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Are we disciples of fear or of wholeness and love?

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Are we disciples of fear or of wholeness and love?

Life is filled with paradox today as I struggle to be a director of a yoga center, a teacher, a spiritual aspirant of the teachings of love while struggling to balance my personal relationships and roles as a wife and a mother.

Modern life today can be ruthless in the tensions it asks us to reconcile in our hearts and in our living. In the last year, I have seen the opposites of bias opinion play out in all sorts of angry confused moods. Friends are losing the ability to communicate by not listening. Listening is a most valuable tool of being human.

In the integration of such tensions, taking time to listen deep in our bodies is the great elixir. Our bodies understand such tensions, if only we don’t live too fast. Slowing down is the key. We need to give our minds a rest, to take time with ourselves to meet the beloved in our hearts. "Slow down" is the great cry coming from our souls.

It takes courage to change the habit of distraction and turn off the Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. The paradox here is not necessarily doing less, but rather it is the place where our doing comes from.

Are we the disciples of fear or of wholeness and love? Finding time for our souls is so precious. If I lose the sense of this inner being in myself, I cannot be the teacher of love in my work or my life. I cannot make a wise choice of the deeper intelligence.

This month delink from the noise in your mind and link into self nourishing by committing to being courageous in silence. Ask yourself, "is this the wisest choice of the highest good or my need to defend an ideology of fear?" Slow down, go inward and remember life is a blessing and love is the highest call.

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"I'll play my heart for you"—Laura's Wish for the New Year

"I'll play my heart for you"—Laura's Wish for the New Year

Listen to your life. See it for the beautiful mystery that it is. Touch, taste, smell your way to the hidden heart of it. Life itself is grace.

However, when the intellect gets in the way, I spent too much time distracted and confused. I fall into a bias opinion that has been learned and accepted as my identity. So I must turn inward and de-link from that thought of fear and breathe life into my heart. I feel the pulse of my humanity. One beat at a time. I am more than that thought; I am more than that learned habit. I am the witness of the thought. I am pure essence of conscious awareness. I am love.
Stilling my mind is a challenge when my emotions start to stir in agitation. I turn off the news, unplug from the internet, and sit in the dark. And at times, I cry, moan, and shake. I let go into a vibration that has no meaning other than expansion and light. I let go and fall in love with life again. My aliveness is enough-just be present to my essence, my radiant heart of light.

When I was three years old, I fell in love with a song on the radio that whenever I heard it I had to smile. I hear it every holiday season, and its become my song: The Little Drummer Boy. As I listen it today, something still resonates as truth.

"I am a poor boy too
Pa rum pum pum pum
I have no gifts to bring
Pa rum pum pum pum...

Shall I play for you
Pa rum pum pum pum
On my drum..."

Today, the inner gift--I'll play my heart for you. Beat, beat, beat of my drum--is my heart beating for you.

I am not religious. I am only a yogi dedicated to each heart that beats. Every soul matters. Take off your labels, your identity of personality, and take away your doubts of being enough.

I don't teach exercise; I do not care if you can touch your toes. I care that you connect to community and that you are seen without your label. I am not perfect. I get tired and confused and overwhelmed with this world of doing and of running a business that is only a service for the soul to get nourished.

So I am renewing my commitment to sharing these tools of yoga. With a new, signed lease on our space, I plan to keep our doors open, and we will embrace the courage to walk into ourselves together. 

May this new year, 2017, bring us closer to that space of love. May we accept our differences. The place we meet is a place of acceptance where all beings everywhere can awaken their heart and quiet their mind's agitation. We are all on this earth together!  

with love,
Laura Jane

Be Connected to Your Soul

Be Connected to Your Soul

Being connected to our soul is to remember our true nature and yet when life presents the outer confusion of fear, we forget. This past month has been a practice of staying clear to what is the truth. When chaos abounds, we react in ways that begin to collude with panic and doubt. When the beauty of life and the essence of the spirit are pushed into confusion, we tend to move away from our hearts. We must be FEARLESS warriors of LOVE. How can we as a community not nurture the integrity of our intrinsic nature of kindness and compassion? We must strengthen our commitment to find peace within our own hearts and to extend it to our community as a refuge for love. 

Yoga is so much more than a physical exercise and when we use the tools together, we begin to feel the sweet safety of beauty calling forth our inner strength. Embrace all of life. Find a safe haven to share in this courageous journey of the heart. I want everyone to be filled with the grace of a loving Thanksgiving as we remember that life is a blessing. To be content is the wonder of living and the acceptance that grief is only a doorway into joy.

We extend our hearts this Holiday Season from all of us at Yoga Among Friends to our community. May you celebrate each day as a miracle of life and rejoice in being ALIVE for LOVE!

Blessings always,
Laura Jane