Set yourself up for sweet, happy dreams. Use this concentrated blend before bed.
The Magic Mix:
Place a dab on your wrists prior to pre-bed meditation and practice with Nadi Shodhana (Alternate nostril breathing).
Meditation comes in a multitude of forms, even sculpture.
In order to create the form you must observe the subtleties that make it unique. The act of observing a model (or anything) with complete awareness heightens consciousness. To look and see: ridges, curves, creases, bumps, edges, lines, points. Noticing the fine details allows you to see something more fully. Only later does one step back and take in the piece fully.
Sculpture, and art in general, highlights the importance of small details. Looking closely, then stepping away, manipulating the shape but also allowing it to hold form.
Mikaela Conley, founder and director of The Daily Saint, recently invited me to participate in her podcast to discuss the daily saints in my life. The Daily Saint is an initiative focused on seeing the good all around. Small, seemingly trivial moments of kindness to grand gestures of love are highlighted on the site.
The words, thoughts and musings of Kurt Vonnegut, one of Mikaela’s favorite writers, were a source of great inspiration for The Daily Saint. In fact, it was an excerpt from a commencement speech that Vonnegut gave at The University of Wisconsin in 2003 that inspired the website’s name. He told this story: “A sappy woman sent me a letter a few years back. She knew I was sappy, too, which is to say a lifelong northern Democrat in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt mode, a friend of the working stiffs. She was about to have a baby, not mine, and wished to know if it was a bad thing to bring such a sweet and innocent creature into a world as bad as this one is. I replied that what made being alive almost worthwhile for me, besides music, was all the saints I met, who could be anywhere. By saints I meant people who behaved decently in a strikingly indecent society. Perhaps some of you are or will become saints for her child to meet.”
The Daily Saint caused me to start thinking more about my own happiness, expression of gratitude, and compassion. It made me realize that we choose the lens by which we view the world. Acts of beauty and kindness are sprinkled everywhere, much more plentifully than anger and hate. It is within our power to see the good.
Mikaela invited me to join her on a recent Podcast to discuss my Daily Saints. I realized that The Daily Saint, in many ways, represents yoga off the mat. Making shapes, connecting the body, mind, breath, and spirit are simply means to an end. At its core, yoga is a practice of unity and love. It is about being connected to our individual essence. The love and purity a yoga practice has the power to cultivate helps individuals click into their true essence and greatness.
The Daily Saint highlights real people in real places in real situations. There are no fairy Godmothers or haloed visionaries. They are real people doing real things. The people acknowledged are not seeking accolades or recognition. They are not looking for fame or fortune. Daily Saints simply follow their truest selves. Yoga at its core is about disconnecting from our ego and reconnecting to humanity and to ourselves. Yoga and The Daily Saint go hand and hand. Luckily, as sisters, we can share the journey.
Check out our podcast by clicking here:
http://www.creatorsbroadcast.com/episodes/listen/the-daily-saint/erin-conley-06-21-13.html
Thank you for your support. And, as always, NAMASTE. XO
erin conley 