner cravings transform to thriving energy. I want you to understand something. It isn’t me, it’s you. I need you. I need to keep you close. ‪#‎chakrahealing‬ ‪#‎emotions‬ ‪#‎svadhishthanachakra‬

(excerpt from "You Transfix Me: You Are My Chakras"  Part 2 in series of 7)

Namaste.

~ Robin Ellen Lucas, MA

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Pursing a graduate degree: my process

 a celebration, an offeringMy Master of Arts degree?

The hardest question to answer about my Master’s Degree is, “So, what are you going to do with your degree?” It's as if I’m a nomad until I can answer this with precision. However, I have been utilizing my degree all along—for the past seven years as a part-time student—one semester and one class at a time. When I began in August 2008 I was already teaching yoga and I already owned my own business as a writer and digital marketer.

What turned into seven years of one class per semester in East-West Psychology turned into the best type of graduate experience I could have ever imagined. It was, in some ways, like self-led psychotherapy as I put my entire life into each one class, especially the final papers. Each semester I evaluated where I was at in life and it was always changing. I evolved at my own pace and could not imagine seven years ago being where I am now.

What I intend to do with my degree and with my professional life is to enhance it with the knowledge, credentials and confidence I've gained, which will bridge into my writing and yoga teaching. I'll go beyond private yoga lessons and posting my written version of passions on the internet as I've become accustomed.

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You transfix me: You are my chakras

 

you are balanced. i live with you.

You are a work of art. It’s not easy but you do it. You live true to who you are and know it. When you are open, chakras, in my yoga practice, I don’t question it. 

dear chakras, you help me walk with strength, enchanted. i’m open to each of you as you arrive, speak and feel. i know who you are…

 

-->> chakra article moved to here.

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As if hidden, you are this

 

(image: owningpink.com)

I am hidden. Are you? As if to be hidden behind words that speak illusively, at all times, bouncing off buildings and walls. I shoot an arrow and it comes back to me. Some day.

are you just words?

Who are you anyway? Are you the words or are they merely what comes out when trying to speak? There is no time to leave important words unsaid. I speak of eloquence.

Inspirational times with comic undertones spark a tune in another. Sometimes. But, truly, it’s all for you. You who deserve to be timeless and unforgotten. You are where my eyes open to receive what I’m waking up to now. I am here now because you were there and smiled and felt.

i will walk with you

Create. Create all you can be. Be creative. Be daring. Be you.

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What happens after yoga class: Where do the toxins and emotions go?

 

capture who you are

After yoga?

What do you do after yoga class? You went, you opened, twisted, sweat and stretched it all out. You unleashed emotions and thoughts, and sealed it all in with intention in the end (savasana).

Do you then just go on with your day?

Yoga—if done mindfully—can create euphoria and bring you to your happiest self. It can also bring you to the opposite as it acts as a sort of catalyst to making you face your darkness, as all that you hold inside your tightest body parts rises to the surface and begs for your attention.

Yoga opens you

This happens without notice with yoga poses that open the hips and shoulders, abdominal twists and mainly yoga breathing (i.e., ujjayi pranayama). With yoga, you are not only wringing out toxins, but also releasing emotions and setting energy free...

Be with what you find

Whether magical or disturbing, you can capture the essense of all that comes up in your yoga class by working with it. You can write it down (to share or not),

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Are you more right-brained or left-brained while you practice yoga?

Right-brain? Left-brain?

Do you associate more with the right side of your brain while you practice yoga or the left side of your brain?

The two hemispheres of the brain have fascinating connections (Photo credits: Simeon Schatz)

Creative vs. logical

The right-brain/left-brain theory grew out of the work of Roger W. Sperry in the late 1960s, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1981. The cerebral cortex controls rational functions and is made up of two halves, connected by masses of nerve fibers which pass messages between each other. These halves, or hemispheres, are commonly referred to as right-brain and left-brain.

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Perception of time

Being on time?

Is a true spiritual practice about respecting time—living by it and being on time for it? Or does the mere concept of time mess with creative flow in life?  

Being late for everything in life

...is most likely to live in a timeless place in your mind. To come down from that—to live with a real clock—is a downer. In this way, the clock can be a method of control, and becomes one to fight against in order to be free...

image by simeon schatz

Let's look at two different spiritual ideas to compare: mindfulness from Buddhism and illuminated thoughts from Tantric tradition. 

Mindfulness seeks to empty the mind of thoughts, letting the thoughts go so that you are left with peace. 

Tantra invites the thoughts to become illuminated, positive or negative, so that you have a beacon in which to focus for your true path.

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Find the right work-life balance: The key to happiness, health, well-being

 

Do you balance your life?

Are you a workaholic? Do you work extra hours because you really need the money, or do you believe your job really needs you, and that it's ok to take care of your job more than yourself? Or do you, for one reason or another, find yourself addicted to your computer whether it's work or personal?

Staying busy all the time does not help you

You do know that if you are working too much, you are acting like you are not very important.

Maybe, without knowing it, you are covering up something basic in your existence and doing it through your work. Staying busy all the time with a task that does not cultivate your soul can be like a drug that you continually allow to drive you. But you can beat it if you recognize who you truly are.

Nurture yourself

If you need rationale outside of yourself in order to ease up on workaholism, remember that no one really gets the best of you if you don't nurture yourself first.

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Discipline: A spiritual practice

disciplined mind

I just returned from a Bikram yoga class. What sticks with me is not the power of enduring the heat, but the power of discipline to control the mind.

Bikram yoga, unlike the Vinyasa Flow yoga which I have 13 more years of experience with, has many rules that are not necessarily inherent in many people. In my life and in my yoga practice I am used to living organically, letting my life take me in a flow. When I am practicing yoga alone, I have no plans in advance for my practice. I let my yoga practice take me.

Sure, there is discipline required with many styles of yoga, such as Ashtanga. But the movement inherent in this active style, where you generate your own heat, and move your own prana makes for a more organic practice inately.

Back to Bikram. What I feel in these classes is the necessity for discipline, as I'm led along a distinct path and how the discipline itself becomes the spiritual practice.

 

stay present

It is important to notice where the mind goes in any yoga practice, but in Bikram it is more about needing to stay with the group, listen to the teacher on cue, not close your eyes, drink water only when told, rest in savasana over and over, to name a few

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An inquiry into my true nature: Self exploration

life force fuels

On my jaunt through life I have contemplated the truth of my nature. I have always felt most comfortable knowing that there is an ultimate source permeating us all, and at times I have felt a unity with this source. At other times I have felt completely alone. It was my yoga—vinyasa flow, ashtanga & meditation, in particular—that saved me from this quandary and answered many questions for me.

My search, through poetic expression, led me to this present moment as I move into my desires to use their creativity and life force to fuel me.

Taken as an excerpt from my poem yoga, what you do for me, I speak to you, yoga, inside me as you are me: You help me find my pure state of mind, you help me change energy into fuel, you help me find the deepest parts of myself without fear, you help me believe in magic and you taught me how I can do whatever I put my mind to.

In studying the histories of Sankhya-Yoga, Advaita Vedanta and Participatory Spirituality I have found inspirations from each to aid me on my path.

sankhya-yoga

Although Sankhya and Yoga are different systems, they work together and support each other so have been combined together as one unique system called Sankhya-Yoga.

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How to find your true power through injury

Without yoga ability, I learned

It is through an injury which brought me over my physical edge and left me unable to do my yoga practice and function in my life, that I was able to see my true power and find my true courage!

It was as if I quickly was shown what life would be like without the blessings I currently take for granted: my capable and amazing body. Through a significant injury I questioned, in a desperate way (as if the injury could be permanent), how can it be possible for me to maintain even a basic means of living? I learned how.

Our path teaches us lessons

I knew it was my path. Our path always teaches us lessons. So I tried to see this injury was a gift and I surrendered to it...

With my neck and twist intensive yoga practice I've come to rely on periodical chiropractic neck adjustments from an amazing man—a yogi, in fact—so that I could continue to do the yoga poses which brought me to the most spiritual places that were unheard of before I learned how. They truly are the key to me.

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Making the perfect yoga music playlist for a dynamic yoga practice

Music and yoga paired

For making the best yoga playlist, from my experience it's all about the chakras—the energy centers located along the spine and in the head connected by channels which funnel energy throughout the body...

During a phenomenal yoga practice your mind, body, heart and soul move through the whole chakra spectrum, ideally starting at chakra 1 and progressing upward to chakra 7. Therefore, it creates a moving and dynamic yoga practice to have the music emulate this journey.

For a 90 minute practice, or I prefer a 108 minute practice...

Chakra 1) is about being grounded and survival mode. It's at the base of your spine. It's all about plugging your feet in the earth and allowing the grounding force to connect us to the energies that empower our being. Chose one song that is tribal in nature like drums or Tibetan.

Chakra 2) is about sexuality and creativity. Its focus is in the lower abdomen. It's about feeling that inner craving and sexuality within yourself and transforming it to inner fuel. Chose a couple songs that stir this part of your nature.

Chakra 3) is about momentum, getting moving, making things happen, and feeding our self-esteem. Its focus is in the solar plexus—below the ribcage. Chose fast songs that make you really want to move. You will remain in this chakra for longer than the prior two so, chose 3-4 songs.

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