Sat Nam and Welcome back for the last posting of this series.

Here are the Three Ways to Find Peace & Joy Everyday:

• Get Out In Nature

• Create a Sacred Space for Stillness
• Commit to a Daily Sadhana Practice

Committing to a daily practice is the most important of these three suggestions.  The reason is that our lives and world are ever-changing, shifting, evolving, and we have very little control over those changes.  As a result, many people are living in a subtle but perpetual state of fear and anxiety – of feeling out of control over what happens that affects the quality of their lives.  Partners cheat, a friend betrays us, we get fired from our job after many years of loyal service, we get evicted or lose our home, we lose some one we love, inexplicably bad things happen to good people - obviously greatly impact our lives and our sense of security.  But is or was there anything we could have done to prevent these dreadful and life changing events - even if we spent considerable amounts of valuable time worrying and  fretting?  Probably not.

Sat Nam and Welcome!  This week I am beginning a three part series entitled:


Three Simple (and FREE) Ways to Create Peace and Joy Everyday

   


NUMBER ONE:  Get out in Nature!   



Something as simple as sitting in your yard, quietly listening to the birds, feeling the cool breeze on your skin, gazing at the clouds and just slowly breathing can boost your mood instantly.  It can be anywhere that you love – a garden, beach, river, park, mountain, forest, creek, ocean, etc.  

Happy Spring! 


Whew..  I have been busy Manifesting and am excited to share my wonderful new exciting news! 

I have a New Class, Upcoming New Retreat, New Yoga Certification, and I am speaking at Cottage Hospital on Stress Reduction and Brain Health


Details below: 






 

Greetings!  Another Happy Friday has arrived right on time!  I love the absolute predictability of the Universe  in this sometimes chaotic world.

Last week I wrote about Finding the Divine in Everyday Life.  I hope you all were able to find some inspiration for finding the Divine in your everyday life.  If yes, please email me and let me know your special places and moments of Divine.  I would LOVE to hear from you.  This week I am writing about Quieting  and Mastering the Mind. 

I mentioned last week, Quieting the Mind, is on the top of the list of challenges that my students share with me in  my role as a Kundalini Yoga teacher in Santa Barbara, CA.  The interesting thing is that the more frustrated, annoyed, and angry we become with the mind chattering away, the more elusive the Quiet Mind becomes.  Have you ever been so overwhelmed with those nonstop “tapes” in your head that you just yell something like “SHUT UP”?  Or you start talking to yourself something like this, “Ok, enough is enough, I am just going to sit here and be quiet, this is ridiculous.. I should be able to do this, what’s wrong with me…. On and on.  Sound familiar??  Obviously, this doesn’t work.  Trying to “tell” your mind to be quiet is like trying to blow on a hurricane and expect it to stop!  It doesn’t happen.  Not now.  Not ever.




What if I told you that you really don’t actually have to DO anything to quiet the mind – that you can just ALLOW and guide your body to do what it does naturally and organically? AND that you can quiet your mind in as little as Three Minutes?? 


I hope I have your attention now.  

“There’s no other way on this planet to free your soul unto the destiny and unto G.O.D. but by serving those who need a hand – smiling at them, wiping away their tears, forgiving them”.   Yogi Bhajan

Sat Nam!   Here we are - week seven - we have arrived at Happiness by carefully walking the six steps that guided us here.  When asked what the ONE thing that we, as humans want, Happiness always comes up in the top 3 answers.  Yet, when asked to describe what that looks like and feel like, most people cannot put into words this feeling. For me, Happiness, is finally arriving at a place in my life where I am doing what I love and loving what I do - immersing myself in the Yoga, Spiritual and healing world, and feeling like my Authentic Self. I am able to teach Kundalini Yoga in beautiful Santa Barbara, California and teach Yoga for Stress, Trauma and PTSD - nothing gives me more Happiness than guiding students home to themselves and witnessing their inevitable JOY when they find expression of their Authentic Selves.   What does Happiness look and feel like to you?  Let's learn what  Haribhajan S. Khalsa, and Yogi Bhajan say about Happiness.

"We are on this planet to love each other, to serve each other, and to uplift each other. We have come to this Earth to give, not to take",  Yogi Bhajan


Sat Nam!  Greetings and Welcome back to week six of our seven week study of the Seven Steps to Happiness, written by Haribhajan S. Khalsa, based on the teachings of Yogi Bhajan, PhD. 


Grace gives you the Power to Sacrifice – the sixth step to Happiness. The word sacrifice comes from the Latin word for sacred. To make sacred is to sacrifice the finite self and your egoic needs to the Higher self - your Divin­ity. We often think of sacrifice as giving up something we want or love for the good of someone else.  True sacrifice involves no suffering.  In fact, sacrifice is meant to bring you great joy and bliss.  To have the power to sacrifice is the ability to serve others from the heart without an agenda of our own.  The key concept is that to sacrifice is POWER.. With the power to sacrifice, you feel abundant and prosperous and naturally want to serve and share with others, and it does not feel like sacrifice because it feels like Love.  Love is our natural state, so it feels good, safe, and comforting.  When we sacrifice ourselves and learn to serve, we stop asking the ques­tion, “What’s in it for me?” and start asking, “How can my actions benefit the whole of humanity?”  When we allow ourselves to truly operate from the heart and in the action of giving, we will automatically do no harm to others because the heart intrinsically knows that we are all ONE, and to harm another is to harm ourselves.  We suddenly “Recognize the other person is you.” 

“You can have either ego or divinity - with ego you will be isolated -with divinity you  will have eveything you need", Yogi Bhajan



Sat Nam!  Greetings and Welcome back to week four of our seven week study of the Seven Steps to Happiness, written by Haribhajan S. Khalsa, based on the teachings of Yogi Bhajan, PhD.

Dignity will give you Divinity, which is the fourth step to success. Divinity is a state of majesty where the crown of spirituality is bestowed upon you. You cannot fake, take, bribe or buy the crown of spiri­tuality - it can only be given to you as a gift from In­finity. Divinity means to not be divided from Infinity. You and Infinity are ONE. This is your real power.

 But what is Divinity really?  Some people associate the word Divine or Divinity with organized religion or church.  Certainly, we find the Divine in church or religion.  But, we do not have to attend church or be a part of an organized religion to experience a deep sense of Divinity.  Sometimes, in my experience, quite the opposite.  I have found the most profound and intimate experiences in the most ordinary, every day activities, places, people and things.  One of my favorite experiences of pure Divinity was at my Grandson's basketball game!  I wrote about it on a earlier Musing if you are interested (Click Here to read the entire post).  But lets see what Haribhajan Khalsa and Yogi Bhajan teach us about Divinity.