One of the upsides of moving our studio online during the pandemic is daily connection with Lori Gale. A dedicated and thoughtful practitioner, as well as a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher, she shares here part of her journey with MKY. Thank you, Lori, for sharing your heart and your Truth. Thank you for bringing your energy, your devotion, your kindness, your everything to our community day after day. It means the world! In the before times, I could only make it to MKY one Sunday a month. I was living over 30 miles away, had a demanding job, etc., etc. But what a treat to have Cate as a teacher and to be in community with the other students on those special Sundays. “Let the truth in you guide you” is the heart of why I love Kundalini yoga, and Cate makes this come alive in every class. I signed up right away when I learned that MKY would be offering online classes and moon ceremonies. My first new moon intention of 2020 was to release pain and stiffness in my neck and shoulders. Daily yoga was helping, but this pain was very stubborn. I have come to understand that pain in this location is often the result of feeling overly responsible, as if one is carrying the weight of the world. This certainly describes me, having been a single parent, taking care of a big house on my own, and being in a profession where mistakes could kill people. But now that I have downsized my home and retired from structural engineering, it was time to lay these burdens down. With the help of our beautiful yoga practice along with Cate and Savitri’s new moon remote Reiki, the physical pain has completely disappeared. It feels great to be able to move freely again, but I continued to be haunted by memories of a bullying situation in my former workplace. Numerous times each day I would find myself engaged in churning thoughts of passive aggressive revenge. I knew I needed to forgive and move on, but the thoughts would not go away. I asked my intuition for guidance, and finally it came during a recent class with Savitri. Savitri is an amazing healer with a wonderful way of sharing her deep spiritual knowledge. In each class, she lovingly expands on a spiritual topic while the students are doing the asanas. We learn about different spiritual beings, the various types of chi, practices around the world, water, trees, essential oils, fasting, and even coffee. One day Savitri talked about the importance of respecting and integrating our emotions, and it occurred to me to wonder what my emotions really were concerning my workplace bully. As I pondered, the strongest feelings to emerge were shame and embarrassment for letting myself be treated that way, and suddenly I realized that I had never fully let myself feel the shock and terror of being yelled at by someone at work. Recognizing that these were my true emotions felt like a huge thing that needed to come out, almost like having a baby. When Savitri invited the class to locate the emotions in the body, I could feel them deep below my navel center and could sense another knot of similar emotions in the same location. These were from being bullied as a kid, which happened often because my family moved a lot. In this case too, shame and embarrassment covered up the real hurt. Amazingly there was now a path for all that pain to release, and I lay in shavasana thinking, “whoa, what just happened?” I know there was a deep shift because now I can see that the negative thoughts are just my monkey mind trying to help. I don’t need to engage with them anymore. What a relief! I am incredibly grateful to all the MKY teachers and students for creating a welcoming and supportive space where we can give and receive the enormous benefits of Kundalini yoga. It has been so great to practice with everyone. Thank you very much! Wahe guru!
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I pray that each of you has everything you need to be sustained throughout this time. If you've got what you need, this is a list of affordable and FREE resources to bring epiphanies, laughter, depth, and good energy into the mix during your time at home. So here it is: based on a collaborative discussion with some of MKY's teachers, Savitri, Andy, Kathy, and myself (Cate) and some suggestions from our community. May it serve you. Stay healthy, safe, and happy! Get Inspired! #1 Podcast Series on The New Earth A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle is a life-changing book about how we can repair our world through awareness, acceptance and enjoyment. In this 10-part podcast series, Oprah Winfrey and Tolle discuss the book and take questions from callers about implementing its teachings into real life. #2 Good News Web Series I hope you already know about Actor John Krasinki's Some Good News, which is such a fun, beautiful, exciting, funny and uplifting response to these times. If you haven't watched this Web Series, watch it soon and get ready for some happy tears, as Krasinski surprises a young girl who missed out on seeing Hamilton with a Zoom performance from the cast, brings amazing speakers -- like Jon Stewart, Steven Spielberg, and Oprah -- to an online high school graduation, and officiates a Zoom wedding for two fans of the The Office, followed by dance party with all the cast members. Word is that Comedy Central picked up the series, so the wonderful, heartfelt-ness won't end. #3 Mantra Resource We, at MKY, regard mantras as a gift, a gift that helps us shift from our churning, monkey minds to peace. And we all draw on this marvelous resource of Kundalini Mantras often for our own practices and when we plan our classes: Spirit Voyage's Mantrapedia lists the mantras from A-Z and includes the meaning, the effect, and the musical versions of each sacred sound. #4 Spiritual Journey Book Surfing the Himalayas by Frederick Lenz tells the story of a young man who travels to the Himalayas seeking the ultimate high. While snowboarding the great mountains, he unexpectedly meets (literally plows into) a wise Buddhist Monk named Master Fwap who completely transforms his life. Lynn Andrews, author of Medicine Woman, states it best; "A magnificent journey to the mountain within." (Those of you who take Savitri's classes have probably heard her mention her teacher Rama. Rama is Frederick Lenz's spiritual name, and this is one of his most important books.) #5 The Suburban Monk Playbook Our dear friend and yoga student, Ellen Atkins (aka the Suburban Monk, aka maker of Syd, a bright spot on anyone's altar) has created a very special (and completely free) gift. It's called the Playbook, and it includes 14 simple practices that are designed to help you become a Suburban Monk. If you own a Syd (big or small), you can use it with these practices. If you don't own a Syd, you can get one through our Website (MKY is an affiliate). I absolutely LOVE my red Syd. Move!#6 Montclair Kundalini Yoga's Online Classes If you haven't popped online with us yet, give it a try. It's just $10 a class. And we really try to deliver the teachings, the music, and our caring hearts. If you're shy about being on camera, I understand how you feel and you don't have to be. It's your choice. On camera or off, we'd like to be your spiritual family. We'd like to help you get your daily dose of Kundalini Yoga, the yoga of awareness, the yoga that focuses on getting your energy and creativity flowing. Sign up here. #7 Outside (Not an App) I suggested to my team that I include on this list a step counting app because we all know that walking is sooooo beneficial, but Savitri responded with a resounding "NO! Leave your phone at home." So there you have it. The link is your front door. Laugh!#8 Movie I re-watched this one on demand with my kids and, for our sense of humor (which may not be so elevated, I grant you), it was worth it! A great escape from the seriousness of the moment. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly play perpetual children, ne-er-do-wells who still live at home. When their parents marry, they become step brothers and rivalry, childishness, hilarity, and eventually redemption ensue. #9 List of Weird & Little-Known Words My college-age son is a studious sort, so I always try (and rarely succeed) at stumping him with stuff I know and he doesn't. In this case, I cheated because I looked up "little-known" words and then tested him. Stumped him on 26 out of 26, which was super satisfying. Bonus: most of the words are pretty funny sounding, too, like winklepicker and tittynope. Enjoy the A-Z List. FYI: Some members of our community responded with comedy recommendations that I didn't have a chance to check out myself but plan to: Middleditch & Schwartz, Long Form Improv on Netflix and Stay F Homekins: a Quarantine Podcast. Heal!#10 Lucid Dreaming Dive into your own dreams for healing. Savitri has discovered this awesome book about lucid dreaming which I'm about to explore, too. Here's her recommendation: Want to ramp up your spiritual practice? Why not learn to meditate or do yoga in your dreamtime while sleeping? That’s what the book Lucid Dreaming Made Easy by Charlie Morley teaches us how to do. We have probably all dreamt lucidly at least once in our lives, where we are awake and aware in the dream and able to exert some control. But Charlie Morley teaches us how to lucid dream on a consistent basis: During lucid dreaming, we can receive important messages from the higher self, the psychological self and the collective psyche. We can cultivate our spirituality by bringing our spiritual practice to the dreamtime. When we learn to really utilize the nearly one third of our life that we spend sleeping, anxiety can be reduced, creativity can be boosted and solutions to problems can be found, among so many other benefits. Some tools Charlie gives us are: Keep a dream journal, identify recurrent dream signs, set an affirmation before sleep that acts as a queue to lucidly wake up in the dreamtime, perform reality checks to verify you are indeed in a dream, and learn how to extend dreams - among many other valuable practices. #11 Remote Reiki Reiki is a healing energy that can be directed and transmitted by a Reiki practitioner to address disturbances in the subtle energy bodies. A Reiki treatment restores order and balance to the subtle bodies which can then positively affect the physical body as well as all other levels of our being. Reiki is a light bath that helps your body-emotions-mind-spirit to heal itself. Reiki energy can be directly applied or can be transmitted anywhere in the world to anyone at any time. When performed remotely, it is called remote Reiki or distance Reiki and the practitioner often uses special symbols and visualizations to bridge and transcend space to transmit the healing energies to the one receiving. Savitri and I both offer distance Reiki. You can book a 30 minute session with one or both of us. For the rest of the month of May, we are offering a 50% discount on Reiki. For a 30 minute session with one of us, it's only $30. For a 30 minute session with both of us simultaneously, it's only $60. Please contact us at [email protected] to book a session. #12 Introduction to EFT (Tapping) Video This healing technique is really worth a try. It's a combination of Chinese Acupressure and Modern Psychology. It's easy and quick to do, and can apply to physical pain and emotional issues. This video is from Nick Ortner, the author of The Tapping Solution and is a great introduction. If you've never given this a try, I really encourage you to if there's any area of stagnation. See if it helps. Infuse Your Instagram Feed with Positivity!#13 Folks to Follow I believe that we need positivity and heartfelt-ness in our feeds -- to balance out the COVID news. This helps me a lot. It helps me to see what my postive-minded real-life friends are up to and also some folks I admire from afar. For the from afar folks, we've chosen a few that we hope will brighten your feeds and your days. Our choices are:
And by the way, we hope you'll follow us because we keep things positive: @montclairkundaliniyoga, @catebaily, @brynnlacey1, @kathrynyogini, @andys857 Meditate!#14 Daily Live Devotional Music & Meditation Deva Premal & Miten are chart-topping new-age musicians on a mission to share the medicine of mantra with the world. During these times, they are offering a Daily Facebook Live with their beautiful music and meditation. They exude such peaceful, beautiful energy. #15 Andy's Meditation Offerings Every single day, Andy posts free video meditations on our Facebook page. Plus, he teaches in his friendly, open, accepting way a FREE Meditation Class for MKY online every Monday night. Sign up to join in. Bonus for Parents If you're home with kids, this looks like an amazing resource: The Ultimate Guide to WFH with Kids. It's full of ideas for activities and searchable by age, outdoor vs. indoor, screen vs. no screen, and need for parent involvement. I didn't get too deep with it yet. But I did find an activity I'm dying to do with my daughter: create a fairy house with only items found in your yard. We'd love to know what resources you've been drawing on in this time at home. Please share in the comments. Let's help each other out. |
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