My Warrior Son and My Warrior Poses

Warrior:  (Tibetan: "pawo")   From my understandings of the teachings of Shambhala Buddhism, the essence of warriorship or the essence of human bravery is refusing to give up on anyone or anything.  The warrior rests in the state of warriorship, rather than struggling to go to the next step.  The warrior experiences a sense of relaxing in his unconditional confidence.  This describes my son.

My sailor son has been home for three days now, and leaves in five days.  I am trying hard to be in the moment with him, hold him when I can and not allow that deep soft part of my heart trigger the tears that flowed uncontrollably when he got off that plane.  Not now, save them for when he's gone again.  Having him home with our entire family has reminded me of that place of bitter/sweet tenderness.  That place some Buddhists call the  genuine heart of sadness.  

"By simply letting yourself be as you are, you develop sympathy toward yourself,  awakening this genuine heart within yourself. ... Your entire being is exposed - to yourself, first of all but to others as well. ... If you search for awakened heart, if you put your hand through your rib cage and feel for it, there is nothing there except for tenderness. You feel sore and soft, and if you open your eyes to the rest of the world, you feel tremendous sadness.   Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others." 

Now as his welcome home sign crafted by his little sister sits on our porch and we send out the evites to his farewell party my heart pulls and that deep untouchable place is prodded again.

My eldest son, he has been in the US Navy now for two a half years.  He left a pretty cushy situation as a sophomore at ASU in Tempe AZ after one of his writing assignments in a class was something of the nature of "what do you want to do with your life, what do you want on your epitaph?"  He choose to serve his country, as odd as that can sound in these times, and especially from a child born and raised in Boulder CO, raised on all organic foods and taken to nuclear plant protests throughout his childhood by his "hippie" mom. 

Off he went into the Navy SEAL program.  He didn't complete the incredibly difficult training of SEALS before he was hospitalized with pneumonia.  He has since been on his first deployment of 11 months in Guam.   Grateful it wasn't to somewhere much more dangerous (anyplace that begins with a vowel.)  It has difficult having him so far away for so long and I've practiced with my warriorship, meditation, bravery, *Vira I and Vira II yoga poses and the occasional margarita, to get me through the tougher times, i.e. Christmas, birthdays, earthquakes/tsunamis.... 

And yet, with all my practice and preparedness I still find my mind drifting to the questions.  When will I see him next?  Will he be deployed to one of those places beginning with a vowel?  Will he come home whole, body, mind and spirit?  Will he come home with another tattoo or with a wife?  Only time will tell and in that time it is my time to learn again how to surf through the days without him close by.  I will certainly be found often in my many variations of Virabhadrasana, including my favorite, crumbled on the floor exposing my genuine heart of sadness. 

As he told me when he first went into the military, we both want peace in the world, we are just coming at the same goal from different angles.  Maybe between his service in the military and my working in a community of yogis, Buddhists, and mala lovers it can actually be attained.  It may just take a bit of both.  It is a centuries old idea, to save the world you have to serve it.
 

Warrior in the world mala part of our new sri collection

My warrior wears a special mala designed by Soma for him, the one personal item he choose to keep with him throughout his trainings. 

*Virabhadra is the name of a fierce warrior, an incarnation of Shiva, described as having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet, wielding a thousand clubs, and wearing a tiger's skin. Or military fatigues...

I may have just found a new seva project after reading this article of interest

Q: how has yoga positively changed your life?

I was recently asked this question.
A: Yoga in earnest can strip you of your masks and covers and expose you to yourself.   Which of course is great, and scary.  Not exactly what I would sign up for if on the brochure.   I've learned the deeper the work the more likely the changes you initiate will take hold. 

I began yoga about 10 years ago after the birth of my fourth child. My uterus was collapsing as all the babies I carried were all quite large and surgery was recommended. I thought I'd give yoga a try first. I attended my first class at our local recreation center, mainly because they had childcare.  The teacher was fabulous and unknown to me she was a senior student/teacher of Richard Freeman (of course, I do live in Boulder CO after all). After about 4-5 years of attending her class at the rec center she convinced me to attend the Yoga Workshop studio, Richard Freemans studio, her home studio.  It was quite intimidating at first and why it took so long for her to convince me to attend.  In my mind I was just a mom trying to get in shape and keep my body whole.  I loved those first years of yoga, and I am still friends with many of us who attended this class regularly.  This happens I noticed in yoga, you don't just attend a class, you become friends.   At this time I was just starting the mala business, BaliMalas.com, another great story for another day.  I had met a really dynamic woman named Shiva Rea while attending my first Yoga Journal Conference to sell our malas.  She knocked my socks off!  Shiva, who also used to be a student of Richards was at a conference in Denver that OmTime Yoga was sponsoring. I attended and began practicing more and more at OmTime where Shannon Paige Schneider, a senior practitioner of Shiva's teaches.   Here is where my physical desire for yoga healing transformed deeper into my spiritual/emotional healing with yoga. My uterus was no longer an issue, my health was now optimal but my soul was still a bit unawakened and unobserved.

I joined Shiva's teacher training and between Shiva and Shannon and many many tears on the mat my soul is more awakened and more in the light. All the while my family and dear husband have riden this wave of yoga with me and supported me through it all. I am almost complete with my 500 hour teacher training of Shiva's. My goal is to complete this summer by end of July.

So yes yoga has positively changed my life. I have a thriving business that supports and spreads love to sooooo many because of yoga. Click here for more on the how and why of my business.  I teach yoga twice a week at CU and a class at Om time which so lifts me each time. My physical body is quite possibly the best it has been my entire life. At aged 46 it is nice to love my body.  My relationships have thrived and deepened. My husband was talking to Shiva at the conference we sponsored just last month and said "my wife loves you and you have changed her life".  My emotional health and spirituality feel so right and inspire me each day as a result of my work with yoga.  The key here is to always keep returning to your reflection. What are you seeing in yourself. What is being exposed. Keep showing up and shedding yourself on the mat. Let the tears flow. I love that my mat has been soaked in sweat and tears.  I try not to wash it too often as a reminder of what has transpired on it. 

Much love to those who ask the questions, the curious ones. You are on your way.

Bali Malas is proud to support Bumi Sehat ~ Congratulations Robin!

IBU ROBIN A CNN HERO

Dear Bumi Sehat Family,

Please tune into CNN Heros on Friday, March 11th (schedule below). All of you who support 
and love the work of Bumi Sehat & Ibu Robin Lim, will be surprised and delighted!

Now in its 5th year CNN Heroes shines a spotlight on "everyday people changing the 
world," and we are thrilled to announce that in 2011, Ibu Robin Lim has been nominated 
and named a CNN hero.  This honor is an opportunity to increase awareness about Bumi Sehat 
and to help Bumi find funding for our Community Health and Childbirth clinics, 
educational and environmental projects in Bali and Aceh.  As we write this, Bumi has only
two months of operational funds in the bank. We still need your help.  Over the years all of 
YOU, our sponsors, volunteers & donors, have generously donated your time, energy and 
money, in support of the mothers, babies, families and students of Bumi Sehat. 
Ibu Robin, being chosen a CNN Hero, is truly a tribute to your devotion to her vision.

Thank YOU, Team Bumi Sehat International

www.bumisehatbali.org

CNN Heroes:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/

http://www.facebook.com/CNNHeroes

http://www.twitter.com/cnnheroes

FRIDAY, March 11, 2011

CNN: 8AM, 11AM, 2PM - EST

HLN: 6:30AM, 1:30PM, 6PM - EST

SATURDAY, March 12, 2011

CNN: 2AM, 6AM,10AM, 3PM, 5PM, 7PM - EST

HLN: 8AM, 2:30PM - EST

MONDAY, March 14, 2011

CNNEspanol: 7PM - EST

Tending the Sacred Fire with Shiva Rea

 Shiva Rea 

“Tending the Sacred Fire” Afternoon Workshop

April 3rd, 2-6pm

Tending the Sacred Fire is learning how to tend the energy of our inner fire in practice and in life.

Session I: Fire and Flow; Experience core meditation for tending the inner heart fire, including mantras and mudras to awaken your inner sun (heartfire) and flow of nectar (soma) of the moon. The use of the universal mantras will link us to the greater flow and navigate our core passion into our life. Includes latest sun salutation that uses the creative integrations of namaskars, arm balances, backbends, and root meditation on our inner fire.

Session II: Drops of Nectar; Tending the fire is the capacity to move inward, to harness and regenerate your vital energy through the "nectar" practices of yoga. In this candlelit ritual class, we will experience a seasonally aligned practice including Prana Flow® namaskars, movement meditation, mantra and mudra vinyasa synchronized around the sacred flow of the breath and inner nectar visualization.

Hosts: BaliMalas.com and MovingMuseYoga.com

   

Location:

Aloft Hotel 

8300 Arista Place, Broomfield CO 

303-635-2000

Registration: BaliMalas.com

• Session 1, 2-4pm 

• Session2,4-6pm

Price:  $65 for both sessions, after March 15th $75. Individual sessions $40 each.

Other:  Please arrive early to enjoy our vendors, and settle in to the space.  We do expect to sell out, so the room will be full.   Please bring a mat!

Living Flow - Tending the Sacred Fire is a universal spiritual and practical metaphor for centering ones life-energy within the core essence (fire) of ones heart. Like our sun, the heart is a source of life-giving energy and self-organizing guidance.  Tending the Sacred Fire is living authentically in the ebb and flow of the world, so that our passion for life keeps strong as the internal and external winds of change challenge our fire-keeping skills. The ebb and flow of our own inner sun and moon is a reflection of our daily need to align with the rhythms of living.  Tending the Sacred Fire rituals are universal ways we keep our spirit, our inner fire, alive amidst the flow of life. This fire-keeping is at the core of all yoga practice where in Vedic, Tantric and Ayurvedic traditions practice takes place around a fire altar known as a kundh, literally "womb" where the alchemical processes of purification, death and regeneration are tended to on a daily basis. When people act from the inner fire of their heart, mountains move. Their beauty is piercing. Their creativity illuminates.  Looking forward to seeing you there!  

Fire & Flow and Drops of Nectar; Prana Flow Yoga with Shiva Rea, Boulder/Denver CO, April 3rd 2-6pm

Space is limited, register at Balimalas.com

Finding Zen in 2011

Finding Zen

Is it normal to be impatient with a water dispenser while you are on vacation at a spa?  I asked myself this as I walked down the hallway to my beautiful room fully cocooned in my plush white robe and slippers.  I am currently on retreat with my beloved husband celebrating our 12 wedding anniversary and the new year.  We are celebrating in the gorgeous town of telluride Colorado with its frozen bridal veil water fall sitting as an exclamation point at the end of it's box canyon.

I always considered myself a slow person. My canter has been often described as a saunter. I am actually borderline slacker in my book. I dont "work out" every day nor do I " practice" everyday even though I know I would be a better person if I did.  I really didn't think I had that much  more slowing down to do.  I thought I was more chill than I clearly give myself credit for not being. I thought maybe I was a type B.5 person smack between a type A and a type D.  Turns out, not so much.   

The steam in the beautiful steam shower here at the spa does not come on fast enough.  The humidifier in the room or even the water from the dispenser, not fast enough, hot enough? Impatient. Quick to a negative thought quick to frustration. Too quick. Too blatantly noticeable in this environment.  Not very becoming.    I was in Bali earlier this year and watched people WORK for their drinking water. Have I become that speedie and that impatient?  Have I rushed through this year that much?  Have I hurried along the birthdays the holidays so that I can check them off the never ending to do list I'vve called my life. What am I rushing to?  Where the heck do I think I'm going anyway?  

We have all had the experience of letting go and trusting and being spontaneous and have had incredibly wonderful memories of those times (and yes some not so great memories too but would you have traded it for going on the well worn path? Perhaps ). The tightrope.

Walking that knife edge of attending to the responsibilities that I've chosen to grace my life with and being a complete slacker and letting go too much.  The ying yang the tantra the having it both ways simultaneously.  I know it's possible. I've seen others living it. I've seen it in others eyes.  I know the feeling. Ive touched it. 

As a kid the balance beam was my favorite gymnastics apparatus.  Grip with the toes that's the holding on part. Setting the shoulders and hips that's the staying on part.  The mind and the breath thats the knowing I will nail it part.   I can do this. I've done it, we've all done it and do it in so many areas of our daily lives   The in-between. The gentler place. The place of more acceptance and forgiveness. The place of tolerance and support. The moving on a wooden beam four inches wide four feet off the ground place  So as we round the bend into 2011 I go in with the hopes of slowing 2011 down.    Being more patient with the water dispensers in my life. Gripping my toes when I need to hold on, squaring my shoulders and hips in the direction I want to go and believing in myself and what I've chosen.

Happy new year may yours be all of 525600 minutes long!

Galungen

One of my favorite things about working with a company based in Bali is to learn all the traditions and holidays.  I love getting an email in response to some request I have that states “sorry but we are closed for the next three days for Galungan”.  Galungan?  This of course prompts me to investigate more what that holiday/celebration is all about.  Bali is not lacking for celebrations, and while we were there last spring it seemed there was one each day .   Bali has a unique calendar that displays all of these holidays in its cycle of 210 days.  Galungan occurs once in the 210-day cycle of the Balinese calendar, and marks the time of the year when the spirits of the ancestors are believed to visit the earth.   This is a ten day holiday, with the last three days being of the most importance, the final day being Kuningan

I am told that Galungan is the most important holiday symbolizing the victory of Virtue (Dharma) upon Evil (Adharma). Galungan is the most important feast for Balinese Hindus, a celebration to honor the creator of the universe (Ida Sang Hyang Widi) and the spirits of the honored ancestors.   Our designers tell us it is big like Christmas is big here. 

During Galungan the whole island sprouts tall bamboo poles called "penjor" - these are usually decorated with fruit, coconut leaves, and flowers, and set up on the right of every residence entrance. At each gate, you'll also find small bamboo altars set up especially for the holiday, each one bearing woven palm-leaf offerings for the spirits, set on the right side of every house entrance. People are attired in their finest clothes and jewels this day.  The arch of the penjor represents Mt. Agung, the body is river that flows from the mountains to the sea, and along its route are the products of the harvest, tied to the pole; at the foot of the pole is a temporary shrine.

So I wish you all a very happy Galungan, and encourage you to ponder upon Virtue/Dharma victory over Adharm/Evil and to pray/meditate upon your ancestors, those that have passed before on this planet so that you my be here now.  With much gratitude....