Time to share, time to let go

Time to let go

I have been collecting, gathering information for a long time. It's time to let it all go, or to put it in better words, It's time to share the wealth with the world.

I am Reiki Master, 3 time certified Yoga teacher, Ayurvedic practitioner, chef, a mom, very successful 2 times restaurant owner, a wife and most importantly a unique being of my own.  I was gathering information up until now. And now its time to share.....

why the sudden change, you ask? I was doing some core creating conscious healing "stuff", and I realized how much of what other's thought of my writing blocked me from actually writing; blocked me from actually creating what I love to do, which is writing. How many times we get caught up with "what others will think of my piece" that we actually take away our own happiness by not writing or even publishing what and how we feel.  So now I have chosen to step in my creative self, without attachment of the outcome (a.k.a what other's will think). Plus I have so much to share, it's not fair that I keep it all within. 

I feel like this is a good start. More to share with time. Hugs. Have a wonderful Monday everyone

What do you love to create?  Christopher Duncan (Google him) asked me that question when I was learning about Magnetic Mind and Conscious Creating. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. 

He repeated, What do you love to create? Without any expectations. Without any attachments, what would it look like? Images started flowing of me dancing, of me writing again, of me doing yoga again. I had forgotten to create. I had forgotten to create what I love. 

Writing without expectations. I was so focused on what other people would think of my writing that I stopped writing. I write because I love to write and express my feelings. And I am starting to do that again. So, here is to my journey of writing. It does not have to be grandeur, it just has to be me. 

So I now ask you that same question, What do you love to create? Close your eyes and take a deep breathe and see what appears. Once you have that answer, focus on just creating, without any expectations. Do it, because you love it. Create it. Take action. Create what you love, Love what you create.

Threshold

Threshold: Sometimes we look around us and we think we are the only one's that have gone through hell and back. But the more I look at everyone around me, and listen to what their lives have to say, I realize everyone goes through what they need to, in their own way. For ex: You cannot possibly know what I have gone through losing my parents at a young age and then having to move to this country without really having an option or an opinion. And yet to you it may seem like there is no way possible you could handle all those emotions and turmoil in your life, but then if the tables were turned and I were to be given a situation in your life that was a turning point in your life or life changing /difficult, I may have the same to say, "there is no way I would have survived that". So you see, it feels like we are given what we can handle. Our threshold is something like an elastic rubber band. Sometimes we think, there is no way, I can handle another ounce of sorrow in my life and yet if that sorrow does show up we somehow find the strength to carry on through that as well. We all are blessed with the threshold of what we can, and cannot take. I could possibly not compare my hardships with yours because they are personally carved to teach me something I need to learn. I do believe we come on Earth with a mission, and that is of growing and moving forward in life, spiritually. I also believe our parents and family members play a big role in it. They sometimes push our buttons because they too came on earth with a purpose of helping us grow. Its through hardships we learn lessons in our lives that bring change. it does not always have to be that way but it seems to be the way, specially if we are sleep walking and are not fully aware of our behavior and our actions. Now, if we are fully aware of our actions, thoughts and our deeds, this would be a completely different game.

In short, what we are going through in our lives (tough times) and what we have gone through, is here only to make us stronger, humbler and a wiser human being. Everyone's journey is different. So let's embrace ours just the way it is, without judging it, but knowing that it is merely helping us climb that ladder to awareness/ enlightenment, even quicker. Whether we want it or not, we are all on a journey called LIFE. We came from somewhere else and we will return to where we came from but in the mean time, we have to travel through EARTH and while on it, lets have fun even through our difficult times because before we know it, our end is near and we wished we lived a little longer. :)

Namaste

Time's flying

Crap. Its already been almost a whole year since I last wrote. So many changes. It seemed like 2012 was full of transitions and changes. I had 5 goals in mind that I wanted to achieve this year and it seems like I crossed all of them off, one by one. Phew!!! What a relief.

Going back to college has been a great change. It helps me not just expand my vision and see things in a different light but also helps me be more part of this so called "society". I felt like I use to be very one tracked mind, "spiritual", I feel like going back to college, balances that out, quite well. Not planning to do this full time, as I do want to open up my own business some day but its a good practice to start somewhere and to get logistics down.

Last one year has been one big learning year. I feel like my life lessons teach me something new all the time and this time it was about Trust. Learning to trust my own gut instincts. Knowing something, feeling it from within and actually acting on it. I have usually stopped at....."feeling it from within" but sometimes not really acted upon it. I guess everything comes in time, now doesn't it? Acting upon my instincts is the next step.

Along with that lesson, I learned CHANGE comes easy to me and I actually starve and thrive upon change as I have had such a gypsy life for most of my adulthood. But as I have started living with my husband I realized that it might be easy for me to make changes and go through them like nothing, but it may not be the same for others who are being affected with it in my life. With that being said, Change is good, but not all the time. Again, everything in balance, right? :)

Another difficult change I have had to make is step from "becoming" and into "doing". I always believed in things just happening and that's not the way to move forward in life if I want to get somewhere. for ex: If i want to start a business, its not going to "just happen". I will have to take appropriate steps to make it happen. So no more living in my "head space" all the time. Time to step out into the real world and invest into more tangible things.

With that said, it has been an interesting ride my friends. Can you believe 2 more months before this year ends, already? Time is flying

Thanks for reading.

A wish

Going to make this simple :)

Since I was in Ayurveda school, CCA (California College of Ayurveda), I have always wanted to work with my then teacher Debra Riordan (who taught us Ayurveda). There is just something about having guidance in the field that you are not confident in. I am someone who needs close monitoring and somewhat hand holding when it comes to seeing new clients. I tried making a business happen in 2008 by myself, just by seeing clients, but it seemed I lacked confidence. For the longest time I had this expectation of me, that I had to be perfect before I could start a practice of my own. I don't know who put that thought in my head but obviously it has stayed with me for a long time, blocking my journey forward and stopping me from giving back to the society all that I have learned through time. NOT anymore. 

Recently, day before my birthday I received an email from Debra, telling me she had space open in her office for a practitioner to work and collaborate with her, and because of that opportunity, I had popped into her head. Mind you, this is something I have waited for, for years and here my teacher who has been seeing clients for over 11 years reaches out letting me know that she might be interested in having me in her space out in the sunset district. You can only imagine the joy in my heart. I jumped on that opportunity and wrote back immediately expressing my interest in being a part of that journey. 

We met yesterday and it was perfect: seeing her again, the space, the energy, and the opportunity of working under her experience. I always wanted to be her apprentice and learn the ropes and here I was being given the exact opportunity in doing so. Mind you, there were few other experienced therapists waiting for the same position, but lets just say, Universe was kind to me.  As they say, "Timing is everything". This was a wish I have had for a long time. It was perfectly presented to me, after my birthday. :) and of course I said YES

With that said, I will be seeing new clients for Ayurveda, Reiki and Yoga every Monday, so if you know of anyone who is interested in getting their doshas in balance or wants to eat healthy or get healthy; is interested in one on one yoga privates (because going to a class of 20 students might be a bit overwhelming in the beginning), then I am the person to get in touch with. I plan to charge reasonably and am looking forward to giving back to the community what I have learned through years. I hope you will join me in supporting this journey as I move forward with enthusiasm and joy.

Thank You for reading 

With Love

Meeting at the Heart

I had no strength this morning to wake up and make it to my 9:00am class. My inspiration was my roommate whom I had promised I would go with and of course my beloved teacher was leading it. Even though I was exhausted working until 12:00am the night before, I dragged myself out of bed, asking every ounce of me to have strength to make through my 9:00am Laughing Lotus class. I did. And not only did I go through that class, but by the time I was done with that class I was alive, awake and a whole new person with aliveness oozing out of me. I loved it. Its almost like I had a whole new pair of eyes and a whole new body and energy by the time I walked out of that class.

Yoga is transforming; every aspect of it. And it transforms in such a subtle way that you cannot see the obvious but you can feel the obvious. Its like waiting for the minute's hand on the clock to tick and watching it patiently make that move and when it does, you know it happened, cause you not only saw it but felt the subtle movement on that watch. Yoga is that subtle movement, that subtle shift of energy that transformation that happens every day, but for that you have to be patient and you have to show up for yourself :)

I was born and raised in India for half my life, the other half I have been in the U.S. I grew up with Yoga. We did asana's every Wednesday morning as a part of our school program. Yoga was never boring for me. I had a liking towards it since I was a child. My purpose of writing this blog is to share the beauty of life, according to what I see in it and share it with you, hoping you see it too. What does India and the U.S represent to me, according to my practice of Yoga. What do my lower and upper chakras, mean to me in this context.? And how does Indian culture and Spirituality intertwine with each other. and how does the whole concept of "going deeper to rise higher" completes all of us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra

Muladhara, Swadhishthana and Manipura - Lower chakras
Vishuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara- Higher chakras
Anahat (heart): where the meeting happens. I see it as the horizon. meeting of the Earth and the sky. meeting of the lower and the higher. Meeting of the Radha Krishna. Where love pours out of your heart for yourself and others; where the duality unites.

I see us humans as a tree. The deeper we ground ourselves in this physical realm the higher we rise above in the spiritual realm; just like a tree. Practice of Yoga physically grounds you and yet takes you higher at the same time. Our lower three chakras were given to us to keep us grounded and to keep us rooted in this world but the top three chakras were given to us, to rise above. The more we ground ourselves through our own discipline and practice of Yoga (according to me) the higher we rise in our world of spirituality.

For me Indian culture has been that rooting (bottom three chakras); and American culture where I learned about spirituality (top three chakras), has been that reaching higher and rising. I love Indian culture, but according to me, there are few things that need to be changed in our society; our narrow mindedness that does not allow us to move above and beyond, it holds us back from our own growth, its time for our own experiences to be looked with different eyes. Our culture is an enriched one, but sadly boxed in old way of thinking, and then there is Amercian culture, where I learned spirituality. Spirituality helped me step out of my old way of thinking and into the New Age way of life. Please understand, none of them are wrong, they are different and yet incomplete without the other. Too much of spirituality keeps you afloat; people cannot really rely upon you and what you have to say because you are always floating in that etheric realm (top three chakras). United states is still young (only 500 years old), still a child compared to India (over 10,000 years old), is blossoming, it too needs guidance and Indian culture steps in to teach Yoga and Ayurveda while American culture steps in to teach it spirituality and to think outside of the box, shedding old belief system. One needs another for balance.  I can only speak from experience; I have lived in my higher three chakras but not really grounded in how I was feeling or experiencing, later recognizing that they both are incomplete without the other. Lower chakras without the higher are incomplete, eastern culture without the eyes of western, feels incomplete and grounding without rising is incomplete.

Beauty of all this is, our heart opens when we find the beautiful balance of grounding and rising. The meeting happens at the heart, at the Anahat chakra, and even though there is a duality between the lower and the higher, there is a beautiful milaap/ milan/ meeting that happens at the heart, at the horizon. Heart, color green, color of nature, color of trees that reside between the Earth and the sky, where Radha Krishna meet is where we meet....at the Heart.

Thank You for reading
With Love

Labeling/ Controlling

Sipping on Chai this Sunday morning, birds chirping outside my window to the voice of spring, sitting here contemplating how to look at these few weeks passed by. I was on my walk this morning only to realize few things that have been lingering on my brain for quite some time now, a) Labeling b) Controlling

We were given both, a heart and a brain to use, equally in balance. Its so easy to turn to one side and neglect the other specially if that one favors in the direction we want to go in. What am I talking about? Relationships and labeling them. I have been making new friends, connecting with them, sharing life and it dawns on me, I don't know how to define this relationship: For human beings to understand a relationship, labeling is necessary. To explain a relationship words are needed and words somehow always tie a relationship down. Brain needs solid information, one that can fit in a square, one that can be defined, one that can be understood while Heart on the other side, knows no boundaries, know no limits or knows no territories. We sometimes cannot explain what connection we share with a person in a relationship or a friendship; sometimes I stand speechless when I try to define it, contain it, explain it. And yet somewhere between the two I am to find balance in knowing what I feel in my relationships for people and still explain them without confusing myself and others in it......Aaahhhhhh LIFE: such a delicate balance.

Controlling: That's been a whole new topic for me lately. So you know I am back from India now and have been looking for a job and finding a way to make it all happen once again. And in the midst of it all, I find myself going back to the same behavior patterns I had before I left San Francisco, learning and realizing: We are such creatures of habits. We go back to what feels comfortable and what feels safe to us, while we all know no such "concreteness" exists on this planet. It is merely an illusion.ex: safety of money, or beauty or even thinking the person you are with, is yours. Now that does not mean we throw everything away, NO, but to always remember that what we have in front of us right now, is not permanent. I am observing how much of my life is about controlling it to look a certain way, of how my life should look a "certain way" and only then I consider myself successful. In the midst of trying to become successful and accepted I somewhere along the line forget to live my life and love myself. Rat race makes us feel "less than". Competition makes us feel we are "not enough" no matter what we do we never will be unless we recognize our individuality and accept ourselves just the way we are. Bapu (my Guru) always says, would you ever compare Rose with a Lily? No right? They are two different flowers, then why would you compare yourself with another human being? If nature does not compete with one another why would we do such torture to our own kind?  And yet  we do it everyday..........All of that  too is a delicate balance between "control" and "living"

So, where am I headed with all this? God knows. Hopefully a little less control of how my life looks and little more of living it with joy, faith and happiness, knowing I am taken care of no matter happens; realizing there is a fine balance between labeling and actually enjoying a relationship just the way it is. Not trying to control of how "things look" to myself and to the world. I guess everything in moderation, in balance, in awareness brings BLISS...:)

Love