The word wide pandemic have changed how we interact, work and also practise yoga and spirituality. There are so many teachers streaming yoga classes online, doing wonderful contributions towards yoga.
I have concluded to offer personalized classes via Dropbox. I invite you (new-comers to yoga, prenatal or already committed yogi’s) to drop me a message. We will then have an online consultation taking into account your medical history, current- or past injury and mental health and weight-loss/fitness needs. You will then receive personalized video classes to practise in your own time and privacy of your home.
Contact me for your consultation and enjoy the opportunity of a yoga class designed for you. Mommy’s to be and new mommy’s most welcome. Make use of this opportunity to train with an experienced teacher.
You will work through limitations you experience on the mat and renew your asana practice.
My yoga-style is rooted in Hatha-instructions, focusing on alignment and holding of asanas, within a flow-style practice and I hold certifications in the following:
In modern society one often have to market oneself for just about anything and everything that we aspire to do. Be it professional, physical, mental or even in finding love– you have to show yourself. Rip and analyse who you are. Is this the modern idea of self-knowledge? I believe it is. Pull labels out of a hat that suits your appearance – ones that validates the lines on your face and the clothes you wear, the food you eat and the entertainment you enjoy. And don’t forget your intelligence, after all – who wants to be dull in the eyes of the judgmental beholder! Remember that you are always fun to be around. . … .truthful and ever graceful just to put the cherry on top!
The above is the dense thought patterns that we sometimes fall trap to. It is limiting the Spirit that is whole and everything. This causes pain and submerges the mind. The simple Self reflection that reflects at the Self from a calm, clear lake becomes rippled and distorted. Thought patterns and analysis like this, mostly driven by fear or the search for love and acceptance and opportunities in a materialistic world.
Only when the mind is still, can one reflect on one’s own beauty. It is not about labels in a hat. Rather about dropping into your own darkness, finding the seed of nothingness inside – the zero point of infinite possibilities, infinite compassion, infinite vibration. The yogi is in constant self-study; in constant reflection. It takes discipline, a physical and spiritual fitness, to stay clear from chitta vrtti, from limiting oneself. By visiting the pain that Asmita (klesa) brings, the knowledge becomes the known. All lessons in life are valuable. Knowing lessens and break the ego and the walls that prevents compassion. We are all on this journeys, individually and collectively.
Fill the seat (asana) of your own nature – the Omni-Nature that is Prana, the Oneness that connects us all. Only then can Spirit be free to manifest from a Higher Consciousness. For we are Everything! I am not this (a South African, British, French…) nor that (a receptionist, lawyer, agent..),
I am willingly nothing
I am the world and I am not this world. I am part of a collective play without becoming the story told.
Valentine’s Day, a Day devoted to the Celebration of an Emotion – Love.
Emotions are evoked by stimuli to the nervous system from the senses and in the case of Love, it is directly related to an experience of Beauty and what is pleasant.
The vapours of freshly brewed coffee transmit sensations to the brain and the euphoria is further experienced with the enjoyment of taste – “I love coffee!” the sigh of satisfying the sense stimuli. An octave – 8 simple notes gave the outlet to composers and musicians to create all the musicals and love songs ever written and there is a song for each and everyone of us to love and enjoy! How pleasing is the touch of luxurious fabric on the skin, dressing up in a favourite garment! How nourishing is the touch of a loved one and enticing is it to see and adore the beauty of the physical body, of a flower, blue sky, green grass, seamless rivers and unending oceans!
On Valentine’s Day, we bring our attention more so than always, to the appreciation and enjoyment of beauty and create a lovely atmosphere with family, friends or a special someone to enjoy time in good taste, feeling pleased, appreciated and Loved.
In “good taste” will mean different things according to culture, personal orientation, spiritual refinement. Love is essential for physical, emotional and spiritual health and giving the emotion free range on Valentine’s Day, thus also comes with the responsibility seeded in freedom, of being aware not to bring harm to the wellbeing of Self or Others by distasteful overindulgence and to celebrate the emotion in line with what our ego’s tolerate.
Love and Beauty are elements of Purity. Therefor, a cleanliness in intentions, thoughts and an attitude of placing the needs and ego of the loved one above one’s own, will result in a mutual sharing of what is comfortable and pleasing for both and a better balance between male and female energies, a healthier, moderated dependancy and identification with the coming and going emotions, also that of love.
In this way, we progress on the path of Divine Love, where a close relationship becomes one of surrender to the Beauty of Nature and accepting and welcoming of our interdependence and how we relate to Self, Others and basically every person, animal, plant we encounter.
It is innate to humanity to be inspired by the input received from our senses. This results in emotions that spills over from the body, in the form of tears, laughter and creativity – painting or sculpting art, dance and daydreaming.
Modern day shows a lack of noticing and appreciating Love because it’s associated with the gross expressions thereof and because of living in a state of fear, isolation and ignorance. We do not experience love because we are afraid to love yourself’ve.
Love is the simplicity and splendour of being natural, clean and conscious.
Wishing everyone a Valentine’s Day of purity, internal and outward, into society. May you see your own beauty shinning from within. May you step out and allow the joy’s of being, of seeing, smelling, hearing, touch and taste, of relationships and nature, to fill your Soul, inspire you and bring growth and inner calm in good taste and moderation.
You are On the yoga mat, your mind-body and breath is asking “go there effortlessly” ….
If you have entered the path of Yoga you will dearly understand the discipline and one-pointed focus that comes with it.
You would have experienced the calling from within to roll out the mat on a sunny day;
to roll out the mat when you heart is crying “why is the sky blue”;
on a day that there is a hesitant holding-on to an inhalation;
on a day that the sigh-out is long and slow and the facial muscles soft and relaxed –
on days of endless possibilities
and on days of endings.
Living this manifestation, we need the guidance of the teacher, of the guru’s that came before us.
With inner dedication and loving guidance,
you experience pure Soul Essence
Your natural flow –
liberated from conditions and circumstances –
Effortlessness only comes to those that is willing to repeat,
repeat,
repeat.
Go back.
Go deeper.
Fall.
Make the adjustment.
Search for the darkness within – send light and energy there.
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Practise comfort in discomfort.
Become inspired by the limitations of the moment
– let love and pure reflection lead to go beyond
– create the new space within and without. Take a pause in stillness. Find your balance there and repeat, repeat, repeat – reach beyond – and again.
On just another day, after years of taking the seat (asana/meditation and in life) complete awareness – in every nadi and beat and breathe – seeps into your whole being, your soul.
We make certain choices in our lives and then again there are inevitable things that enter our lives. This may come in the form of a person, an event or by the sheer influence of nature and changes in our bodies.
Often our instinct is to reject and get away from what is. We had a different vision, plan, dream or goal we were working towards.
If there is one lesson I have really learnt these past few months, it is the one of learning to stay even when you are where you never imagined being or want to be at.
This is how meditation also started out for me years ago. It was so difficult to sit with myself. I would, in the beginning, visualize myself sitting with a child I care deeply for, or even with the family puppy. I was afraid to be present for my life. I felt unloved, unsafe, betrayed, ignored with a loss of purpose. How long should one stay with these unpleasant emotions when they are more than just an emotion but a wound to the soul? The truth is that we have to stay for as long as it takes to cleanse and strip desires and the ego.
We really need to fall and stay down until we can rise in stillness and peace. We need to stay until we understand the depth of our own desires and what it was we longed for from another on a soul level. Stay until we are ready to move back into life, taking on roles again making wiser choices of what to leave behind and what to put back on spiritually, intellectually, in beliefs, in our dreams and aspirations. The only real purpose of life is the balance of heart mind. once desires is burned are we ready to find the deep innermost place of contentment, purpose no matter where we are.
I am so grateful that I stayed in my discomfort long enough.
A seed needs to fall and break open and wait for the rain. Sometimes for years. And to grow is a dangerous and unforeseen journey for the seedling.
Patience, endurance, humbleness to accept, a belief in goodness and hope together with self-love and Love for Creation and all living beings brings a plant to fullest. Each one has been given his or her own experiences. Love what has happened to you.
Let go of desires that rob you from the moment, from making this moment a moment of Art. To Love is art in its purest form. Make every moment conscious – a moment of Art. Stay, repeat, go back, revisit the uncomfortable until you settle into ease.
Learn to stay until you can embrace whatever it is that’s changing your inner landscape.
Our social world has changed forever – a change that has the seal of the dawn and rise of the Internet all over it. More so, our social structures have changed. A woman plays her vital role within marriage and family with her qualities of unconditional Love, tolerance and sacrifice, enriching and developing the wealth and wellness of her family. Then dawns the reality of Desires and betrayal of trust. This is followed by divorce, the only way to regain your life back. Consumed with the fire of possessiveness, the only force that remains to control the life of the one you have already taken for a ride all her life, is money. That is the power that remains.
Women are not protected by society or by law. This is only but one scenario and I can continue to add many many more. Greed is sometimes not obvious to people, even the ones living with the effects thereof. Greed is only one more offspring of fulfillmenting lust and power. One who got away with it, also gets use to it, and can no longer see the world differently or do different. This creates a strain in the mind, an alteration. Such a man looses his own value.
Lust , desire and wishing or craving for – or “Kama” is natural to being human. A man controls his desires with self discipline and social protocol and the sacred social contracts he has entered into.
Society needs to consciously go back to personal refinement and to applying social conducts, as the five yamas and niyamas, in the philosophy of yoga indicates it.
Mothers and woman, young and old, needs the shade and protection of their immediate families and of society at large. We are falling short, as humans, greatly.
The philosophy of yoga teaches that Bliss is our birthright – our innate state of being.
But Life is filled with the realities of aging, of not having what we need, not getting what we want and getting what we don’t want. Even an enlightened person will experience these difficulties in life. Things that bring hurt and pain will happen to you. It is the way of Life from which we cannot free ourselves.
The problem comes when this experience spirals one into a seeking for the “fix” – the opposite to escape the misery of a situation. This is when we seek a place or a person or a job or a situation that will promise us lasting security and happiness. And we believe we can have this lasting security if only we do that one thing right!
This thought pattern and attitude towards pain and pleasure, takes us drifting into an ocean of habitual ways. We get lost in samskara’s – the accumulation of past and present actions.
Feelings of rejection, betrayal, depression,- any unwanted feelings, is important lessons on a spiritual path. This is when real and lasting transformation can take place.
As long as we are caught up in “the taste of life” we will always be running after comfort, seeking the love of others, the security of a material world, avoiding disappointments and discomfort. This weakens your Being.
Sit with what is, without trying to make it go away. Self-centeredness will start to evaporate. The barrier between pain and pleasure will slowly fade. A new intimacy with your inner being will come from where you will no longer seek love, approval, the truths or comfort through actions. This intimacy will show that no matter what happens to us, it is only but our relative truth and that we have an absolute truth that is free from these experiences.
Feel the sharpness of your discomfort in stillness, with patience.
Let it humble you.
Unconditional friendliness towards yourself means no judgement,
being intimate
and compassionate with the losses and unwanted experiences that happened to you.
This awakening brings a new absolute – the awakening of compassion – of feeling with others. Your mind becomes open and your heart free from pre-justice.
You become direct and unedited.
Still, this state of Being does not protect us from the things that happen to us.
We deal with it now, is in patience. In refraining from running after “a better taste” in life.
It is our attitude towards pain that changes.
We embrace the pain.
As we would embrace the comfort.
In this way, we can more often than not, visit our Birthplace, our Birthright – named Bliss.
Then, we will end limiting ourselves. We will start to seek satvic places and experiences where we can grow spiritually. We are here for a given time, between birth and death only. To get lost in the obstacles would be a shame. So, let each one of us start with ourselves, just as we are, here and now to realize we are on a spiritual path and make this moment one of lasting Transformation.
It is your responsibility to seek Peace and places of Peace. To seek the experiences that will take you further on your path of Enlightenment.
To receive enlightenment and then to offer it back to the Ocean of Sufferings is Spiritual Self destruction.
Our emotions and feelings comes from the Mind Body – the MANOMAYA KOSHA.
Our True Nature is to be Welcoming in the Presence of any situation, idea, belief, emotion or feeling.
However, Ego and Mind affords us to be defensive and reject or suppress many emotions, feelings, beliefs and ideas or a person we simply do not want to deal with, or to define and protect our separateness, our unique-ness, fears and failures, pain and heartfelt injuries and insecurities. When these has an opposite – Oneness, Fearless, Successes, Pleasures, Heartfelt Compassion, Safety. By avoiding the one, we are also suppressing the opposite. In doing so, we loose our sense of Integration and feeling of Wholeness, of Harmony and Inner Peace.
Is there an emotion or feeling without an opposite or is it our ego-nature to dwell in one-sidedness when it comes to our emotions? We love. We suffer. We have conflict. But none of these emotions is possible without an opposite. Darkness cannot exist without light. Conflict without peace. Love without ignorance and hate. There is a high because there is a low. The lie is there because there is a truth to be told.
In any situation, the opposite emotion is also present. That is if we allow ourselves the insight into the experience and what it really is that we are repressing or unwilling to allow ourselves to feel. What is it that we are suppressing that comes to the surface in a re-active or defensive way.
For every idea there is an opposite idea. These opposites are complimentary polarities of our full and total awareness. We refuse emotions and feelings because we don’t want to be with them. It becomes suppressed and unresolved and pops up as “I should have” or “you should have”’s. All of these emotions are natural movements that happens in the body and the mind and will pass. However, they pervade our lives if not dealt with in its totality. If you are rejecting the experience of pain, it is most probable that you are also fearful of experiencing or expressing your feelings of joy.
Our Ego separates us from the world, making the world a place of me against you. It splits your world into Self and Other. It makes it impossible for you to understand and accept the interdependence of all beings, and the interdependence of opposites.
The ego and mind wants you to avoid the opposites. The mind holds deeply onto what the feeling is and brings defensive reactions, threats, unstable remarks and outburst, and holds on to the emotion like holding onto a pole. This is how we fall into the sea of suffering. The sea of pointing fingers, regrets and blame.
Every emotion has an opposite and if we welcome the entire spectrum of emotions and feelings, without any fear, we start to learn about our true underlying nature. We learn and observe our actions and defensive strategies. With this insight we can defeat Ego and Mind. We can accept that we will also sometimes experience a fall, being confused, overwhelmed, threatened by emotions, ideas and beliefs. We can welcome these confronting situations and emotions then with equal grace as we do the situations where we are experiencing harmony, love, respect and understanding.
And when we make this transformation to accept all behaviors towards us, hurtful, harming, disappointing or the opposite, understanding, enriching, pleasant, it is important not to let the Ego or Mind once again interfere and say “I”, it is me that is accepting”. For when we make this welcoming of all emotions and feelings a shift in our consciousness, will we see that this is whom we really and truly are. Our True Nature is a Welcoming Presence. It is not another product of the Ego or Mind.
We become both the witness and witnessed, the subject and the object in the heat of the moment.
We act out when emotions has been suppressed. Eventually they will bubble to the surface.
We are Soulfully ready to welcome and meet every challenge that comes our way. Closing our hearts for one emotion will also lock out very opposite of this emotion.
We are One. If we only feel halfway, for ourselves, with our Ego and Mind, we harm and hurt the very ones we love and honour most. We are safe, even in the wake of the most intense heart injury, for just on the other side of this hurt, there is your innate true being of Compassion and Love. Feel and explore the highs and lows of life. Only by doing so, are we able to become integrated and whole. Only by feeling this inner safety, that is not defendant on any situation, can we love fearlessly and be rejected fearlessly without counter actions of the ego’s and th “ I should have or you should’s”
So many opposite beliefs, opposite ideas. All of it based in the Ego and Mind.
“Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing is a field. I’ll meet you there.” -RUMI
Welcome the good. Welcome the hurt. Listen and feel and accept without fear. Being welcoming in presence is whom we truly are, as we are One and we are Whole. We are Nothing and we are Infinite Possibility.
Most of all, we are safe in the wake of any situation. Feel and listen. Fearlessly. This brings right action. Suppressing and denial results in the opposite.
There is no time to Love when we judge. At the same time, it is wise to walk away from foolishness.
Ishvara Pramidhana implies to live a life of dedication to your God or Creator. This brings us to the big question of our modern times – is there a God? What about non-believers on the path of yoga?
My personal insight to this question is, that no matter how we view creation, nature, our own coming to being and where we will go after this lifetime, no matter if we call our God by many names or by one only, or if we simply refer to the Unseen force that Creates and Takes us again, as Life Force, we are bound to this Prana. It governs the universe, the cycles of life, it is the breath we fill our lungs with and we have no choice in this regards.
It doesn’t matter if we are willing to call God our Father, our Creator. Just by the simple act of our breath, are we in surrendering to the governing of Nature.
This allows everyone with some insight into the concept of Ishvara Pramidhana. There are things we simply do and have no need to despair over. Like breathing. It is an ongoing exchange with an energy that gives our bodies life, that gives us the chance to do (good) in this world. Acknowledge that every breath, just by being, is already an act of surrendering to a Higher Force. There are so many paths and names and ways towards knowledge and self-realization. It is not to judge anyone on the path they have chosen to explore this lifetime.
So, when we understand we are in surrendering, we also understand that for the yogi, it means to be in constant exchange of this energy and this gives liberation from despair. We do our part, staying enthusiastic and then surrender our deeds to the Higher Force. It is so comforting, in a way, to have this letting go after the action was done. It also brings a spiritual disposition of serve and makes selfish actions less. Life becomes less and less about gratification and satisfaction. We are depended on Nature (God) and interdependent on one another.
Ishvara Pramidhana helps to calm desires. We are given everything we need and whatever else we are chasing after is a personal choice. How wonderful is the out breath? It allows for the steady sip of the next inhalation.
No matter what your beliefs, culture or tradition, or by what name you call Life Force. It IS. It is within every cell of your being. Surrender and celebrate. Serve and protect. Love and Respect. Let go of what separates you, embrace what brings together. Let go of distrust and despair. We are taken care off in the most minuteness of our cellular being. Surrender and feel the lightness of being.
Once we see the Oneness we share, no matter how different we may seem to the eye, are we ready to surrender to a Higher Consciousness, to a Higher Love, a life of devotion towards Self, others and the Good and Preservation of all living beings that shares our world.
We make certain choices in our lives and then again there are inevitable things that enter our lives. This may come in the form of a person, an event or by the sheer influence of nature and changes in our bodies.
Our social world has changed forever – a change that has the seal of the dawn and rise of the Internet all over it. More so, our social structures have changed. A woman plays her vital role within marriage and family with her qualities of unconditional Love, tolerance and sacrifice, enriching and developing the wealth and wellness of her family. Then dawns the reality of Desires and betrayal of trust. This is followed by divorce, the only way to regain your life back. Consumed with the fire of possessiveness, the only force that remains to control the life of the one you have already taken for a ride all her life, is money. That is the power that remains.
Anahata Nada Journey 