Month: July 2013

YW Tools: Mala Magic

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971372_10200882952229302_596666516_nJapa malas are one of the tools in the yoga witch’s tool kit.  Japa malas are beads that allow us to focus our prayers.  The number of beads is traditionally 11, 27, 54 or 108.  This allows for focused intention, prayer, and concentration for a set number of cycles.  Some Yoga Witches will have a different mala for different intentions.  In the picture you’ll see a mala that I made in celebration of the Goddess Kali.  Malas help us to engage tactile meditation.  They allow us to hold that sacredness in our hands, we can feel the beads moving through out fingers as we say our prayers.  There are times when I simply hold my beads next to my heart, next to my cheek, or gently rub then in my palms.  When we do this type of prayer there is repetition which often induces a light trance state.

There really is not a specific prayer that has to be used when doing mala work.  You can simply pick a word that you want to connect to.  Saying the word “love” 108 times, or saying a phrase “I am Love and I am Light”.   You can even say full prayers on each bead of the mala.  I personally change my focus daily, but the mala also holds consistency, and it is easy for me to show up to.  I often view my mala as a mobile altar, it is always with me, I can hold it, and it holds me.

Malas can come in a variety of materials, so find one that you connect with.  You may connect with stone, or a particular texture.  I have even seen beads that have been made of crushed and smoothed out rose petals, and as you do the prayer the mala holds the light scent of roses.  Sandalwood is a great mala to help cool tempers.  The sandalwood scent is light, and if you are wearing it around your neck as your body heat rises (which often rises in proportion to temper) it gently reminds you too cool down.   Making your own mala/rosary is actually easier than you might thing.  I’ll be posting a video on this in the next few weeks, so be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel.  You can pick the beads that will help  you focus on intention, purpose, and you’ll feel much more connected to the energy of the beads.

So here are some Mala Magic FlowCasting Techniques that I use, feel free to modify these to fit your circumstances:

  1. If you are making your own mala, say a prayer on each bead as you string it.   You are building a relationship with the mala as you do this, what are you saying to it as you make it, what are you hoping it will say to you?  I hold each bead up to my lips as I slid it onto the string, each bead is touched with the breath, the prayer and it “breathes life” into the mala as it is created.
  2. One thing that a lot of people do not realize is that after you have charged your mala with an intention it holds that intention permanently.  If you have a mala that you are charging with love, or healing you can use it in your healing work.  I once had a friend that needed healing and was having a hard time connecting to that sacred place within himself, so I charged a mala with Reiki and loving words.  I let him borrow the mala so that it could help create the sacred space for healing to flow.  Be creative, malas, like other magical tools, are an extension of our magic.
  3. USE IT, don’t just wear it.  Malas are becoming more like jewelry than prayerful companions.  If you are going to wear it, charge it with intention, with purpose.  Remember these are powerful tools for magic, treat them well and they will return the favor.
  4. If you are purchasing a mala for the first time, take your time in making the choice.  Feel the beads, check the cord, rub it together in your hands.  What does the sound bring up?  What does the smell bring up?  When you finally connect to your mala, say a round of prayers on it to charge it with your energy.  This is the best way to clean the mala of any residual energies.

I’ll be posting more Mala Magic FlowCasting and videos in the weeks to come, so stay tuned!

You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine

Namaste, and Blessed Be.

Mike

The Practice of Gratitude

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gratitudeYou only need to do a quick Google search on the “science of gratitude” to see that there is power in being thankful.

Many spiritual teachers (myself included) often assign gratitude journals to help us look for those things to be grateful for daily.  When we move into a place where we be in gratitude for the smallest things we can shift patterns, thoughts, and limitations in the moment.

One of the struggles that I see in this exercise is that we often try to force the practice.  We open our journals, and we sit.. stare at the blank page, tap our pens… and feel the resistance that is sometimes present in spiritual work.  One way to breakthrough this is to start where you are, “I am thankful for this journal, I am thankful for the ears that allow me to hear the tapping of this pen… (then deeper), I am thankful for my resistance, I am thankful for the thoughts that are moving in my mind, I am thankful for my struggles today and I am thankful for the contrast they offer my life, I am thankful for life…”

You can also write the same things more than once.   Our tendency is to try to find new things everyday to be grateful for… doesn’t have to be so.  Try to take the circle of gratitude outward, but do so when you are ready.

We have our journals, we have our affirmations, and most of that exists in the conceptual.  We have found gratitude, now it is time to extend it and to LIVE it.  Sharing gratitude is powerful, and makes it real.  Saying, “Thank you” to those you encounter, saying to loved ones, “I am grateful for you.”, doing acts of kindness without expectation of return, all allow us to experience gratitude.  When we take gratitude off the paper and out of the mind it becomes real.

What are you grateful for today?  How are you going to Live Gratitude today?

You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Namaste and Blessed Be.

Mike

 

Finding Stillness

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thIn a world that is moving at the speed of thought, where do you find stillness?  How do you define this sometimes elusive concept?

I find stillness in yoga.  There is movement occurring with my body, but my mind and my awareness are centered within.  There is stillness on my mat, the earth she holds my space and keeps it sacred.  I can feel the space between the inhale and the exhale, and stillness rests there.

I also find stillness in the hustle and bustle.  Every morning I get on the metro train and make my way to work.  I like closing my eyes and getting lost in the rumble of the train, the ambient noise of those around me, feeling whole within that presence.  Sometimes stillness is not about holding ourselves apart from the world, but going into it more fully.

There are times when we need to rest the senses, to take a break, to reconnect to self.  This can be as simple as a warm soak in the tub, or taking a trip into solitude.

How do you define stillness, and where do you find it?  Where does it find you?

You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Namaste.

Mike-

Touching Oneness

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onenessThe other day at the metaphysical shop I manage I had the joy and opportunity to talk to one of customers about oneness, and what it means to be connected to “the all”.

The conversation started with him asking me about meditating and using meditation to enter into higher states of consciousness and alternate realities.  Usually when someone brings this type of discussion to the table my first question is, “Why do you want to go to those places?”   His response was, “Because I want to feel like I am one with everything.”

Often in “new age” paradigms we look at these “jumps” in consciousness as ways to access a higher state of connection to those around us, to the world, or to God Herself.   Ram Dass states it best, that as we move “up” through these realities we are actually just entering into other states of illusion.

So, as we sat, I aligned my souls, and asked my intuition what the best answer would be in this situation, and this is what she said:

“Beloved, as your feet touch this beautiful earth you are connected to all that is.  As your lungs take in the air that sustains your life force you are connected to all that is.  All that is exists here, and now.  The leave the beauty of this reality is to escape true oneness, here oneness is tangible.  When you leave the body, the oneness you are feeling is temporary, brief, and powerful.  Your purpose is to find that same connection here.”

We both sat with this for a few moments, and took a deep breath… made a point to feel the earth beneath our feet and appreciated the oneness we were able to encounter.

We often forget that we live life in this reality.  We have to find those moments of connection here in this plane of existence.  Everything on earth is connected beneath our feet, our sacred Mother Earth holds all.  Our breath is our shared religion.  We all breathe and share the air around us.  The universe pulses to that primordial exhale, that big bang of creation, the inhale was the gathering of the forces needed, and here we are… an extension of that initial orgasmic breath.

Here is a quick exercise to embrace the oneness all around you:

  • Stop and breathe deeply.
  • Exhale just as deeply.
  • Feel the earth beneath your feet.
  • Take a slow step forward, feeling your foot fully connect to the earth.
  • Now the other foot.
  • Breathe in.  Feel connected fully to the air filling your lungs
  • Breathe out.  Feel the air you exhale fill the space around you.
  • Feel the limitless earth kissing your feet.  Feel the presence of all that walks this earth, all that has come before, all that will come after.
  • Feel the air around you embracing the limitless space around and above you.

You are Loved. You are Beautiful. You are Divine.

Namaste and Blessed Be.

Mike

 

 

Defining Wellness

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What is wellness, it is a word that we hear tossed around a lot in fitness, nutrition and spiritual circles, so let’s take a deeper look.
Wellness (as defined by dictionary.com)
1.the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort.
2.an approach to healthcare that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging life, as opposed to emphasizing treating diseases.
wellness2There is a reason the fitness industry is a multibillion dollar a year industry fitness and wellness are overwhelming topics.  Even in the above definition you will see several trigger words that can often act to cause confusion and a surrendering of power to those you think know more than you.  When engaging fitness, wellness and nutrition it is of course important to seek out guidance and information, but we MUST still engage our intuition and discernment.  Too often do I see people toss out intuition and discernment with the promise of quick results, and impossible goals.  In the above definition you see the following:  state of being healthy, deliberate effort, and prolonging life.  These phrases are ones that can cause the most confusion when making the decision to move into a place of greater health and well-being.
One of the first things that you should do is make a commitment to YOU.  What are your reasons for wanting to move into greater states of health.  If you do not have a journal by now YOU SHOULD. Journals and logs are your best friends on the spiritual journey, and fitness/wellness are part of that journey.
Keeping a journal is one of the first ways to bring wellness into your life.  A commitment to daily logging of your calories, your workout routines, but also your intentions, moments of gratitude, your emotions, insights, dialogue with your intuition, anything and everything.  A journal is sacred space, and too many of us keep a separate journal for each aspect of our lives, this can often divide us.  Keeping one journal (for at least a while) where you write everything allows you to get an overall picture of where you are.  I know many people like keeping electronic journals, but often with these you only get narrow focus on what is right in front of you, non-electronic journal allows you to flip forward and back, to shift around, add notes to, cross things off.
One of the reasons I am stressing the importance of a journal is that you’re going to need it for the next part of this blog.
In order to move into wellness, healthy living, and fitness you’ll first have to define what these are to you.
What does healthy living mean to you, what does it look like, feel like, and what would it take for you to move in that direction?   These are questions to meditate on in your journal.  Contemplative meditation allows us to arrive at our own definitions.  When we OWN wellness, fitness, and health we can begin embodying those principles.  We know where we are, and are less likely to linger in murky waters.  Remember also that your definitions can change daily, and should.  As you grow and evolve on your path to wellness, so will your definitions.  What changes are you making, and what is changing you.  Some days emotions may dictate you take a day off, others those same emotions may dictate a powerful workout to burn off energy.
What are your intentions for moving towards wellness, fitness and healthy living?   Intentions are more important than goals.  Often when it comes to fitness we set goals that may seem impossible, “I am going to lose 15lbs in 3 days!”, or “I am going to work out 7 days a week for 6 hours a day” or any number of the passing fads that present false promises and unrealistic goals.  Intentions are much deeper, they are in the moment, they have greater purpose and we can live them now.  An example would be “Today, my intention for my great work of wellness is to love myself through the movement of my body, to nourish myself with greens, and to breathe in this moment fully.”  Intentions can be single words that you carry with you through the day, “Today I carry love in all my actions, thoughts, words, movements, and nourishment”.  Find what works for you.  Setting intention allows us to have a place to start, it allows it to show up daily and to commit to our life fully.  In a later article I’ll talk about setting positive/healthy goals that are in alignment with your intentions.
Make lifestyle changes.  Wellness and Fitness are a way of life.  When you feel healthy, whole, and nourished you are able to rest more fully, engage your life with more passion, and wield magic from a place of full power.  Your journal allows you to look back on your journey, to see where you were, where you are growing, and where your struggles exist.  It allows you to find appreciation and compassion for ourselves.
In coming articles I’ll take these ideas deeper, we’ll move towards lifestyle changes, and as always feel free to post your questions in the comment section below.
What holds you back from moving towards health, wellness, and fitness?
How do you define health?  Wellness? Fitness?  Are these definitions mutable or are they rigid?
You are ALL loved.  You are ALL Beautiful.  You are ALL Divine
Namaste and Blessed Be.
Mike Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

Getting In the Flow and Honoring the Path

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Getting into the flow.  We use this phase a lot in yoga, and it often pokes its head up in other spiritual circles.  What does it mean to be in the “flow”?

For me, being in the flow means honoring my many parts, coming into alignment with self, and engaging my path fully.   In honoring my path, I am streamlining, focusing and giving attention to those parts of self that need to be watered and fed.  This blog is one of those parts of me that I am going to start breathing new life into.  I am also going to be doing a new show on my BlogTalk Channel focusing specifically on what it means to be a Yoga Witch.

I am also going to make this a place where we can grow as a community, as a family, to learn to make magic of our yoga, and to let our yoga be the embodiment of our great work.

I want to hear from you.  What are things you’d like to hear about?  The topics can be nutrition, fitness, spirituality, witchcraft, healing, etc?  Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments section below, and I’ll be checking back frequently.

I am also planning on doing book and video reviews, and posting meditations and yoga flow sequences.

When the time for growth, evolution, and change presents itself it can be a scary venture.  This is the time to step into power, and to claim who we are fully.

What are you resisting?  What are you honoring?  What helps you step into power?

 

You are all Loved.  You are All Beautiful.  You are all Divine!

 

Namaste

Mike