Out There

by Deborah Mears

Out there

You’ll see it all.

The floating ends

will meet and mend,

and you wil be yourself;

your fully formed,

though always changing,

self of selves.

Every clumsy backward look

will pay for itself.

Every tear you’ve cried,

or wanted to cry,

will set your broken bones.

The rips in your heart

will no longer

need to be guarded by steel girders,

banyan trees,

or even rice paper.

Not so much as a 

dragonfly’s wing

will you need

to cover the bludgeoned place,

to protect the private you

you love so much

and hope to save intact

from what has seemed years

of relentless pummeling.

Go and live and love

in peace, my friend,

for surely there is love

to enfold you,

and life to be feasted upon:

your portion is boundless.

Love will be the more

you’ve wanted.

You will know it when you see it.

You will love yourself 

as no lover

has ever had the courage

to love;

and the warmth you’ve wanted

will line your pillowcases,

dance upon your windowsill,

and hide

at the ends of your socks

awaiting your toes.

Bindu has extended her pay-what-you-want coaching sessions due to the amazing response and her utter joy in doing them!   Click here for info.

In our culture we grow up censoring the way that we talk. For those of us who feel deeply, it can be a challenge to traverse a culture that judges people who feel deeply.

Have you ever been told you are too sensitive? Have you been told you are too emotional? Have you been told you need to reign it in and get a grip? Have you been told you are exaggerating? Have you been told that you are misunderstanding the situation?

A lot of people have spent their lives being told they don’t have a right to their feelings, that in some way they need to change how they feel. I don’t really think that that is possible. Your emotions are your emotions, period. That is not to say that within an emotional response there isn’t room for change. Often a strong emotional response is the mind-body communicating something to you, that something does need to change, shift and transform, but to clamp down on it and deny it completely creates disharmony rather than allowing the real issue to be revealed.

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(via Mindful Mojo Project)

How often do you:

* Keep on pushing through even when you are exhausted.
* Ignore your feelings because you just don’t have time to deal with them.
* Put others first, including virtual strangers.
* Get involved in long conversations when what you need is to be by yourself.
* Go to events even though you are exhausted with just a few droplets of social energy left in your tank.
* Find yourself grabbing for a piece of chocolate to soothe yourself and you eat it as you pace around the kitchen, barely noticing you ate it.
* Find yourself thinking compulsively about the things you need to do throughout the day whilst you are in the shower and get dressed on autopilot and start your day disconnected from the body and your needs.
* Ignore the voice that says you need to take a break and pause before continuing on with your list of errands.
* Take space for yourself, with no agenda other than to take care of yourself.

Fight and flight is a chronic issue in our culture, and self-soothing, truly nourishing self-soothing, is almost non-existent. We all operate on autopilot, with a go-go-go mentality, pushing forward, just trying to survive. Dropping into the body and learning to self-sooth is the gateway to feeling more relaxed, more complete and integrated in your life.
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Today is the day to honor your heart and let love flow, to acknowledge any heaviness that is hanging out in the heart and to set the intention to let it go, or at least to lighten up!

There are so many awesome ways to amp up the flow of heart energy so that it is more flowing within you and more accessible to the people around you.

Sometimes sad experiences, heart break, heart confusion, stuck anger in the heart, fear of being hurt, fear of being loved, a contracted, tight heart all prevent your heart from flowing in a natural way.

It is natural for the heart energy to flow and heart energy supports the whole body by supervising what goes on in the body. It plays a huge role in the balance of emotions and when we employ the help of the heart it can really help us lighten up any stuck energy in the heart.

In order to empower the heart to help us lighten up, we need to do something to raise the vibration of the heart. This doesn’t need to be complicated. There is so much research supporting the fact that simply looking around our world at the things that we appreciates shifts the vibration in the heart.

So even if sadness, fear, anger, or confusion is feeling entangled in the heart, set the intention to let go of this heaviness whilst you take a walk and see what you see in your immediate environment.

Right now the sun is setting here in Seattle casting a gorgeous orange glow over the grey clouds and it is simple things like this that can kick start the heart to see what it loves in this world. Once we tip the balance by amping up the vibration of the heart, the body is more equipped to release the heaviness.

Have a fun heart day, love day, and let your heart energy flow, baby, flow!!

Because I’m 40 years old today – so wise, yet still so youthful! – I am offering a bargain basement deal to everyone!

40 GIFT CERTIFICATES FOR $50

40 Gift Certificates to be redeemed for Shiatsu, Reiki, BodyTalk or Massage.

40 Gift Certificates with little pearls of handwritten wisdom inside each one. This will be based on which year of my life you randomly receive. That means you might get the wise words of my 2 year old self, or my 25 year old self.

40 Gift Certificates available until 12/31/11 or until sold out!

40 Gift Certificates which include complimentary empowerment boost – with the forties comes a software upgrade which includes upgraded empowerment consciousness!

40 Gift Certificate offering a heart-connected session, focused on the true you, and on revealing the true you in an authentic way.

40 fabulous sessions infused with inspiration and fun! We LOVE what we do!

**One gift certificate per person, but feel free to buy up a bunch for friends and family! A fab gift for Xmas!! We look forward to working with all of you! Happy Holidays!

**Feel free to share this fab deal via the oh-so-outdated email (still a personal fav!), or the uber modern methods – facebook, twitter! Share the love!

**For multiple orders expect a little shipping refund. Couldn’t work out how to program it to allow multiple gift certs! Ah, technology!

Happy Mojo

Mojo flow in the body is stunted when we think negative thoughts about ourselves –  I make bad decisions; I am not a good judge of character; I am dumb/ stupid/ gullible; I am no good at my job; People think I am a fool.

The energy gets stuck in the body, particularly around the heart.

Take a moment to pick something that you say to yourself regularly, say it to yourself in your head or out loud, and then take a moment to scan slowly through the body starting at the top of the head, and moving all the way through the body.

What do you notice? Do you notice tension in the body or around the heart? Is your stomach tense, maybe you feel slightly nauseous? How does your back feel? How is your breathing?

Negative thinking results in the influx of hormones to the cells of the body which reinforce a depressed feeling all through the body. Consciously flipping your thinking to a more positive thoughts that are authentic and true to you shift your system physiologically, releasing hormones that result in a good feeling in the body.

There is a great book by Shawn Achor called The Happiness Advantage and he  goes into great depth regarding the shifts, physiologically and psychological that occur from shifting our mood. Here is an excerpt:

Extensive research has found that happiness actually has a very important evolutionary purpose, something Barbara Fredrickson has termed the “Broaden and Build Theory.” Instead of narrowing our actions down to fight or flight as negative emotions do, positive ones broaden the amount of possibilities we process, making us more thoughtful, creative, and open to new ideas. For instance, individuals who are “primed”—meaning scientists help evoke a certain mindset or emotion before doing an experiment—to feel either amusement or contentment can think of a larger and wider array of thoughts and ideas than individuals who have been primed to feel either anxiety or anger. And when positive emotions broaden our scope of cognition and behavior in this way, they not only make us more creative, they help us build more intellectual, social, and physical resources we can rely upon in the future.

Making a conscious effort to shift our cynicism and our negative patterns is necessary if we want to feel happier. We impact more than just ourselves when we become set in our ways, teaching our kids a pattern of negative, rigid, or anxiety-ridden thinking.

Bringing mindfulness and making a commitment to consciously flip our thinking helps us and everyone around us. We feel the shift in our body with the influx of more happy hormones, and as Shawn Achor illustrates, when we are happy we also become smarter! Yet another reason to become more mindful of our mood and take responsibility for making changes.

Achor, Shawn (2010-09-14). The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work (p. 44). Crown Business. Kindle Edition.

How to Cultivate Your Mojo

Mojo n. uncanny personal power or influence (Source: World Dictionary)

1. How do you feel about your uncanny personal power and influence?

If you feel totally jazzed and excited, fabulous. Rock it! Rock out your mojo!

Or, does it make you feel uncomfortable? Do you have a relationship with your personal power and influence?

Take some time to either meditate or journal about your relationship with your personal power.

But don’t judge yourself. There is no right or wrong, we are all on a journey, and the exciting thing is that you may be really ready to break through and access your mojo! That’s awesome!

2. Change your habit energy.

I love this concept based on a Zen story about a man and a horse in which the horse is galloping and the man is heading somewhere urgently. When asked where he was going he replied, “I don’t know! Ask the horse!”

Our days become very scheduled and we slip into our familiar routine. Part of that routine is to avoid being present to your mojo. It’s time to change your habit energy.

Over the next week, twice a day, think about your mojo, your personal power and influence, what I like to call the juicy essence of you, the core part of you that makes you who you are.

Take a soft, gentle approach.

This is a mindful approach. Be present, be curious, just notice what you notice.

Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life by Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr Lilian Cheung2.

3. Go on a mojo date.

What do you really love, what makes you burst at the seams? What do you really love to do that you don’t very often tell people, but makes you really feel like you when you do it or even think about it.

In the book, The Artists Way by Julia Cameron, she introduces this concept of an artists date, where you take yourself out on an artists date, to do something creative. I have modified this to call it a mojo date.

What do you really want to do? Choose something, and go on your mojo date within the next week, ideally by yourself.
Artist’s dates, mojo dates, personal retreats. We need to give ourselves space, to break out of habit energy, and to take the time to do the things in life that make us happy. And to find the things that make us happy that we didn’t even know about!

What is Mindful Mojo Project?

Mindful Mojo Project empowers people to be themselves more and more, to see that this can be incorporated or blended with mindfulness and harmony.

Ultimately, as more people experience the truth of who they are and what makes them unique, as well as becoming more familiar with the mindful place within, the world becomes a more balanced place, people are more able to own their own stuff, and we become a more peaceful and harmonious society. We develop more empathy, more consideration, and more ability to be present to ourselves and others.

The broader contribution is to the development of a more peaceful society and a more enlightened, insightful, self-aware society who is also able to cut loose and have some fun!

What words would you use to describe Mindful Mojo Project?

Passion; essence;  pzazz; style; mindfulness; groundedness; balance; expressing the truth of who you are; fun; creative; internal experience becoming external expression; design your life; life in motion; what life means to you; expressing your spirituality in your own way; enlightenment; self-awareness; process; insight; peace; harmony; empathy; understanding; the inner zen place; meditation; your mission or purpose; emotional energy; honesty; acceptance; expansion; transformation; miraculous possibilities; shifts in consciousness; connection to community; unity.

Come visit me at http://www.mindfulmojoproject.com/

Translucent Class – Starting October 24th

Space is still available for Robert Lester’s upcoming 12-week class Monday nights from 7-10PM in Phinney Ridge. This is an intimate 10 person class.

Trans-Lucent :: Navigating the arc of movement between worlds

We live in difficult times. We are tested in our resolve and resourcefulness. Sometimes it appears a solo journey when in fact this life is the vehicle to teach us the ways of mastery. We can work hard, struggle and erode our life energy with worry or we can use the ways of the masters and live in a state of grace and ease. Choice is the only ticket.

Make no mistake about the purpose of this class: Trans-Lucent is a practical working series to give you these skills including instruction in the pragmatic use of the third ingredient to mastery and ease of manifestation.

This is a weekly 3-month working series where you will learn the ancient ways of bringing things to fruition. You will learn explicitly what stops you in your life and how to overcome obstacles. (This is not a hope class, a think-and-grow-rich scheme, or an “if-I-believe-long-enough” class.) In these times, there is no longer the time or room for wasted effort. You as an individual and we as a community must adapt to the full-lucent-manner of living to begin walking a path of ease and harmony.

You are becoming the people you wanted to be.

Classes will meet weekly starting Monday October 24th with a 3 week break from mid-December to early January. Tuition is $60/class. A $60 discount is offered for full payment of the 12-week tuition on the first day of class.

To register or for more information, please contact Kathy J at 206-399-8820 or kathyj@shiftmassage.com.

Transformation :

When we are in a process of transformation, frequently we want the approval of others, we look outward for validation, for some indication that we are on the right track. But the more we go out of ourselves to find ourselves, the more lost we become, and the more anxious and disconnected.

To truly find the part of ourself that we want to express in the world, we have to sit still and allow it to surface. This takes patience and practice. When we have lived a life of being disconnected from that true part of ourself, often we need to build up the trust with this inner part of yourself.

Meditation :

The process of reinventing yourself is a contemplative one. It often sounds like a cool, hip thing to do, to reinvent yourself! In reality the process of reinventing yourself is a creative process that requires you to be present to all parts of yourself. Meditation will be a big part of your process, and becomes a great tool to maintain that connection to yourself.

The moral :

Let go of your focus on what others think and find out what you think, feel, are passionate about, are moved by. Get to know yourself, work out how you want to express this, and then show yourself to the world with all the glitz and glam whilst maintaining the conncetion to the true you!