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Anything Cute Beautiful People Beautiful Things Yoga

Manupura Chakra

“Manupra” means “Jeweled City” and points to your solar plexus in your astral body. From the solar plexus, the region extends down to your your navel-belly area. It is our third chakra, an energy vortex, a third stopover on a passage, as our Kundalini (Shakti/prana/Chi/life-force energy) rises up our spine from the base root chakra, Muladhara. The color evoked at this third focus stop in the kundalini (Shakti energy) ascension is yellow … bright yellow like the sun.

And as evoked by such color, the element associated with this energy vortex is … Fire. Thus, it is also known as the Fire or Sun Centre. The fire element manifests in the body as heat in the Solar Plexus. The Manipura Chakra is the centre of vitality, a command center that controls our energy balance essential to our health. This Chakra is powerful like a magnet, attracting Prana or Chi, life force, from the Cosmos.

Regulating the digestive fire, blockages in this centre can cause many health problems such as digestive disorders, circulatory disease, diabetes and fluctuations in blood pressure. In contrast, when the energy of this Chakra flows freely, then we are assured this constant supply of vitality – that bestows balance and strength in our whole being.

Symbolically, Manipura Chakra is often pictured as Lotus with ten petals. These represent the ten Pranas, the vital forces, which control and nourish all functions of the human body. An additional symbol of the Manipura is that of a triangle with its tip pointing downward. This indicates the Apana spreading of energy, growth and development. Activation of the Manipura Chakra frees one from negative energies and purifies and strengthens one’s vitality.

Here’s a beautiful necklace that arrived from Munich, Germany 2 weeks ago that I just love…

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Here’s a description of this treasure:

“Jiva” and “Mukti” means liberated + soul. Embrace this aim with a reversible sterling silver pendant stamped with “jiva” on one side and “mukti” on the other. The chain is handmade in India and features diamond cut crystal accent beads and a large 7mm square Citrine endpoint. Designed to be worn in two ways: as a long single chain, or clasped close to the neck with a dangling accent towards the heart.”

Lizzie Lasater

I fell in love with this necklace when I first saw it and read the description … the reversible touch is so cool, such an expression of the dualistic world we place ourselves in … but the pendant messages are “back to back”, the two are combined into one …ONENESS and it further links and pairs with the matching Jive+Mukti bracelet. For me, the Citrine accent is always going to be dangling towards the heart – my anahata chakra, full of love… as our soul, Jiva , one’s immortal essence, is housed in every heart.

Lizzie grew up with yoga (after all, her mom is that Judith Lasater…one of first American woman disciple of BKS Iyengar) and while she had one of the best teachers at home, Lizzie formally trained, her profile reads, with much revered Maty Ezraty. Lizzie now teaches in Germany, restorative yoga, a rejuvenating practice her mother helped to popularize from the Iyengar teachings, the therapeutic healing part of the great expanse of teachings, she felt was much needed in the modern world. Life her mom, Lizzie is creative and soulful… a Jiva who expresses her free and creative spirit through the beautiful designs… judging from all the beautiful jewelry she designs, her style is very elegant in a simple Zen ways. Check out her website – simple and elegant designs I find so beautiful.

In fact, I can imagine from her jewelry designs that her yoga practice must also be the same; crafted and sequenced in elegance with beautiful “lines” reflecting her creative spirit.

Citrine – an appropriate stone for me now as I was just embarking on how I can better bring about abundance… To do away the fear of scarcity, shortages and deficiencies – the feelings of small losses in our lives and sometimes there’s just “not enough”. Learned that Citrine is also a stone known as “success stone” with key words of “success, abundance, personal power” … and the fact that it dangles towards the heart … signifying all that success and abundance through faith in personal empowerment is not for ego’s sake but for … the heart … for love. I think it’s going to be one of my amulets going forth.

*** Fun “Facts” ***

Citrine is a solar plexus chakra stone used metaphysically to increase, magnify and clarify personal power and energy. This increased personal power can be used for the focused intent of the individual, as it brings will power as well.

Citrine is a fabulous stone to use to combat negative energy of any kind by breaking them up and dissipating them. It is helpful to clear unwanted energies from the environment, whether it be home, office, car, or other space indoors or out. Family issues caused by negative energies can also be cleared for resolution with citrine. Citrine is also a stone that brings hope. Since citrine eliminates negative energies, it is good for protection in general and helps bring stability energetically.

Citrine also does not absorb any negative energies from its surroundings, and thus never needs energetic clearing.

Because citrine can clear negative energy and influences from the aura, it is useful for meditation, psychic awareness, and spiritual development. By removing unwanted energies it paves the way for this spiritual and psychic growth. It is also excellent for dream recall and dream work.

excerpt from meanings.crystalsandjewelry.com
In other words, it’s just what I was looking for …a little treasure – and of course, I find “it” through my teachers.

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Anything Cute Yoga

“Can you feel the fizz?” in yoga…

じゅわ~ じわ~ん~ ジュワ~
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Embodied awareness is in every heartbeat, waiting like poprocks to burst forth with abandon. Can you feel the fizz?


– Bo Forbes

So very GOOD for you – yoga;
So very BAD for you – poprocks ! candy heavy with sugar, corn syrup and artificial colors…

But this analogy works … Doesn’t it?
Don’t you particularly feel this “fizz” during some poses?

Poprocks with all that sugar and artificial colors but probably most of us have had this one time in our life maybe for Halloween or ? Eating it 1-2 times will not kill you I am sure (lol) so just to get the idea … This tells how you can make it homemade* … realizing what the ingredients are – all that you want to stay away from…

BUT still – I love Bo Forbes’ description of “embodied awareness” … sometimes it’s “fizzy” while your mind is no longer fuzzy with brain fog – the fog lifts to clear azure stillness.
I guess food analogies are not best used in yoga (I’ve failed with noodles vs. pretzels) but this is cute … you can really feel the expression. The feeling of “fizz” – I love it – she has a way with words.

* still, might be fun activity for the kids … and to realize where that paint like artificial colors, we are consuming that’s damaging to our health, coming from someone who no longer eats process refined sugar unless there’s nothing else to eat. When you cut the sugar, it’s amazing how much better you feel. Or better put – with my yoga practice, I have lost my desire for sugar – you no longer need it for energy or pick-me-up as we learn to better manage our energy level.

For 4th of July, something like this – poprocks rimmed cocktail (just pomegranate juice or cherry juice with club soda – mocktail is just as good if not better) might be fun though – it’s the idea of fireworks I guess … ideas.

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Anything Cute Beautiful Deeds Beautiful People Healthy Living Yoga

Be strong; be beautiful:)

NOT broken through self-love and self-healing you all:)

sm_IMG_6132 Tilling our land and sowing our seeds…feel this earth! It’s almost summer! Smelling the roses in the air, walk your doggie more:) He/she will thank you for it.
sm_IMG_6120 $6 ! what!!??? you mean if I get 7 for each chakras, that’s $42? a bit expensive… but not any rock would do…for our divine body temple:)
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Soma means body, …(I am) … in service of helping bodies to reduce or eliminate pain, normalize range of motion, and just generally get back to the happy, fully functional, badass state that is their birthright. 

(YAY, YES)Brooke Thomas, Soma Happy

Soma means something else in Sanskrit – it means nectar of immortality or a sweet drink from a fountain of youth(!) … and it doesn’t just drip but you have to siphon it out, squeeze it, juice it out is how I visualize the harvesting of that nectar… a divine drink we all likely not refuse. Anyway, found her honesty to be refreshing – and made me think about my motives and reasons behind doing yoga…other than experiencing first hand its healing powers:

I’ve done yoga for years, but have never really considered myself a yogini. Let’s just say that as someone whose body is built more on the dense end of the brick sh*t house to Gumby spectrum, contorting myself into a weird shape that had a Sanskrit name didn’t exactly come naturally to me.

– Brooke Thomas

I don’t know – why do people get into what they get into with passion? For the yoga profession, at least for me, the central reason is that desire to help others feel better, stronger, renewed; desire to help them feel less pain or be pain-free, naturally – it’s funny that all the time when I was getting my formal education, I never thought of pursuing such field – and if I had, I probably would have chosen another major and a profession but at that time, I was rather self-absorbed and determined to reach some height on a career ladder that had nothing to do with caring or body, mind & spirit (but all about the mind).

At the same time, being young and vibrant, I had no one around me close who were sick or injured or mending … and as a result I had no feelings of empathy or compassion for the weak or the suffering. If I saw someone in need, my tendencies would have been to avoid them… Oddly only when I was in midst of college and finishing, I started to encounter break-downs of health around me and finally myself as well, a bit later on (probably from stress dealing with others needing, demanding care). My father probably had 3-5 major operations before his final demise; my mother is alive but tends to focus on the negatives post-hip surgery (successful if you can call walking with a walker a success) and so… hospital visits are not foreign to me. There was a period when I commuted to the hospital maybe 1-2 times a day to visit with flowers and bento or soup while trying to make a go of my own career which had nothing to do with healthcare or wellness. Yoga was something I did for stress-management but teaching it was big departure from the original desire to merely deepen my knowledge because … essentially at the core is always a curious student within. I guess I wanted to learn about the technique that helped me and how to apply it more to be more effective off the mat, outside of the yoga studio. Judith H. Lasator’s book, “Living Your Yoga” is highly recommended for that end as we juggle through life.

Recalling a peer yogini at Judith Lasator’s training, there is this beautiful, and I mean, BEAUTIFUL yogini – by my definition that means perfect body at least in appearance fit for a yoga journal magazine cover? let’s call her Minnie:) and she is a therapists for children with physical limitations; then there’s another beautiful yogini who teaches yoga to women going through cancer care … such beautiful heart they have … in awe. I mean, I am looking at Minnie and ask – so why did you choose to go into what you do when you can easily be teaching fit beautiful people at some gym? She says with wide eyes then laughs “why, isn’t it obvious? Look at me! I am so broken!” & I look back at her – WHAT? Broken??? You are NOT broken – far from – don’t you know, you are just so BEAUTIFUL. There stood before me a beautiful yogini, a yoga instructor, who helps disabled children in water – she, to me looks healthy and fit AND far from broken BUT she believes she’s broken… speechless. Reassuring her that he is NOT broken (that’s the past and she’s on the mend!) but beautiful, I think everybody wants to feel vibrant and balanced in a wholesome, natural way and that … too is what I seek for self and others. Not broken but strong; regenerated and renewed at the cellular level.

So … that’s it. I am trying to find the best tool to that end – I am not a doctor so cannot find a cure (too late for med school) but can dispense other kinds of remedies to bring comfort I think – and if yoga is not that best tool, I will find some other means but by far, with all that I have looked into, yoga is the best as long as you truly embody your body while doing it and not make it into a “showtime” or something competitive. Those pursuits are strictly off the mat; outside of the studio space.

yogatimemagfrom Time Magazine article “How Yoga can Wreck your body”.

Keep in mind this – Click here for my revered guru’s reminder always. Unless you are in that league of yogis practicing yoga at least 2 hours a day REGULARLY, do not strain to do everything to the max intensity you saw on a mag cover – She’s so funny – it’s okay to be that one with the 3-fold “bloody” “frickin'” thick mat!

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sm_IMG_6135Been making this home-made but now looks like they are on shelves. If you make it yourself, you can mix the oils to come up with “that” certain scent that evokes a certain “place” within your mind. More unique but these can serve as ideas. If you study aromatherapy, you will learn to group them – like chemistry, some scents just do not mix well and there’s no synergy when one scent erases or counters the other – need them to be complementary, not fighting each other. (you can say that about people too!)

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sm_IMG_6806 Cute place:)