“Its hard to leave my job because I get health benefits. Funny thing is, before this job, I didn’t need health benefits.”
It’s not the first time I’ve heard something like this. Follow your bliss! Life is way too short!
Author: Gloria
Gloria Latham is one of the most influential forces of Yoga Teacher Training globally. She is a Lululemon Global Ambassador, and founder of Semperviva Yoga Studios. She is best known for her week long transformational programs that help students powerfully break through barriers, and her high vibing Yoga Raves. Gloria worked as a licensed pharmacist for almost ten years before discovering true health through the practice of yoga and meditation.
Resurrection~ Come Back to Life
Resurrection is defined as, “The act of rising from the dead or returning to life.”
This might be what you long for after extended periods of stress. You want to rise from this exhausted/deadened state and come back to life. Resurrection seems like an appropriate topic for Easter. Whether you celebrate Easter or not, springtime is a time of resurrection, renewal, and rebirth…rather aptly symbolized by this holiday.
What part of you needs to be resurrected?
What aspects of yourself have you left behind?
Did you leave behind the artist, the dancer, the lover?
What used to bring you joy?
What are the things you can do to bring yourself back to life?
Dance more, sing more, love more, give more, live more
When You’re Ready
When you are ready to look you will see.
When you are ready to listen you will hear.
When you are ready to love with your heart wide open you will be loved.
What’s Your Mission?
I’m a big fan of taxi drivers.They have interesting stories to share about their city and its people, and great political insights into their countries of origin. Their work also turns them into good judges of character.
Today’s taxi ride helped my clarify my mission.
I’ve just left the Yoga Journal Conference in San Francisco. My weekend was full of inspiring workshops and teachers.
From time to time, I’d ask myself, “As a teacher, what is it I really want to share with people?”
Thinking is such an enormous waste of time. I know that what is important will always come to me.
It came to me this morning from Mer, my new taxi driver friend.
Mer….So,Gloria, do you work?
Me…Yes Mer, I teach yoga.
Mer… Oh, you are a teacher. That is good because you smile a lot and have a lot of joy. That way people can learn from you.
My English teacher scared me. I could not learn from him because he made me scared.
So, there it is. I always believed that what I really want to share is JOY. And Mer, my messenger for the day, just gave me the thumbs up.
Yoga For A Broken Heart
Today, I attended one of Seane Corn’s workshops that was new to me, “Yoga for a Broken Heart.”
What touched me most was how this workshop came about. Seane’s father, who has now passed, asked her to teach this class within six months of his death to help her process her grief and to learn how to help others process theirs. We’re talking about all kinds of grief here, from heartache to loss.
The workshop was as emotional as you would expect it to be from the title. Just as we were all reaching for more and more kleenex, Seane reminded us that the pain/grief we were all feeling is only as big as it is because we were lucky enough to have loved that big.
It is key to stay present with your emotions and not disassociate from them because grief will build up inside you. Our unprocessed emotions can manifest as anxiety, depression, stress related illness and can fuel our addictions.
Thankfully, the gift of yoga and the guidance of wise teachers like Seane, can help us feel the grief and move back to love.
Why I Teach Kundalini Yoga
I came to Kundalini Yoga because my life wasn’t working. The level of stress in my work and home life was toxic even though I worked in a healing profession and knew all the right things to do for my personal health.
Without doing any research on Yoga Teacher Training programs or career paths, I signed up for my training in Kundalini Yoga. I know now that this was the right decision because this yoga suits my overactive mind, and restless energy best. Finding peace through stillness wasn’t possible for me at the time.
I never planned to teach Kundalini Yoga, run Yoga Studios, Retreats, or Yoga Teacher Trainings. It all came out of a deep desire to share with people the practice that had impacted me so profoundly.
Yoga has become my lifeline and I feel a responsibility to share its transformative power with others.
Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training will be held twice in 2014.
The Vancouver program begins January 24th, and runs over two weekends, http://www.semperviva.com/teacher-training/programs/kundalini-yoga-teacher-training-vancouver-with-gloria-latham/
The program in Greece runs August 25th-August 31st, http://www.semperviva.com/teacher-training/programs/kundalini-yoga-teacher-training-in-greece-with-gloria-latham/
Life Changing…just saying
Kirtan Kriya-Full Meal Deal
This video demonstrates the simplified version of Kirtan Kriya. This is the version that I prefer because I can do it anywhere, anytime.
I can use this meditation when I’m out walking. I can whisper it softly or silently while waiting in line somewhere. And, I can use this method or the more detailed version in my early morning meditation.
If you’re curious about the full version, here is how its done. The mantra and mudra (hand gesture) are the same as in the video but the mantra is repeated in a different manner:
2 minutes out loud (the voice of the world)
2 minutes in a whisper (the voice of the lover)
3 minutes silently to yourself (the voice of the soul)
2 minutes in a whisper
2 minutes out loud
Finally, raise your arms overhead, stretch your fingers wide and hold for one full minute
Relax
If you have time, extend the meditation to 31 minutes. For the 31 minute version, repeat the mantra as follows:
5 minutes out loud
5 minutes in a whisper
11 minutes in silence
5 minutes in a whisper
5 minutes out loud
This meditation is a great one for the New Year because it helps us break patterns, and mental and physical addictions. Some of us are even addicted to procrastination. It hurts to know that procrastination is an addiction, but I promise you it is.
When you’re done procrastinating, let’s get started.
To give extra power to your meditation you can visualize the syllables Sa-Ta-Na-Ma moving through you in an L-shape. Imagine the syllables move into you from the crown of the head (the pineal gland) and out the centre of your forehead (the pituitary gland).
Please don’t overcomplicate things; just start using the mantra and mudra. Personally, when I have to start watching the clock, remembering when to be loud and when to whisper, and where my pineal gland is, I lose interest. I already have too much to think about.
I simply press firmly on my fingertips to ground me to the present moment, and I use the mantra silently in public and out loud when I’m alone to regulate my breath and reign in my overactive mind. That is how I find peace….I find it using simple methods.
Finally, I know you’re going to ask what Sa-Ta-Na-Ma means so here it is. This mantra, symbolizes the cycle of life.
- SA is birth
- TA is life
- NA is death
- MA is rebirth or regeneration
Here’s to new beginnings, and an amazing New Year ahead!
It’s Dark For a Reason
Nature fully supports you on your journey. Stay connected to what is going on. The shorter, darker days are an invitation to go inward and assess what kind of internal environment your external actions have created. Have you created peace for yourself? Are you living with grace?
If everything still feels like an interminable struggle, I encourage you to stop blaming and start owning your part in your story.
If you want to be happy, it really is up to you.
If you want peace, again it’s up to you.
It’s your body, it’s your mind, it’s your journey, it’s your life.
Try to love it all!
Intentional and Unintentional Illness
Sometimes, we make ourselves sick because we desperately need a break and we don’t allow ourselves to take one. That is intentional illness. We push and push until the body screams ENOUGH! Your health is your responsibility. What choices are you going to make today to stay in health? How many people will you be letting down if you don’t stay well? If you can’t do it for yourself then do it for the people in your life who want you to be well…to be vibrant, to be healthy, to be full of life! This video will help you boost your immune system. Give it a try.
Define Happiness
The Internal Technology of Happiness presented by Max Strom gave me lots to think about.
I won’t give away all ten “life illuminating” questions he asked us to consider this weekend but here is one for you:
How do you define happiness?
-avoid one word answers
Write your answer down, and put it somewhere you will see it every day. Update your definition as often as necessary.
What stuck with me…Max advised us to “never let your definition of happiness be vague again.” And, he advised us to share our definition with others.
Here is a peak at the cover of his new book. We have lots to learn from this great teacher
