As I consider the events that make up a day some seem smoothe and others not so much. It seems that the ones that don't go as expected are the ones that stand out. I believe we are self- correcting beings continually seeking to create balance in our lives.
So, when things don't work out we worry and work to put it into balance. It is important to remember to take a breath, a step back and look at it all from the depths of space and time where the creator of all sits and waits and watches and creates. Taking this perspective allows us to see the creator inside of us is the one who seeks to create change. The recognition that there is something in chaos that calls to us to organize it, intend its purpose then create beauty is a characteristic of our divinity.
My challenge to you is to breathe deeply, and contemplate what it is you are seeing in situations that seem out of order, then, as the creator you are, let go of attempts to go back to do it over and just be who your are. Be a creator. Take the chaos, organize and intend its purpose then create something beautiful. This is the lesson for all of life. We are creators in training given endless ways to practice our creative powers.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Breath Awareness
Here is a little exerpt from week one of the BiG LYFE Design workshop. In my experience one of the simplest ways to bring more peace into life it to breath. Breathing deeply relaxes the body, clears the mind, and slows the pace of a hectic life. Enjoy the process, feel free to print this off and use it at your convenience, and remember... just breathe.
Breath Awareness
Oxygen plays a vital role in a properly functioning system, it turns fat into carbon dioxide that we release as we exhale and water that supports the hydration of organs and tissues. Our stressful lives keep us in a continuous fight or flight mode promoting quick chest respiration that comes in handy for emergencies. Deep breathing reduces stress on the body telling the brain to return all systems to normal. Breath is also symbolic of accepting, allowing, and gratitude for the gift of life. To retrain yourself to breathe deeply take a moment to discover how you are using breath then practice the continuous breathing exercise that follows.
Do you hold your breath for any length of time? If so, how long?
Do you hold your breath in certain situations? If so, when? Describe the situations and the feelings associated with those feelings.
Do you fully inhale when you are accepting a breath? If not, why?
Do you fully exhale when you let go of a breath? If not, why?
What do you expect from the breath?
What do you receive with each breath?
What do you release with each breath?
When do you expect to accept breath fully?
When do you expect to let go of breath fully?
Continuous Breathing (1-2 minutes)
Imagine in your mind, a vast ocean. See the ocean ebbing and flowing in a soothing rocking motion. Listen to the sound the water makes as it moves onto the beach and then retreats to itself again. Feel the rhythm of the water as it moves, rocking you back and forth, back and forth. Now match your breathing to this rhythm, breathing in and out through your mouth, fully expanding and contracting the diaphragm. Place the index and middle fingers of one hand at the base of the sternum and press in one half inch. Feel the diaphragm as it presses against the fingers, pushing out on them. Continue practicing this breath for a few minutes and use this breath throughout each of the meditations in this section.
Here’s the Skinny…
What was your experience with breathing deep into your belly? What did you feel? Were you able to allow your belly to relax fully? What did you notice in your body as you practice this breath? How did you feel after you were finished with the exercise?
Breath Awareness
Oxygen plays a vital role in a properly functioning system, it turns fat into carbon dioxide that we release as we exhale and water that supports the hydration of organs and tissues. Our stressful lives keep us in a continuous fight or flight mode promoting quick chest respiration that comes in handy for emergencies. Deep breathing reduces stress on the body telling the brain to return all systems to normal. Breath is also symbolic of accepting, allowing, and gratitude for the gift of life. To retrain yourself to breathe deeply take a moment to discover how you are using breath then practice the continuous breathing exercise that follows.
Do you hold your breath for any length of time? If so, how long?
Do you hold your breath in certain situations? If so, when? Describe the situations and the feelings associated with those feelings.
Do you fully inhale when you are accepting a breath? If not, why?
Do you fully exhale when you let go of a breath? If not, why?
What do you expect from the breath?
What do you receive with each breath?
What do you release with each breath?
When do you expect to accept breath fully?
When do you expect to let go of breath fully?
Continuous Breathing (1-2 minutes)
Imagine in your mind, a vast ocean. See the ocean ebbing and flowing in a soothing rocking motion. Listen to the sound the water makes as it moves onto the beach and then retreats to itself again. Feel the rhythm of the water as it moves, rocking you back and forth, back and forth. Now match your breathing to this rhythm, breathing in and out through your mouth, fully expanding and contracting the diaphragm. Place the index and middle fingers of one hand at the base of the sternum and press in one half inch. Feel the diaphragm as it presses against the fingers, pushing out on them. Continue practicing this breath for a few minutes and use this breath throughout each of the meditations in this section.
Here’s the Skinny…
What was your experience with breathing deep into your belly? What did you feel? Were you able to allow your belly to relax fully? What did you notice in your body as you practice this breath? How did you feel after you were finished with the exercise?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Quieting the Mind
By Elle Eyre
Learning to listen to the body by quieting the mind through meditation is vital to recognizing what your body is communicating to you, receiving inspiration, creating clarity, and reducing stress. As you practice quieting your mind, you will find meditation is easy and a quick method to rejuvenate when there is no time for napping. This beginning meditation is designed to give you an initial experience with quieting your mind. In advanced coaching, you will receive additional meditations that create specific results, or, have little, if any, guided imagery. Quieting your mind expands you into a realm of new possibilities available for you to choose from as you create your life’s strategy.
Daily Grounding Meditation (5-15 minutes)
Complete each morning just before getting out of bed and at night just as you get into bed, and anytime you feel a need to rest and rejuvenate. Be sure you are comfortable. Wrap a blanket around you because your body temperature will drop; this will allow you to maintain a longer, deeper meditative state. If you are finding that you are falling asleep before you complete the meditation, try sitting in a comfortable chair, or on the floor with your sit bones on a folded blanket to create a straight and relaxed torso position. You may choose to play soft instrumental music in the background to time yourself and to give your mind another focus. Use as many musical selections as are appropriate for the time you have allotted for your meditation. Extend your meditation time as your mind becomes stronger and can more easily become quiet.
Close your eyes. Feel the pull of gravity on your body as you are sitting or lying down. Focus on the spot behind your eyes and between your ears and drop it down into your heart space. Take long deep breaths, 4-5 seconds on the inhale and 4-5 seconds on the exhale. Move the breath up the front of the body and down the spine or up the spine and down the front of your body, massaging the spine as the breath moves along it. Begin at the belly and allow it to relax. Finish each breath in the chest, expanding and lifting. Keep your shoulders down, away from your ears. Allow the body to move naturally with each breath. Thoughts may come; that is ok; just let them go as easily as they came.
Focus your attention on each breath. Notice the sounds that are all around you now. You do not have to change anything, just be aware of what is going on around you and let it go. Focus on the breath. Now, imagine a beam of golden light coming down from the heavens and pouring into the crown of your head. Allow the light to saturate your body, exiting through to the floor. Create a grounding cord of light moving down through the floor beneath you, down through the earth to the earth’s core. Tie the cord off around the core of the earth. Feel the pull of gravity as the cord tethers you to the earth. Feel the energy of the earth as it pulsates along the cord of light up through your body, into the heavens and then returns, creating an endless cycle of energy connecting heaven and earth with this cord of light moving through you. You feel revitalized, clear, loved, and abundant. Continue to focus on the breath. When you are complete, come back into your body. Wiggle your fingers and your toes. Stretch. Gently open your eyes and come back into the room.
Resource: MyBigSkinnyLYFE Design Portfolio©: Six Weeks to Success Workshop; Week One.
Learning to listen to the body by quieting the mind through meditation is vital to recognizing what your body is communicating to you, receiving inspiration, creating clarity, and reducing stress. As you practice quieting your mind, you will find meditation is easy and a quick method to rejuvenate when there is no time for napping. This beginning meditation is designed to give you an initial experience with quieting your mind. In advanced coaching, you will receive additional meditations that create specific results, or, have little, if any, guided imagery. Quieting your mind expands you into a realm of new possibilities available for you to choose from as you create your life’s strategy.
Daily Grounding Meditation (5-15 minutes)
Complete each morning just before getting out of bed and at night just as you get into bed, and anytime you feel a need to rest and rejuvenate. Be sure you are comfortable. Wrap a blanket around you because your body temperature will drop; this will allow you to maintain a longer, deeper meditative state. If you are finding that you are falling asleep before you complete the meditation, try sitting in a comfortable chair, or on the floor with your sit bones on a folded blanket to create a straight and relaxed torso position. You may choose to play soft instrumental music in the background to time yourself and to give your mind another focus. Use as many musical selections as are appropriate for the time you have allotted for your meditation. Extend your meditation time as your mind becomes stronger and can more easily become quiet.
Close your eyes. Feel the pull of gravity on your body as you are sitting or lying down. Focus on the spot behind your eyes and between your ears and drop it down into your heart space. Take long deep breaths, 4-5 seconds on the inhale and 4-5 seconds on the exhale. Move the breath up the front of the body and down the spine or up the spine and down the front of your body, massaging the spine as the breath moves along it. Begin at the belly and allow it to relax. Finish each breath in the chest, expanding and lifting. Keep your shoulders down, away from your ears. Allow the body to move naturally with each breath. Thoughts may come; that is ok; just let them go as easily as they came.
Focus your attention on each breath. Notice the sounds that are all around you now. You do not have to change anything, just be aware of what is going on around you and let it go. Focus on the breath. Now, imagine a beam of golden light coming down from the heavens and pouring into the crown of your head. Allow the light to saturate your body, exiting through to the floor. Create a grounding cord of light moving down through the floor beneath you, down through the earth to the earth’s core. Tie the cord off around the core of the earth. Feel the pull of gravity as the cord tethers you to the earth. Feel the energy of the earth as it pulsates along the cord of light up through your body, into the heavens and then returns, creating an endless cycle of energy connecting heaven and earth with this cord of light moving through you. You feel revitalized, clear, loved, and abundant. Continue to focus on the breath. When you are complete, come back into your body. Wiggle your fingers and your toes. Stretch. Gently open your eyes and come back into the room.
Resource: MyBigSkinnyLYFE Design Portfolio©: Six Weeks to Success Workshop; Week One.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Learn, Laugh, Share
MyBigSkinnyLyfe is a place to learn, to share and to laugh about the big and skinny of life. As I experienced the ebb and flow of life, which felt more like I had entered a boxing ring, I recognized that humor was the best remedy to the low times. I would share with my family and friends some of the humorous insights to the current events and experiences in my life and it lightened my load. You see, life as I had known it had fallen completely apart. As I learned and studied how to restore balance to my life, as if it existed in the first place, I felt a passion for teaching others how to create balance in thier lives which led me to coaching.
I began as a fitness coach. There I learned many things about human nature as well as human bodies. I recognized that the emotional and spiritual part of our lives plays a significant role in the physical part of our lives. That in the fitness industry the focus is on the skinny, constantly reducing ourselves to a little as possible when life calls us to live as big as possible. This is a terrible inbalance. As my mind contemplated the idea of finding balance with fitness and fit-ness I found that I was doing it backwards. I was looking for a physical solution in hopes that if I looked perfect and I lived perfectly on the outside then everything would be all right. That it would feel the same as when I would scrape my knee and my mom would put a Band-Aide on it, kiss it and make it all better. Working out, dieting, housekeeping, scrapbooking, volunteering, clothes, hair colors (I'm certainly not saying that a good hair color doesn't transform my world because it absolutely does... for about three months when my roots appear), pedicures, acrylic nails, car, house and pets all became Band-Aides in my mind, and money is definately not a kiss.
With each client I learned more and more about how powerful the spirit self was. I began using meditation techniques with resistance training and watched as clients improved by leaps and bounds. The more I read and the more I learned about the soul and the powers of creation I found that balance is a moderation of all things. I learned that when allowed to be led by the spirit self nothing was impossible. And so here I am. Living my passion. It feels so good to say that and even better to really believe it. I do believe that there are endless possibilities and the opportunities to have our hearts desire open up all around us in every moment everyday, the key? Opening the heart to receive those desires.
I am the student and the teacher and as I learn I want to share with you. I have hope that you will find the words I write to be informative, inspirational, and sometimes funny.
And because life's scale has two sides, unbalanced and balanced, I'll see you on the other side (the side of balance.)
Elle
I began as a fitness coach. There I learned many things about human nature as well as human bodies. I recognized that the emotional and spiritual part of our lives plays a significant role in the physical part of our lives. That in the fitness industry the focus is on the skinny, constantly reducing ourselves to a little as possible when life calls us to live as big as possible. This is a terrible inbalance. As my mind contemplated the idea of finding balance with fitness and fit-ness I found that I was doing it backwards. I was looking for a physical solution in hopes that if I looked perfect and I lived perfectly on the outside then everything would be all right. That it would feel the same as when I would scrape my knee and my mom would put a Band-Aide on it, kiss it and make it all better. Working out, dieting, housekeeping, scrapbooking, volunteering, clothes, hair colors (I'm certainly not saying that a good hair color doesn't transform my world because it absolutely does... for about three months when my roots appear), pedicures, acrylic nails, car, house and pets all became Band-Aides in my mind, and money is definately not a kiss.
With each client I learned more and more about how powerful the spirit self was. I began using meditation techniques with resistance training and watched as clients improved by leaps and bounds. The more I read and the more I learned about the soul and the powers of creation I found that balance is a moderation of all things. I learned that when allowed to be led by the spirit self nothing was impossible. And so here I am. Living my passion. It feels so good to say that and even better to really believe it. I do believe that there are endless possibilities and the opportunities to have our hearts desire open up all around us in every moment everyday, the key? Opening the heart to receive those desires.
I am the student and the teacher and as I learn I want to share with you. I have hope that you will find the words I write to be informative, inspirational, and sometimes funny.
And because life's scale has two sides, unbalanced and balanced, I'll see you on the other side (the side of balance.)
Elle
Friday, January 8, 2010
Feng Shui Your Life
Conscious living practices create balance and bring peace and joy to life. Feng Shui is a conscious living practice that cultivates awareness about the energies of all things and their relationship with each other; teaches about human nature and environmental stewardship; provides formulae to restore balance to the soul, to relationships, and to the environment; eliminates environmental "noise," opening the mind to receive the endless possibilities of creation; and allows expansion of the soul to fulfill divine purpose.
Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophy for interpreting environments. Formulae are used to determine optimal positioning of objects in an environment to support the energies of the individual. These formulae are designed to flow with changes in season, in circumstance, and in the environment. Feng Shui considers the energies of the earth, the heavens and the soul and correlates these energies to create balance.
After becoming familiar with the philosophy and formulae of Feng Shui practice an intuitive connection to one's own energies is forged. This relationship with personal energy forces allows the individual to approach the creation of balanced living simply. Strengthening trust in personal intuition opens the mind to the vast possibilities of creation and expands the soul.
When life is balanced and energies are flowing in harmony with each other greater peace can be felt. By eliminating environmental "noise" the mind and body are open and ready to receive and to give with greater capacity, thus expanding the individual to fulfill divine purpose and experience greater joy.
Because Feng Shui is founded on principles of energy it can be applied to other methods and practices for creating balanced health and well being. Such holistic practices may include but are not limited to; Yoda, Tai Chi, Meditation, Ayruvedic Medicine, Homeopathy, Herbalism, Reflexology, Massage, and Aromatherapy.
Reference: Feng Shui, Mind and Body Spirit and Home, by Gill Hale and Mark Evans.
See you on the other side,
Elle
Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophy for interpreting environments. Formulae are used to determine optimal positioning of objects in an environment to support the energies of the individual. These formulae are designed to flow with changes in season, in circumstance, and in the environment. Feng Shui considers the energies of the earth, the heavens and the soul and correlates these energies to create balance.
After becoming familiar with the philosophy and formulae of Feng Shui practice an intuitive connection to one's own energies is forged. This relationship with personal energy forces allows the individual to approach the creation of balanced living simply. Strengthening trust in personal intuition opens the mind to the vast possibilities of creation and expands the soul.
When life is balanced and energies are flowing in harmony with each other greater peace can be felt. By eliminating environmental "noise" the mind and body are open and ready to receive and to give with greater capacity, thus expanding the individual to fulfill divine purpose and experience greater joy.
Because Feng Shui is founded on principles of energy it can be applied to other methods and practices for creating balanced health and well being. Such holistic practices may include but are not limited to; Yoda, Tai Chi, Meditation, Ayruvedic Medicine, Homeopathy, Herbalism, Reflexology, Massage, and Aromatherapy.
Reference: Feng Shui, Mind and Body Spirit and Home, by Gill Hale and Mark Evans.
See you on the other side,
Elle
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