23
May, 2022
yoga off the mat contemplation

What would freedom look like for you?

Would it be

  • Lots of $money$ in the bank?
  • Perfect relationships?
  • Perfect home?
  • Perfect family?
  • Perfect job – or maybe no work at all?
  • The choice to do whatever I want, whenever I want?

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but this is NOT the sort of freedom that yoga offers.

>> The sort of freedom that the ancient writings and teachings point to is INNER freedom.

Okay, so perhaps there are some things on that list that look pretty good. The funny thing is that once you experience inner peace and freedom, you no longer see these things as goals and funnily enough you may even find you have many of them!

Certainly relationships become much easier when you have perspective on what it is to have this human existence. And your purpose, your work, might unfold a bit more easily as you feel into the flow of it. It may not really feel like work so much, as you realise you can be present and fully engaged in whatever you are doing.

Freedom in yoga is a capacity to drop away from the personal ‘me’ to feel a sense of expansiveness within.

Yes we still have a human life to deal with. But when we feel more freedom within, we also feel more connected and whole. Compassion and okayness are natural outcomes.

And we realise that where we are right now, and doing whatever we are doing, is where we find that freedom.

I’d love to know if YOU find freedom in your everyday life?

To me, that’s what this work is really about (I even wrote a book about it!)

*If you are interested in experiencing more inner freedom in your life, then my online course Fluff-free freedom might be just perfect for you. Find out more HERE

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

24
Apr, 2021

The mind is a useful tool for living

The mind is a tool for living

Have you ever thought of the mind as a tool? As not the whole of you are, but something useful to help you in your life? And just like other tools, something that you can drop for a while too?

We have many tools to help us live well. For example, we have a car to take us places. It is a fabulous device for transporting us around. The mobile phone is another useful device. It helps to keep us connected with others (oh and so many other uses too!) And what about our computers? They really do make our lives easier even if they also have us tearing our hair out at times!

The thing about these tools is that they are great for assisting us to live well but we don’t need or want them to run our lives.

We turn the car off and leave it in the garage. We shut down the laptop or at least close the lid. We (hopefully!) take a break from constantly interacting with our mobile phones. And all the other gadgets we use throughout the day – we understand their place in helping us to live our lives and don’t mistake them for who we are, right?

The mind is also a useful device, great for thinking, planning, and helping us to communicate.

It really does make a difference when we learn to take a break from the mind. To drop back from reacting to the chatter and busyness that the mind creates. The constant mental commentary is so familiar that it fools us. The mind creates a sense of ‘me’ and we forget that we are not the mind. I think it is almost like some people who forget they are not their phone!

It is not of course immediately obvious that you are not your mind.

The ‘me’ in your head is a mental projection and not the whole of who you are. We gradually develop meditative awareness as we learn to drop back from the mental busyness. This is something we have been exploring in **Fluff-free freedom, and it really does make a difference in people’s lives.

It is not as though having a mind isn’t useful, of course it is! Dropping back from the mind is what helps us to feel connected, whole and free.

Not having to be drawn into the drama of the mind gives choice and perspective and ultimately gives us the capacity to feel into the larger, creative flow and sense of being. My invitation is for you to find this inner freedom for yourself.

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a starting point.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE and postage is free in Australia. They make a perfect gift too.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

**Find out more about my online course Fluff-free freedom HERE

29
Jul, 2020
Yoga off the mat contemplation cards to inspire your practice

Your everyday life is the perfect practice ground

The time to be free is now, and your everyday life is the perfect time and place in which to practice.

*Making dinner?

Feel the freedom within and be free.

*Driving the kids to school? Or dealing with them learning at home?

Feel the freedom within and be free.

*Preparing for a presentation?

Feel the freedom within and be free.

*Working out a complicated problem?

Feel the freedom within and be free.

*Dealing with difficult work colleagues?

Feel the freedom within and be free.

*Having a conversation with a loved one?

Feel the freedom within and be free.

*Working in the garden?

Feel the freedom within and be free.

Annoyed at having to wear a face mask?

Feel the freedom within and be free.

You get the gist.

Whatever you are doing or wherever you are, there is no better time than right now to be free.

To see the mind for what it can and can’t do, to use it as the wonderful tool that it is, and also to drop back from being so caught up in it that you can be free.

That is the work of yoga. To feel the connection to all that is. To feel connected to the flow of like and totally okay with whatever turns up.

Yes there is work to do. Whether it is paid or unpaid, simple or intricate, life has a doing-ness about it. That is simply what happens when we have a human life.

The attitude that we bring and the willingness to drop back from the thinking mind and into the flow is what makes the big difference.

Now it the time. Your every life is the perfect time to feel into the one-ness, to feel you sense of connection to all, and to be free.

My wish for you is the peace and love that comes from finding inner freedom.

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a start. I’d love your feedback and look out for my blog about the next card soon.

You can purchase your own set of these ‘Yoga off the mat, contemplations to enrich your practice’ cards from the store HERE and postage is free in Australia. They make a perfect gift too.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

25
Feb, 2020

Freedom and happiness are not reserved only for special people

I picked this card in class today. It reminded me that our attitude to the experience of life makes a big difference.

I remember that after I had been meditating for a while and also exploring Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras with Mataji (Swami Shantananda) at some point I realized that while my life didn’t really look that different on the outside, my inner experience was forever changed.

I no longer asked myself questions such as:

What is life about?

What am I doing with my life?

Why am I here?

Why are we all here?

How do I want to be remembered?

What does it all mean?

It is not that I necessarily had the answers, just simply that something had shifted inside and these questions were no longer burning as they had been.

I had come to a place of inner joy and okay-ness, an acceptance of things.

So what changed? And why do I think we can all access this inner freedom?

I realized that life had a sort of flow and surrendered to something greater than the little ‘me’. When I really surrendered I felt inner bliss. And still do. There was a realisation that even though I had a degree of agency and choice, I also could relax into the flow.

Aaah.

It is not as though life didn’t and doesn’t have its ups and downs, but an inner sense of okay-ness is there anyway.

If that is something that an ordinary Medical Scientist turned Yoga and Meditation teacher living in suburban Melbourne can come to, then I have absolutely no doubt that this is available for you too. Take a look and see for yourself.

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a start. I’d love your feedback!

You can purchase your own set of these contemplation cards from the store HERE and also my book Yoga off the mat, freedom in everyday life HERE and postage is free in Australia.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

You don’t have to sit in a cave on a mountain to do this work.

True, it is nice to be able to get away to contemplate, meditate, and get perspective on what it is to have this human life.

I do recommend getting to yoga retreats or something similar from time to time where you can. Your practice, while never predictable, moves in leaps and bounds. You discover or get clarity about aspects of yourself that were perhaps previously hiding.

But for most of us, for most of the time, our daily life is our path.

Not only is it not usually possible to drop out of our responsibilities for long periods of time, it is also not necessary. We can develop awareness and do the work of transformation, realizing the Self and finding freedom right where we are.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not meaning to come across as glib, or to suggest there is nothing to do. There is still work to do on this path to freedom and discovering Self. Among many of the practices Patanjali mentions in the Yoga sutras are tapas (burning desire, discipline, intensity) and also swadhyaya (self study).

Our daily life is the perfect practice ground. We can observe our reactions and behaviours and thought patterns. We can observe the ego ‘me’ in situ in daily life. We may find quiet in a yoga class or meditation practice. We develop awareness of how our body and mind operate and feel.

The real work is keeping this quiet awareness as we move on with our day. That is where the work is.

Many years ago I read the story of Tenzin Palmo in ‘Cave in the snow’. She is a Buddhist nun who spent twelve years living in a remote cave in the Himalayas, three of those years in strict meditation. One of her quotes from after that time is:

‘The more you realize, the more you realize how much there is to realize and, at the same time, how much you realize that there is nothing to realize.’

What we can learn from our practice is that we have everything we need already.

The thing is, we can be all in with our life, feel our reactions, and get perspective on what it is to have human existence.

The way I see it, if you can’t integrate the peace and connectedness that you find in meditation into your daily life, than what is the point? Your practice doesn’t replace your ordinary life, it is something that you can use to enhance your experience of everyday life.

For a while there is your practice time – asana, meditation and so on – and your ‘other’ time. Then little by little I have found that the whole of your life can become your practice. Can you feel the same sense of bliss when having a conversation as you can find on the mat or cushion? Now that is the work!

With a slight shift in perspective we might find that we feel connected, free and whole, right where we are.

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a start. I’d love your feedback and look out for my blog about the next card soon.

You can purchase your own set of these contemplation cards from the store HERE and postage is free in Australia.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

Freedom is your birthright

A series of blogs arising from picking a Contemplation card from my deck

The freedom of Yoga is the freedom within of seeing how the mind creates a ‘me’ from where we operate a lot of the time. It is the freedom of not being bound by the mind’s thoughts and ideas. 

This freedom is not related to your bank balance or your personal circumstances, but the inner freedom where you experience the bliss and love of the universe.

This inner freedom has many names such as kaivalya, nirvana, moksha, Self-realisation or enlightenment. As I see it, if you have been born as a human on this earth you have as much right as anyone to experience that freedom.

From the humble cigarette vendor Nisargadatta, to Jesus, to Patanjali, the Buddha, Nityananda and of course many, many others, the nature of human existence has been questioned and unbound freedom experienced. You have this capacity too.

For many of us, meditation and contemplation are the means, and also for many of us this doesn’t happen without a good teacher to nudge us along and help us see what we cant initially see. To help us experience in a way that is different from the experience that the thinking part of the mind gives us. I am eternally grateful to my teacher Swami Shantananda for opening the path of inner freedom for me.

Why not experience inner freedom in your life? What is stopping you?

Most of the time we are in our heads living a ‘virtual’ life. A virtual reality played out largely in our minds.

You can wake up to awareness and be free of this substitute life. You can feel the love and bliss that you are. You can feel whole and connected and free.

Not much has to change on the outside. Your circumstances don’t have to change. Your family life doesn’t have to change. Your work doesn’t even have to change, although it might. What changes is the experience of that very same life. No longer being so caught up in the small identification of ‘me’ offers possibility for a much more expansive experience. You still have shit to deal with but it won’t feel so shitty and your inner life might explode!

What would it feel like to drop back from your thoughts and allow the feeling of inner bliss and freedom? It is but a heartbeat away.

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a start. I’d love your feedback and look out for my blog about the next card soon.

You can purchase your own set of these contemplation cards from the store HERE and postage is free in Australia.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.

1
Nov, 2019
Yoga off the mat contemplation cards to inspire your practice

It takes courage to be still

The mind doesn’t like to be let go of.

The mind doesn’t like being still. Our minds are conditioned to be aware and ‘in control’. Perhaps it is a survival requirement?

Even when we know we are safe, it takes effort to drop back and be free from all that mental drama. To be content and okay with how things are.

We are conditioned to compare ourselves to others, to have more stuff, to do more. We are conditioned to travel to exciting places and to have more excitement and drama.

But perhaps the true contentment in life doesn’t come from having more stuff and doing more exciting things?

Perhaps true contentment comes from finding freedom within?

Finding a state of Yoga, or Union, that is always there just often hidden. Perhaps true contentment comes when we experience the one-ness, the state of unitary consciousness, the one big universal freedom. Does that sounds a bit far-fetched? It is available, but you do have to be willing to be still.

Have the courage to make time in your life for stillness. Make time in our life for finding yourself. You wont regret it.

Much more meaning than is teased out here can be taken from these cards, this is just a start. I’d love your feedback and look out for my blog about the next card soon.

You can purchase your own set of these contemplation cards from the store HERE and postage is free in Australia.

The gorgeous original picture on the front of each card is by Gayle Stone Art.