White Tara – By Mugwort Artemesia
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Nicole Doherty Ananda
Coaching + Intuitive Healing Arts
Visionary Art by Krystleyez
Flowing As One – By Krystleyez
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My purpose as an artist is multifaceted, yet clear: to be a prism of vision, an instrument of light, awakening consciousness through artistic insight. To inspire…to express and evoke love…to create windows into both the past and the future from the unfolding Present….
…to bring vision to life and paint portals to the in*phi*net…..
My paintings are explo
rations into multidimensional landscapes woven through intricate sacred geometries. Within the tiniest of atoms to the largest of galaxies are fundamental geometric rhythms of energy that unify Creation. Through the symbolic language of colors and shapes, I offer windows of understanding into the profound possibilities of divine harmony. My style is an ever-evolving process of quest and discovery, memory and moment, intention and intuition.
I actively work to enrich culture and community with conscious artworks. Accompanying musicians as a performance painter, live painting provides a unique environment to create work saturated with both sound and the essence of the moment while simultaneously allowing the viewer to participate in the process. Ultimately, I humbly offer my gift of inspiration to the world in hopes that it may ripple outwards and catalyze the evolution of consciousness. – Krystleyez (Krystle Smith)
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Consciousness Thrives on Contrast
This month I have been so completely fascinated with polarity – light, dark, up, down, past, future and so on. Consciousness thrives in contrast. In the Law of Attraction work we talk about contrast as that which inspires new desires. You know what you don’t like and therefore you begin to hone in on what you do like. We create the world with our choices based on our preferences. So if we just keep choosing what we like, we will always get what we desire, right? Perhaps it’s not so simple.
The interesting part about contrast is that we create labels that we attach to these polarities through conditioning. For example, light is good and dark is bad. Yet, I’m reminded of a great quote that I came across recently that would argue that the dark sounds pretty darn cool and necessary:
[blockquote indent=”yes” ]You are not what you have done, but what you have overcome. All the hardships. All the mistakes. All the rejections. All the pain. All the times you questioned why. All of these things have given birth to the wisdom and strength that will help you shine your light on the world, even in the darkest of hours. ~ Ritu Ghatourey[/blockquote]
Turning Our Focus Toward The Flow Of Energy
The truth is that each of these polarities is just energy. And energy just IS. They co-exist together to create the whole. Pema Chodron predicates that the labeling of everything is what creates suffering and that genuine freedom comes from going beyond labels and projections. If we can start to observe the dualism around us from a place of non-judgement and just recognize the play of opposites in everything, we can turn our focus toward the flow of energy rather than subjectively playing into their meanings.
I’m reminded of the gunas in the Yoga Sutras as well. The gunas are the building blocks of nature – positive, negative and neutral in charge. In any given day we are oscillating through all of these frequencies. We are following the path of nature – we move from a cold, wet day, to a blazing hot day, to a perfect ten (sometimes even all in one day when you live near the beach!). Everything is changing all the time.
My interest in all of this?
Finding The Truth of Balance
Finding the Yoga. Finding the harmony of opposites. I’m engaging in meditations that require me to disengage with the projections and find the truth of balance. I am trying to recognize that whenever there is up, there will be a down and there will also be a middle ground. I am in observation of my attachments to the past and to the future and looking for the Now. I’m letting go of strong opinions of right and wrong that have chained my psyche through human constructs like religion. I’m living more in the present. I’m asking less questions. I’m accepting and forgiving more.
Every Road Leads To Everywhere
I recently downloaded this phrase in one of my meditations that I absolutely love, “Every road leads to everywhere.” We live in a world of endless, limitless possibility filled with choice. With this in mind, I continue to recognize that there is no wrong way. There are many ways. My way is my way, unique in its construction and your way is your way. We can follow others for guidance, but in the end we need to to forge our own journey based on how we feel. What feels good for me, may feel really uncomfortable for someone else. It’s our job as conscious individuals to be in a perpetual state of observation of our reactions, our projections and our labels and to use the contrast everywhere to become conscious of the path our heart and soul desires.
Dieting Plants in the Jungles of Peru – Connecting with Gain Consciousness
Peru is stunning – majestic mountains, rural agricultural communities, the rich Amazonian rivers, jungles and mystical shamanic tourism. There are many beautiful ruins to visit, hikes to embark on, jungles to explore, animals to see and healers willing to show us the truth about who we really are. Having just returned from my second trip to Peru in the last three years, I’m always so grateful for its profound teachings in connecting me to God and Gaian Consciousness.
Peru Is A Powerful Energetic Vortex
The ancient wisdom of the indigenous tribes of the Andes and the Amazon remind us of the importance of connecting to Mother Earth and all of life. I was on a bus going through the Sacred Valley when a passenger asked the driver, “What is the religion of the people here?” and he replied, “We practice what the Incans believed, we pray to the earth, the sun, the stars, the animals, the plants – all living creatures.”
Traveling and Working In Peru
In traveling and working in Peru, I’ve been fortunate to work with some amazing Shamans both male and female who have showed me the power of working with the plants of the Amazon for my own personal healing and with others. There is a vast wealth of information deeply rooted in the Shamanic culture about the nature of the Earth, its ability to heal, and our role as children of this planet. I’ve worked with many types of plants learning their vibrations, their songs and their teachings.
Master Healing Plant Provides Protection and Strength
This last visit I spent one week dieting a master healing plant that provides protection and strength for people who do energetic healing work like myself. I had a very limited diet of rice and beans and was not allowed to talk to anyone or see anyone. I could use no technology. I was confined to a small hut, tambo, with only permission to take walks through the jungle, shower, swim, read for a few hours, sing and do art. The shamans could visit me if I needed help, but the point was to be in silence and connect with the Earth. The shamans said after a few days, I might get vivid dreams and begin to feel the power of the plants and receive messages from their spirits. For years, as a Yogi, I’ve talked to people who’ve practiced 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreats and talked about its profundity, so I was looking forward to a similar experience. I got so much more than I ever could have imagined. I was able to tap into the wisdom teachings of the Yoga Sutras and watch the mind in great detail.
Battling My Fears
The first few days, I battled my fears. The reptilian brain’s survival response was on high alert with all the jungle noises – will a jaguar come into my tambo and attack me or will snakes bite me or a spider sting me? I witnessed the high level of stress that I operate under daily. I became uncomfortable doing nothing because I’m so used to the external nature of my work and the packed schedule I keep. I saw how my mind loves routine and creates unconscious habits. I found myself creating schedules each day that mimicked the day before. In the Sutras, we call habits samskaras, and we try to break them, so I tried to do things differently each day once I noticed what I was doing. I began to listen in and act more instinctually to what I needed. I saw too how I’d fallen victim to circumstances in my life that were driving choices I made that didn’t necessarily feed my soul’s purpose or dharma. I saw deep, old patterns and obstacles, vikalpas that were blocking my deepest intentions, sankalpas, for what I want to create in my life. I was able to feel some emotions that were hidden underneath it all that I was able to dance with and move through the system. (Thank you for this learning, courtesy of Rod Stryker and his book, The Four Desires!)
Getting Rid Of Unwanted Behaviors
It took me about four full days to rid myself of unwanted behaviors and override the lower mind and move more into the higher mind, buddhi. On day four I dropped in. I began practicing yoga longer, meditating for longer periods of time and found myself just swinging in a hammock gazing at the trees. I was able to listen to the trees and the sounds of the jungle. It became absolutely magical. My fear based dreams and subconscious projections were replaced with vivid dreams of loved ones, plant life, and healers. I was waking up singing devotional chants and songs. I started to feel the vibration of the Earth beneath my feet and my body began tingling with the waves of a juicy, beautiful Savasana throughout the entire day.
Awakening To My Divine Nature – Prakrati
The challenges I was facing in the first four days dissipated. I was filling up with an incredible amount of strength and Shakti. I was awakening to my Divine Nature, Prakrati and seeing my Soul, Purusha with great awareness. I became romantic with all that surrounded me. A hummingbird stopped mid flight and shared a few transmissions about joy with me eye to eye. A butterfly landed next to me and we intuitively spoke of transformation. It was incredible what I was feeling come through in the silence of my mind. It was as if someone plugged me into Mother Gaia.
Samadhi – Pure Bliss
For the next three days, I felt supercharged like I would imagine Neo felt like when he plugged into the Matrix. I was singing non-stop. My memory improved. I was able to learn chants and information easily. It was like all the information I was taking in was already in me and now was just flowing easily and effortlessly from me. It is what we Yogis refer to as Samadhi, Pure Bliss.
All That Is and all that I AM
I was ignited once again with remembrance of All That Is and all that I AM. I remembered the importance of creating true space and the importance of connecting to Nature, which is what we mirror. I experienced my own vibration and felt the power of my love, my light and my joy. I wrote my dharmic code and saw the vision of my life’s work. I saw the deep traumas of my life as expansive, amazing gifts given to me as tools to help others embody their own strength and courage. I saw the limitless possibilities of life and the infinite nature of the Universe.
In writing this blog, I’m feeling the immense humility for the power of silence. It’s an extraordinary gift to give oneself, especially in the age of technology. There are mountains of evidence that the amount of stress we have created is causing major illness as relates to a crowded mind– heart attacks, strokes, tumors, Altzheimers, cancer, etc. In the Shamanic point of view all illness is a result of trapped emotions and projections of the mind. It’s our job to connect deeply with our unconscious, to transmute dark to light and live in present awareness. We are God Consciousness witnessing itself. We are energy in a state of expansion. We are glorious, incredible beings birthing new endless possibilities. In order to know this and live this, we must get still. We do not need to endure the suffering we are creating for ourselves.
Silent Retreats and Meditation Practices
My recommendation is to do a silent retreat if you ever can. Create space for things that nourish your body, mind and spirit. Create silence for your mind. Take technology holidays. Take weekends off every now and again. Create less external distractions and tap into your heart. Find a meditation practice, even if you start with just 5 minutes a day. The keys to the Universe are inside and all around us in the living creatures we share this planet with. Heaven is Earth. Take hikes, swim and walk the beach. Love yourself. Listen to the songs of the plants. Feel the wind on your face. Get yourself to Peru. Illuminate. Breathe in God’s Breath of Life!
What Are We Resisting?
by Nicole Doherty, Certified Yoga Teacher
Resistance. As yoga teachers we talk a lot about this subject in class. Letting go of your resistance. Surrendering to your practice. Relinquishing the mind. The dictionary defines resistance as “the opposition offered by one thing to another.” What is it that we are opposing and what can we gain as a result of our practice?
- Stress vs. Calm: The amount of stress that we undergo as a culture is killing us. Literally. So getting on the mat offers a great opportunity to release this bound up energy and move it through the system. In most yoga classes we give you a decent cool down and a Savasana that offers the nervous system a much-needed break. Your body moves into the parasympathetic system of restoration and relaxation, when your body is literally being healed.
- Mental Chaos vs. Meditation: In our society we are bombarded with stimulus that pulls us in every direction. Between cars, traffic, computers, cell phones, etc. our brain is on overload. Time in a yoga class is a technology holiday and a chance to shut off. There is no way to get a hold of you, cell phones off. The brain can take rest and move into meditation.
- Unconscious vs. Conscious Thoughts: This is one of my personal favorites and why yoga became my life path. When we are running around all day, we’re not really listening. We are in a mode of reactivity and mostly unconscious behavior. But on the mat, once we slow down a bit, we get the gift of observation. We start to feel the mind-body-soul connection. We hear the little voices in our heads and we can observe our thoughts. Our thoughts become our actions, so we start to understand the importance of becoming conscious of them.
We tend to be in a state of resistance and opposition often. Resistance is a state of being. Contrast is what offers us choice and helps us to form our preferences. So when you enter into resistance and you are asked to surrender begin to observe what you are holding onto, attaching to and preventing yourself from experiencing that could bring you more happiness and sustained joy.
Feel free to comment on this article below and let me know what it is that you feel you resist and what the opposite state of being has brought into your life.