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silence- January 8,2010

"The One is pure and silent
Why go on talking?'
The most radiant in me
Has never said a word." - Rumi

Everything I Needed To Know about Love I Learned From Trees

October 7, 2009

On Saturday, October 3rd during a silent meditational walk after a beautiful Yoga practice, a small group of us walked among a cathedral of trees in the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach.

I had a hunch that this little forest has a very high vibrational frequency and that there was something waiting for me there. An answer to a question perhaps? The trees were waiting to show me something my spirit, mind and heart needed to understand on a deep level.

We were given the instruction of being awake and aware with all of our senses, but mainly with our hearts as we had just completed a series of asanas devoted to opening the heart space.

I brought my camera to capture the essence of the walk and found that instead of taking me out of the moment as cameras often do, this time, the camera was working with the trees. It was as if the trees were asking to be photographed, and the light, and the sky and the ocean. All of the elements begged to be photographed but from a space of LOVE.

I found myself aware that first I was feeling love for myself. This love then expanded outwards to include the trees, the sky, the ocean the ground, the birds, every sound, every person and every moment.The trees had a straightforward and clear message for me in particular and this is what they said.

" We are always here for you-strong and steady. The elements affect us not for we cannot forget who we are. We will always be here for you and will not abandon you, even when you are feeling alone, tired, fearful, sad or inconsequential. We love you without conditions. We are pure love and so are you!"

Wow ! I realized I had been seeking the answer for a long time about what true love really is. It is unconditional and at the same not attached. It gives all and asks for nothing in return. Its happiness is based on giving. It does not matter whether it is received or given back. It stands firmly in its own strength and doesn't need company. It is strong enough to resist bad weather and rough times.

Thank you to the spirit of all trees everywhere and thank you to my friends who shared this special walk with me.
With Love,
Jane

Why I practice Yoga- September 2009

I recently had a friend come to me at a loss for what was happening in her life. Yes, she too has experienced the crunch we're all in with the economy, losing her job and (thankfully) finding another, but with a huge pay cut. She's in the too familiar struggle of making ends meet, and finding the resources to keep herself healthy and rested. However, this isn't entirely what has drained her so. She has been experiencing things in her body and mind on an energetic level that she doesn't quite know how to deal with, that she doesn't understand, and that are keeping her from staying grounded on the physical level. Her stories sound to me like she has moments where the reality of time and space is fleeting.

My first instinct led me to think that her koshas are battling each other. Koshas are the five layers (literally the sheaths) of our existence: Anamaya Kosha, Physical; Pranamaya Kosha, Energetic (breath); Manamaya Kosha, Mental; Vijnanamaya Kosha, Wisdom; and Anandamaya Kosha, Bliss. My first yoga teacher, Barbara Joseph, described the Koshas as layers of an onion. They are also like the nesting dolls you find in Russia. The metaphor I particularly feel most is that we are each like a lamp, with five lampshades over our light (Atman, the Self). On the one hand, the shades provide the individual beauty of each lamp, but they also obscure the pure light at the core. However you look at it, these Koshas are aspects of ourSelves that together make up our subjective experience of being alive. Sometimes, if we are experiencing on a deep level, closer to our source and core, our physical and mental selves are unsure of how to handle it.

So, I've been contemplating how I could offer insight into something that I'm not an expert on, something that I don't even fully understand myself yet. I find the best way to approach anything unknown consists of two steps: first, using what you do know from your collective experience; Second, meditating on it, or using the amazing gift of observation to gather information that will cultivate more ease at the very least, if not more information. A lot of what I know from my life and what I have worked endlessly on is dealing with uncertainty and loss. From the time I was a small child, I've experienced so much death, drama, trauma and tragedy on an emotional level. It was at every corner, things kept happening that were so difficult to handle and left me vulnerable to wonder what was next, sometimes very stuck in the Manamaya kosha. Stuck in the mind. . . which can cast a great shadow on the physical and energetic level of our being, if we let it. What I've come to learn through patience and awareness only (there's nothing you can DO to make this happen, except WATCH), is that you can allow the mind to guide you deeper.

My teacher, Elena Brower, recently shared with me the words of Mark Whitwell that apply perfectly here. There is nothing to change. See clearly the essential, nurturing force of your current reality. All hardship actually nourishes us by showing us what needs to be revealed, clarified, or released. Through concise, regular yoga practice we remind ourselves of the beneficence always in process within us. The postures are done to create intimacy with our own breathing, to cultivate closeness with ourselves and trust in our own potentialities; to merge with the abundance in our most familiar interactions and relationships.

One of the regulars in my evening classes is also a great teacher to me, as are all of my students. He is someone who is wide open to receive, and has phenomenal experiences and insights during yoga class that he shares with me. Imagine having the physical sensation of your third eye being pulled open and your vision shifting so that you actually see through all form. In those moments where he is experiencing something on an intensely deep level, he is able to let himself go there. This is incredibly scary to do, but it eventually becomes more familiar. He provided me with an amazing idea this week. Our bodies are like the house our spirit lives in, and somewhere along the line, we get restless and start to criticize the architecture of the house. We start to try to force through the walls that have taken years to build. We have forgotten that we are the architects. If we don't like the house, we can change it. If the house needs more space, we can find it. And why would you try to break down the wall, when you can create a doorway instead?

And so I practice. To be in a place where I feel totally grounded in my body, yet total freedom on an energetic level, where I am working with the mind and watching it, following it to a place where I consistently remember all that I need dwells within the wellsprings of my own heart. Practice just watching, noticing patterns, and softening to let shifts occur, rather than forcing change. Using the breath as a reference point to initiate this observation. And finding it with unconditional love, in lieu of any judgment whatsoever.

By practicing this each and every day, knowing some days are better than others, I have created an inner peace and strength, a draw from grace, that carries me through each moment. It doesn't mean that challenges, pains and things I don't understand don't keep flying at me, they sure do. But I am able to repose rather than react, and guide myself to BE WITH the negative or unknown energy until I shift it to positive consciousness.

Jessica Archer

Happy Fall Equinox- September 22, 2009

It is the fall equinox again! Today day and night are in equal balance as we turn towards winter, reaping the harvest from all of the work the earth has done to feed us since spring. The equinox is an ancient time for practicing thanksgiving of whatever gifts life has offered us. Seeing pumpkins at the farms along our beautiful coast side towns reminds us of the offering of abundance the earth naturally gives this time of year.

I am fondly remembering the day a year ago when Joy of Being opened its doors. I remember how effortlessly the space became mine, then how perfectly the universe guided me to work with the right people in creation. Next, the love and support from close friends and family was overwhelming. I was in such gratitude at the time and didn't think it could get better, but it has and in beautiful and unexpected ways. I discovered yoga in a deep and powerful way and understood just how life changing it could be for me personally. Some of the gifts I have received in the last year were challenges like patience and surrender but looking back on them now I realize their positive influences on me.

I continue to receive gifts to this day. Each time I see someone leaving the studio beaming from a yoga class, I am thankful. Each time I am gifted with a new teacher or healer to create with, I am thankful once more. Each time I am able to facilitate my clients connecting with themselves, releasing emotions, tension, fear, muscle pain, stress and finding more peace, I am thankful.

Sometimes we experience less in life than what we hoped or bargained for. We may be feeling darkness or a deep confusion or disconnection. This is only one half of being - one side of the yin/yang puzzle needed to experience the "other" and very necessary for gratitude and balance. Recently I found the new logo for Joy of Being and felt it immediately captures this idea perfectly. We are constantly moving towards integration of opposites - dark and light, joy and sadness, male and female, and the list goes on - when we commit to self exploration through yoga and wellness. The process leading toward wholeness and integration is a part of a lifelong journey moving us towards non-duality and transformation. This work of realizing and connecting with our truest self is never ending, like a wheel or the cycles of the seasons. It is a process to be lived, sometimes endured but we are at choice every moment.

Perhaps the wisest course of action is to think less, BE more, surrender and accept the flow of opposites JOYOUSLY that is always infinitely available to us.

I hope you embrace the gifts being offered to you now with grace and open arms,
Happy Fall Equinox,
Jane