JourneyDance Pearls

JourneyDance is an amazing journey inward through a dance led with visualizations and intentions. It is an opportunity to get out of your mind and into your body. JourneyDance is a grooving celebration that will have you loving your body and loving your life! Weaving simple, guided movement sequences and free exploration, JourneyDance reconnects you with your innate state of joyous well-being. Your mind becomes clear, free, and positive, and your body feels supple, energized, and powerful. Practiced to inspiring world music, your dance is an empowering journey to self-acceptance and transformation. Journeydance was created by Toni Bergins.  www.journeydance.com

Here are some "pearls of wisdom" I have taken from my JourneyDance Teacher Training immersion with Toni at Kripalu:

• try to make physical contact with someone while eating. this has a grounding affect that helps us connect to our bodies and helps us feel full
• touch is powerful. a person should have at least five significant touches a day (hugs, reach out, holding hands, etc.) reach out and touch someone
• speak what you need. ask for what you need. no one will ever know if you don't say something
• daydream. create. imagine. invent
• dance is prayer. we can make any action into a dedication or prayer. make something in your day sacred
• listen. really listen
• fire is empowering. let it be a tool to burn the what does not serve you. like a phoenix, let your wishes and dreams rise from it's ashes 
• when negative thoughts arise, write it down on a piece of paper. crumble it up. put it in a box labeled "I release ____ into the earth." immediately chose a positive thought. write it down. put it in a box labeled "wouldn't it be nice if." when the boxes are full, or when you are ready, make them burn
• humor is the best medicine
• sweat to put the fire out inside, and to purify the body of toxins
• try not to let any negative thoughts exist for more than five seconds
• everyone can sing
• everyone can dance
• we have to get over ourselves to really see others
• pretend you are an animal. slither like a snake. meow like a cat. fly like a bird. invite friends along for a guaranteed rowdy good time
• perspire, you won't expire! 
• try shaking medicine, the chi machine, and contact dancing
• hula hooping is the fountain of youth  
• give yourself a hug. be your own best friend. love yourself
• it's okay to build yourself a wall of protection when you need it
• sometimes you gotta get a little funky!
• music is transformational 
• focus on what your doing right and do more of that
• use "I" statements. own your emotions, actions, thoughts, and experiences
• try shape shifting
• give permission to be yourself
• move your body to heal it
• start to notice patterns in your life
• celebrate obstacles
• play. play. play 
• be a little weird. try something new
• the dance is perfect, because you're in it
• move your hips front and back, side to side. it's fun!
• hold your stomach. say hellooooo belly and I love you belly 
• give your inhale to your exhale and your exhale to your inhale
• oneness makes things flow
• radiate who you are. take up space. own it
• it's okay not to forgive everyone, we just move on in different ways
• use the process and it's okay to be processing the same thing over and over again
• use the mind and use tools to help control it
• navigate your emotional journey
• processing is necessary
• we chose where we put our money and our energy
• the universal consciousness is rising 
• tears are love
• close your eyes and listen to your heart 
• open your eyes and see someone. really see them. look. listen. feel. be with them
• burn up painful thoughts and dance in the fire
• open yourself. use imagery and movement
• educate. read. research. learn. grow
• tell someone they are amazing, funky, divine, wild, sensual, luscious, inspiring, or whatever else you can think of. and then tell yourself the same
• remember, we're all in this together 
• *twinkle*

I am reminded of this quote from A Course in Miracles:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
 

thank you Toni, fellow JourneyDancers, and Kripalu  

jai! 

Buddha Mini Series

Decontaminating Yourself (Vajasattra)

AUM. Indestructible Being,

Purify my body, speech, and mind.

Energizing Yourself with the Life Force

(Green Tara)

AUM. Homage to Tara, swift heroine, whose mantra 

Tutare dispels all fear, and Ture, which fulfills all needs.

Invoking Healing Energy (Medicine Buddha)

This is how it is. AUM. Healing, healing,

Great Noble Healing within,

Permeate everywhere. So be it!

AUM. The Jewel is in the Lotus!

AUM Mani Padme Hung

Dedicating Your Activities (Karmapa)

Karmapa Chenno

Source of all awakened activities, remember me.

Surrendering to Beauty (Krishna)

Gopala Govinda Govinda Gopala

Devakinandana Gopala

Master of the Cows, Protector.

Joyful Shining God, Son of the Goddess.

Magnifying Self-Giving Love (Jai Shree Devi)

Jai Shree Devi Namo Namah

Hooray fo the Feminine Glory, the Goddess!

I bow to you again and again.

Invoking the Formless Supreme (Shiva)

Aum Namah Shivaya

AUM. I bow down to Shiva (the Auspicious One).

Kailash, Kurt A. Bruder. Following Sound into Silence. Hay House Inc. 2008.

Kripalu Share Circle

When I walk over to the boards to check what's happen around the Krip today, I am sucked in by the Share Circle. This is what the description reads:

Practice this classic Kripalu methodology that employs the principle "the key to my
heart rests in the heart of another." Through this meditative listening and conscious
speaking technique, savor the concept of safe and sacred space. Relax, access, and
witness the power of your moment and others.

Today I am feeling overwhelmed by the influx of bubbly guests coming all over the world looking to turn into liquid with Shiva Rea or break boards with Goddess to the Core. Sometimes I find myself thinking, who do these people think they are? Where do they come from? Why are they in my space? What could have possibly happened to them to make them think that it's okay to act like that? Why didn't someone teach them they don't have to talk all the time? Why can't they look where they're going? What could possibly make her cry so hard? I have to get out of here...I have to escape...

Today, I stayed. I decided I needed a good ol' fashioned Kripalu Share Circle to try to connect back to the guests. To try to connect to myself again. To be fully present. To really listen to someone. And, maybe even to inspire. To change.

At 11am we came in and sat down on black cushions all alined for us in a circular formation. There are about fifteen of us. I look around the circle as we introduce ourselves, just a brief name and where we're from. There is a couple that oozes happiness and I can smell the sweetness of new love radiating from their every pore. There is a blond woman that had a halo surrounding her, but she gazes down at the floor and speaks every so softly. There is a big, strong man with piercing black eyes sitting directly across from me. He folds his hands in his lap, sits crossed legged and closes his eyes. There is a skinny, hyped-up woman with a crazed look in her eyes. The leader today is a confident, gentle soul. She sits at the front of the room and makes surface conversation with guests as they slowly trickle in. And, lastly I sit in my half lotus on the edge of my black cushion (krip-pillow as we jokingly refer to them) that was recently stuffed and feels too thick for comfort, I am wearing my red strapless flowing shirt, just trying to root myself into the ground. I close my eyes and just feel the energy in the room. I feel the people I am with. Deep breath in, sigh breath out.

The leader begins with a meditation on gratitude and an OM to open. We go around the circle one by one and say what we are grateful for today. I say I am grateful for waking up. How revolutionary. Ha.

There are a few basic guidelines the leader now goes over with us: What happens in the Share Circle, stays in the share circle. This is not a conversation, do not reply to anyone's share, the practice is in simply holding space. No one needs to be fixed. And, let out a breath together as each person finishes their share. This is just a safe place to be heard. Say whatever you want.
*NOTE no names will be used in this to respect the privacy of the individuals.

WE BEGIN.
The woman with the crazy eyes starts her share. She has worked for a company for thirty years. She was promised a pension after her thirty years and dreamed of returning to Nursing School. The company has gone back on their promise, no pension. Her husband's business has just failed. Does she still follow her dreams to return to school?

breath in. sigh out

I share next. I share that the guests make me nervous sometimes. I tell them that I want to be present, but my pattern is to run away. I am scared of what's next. I'm overwhelmed. And I am ever grateful for this place.
I close my eyes again.

breath in. sigh out

The man sitting directly across from me opens his eyes and his lips. He tells his story. Drugs, alcohol, lost his job/family/life. Rock bottom. He is building his life again. Grateful for all he has, but fearful it will be taken just as fast as it came. Great ups are always accompanied by great loss.
He closes his eyes.

breath in. sigh out

The woman with the halo meekly raises her hand to speak. My body automatically tenses and I don't even know why, yet. She says she is here for healing. She is here to let go. To be herself in whatever way she shows up. She starts sobbing. Her five year old son has died of the H1N1 virus. Five years old. She says she has cried, she has grieved. She is grateful of the time she got to spend with him. I am convinced she is an Angel.
We all close our eyes, praying I suppose, and I visualize light surrounding and comforting her.

breath in. sigh out

The next woman responds. This apparently triggered something within her. She says she is happy someone else has cried. I think, why are we so afraid of tears? Her daughter has just lost her legs in a car accident. She has been taking care of her grandchildren. She is sad. It is hard for her.

breath in. sigh out

There is a silence that comes across the room. The leader looks to the happy couple to share. The man just celebrates his woman sitting beside him. He is so excited. He can't contain it.

breath in. sigh out

We all discuss how yoga has helped lift us from the darkness. Maybe not lift, but more so find a sense of comfort within the darkness. A greater sense of self and spirit.

The leader shares this story:
It was back in the days when Kripalu was an ashram. There was silent breakfast... emphasis on silent. She was overweight. A child walked up to her as she was eating her breakfast and loudly asked, "Why are you so fat?". The whole dining hall gasped in awe. She replied, "God gave us all something to work on, and this is what I got." The dining hall gasped again, this time in relief.

We are all in this together. We are all "working on something". We are all going through something. I hope these stories can inspire at least a pause for reflection before passing judgement on another. Maybe an opportunity to practice patience. I know I would appreciate that for myself.

Jai Bhagwan

(Victory to Spirit)