Friday 27 December 2013

The Invitation...

It doesn’t interest me
 what you do for a living. 
I want to know
 what you ache for 
and if you dare to dream
 of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me 
how old you are.
 I want to know 
if you will risk 
looking like a fool 
for love
 for your dream 
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me 
what planets are 
squaring your moon...
I want to know 
if you have touched
 the centre of your own sorrow 
if you have been opened 
by life’s betrayals 
or have become shrivelled and closed 
from fear of further pain.
I want to know 
if you can sit with pain 
mine or your own
 without moving to hide it 
or fade it
 or fix it.

I want to know 
if you can be with joy 
mine or your own 
if you can dance with wildness s
and let the ecstasy fill you 
to the tips of your fingers and toes
 without cautioning us 
to be careful 
to be realistic 
to remember the limitations 
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me 
if the story you are telling me 
is true.
 I want to know if you can 
disappoint another 
to be true to yourself. 
If you can bear 
the accusation of betrayal
 and not betray your own soul.
 If you can be faithless 
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty 
even when it is not pretty
 every day.
 And if you can source your own life
 from its presence.

I want to know 
if you can live with failure 
yours and mine
 and still stand at the edge of the lake
 and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me 
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
 I want to know if you can get up 
after the night of grief and despair 
weary and bruised to the bone
 and do what needs to be done 
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me 
who you know 
or how you came to be here.
 I want to know if you will stand
 in the centre of the fire 
with m e
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me 
where or what or with whom 
you have studied. 
I want to know 
what sustains you 
from the inside 
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone 
with yourself
 and if you truly like 
the company you keep
in the empty moments.


By Oriah © Mountain Dreaming,
from the book The Invitation

Saturday 21 December 2013

a word on Surrender...

Surrender is an essential aspect of the learning process in Tantra. There is however, a lot of confusion about what surrender means with submission, which is a passive attitude that implies giving up responsibility for one's behavior, wanting someone else to do things for you. The word surrender has significant roots, in which 'render' has the meaning to melt and 'sur' means super or highest. In other words, the true meaning of surrender is to melt into that which is higher than yourself. You give yourself voluntarily to the highest aspect of your potential so that you can begin to grow into it. True surrender is a conscious choice made from free will. It means opening your heart and trusting the person you are with.
Margo Anand



Solstice Blessings...

Winter Solstice is a time to honour the cycles of life. In the Northern hemisphere we prepare for winter and summer in the Southern Hemisphere…

Just as our ancestors that have gone before us, it's a pivotal time for reflection and pause for the year that has passed. We honour the cycles of life and the changing seasons, and in remembrance for all that they abundantly gift us in the ever-shifting flow of life that we are all magically part of. these next days of Yule, Christmas and New Year, invite the magic mystery into your life...

My own sadhana (spiritual journey) embodies a ritualised practice, breathing offerings into the intention to unite from the heart. Every day I honour my self , my life and all of life in the global community by tending to the sacred heart fire with in my heart. If I make a change  within this will reflect around me, the more of us who unite in positive change, the world heals and becomes more peaceful...

The ritual at this time of solstice honours the mystery of life, allow yourself to go into the darkness of the longest night, for then there is the re-emergence of light. this is a fertile time, the darkness breathes new life, this time is one of rebirth, for tomorrow the sun will grow stronger in sky and the days slower become longer

Today, I invite you to pause honour the Sun, the fire of the Mother Earth, honour the light… choose to not use artificial lights, illuminate your home and soul with candles, and/or light a fire. 
A ritual for a fire…
write on small pieces of paper anything that is no longer serving you, give thanks for the lesson it has shown you and then release into the fire…
Feel the fire of the sun with in you and tend to the inner heart fire as the rebirth of the light at Solstice and the coming New Year.

Solstice Blessings!
Love,
Michelle xox

Friday 13 December 2013

cOMing hOMe...

This is my heartfelt offering to you, my Self and to life at the close of 2013. As I return home from India, I reflect on the journey, as the cycle of this year brings us to the Winter Solstice and the darkest point of the year. I will be honest, I have been feeling very dark, a lot surfaced for me in India, there were challenges, and yet I see it all, embrace it all, even the darkness and bring it all to light, just as the day after winter solstice there is a re-emergence of light.

I wish to honour my teachers, Sianna Sherman and Shiva Rae, who unknowingly helped me beyond words as during my trip. I listened to their teachings from recordings of sadhana courses with them this year and this kept me going, gave me insight….deep pranams ♥♡♥ these words from Sianna still resonate with me…

"rawness and vulnerability are no strangers to me, I recognise them as friends for my own transformation. I commit myself to this transformation as often as i remember"


I forget to remember, forget to reconnect,


I love India, especially the South, Kerala ~ "God's own country", holds fond memories and was the first ever place I visited over 10 years ago. The land of lush coconut palms, colours, the beautiful people, the smells, the sounds of the ocean. then there was the deep contrast in northern India with Delhi and Varanasi, which was polluted, noisy and chaotic…

But then isn't life like this? we have the contrast of the dark and the light, the positive and negative, the noise and the silence. and with these opposites there is the Shakti (the divine feminine power) that breathes life into everything, tat is  pulsating, vibrating and breathing life into all these phases and cycles.


Just for me I forgot this, I failed to see the Shri of Shakti (beauty and auspiciousness) in the chaos, the dirt, the streets of polluted Varanasi. yet she is always there just masked, like our forgetfulness... and the invitation is to remember, to look deeper. Now having come home I remembered... and yes this is also what the practice is about ~ the rekindling, the invitation to remember, to really connect time after time. I am on this yoga journey too and I do to make mistakes, I react, I go inwards to the darkness to find and seek out the light once again.

Rituals open the door...

What I've come to realise upon my return is how important the daily ritual of the Sadhana is.
For me this begins with my sunrise morning puja, a heartfelt offering of welcoming of the new day before my alter with mantra, meditation, mudra and pranayama then Yoga.


As much as India, especially the northern trip challenged me so much, I felt raw and vulnerable, yet Kali's rage was cutting through.  i was travelling in a group, that wanted sight seeing, however weren't into spirituality and I was also sharing a room so had no space for my won practice. I've come to realise that I wasn't meditating every day.I wasn't getting up with the sunrise to invoke the fire of the Sun into the heart fire of my own self. Now after two days back and waking up before the sun practicing my pujas and realigning myself, I also came to realise that my outer alter is a reflection of my inner alter and I need to remember to be more disciplined or create the meditation i never moment so India was gave me the challenges me to remember this. 


Everything is Shri
I was lost at one point and I wrote to one of my teachers, Shiva Rae because I had finished doing Lakshmi Puja Sadhana with her just before I went to India. One morning i did meditate and Shiva came to my mind's eye and I cried. I wrote I was finding it challenging seeing the pollution, the dirt, the poverty and was worrying, she replied immediately, yet ironically i didn't see it for 5 days. Shiva gave me this reminder ~  

"exchange the worry for a deeper connection to Shri. India is the ultimate place for a practice. The surface looks grim but Shakti is vibration…" 


So even in the darkest times, like now as the cycles of the year takes us to the darkest part of the year with Winter Solstice, remember to see the beauty in the dark, in the chaos, in the challenges.  there's beauty and auspicious in the light  as much as the in the dark, it may be masked but she is still always there always there…


So I returned to the hOMe of yoga at YogaRelax my classes have had the theme "cOMing hOMe"…. My intention was the obvious one; I am home, I have come home! the deeper meaning ~ the practices bring us to that place of home, the safety, the security of that place we name home. It is like coming home when you come to know yourself more fully and the yoga encourages you to peel away the layers and step into the power of the fire of the practice. I teach that the yoga sadhana is an opportunity to turn within the temple of your body, utilise the body as the vehicle to take refuge in this sanctuary space, to observe the mind and kindle or rekindle the sacred heart fire.

then just this morning as I sat at 5.30am, I began my practice and was about to invoke my sankalpa, when i was guided to read some sankalpas I wrote before India… this is what i read…
"I find my voice, I speak clearly about my coming home…"


this place I name "home' is always present where-ever you are, the alter I may sit before is truly within me, my heart fire burns brighter through  every experience I encounter, I vow to remember, even though I know I will forget, the beauty is in the remembrance and to this I bow again and again and again…. Namastasyai, Namastasyai, Namastasyai namo namaha



with love, Michelle xx
www.yogarelax.co.uk