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Beautiful Rituals Healthy Activities Healthy Living Yoga

In case you were wondering…

chakra

The chakras do not exist in the physical body. They exist in the psychic body, which cannot be experienced by the senses. This requires an altered state to be perceived through the mind. In yoga nidra we induce this state of perception by gradually withdrawing the senses during the rotation of consciousness throughout the body and by practicing breath awareness. This induces both pratyahara and deep relaxation. In fact, deep relaxation has been shown to be an altered state of perception…

– Swami Satyananda
ringonokiaomoriThen he goes on to say:

Many, if not all, of the truly creative discoveries in life, such as those of science, art, music and religion, were made during creative “flashes” of intuition which we understand as occurring when the inherent knowledge of the unconscious surfaces into consciousness. There are many documented examples. Newton’s revelations about gravity occurred while he was relaxing under an apple tree. Van Gough said that “pictures come to be as in a dream”. Mozart once composed an entirely new musical composition while dozing in the back of a carriage. Einstein increased his perception of relatively while visualizing himself walking along a sunbeam.

All these people allowed themselves to relax deeply enough, for the images and forms of their unconscious mind to manifest as solutions to their particular problems or quest. It has even been reported that through the use of deep relaxation and visualization, people have been able to diagnose their own particular disease before confirmation by medial examination. These deeper layers of the mind contain the solutions to all our problems, but we have to be able to allow them to manifest while maintaining complete detachment. One of the hallmarks of a genius is the ability to produce imagery in great abundance. Children also possess this ability, which usually becomes repressed as they are conditioned by worldly experience.

… fascinating.

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Anything Cute Beautiful People Beautiful Places

Joyful

じょいふる：）Girl POWER in Japan … Cute and … “JOYFUL”, From LOUD crescendo to hushed … diminuendo and then the volume goes up again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsvNsfPZPiE

They are just having fun being … JOYFUL in “matsuri” mode. Their idea of an idol might be a little different from a standard set here so wanted to share. No cleavage necessary, no high heels, no revealing skin showing or tight clothing basically needed to sell yourself … to be an idol there:) What a relief for moms of daughters…

I miss the participatory group energy – love the caller-response exchange and the comic touch. It probably looks a bit odd to the Westerners how the fans have a cheering section who dance along (same movements kind of like bon-odori at a festival…) – anyway, I don’t know why I am posting this (so unrelated to … yoga) I must be getting home sick… last year New Years and Christmas was in Tokyo but this year … not. sob.

No matter how long I have been here, I still consider where my mother is, where my father is buried, my home. But this adopted home is lovely too – in gratitude. America is a beautiful country too where the girls can truly shine, not just on stage but off the stage. I respect so many of the women around me who are so beautiful here.

America is a country of immigrants – If you can’t jump on the plane to go back to the old country to see your mother or your sister or ….. Then create a family here & be the seed … you can get “there” (where?) through the practice of yoga.

So sorry this post is not very ZEN:) but wanted to debunk Asian women’s stereotype of shyness (its dependent on a person not race) abroad and share this study in contrasts, where the opposites – the loud and the hushed silence (shh…) are … separate and one.

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Different styles; different genres…

Ah … I hear everyone talk about how many genres (she dabbles in) like classical, jazz and others, but personally, I don’t divide music by genre when creating. I don’t create by saying, ‘I must create a classical piece here,’ or ‘I must create a jazz piece here.’ When I create music, I don’t consider at all which genre I like best, but what the scene or the anime calls for, like a love (theme) or a mood. There isn’t one genre I like more than the others. I find all of them satisfying and all inspire me in different ways.

– Yoko Kanno (excerpt from wikipedia)

It’s unrelated but related in terms of embracing diversity – and that I appreciate all different styles of yoga … depending on where I am when I am off the mat. “All of them satisfying and all inspire me in different ways.” yes. It’s the vibration – of consciousness. I resist labeling but at the heart is the sun and the moon.

Most of us who love yoga came to yoga not purely for physical reasons – if you want the physical stuff – get sweaty and burn calories (yes, a slice of cheesecake is so rich…), there are plenty of other activities in many forms of exercise, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be yoga but then, why? There are whole hosts of other options – simply go out and walk, jog, hit balls, dance …some of us may even engage in a more extreme and challenging forms of fitness – climb Mt. Everest ? be a Triathlon, ski, golf, even, wrestle – whatever you love – it’s all good. What then, drew us to yoga?

Reflections at the year-end.