Intentions are the Ingredients of your Reality

I had a wondrous dream last night where the meta of life was revealed.

Every intention we set, every dream we hold on to so tightly, every material object we cherish or desire or obsess about, every experience we choose to participate in, every destination we choose to travel to... each of these things is an essential ingredient of the reality we chose to actively create.

In other words, the greater reality of the universe is a manifestation of the energies we choose to focus. These energies can be categorized as:

• intentions (present motivations)
  
• hopes, dreams and aspirations (future plans)
• people we choose to share energy / conversation / food / love with
• places we choose to visit
  
• cherished material things (objects which we infuse with meaning, i.e. clothes, cars, toys)
• collected memories which we choose to share as stories (meme propagation)

Your life can be viewed clearly through the lens of these raw ingredients.

The question is, now that you have this wisdom, what Universe are you choosing to create?

butterfly, finally

I'm going to Costa Rica in March to play with some of my NYC jedi kula. Funny enough, Nick of playpoi fame is going to be in CR the week prior, teaching his classes on advanced poi spinning. The pre-requisite is "The Basics". I consider myself a fairly decent poi spinner, so wanted to see what "the basics" consisted of, in Nick's opinion.

To my astonishment, it included some fairly advanced moves (behind the back weaves, anyone?). I've been playing inside the Weave for almost a year now, and its time to incorporate some new moves. The one that I *do* consider basic, that I was struggling with, even after classes, was the Butterfly. This morning, in between sets of pushups, I decided to tackle it.

With good music, anything is possible!

To my own amazement, I had the butterfly within 2 minutes of attempting it. Just like when I first learned the weave, it was a really high energy schping moment! The important thing about new moves is to train your body to unconsciously complete them. In otherwords, so you can transition into, play freely within, and out of the move without so much as a conscious thought. This is the nature of flow. So I stayed within the move for a mighty long time, and played with the internal possibility space, seeing where all my hands could go, where I could relax, where I could exert force, where the beats and rhytmns were. All the while the chakras were unlocking and energy was flowing freely up and down my spine. It felt so good to be opening up to new moves again!

After 20 minutes or so of left over right (which seemed very natural for the butterfly), I heeded CMs advice: for every move, practice your weak side twice as much as your dominant. So I painfully reverse engineered the move and finally got my right over left working. It *almost* felt like (which means, there is) a way existed to swicth dynamically between the two in real time while still maintaining butterfly. But every time I tried it I either wrapped a wrist or konked myself in the head. We'll get there... something tells me its related to that move I hear about called "thread the needle" :)

I've got it now where I can actually interlock my hands and still keep butterfly going... that's fun! Also tried it bending over backwards and essentially doing helicopter overhead and then reverse butterfly over the head. Fun fun fun. :)

Kundalini

The practices enable you
to merge with
or "yoke" with
the universal Self.

This merging of individual consciousness
with universal consciousness
creates a “divine union” called
"YOGA."

The practice that leads
to this state of self-mastery
is also called
"yoga."

So the road
and the destination
have the same name,
"yoga."

There are many different kinds,
or schools
of yoga.
"Many Paths, One Goal."

Those who practice yoga
are called "yogis"
and those who master yoga
are also called "yogis."

How to Fly

Just had the most incredible yoga / flying dream ever. It was a deep profound vision. In it, Deven and I and some of the AcroNYC crew were in central park meditating in lotus position. Strong strong strong winds whipped up. Tornado force winds. We extended our arms and our bodies became like sails. The wind lifted us up and into the air. With ever so subtle (and some not so subtle) gestures, we were able to "reap the wild wind" and navigate through the storm, using nature's power as our flying power.

It took genuine courage to do this. In fact, we time / space shifted a bit between central park and the playa, as significant dust storms kicked up with the force of the wind. I found we could both breathe and see in the dust without irritation; it simply took willpower and faith.

This dream was such a powerful vision and yet I find I have no more words for it. I awoke excited and aware and awake, my heart beating fast in a purely passionate and pleasureable way.

In 10 hours I will be in Central Park (in real life) playing Acro with my new flying friends. May all our dreams come true!

Yogic advice for Troubled Times

Your story about an experience can both define and direct your emotional response. The way you choose to interpret things will deeply effect the future of that encounter, or the future relationship with that person.

But when you put the story aside, emotions are simply emotions. At the heart of all these emotions is energy itself. Love is a particular kind of energy. Sadness is another. Anger is another. Each of these emotions has a characteristic felt sense -- for anger, a hardness of the heart or the gut; for love, a melting, rippling heat in the heart; and for sadness, a sinking, heavy feeling through the chest.

In times of upheaval one of the most powerful things that you can do is to practice catching each wave of emotion as a felt sense in the body, without acting on it or attaching to it. This is a kind of meditation practice; you keep bringing your attention to the sensation of the emotion in your body, just as you would bring your attention back to the breath again and again. You sit in the felt sense as long as you can, noticing the stories and thoughts that arise, constantly bringing attention back to the present moment and to the feeling of the emotion in your body.

As you do this, the feeling will begin to change. It might dissipate, or it might just lead to a different series of feelings. It's in that gesture of learning to be with emotions as sensation and energy, and then letting the shift, that you will begin to realise the path you are meant to follow.

-- excerpted from Yoga Journal, Feb 2008