Every Day Enlightenment

A while back I heard of a Buddhist center in America where they have a practice to stop what they were doing every time the phone was ringing, not to rush to pick it up, but to do their breathing practice:
Breathing in calmness- Breathing out calmness

At our office at Awakening Women Institute we have implemented a version of this wonderful practice: On each desk we have a kitchen clock that we set to ring every 20 minutes. When it goes off, the “rule’ is that we have to stop, stand up and breathe deeply. We make sounds and do a little shake. Then we go back to whatever we were doing, and now it is as we have “re-boothed” our bodies and our awareness and we are starting fresh.
We have noticed that our brains works better and our bodies are more happy since we will not be sitting in tension for too long without becoming aware of it.

As modern women we are called to find ways that we can connect with our source of health and wakefulness in the midst of dishes and phone-calls, bills and carpools. It is not an option for most of us to move to a monastery (although many of us often wish we could), and I think that that is because we are meant to show up right here were we are , right now. Our task is to find our moments of balance, keep connecting with what is true in our hearts and find ways to share that wisdom with the world. To sit on a meditation cushion is easy, this is the advance practice sister!

So how do we connect with a place of stillness and peace when the to-do list is five miles long, there are kids hanging from our belts or it is simply our own mental chatter that keeps pulling us away?

New pathways overflowing with lush greens and fragrant roses

Many of us are using this time of the year as a time to reconsider habits that no longer serve us. Eating habits, exercise habits (or lack of them), mental patterns or relationship habits.

Our brain is an amazing tool; it monitors and adjusts so that the energy we have, is spent in the most efficient way possible. It loves habits, because a habit is an action done over long  enough time that it has created neurological pathways in the brain, and this means that it takes minimal energy to do it. When these pathways are established, our brain goes to the default setting without much thinking or consideration required.

If we imagine our brain with all these different pathways already established, it is obvious that it will take more energy to “dig” a new path way.
This is what we actually are doing when we change habits, and this is why we often times can feel a tremendous resistance for the new way, and an overwhelming attraction to walk down the old familiar path.

When I Was The Forest

by Meister Eckhart

When I was the stream, when I was the
forest, when I was still the field,
when I was every hoof, foot,
fin and wing, when I
was the sky
itself,

no one ever asked me did I have a purpose, no one ever
wondered was there anything I might need,
for there was nothing
I could not
love.
It was when I left all we once were that
the agony began, the fear and questions came,
and I wept, I wept. And tears
I had never known
before.

So I returned to the river, I returned to
the mountains. I asked for their hand in marriage again,
I begged—I begged to wed every object
and creature,

and when they accepted,
God was ever present in my arms.
And He did not say,
“Where have you
been?”

For then I knew my soul—every soul—
has always held
Him.

the end of the 4 week cleanse

So I did it!

4 weeks herbal cleanse including one week Fasting (!!). Wow. What a journey it has been. It has been wonderful to hear from so many of you who also have been inspired to ADD more vibrant foods into your diet. I say add, because this has been the main key to my process being this easygoing and mind-blowingly rewarding. I started up adding green smoothies to my diet, and from there everything changed. I did not have to deprive myself of anything, gradually my body started to reach for more luscious green foods. The herbal cleanse I used felt gentle, gradual and effective.

The last days of my fast, I was dreaming of all the wonderful foods I was going to eat when it was over. But it has taken some days to adjust, the first day I could only eat a few bits of cucumber!

Today I made this Fresh Tomato Sauce for lunch, it was suuuper good:

Awakening Women Global Sisterhood Manifesto

(Image:Shiloh McCloud)

We now have more than 7600 women joined us in our  Group on Face Book were you are invited to take a stand for a new women’s culture:

The relationship we have to other women reflects the relationship we have to our own feminine essence.

We take a stand for a new way of being women together on this planet.

Together we can heal and transform the old ways of competition and gossiping, and return to a relationship of celebration and empowerment.

Global Sisterhood Manifesto

- I commit to be honest and straight with you
- I commit to take responsibility for my self.
- I will ask for support when I need it.
- I will ask for alone time when I need it, and it means nothing personal to you
- I will not try to fix you
- I will listen to you
- I will keep what you share confidential and not gossip about it
- I will not speak negatively about you to others
- I will celebrate your unique beauty and gifts
- I will not make my self smaller to fit in and I will support you in doing the same

Take a stand today:
- Join the Face Book Group group,

- Share this with all  your friends!

The Awakening Women Way is an invitation to show up in your life as a compassionate and powerful leader, fully honoring your feminine beauty, wisdom and strength.

The Awakening Women Way is to take a stand for a new and healthy way of strengthen each other as women, which is based on celebration, empowerment and trust.

By Your Side

This song has been for many years one of the favorite songs in The Awakening Women gatherings. Now Sade is out with a “best of” album and have created this sensual and poetic video to the song. Enjoy!

Surrender

We have been meeting in the Women’s Temple every Monday for more than five years now. It is still my main spiritual practice and  my satguru. In the beginning of this year we initiated many new women into the temple and we decided to all reclaim our beginners mind. So we went back to our Temple Manual, and started on the first Temple Evening that is described there, and then we kept going through the evenings one by one.

Yesterday we did the Temple Evening called  Exploring Surrender. Such a deep deep relaxation and letting go happened. I just love the places we can open to together in our practice.

Where are you stubborn? Were are you holding on? Were are your resisting the rhythm of life?

What is surrender?

These were some of the exploration we embarked on together, along with deep embodied letting go.

Surrender is making love to the heartbeat of the Goddess.

Surrender is to let go into the flow of this crazy, beautiful, aching dance called life.

Letting go,

Chameli

The- Yes, thank you I’ll have some more- diet

Yesterday I entered the last phase of my four week internal cleanse.

This is the fasting phase. I must admit I dreaded fasting. My body usually do not agree with fasting. But here I am feeling soft and clear and open. Not even hungry. (This moves in waves I tell you, but I celebrate this moment:))

The most important key for me through this process and why it has felt so gentle and rewarding,  has been to start out with adding, instead of removing.

I added more fruits and greens by drinking as many green smoothies as I wanted (read more about Green Smoothies here), and this very quickly (amazingly quickly) changed my body chemistry, and my cravings! I started to want different foods! So I did not have to think “NOT that”, I just focused on drinking enough green smoothies, and naturally my cravings relaxed.

With Heartfelt Thanks

What is all this about Green Smoothies?

When I moved to California eight years ago I never thought I would end up here, completely utterly in love, with green smoothie. But I am. And it loves me back!

It makes me feel beautiful and glowing, it makes me feel balanced and nourished, and it makes me feel passionate and energized.

I promised to share with you my version, what I actually put in it. And I will.

Apart from lots of green leafy vegetables and some fruits,  I put all kinds of good stuff in it, all the superfoods that I have. I love superfoods my favorites are Organic Goji Berries, raw cacao, spirulina and bee pollen (I eat a fresh local one).