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?

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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!

Be The Peace

I’m sure that even if you live in a cave somewhere you’ve still been inundated with information and worries about the Coronavirus.

What to do?

Of course we all want to stay informed so we can act responsibly and there’s some real-life consequences to what’s going on: people are working from home, kids can’t go to school, and there’s no goddam toilet paper at the grocery store! Yet there’s a point where news turns into worry-mongering which ironically spreads the most contagious and damaging virus in the history of humankind— the virus of fear.

I heard one of my teachers, Judith Lasater, once say, “What is worrying but praying for what you don’t want.” There’s so much energy in whatever you place your attention upon that it’s hard not to give energy to the very thing that you’re trying to avoid. How can we instead put our energy toward a solution rather than fueling what could possibly go wrong?

I believe that this current global health crisis is serious and that we should be responsible by doing whatever we can to avoid spreading it such as practicing good hygiene among other things. My wife started as a nurse before getting her PhD in nursing informatics and is no stranger to how easily germs can spread. She’s the most pleasant germaphobe imaginable and keeps our family healthy by reminding us to wash hands before and after going into public, to cough or sneeze into a tissue or elbow (then still wash hands), and not to eat anything before washing hands (. . . and wash hands again just for good measure). As we are moving forward with efforts to cut Coronavirus off at the pass, I keep reminding myself, “WWSD, (what would Seneca do)?” After that, I believe that we need to live our lives as normally as possible so that we don’t make an already bad situation 10X worse by running for the hills and stockpiling weapons and Snickers bars.

In yoga philosophy there's a concept called Indra’s Web, a jeweled net covering the entire Universe where every facet of every jewel reflects every other facet of the entire Universe. It’s one way of illustrating the idea that somehow everything is connected to everything else and therefore the greatest tool to change the outside world is actually to change yourself.

Whether you are infected with the actual Coronavirus, infected by the fear of it, or simply plagued by the fact that there’s a run on toilet paper at Costco, there is one thing that will undoubtedly help any situation and that is practicing grounded presence. Practice being the peace you wish to see in the world.

To that end, I’ve made a Yoga Nidra recording (guided meditation) which is about 20 minutes long and which I think you’ll love. It uses deepening layers of Awareness and relaxation as a gateway into practicing being the change you wish to see in the world. At very least, it will help you relax while the world is getting increasingly more agitated around you. Maybe it will help to affect some real change in the world. While you and your kids are on house arrest due to the Coronavirus, maybe try giving yourself some Yoga Nidra homework and do this practice a few times in the next few days as your way of changing the world from within yourself.

And if you feel like you need some good vibes in your life, now more than ever, you’d love to go to yoga but are freaked out to be within 100 feet of another person for fear of getting sneezed on, consider joining my weekly, live, online Yoga Nidra class which happens every Sunday at 9 am MST. Join me from your computer or smartphone, in the comfort of your own home, where the only virus you have to worry about is whatever computer virus already lurks on your machine. Seriously though, it’s really nice. This week we are exploring the super power of relaxation and how it enables us to reach altered states of consciousness in order to expand our stages of consciousness. Plus, you can register even if the time doesn’t work because each person who registered gets a full audio and audio/video recording of the event to review whenever you wish. That and it’s totally affordable . . . payable in toilet paper squares.

CLICK BELOW TO REGISTER

Yoga Nidra Workshop and Book-Signing Event

Yoga Nidra Book

In case you didn’t know, I wrote a book called Practical Yoga Nidra: A 10-Step Method to Reduce Stress, Improve Sleep, and Restore Your Spirit. and it just dropped in December. Coming back to the States after living in France, I was able to see my actual book for the first time only last week. I’m really proud of it and would love to celebrate with you. What better way to celebrate than with a 2.5-hr. Yoga Nidra experience. After we’ll pop the cork and celebrate. I’d love for you to come. Please contact 21st Yoga to register. Space is limited.

Yoga Nidra for Compassion

Today I want to talk about meditation for compassion.

Everybody knows that meditation helps with all kinds of things ranging from greater attention span, less stress, and demonstrative health improvements including, blood pressure, sleep, and heart health. In the past 25 years or so, more and more scientific research has been conducted to answer empirically how meditation can have these great results.

One study in particular looked at how various styles of meditation have lasting results after meditation. In this study, they looked at a compassion meditation style and discovered that when meditators practiced a total of just 7 hours of compassion meditation, that it has a distinct and lasting benefit of feeling well-being for humankind. Not only will you increase your compassion and love for others but you will also improve your love of self also. Once I read about this study, I thought of how fantastic it would be to beef up my compassion levels and I’d create a Yoga Nidra for Compassion recording. In fact, it’s one of the tracks that I have on my Essential Yoga Nidra with Scott Moore Vol. 1. I wanted to offer this recording for free for anybody who was interested in exploring meditation for compassion. It’s about 30 minutes long and mixes Yoga Nidra with Loving Kindness meditation. I find it to be powerful and a lovely way to meditate.

If you felt so inspired, you could choose to practice this meditation every day for the next 14 days to get your 7 hours minimum of compassion meditation to start to see how your attitude toward others changes moving forward.

Enjoy!

Live Yoga Nidra Teacher Training

Salt Lake City, Utah Feb 7–9, 2020

Sankalpa: Being Known By The Universe Through Our Desires

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I'm so excited!!!!!!!

My new book, Practical Yoga Nidra, hits the shelves December 10th. That's like in 5 days! This is really a dream come true for me. I'm really proud of this book and I can't wait to share it with you.
The following is an excerpt from my book. My book offers a simple, 10-step guide to developing a Yoga Nidra practice, one that will help you reduce stress, improve sleep, and restore your spirit.

Preorder your book on Amazon ($12.99) by clicking on the photo and I’ll give you a FREE live, online Yoga Nidra class ($12 value).

Enjoy this excerpt and let me know what you think about the concept of Sankalpa and intentions. Keep in mind that though I’m writing about setting your intention for a Yoga Nidra practice, the practice of Sankalpa could be used for starting a yoga practice, meditation, or any project or goal.

Also, in my upcoming volume of Yoga Nidra recordings (available in a few weeks), I’ll have an entire practice dedicated to using Yoga Nidra, and in particular the use of Sankalpa, or intention setting, as a deeply mindful way of helping you to visualize your goals to make them into a reality.

Step 1 of the 10-Step Method is to set your intention. Sankalpa is a Sanskrit word that could most simply be translated as your intention. However, the practice of choosing your Sankalpa is a bit more entailed than merely stating your intention for your Yoga Nidra practice. Your Sankalpa is like a personal mantra or a statement of truth that you repeat in your mind as you begin your Yoga Nidra practice. I encourage you to sincerely consider your Sankalpa each time you begin a Yoga Nidra practice. If there’s something big in your life you feel you need, your Sankalpa could be the same each time. However try to picture what specifically you need today in relationship to that desire. In other words, don’t get stuck in the past with a Sankalpa that is outdated for you.

To choose your Sankalpa, it’s best to pause for a moment, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and become present by opening to your senses. Then reflect for a brief few seconds about what you need most in your life in the moment. Your Sankalpa might be for something practical and physical, something emotional, or something spiritual. You may even set an intention for the well-being of another person or whole group of people. Your Sankalpa doesn’t even have to be about what you want but rather maybe for the ability to articulate a recognition, appreciation, or gratitude for what you already have. It’s important that your Sankalpa is as short a sentence or phrase as possible. This helps you to gain clarity on what you really need or want. When choosing your Sankalpa, be positive, specific, and be present.

First, be positive. The Universe is one big, eternal yes. It’s inviting you to merge into its path of awakening to a complete understanding of this positivity and this yes. Yoga Nidra is about aligning with your True Nature and you can begin this essential alignment by choosing a Sankalpa that reflects this Universal positivity.

When choosing a Sankalpa, focus on what you want rather what you want to avoid. I heard one of my teachers, Judith Lasater, say, “What is worrying but praying for what you don’t want?” I grew up in Utah where everyone mountain bikes in the summer and skis in the winter. Coaches in both sports teach beginners to look where they want to go rather than where the don’t want to go. It’s incredible how focusing on something, good or bad, brings about its realization.

The next consideration in choosing your Sankalpa is specificity. Being specific paints a bullseye for the Universe to aim for. Make your Sankalpa one short sentence. Choose the exact thing you want rather than sweeping generalities. Once, a friend in her 20s asked the Universe for a car. Her intention was to own something with an automatic transmission and a sun roof. A week later, her family inherited a Lincoln town car that indeed had both automatic transmission and a sunroof but smelled like an ashtray, was 12 feet long, and probably older than she was. She drove that car gratefully but was sure that the next time she made her automotive intentions known to the Universe, she was sure to add that she wanted something a bit more sporty and hip.

Lastly, when choosing your Sankalpa, it’s essential to be present. The part of you that you’re communicating your Sankalpa to only understands the present. Past and future are abstract concepts regulated by different parts of your brain and being. When making your Sankalpa speak to what is rather than what isn’t. This means formulating something you’re searching for in present terms and focusing on where you’re at, what you have, and who you are now in relationship to where you wish to go.

Here are a few samples of Sankalpas that you can modify to help you create your Sankalpa that is positive, specific, and present:

• “I’m on my road to ___________.”
  
  
  
  

• “I already have everything inside of me that I need for ___________.”
  
  
  
  

• “The Universe is ready to give me __________.”

What This Practice Does for You 

Your Sankalpa acts as a guiding star for how your journey of Yoga Nidra will unfold, what kind of awareness will be revealed, and which layers will be removed which obfuscate your ability to experience your True Self.

When you state your Sankalpa, you plant a living seed of spirit, hope, and desire inside your mind and heart as a clear and direct invitation to the Universe to reveal to you your true identity through that intention. Your Yoga Nidra practice cultivates the fertile soil for your seed of Self-Awareness to grow and bloom.

The beautiful and ancient Gayatri Mantra is one of the oldest mantras we know of and comes from the Rig Veda, part of a body of texts called the Vedas dating between 1700–1100 BCE. The Gayatri Mantra teaches how stating your Sankalpa before your Yoga Nidra practice works to help manifest that thing. The Gayatri Mantra states:

oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ suvaḥ
tatsaviturvareṇyaṃ
bhargo devasyadhīmahi
dhiyo yo naḥ prachodayāt

My favorite translation of this mantra from Donna Farhi goes something like:

Everything on the earth and in the sky and in between
Is arising from one effulgent source
If my thoughts, words, and deeds reflected a complete understanding of this unity
I would be the peace I am seeking in this moment.

As this mantra says, if I understood the essence of all things—including myself and the thing I want—I’d understand that everything comes from the same source. Ultimately, I’d see that I’m no different than the thing I want.

While this is nice to understand on a philosophical level, it will most likely take a lifetime of practice (or more lives if there are more to be had) to truly understand this truth. Yoga Nidra is a perfect way to practice coming to understand this truth, by aligning with our magnificent Source.

According to Yoga Nidra philosophy, everything in the Universe is boiled down to Awareness. When you align with your basic Awareness through presence, Yoga Nidra being my favorite way to practice presence, you align with the origin of all things, including you and including those things you feel separate from. Remember, Yoga Nidra is about remembering and experiencing our fundamental wholeness. This is why this is considered a practice of yoga or “yoking” together of all things.

Your Sankalpa speaks to the eternal part of you that isn’t dependent upon past or future. Therefore, planting the seed of Sankapla in your heart and mind is like planting iris bulbs in the fall—they bloom in the spring whether you remember planting them or not. Because your Sankalpa works for your benefit whether you remember it or not, it’s essential that we be mindful and deliberate when choosing a Salkalpa.

The practice of Yoga Nidra is simply about being present. Starting your Yoga Nidra practice with your Sankalpa makes you very present by first, taking a moment to recognize your needs and second, by alerting the Universe how to best awaken you to your ultimate Awareness. You do this by practicing Awareness and an understanding that you are no separate from what you seek.

It reminds me of Leonard Cohen’s song “Anthem,” where the artist meditates on how through our perceived brokenness or sense of lack, we come to understand our own wholeness and illumination. We aren’t perfect despite our brokenness but because of it. Stating our Sankalpa is alerting to ourselves and the Universe the avenue by which we are coming to know ourselves as perfect, whole beings.

I'd like to share with you the powerful Yoga Nidra practice we had last week during our live, online Yoga Nidra practice. It's is a practice that is designed to develop your Sankalpa, your powerful intention and manifestation to the Universe for whatever you feel you need in your life right now.

It's about 21 minutes long. I hope you love it. Tell me what you think.

Also, you can click below to join this week's class on Sunday, December 8 at 9 am MST. This class theme is : You Are Bigger Than Your Beliefs

Meditations on Happiness

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We all just want to be happy. We all search to be happier. We are all scouring for clues to solve that mystery as to why we aren’t fully satisfied in life? So we turn to things like yoga and meditation to help solve the happiness mystery. Surely yoga and meditation will help us to be happy, right? Yes they will but maybe not how we think they will. Much of the immediate “happiness” we get from yoga and meditation is fleeting and finite: a nice yoga butt, the ninja-like ability to do a handstand, 5 minutes not worrying about your finances while sitting in meditation. And as soon as we’ve finished class, we often find ourselves disappointed to be in the exact same place we were before class.

The problem occurs when we use yoga and meditation as self-improvement instruments. We say to ourselves, “If I could just improve my flexibility, forget my aching heart, and calm my busy mind, then I’d be happy.” But what if yoga and meditation aren’t for self-improvement at all? What if they are merely tools that help bring us to Awareness? And that’s it. These practices aren’t for self-improvement because the Self doesn’t need to be fixed.

But beyond that, in a very practical way this Awareness also helps us to find happiness by clarifying to our conscious mind both what we really want in life as well as helping us recognize it when we’ve received it. In truth, Yoga and meditation simply help us to practice Awareness which in turn reveals the true mystery of happiness: that happiness is presence.

Secret No. 1: Don’t Wait for Happiness, You’re Already Perfect

First, and this is one of life’s biggest lessons, yoga and meditation make you happy by giving you the Awareness that everything simply exists and is perfect in that existence. Including you. You’re already perfect. This Awareness also reveals that happiness just exists, the same way everything else does.

One of the secrets to happiness is to realize that we can’t wait for the events in our lives to align perfectly for us to be happy. You gotta stop waiting for the world to make you happy cuz the world just doesn’t care. You gotta start making the decision to be happy despite the events and circumstances in your life because there will always be something other than yourself to blame for the fact that you’re unhappy. You’re in charge of your emotions. Nobody else is responsible for that job, not your partner or spouse, your kids, your job, your teachers, God—nobody but you.

The stone-cold truth is that the events in our lives are neither good nor bad. They just are. It’s the meaning we assign to those events that triggers the emotions we associate as good or bad. And guess who gets to choose the meaning of each event that happens. You do.

Awareness shows you that this moment is all there is. Stop waiting for happiness. There’s never a more perfect time to be happy as the eternal now. Awareness shows you that you gotta stop looking for happiness outside of yourself. You’ll never find it. It doesn’t exist. If you can’t find happiness inside, you’ll sure as shit never find it outside. That’s just Truth with a capital “T.”

One of the oldest vedic mantras, the Gayatri Mantra, thousands of years old, says that if I truly understood the fact that everything comes from Source, I’d see that I’m no different than the happiness I seek, I’d see that happiness is my essence. (Click below to listen to me chanting this mantra.)

I know what you’re thinking, “That’s shit! life’s hard.”

Sure, life’s hard. Yet through Awareness there’s a happiness that can’t be touched by life’s difficulty. Life is beautiful even in our hardest moments because our struggles represent our growth-evolution of learning to see ourselves as the perfect beings we already are. Our life’s struggles are just like those of a new butterfly struggling to break out of its chrysalis, to unfold into its own magnificence. A butterfly won’t survive without those struggles. And like the joy of the butterfly bouncing triumphantly on the wind, one day we too will celebrate every stitch of pain that birthed our unknown wings.

The late, great Leonard Cohen said it perfectly in his lyrics to the song Anthem:

Ring the bells that still can ring,

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything,

And that’s how the light gets in.

Even the rhyme is broken yet these are perhaps some of the most succinct and poignant lyrics ever to remind us that we aren’t perfect despite our brokenness, but because of it.

In order to see our perfection through our brokenness, we must learn to be present when painful emotions arise, enough to feel them fully but without letting them define us. The practice is to realize that while we may experience emotions, what we are is fundamentally larger than emotions. And as much as you can be present with emotions, no matter which one, that presence actually serves to reveal the perfect, luminous thing inside of you which is larger than emotions, call it Awareness, Source, God, Spirit, your True Self— whatever. What you are is Awareness experiencing itself as an emotion, like an otherwise unknown being trying on a costume to understand itself. It’s by being present to your emotions through Awareness that reveals the happiness inside of you, a happiness that can’t be touched by events and circumstances

Being present with your emotions is opposite of pretending that emotions don’t exist, especially difficult emotions.They do exist. They just don’t define you. Plus, remember that every emotion is in flux, here one moment and gone the next. Just like everything else in this loving Universe, it’s part of an orbit. Emotions are part of the game of life, a part of the dream. Awareness is the part of you that’s having the dream, the part that never changes, despite any emotion that may visit. In fact, it’s things like emotions that help to reveal yourself as Awareness.

Yoga and meditation cultivate the Awareness that what we are is a spiritual being having a physical experience. We are coming to know ourselves as the Divine, a force that is fundamentally reduced to love. Divine love is in you and in everybody and everything else in the Universe. When you know that, when you feel that, come what may, nothing can touch you. You’ll even be able to experience things like heartache with love.

So while on the surface, yoga and meditation don’t make you happy, they do cultivate an Awareness which reveals some key secrets to happiness. Namely, it reveals that you are a perfect, Divine being, that you can only find happiness within, and that you’re in charge of defining the events that happen in your life. It’s the challenges in our life that help to illuminate our perfection. Awareness teaches you that what you are fundamentally is happiness (Gayatri Mantra) and that you can’t wait for life to align perfectly to “find” happiness. It also teaches us to be present to our emotions because they don’t define you but are valuable tools that help to illuminate the happiness that exists despite the events and subsequent emotions of life.

Secret No. 2: The Cosmic Taco—Place Your Order, Please.

Another way that Awareness leads us toward happiness is by giving us the clarity to know what we really want in life. Despite the fact that we are perfect just as we are, we are nonetheless hardwired to grow and to evolve. This means that it takes Awareness to realize when we’ve outgrown our current situation. Sometimes our growth is cued by a feeling of being disconnected or unsatisfied with what is. Often this is the Universe saying that we’ve outgrown our current condition and that we need to find something else, like a hermit crab whose outgrown their shell.

The dark side of being hardwired for growth means that for some of us, we are always looking for greener grasses. But with presence, we can hold the paradox that this moment is both perfect as it is and that the Universe is calling on us to grow and move away from it. With presence we also recognize that our current situation is the best and only platform for us to step into our next stage of evolution. In fact, failure to do so—both failure to acknowledge our current situation as well as our failure to grow into what’s calling us forward—ironically traps us in what fundamentally isn’t working for us, just like a prison cell. Failure to evolve from a place of grounded presence traps us in a vicious cycle of reliving our old lessons until we are ready to move on. It’ll be just like Groundhog Day but instead of Bill Murray, it’ll be us living out that drama.

Many of us mistake our itch for growth as unhappiness when it’s really just our own call for evolution knocking on our door. It’s like looking down and seeing that the pants that used to fit you just fine are now riding up around your shins. What’s worse is that most of us might feel the need to grow and look for something new but don’t even know what we are looking for. Here’s a perfect example…

Several years ago I needed to find an apartment. I had exactly one week to find a place and move out and I was really feeling the pressure. Despite the fact that I had looked at literally dozens of apartments I felt like my search was going nowhere. I realized that I was looking at apartments and not really knowing what I was looking for. After examining yet one more apartment that left me massively underwhelmed, I realized that I didn’t even know what I was looking for. So, I went home and wrote down precisely what I wanted, about 15 different criteria, everything down to which neighborhood, the price, what kind of amenities—even the architectural style and age of the building. The very next day, I looked at yet another apartment. It didn’t meet the majority of those criteria. That’s because it met ALL of them— Every. Damn. Detail. I went on to spend some very happy years in that apartment.

Many different yoga and meditation traditions say that consciousness precedes form. It was like the Universe was just waiting for me to put in my order, like the invisible person that lives in the speaker box at the drive-thru, happy to serve me as soon as I made up my mind and tell it what I want.

I believe that the Universe is constantly waiting to give us what we want and like any good teacher, if we’re not asking, it’s not giving. Asking for what we want, visualizing it in a way that is current, possible, and positive, is a way that alerts the Universe that we are ready to receive what the Universe has been waiting to offer all along.

I told this story to a good friend and she told me, “You could probably ask the Cosmos for a taco and open up your hand and, boom, a taco would drop into your hands.” Thus a new term was born, “The Cosmic Taco.” I now use this term to refer to telling the Universe exactly what you want. “Um, yeah, could I please get a beautiful place to live, in France, along with my adorable family, a great job that I love that makes me feel loved, fulfilled, and useful? Oh, and could I get that with avocado and hot sauce? Thanks!”

What do you want on your Cosmic Taco? Make a list. Be specific.

Telling the Universe what you want on your Cosmic Taco is useful for so many reasons, but specifically it clarifies to both your thinking mind and simultaneously to Universal Consciousness what you want so it can begin to dish it out. Like I said, most of us are walking around looking for something other than what we have and we don’t even know what it is we are looking for.

For many of us it’s a matter of what we feel we are worthy of. Remember, you’re the Divine having a human experience. It’s your birthright to have EVERYTHING. Don’t be afraid to ask for exactly what you want. You more than deserve it.

As you get clear with what you want, I promise that you’ll start to notice those thing coming to you from many directions. Don’t be surprised if you start to be bombarded by clues, synergies, and opportunities. Even the songs on the radio will start to get on board to somehow sing to what’s coming through for you. Recently I had a powerful experience where I was feeling overwhelmed by the simple perfection of the lyric, “All you need is love,” and a fucking beetle came and literally landed on my hand. “Yeah, Universe, I know it’s the Beatles.”

Has something like that ever happened to you? Probably. Why is that? It think it’s because the Universe operates in an order and once you get onboard with a trajectory, you’ll see how that ordered thing begins to play out. Chances are, these clues for what you wanted were passing you all along but since you had such a dizzying array of options in front of you, each one just as viable as the next, you were simply blinded by all the myriad options to notice them.

One of the things I’ve learned from Yoga Nidra, the fascinating and transformative type of meditation I’m so passionate about, is that the past and future are abstract concepts and the eternal part of us, the one that’s connected to Universal Consciousness, only exists in the now and exists in a universe of YES—always has, always will—so you have to talk to it in ways that is current and positive. It helps to put yourself on your pathway of growth by creating mantras, aphorisms, or prayers that make a positive statement of truth that will help you grow in that direction, like a pole lashed to a tree to help it grow straight. Don’t speak to your perceived lack or the incompleteness, speak to your inevitable wholeness, to what is real and true in the moment and what is leading you to the next thing layer of wholeness. I heard Judith Lasater once say, “What is worrying but praying for what you don’t want.” Pray for what you do want.

Here’s are two examples for a positive mantras that speak to the power of the moment:

“I’m currently on my road to _____________,”

“Inside, I already have everything I need for____________.”

Both of these examples are realistic, positive, and happening in the moment. Both reflect what my therapist has been telling me for years, “Reach for the stars and keep your feet planted on the ground.” Both are mantras that communicate to the Universe what we want and positions it to help us manifest those things.

Awareness therefore brings us happiness by helping us realize that despite being perfect beings living in a perfect moment, we are nonetheless hardwired to grow. It helps us to know when we need to move on, it gives us the clarity to know what we are looking for, and it does so grounded in the positive reality of what is.

David Whyte is a rockstar in my world. Check out what he says about growing into what we feel we are worthy of in this world.

The True Love

There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.

I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.

Years ago in the Hebrides,
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of baying seals,
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,

and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them

and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly
so Biblically
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love

so that when
we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and everything confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don't
because finally
after all this struggle
and all these years
you simply don't want to
any more
you've simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness
however fluid and however
dangerous to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours.

~David Whyte

I love this because your True Love could be your partner/spouse, kids, job, beliefs, or anything.

What is YOUR True Love?

Secret No. 3: What We Need is Here

Not only must we be clear with what we want, but we gotta learn to recognize it when it comes. I think that between knowing what you want and recognizing it when it’s come, the later is the more difficult and will lead us more quickly to enduring happiness. We cant get so driven to see over the next horizon that we fail to recognize that what we wanted all along is actually lying at our feet. It’s the story of the hero’s journey.

Presence opens our eyes to see what is here and what is real. It teaches us that now is a perfect moment, despite whatever’s happening, and that there will never be a better moment than now. Presence shows you that what you want is here. What you want is not the thing over the next horizon, what you want is being here. Being here is being home. Check out what

I love poets because they have to be so present in order to articulate the moment that’s happening right before them. Check out this showstopper by Wendell Berry:

What We Need Is Here

Geese appear high over us,

pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,

as in love or sleep, holds

them to their way, clear

in the ancient faith: what we need

is here. And we pray, not

for new earth or heaven, but to be

quiet in heart, and in eye,

clear. What we need is here.

~Wendell Berry

I invented a magic mantra for happiness that helps me to see that what I need is here. It helps me to realize that this moment is as perfect as any other can be. That mantra is, “This is EXACTLY what I want to be doing in this moment.” I repeat this phrase even and especially if it feels like what I’m doing in this moment is pretty mundane or average because each time I do, it opens my eyes to the perfection of the moment. The perfect moment is defined by what’s happening but rather how I’m choosing to pay attention. Repeating this mantra instantly locks me into presence and takes me out of perpetual search mode. It helps me to lift my head, open my eyes and all the rest of my senses. As I’m writing this, a nice glass of Bordeaux next to me—fruity and bold—and some dark chocolate with sea salt, I feel myself swinging in the flow of this writing, the keys popping rhythmically under my fingers, and I acknowledge that, THIS is EXACTLY what I want to be doing IN. THIS. MOMENT. This is what I want. I can’t tell you how immensely satisfying it is to acknowledge that. This phrase helps to realize that I’m not waiting for the perfect moment, I’m watching it unfold before me.

And as I clarify what I want with presence, I realize that if I’m on my road to higher growth and I’m actively doing what it takes to move me along my path, then this is the only place I can be and therefore exactly where I want to be. So, yeah here is where I need to be and is the essential ground leading me to my next step forward on my path for growth and discovery. This is the harder lesson.

The last poem I want to share, a poem that has become a beloved friend to me, one which express this vital truth of presence, written by one of my heros—the woman, the wonder, the legend, drum roll please — Mary Oliver!

Mindful

Everyday

I see or hear

something

that more or less

kills me

with delight,

that leaves me

like a needle

in the haystack

of light.

It was what I was born for —

to look, to listen,

to lose myself

inside this soft world —

to instruct myself

over and over

in joy,

and acclamation.

Nor am I talking

about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,

the very extravagant —

but of the ordinary,

the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar,

I say to myself,

how can you help

but grow wise

with such teachings

as these —

the untrimmable light

of the world,

the ocean’s shine,

the prayers that are made

out of grass?

~Mary Oliver

I love this poem because it points to presence as the key to happiness, to satisfaction. And that without presence, we will never realize it when what we are searching for has arrived at our feet.

It’s my prayer that you find yourself in the Awareness that you are perfect just the way you are. May you have astounding clarity about what you want in life. And may you find yourself reading this and repeating the magic mantra for happiness, “This is exactly what I want to be doing in this moment.”

Thank you for sharing this moment with me.

Going deeper:

• Remember that you’re perfect the way you are

• Put in your order for your cosmic taco, make a detailed list of what you want your life to be

• Regularly practice the magic mantra for happiness, “This is exactly what I want to be doing in this moment,” no matter what you’re doing in that moment.

Please share this with someone. Comment below about what you feel are YOUR secrets to happiness.

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