Embracing Change

Another glorious Saturday morning workshop surrounded by heavenly beings at Flow. 

What a gift it is to fall deeper and deeper into trust and watch the magic that takes place. 

Our theme this time was Embracing Change. 

My recipe for coping with change blends well with my overall Flow recipe for blissful living: 

1. Remain flexible - Move – flexible body, flexible mind, flexible emotions. A supple spine lies at the heart of youthfulness. Let’s avoid the brittleness that often accompanies old age. Young people are changing so rapidly that they have to see change as a great adventure, resistance is futile!

2. Face your fears - Make/Create - the creative act is what it’s all about, the answer to WHY we live, but to be creative requires great courage and facing our fears, our shadow, every step of the way.

3. Focus on what you can control - Meditate – mindfulness … just watch the breath, every moment, no matter what’s happening in that moment. Watch how the breath is in a constant state of flux.

You can think of these as the holy trinity for stress busting and conquering ill health, be that emotional/physical/spiritual, though imbalance in one sphere usually leads to dis-ease in another.

Meditate:

Pranayama: Full yogic breath – hand on heart “this is where I live.”

My heart is my home meditation.

“The Past has no power over the present moment”

~Eckhart Tolle

 “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” ~Buddha

Have you felt small, limited, bound by circumstances lately?

Are you feeling trapped or stuck?

Just rest.

You are the ocean.

All actions & thoughts are just waves moving on the face of the ocean.

Rest in the expansion.

“Stop trying to heal yourself, fix yourself, even awaken yourself. Let go of letting go. Stop trying to fast-forward the movie of your life, chasing futures that never seem to arrive. Instead, bow deeply to yourself as you actually are. Your pain, your sorrow, your doubts, your deepest longings, your fearful thoughts, are not mistakes, and they aren’t asking to be healed. They are asking to be held. Here, now, lightly, in the loving arms of present awareness…” ~ Jeff Foster

Move:

Tap & hum, find your edges, loosen up your stuff

Shaking (aboriginal trance music)

Long swings

Gentle yoga:

Vajrasana/the thunderbolt, majari-asana/cat-cow, thread the needle, warrior pose, tree pose, swaying palm tree, Rocking n Rolling, sleeping abdominal (gentle twist), bridge, butterfly, naukasana (the boat)

Make: 

“We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening. To use our own voice. To see our own light.” ~ Hildegard of Bingen

Collage – Fears

Reflect in free write using “I am…”

Circle words & create a haiku 5,7,5 syllables

Rituals:

Rituals require reverence & community buy-in. They help contain our fears and anxieties.

In our culture at this time the emphasis is on Science and for emotional health, it’s still strongly weighted in the talking cure. There is great power in speaking your truth and being witnessed.

“Happy is the moment

when we sit together with two forms,

two faces, yet one soul,

You and I”

~ Rumi

Deep Listening in pairs - be the silent witness, don’t respond, just listen with a heart wide open.

Relaxation & Visualization: 

 

The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

 and I wake in the night at the least sound

 in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

 I go and lie down where the wood drake

 rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

 I come into the peace of wild things

 who do not tax their lives with forethought

 of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

 And I feel above me the day-blind stars

 waiting with their light. For a time

 I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Progressive relaxation & follow sounds

Inspired by the Hero’s Journey from Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth

Visualise:

Continue to breathe while you darken the visual space of your imagination. Shut your internal eyes and imagine that all around you is nothing but darkness. Everything around you is black. Nothing can be seen.

Now, using only your imagination, open your eyes and notice that you are looking at the ground at your feet. Notice if you are barefoot or wearing shoes. What shoes are you wearing? Notice their color and material.

And now take note of the ground beneath you. What is its material and texture? Is it paved? Is it even or uneven? Made of dirt, sand, cement, wood, tile, concrete? Now take a few steps and notice how it feels against the soles of your shoes. What sound does it make?

Keeping your eyes to the ground and without looking up, start to take in your surroundings. Let your environment begin to paint itself for you, brush stroke by brush stroke with all your senses alive.

What do you hear? Is it voices? If so, who? Is it birds, traffic, machinery, the wind? What do you smell in this place? What does the air feel like? Is it hot or cold? Dry or moist? Static or moving? Can you tell yet where you are?

Now, slowly raise your head and look from side to side. What do you see? Where are you? Take in as many details of your environment as you can. The objects around you, big and small. The people, animals or creatures. Look up to the sky or ceiling and notice its colour and shape. How does being here make you feel? Relaxed, restless, happy, sad? Let yourself be in that emotion for a few moments and accept it just for what it is. No judging it, trying to change it or force it. Just allow yourself to be in this space.

Move your focus to what is directly in front of you. What do you see? Continue to allow your environment to paint itself. Is there a clearly marked road or path, or must you make your own? Is the path straight or does it wind around a curve up ahead? Is it at an incline, decline or neither? Are their obstacles in front of you that you must move around, or is your path clear?

Begin to walk with a steady, normal gate. Just walk and continue to take in what surrounds you. Continue to notice what it feels like to be here.

Now we will begin to return to this world. So when you are ready, stop walking.

Call off the search.

Be here, in this moment.

You ARE home.

Relax.

Sit around the hearth that is your own warm heart. 

Flow classes 

Mondays & Fridays 8:30-10am 

Tuesdays 6-7:30pm 

Monthly Saturdays  

R100/R50