As I was on my way to work yesterday, driving through the beautiful canyon I began chanting the Guru Ram Das mantra. Often times I chant in my car, but yesterday I experienced something special. After just a few repetitions of this beautiful mantra Gurmukh, one of my yoga teachers, came to my mind very strongly. As I continued to chant the mantra and feel that strong presence in my mind, I began to dedicate that chant, to her. Feeling gratitude for all that she has taught me the prayer became very deep and powerful. I continued chanting and soon began thinking of all my teachers and sent the Guru Ram Das Blessing to all of them. What an incredible feeling. Continue reading →

Last night my one year old baby woke up crying several times. She first woke up at about Midnight, and then at about 1am. Both times she was able to put herself back to sleep within a few minutes. Than she woke up a third time around 2am, and this time she was crying really hard and didn’t look like she was going to be able to calm herself. I went to her room and picked her up, but she wouldn’t stop crying. I went through the checklist, diaper, etc…but all was fine. Her cry sounded scared, so I figured she probably had a bad dream. I sang for her a little song from the book “Snuggle Puppy” I read for her every night. She calmed down, but as I tried to put her back in the crib she desperately hung on to me, as if to say: Mommy don’t leave me alone. For a second I didn’t know what to do, and then I spontaneously started chanting the Aad Guray Nameh mantra. She stopped crying immediately at the first sound of the mantra. I kept chanting and with each verse visualizing protective energy surrounding us. She reached a point of relaxation very quickly. After several repetitions of the mantra I told her it was time to go to sleep and put her down on the crib. She did not cry anymore, grabbed her doll, went back to sleep and did not wake up again until the morning.

This mantra is very powerful and can be used in many different settings. One highly suggested use is in the car, before you start driving. Chant the mantra, visualizing protective light around you with each verse. Begin on you right, behind, left and in front. Continue reading →

It is very important when going through the process of transformation that accompanies any spiritual practice, to keep in perspective that the reason why we follow such a practice is to raise our awareness and consciousness.

Techniques such as prayer, meditation, yoga, etc, all have in common the capacity to change and raise the frequency at which we vibrate and project.

As diverse as spiritual practices are, most have in common that they require the practitioner to develop a certain amount of ritual and self-discipline, and that is one of the traps we can fall into.

Many studies have been done and proven on the effects of positive or negative thinking. Thoughts are real and they have the power to affect not only our moods, but also our environment and our capacity for manifestation.

Emotions such as guilt and shame have been found to be of the lowest frequency range, and therefore can be very damaging to the psyche of an individual. Yet, on our spiritual journeys so often we fall on the trap of these negative emotions. Feeling guilty is only taking us further away from that state of higher consciousness, happiness and bliss.

So what to do when we perceive these emotions in ourselves? Don’t feed it. Fight it!

If you feel guilty about an action you have taken. Come to terms with it and move on.
If you need to apologize, apologize sincerely, knowing that who really needs to forgive you is yourself.
Self forgiveness and self acceptance are some of the hardest things to accomplish. Forgiveness, by the way is high up on the frequency ladder. So go ahead, forgive!

If you feel guilty about something that you want to do, but for some reason you are not managing to accomplish. Let it go. Feeling guilty about it will only keep you stuck. Make a commitment to yourself that you will keep trying to make the change. Understand that the state you are in today is not fixed and change is possible if you don’t give-up.

Be open.

Don’t use your spiritual practice as an excuse to beat yourself up. Use it so that you will not give up on yourself.

That is the self-discipline, is the discipline to keep up no matter how many set backs. Is the discipline to  continue to believe in yourself, to know you are capable of change, you are capable of greatness.

You are infinite!

Every time I drive to work I have been trying out some alternative routes to avoid the heavy traffic on the 405 freeway due to the road work currently going on, but it seems that every other route I try, I still find myself sitting in traffic also due to road work.

This morning while driving to work, I had to laugh at this situation and then I came to the realization that sometimes there is just no way to avoid the road work.

I am sure you might be wondering why am I talking about traffic and road work and what is the relation this has with Yoga…

Well, we don’t like when life slows us down and  we desperately try to find all these alternative routes not to let it happen, not to let life slow us down, but sometimes there is just no way to avoid the slowing down. Sometimes there is no way to avoid the work that needs to be done.

We need to have patience and know that it doesn’t matter how slow we are going as long as we keep going we will get through the blockage and we will get to the other side. Avoiding it is not the right thing to do. When the work needs to be done it doesn’t matter how many alternative routes we try to find, life will keep slowing us down until we deal with it.

Getting annoyed and inpatient with the road work doesn’t help. It doesn’t help you get through it any faster. It is just a waste of energy. Who hasn’t had the experience with a GPS system when it keeps rerouting you to alternative routes and you end up getting to your destination later than if you would have taken the slowest route to begin with.

So it is really a question of being patient with life and with yourself, keeping positive, keeping up with the work and moving forward.

One step at the time…You will get through it and you will get to the other side.

Audio of Yogi Bhajan: “Patience pays”

First I will explain to the ones of you who may not know the meaning of the word Sadhana.
Sadhana is a daily spiritual practice. Usually recommended to be done during the 2 1/2 hours of the morning before the sunrise. For the practicing Kundalini Yoga teachers/students this usual includes getting up at 3 am taking a cold shower and proceeding to do about a 1/2 hour yoga set and sit in meditation for another hour or so.

So the question I want to raise in your minds today is: How much of your yoga practice are you applying in your daily life? Have you stopped to pay attention to that?

I have currently found myself struggling with that. Having a 10 month old baby who still doesn’t sleep at night not only creates the obvious side effects of sleep deprivation, my life seems to have lost much of its structure. I have gone from a moment where my life was very much structured around my yoga practice to a moment where I don’t seem to be in command of much.

Now here is the catch 22. I got pregnant during teacher training. It was my strong practice that led me to open myself and break through the blockages of not being able to get pregnant for almost 2 years. So how could this same thing be interfering with my practice? So then came the realization that it is the yoga which gives me grace to go through these challenges with love in my heart and love for this beautiful soul. It is yoga which gives me the power to sacrifice. So yes, it is hard and is not under my control, but the yogic teachings are being applied and I am leaning into the infinity and trusting this process and I don’t need to be in control, yet I know the correct actions will come out of me if I stay graceful and open to the divine.

Do you take moments to breath deeply in moments of stress?

Do you try to connect with your higher self and try to understand through compassion?

Keep up with your practice it does pay off!

Sat Nam!