yoga

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

Fueling Practice with Intention

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yogablog2Most people come to yoga class for the physical workout.  The body feels alive after moving through the asanas, energy is raised, and we settle into meditation to close practice.

At the beginning of class I like to have my students take a moment to center on the breath and set an intention for their practice.  On the inhale we bring intention into alignment with the breath, on the exhale we extend intention out into the world around us.  Setting an intention as we go into our practice allows us to practice with purpose.  We can also dedicate the energy of our practice to a place in the world, or someone in our lives that might need a little extra energy.  When we move with purpose we have a greater connection to our bodies, our minds and our spirits.

I also recommend my students keep a yoga practice journal.  Writing down the intentions back into the world when we leave our mats.  With each breath we take we pull our intention down into our bodies.  Each out breath pushed intention into the world, and fueled with movement gives birth to creation.  Yoga means “to yoke” or “to unite”, but what are you yoking yourself to.  Often people come to class to escape, or they bring their problems to the mat hoping to work them out.  If you focus on a negative thought as you move through practice you’ll be breathing that thought into all aspects of your being.  Shifting to a positive affirmation allows us to align with purpose and not defeat.

You don’t have to wait for class to set and breathe in intentional space.  Take a moment right now and do this simple meditation:

  • Focus on an intention, a positive word, an affirmation
  • Take a deep breath into the body, down deep into the core of your being
  • Hold the breath for a count of 4
  • Exhale just as deeply as you inhaled, let your intention embrace the reality around you
  • Continue this process for as long as you need.
  • Even just doing this for a single round is powerful.

Doing this process at the start of the day allows you to bring connection into the start of your day, the same is true if you do this before bed and take intention into the dream world.

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

Namaste

Michael A Brazell

http://www.soulinteraction.com

http://www.facebook.com/yogawitch

http://www.michaelbrazell.com

michael@michaelbrazell.com

 

Learning to Trust

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trustThere is an energy of change moving through all of us.  You can feel it in the air, and see in those around you.  I know I’ve been feeling the call for deeper connection to spirit, to my path, and to my practice.  Change is not always a pretty thing, sometimes it is harsh, visceral and can be difficult.

I’ve been going through my own changes over the past few weeks, but thinking back on some of these changes, the seeds were planted years ago.  My life is constantly evolving, and I love this process.  The one thing that I do notice about my life are the things that remain.  There are constants that make up my purpose and are guideposts on my path.  Those constants keep me grounded in moments of change, and as an experiential learner my changes usually are more visceral.

A few days ago I made the decision to leave the yoga studio I’ve been teaching at for over a year and a half.  It was a difficult decision, but one that needed to be made.  I feel that my life is transitioning quickly.  My guides, guardians, souls, angels have been speaking to me with greater frequency, and the message they have been repeating over and over again is:  Trust.

Trust does not come easy.  This is evident in any yoga class.  We often struggle to trust our bodies within the asanas (postures).  We have to learn to trust our instructors, trust our mats, and even trust that the floor will indeed catch us if we fall.  We have to trust that the breath will sync up with the movements, and that we’ll be able to make it through the more challenging postures.  Trust does not come easy, but it comes.  Eventually we forget that we did not have trust, it becomes part of the process, our minds become more at ease… and then we get introduced to new postures, ideas, and concepts that challenge us.. yoga is an action of magick, and extension of trust.

Challenge helps us to identify trust, to encounter her and to sit with difficulty.  Letting go of one part of our lives allows space for new things to enter, and that is where I am finding myself.  I am going be dedicating a lot of time to creating a solid yogawitch.com community and engaging the unfolding path before me.  There is fear, but that is okay.  I trust that what is opening up for me is the most positive and most powerful, because I trust my soul unconditionally.

In the next few weeks I’ll be posting videos, meditations, poetry, spells, and much more.  I also want to hear from all of you!  If there are things that you’d like to see me discuss, videos that you’d like to see, and even if you just want to say hi!  You can contact me via this blog, or at:  theyogawitch@gmail.com

What is trust to you?   What is changing in your experience that causes you to sit with/challenge trust?

As always-

You are Loved.

You are Beautiful.

You are Divine.

Namaste.

Michael A Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.soulinteraction.com

www.blogtalkradio.com/michaelbrazell

Namaste Mudra- Engage the Sacred Elements

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namasteNamaste mudra is a powerful hand position.  We often begin and end our practice with it.  It is also called prayer position.  Namaste is a common salutation that is offered in many yoga classes, it means “I bow to you”.  It is an offering of self to those that share the class and the space with us during our practice.  It is also a term that has grown in popularity thanks to yoga becoming more mainstream.   The hand gesture is a physical extension of this greeting and salutation.

This hand position is much more than meets the eye.  When you are able to create deeper connections to these simple (and often taken for granted actions) you see the power that simple gestures hold.

First the action of bringing the hands to heart center.  Many of us first meet this hand position as children.  When learn to pray into our hands in the hopes that the divine will hear our prayers.  The beautiful thing about this idea is that it is true.  When we pray into clasped hands held at the heart we are praying down into the hear center.  Think of the fingers as the tip of the microphone, and the heart being the seat of the soul (or that place where God Herself sits within us).  Praying into the heart center is taking the prayer into the body so that the divine can hear it, and since we are extensions of divine will we hear our own prayers, and so does God too.

The five fingers in namaste mudra represent the five sacred elements as they move through us.  Sacred air as it moves through our lungs.  The sacred fire that burns deep within our hearts.  The fluidity of our blood, bones, muscles and joints.  Sacred earth as it supports, grounds and protects us.  Spirit as it move in and through us.  Bringing the hands to the heart in this position is bringing awareness and connection to those primal elements that make up our sacred being.

The all that is within me, acknowledge and bows to the all that is within you.

Take a look at these simple actions.  See the power in all of our gestures, and look for meanings beyond the initial layers of experience.

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

Namaste.

Michael A. Brazell

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.blogtalkradio.com/michaelbrazell

www.facebook.com/yogawitch

 

The Yoga of Falling Down

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fall2One of the things I see most often in the yoga classes I teach is the frustration that so many feel when it comes to balance, or to getting the new postures just right.  There is a “perfection” mindset that a lot of people bring to their mats that can add a lot of resistance to their progress and their path.

What a lot of people do not realize it that all the falling, the being off-balance, and the struggle is where the real yoga lives.  Once we own a posture the work to get there is done.  It is in all the off-balance, catching ourselves states of being that the body, mind and the spirit are working in overtime.  When you are off-balance the senses heighten, the core engages to stabilize you, the breath becomes engaged to add power, and spirit shines through when we get back up and keep trying.

 

Yoga is beautifully frustrating.

 

We live in a culture where we see beautiful people doing a lot of perfect asana (postures) on the cover of magazines and in videos.  We often take these images to our classes and our mats.  I feel that it is our job as instructors to help guide each student the beauty that is found in imperfection.  Our bodies are beautiful when the move through the postures.  Yoga is not about being perfect, yoga is about showing up.  Yoga means “to yoke” or “to unite”.  Showing up is always the hardest part, and anything beyond that is icing on the cake.  Frustration is also not a bad thing.  It keeps us moving through the postures, it keeps us evolving our craft, our practice.  We learn to open up to the divine that rests in the process.  When we show up to class we want to be sure that we are setting an intention.  That we move through the postures and carry that intention into all our many parts.  We want to embody the intention fully.  Our bodies become conduits for energizing intention, our breath aligns and fuels will and desire.  When we finish our practice we meditate and move intention into reality.

Falling down is an important part of the yoga process.   What we do in class is an extension of what we do outside of class.  A simple meditation that can be done in a yoga class is to sit with the action of falling or coming off-balance.  Reflect on a time in your life where you may have fallen, or were shifted off-balance.  Bring that image back to your practice and bring balance to that past event.  If there is something in your current life that is causing you to be off-balance, bring it to the mat.  The intention of bringing balance into that area of your life will live on once you leave class.  Life is not something we leave with our shoes when we enter the yoga studio, nor is yoga something we leave on our mats when we go back out into our busy lives.  Using your yoga to help generate energy for the other areas of your life help you to unite with all aspects of self.

When is a time where you felt off-balance?  How did you react?  What can you do right this moment to bring balance into your life?

Falling is a beautiful thing.  Fall with grace and rise with power.

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

 

Michael A. Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.blogtalkradio.com/michaelbrazell

www.facebook.com/yogawitch

Engage Your Inner Warrior: Standing in Balance

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Many of us are entering this new year shedding off the old.  The dust is finally settling and it is time for us to move into greater states of connection with what we want from life.  So, here are a few questions to sit with:  What do you want from life?  What are you doing to achieve it?  What is your resistance to making these desires manifest?

As we move into this new year I want to bring a bit of warrior energy into our practice.  In yoga, warrior postures take us into places of strength, balance, focus.   I will however point out that too often we hold these posture with too much rigidity.  Warriors have to be flexible, they have to move with the elements, with life itself.   Engaging the practice of asana work helps us to embody the warrior.  When we move our bodies into a posture that represents our warrior nature we are calling that force into all of our parts.

Here is a quick and simple mediation that you can do to help you find balance.

Warrior 2-

Step one leg forward into a lunge.  Your back foot is at a slight 45 degree angle.  Your front knee is either above the ankle or slightly behind.  You can lessen the intensity of the lunge depending on your fitness level.  Your hips are turned outward.  One hand is moving forward, the other back.  Look forward and back and your hands should be aligned through the center plane.  Here is a video to help work your into the posture:

Once in the poster here is a meditation to help you get the most from the power of this posture:

This warrior posture represents standing in the center.  Being fully in balance and in control of our experience.

STR_Warr2

While standing in warrior two, listen to your body.   Where is your mind drifiting?  How does your body feel standing in the posture, do you feel strong, weak, small, big?  Sit with these thoughts as they come up.   Where do you need warrior energy in your life?

Now shift your focus to the rear hand:

STR_Warr2

What in your past is still binding you?   Do you find yourself drifting through the your past?   Where do you feel that you need balance in your past experience?   Send light and energy through your fingertips to those areas of your life.

Now Take your focus to the front hand:

STR_Warr2

Where in your current experience do you feel bound?  What do you feel about your future, does it bring fear or joy?   Where in your current experience do you need energy, balance, strength?  Send energy through your fingertips to those parts of your life that need it?

Switch sides and do the same thing with the opposite side forward.  This becomes a practice of balancing our bodies and engaging the mind/body/ and spirit connection.   After you do this practice, take a few moments to journal your experience.  What thoughts came to mind?  What came up for you?  Do you feel powerful, do you feel like a warrior?  If not, touch the solar plexus, ask the body what it needs in order to bring that energy into your life?

Blessed be warriors!   Practice, connect, love, and stand in your power!

and remember… You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Michael A. Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

www.facebook.com/yogawitch

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.soulinteraction.com

theyogawitch@gmail.com

Daily Practice: Keep a Yoga Journal

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journalingWhen we head out for our yoga classes, we pack our mats, our bags and even blocks, but we often forget to pack our journals.   The practice of journaling your yoga experience can really help you to embody the practice of yoga.  There is a lot that happens during a yoga session, and regardless of the type or style of yoga you are engaging it is important to catalog and dialogue with our practice.

Yoga is also much more than what happens on the mat, and being able to harness the power of our practice to move through our “off-mat” lives helps us to be unified with our actions, intentions and emotions.

I have always found journaling to be a powerful tool for assessing and dealing with emotions that come up.   Having a journal is like having a trusted friend that is there to listen, to help us process, and to help us connect to something below the surface.   If you are not currently keeping a journal I would really encourage starting one.  I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of what type of journal you should carry with you, but I personally prefer hand writing out my journals.  If you are going to be using your journal in your yoga class, I would encourage a paper journal and then you can transfer to your e-device.

Here are some things to consider including in your yoga journal:

  • What postures challenge you?
  • What external challenges are reflected to you by the posture?
  • What postures feel really good?  (This one is especially good if you are feeling deep release or relax from a posture being able to re-create that out of class will be important.)
  • What intention are you bringing into your practice?
  • What is yoga doing for you during this session?
  • Are there things in your life that yoga helps you move through?  How?
  • What emotions are you feeling during the class?   Which postures evoke those emotions?
  • Are you currently using a mantra?  What have the effects of that mantra been on your life?
  • What is the hardest part about yoga for you?
  • What is the easiest?

These are just a few questions, and I’ll dissect some of these as blog posts in the future.  You can also just write a list of gratitude, or doodle, draw, etc there really is not a right or wrong way to journal… the idea is to get energy moving and to capture your progress on all levels.  One of the things that I love about my older journals is being able to see my growth, to see what yoga helped me work through.

Mantras are also powerful magical tools.   Choosing to engage and stick with a mantra practice, and then seeing what effect that mantra is having on your life will let you capture those experiences for reflection.

You can also write quotes, intentions and ideas that you want to take into your practice with you.  You can also dedicate the energy of your practice to individuals, places and things in the world that might need a little extra push of energy.  Writing those down helps us to solidify the dedication of energy, and then as we carry our journals with us we also carry those we care for.

What is your favorite type of journal?

What is your journaling process?

Do you have resistance to journaling?  Can you identify the resistance?

What do you journal about?

Feel free to share int the comments below!

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

Michael A. Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

www.michaelbrazell.com

michael@michaelbrazell.com

 

Sacred Space on the Go

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sacred_space2I often dream of taking a yoga retreat to beautiful Costa Rica.  I imagine the sacredness of the beach, the water, the jungle…but the reality of life says.. Make due with what you have.  We live in a hectic world.  Life seems to call us from a multitude of angles, and we may feel as if we are pulled between home life, work life, and our spiritual life.  Finding balance is key to having an integrated life.  Taking mini-retreats or finding simple sacred moments throughout your day or life is one way to help balance the hectic and the sacred.

How do we define sacred space?   For me, sacred space is any place where the divine and I can sit for a few moments and enjoy each others presence.  We may have altars at home, temples or churches that we visit, but what about during the day or when we are away from home?  Creating sacred space is simple, and it is possible to drop into sacred spaces during our day.   I thought I would take a few moments to share a few ideas to create sacred spaces in hectic times.

Yoga Mat as Sacred Space:   Yoga is a sacred practice.  Many of us that do yoga own yoga mats.  Doing yoga on that mat infuses it not only with your energy, but the energy of your practice.  Yoga mats are extremely portable and many of us carry them with us through our day between yoga class and home.  One simple way to create sacred space with your yoga mat is to roll it out and meditate while sitting or laying on it.  The mind and body have a connection to the mat.  When you lay or sit on it the body remembers the familiarity and the practice you engage in while using that mat.  This allows you to drop gently between the worlds without doing more that rolling out your mat.  Go to a park, conference room, storage area, or any space that allows you to get away for a few moments.

Journal as Sacred Space:  Journals are places where many of us spill the innermost aspects of our being into written word.  We allow our soul to step into this realm through our pens, so in essence the journal is a sacred space.  There are times when I simply open my journal and stare at the page in front of me.  This allows me to disconnect from the world around me and lets me just be in the energy of the empty page.  I allow myself to be appreciative of the potential that blank page holds.  If I choose to write, it deepens the experience, if I don’t, it becomes a visual meditation practice.  I recommend carrying a small notebook in your back pocket for this purpose.

Close Your Eyes:  It’s simple.  When we close our eyes and tune into the sound of our beating heart.  The movement of the breath through our lungs.  We enter the void of darkness that sits right inside.  We can stay there for just a few moments, or we can sit there for as long as we need.  This is the simplest way to drop into sacred space, but often the one that is overlooked.

The divine is with us constantly.  Take a few moments to invite the divine into your life and allow every moment to be sacred.

Where do you find sacred space?   What do you do to CREATE sacred space for yourself away from home, at work, or on the go?

You are loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Move Your Body to Let Spirit Move You

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In yoga we often greet the rising sun with Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations).  This sequence of postures allows the body to move stagnant energy out of the joints.  The spine warms up, the body builds heat, and the heart center becomes more open.

Body movement is one of the easiest ways to engage spirit.  Movement is something we hear a lot about in most spiritual circles.  We talk about moving energy, energy moving during healing, movement of spirits between dimensions, but often we overlook the simplest….. moving our own bodies.

Physical body movement can be anything from drumming to dancing, yoga postures to QiGong, Circle Dancing, to free flow body movement.  You do not have to be a skillful dancer to put on a bit of music and let it take you to a meditative space… Move your voice, sing… Move your hands (mudras), move your thoughts (contemplation).  There are many ways to move, and when we move we invite spirit into the physical, the tangible, and we can deepen our connection this way.

What moves you?  Where do you find movement in your spiritual practice?

 

You are Loved, You are Beautiful, You are Divine!

Michael A Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

http://www.michaelbrazell.com