The Royal Wedding 4-29-11

                 Ahhh, Love, Relationship, Intimacy:  the Flower of the Fourth Chakra

Today much of the world population was glued to their television sets to watch as a handsome prince married his beloved beautiful princess -- the basic right of the Fourth Chakra, to love and be loved.

Seems very simple.  But we all know the tragic end of the other royal wedding of thirty years ago.  Love doesn't always turn out the way we intend.  So often, the promises made with such fervor, are somehow lost along the way.  

But our deep longing for love, relationship, and intimacy, is what seizes our collective psyche, and makes us watch, makes us long for the young couple, so full of hope and promise, to succeed.

Second Chakra stirs our emotions and our loins.  The energy of Svadhisthana (sweetness) is about desire and pleasure.  Fourth Chakra is a whole other world.  Here we must be very brave.  Here we risk knowing the other and ourselves through (as Joseph Campbell called it) the ordeal of marriage (or committed relationship).   This is a journey to the heart of the Self and we act as mirror for the other as we go.  Here we must be vulnerable, we must trust and open and heal the wounds of the heart, finding through its mazes and mysteries the talent of the Fourth Chakra:  Compassion.

OPEN UP YOUR HEART 4-25-11

    Welcome to the Fourth Chakra!  Finding the Balance in Love.

We've completed the the first three chakras, known as the lower triangle -- now we are at the balance point between the lower and the upper triangles.  We are at the Heart Chakra -- Anahata, meaning unstuck -- in the element of Air.  The color is Green.

These are the issues we'll be exploring during the next forty days:
Love
Balance
Self-Love
Relationship
Intimacy
Anima/Animus
Devotion
Reaching out and taking in

The basic right of the Heart Chakra is to love and be loved.
The talent is Compassion.

Here is an exercise to open the heart:
1. Sitting, stretch out arms in front of you, parallel to floor, palms pressed firmly together, elbows straight.
2. Inhale deeply through nose, open arms wide in a large expansive gesture.
Feel your heart center open, expand your lungs, arms back as far as they can go.
Feel the stretch across the chest, under the arms, the ribs, down the arms to the fingertips.
3. When arms are stretched as far as they can go, shoulder blades almost touching, begin exhaling powerfully through the nose and bring arms back to original position, palms together.
4. Do the movement 26 times, eyes closed, concentrating at the third eye point.  As you inhale vibrate Sat.  On the exhale vibrate Nam.  Sat Nam, I am Truth or True Identity.
Move at a moderate pace.

And here is our forty day meditation to be done three to eleven minutes each day:
1.  Sitting in easy pose, legs crossed, spine straight.
2. Extend arms straight out to sides, parallel to ground.  Bend elbows so forearms form a 90 degree angle straight up.  Palms flat, facing forward.
3. Close eyes, concentrating at third eye point.  Inhale deeply through nose -- on exhale make the sound "Hummmmm."  Allow this healing current to resonate through the face, beginning with the lips, which are pressed together gently like two petals.
This sound current moves us from individual consciousness to divine love, connecting to the Infinite through the heart center.

Your heart has not to open to others.
Your heart has to open to yourself.
                                 Yogi Bhajan

Last Day 3rd Chakra 4-24-11

One of my boldest, most authentic, and courageous, steps toward my Self, was coming to New Mexico twenty-seven years ago.  Against the cautionary advice and pleas of family and friends to reconsider, or “just rent” for a while, see if you really like it.  It’s a long way away.  It’s the wild wild west!  Are you really really sure?

Well, no.  Who is ever really sure?  I believed it was the right step for me  in the moment -- and it was just a moment.  The moment a tiny window opened in time and I jumped through before it slammed shut behind me.  I had to be quick.  I had to be bold.  I had to act before I came to my senses, my right mind.  I had to take a chance, step away from all that I knew, had ever known, and enter the unknown -- the new, the untested.  

I did.  And never looked back.

We’re leaving Third Chakra today.  We’ve gained the right to act and be an individual. We’ve wrestled with the devils of anger and shame and given up the attachment to being safe.  I hope you have become stronger in yourself these last forty days.  Personally, I’ve made my commitment to continue strength and fitness training--underpinned, of course, by my yoga and meditation practice.  

Let the fire continue to burn as we now learn to open our hearts!

INDIVIDUATION 4-23-11

                                  ONLY CHILD

you close your legs tight
to keep me from being born
to keep me always with you

you feed me from the umbilical cord
the breast
so i'll only know nourishment that comes filtered through you

you squeeze me back in every time i try to get out
i should have been born in february
an aquarian
freedom-loving
independent
rebellious
but it's nearing the ides of march
and still i wait in my watery tomb

and every time i leave it's just like the first time
i have to be cut from you
i have to hear the sound of your flesh as it rips
i have to see the gaping hole and the bright red blood
i have to know what i've done to you for being born
for becoming myself
for daring to leave you
mother

Energy 4-19-11

Well, I've admitted this is the hardest chakra for me -- and it seems to be for others I've heard from or talked to.  What is it about stepping into our own power that is so difficult?  I know I can make a commitment with the most fervent intent, and then poof, it disappears.  Then I can feel bad bad and guilty and make all kinds of negative sounds about myself.  What a circle to be in!!!

Yogi Bhajan said that commitment is your only friend.  Pretty powerful statement.  My only friend?  Really?

It turns out that's so true.  Everything and everyone can evaporate from your life, but if you have a deep commitment to your Self, then you can live in Grace. The commitment is to the Divine and that's the first place it needs to be.  Anything else can follow after that.

So I'm working on building my energy to stick with my commitment -- to my meditation, to yoga, and to getting fit and strong (in all ways!).  I thank those of you I've heard from -- it sure helps me generate energy when I know you're all out there doing it too!

Ladies and Gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES!

C'mon, fan that flame!  We're twenty-two days into the third chakra, we need fire!

So, we're twenty-two days in and I haven't made a commitment yet.  What's up with that?

During the First Chakra I did a cleanse for three weeks -- in the Second Chakra, I took a creative course (learned PhotoShop -- well began to learn PhotoShop) -- but here I am more than three weeks in and I've yet to declare.  And talent of FC is COMMITMENT.

So my fire has not been raised enough.  I've been unwilling or unable to grab hold of something and say -- I'm doing this!  With my whole Self behind it.  Grrrr.

But today, I'm declaring.  I'm going to get fit -- not lose weight so I can fit into my favorite summer clothes, but get fit, strong, empowered!  But here's the deal -- we're in Mercury Retrograde.  What luck!
No, I'm not giving an excuse.  Here's my plan:  (I'm committing here and now) -- Mercury goes direct on April 23 -- that's just the day before we enter Fourth Chakra.  During the next couple of weeks I'm going to begin, but not officially.  I'm going to be planning some activities, ie, treadmill, weights, hiking, biking, swimming, dancing -- not all at once and not all the time, but making a schedule which I intend to do for the rest of this course -- that's November 10th.  These activities will be in addition to my yoga and meditation, of course (that's the corner stone).

I'll keep posting, letting you know.  I sure would appreciate some encouragement!
Let me know if you'd like to join me in this....xxmf