A new day; a clear vision

Wow does time fly when I my only nutritional intake is vegetable juice and tea!

Since I was last posting, I have adventured both inside my body and outside. On the inside I have been cleansing and working an amazing piece around my vision for my future. On the outside, i took a little road trip up the California coast to Point Arena to visit a friend on an amazing piece of property. A couple friends from Kauai gathered as well and we shared a moment of play and reflection, nurturing our body, mind and spirit. I left here feeling like I was gone from my daily grind for a week or more and it had only been 48 hours or less. Talk about rejuvenative! Time disappeared as we drank tea in the misty clouded mornings, watching the wind blow the redwoods and waist tall grasses. Time managed to stay away while we lined up in the dance studio on the property, all four of us actively engaged in our own yogic/healing practice. We played in a local river that cleansed the seasonal build-up of our lives, and skipped stones like kids while sharing stories of our trials and tribulations of our past. We ate simply. Clean deliberate meals made with fresh ingredients and most importantly, love. We soaked in the indoor tub and stood under the rushing cold spring water to shock those toxins out. We basked in the sweet playfulness of our connections and then we all went our separate ways. Back to the daily lives, which for all of us, really isn't a stretch from our time together in the Mendicino retreat.

As you read you may sigh as you long for time like this. Time where you can breathe and relax without feeling like you are letting your guard down too much. Time where the kids are silent and playing peacefully, or time when the phone has finally stopped ringing. Ahh, the triggers and trials of our modern lives!

The reason this little retreat was not so far from our daily lives is because we choose to live each of our moments walking with this presence. We choose to simply show up in the most clear vision of our selves possible. Our lives in the daily grind are filled with the same triggers of emotions and honking irritable drivers as yours. It isn't like we are living in some rainbow filled utopia with flutes playing in the background, like those silly pharmaceutical antihistamine commercials. We just take that little extra fraction of a second in one of those triggered moments to breathe and know that whatever the situation is, it is not about me. It is someone or something else that is having a moment of expression with their emotions. If you can let their emotion pass right by you and wish them clarity for their moment, there is no transfer of emotional negativity. It is good to recognize and empathize, but refrain from taking the emotions on. They are not yours, plain and simple. They belong to the other person. Now, if it is a situation that spurs the trigger, keep breathing. This too will pass. Having an attachment to an outcome leaves inflexibility when opportunity arises in the least expected forms. Yes, easier said than done, but I look forward to sharing some of those easing processes with you all in days to come.

In the mean time, The BEST place to start is to find ways IN your daily life to find that peace you find while on a "vacation". First, identify the things that will get you breathing deeper with more conscious awareness of your breath. Find natural ways of decompression. Sluggin down a six pack of organic ale is not what I mean by "natural". We are talking about regenerative, nutritive movements. Take a yoga class once a week, Take a walk when you get home from work instead of sitting down in front of the TV. Make a beautiful meal. Second, whatever they may be, Make time for them! Also know that the more you are consciously aware of your present moment, the easier it gets to find moments to fill with all the goodness that takes you back into that peace. I find cooking does that for me. So does my morning yoga/meditation/qi gong practice. If you are finding it difficult to create the extra time for a daily practice of some sort, let go of what you may think of a "practice." I "practice" while sipping my tea, or while driving. It is simply an act of conscious breathing. This connects the mind/thoughts with the body while creating a space of peace for the spirit to come back to.

All in all, in each moment we breathe. We have little choice in this matter. We can choose to stop breathing, but unless we are very practiced in a couple esoteric traditions, we loose consciousness quickly. Choose to use each breath as an opportunity to reconnect with your self. This is the easiest way of getting to know yourself so that you can begin to fill your moments with the peace you are looking for. We continue to live the grind of modern day life, but as we change the way we breathe, we change the way we live, and we fill our lives with sooooo much more gratitude and love. The daily grind then changes as well. It becomes so reminiscent of our peacefull love filled retreat time.