Our world needs all of us to join in loving kindness and to forgive ourselves for learning wrong.

Our world needs all of us to join in loving kindness and to forgive ourselves for learning wrong.

This past week has been one of incredible sadness for the state of mind acting out in violence. As a teacher, mother, and friend of many, I make the effort to be living in a state of consciousness where I am fully awake to the witness of my thoughts. I am asking my little self, “Is that thought bringing you into a better place of ease or is that thought colluding with the worry and fear of what your eyes are seeing?”

My outer self is being bombarded with profound images and sounds of hatred, provoked by the extremes of radical thought. It is taking greater effort to come back and delink from my reactive habit of presenting anger and rage. I am hurting deeply. 

The pain I feel is immense, and yet I am also holding amazing love and compassion for all beings as I am experiencing their pain. We are all in this together! While I want to separate and judge, I need to be fully engaged in the world and take part in my daily roles. I cannot go live in a cave and isolate. 

I am living a path of Karma yoga in service to the life I have been given. I just have to make choices and it starts with my thoughts. From every thought I have, I move into sound and action. I ask myself, “Is this thought leading me in better direction or am I only feeding the small mind of ego wanting to be righteous and react with unkind tones?” 

Habits of behavior are learned. If I continue to feed the mind that is afraid, I only resist LIFE. I fall into life daily with my practice and yet the outcome in not mine. I want a place that feels alive with a radiant sense of belonging. We all want to be seen, feel valued, and be honored as human beings. In a world today where we separate and judge ourselves on the outcome, we rate our effort "not good enough" if it isn’t  seen. We value the product the winner, and the loser is the one without the stuff of material worth or without a personal relationship.  

I want a shirt that has a huge “L” imprinted on the front. I am claiming that letter as my true self; it stands for love, laughter, light, LIFE! Let's choose the word that arises from the right thought and be the action of that which moves the heart forward. 

Our world needs all of us to join in loving kindness and to forgive ourselves for learning wrong. I invite you to chant, sing, write poetry, breathe into the right brain, and activate the space that cultivates consciousness, the space of awareness and love. I invite you to practice being awkward to the intellect of the left brain and begin to live life in a mind balanced between intellect and your greater intelligence. This is the gift of being present.

In a time of turmoil and unrest, practice daily coming back to stillness. As winter's darkness approaches, make a commitment to light your inner candle and feel the grace of the illuminated Self expand and send that vibrational tone by chanting OM. As Gandhi would say, “Be the change, you want to see in the world”. 

Hope is not in the intellect, for it will judge and argue until I find myself spinning down the drain of despair. I will simply thank my mind for the thought and not engage to change it. Instead I invite my awareness of the thought (or emotion) into my practice by thanking it and then immediately choosing to feel the opposite as a somatic experience. 

When you place the mind into the body with the breath (or touch or sound or mantra), you begin to feel the sensory sensation of being present. Your heart expands and becomes fuller, and you experience your true self resting in the heart. Try it. From this place of aliveness, begin your day being truly SEEN. 

Namaste,

Laura Jane

Let's Celebrate the great MAHA (mother). Moms Practice for FREE on Mother's Day!

My Dear Friends,

I want to thank again everyone who supported our benefit for the trees of Gray Bear and the many who expressed concern for the property. We raised over $1500 and I know that the energy will only continue to grow in the months ahead. 

We have some special ideas for fundraising which we hope will inspire the community to participate in our upcoming workshops and events. I have found a passion in nature and understand on a profound level that the environment around us will only thrive when we commit to the respect of our inner landscape.

Healing is actively happening all around as we are witnessing the vibrant color burst of new life unfolding in the grace of spring. The dogwoods and magnolia trees are in full expression this week, and I am thrilled to see the animals starting to be born. 

I am always in awe of nature and the wonder of how the grand intelligence just returns each spring as a reminder of faith. My joy is to get out and walk later into the evening or get up earlier to the sound of the birds. 

I hope that we can remember how important our practice is in facilitating the wellbeing and vibrancy of our own aliveness in our relationship to nature. The mental mind must think less as the deeper consciousness of our intrinsic nature is experienced with the ability to live in pure contentment in the present moment.

Nature can bring us to that moment. To trust in nature is to live in the wonder of beauty whether the sun is shining or not. To link to nature in our meditations is the most direct path to the heart. The heart being the seat of our soul and our true nature.

As Mother’s Day approaches, come celebrate the great Mother Earth. Let everyday be in gratitude for our ability to breathe and share in life’s abundance. Respect ourselves, each other, and our inner environment of humankind.

---

Mother's Day, Sunday, May 13, 2018

Honor your mother by bringing her to yoga on Sunday, May 13. Pay for your class, and your mom practices for FREE.

Limit one mom per paying student. Valid for 9am Hatha Vinyasa or 10:30am Vinyasa Flow Class. Must arrive at least 15 minutes before class starts to register. 

---

Many blessings and ENJOY this season celebrating the great MAHA (mother).  

P.S. Here are some photos from our Earth Day Fundraiser class.

Namaste,
Laura Jane

To keep balance restored in our beautiful earth, we need to remember our inner balance.

Happy Spring! I love the study of yoga and how it offers balance of the mind, body and emotions in holding the space of the opposites. All pairs of opposites come into the equimity with the path of the middle way.

To hold the opposites with our world today is embracing the true understanding of the word compassion. I want to be held accountable for what is my truth and to be able to keep open hearted to the extremes of bias opinions that keep pulling on my soul. I want to be able to listen and not judge that which I don’t understand. I want to walk in someone else’s shoes with a clarity that is experienced by being open to differences.

I understand that balance is not being rigid to what is seen through my lens, but to hold a respect for all beings, knowing that we all see differently through our various memories, which color our life experiences both joyous and painful. Can we just find a way to use words to convey deeper connections of the heart?

Our intellect gets in the way as fear leads to anger, and anger leads to rage, and rage leads to separation. In coming together as a community, we need to embrace our different stories, lifestyles, and beliefs, from not only the logic of intellect, but from the depth of our soul.

Embrace the mythos of our journey by sharing the concept that life is precious and a blessing. I am not here to harm you, but to join you in kindness and respect. I want to share my table with an abundant attitude that life is greater when engaging in service. 

On Earth day, I am hosting a benefit for the trees, my spiritual oasis in found in nature. As a child, I grew up in the woods surrounded in what I still believe to be the magical realm of the gods. I would walk for hours lost in my deeper thoughts of make believe and create all kinds of games that only children can do in the woods.  

Lounging in the woods at Grey Bear Lodge

Today, I long for my trips back to Grey Bear to renew my spirit with the magic of those acres of trees. Unfortunately, because of my schedule this year, I will not be hosting a retreat, but instead offering a day of gratitude to practice yoga and meditation in honor of my sacred home.

The property is having some major financial challenges. They must come up with much needed assistance, or they risk losing the acres that keep their property out of the hands of developers.  

Please join me on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22 for a special yoga class and fundraiser, and I promise to take you into balance as we celebrate the gift of nature and our profound relationship to the source. To keep balance restored in our beautiful earth, we need to remember our inner balance. Hopefully, we can hold that space for all souls to thrive in a world nourished by the grace of Mother Earth.  

Enjoy each day with love and light,
Laura Jane