Looking For Valentine's Date Ideas for Quarantine?

Today I am filled with love and gratitude. For YOU. Seriously. It washed over me unexpectedly this morning while I was thinking about what Valentine's gift to send to you. I was feeling a little run down, a little deflated and unsure about what to write and what to send you. A little unsure of myself. I got soft and gooey and loving of myself and my body and my feelings. And then...WHOOSH...love and gratitude. For you. You are the inspiration. So THANK YOU. And please know that my heart is open and sending so much love to you. 

This Shower Yourself with Love Meditation is perfect for Valentine's Day (or any day!). Get comfy either seated or lying down, and get soft and gooey with yourself. Recognizing that YOU are perfect right here. Right now. If you'd like a loving, therapeutic Svaroopa Style classto support yourself along with this meditation, you can try one here. 

Looking for Valentine's Day date ideas? It's a little...different this year, isn't it? Going out to dinner might not be a possibility. So...here you go! I'm teaching an Online Partner Yoga Classthis Sunday with Be Yoga. Yup, that's Valentine's Day! A dear friend of mine usually teaches it in person with her hubbie and I'm teaching it for her this year with my honey! We've gone every year and we have a blast! And he's not super bendy. Complete beginners are welcome. We always laugh and have a great time. It's a fun way to celebrate Valentine's Day and to connect with your partner. Or you can do the class with a quarantine friend! 2pm eastern US. Sign up HERE. 

Write "I AM LOVE" in the YouTube comments to let me know you've done this beautiful meditation with us and that you're a part of our community. 

Know that you are loved. You ARE love. 

Big love 💕

Lorrie

PS Don’t forget to try Shower Yourself with Love Meditation and write “I Am Love” in the comments below the video on Youtube so I know you’ve read this email.

PPS 🥰 Join us for a fun Partner Yoga class on Sunday, it's the perfect Valentine's Day Date! 😍

I Had the Covid! My Experience and Takeaways...

*Note that NONE of this is medical advice.  It is simply my own personal experience with having the Covid-19 Coronavirus.  Always consult your physician for any medical advice. 

My intention in sharing my experience with you is to uplift, to give hope, and to inform.  I know that for me, it was helpful and soothing to communicate with other people who had it previously and to read about people’s experiences with having it online (keep in mind that I was very choosy about what I read…nothing super depressing or scary and that I didn’t read a whole whole lot!) .  I will share a breathing technique I did for the first time on Wed, May 13 when I was experiencing my strongest symptoms and I experienced a surge of energy within two hours and felt a big shift in my body (**I’m not saying that it is the thing that shifted the illness for me…simply sharing my experience).  

Here we go!  

The first week of May I was movin and groovin and having fun with teaching yoga, playing in the beautiful spring grass and admiring our beauuuutiful peonies, chasing a mole that lives in our fairy circle up front, and creating more online offerings.  But I started to notice that something with my body wasn’t operating the way it usually does.  I didn’t think a whole lot of it because, well…we’re human.  We inhabit these lovely bodies and experience peaks and valleys within them all the time.  

By the following week, however, I knew this was different.  Deep in my gut I knew I had the Covid (yes, I call it “The Covid” because it makes me giggle to call it that and it’s good to giggle about something that’s so charged).  I was having trouble getting out of the bed in the morning (I usually love getting up at 4am!), sleeping 14 hours and still exhausted, experiencing some shortness of breath (though not too bad), dizzy and really foggy and felt like a zombie.  It was all I could do to walk downstairs and collapse on the sofa each morning…late morning.  Other symptoms as well that you can read more about in addition to the onset and recovery in more detail in the next blog entry of The Little Golden Thread if you’d like to know more (I go through them day by day).  

Let’s take it back a bit…I promise we’ll get back to the Covid experience in a sec.  

Some of you know that in my 20s I was housebound and bedbound for upwards of 8 years with “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” (also known as ME) and “Fibromyalgia,” both of which are diagnosed simply by ruling out anything else.  Medicine has not been able to identify what causes these conditions and there is no known “cure.”  Those 8 years held a lot of not knowing.  Not knowing from day to day how I was going to feel, whether I was going to be able to feed myself, make it up the stairs, or maybe have a good day and be able to take a 5 minute walk.  Not knowing if I would ever get better.  Not knowing what was causing all of the symptoms I was experiencing.  Not knowing if I would ever be able to pursue my acting career again, my singing career again, to run my 3-5 miles several days a week ever again…

During that time of my life I HAD to cultivate an acceptance of not knowing.  The alternative was to stay miserable and scared and constantly trying to figure it out, which is exhausting!  I ain’t gonna lie…it was hard to let go of trying to figure it out!  I did it though.  I got better and better at letting it be okay that I didn’t know and was able to develop a loving relationship with my body that had been lacking in a big way before.  The illness was also the advent of a deep spiritual connection and loving relationship with myself I’d been looking for my whole life.  

Now…back to a few weeks ago.  Because of the experience I had early on in my adult life with CFS, I didn't hold a lot of fear around having Covid.  I’m no stranger to mysterious illnesses.  In fact, I was *excited* that there was actually a test I could take that would verify my inner knowing (as excited as a zombie can be…)!  So Tuesday my honey drove me to the testing site (I was not capable of driving because of the dizziness) and I got the swab test and two days later got the results and they were…NEGATIVE.  Bah, so that was a little frustrating.  Yes, we’ve been talking about all this wonderful acceptance of not knowing, but I wanted validation!  Ha!  

Upon further research I found out that over 30% of the negatives are FALSE negatives, so decided to wait and get the antibody test.  Which ALSO has a high number of false negatives as I found out later (though I did test positive)…more on that in a bit.  

In the meantime, I’m talking and writing with a few people I know who contracted Covid 19 early on in the pandemic.  One person in March, another in April along with his whole family.  Every person experienced different symptoms, though there seem to be similarities within families (clusters).  The friend who got it with his whole family tested negative for the swab test while his whole family tested positive and he was obviously ill.  

So now let’s go to Wed, May 13, about four days into the thick of it.  I’ve had to give my yoga classes to one of our other sweet sweet teachers, though I do manage to still meet with my coaching clients online.  I have a friend on the west coast that I talk to every day and I told her what was going on and she suggested a breathing technique to me…the Wim Hof Method.  I was a little resistant at first…bah, another technique, another modality, etc.  I’ve been doing Pranayama (yogic breathing) for years!  But something kinda pulled me along, so I did a small amount of research and decided to give it a shot.  The method is basically 3-4 rounds of very vigorous breathing followed by a long suspension of the breath after an exhale and then a short suspension of the breath after an inhale.  I did the breathing for about 10 minutes.  

I mentioned I was like a zombie, right?  Within two hours of doing that breathing technique, I was talking my honey’s head off, whereas before I hadn’t wanted to utter a word, and even went into the kitchen to help him fix dinner, albeit a good bit of that time was spent sitting on the floor instructing him.  There was a very specific moment when it felt like my body and energetic system did an about-face.  The shift was almost palpable.    What just happened???  

The next morning I woke up after 8 hours of sleep (as opposed to 12) and though I still felt that hung over feeling and pretty awful, it was about 60% better than previous mornings.  I did the breathing again that morning.  By the afternoon/evening, most of my major symptoms (nausea, dizziness, fogginess, sore throat, headache, chills) were either gone or had decreased significantly.  I was (and am) sold.  Incidentally, the friend who told me about the breathing technique had only just run across it herself AND is the person who got me and the love of my life/honey together (in spite of much protestation from us both before we met in person).

By the following week I was feeling much better, though still very low energy and pretty shaky.  My measure of my shakiness was how much of the dropper full of Wellness Formula tincture I could get in my mouth versus dribbling it down my chin.  By the next Wed (May 20), my hands were again steady and sure.  

This whole thing has gotten me very curious about this illness.  In some ways the after effects feel very much like CFS symptoms.  Makes me wonder if perhaps they’re related.  I’ve spoken to another friend who had it early on and only she and one of their two children got it.  Her husband and other child were asymptomatic.  It presented for her with a lot of gastrointestinal symptoms and wheezing. And she’s had some residual fatigue and other symptoms that lasted for several months, as did one of my other friends I mentioned and the wife of the other friend I mentioned.  My female friend got two swab tests and both came back negative, as did her antibody test.  

I had a low grade fever for about an hour one day.  Otherwise my temperature was below normal.  I didn’t have lots of the symptoms you see listed as Coronavirus symptoms.  My honey had a few days of low energy but was asymptomatic (yay!).  And we still have no idea where I could have picked it up.  We have been very careful with masks and gloves, etc.  

It’s now been three weeks and my energy levels continue to get better, though I still don’t feel 100%.  I know that this may take some time and that’s okay (most of the time…I do have my little fits and allow myself to have a tantrum because I want to be at 100% again NOW;).  I am blessed that it was a mild case and that I was already in such good health.  I’m slowly adding more physical activities back in (I get to teach one of my yoga classes tomorrow, yay!).  I’m still doing the breathing technique and am excited to continue to learn more about it and to deepen that practice.  

All this to say…

-       If you think you may have Covid, treat yourself as if you do, even if you get a test and it comes back negative.  Take good care of yourself (which you’re already doing, hopefully!), consult with your physician, and rest.  Do all the things you know to do to take care of yourself like drinking lots of water and watching things that make you happy.  Isolate yourself as much as possible and know that it will pass.  If you do have significant trouble breathing or other heightened symptoms, get yourself to the hospital.  

-       Talk to a few other people you know who have experienced it and come out the other side. 

-       See if you can allow this time to be a sacred space.  Whether you have had Covid or not, what have you gained from this shared world-wide experience?  If you have had it or currently have it or are dealing with any kind of physical ailment…illness and recovery are ripe for big internal shifts.  Allow yourself the space to let them happen.  

I was inspired by the experience I had with Covid to share some of the things I do every day to keep myself connected and healthy in a 5 DAY WELLNESS CHALLENGE.  We’d love for you to join us, you can sign up at www.livingfrominspiration.com (the sign up window will come up once you’ve been on the site for a few seconds or you can go to the FREEBIES section).  It’s free and starts on June 22, but you can sign up anytime and start anytime after the start date.  Hope to see you there or at an upcoming event!  

Be happy.  Be healthy.  Be in love with yourself and your life.  

Big love,

Lorrie 

Six Simple Steps To Find Calm In The Midst of Chaos (with audio meditation!)

Sooooo…things are pretty funky out there right now, right?  Not the yummy, groovy kind of funky.  More the “what the heck is happening??”, incredulous, dramatic, sometimes polarizing, anxiety-inducing kind of funky.  You can feel it in the air, see it in people’s faces, it’s almost palpable.  

I’m a fairly centered, drama-free gal, and I too, am finding that the current events and Covid (I call it “the C-word”) can take me from my typical warm and fluffy center into some anxiety.  Now, to a certain degree, this is a good thing!  We are all human.  We are connected.  We have emotions.  And we want to honor our humanity and our feelings.  Of COURSE we’re feeling wonky with everything that’s happening, especially so if we have loved ones who are in higher risk groups regarding the C-word.  

Where does that anxiety come from?  There’s a TON of uncertainty around just about every aspect of this thing.  How long will it last?  How much will it continue to spread in the US and beyond?  How can I help my loved ones who may be at risk?  How do I cancel my flights in a way so that I might get reimbursed?  Will the economy recover?  How do I get out of this public bathroom without touching the doorknob?  And so on and so forth.  

Now I have a question for you…how did reading that last paragraph make you feel?  It made me feel horrible!  Anxious and confused and scrambly.  I have another question for you…how many aspects of those questions do you have immediate control over, this second, right now?  None of them (alright, maybe the bathroom doorknob one…)!  Sure, you can reach out to airlines and you can take action to help loved ones (and I certainly recommend it!), but I’m talking right now, in this moment, what do you have control over?  The only answer is yourself.  You have control over your own actions, responses, and how you respond to any feelings that come up for you.  You have control over your perspective and how you focus your thoughts.  

ACTION:  Right now, *close your eyes and take that in.   Breathe with it.  You only have control over yourself.  

It’s a relief, right?  We can often feel like we need to be the General Manager of the Universe.  See if you can let go of that right now.  

On a more practical level, there are some actions you can take to find calm within all of this.  I’d like to share them with you in the hopes that they may assist you in coming back to that warm and fluffy place within yourself.  You’ll most likely find that you slip in and out of center, that’s always going to happen.  But when you continually practice these habits, your “hang time” in peace and center is longer and longer and longer.  AND you get to the place where being out of center isn’t as painful.  You can observe it, as opposed to getting caught up in it.  

SIX THINGS YOU CAN DO

1.  Practice an uplifting morning ritual.  And do it.  Every morning.  Before you do anything else!

You’ve probably heard of inertia, right?  An object at rest stays at rest, an object in motion stays in motion.  Well, our thoughts and emotions are the same way.  Once we start our thoughts on one trajectory, they tend to continue in that same direction.  First thing in the morning is a powerful time to set the tone for the rest of your day.  My morning ritual looks something like this:

-  put on some soothing, uplifting music

-  write down my intentions for the day:  ex: to have fun, to love and adore myself unconditionally, to love and adore every single person I encounter unconditionally…etc.  

-  write down 10-20 things I adore and appreciate:  ex: hearing the little bird singing outside (so active!!!), the unusual tint of the morning light I see right now, flowers!!!…etc.

-  sometimes read or listen to uplifting messages

-  take a hot bath with candles 

-  High Intensity Training and Yoga

-  meditate (5-15 minutes)

I don’t do all of them every single day, but most days I do.  This is BEFORE looking at any news, BEFORE reading any emails, and the first few things usually BEFORE interacting with anyone else.  Find a few things you enjoy and that feel good to you to start your day with.  I DO highly recommend writing your intentions, things you appreciate, and meditating first thing.  You can do all those in 10-20 minutes.  The others are bonuses first thing in the morning.  

2.  Practice yoga or dance.  Move your body in a mindful way.  Connect with it.  Allow yourself to be present with your body.  This is beneficial for your immune system AND beneficial in allowing you to more easily handle any stress that presents.  If you don’t have time to do a full class some days, just get on your mat for 5 minutes.  Do a down dog, a Sun Salutation.  Shake your booty to some tunes for 3 minutes.  

3.  Practice Nadi Shodhana - Alternate Nostril Breathing.  This is a simple, yet powerful technique that calms the nervous system, balances the two hemispheres of the brain, and settles the mind.  You can follow along with this video.  When I’m super busy and find myself feeling anxious, I set a reminder to go off every two hours and I sit my butt down and do Nadi Shodhana for 3 minutes.  It. Makes. A HUGE. Difference.  

4.  Limit your news time.  Try to keep your news time to 30 minutes or less a day.  That should be plenty to keep you up to date with the important happenings and at the same time, allow you to have plenty of breathing space and unplug from any mounting anxieties in the general public.  I would generally say keep it to 5 minutes or less a day, but given where we are right now with the C-word, you may find it needs to be more than usual.  

5.  Be the Witness.  This is something you can cultivate over time with things like meditation and mindful moment to moment presence, but even if you are new to the concept, you can start to employ it.  Allow yourself to approach everything as if you are a scientist observing.  Observe yourself.  Observe others.  Observe the media.  Observe the situations around you.  Even observe your emotions and thoughts.  Let go of opinions or conclusions for periods of time.  A good scientist doesn’t come to any conclusions until he’s observed objectively.  Being able to watch, rather than getting drawn into all the drama, is invaluable and gives you the ability to be objective and to take Skillful Action rather than being reactionary and acting from a place of fear and doubt.  See if you can come back to just watching again and again and again.  

6.  Allow your emotions.  Get to be friends with them.  Don’t try to push any anxiety away or reject it.  Welcome it with open arms…”hello old friend…I am here…I hear you.”  You don’t need to DO anything about the emotion or try to make it go away.  See, emotions are just energy, and energy wants to move.  Energy is always moving towards higher vibrations (like love, joy, peace, calm, etc).  It’s when we resist feelings that they get stuck in lower registers.  And, btw, having lower register feelings is not bad!!!  So feeeeel your feelings!  When you can combine #5, Be The Witness, with #6, Allowing Your Emotions, you're golden!  Because you don’t get bogged down in those feelings, you experience them for what they are…energy!  

and I’ll give you a bonus one…

7.  Laugh.  Find a way to lighten the mood.  Watch puppies doing cute things.  Remember something silly you did recently.  Make a funny face in the mirror.  

**

It is more important than EVER for each of us to take responsibility for our own well-being, physically and emotionally/energetically.  Start with these simple steps above and experience how much better YOU feel and in turn, what a calming and positive effect you have on those around you.  Be a leader of love, of calm within the chaos and I promise you, in this way you will contribute the most to your loved ones and in fact, to the world.  

Here is the Calming 5 minute Meditation for you to use. Let me know how it all goes for you!

Biiiiiig love,

Lorrie 

Audio Meditation to Open Your Beautiful Heart and to Calm

We had crrrraaaaaazy weather here in Charlotte (and the whole Southeast) last week, especially on Thursday. Tornados, high winds, flooding, lightening, mudslides, hail…I half expected to look out the window and see the four horsemen of the apocalypse galloping amidst the clouds and waving trees! With my Healing Codes coaching and Touchstone coaching I work with clients all over the world over Zoom or the phone and I had several of my awesome clients on this particular insane weather day. When I work with clients I need to be super tuned in and and have an open heart to assist them in the best way possible. On this day, we were under a Tornado Warning (which means “take cover, a tornado is pretty likely!”) for a good part of the day. So as I’m working with my lovely clients I’m having to keep an eye on the weather because at any moment I may need to duck into the closet under the stairs so that I’m safe from a tornado. Staying present with my clients in the midst of this chaos took some doing! So occasionally we had to take a break for a few moments while I check the weather and make sure I’m not about to be swept away to The Land of Oz (though THAT would be a fun adventure!). And then take a few moments to close my eyes, breathe, recenter and ground myself so we can move forward again in a meaningful way.

We fared the weather just fine (we always do…I’ll post on that phenomenon another time!) and the whole experience got me thinking about how important it is to be centered and “grounded” in order to be able to fully open our hearts. I love walking around with a completely open heart in my life and everyday interactions when I can, but I also know that if I do that without being rooted and centered that it can feel a little raw. A little TOO open. So there’s this wonderful balance we can find of calmness, connection to the earth, and at the same time, this heart that is completely open and giving and receiving love.

You can use the yummy meditation below to find this space. I suggest doing it whenever you feel you need grounding, if you find you’re having trouble in one of your relationships, if you don’t know what to do, or…if you just want to feel good;. The seed mantra for the heart is “Yam,” pronounced “yum.” You can experience “YUM” in your life by opening your heart. Give it a shot and let me know how you feel afterwards!

The Power of APPRECIATION

The Power of PRECISE Appreciation and Gratitude. I love my early morning drives from southern Indian Land to Uptown Charlotte to teach my awesome yoga classes . It takes about 40 minutes (at 5am, so no traffic, woohoooo!) and I use the time to talk to the Divine, to set my intentions for the day and to go on Rampages of Appreciation. This morning it was deliciously foggy and soupy, and the lack of visibility gave me an opportunity to appreciate how circumstances in our lives can bring us into the present more fully. With the lack of visibility I was really forced to be present and focus (or take a little detour into a ditch, ha!). So rather than getting grumpy about the fog I found myself feeling playful and appreciative of it (this comes naturally now because I practice Appreciation every morning). I loved the way the fog hid the future of the road from me so that as I arrived in each new moment it was a surprise…and a surprise…and a surprise. The way it softened the edges of the beautiful trees and bushes along 521 and then along Park Road. The fact that *teeny tiny particles of water were floating, suspended in the air (huh…that’s a miracle in and of itself!) and the way the light from the lamp posts streamed through and bounced off of those teeny tiny particles. And then I started thinking about the fact that WE HAVE ELECTRICITY and how stinkin cool that is! So I rambled on about how amazing it is that we have currents of electricity that run into our houses and supply us with light and with heat and with the ability to cook yummy things and to watch fun TV shows and to light the road. And then I started thinking of all that goes into that incredibly intricate system and all the people that work diligently to bring that electricity to us. And then I started thinking about all the people who came before and the fact that the idea and execution of harnessing electricity to utilize it in useful ways started with just a few people who were willing to experiment and take risks and open up to possibilities. Wow! And on and on and on!

You can maybe possibly see how when you start with something simple and get *specific about what you Appreciate and Love and are Grateful for about it, you really get the juicy goodness from it. You can keep milking one little thing for all it’s worth. What you will find is that when you start your day with this deep, juicy Appreciation, your day flows more smoothly. You feel more at ease. Your interactions are pleasant. It sets the tone for your whole day! It may be a bit of a stretch to begin with and I do still have days now and again where I *just plain don't feel like being Appreciative...I feel like being grumpy. And that's okay too!

Take a look around you right now. Choose an object. It can be a pen. It can be a person. It can be your pet. What - *specifically* - do you Appreciate and Love about it or them? What *specifically* makes you Grateful for it or them? When you get Precise you really get the juiciness of this Practice. And you’ll start to do it not because it’s “spiritual” or the “right thing to do” or whatever. You’ll start doing it because it FEELS good. Because it sets the tone for your day. Because it reminds you of what a precious, amazing, incredible world we live in. And Practice it about yourself! What do you Love and Appreciate about yourself?

Have a beautiful day. It’s all so good. *contented sigh*

Are You Having Trouble Being Present?

I have an absolute love/frustration relationship with our yard. So much so that I realized recently that I probably think about it 10-200% of the time. I’ve never really had a yard except for when I was growing up and even then I only did the occasional mowing. I did try to grow tomatoes a few times (that did NOT work). As an adult I’ve always lived in places with small yards that were maintained by others.

And now. An acre and a half. Which I LOVE. I love all the space, I love the animals that come to visit, I love the possibilities. But when we moved in, there was basically no landscaping and a good deal of the yard was littered with strange objects (a porcelain doll’s arm was one of the weirdest) and a lot of glass and nails.

In my enthusiasm and eagerness to have a beautiful outdoor space (and my love of flowers and plants and tomatoes), I’ve become a Lowe’s orphan garden section junkie. This is the section where they put the plants that are not doing so well out to pasture. And mark them waaaaay down. It’s one of my faaaaavorite things to do to go and peruse this section and discover beautiful plants that I can bring back to life. I love studying them and the exotic names and all the varieties. Stella D’Oro. Hibiscus. Lantana. Lorapetalum. I love learning whether they like sun or shade. Whether they like lots of water or whether they like to be ignored.

Thing is, inevitably, in spring and fall we end up with 20+ plants still in pots in various places in the yard that are eagerly awaiting to be planted in the earth. Also inevitably, they sit. And they sit. And they sit. They do get watered and they get loved but man…we’re busy!! Planting them takes some time that we haven’t been able to find lately.

So I find myself guiltily thinking about all these beautiful plants and when the heck I’m going to plant them. A LOT. And for some reason I just recently realized that all these guilty ruminations are not helping them or me. I’m not enjoying them AND it’s making it more difficult for me to actually take the action. Basically, I’m NOT BEING PRESENT. Ha! I know I know. It took me awhile, but I got there.

It’s not that it’s inherently bad to think about the past or the future, but if we’re caught in one or the other perpetually, were missing out on our present. In this case…I’m not really enjoying my beautiful plants because I’m stuck in the future of when and how I’m going to plant them. And I’m missing the things that are actually around me when I’m not around the plants.

So…my decision is to change this thought pattern. I am focusing on enjoying these beauties. AND on allowing myself to BE WHERE I AM and to appreciate it all. Take it all in. Because it really is all here for us to enjoy.

Oh, and our tomatoes are THRIVING! :)

The Power of Imperfect Meditation

A lot of people think that when you meditate you’re not supposed to have any sounds happening around you or any distractions or any thoughts. And that if you do, you’re not doing it “right.” Well…we live in the world, so we’re gonna have distractions and we are HUMAN, so we’re gonna have thoughts. It doesn’t mean you’re not meditating “right.” There is no “right” way to meditate. Personally, I have days where my brain is so nice and quiet and *sighhhhhh*, oh, so serene. And then there are days where my mind is jumping and skipping and diving allllll over the place! Funny enough, on those days, I welcome what would most people would probably call “distractions” because they actually remind me to refocus and just witness the bouncing, running thoughts, rather than chase after them.

Read on for a funny case and point AND a little anecdote to help you remember the point of all meditation AND another fun video.

First, you gotta watch this video, it’s the frickin funniest thing in the world! They are trying SO HARD. The one on the right in front cracks me up about half way through the video. Oh, and the girl on the left who’s dancing the whole time. Well, all of them crack me up!

K-sweet-man and I meditate for 10-15 minutes every morning. This particular morning a few weeks ago was very very very cold (well, at least for down here in SC…in the 30’s) and our heater was running running running. I’d woken up and done my yummy morning routine and was feeling bubbly with laughter. So we sat down to meditate and I was already feeling that bubbling and then the heater turned off and let out a big ole *siiiiiiiiiigghhhhhhh*. If you’ve ever seen the movie Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Universe, it was exactly like the sigh the doors in the spaceship make when they open and close…it’s a human sound, I swear! I wish I had a recording of it so you could hear it!

Like I said, I was already feeling giggly and bubbly and I just BURST out LAUGHING in the middle of the meditation. And you know what? That meditation is a perfect meditation to me. I’ve promised myself never to hold in laughter. It’s so so SO very good for us and it feels so good. I allowed myself to flow with it. Well, I really couldn’t help it, it just came out, so there’s that too;)

The whole point of meditating is to raise our vibration, to witness ourselves, to gain perspective, etc. I can’t think of a better way to do all of those and more than being tickled to bubbly laughter!

This clip makes me laugh too…

The Power of Having a Morning Ritual

Ooooohhhh, it’s getting cold here! We’re well below freezing tonight and tomorrow night. I’ve tucked all the plants in and told them their bedtime stories, covering them lovingly with light blankets to protect them from the frost.

Right now I’m loving the cold weather. It means I get to start my ritual of hot hot morning baths, which is sooooooo yummy! I get up super early (around 5), turn on the heater in the bathroom, grab my Intentions/Appreciation journal and my favorite pen (very important), light some candles, turn on some soothing music, and draw my bath with the warmest water I can tolerate. Add in some epsom salts, baking soda, vitamin C powder, and essential oils (usually lavender…just can’t go wrong with lavender). And while the bathtub is filling with this delicious soothingness, I sit and write. I do this almost every morning. And if I don’t do the bath, I try to *always write down my intentions for the day and lots of things I appreciate.

Then, my sweetie and I meditate, do a short powerful workout and some yoga and…we’re off!

There is so much power in this simple practice. I’d gotten out of the habit of doing it for awhile and I can definitely tell a difference. We’ve talked about inertia before and this is the perfect example of how inertia can be our friend or our foe.

Have you noticed that if you wake up and immediately start looking at emails or are immediately bombarded with problems that the rest of the day tends to feel out of control and like you’re putting out fires all day?

Conversely…when you take the time…even just 15-20 minutes…to center and think about delicious things, your day will go much much more easily.

Since I’ve been doing my morning ritual again, my days have been absolutely PHENOMENAL!! All in all, it takes me about an hour and a half, but again, you don’t have to spend that long. I’m just finding that I’m having so much fun and reveling in the yummy yummy of it so much that I want to keep on with it! So sometimes I do.

If you don’t have a morning ritual yet, start simple. Meditate for 15-20 minutes and then write down 5 things you really love and enjoy.

If you’d like something that’s a little more substantial, here’s what I do just about every morning:

1. Write down my intentions for the day. These are BROAD intentions. Things like: “Today I intend to have fun.” “Today I intend to love and adore myself unconditionally as much as possible.” “Today I intend to focus on what it is I want.” “Today I intend to play.”

2. Spend 10 minutes writing down things I love and appreciate. These can be as simple as running water or oranges. Or it can be a person. Anyone! Maybe the lovely checkout lady at your grocery store. If you can, write down a few reasons you love and/or appreciate it/them.

3. I lurvs my hot baths, so when it’s chilly out I take one filled with the goodness outlined above.

4. Meditate for 15-20 minutes. This can be guided or not. You can listen to music if you’d like to…or not. I like to mix it up.

5. Do some exercise. I love doing my High Intensity Interval Training followed by a little yoga (some days I’ll do a full yoga class as well, but that’s a lot;).

There! Now…you are ready to start your day. Fully and completely. I know not everyone has the time to do that much, so take what you’d like from my morning ritual and create your own. It is SO very worth it.

Yummy Love Your Body Meditation

*If you want to get right down to it, scroll to the bottom of the post for the recordings*

So much of our experience here in this realm is related to our BODIES.  At the same time, so many spiritual teachings neglect the body.  Dating to waaaaay back, there are many teachings that the body, the physical, should be ignored or even rejected.  

And I say...*back up!*  Reassess.  Not only are these bodies assets, they are to be enjoyed (more yumminess on that in other posts).  They are to be...well...emBODY-ed.  That means developing a loving, feeling, symbiotic relationship with your body.  And I can tell you from serious experience that until you really accept and get into your body, you're going limit your expansion.  On all levels.  You and your spirit...essence...soul...higher self...source...god..."Big 'S' Self" (a friend of mine and I made that one up and it makes us laugh every time)...whatever you want to call it...are not separate from your body.  Source is flowing through your body at all times.  Your body IS source.  Which is not only a really beautiful thing, but also a really good thing.  Because that means you don't have to remind your heart to beat.  Or remind yourself to inhale and exhale.  You don't have to prod your liver to work.  You don't have to remind your stomach to digest.  

Now...you may have had some...not-so-good-feeling experiences with your body.  Anyone, anyone?  I say this in jest, cuz, well, yeah...we all have!  I'm happy to share my own experience, many of you are familiar with it (you can take a look at it here).  And I find that lots of times when we experience negative feelings we can disassociate from our bodies.  Whether those feelings are physical or emotional...well, we want OUT.  Which is totally understandable!  We just...disconnect.

We set up this experience perfectly before we came here.  We wanted to have bodies.  We wanted to be deeply connected with them.  Because we wanted to have a way to *know* how we feel about things.  We wanted a way to know when we are on track with our truth, with our desires, with our knowing...and when we're off track.  Other reasons too and we'll get into those at another time;)  

When you can FEEL your body...when you can FEEL your feelings in your body...you are so much more able to shift those feelings (physical and emotional) and to let them move through.  In fact, they will move on their own when you allow yourself to be with them!  If you try to ignore them or change them right away, you're doing yourself a disservice.  Because those feelings are there for a reason.  

Before we get down to it, I'll give you some backstory about this particular Living From Inspiration Meditation.  It's a super duper sweet story and one of my favorites, because it involves my gorgeous nieces.  

A few years ago, I was staying with my brother and his family in Albuquerque, NM.  They have this beauuuutiful big house with a casita in the back.  Every morning, I wake up and do my meditation, workout and then go to the main house and have breakfast with the family and always sit next to, you guessed it, my lovely niece, "A".  She's about 3 or 4 at this point (I'm so bad with ages, but I'm pretty sure).  So sweet, so beautiful.  I sit down on a bar stool/breakfast stool and help her up to the bar stool/breakfast stool next to me.  And she puts her sweet hand on my arm and says...

"Auntie Lala...I love your eyes...and I love your face...and I love your arms...and I love your legs...and I love your shoulders...and I love your hair...and I love your shirt...and I love your nose...and I love your fingers.........."

And she keeps going on.  And on.  And on.  For about 3 minutes straight.  Which is a looooong time for a 3-4 year old.  Just loving, loving, loving everything about me.  And oh!  I try to interrupt!  And say "I love your face...and your arms...and your legs..." She will have none of it.  She just keeps going...and going.  My only choice is to sit...and let it all in.  Which I finally do.  

It was so sweet.  So much love.  And I have never forgotten it.  *That* is how we can feel at all times.  Because Source is always flowing all that love to every single part of us.  

This meditation will help you get connected to your body and establish a loving relationship with it.  The first recording goes through instructions.  The second recording is the actual meditation.

In the instructions, you'll learn that as you're going through the meditation, if when you get to a certain body part you notice any pain, tightness, or resistance of any kind, pause the recording and take some time to just BE with the sensation.  Without trying to figure it out, without judging...just be with it.  Embrace it.  And when you're ready, start the recording again and keep going.  

So get comfortable, close your eyes, and melt into this.