Archives for April 2013

April 26, 2013 by Somyr Perry Leave a Comment

“Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it’s beauty.”
― Albert Einstein

Nature flows effortlessly, gracefully, and easily. Whether it’s the wind in a hummingbirds wings, a thundering herd of elephants, or a babbling brook, the world around us consistently expresses the ebb and flow, the light and dark, the rise and fall, and the opening and closing of life. To see ourselves as separate from this universal flow is a separation that we create in our minds.

Connecting to nature with awareness allows us to merge with the cosmic flow, with the essence of life, and with the wholeness of existence. It is this ONEness – where we are purely aligned with the rhythms of the earth and the cycles of nature…where we are most deeply connected with each other. Whether you live on the prairie or in the heartbeat of the city, nature abounds. We are a mere breath away from connecting with this ONEness.

So take this weekend – wherever you are – to step outside your four walls and open your senses, your mind, and your heart to the flow of life. Get lost, find your spot of wonder, and take it all in. Have a picnic, sit on your city rooftop, take a drive on the open road, or walk amongst the trees. Nature is your forever friend of comfort and company.

Enjoy your weekend in nature! Peace-davidji

PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE THE MEDITATION LOADS

April 24, 2013 by Somyr Perry Leave a Comment

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”

– Kahil Gibran

Awareness is the fully present attention on a particular aspect of existence. Our awareness can be on: 1) our words, thoughts, or actions; 2) those of someone else; or 3) an aspect of our environment. Most often – in spite of where we are or what’s going on – we are in our heads and our awareness is on the non-stop flow of thoughts. In this final week of Stress Awareness Month, we have the opportunity to awaken our awareness to the present moment and observe it in a fully present state.

Of course, after a few moments of present-moment-awareness, we will quickly drift to the thought of the moment and then follow it around a bit. But if we can have the subtle intention to connect to nature the very moment we begin to feel the first wave of stress, then we can effortlessly relax the potential constriction and provide ourselves with some breathing room. There are literally a million ways we can commune with nature – so here are a few easy steps to get the process started:
• look up into the sky – feel its expanse,
• drink in the warmth of the sun,
• gaze at a body of water or a vast expanse,
• garden,
• bathe in your surroundings,
• immerse into a flock of pigeons,
• go for a walk, swim, or run,
• hug or caress a tree,
• pet your companion animal,
• watch the river run,
• smell the earthy sweetness of flowers, trees, herbs, and plants,
• walk barefoot on grass or sand,
• stare into the night sky until you settle on star or the moon,
• listen to the chirping and cawing of birds, and
• watch an ant crawl along a window sill,
• drink a glass of water!

Whenever we drift our attention to nature, as long as we are in observer mode and are mindful of the moment, we recognize the interconnectedness of our essence with every other strand of existence. The flower came from the earth; the earth is filled with rain water, pollen, decomposed leaves, insects, and every other fragment of life; the wind is filled with the cells of every other being and the breath of everyone who has ever lived. With each breath we take, we breathe in centuries of exhales from those we revere and respect – the Buddha, Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington Carver, Einstein, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra – and anyone else who has lived on earth.

It’s in these moments of awareness of union – one-ness – merging, that our very existence becomes eternal. In that moment, we are timeless – never born…never died. And that is the magnificence of awareness, which we can invoke and awaken whenever we choose. So, this week, let’s commune with the infinite nature of our being and in that process…we will become one. I hope you’ll visit with me on Hay House Radio and in the meantime, I’ll see you in the gap! Peace. -davidji

April 19, 2013 by davidji Leave a Comment

Get Together by The Youngbloods

Love is but the song we sing,
And fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Know the dove is on the wing
And you need not know why
C’mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Ev’rybody get together
Try and love one another right now
Some will come and some will go
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moments sunlight
Fading in the grass
C’mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Ev’rybody get together
Try and love one another right now
If you hear the song I sing,
You must understand
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It’s there at your command
C’mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Ev’rybody get together
Try and love one another right now
Right now
Right now!

Download “Smile on Your Brother” Guided Meditation here!

In the wake of the tragic events of this week, we are reminded of what really matters. There could be no greater Aha! moment than an event that forces us to look at life from the most personal and from the most universal.

My personal definition of spirituality is the journey that we take from the most individual expression to the most universal. Journeying from our ego to our soul from our individuality to our ONE-ness from our “what’s in it for me?” to “how can I serve?”…from grievance to gratitude.

Meditation is the tool that illuminates the path to ONE-ness. It is in the quietude that we can be fully AWAKE…fully AWARE…fully PRESENT…so that we can drink in what truly matters…THIS MAGNIFICENT EXISTENCE OF OURS.

Enjoy the weekend and SHARE the LOVE.
Peace-davidji

April 17, 2013 by davidji Leave a Comment

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” — HENRY DAVID THOREAU

April is Stress Awareness month. And, we are at the halfway point of our 30-day exploration of tools, tips, and techniques to move us beyond the distractions, constrictions, projections, and disturbances that hijack our peace of mind. The goal is not simply to live our lives in bliss (although that would be nice) – but to cultivate our ability to connect to present-moment awareness and then come into the next moment with greater awareness, calm, clarity, creativity, intuition, and fulfillment.

In these blogs, I’ve spoken and written about the value of meditation from a physical, emotional, and spiritual perspective. I’ve shared proactive tools with you such as RPM, beditation, SODA, 16 seconds to bliss, the 40-day Feast for the Soul, the ten-day rejuvenation series, and the weekend meditations. Intellectually, we understand the scientific benefits of introducing a pattern interrupt into our non-stop flow of thoughts, words, and actions. And if you practice on a daily basis, the results are effortlessly circulating through your life right now.

But if we can integrate in-the-moment STRESS BREAKERS throughout the course of our day, we will diffuse potential stressors as they unfold.

In the morning at home: ideally you’ve already completed your first meditation of the day using RPM or beditation. Creating stillness as the starting point for your next 24 hours sets a powerful trajectory. But the unknown stress can lurk right around the corner. As soon as you feel stressed, implement any of these ten steps to bring you back into the moment:

1) Spend five minutes holding your child, your lover, or your pet, which will instantly ease your blood pressure.
2) Take a 10-minute walk connecting to nature to ease anxiety and replace it with calm. Leave your phone home and don’t plug in any music. Just drink in everything you see, hear, touch, and smell as you walk at a leisurely pace.
3) Practice 15-minutes of yoga. Start with 5 minutes of pranayama. Then gently move through a classic sun salutation flow to awaken your prana, release tension and rejuvenate your body. And then lay in savasana for 5 minutes.
At work: Ideally you are walking into the workplace with stillness and silence already flowing through you. But as soon as you notice frustration, irritation, or intensity starting to build, take these steps.
4) Upon feeling the spark of your emotional tell, reach for SODA. Stop, Observe, Detach, and Awaken to the best version of yourself.
5) Pour some lavender or sandlewood-based oil or lotion gently into your open hand. Massage your palm with your thumb, then massage each finger from the base to the tip, and then the webbed area between your thumb and index finger.
6) Step away from your desk and go outside or to an unoccupied place where you can sit. Close your eyes and breathe in and out deeply through your nostrils ten times to lower your heart rate and reduce your blood pressure.
7) Take 3 minutes and chew a piece of gum to loosen the stress in your jaw. While you chew, roll your neck around to ease out any tightness.
After work: You’re carrying the past 12 hours of the day inside every cell in your body. So either as the very last thing you do before you head home or the very first thing you do when you come home, take time to release the day.
8) Shake the tension right out of your body. Roll your shoulders backward and forward. Reach your arms to the sky and stretch and elongate your whole body from your toes to the tips of your fingers, then do a few arm circles. If you’re feeling sprightly finish off with ten jumping jacks
9) Shake the tension out of your mind with recapitulation. Spend five minutes playing your day in fast forward from the moment you woke up – don’t linger for more than one second on each activity or event that unfolded throughout the day – don’t harp on the drama or the words. Just keep processing at high speed.
10) After dinner, SLOW down. Light a candle, brew some tea, take a bath, or nibble on some chocolate.

If you can follow these ten DESTRESSIFYING steps from Monday through Friday, you will soar into the weekend with greater grace, ease, and lightness of being. This afternoon, I’ll share more stress busters on LIVE! From the SweetSpot on Hay House Radio. So keep destressifying and your life will continue to blossom and bloom. I’ll see you in the gap! –davidji

April 12, 2013 by davidji Leave a Comment

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion
or cultural system.

I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all.

I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.

From Essential Rumi
by Coleman Barks

Download “Stress at Work” Guided Meditation here!

Prana is the Sanskrit word for life force – this is our vital energy that flows into us with each breath and out of us with each word, thought, and action.

Every time we inhale, we fill our bodies with this life force infusing every cell with renewed purpose. triggering transformation at the deepest level, and connecting to the universal source of all life.

Just like blinking our eyes – every breath we take often flows by without our knowledge. We breath between 4 and 24 times every minute and each inhale triggers a transformation at the cellular level – nourishing our blood with oxygen, fueling our brain and organs, and sparking the metabolism of food, chemicals, information, and thought.

And yet hours often go by where we are not even aware that we are breathing. We’re also not aware how often we hold our breath in those stressful moments …denying our body and withholding our mind from access to this magnificent vital energy which has the power to move mountains.

This week, let’s begin the celebration of our breath. Let’s make a conscious effort to put some attention…some awareness on the simple act, which we can so easily take for granted. Our breath is holy. It connects us to our body, slows the swirl of our mind, creates union with those around us, and brings us to the sacred, precious, present moment where we are whole, and pure, and perfect, and abundant, and infinite. We just need a gentle reminder.

We can start by writing the word BREATHE on a few pieces of paper or post-it notes and place them on your monitor, the dashboard of your car, your bathroom mirror, your kitchen counter…even the corner of your TV!! Whenever you see the word – no matter what you are doing – breathe. Change your screen saver to BREATHE so every time you return to your computer you are subtly reminded to pause for a moment and nourish yourself with an inhale.

When you find yourself in a stressful situation and you begin to feel overwhelmed or emotionally charged – BREATHE. Whether you practice 16 seconds to bliss, quiet continuous breath, heart breathing, nadi shodhana, belly breathing or the technique we practiced today in the meditation, you can shift the energy of the moment simply by activating your own vital energy.

Make a commitment to breathe this weekend, and email me at info@davidji to share how it makes you feel. Have a beautiful weekend and keep breathing. Peace. -davidji

April 10, 2013 by Somyr Perry Leave a Comment

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” – Rilke

Welcome back to Stress Awareness month!!!

This week, we continue our journey into Stress Management by exploring stress in the workplace. Leading edge business owners, HR directors, and departmental managers cite practices such as meditation, breathing, and yoga as practical tools to help employees:
• Increase efficiency & productivity
• Awaken creativity & intuition
• Develop interpersonal communication & cooperation
• Manage daily stress & anxiety
• Improve attendance and job satisfaction

If you can enter your workplace from a space of stillness & silence, then every conversation, phone call, email & meeting will carry less reactivity, less conditioned responses, and less emotional charge and melodrama.

Here are a few ways for you to weave healing pattern interruptions into your day to help you balance and ease stress from your worklife.

1) Breathing – Observe your breath as you breathe in through your nostrils, hold it inside, exhale through your nostrils, and hold it out. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidji/meditation-tips_b_2993829.html
2) SODA – as soon as you hit a wall and either get frustrated, irritated, or angry, STOP, OBSERVE, DETACH, AWAKEN
3) Mindful – Roll back from your monitor. Close your eyes. Breathe gently and let every sound in your work environment vibrate without judgment. Listen to the copier, the phone ringing, your breath, the whirl of your hard drive, conversations in the distance, etc. Do this for a solid minute and place your awareness on your ability to accept the unfolding of life.
4) Make your screen saver an uplifting photo, something that makes you smile, or a soothing image of nature. Anything that calms you.
5) The BIG shift – breathe in deeply through your nose until your belly is totally full and then slowly release the breath until all the air is released. Do this ten times with each exhale progressively lasting one more second than the inhale. For example: in to the count of four; out to the count of five; in to the count of five; out to the count of six. After you have done this ten times, you will feel renewed energetically, emotionally, and intellectually.

See if you can weave these five steps into your daily life and for the month of April – meditate in silence for five minutes at noon EVERYDAY. As May rolls around, your work life will be filled with less stress and greater happiness. That could be one of the most profound shifts you’ve ever made. Peace. -davidji

April 5, 2013 by davidji Leave a Comment

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

If we can take a deep breath in and first acknowledge that we have over whelming stress every day – then that’s the first step in awareness.

Once we are aware, then we can take powerful steps in managing it; easing it; eliminating it; and moving beyond it!!!

First let’s define it – STRESS is how we respond each day to not having our needs met.

There are four main emotional needs:
• attention
• affection
• appreciation
• acceptance

And then there’s our inability to embrace uncertainty. For most people, this is their biggest stressor. Often, we need to gain some clarity or certainty on something and our lack of certitude drives us crazy. Sometime – even if it is unpleasant news – once we have a bit more information – our stress subsides. But that’s not so easy when things aren’t going the way you anticipated.

We have three options:

1) Force things into the way they were “supposed” to be. (It rarely turns out well.)

2) Gain greater clarity, control or influence over the situation (It helps a bit, but once we adapt to the new situation, we have a new, evolved stress.)

3) Accept the moment as perfect and part of the divine plan (This one is the hardest, but the most rewarding.)

When we can access a state of deep relaxation, tension is released from the body on a physical level and our mind begins to use less power and ultimately switches off, creating a pure state of restful awareness.

As we dip into stillness and silence each day, we release less stress-hormones namely adrenalin, glucagon, and cortisol; our heart rate and blood pressure slow; and our immune system elevates. We have an increase in serotonin (a natural feel-good chemical) and in growth hormone which nourishes and repairs cells and tissue.

The reality is that we don’t need to feel stress every day – even when life is overwhelming. We can proactively, lower the impact stress has on our bodies and minds. And through daily meditation, we will return to our most whole, relaxed, grounded, healthy, and healed state.

Feel free to use today’s meditation to begin the process or take you back to your most genuine harmonious balanced self. Enjoy!! -davidji

April 3, 2013 by davidji Leave a Comment

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
– William James

Okay – now that we are aware, what do we do?

First let’s define stress so we can better understand it. Stress is how we respond when our needs are not met. And how we respond to unmet needs determines the fabric of our life.

We know that daily meditation can be an antidote to stress. Not just after the fact…but in a proactive, pre-emptive way so that we experience less of the suffering of life.

Every day, technological advances and modern scientific studies reveal more about the workings of our brain, the development of our cells, and the responses of our emotions. And recent data points to the transformational value of the pattern interrupt – any break we can take in the non-stop flow of activity. And the latest research is finally validating the claim that silent meditation is a powerful source of mindbody rejuvenation – increasing your growth hormone, your sex hormone, and your immune system.

Most people on this planet don’t meditate every day. They don’t avail themselves of a daily re-boot, re-set, or pause in the wild swirl of relentless activity. They wake up in the morning and burn through the day dodging one challenge after another as stress builds up in their cells, their tissues, their brain, and their heart. They hold onto that stress and it permeates every fiber of their being – even if they are skilled at concealing it. And with each passing day, it weighs on their physiology and their emotional state.

They respond to life’s twists and turns by lashing out or shutting down. They struggle with awakening their most creative, intuitive, and purposeful self. They often feel rushed and over-whelmed. And when they do have the opportunity to surrender to a few moments of stillness and silence, instead they reach for a distraction – another activity to fill the empty space.

But there is a magnificent wave of new thought that is bringing the timeless teachings of meditation into schools, offices, homes, and into the outdoors where so many spend their days. Once unthinkable, those in more traditional jobs, conventional work environments, and mainstream careers are inviting stress management training into their lives. In the past three months, I’ve trained over 1000 new meditators in the world of business, finance, law enforcement, insurance, publishing, politics, and entertainment to be the calm amidst the chaos.

Only meditation can deliver STILLNESS, and only a healing heart can awaken SILENCE. Which is why I developed a Teacher Training to help people from every walk of life connect to these teachings at a deeper level, cultivate a daily practice, and learn the timeless wisdom that has guided me through my own constrictions – from darkness, sadness, and loss to self-compassion, gratitude, and fulfillment.

The world is embracing the “new” science. And now that spending time in meditation every day has been scientifically proven to lessen your anger, ease your anxiety, cultivate camaraderie, and elevate your emotional intelligence, those once resistant to dipping their toe in the water of stillness are embracing the practice.

You are ahead of the curve. You are riding the wave. Keep meditating and your life will continue to unfold with greater grace, greater ease, and LESS stress. And each week, as we are joined by thousands more seeking inner peace and personal transformation, this sweet planet of ours will transform as we transform ourselves.

See you in the gap! Peace. -davidji

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