27
Mar, 2023

We run to far away temples and walk up mountains to search for what we have lost inside ourselves

Going to places for the sake of it will not help you find ‘yourself’.

Travel, even a yoga retreat, will not necessarily help you find yourself. Yes you will experience new places, different cultures and maybe get new perspectives. It can be eye-opening and perhaps make you further appreciate the life you have.

But it seems that we have lost something.

What you have lost just might be found when you give yourself an opportunity to be still and quiet. It can be found when you give yourself the opportunity to meditate and contemplate the sense of who you are and how your mind creates a sense of ‘me’ and ‘other’.

Maybe you do have to get away for that.

It is not the getting away that is important, it is the opportunity to be quiet.

Maybe you will find yourself sitting in a temple. For example the Nityananda temple in Ganeshpuri is a place of chanting and devotion, and being away from your usual routines might allow you to be open enough to experience the Shakti, the spiritual energy, that is available to us all. Maybe you get a glimpse of perspective of the familiar old mind habits.

Sitting in a cave in a mountain might also allow you to be still and quiet and open to the energy of transformation, the energy that becomes apparent when we become really still and drop back from the busy mind.

Tenzin Palmo sat in a tiny cave on a mountain for many years. In the end one of her statements was …

‘The idea that there’s somewhere we have got to get to, and something we have to attain, is our basic delusion.’

Maybe taking yourself away from your usual routines and responsibilities really does help.

But it is not the travel and it is not necessarily the place that will help you find what you have lost.

What many of us have lost is the sense of inner connection.

The sense that we are really not separate, that we really are all manifestations of one big consciousness and are in this together.

There is no ‘me’ and ‘other’. That is the mind’s creation. (I know, that’s a bit of a mind bender!)

Yes there is a separate body, with a mind, that manifests for a brief period and then fades away again. Maybe as individuals we make a small difference in the world doing work we are called to do, serving in the way that feels authentic. Sitting in stillness helps us to see what that work might be, and helps us to see how we skew our view of reality by believing the mind. We believe the mind that creates ‘me’ and ‘other’, rather than accepting that it is a sort of virtual reality on our mental screen.

Being still will give you perspective on Self and reality.

It will help you see that it is not ‘me’ that has to experience the world, judge the world, manipulate the world to suit the individual. It will help you to feel the sense of one-ness and connection. That is the work of Yoga.

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo also said:

‘When we are angry, when we are excited, when we are depressed, when we are elated, we are completely submerged in and identified with those thoughts and feelings. This is why we suffer. We suffer because we are completely identified with our thoughts and feelings and we think this is me. This is who I am.

Being still will give you perspective on Self and reality. It will help you see that it is not ‘me’ that has to experience the world, judge the world, manipulate the world to suit the individual. It will help you to feel the sense of one-ness and connection.

That is the work of Yoga.

Then… with a feeling of inner freedom, life might unfold in a way that feels easy and purposeful.

You can’t run away from yourself.

Maybe you can find that inner freedom within right now, or maybe it is time to explore within. If so, I’d love to help.

Fluff free freedom is an online course that helps you to find the state of inner freedom that comes from truly recognizing your mind for what it can and can’t do.  It takes you from stressed to calm, from uncertainty to clarity, to being present and mindful and to really getting clear on living your best life. Check it out here.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

25
Oct, 2022
A Yoga off the mat contemplation

How would it feel if you loosened the reins of control?

Having a human mind means having a desire to know and control, it comes with the territory, it is part of the nature of the human mind. We like that feeling that things are ‘under control’.

This might be to a greater or lesser degree, depending on our life situation and personality. We have a tendency to live a fantasy life in our heads, rather than our actual life.

The problem with control is that we don’t really have it.

Yes, really.

Of course we do have some degree of agency or free will in the choices we make.

> Do I get up or hit the snooze button?

>Do I go to yoga class or sit on the couch?

>Do I discipline my child or let it go?

>Do I keep a tidy and uncluttered house so as to feel more free to live my life and not be pulled down by unnecessary busyness, or is that all too hard and not a priority?

So yes, we make those sorts of choices, and maybe even some big picture choices about what country we live in (although to be fair we do not always have a huge choice) or what sort of job we want (which also becomes limited according to our education and experience).

It seems to me that we somehow co-create life. We play our little part, but there is a bigger picture, a bigger force working as well.

Perhaps we are a somewhat avoidant in being real with life. We play the safe game. The familiar.

So it is perhaps shocking to realise that the idea that somehow we ‘control’ life itself really is illusory.

(Sometimes it takes a big life event for us to see this, or maybe we tip-toe toward this recognition.)

However it is for you, if you invite a sense of ‘allowing’ rather than ‘controlling’, what then?

Maybe a sense of the scary unknown, the mystery?

Maybe that is somehow more ‘real’ than the ‘control’ that limits us and boxes us in?

Oh I know we are always trying to juggle and manage and control things, but don’t forget to leave some room for what the Universe wants too.

How would it feel if you loosened the reins of control a little? How would it feel to be a bit more open to the mystery and realness of life?

Consider this your invitation to let life find you!

PS: We don’t usually look at our minds in this way do we? We know we have one, but we don’t realise the full extent of how we can use it as a tool rather than being ruled by it. We rarely recognise that our sense of self, or ‘me’ is a mind-generated collection of ideas that has no actual reality. What fun it is to explore these things and to recognise that we can use the mind as a wonderful tool and not be ruled or limited by it!

Fluff free freedom is an online course that helps you to find the state of inner freedom that comes from truly recognizing your mind for what it can and can’t do.  It takes you from stressed to calm, from uncertainty to clarity, to being present and mindful and to really getting clear on living your best life. Check it out here.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

7
Mar, 2022
Street library

An unexpected benefit from decluttering

A few years ago if someone had said this to me I would have been shocked … but thanks to my decluttering and simplicity journey, I am delighted to hear it:

‘I picked up your book Yoga off the mat’ at a street library during a COVID lockdown. I have read it slowly. I have had yoga in my life for many years and find the journey so exciting, including finding your book. Sending you lots of love and appreciation.’

It makes me smile.

Someone thought to pass on my words because they had served their purpose for them, and now someone else has benefitted.

Not only that. Another week or so later, I got this message:

‘Hi, I got your CD Shavasana at a garage sale. It’s so great, I use it 3 x a day for burn out recovery. I want to buy some for family and friends, where can I get it?‘

It really does make me happy.

To have my book in a street library and a CD in a garage sale of course confirms that I have been around for a while, (the book is over 4 years old now and the CD over 14!) but I suspect that not too many years ago I would have felt a twinge of hurt, ‘who threw away my book / CD?’

What I am finding by getting rid of anything I no longer need, is that my surroundings feel clearer and cleaner, and somehow I am freer to go in whatever direction feels right, without feeling too weighed down.

It is great to know that all the trips to the op shops in Mordialloc and Parkdale and the Already Read shop in Euroa are helping others too, perhaps in quite unexpected ways.

Decluttering to me is a form of ‘sauca’, a term from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras meaning something like ‘purity and cleanliness’ and of ‘aparigraha’, meaning ‘non- grasping’. These are both behaviours that the Patanjali suggest we cultivate and I could go on about each one at length (but won’t).

Putting it simply, if our space feels cluttered we feel that as a burden, whereas having clear space around us feels lighter and freer. We really don’t need or use or even enjoy many of our possessions. For example, when looking at my wardrobe, it helps me if I remember that I can only wear one outfit at a time.

And we all know that we are constantly bombarded with ads and images suggesting that our life would be better if only we had this outfit or that furniture, this product that is going to make our complexion look dewy or that device for keeping in touch or for cooking something amazing in record time.

The truth is, we need a lot less than we think, and that does not for one minute mean we can’t have nice things, just a reminder that we don’t have to grasp at all the things that other people want us to think we need.

This is all part of a yoga journey, who would have thought?

So, over to you now, what have you learnt from your yoga journey or from decluttering. I’d LOVE to know!

Want to know more about yoga off the mat? Check out my online course Fluff-free freedom or sign up for my newsletter to keep up with the latest.

16
Feb, 2022
finding freedom in everyday life

YOU are the only one who can free yourself

Yes a teacher might point you in the right direction.

But unless you do the work yourself, you probably wont get to experience the wonderful state of freedom that is available for you.

The wonderful state of bliss and connection that comes from dropping back from the busy mind.

The state of yoga that is your birthright.

This is something that takes work to realise, it certainly isn’t immediately obvious, is it?

To see the mind for what it can do and what it can’t do.

To practice being still and dropping away from the mental drama so as to experience the bliss and Shakti of being.

It is wonderful to have a mind and we use the mind in so many ways to make our way in life.

We get so familiar with it that we mistakenly think that we are the mind and that the mind is somehow what defines us.

Our work is to free ourselves from the trap of the mind.

The trap of the ego.

The trap of the mind-developed sense of self.

As this card suggests that you contemplate, you are the only one that can do that for yourself.

When you do, what is left is experience of inner freedom and bliss. Of perspective. We realise the Self as one big connected being.

We are the droplet in the ocean, so we are the ocean itself.

Freeing yourself is the work of yoga.

Oh, and when you truly get that, guess what? Then there is more work!

Feeling free within in a big step.

And then life goes on and continues to require actions, responses, interactions and so on. If you take the time and effort to keep noticing (and not just float around in your newfound bliss bubble) you will observe that life still has its ups and downs. You can observe yourself interacting. You see the effect of your interactions.  You can observe your mind chatting.

Perhaps you have a new compassion for yourself and for others.

***

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a starting point.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

*If you are interested in experiencing more inner freedom in your life, then my online course Fluff-free freedom might be just perfect for you. Find out more HERE

5
Nov, 2021
Surrender to what is, be OK with what is

Surrender to what is

Can you be okay with how things are?

They don’t have to stay as they are, in fact there is nothing more certain than change anyway, but for this moment now can you simply surrender?

Or do you feel the need for control?

Having a human mind means having a want to control, a desire to know and be certain about things. And yet control really is an illusion.  Yes we have a degree of personal agency, but the bigger picture is always just what it is, regardless of how we would like to control and manage it.

Surrender happens when you no longer question ‘why me?’

We could well ask instead, ‘why not me?’.

We can be annoyed when things don’t go the way we think they should, can’t we? Have you seen that in yourself? Sometimes it is easier to see in other people’s situations.

An alternative response is to surrender to the reality of the moment.

When we surrender to ‘what is’ we no longer ‘argue with reality’ and can find a place of acceptance, and then funnily enough we have better capacity to deal with whatever it is we have to deal with. We find a way to be OK.

‘Surrender’ is a wonderful mantra for meditation, and for life! One of the tracks on my Shavasana CD and digital recording is a Surrender meditation – you can get it right now here.

Have you practiced surrendering?  What have you found?

While considering the idea of surrender, you might also be interested to read ‘The Surrender Experiment’ by Michael Singer. A book and author I have only come across in the last couple of years: https://untetheredsoul.com/

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a starting point.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

*If you are interested in the possibility of surrender and experiencing more inner freedom in your life, then my online course Fluff-free freedom might be just perfect for you. Find out more HERE

1
Jul, 2021
Sarasvati contemplation cards

You already have everything you need within

You don’t have to search anywhere else.

The freedom you seek is within. The happiness you seek is right there too.

The truth about your being and reality, which maybe you did or maybe you didn’t know was part of the puzzle, is right there as well. The truth of your path, your dharma, is within you.

How do you find out what there is to know if it is within?

You have to be quiet.

You have to quieten the busy mind and drop back from it.

Ironically, if you really want to know your path, if you really want to experience freedom within, you have to be willing to surrender the need to control and know.

When you give up all the mental habits and desires you may well find a sort of profound joy and okay-ness.

And then perhaps a glimmer of insight as to your path will bubble up and become apparent. Where you are right now is perfect for now. Sometimes it is perfect for later on too, but we all know that change is inevitable. Maybe in stillness we get a little nudge about moving in a certain direction. And if you listen quietly maybe the message gets clearer or maybe it fades away.

I have always found that projects and ideas have presented themselves, and rightly or wrongly I have tended to follow the little nudges. Some have been more outwardly ‘successful’ than others but I always grow and learn from them.

The nudges I have followed are many, here are a few:

*Do yoga teacher training (way, way back in 2001!)

*Teach meditation as well as yoga

*Teach mother and baby yoga

*Teach yoga for breast cancer 

*Write a book

*Buy our house in Mordialloc (moving to the beach from the eastern suburbs where we had spent most of our married life)

*Create yoga off the mat contemplation cards

*Blog and chat about the contemplation cards

*Create an online course that takes people to a state of inner freedom

Some of these projects had a natural duration and others continue. The thing I have found is to stay open and to stay tuned in to the inner voice, so to speak.

Life presents us with opportunities as well as what might be seen as challenges. These are the ups and downs of any life. How we accept and ride those waves is up to us. Spend some time tuning into your inner wisdom and you might find that everything really is okay. You really can feel a sense of inner joy and okay-ness. Maybe even great bliss and love. That is always my wish for you.

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a starting point.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE and postage is free in Australia. They make a perfect gift too.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

*If you are interested in the possibility of experiencing more inner freedom in your life, then my online course Fluff-free freedom might be just perfect for you. Find out more HERE

26
Feb, 2021
Sarasvati with yoga off the mat contemplation cards

Don’t look outside yourself for happiness

Can you find happiness within rather than being reliant on anything external?

Do you say things like, ‘I’ll be happy WHEN …

and then there is a great list of possibilities …

*When I lose 10 pounds (or kilos)

*When I have the perfect relationship

*When i have the perfect house

*When I have the perfect children

*When I have the perfect job

*When I can travel overseas again

*When I have a more up-to-date wardrobe

It is so easy to think that it is external things that give us happiness – the cake, the chocolate (oh yes, the chocolate!!), the perfect relationship, the right income, being the right weight, wearing the right clothes, children behaving, things going to your ‘plan’.

But … really … how can something external have such an effect on our state?

Surely we know that is not a long-lasting or reliable situation?

Being happy is much more an attitude and an inner state. This is the living practice of yoga off the mat, isn’t it?

And it is something we all have access to if we drop the mental chatter for a bit and feel within. Can you do that? Can you close your eyes and feel a sense of quiet, a sense of watching and perhaps even a warm glow inside? Can you sit with that feeling? Can you even allow it to expand?

We really do have to find our own happiness. Our own inner joy that is remarkably reliable, even if things are not going the way we want them to. Perhaps you first taste this feeling on the yoga mat? Or out in nature? Then it is a matter of remembering it, of keeping the feeling, of practicing yoga off the mat as well.

As the saying goes ‘happiness is an inside job’.

It really is. Have you found that? Please share your experience!

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a start.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE and postage is free in Australia. They make a perfect gift too.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

6
Apr, 2020

Make time to be still

Yes there is a lot going on right now.

Maybe when we are still, we can make more sense of things.

We get perspective.

We eventually notice that there is watching happening, there is awareness. Awareness that can observe the mind.

Awareness that can observe the reactions and judgements.

Awareness of our thought patterns. Oh so many thought patterns!

Awareness that eventually might see the old habit of how we invent ‘me’.

We invent ‘me’ according to how we see ourselves, not how others see us. A perfectly natural mind invention. Perhaps we eventually see that mind invention as a fiction, even if we still use it.

Being still also allows us to be aware of subtle body sensations than can tell us so much.

  • Perhaps that feeling in the gut of being nervous about the next step.
  • Or that feeling in the heart-space of being unloved or not good enough.
  • Or that feeling in the throat of wanting to say something and perhaps feeling blocked somehow.

When we notice feelings, they may not all be blissful, but we notice them.

We notice what is real right now and perhaps recognise that that is more real than not noticing.

In stillness we can understand ourselves better.

Maybe that helps us to understand what we perceive as ‘other’ as well. Maybe there is less other, and more ‘one-ness’. Maybe there is more empathy and compassion.

We may not get all the answers, but perhaps we get enough to be okay right here and now on our path.

Maybe we get insight or inspiration.

Maybe we create space for a solution to a problem to bubble up.

Why not make time to be still and see what there is for you to notice today? I’d love to know how you go.

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a start. I’d love your feedback and look out for my blog about the next card soon.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE and postage is free in Australia. They make a perfect gift too.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

12
Mar, 2020
Yoga off the mat contemplation cards to inspire your practice

Can you live the mystery rather than trying to manage life?

Do you usually live a very predictable life? Do you try and control as many aspects of it as you can? Dotting all those ‘I’s and crossing all those ‘T’s so to speak?

Rather than attempting to control every aspect of life, what would it feel like to be open to the idea that everything can’t be controlled, and that we really don’t know what is around the corner?

Can you be open to the mystery, the unknown?

Meditation can be a great help.

There is a difference between going into panic mode about catching the Novel Corona virus COVID-19 and taking sensible precautions.

We do what we can, and for me, as well as hygiene measures, it also includes taking the time to practice yoga and meditation at home in Mordialloc and eating well so as to stay as well as I can.

When we let go into meditation, we are dropping all that control and surrendering to the unknown.

It is unknown because we are dropping back from the mind that knows.

Aaaah, bliss, the mystery, the great abyss of peace. Life’s inner mystery might be more real than any idea in your head!

It is true that right now we are in uncertain times. As well as the opportunity that meditation offers us to drop into a blissful state, I think that knowing how to reduce stress with yoga and meditation and regulate your own nervous system is so helpful.

We have a great opportunity to slow down our own nervous systems and help to reduce the state of heightened anxiety and nervousness that surrounds us.

This yogic contemplation is about being OK with the twists and turns that life takes. And it is also about not being so attached to outcomes. We can do the work we do and by all means have goals, but perhaps we can still be okay if the path swerves a little or a lot and the work no longer leads to those goals.

Don’t live small and controlled, micromanaging every second. Be open to the mystery!

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a start. I’d love your feedback and look out for my blog about the next card soon.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE and postage is free in Australia. They make a perfect gift too.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

6
Feb, 2020

When we work on ourselves, it ripples out and we heal the world

When you listen to the safety advice on a plane, they always tell you to take care of your own oxygen mask first before helping others. That way you are better placed to serve those you are helping, right?

I think it is the same with the work we do on ourselves.

Have you ever noticed how the energy of some people has a heavy feel and you have to work hard to stay centred and not pulled into their energy? I know I have.

When your energy is light, when you feel truly grounded, centred and inwardly free, then you pull people easily into your orbit, so to speak.

I know it is tempting to try to ‘fix’ other people.

Especially if we finally see something that has been hard to see, when the penny finally drops, when we finally ‘get’ what yogis have been talking about all these years. We want everyone else to see it too.

The method I have chosen is to not try to help unless people want it.

Walk the walk, do my practice.

If someone books into a meditation or yoga class or workshop then of course I will offer things that have helped me. I wrote my book because I wanted to share what I had come to realise. But you can’t force this onto people, it will unfold as it is meant to, and if you are really keen then it will definitely unfold for you.

So work on yourself, that is the work. Let people see the difference it has made for you, that will be enough to draw people in and they can work out what is right for them.

I do wish you profound freedom. It is your birthright. Work on yourself and let it ripple out.

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a start. I’d love your feedback and look out for my blog about the next card soon.

You can purchase your own set of these contemplation cards from the store HERE and also my book Yoga off the mat, freedom in everyday life HERE and postage is free in Australia.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.