Sourcing Your Heart's Gift

Module 4

Braveheart: Sourcing and Leveraging Fear to Blast Forward

Akhilandeshvari is the compassonate Goddess who remains broken into pieces to show us how that too can be a power. 

Lyrics:

Amba Parameshwari Akhilandeshwari

Adi Parashakti Palayamam

Shri Bhuvaneshwari Raja Maheshwari

Ananda Rupini Palayamam

Sachidananda Rupini Palayamam

Ma Ma Ma Ma

Ananda Mayi Ma Palayamam

Sachidananda Mayi Ma Palayamam

Translation:

Sweet Mother, You are the Supreme Divine,

Empowering All, you are the Whole, Everything!

Primordial One, Creativity Supreme, protect me!

Auspicious One, Goddess of the Earth, Great Goddess of the Sovereign

Whose Form is Being, Consciousness, and Bliss, protect me!

O Mother, O Ma! O Mother made of Bliss! O Mother, protect me!

O Form of Being, Consciousness, and Bliss, protect me! 

Amba Parameswhari

The course this week

Welcome to week 4!

In this module, we will examine fear as a driving force for good, one that will move us forward along our path instead of causing us to retreat. We will reexamine the notion of fear and understand it’s true message as one of attention and action rather than retreat and hide. We will see fear for what it is, a messenger and an invitation to experience our True Self. When grounded in our identity as Source, fear becomes almost fun. In this module we will be inspired in the face of fear and walk away with empowering and simple tools to harness and leverage our fear to go out and kick ass!

I encourage you to do all of the course materials, however, if you don't have a lot of time, it's most important to simply do the Yoga Nidra practice. Complete the rest of the materials when you can. 

Do the following this week:

• Continue with the Daily Optimization Practice.
• Do the Stress Free  Pranayama Practice (breathing exercise), daily or as often as possible.
• Do the brief yoga video, ideally directly before Yoga Nidra. 
• Do this week's Yoga Nidra practice as often as possible.
• Listen to this week's teaching.
• Do the journal exercise.
• Do the call to action.
• Supportive materials are there to add relevant, supplementary information. 

Daily Optimization Practice

This sadhana, or specialized daily practice, will prime you to greet your day as your highest, most evolved self. By doing it daily, you make small, incremental steps which will have an enormous outcome for the development of your heart. 

Do this practice every day. It's designed to take about 15 minutes to accomplish. 

The Daily Optimization Practice consists of waking up and doing the following first thing:

1. Basic constitution (get a drink, bathroom, coffee if you need it).
2. Three rounds of breathing (Kapalabhati) and gratitude practice,
3. Have a peak experience.
4. Daily Meditation (below and on the main page).
5. Repeat the positive statement of truth from the Daily Meditation or (create your own). 

This will be the same meditation for all six weeks

Pranayama Practice to Respond to Fear

I taught this breathing practice to remedy stress but it works just as well with fear. 

Weekly Yoga Nidra Practice

Teaching for this week's theme

Braveheart: Sourcing and Leveraging Fear to Blast Forward

The teachings for each week's theme is quite helpful to understand the purpose and usage Yoga Nidra regarding that theme. However, it's important to remember that this course is not meant to be an intellectual exercise. In many ways we are trying to take our heads out of the picture and learn to feel into our gifts using our hearts. To do this deep work, we are using a deeper wisdom than intellect, the divine wisdom of our heart. Whether before or after you do the Yoga Nidra practice, at some time during the week read through or listen to the instruction about the theme for the week. 

Yoga Video

Weekly Journaling Exercise

About the journaling process . . .

It's modeled after Nan Seymour's inimitable writing practice called River Writing. The invitation is to find a notebook of paper, nothing special, and a free-flowing pen. Set a timer for 11 minutes, and write non-stop with a prompt as inspiration. Write whatever comes to mind. It could be an idea about the prompt, a word or symbol about the prompt that spoke you to. It doesn't matter. Simply keep your pen moving. You're not writing to be published. You're not writing to be famous. You're writing to hear the wisdom of your heart. 

There are no edits. Don't worry about spelling. Just write. If you get stuck, here are two good suggestions to help keep your pen moving. The first is to write, "What I really want to say is . . . " and see if that kickstarts your pen again. Another idea is simply writing, "I don't know what to write, I don't know what to write . . ." and after a few times, usually you'll begin again writing with a flow. 

This writing is just for you. You do not need to share it. However, if you do choose to share your writing with someone, give them the instructions that they are neither to critique nor encourage your writing. Only a simple, "Thank you" is required. Nothing more or less.  

Remember, the prompt is just there as a little push to get the pen flowing. 

Call to Action: Build Your Courage Muscles

Make a list of 2-3 things that cause you fear or procrastination (masked fear) regarding discovering or sharing your heart's gift for the world and tell a friend what you plan to do to make a courageous step forward toward one of those fears this week. Ask your friend to follow up with you and keep you accountable for acting bravely. Remember to give yourself a personal victory when you've made your action, regardless if you thought it was successful or not. Follow up with your friend. 

Supportive Materials

If you'd like to drill down on some of the ideas from this course you may do so with supplementary  articles, podcasts, videos, etc.

Click the image to download the 1 hr. live session on May 19th 2018.

Tim Ferriss's TED Talk about Fear. This is REALLY good. "Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life."

Please take the time to read what my dear friend, Nan Seymour wrote about Akilandesvari, How to Ride a Crocodile. 

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

I love this book. I listened to it on Audible and it was read by Elizabeth Gilbert herself. It's short and sweet and perfect for this course.