What's Alive In Me

Photo by Alex Adams

How are you? I hope you are well and grounded and connected to your heart. I wanted to let you know about my incredible live, online Yoga Nidra training I have planned for this weekend but I'd be remiss if I didn't share what's truly alive in me first…

What's alive in me today is some recent news about serious health issues concerning a member of my family. Without going into details to protect privacy, I'm optimistic for a good outcome while also being realistic about the hard work ahead. We have a family motto: "We are a family who can do hard things!"

What's also really alive in me today is our desperate need for social revolution in this country for our BIPOC (black, indigenous people of color) and LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters. Specifically, I know that the work starts with me and that I need to listen and learn. For me, this social crisis marks a new practice of drawing inward to a journey of greater self-discovery, one that will help me to do my part to heal what's broken in myself, to recognize inequality that is embedded unconsciously within me so I can learn to love it, respond to heal it, and act to do my part to heal our country and world.

Like I mentioned in my email/blog post last week, The reLoveution Starts Within, hating on or discriminating someone else, even unconsciously, is some backward way of finding wholeness. It's the autoimmunity of humanity. There's no way to get to where we are going unless we heal the fundamental illusion of separateness.

I get totally overwhelmed facing the teeth of such a big and snarling issue. It's easy to go all deer-in-the-headlights and simply freeze. I know that if it weren't an important issue, I wouldn't be afraid of it. I suppose it's the difficult but necessary growth that I must take which I fear. But this is me making that first step, resolving not to quit until we all get there.

Nonetheless, I'm hopeful. I believe that time is an illusion, that we've all already made it to perfection, that we are all already enlightened and this human experience is like rewinding the tape to see how it all happened. What is happening now is some big and necessary growing pains but that we are doing it! This doesn't spare us from the really hard work ahead of us, just that we are assured success for the inevitable difficulty. We are on this journey together so let's hold hands, brush ourselves off when we fall, and keep moving forward!

We are waking up!

To my BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) as well as queer brothers and sisters, I'm listening. I want to understand. I want to do the right thing, even if I'm kinda clueless. I may not say the right things or fully know exactly how clueless I am, but I'm willing to learn. My heart is open. I'm humbled by the importance of this issue and I'm willing to do what I need to do to heal my own issues. I'm reading, meditating, writing, and acting toward the healing of this issue.

I invite you to do likewise.

---

Yoga Nidra Training

Yoga Nidra: Follow Your Heart

To lead up to my live, online Yoga Nidra training I’ll be hosting June 12–14th I’ve been on a kick lately, writing about the fact that we have a heart’s gift for the world. For some of us, our heart’s gift to the world is rockin’ out like Prince, others of us choose the arena of raising kids in which to rock. We all have special talents in this world and the way we love the world is the way we give back to it. But what do you do if you’re not quite sure about what your heart’s gift for the world is or if you do know, how to share it with the world? One sure way to discover the answer to either of those questions is to follow your heart.

Follow Your Heart

Photo of Acoustic Music SLC

A while ago I wrote something called Unique Tunings for Guitars. It’s about how a guitar string is tuned to ring at a certain frequency when plucked. But if I’m playing, say, an A on my sax, all the way on the other side of the room from the guitar hanging on the wall, the A string which is tuned to ring at the same frequency, will hear its song sung by my sax and spontaneously begin to sing along, even though nobody touched the guitar. Often, I’ll pull my sax outta my mouth and hear the guitar humming happily in the corner all by itself, like there’s a ghost in the room who just couldn’t help herself from playing along to my sultry sax playin’. I know, crazy.

Well, I believe our hearts strings are tuned in a similar way—tuned so that they sing when they hear their song. Perhaps the best way to approximate what Source is—Source is what I’m calling that thing we all come from, where we go when we die, and exists within everything in the Universe—the best way to approximate what that thing is would be to call it love. So, when you love something or someone and you feel your heart strings a hummin’, well, that’s Source hearing it’s song. To find out what Source has in mind for you in this life, what your heart’s gift for the world is, just notice what you love.

What resonates with you, what do you love? Even if you don’t know what your heart’s gift for the world is—your purpose for life— loving the world IS your purpose.

Period.

Focus on what you love and prioritize your attention on those things. Do you love ceramics? Do you love to ski? Do you love to teach? If it feels like the only thing in the world you love is your cat, then maybe your heart’s gift for the world is to love that cat for all you’re worth. Lucky cat. Give up the notion that you gotta be Gandhi or Lady Gaga to bless the world. Someone’s already been assigned that job. You’ve got your own job and it has something to do with what makes your heart sing. That’s it. It can be that simple.

Can Your Heart’s Gift To The World Change?

Click for more information

Keep in mind, though, that everything in this Universe is in some sort of orbit and subject to change, even your heart’s gift for the world, so don’t get too attached. Be connected enough to Source, to the love that is within you, to know when you might be called to love in a different direction.

Whether you know your heart’s gift for the world or not, it often takes gobs of quiet, heaps of introspection, and about a metric shit-ton of courage to learn to know it and/or organize your life in order to share it with the world.

Maybe discovering what your heart’s gift for the world is takes being a little more familiar with Source. If you and Source aren't really on a first-name basis, you might want to try some meditation. But sitting down, lighting some incense, and closing your eyes, while trying to focus despite the scratchy licks from the textured tongue of your beloved cat, may not instantly open up that deep wisdom you seek from your heart. Sometimes, to hear those secrets from your heart, you gotta set the conditions right to “listen.” Sometimes this means starting with some movement, some breath work, some gratitude, and then do your meditation. Even still, the message might not come right away but as you regularly draw inward, slowly, you’ll learn to hear the quiet but sure voice of your heart. As you do, it will undoubtedly tell you what your heart’s gift for the world is and how to share it. I promise.

Please enjoy this optimization practice and Yoga Nidra practice I lead during one of my live online Yoga Nidra classes. It consists of a pranayama (breath work) practice, a mindfulness exercise (with gratitude), a few gentle poses, and a nice long and expansive Yoga Nidra practice. Enjoy!

Sourcing Your Heart's Gift: You're a Rock Star

Search Other Posts

Ever see someone do something really really well and think to yourself, “That dude was BORN to mow lawns!” or “that kid plays Rachmaninoff like it’s her JOB!” or that woman is the APOTHEOSIS of a math teacher”?

Something magical happens to us when we witness someone else do what they are meant to be doing in this world. Seeing them do their thing moves us because somehow it gives us permission and nudges us to find and/or do what we were meant to do.

Emily Dickinson’s gift to the world was poetry. Michael Jordan’s gift to the world is playing basketball. Oprah Winfrey’s gift for the world… is being Oprah Winfrey.

A heart’s gift for the world is what you were meant to do. It’s a gift because you give it to the world to make the world a better place and it’s a joy just to give it, regardless of reciprocity.

Everyone has a heart’s gift for the world. Some of us know it. Some don’t. Some people’s heart’s gifts are very public, others’ are private. Someone’s heart’s gift may or may not be how they make their living. Sometimes you get a job and then through that work, it reveals to you something you didn’t know about yourself, the gift that was hidden inside of you. That’s true for me and teaching yoga and meditation. Through many years of teaching it, I’ve discovered how much teaching yoga and meditation makes my heart sing. It’s taught me volumes about myself and I absolutely LOVE it. If I were stranded on a desert island I’d still practice yoga and meditation and probably teach the sea birds everything I know about the subjects.

To discover and express your heart’s gift to the world means you gotta be connected to Source, the portion of Source that’s inside of you. Source— you know, Creation, The Universe, God, the Great EVERYTHING, Krishna, Sarah The Magical Unicorn, whatever you want to call that thing that is at once inside of you while simultaneously inside of EVERYTHING else. After all, the Divine is waking up to know itself through and as YOU. The Divine is using your hands, your mouth, your talents to move this whole Universe along and to grow into discovering itself. So if Source is coming to know itself as you, don’t you think you ought to know a thing or two about Source so you can help yourself be what you were meant to be?

And think about it, if you were God and could express yourself in any way you chose, why wouldn’t you come to know yourself, at least in part, through playing the guitar like Joni Mitchell, or Eddie Van Halen, or Prince? Answer: there’s no way you WOULDN’T be Prince cuz Prince was badass and he made the world an incredible place with his music, God rest his soul.

Well according to Source, you’re just as much a rockstar as the artist formerly to this world as Prince was. Your gifts may not be as public as Prince’s but you gotta remember, to the gladiolas in that garden of the little white house on the corner— you know the one, it’s the one with nary a weed, the one where the most feral of cats wouldn’t even dare to trespass to do their business in there, the one where you make excuses to walk by it, socially distanced of course, just so you can be near its beauty— well, to the flowers in that garden, the little old lady that keeps that Eden is nothing short of a rockstar. The same Source exists within you as it did Prince and those stunning gladiolas.

Yes, you are a rockstar, though your venue for rocking might be raising kids, might be litigating corporate fat cats, or hosting peace rallies. Maybe your venue for rocking is simply the way you appreciate the world— it’s your style. Whatever it is, you are called on to rock and the world needs your heart’s song.

Philosopher and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman once said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Giving your heart’s gift to the world means offering your love and the fruits of that love as a gift. You give it because it’s a joy to do so, whether or not there’s any reciprocity.

What’s your heart’s gift for the world? How do you begin to find it? What does it look like to follow it?

What if you don’t know in which arena you are meant to rock? What if you feel that you haven't found your “Raspberry Beret?” How do you find your heart’s gift for the world? One secret to finding your heart’s gift to the world is to simply follow what you love—discover what gives you joy, pleasure, and what vibrates your heart strings.

In searching for our heart’s gift for the world and how to share it, sometimes, we need to gain wisdom about ourselves, wisdom that may lie deeper than our conscious, rational thinking mind. Yoga Nidra is an excellent (and relaxing) practice to plumb these depths and hear the secret message of our heart. It does this by placing you into a state between waking and dreaming, one of relaxed alertness, which acts as a secret doorway to visit the Source that is within you. It’s like a doorway to your heart. This is why I’ve dedicated several sessions in my live online Yoga Nidra class (on Wednesdays and Sundays) to explore sourcing your heart’s gift and set the conditions necessary to hear the wise Oracle inside you whispering what your gifts are for the world and how to share them with the world.

Please consider joining me on Wednesdays at 6 pm MDT and Sundays 9 am MDT for my live, online Yoga Nidra classes. Each person who registers will receive a recording of the discussion and Yoga Nidra practice to continue the process of heart-discovery after our class.

In the meantime, enjoy this free Yoga Nidra practice which leads you progressively through relaxing into deeper Awareness and through a beautiful visualization where you hear the Oracle within you speaking your heart’s purpose for the world. I’d love to hear from you about your experience.

Stay tuned for more about sourcing your heart’s gift by learning to follow your heart…