The Weight (of the world) on Your Shoulders?

Well, at least it’s just the weight of YOUR world unless you are a world leader!

So, how do you carry that?  Obviously, you can’t reduce the mass of that necessary part above your shoulders – your head!  So, we need to work with alignment (bones/spine) and muscles.

One student who came to class had ongoing shoulder tension from playing and teaching guitar. After the first class, which I created to include some postures I knew would help him, his shoulder tension was gone.  This was a good motivation for him to work with me for a short personal practice to do on his own, which continues to work well for him.  This has also been effective for several other students after doing a personal shoulder practice for only a week.

My shoulders have never complained much, but they have been a work in progress to address my rounded upper back/excessive kyphosis which has them rounded forward.  Both have improved with consistent and creative practice, as well as other activities like swimming and resistance work to keep things strong and mobile. However, before you start throwing weights around I suggest you understand your shoulder more from yoga practice.  Otherwise, you can injure yourself or create secondary tension in your neck or elsewhere.

We’ll learn some of the best secrets for un-doing that shoulder tension in the Relax Your Shoulders Workshop on July 25.  Like Swami Satchidananda says, “Yoga is not Hindu, it’s UnDo!”

Please join Dawn for a Relax Your Shoulders Online Workshop Sat. July 25 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm PDT.

The practice of loving kindness has been part of my daily meditations. I have started including those in hospitals, ICUs and those taking care of them. They are only a mile away from where I sit, in the comfort of my home. There are a lot of people staying at home and suffering from disease in my neighborhood and everywhere around the globe. There are a lot of people grieving losses of dear ones, jobs, financial security…I open my heart to all.

I would like to express my gratitude to my dear friend and mentor, Eric Gustafson, for inspiring me to do this daily.

Opening the heart and mind these days can be scary.

I face thoughts about my own mortality, the potential of a change at any moment, the possibility of my job as a yoga instructor and health educator with Kaiser Permanente not coming back anytime soon, the changes in relationships in my life that seem unavoidable and painful. The impermanence of life is in plain sight…This will also pass.

I feel that opening the heart and mind is the only way; feeling everything and allowing, accepting, staying present. It is the only way to stay connected with the felt sense of being, the Self. The broader picture of existence sustains me and yet this broader picture cannot exclude the painful and unpleasant. I can no longer run away from the undesirable by avoiding it and I can no longer run after the things that give me temporary relief. The price is too high. The separation anxiety from the source, the Self, is too high a price. I think it might be the root of all anxiety.

I invite you to take a chance and start opening up. Risk this house of sticks we have build for ourselves and extend out into the spaciousness of consciousness. Meditation and prayer are like running a purifier in the polluted air of the mind. We are all interconnected. We do this for each other.

You are welcome to join me for guided meditations on Sunday evenings at 5:30pm.

We might be alone but we are in this together.

-Diana Meltsner
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

Mother Nature, in the role of a stern Mother, has sent us to our rooms! The government may call it “shelter in place”, but from another angle you can see that we are being asked to quit running around and do some serious thinking:  How are we treating Mother Earth?  How are we treating each other?  How are we treating ourselves?

Introspection is the need of the hour. In a spiritual context, it means the sincere examination of our thoughts, feelings, words, actions and motivations in order to keep them uplifted and beneficial. Similar to the niyama Svadhyaya from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, introspection implies that we study scriptures and other trusted sources of wisdom to align our hearts and minds with spiritual values. Only then can we take enlightened action.

We have the unique opportunity, while we are sheltering, to make substantive changes within ourselves.  It’s not enough to make donations or join a demonstration – we also need to look deeply into our minds and patterns to how we may have contributed to the errors of our culture.

A regular meditation practice supports that intention by cultivating an ability to consciously focus our attention in one direction and thus stand apart from our habitual train of thought. Observing the contents of our minds enables us to be less identified with our thinking, thus freeing us from simply trusting and acting on the deep-seated beliefs and ideas ingrained in us from our culture. We can begin to think, speak and act with a more universal purpose in mind.

Why is introspection important? Researchers have shown that we think more than 50,000 thoughts per day, of which more than half are negative and more than 90% are just repeats from the day before.

Just like in your computer, where there are programs working in the background, in our minds there are subconscious programs at work  — often to our detriment.

Introspection and Svadhyaya are honorable practices found in nearly every faith.  Here are a few examples.  Devout Jains engage in a process of repentance for any wrongdoings of their daily life, and remind themselves to refrain from repeating them. In Hinduism, introspection or “self-inquiry” is encouraged in schools such as Advaita Vedanta, in order to realize one’s own true nature.  In Christianity, introspection leads to noetic understanding: a process to access information not available through rational or discursive thought.

How can we begin an introspection practice?

1. Find a quiet space – a place without distractions – and quiet your mind.
2. Ask yourself some open-ended questions:

• Am I using my time wisely?
• What am I taking for granted?
• What worries me most? What am I afraid of?
• Am I holding on to something I need to let go of?
• When did I last push the boundaries of my comfort zone?
• If my body could talk, it would say ….
• What is life asking of me?

3. Self-observe and try not to judge yourself
4. Take notes and reflect on them

My sincere wish is for us to seize this opportunity and use it wisely to further our spiritual growth and actively work to bring about lasting change. Let us find time to educate ourselves and expose the ways we unintentionally contribute to injustice and inequity.

Let us open our minds to the needs of others, free our hearts from selfishness and apply spiritual teachings to our lives in practical ways that transform our culture and bring healing to us all.

The issues of today are issues that humanity has faced since the beginnings of time. Our own country was founded in an act of revolt and uprising against oppressive authority. Upheavals are part of the evolution of our people, and at best they bring a course correction. We hope for that!!
What should an Integral Yogi do, in the face of this situation?

1. Keep calm. Things may very well get worse. Our nation may be permanently damaged. The violence may or may not reach our own neighborhoods. But the heightened tensions will pass, there will be a new normal and we will adjust. Keep calm.

2. Keep the faith. Mother Nature knows what she is doing. A course correction is absolutely necessary, and if this is the form it takes, we accept it. The violence and disruption does not mean that God has left us — quite the contrary. This month is a blip in the Divine Plan which extends for all eternity. Keep the faith.

3. Be open. Listen honestly. Alan Alda says, “Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you.” If we are going to give birth to a better society we will have to learn and change a lot. What are the roots that lead to abuse and oppression? Is it fear, and do we harbor fear in our own minds? Be willing to listen, learn, and be changed.

4. Be the presence of Peace. Whoever you talk to, wherever you go, radiate peace. It is peaceful energy which is the need of the hour. We may not be the leader or genius who will solve the problems, but we can make our contribution with what a yogi does best — and that is Peace. Be the presence of Peace.

5. Have compassion. There is anger and violence on both sides of the issue — and damaged minds. For all those who are suffering, have compassion.

6. Pray. We who have the privilege of safe environments owe it to those who do not. Let us extend ourselves every day to the souls who are living with suffering. Pray, and pray with your whole heart.

7. Stay safe. Try not to expose yourself to unnecessary risk. Make careful choices and stay safe.
The issue of color is born in the unconscious colorings and prejudices in our minds. So let us be humble with the awareness of our own limitation and bias, and let us live with a heightened sensitivity and a deeper love for each other. This is the work of healing. No matter where we are or who we are, this is work we can do — and must do.
OM Shanthi.