Last week’s blog post claimed one day, meditation will be considered a drug. Maybe it already is? Doctors are now prescribing meditation. It helps calm and relax people, as well as heal disease. When some people meditate they see beautiful color formations or hear intriguing sounds. Some people gain an expanded awareness, as some people claim drugs offer them.

Warning: side effects may include:
Not caring what others think of you.
Needing less sleep.
Getting along better with others.
Enhancing the immune system.
Causing your face to glow and eyes to shine.
Making you look younger.
Reducing Pre-Menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
Developing emotional maturity.
Giving you better test scores in school.
Helping you work more efficiently.

Side effects of overdosing may include:
Becoming addicted to meditation.
Not wanting to fulfill your daily duties.
Talking in a monotone voice.
Developing pride.
Isolating yourself from others.
Using it as validation for having greater awareness than others who do...

Today is the best day of my life. I just returned home from a 6 day marketing seminar. On the first day the lead trainer asked us to commit to making each day the best day of our life. They even reminded us every day to help us check in. I loved this idea and was totally on board.

The first thing I noticed was I was still a little moody from challenges that happened before the training that were not even present there. I asked myself, "If today was really the best day of my life would I be dwelling in or even noticing any of these emotions?" The answer was "No." So I had to let them go.

The next thing I thought was, "If today is the best day of my life, this is not what I would choose to do. Being stuck in a room for long days without windows near LAX, on a regulated schedule trying to minimize the vast extent of what I am down to two perfect words is not my favorite thing to do. I would rather be on the beach, travel, dance, or spend time with my friends.”...

My last blog post was about releasing pain and there is another piece I thought to address; the dark night of the soul. For many people this is a natural part of their spiritual progress, yet feared and under-addressed.

For a couple years I had been struggling with two conflicting voices inside. At the beginning of this year I lost something that I treasured and gave up something else I had once treasured in order to manifest the explosion of creative ideas I was having. With that open space and confusion, my emotional life took a turn for the worst. Months before I was thinking of doing a month long seclusion during that time. I got that seclusion, but not in the way I had imagined.

I had been so excited for so long to channel my creative energies in a new way. Instead I was met with absolute disbelief in myself and my abilities. Somehow I had forgotten all the many things I had learned and exceled at throughout my life. I felt like there was nothing I was good at nor...

Come dance with me.
Come walk the tightrope with me
And fall with me.
Dive into me.
Clear the dust,
See the light.
Whirlpools fly away,
Resistance gone,
The path clears,
Energy flies up to the eye.
Through you I see me 
And we become God.
Energy rise,
Bubble at the point.

Hearts open,
Barriers gone.
Drop in deeper and deeper.
My soul feels you,
My soul loves you.

Up until the final days of my mother’s life, she continually expressed her wish for the family to be more connected. In December of 2012, during a weekend seclusion, I was meditating once more on my white bed before going to sleep. All of a sudden I felt love pouring out of me for my mother in a way I had never felt before, and felt she was going to die very soon. She had cancer for seven years but I was not told her present condition had a time limit.

The next morning I called my mother and booked a flight to see her in Atlanta. I approached the visit as if it could be my last time seeing her without mentioning that. I did not want to state anything to encourage her passing away any sooner if it was not meant to be. However I did talk with her about the process of dying and shared stories I have heard from people who were pronounced dead yet came back to life. I told her how those people got to visit their loved ones. She said she would like to create some sort of signal so...

Do you want to express where you are or where you are going? Do you want to embody a coat from the outside in or be your naked self?

While watching a dance performance a few months ago, my friend sitting next to me asked me if they were good dancers. After having watched many professional ballet companies from around the world perform my response was, "Well, not as refined as they could be." After taking a breath, I found the following words come out of my mouth, "But then they would not be as natural in their movements." 

After noticing many of the young girls from my ballet studio transform from what they called an "ugly duckling" to a beautiful swan, I have since changed my mind on that response. Once we line up with what we are trying to become, it will become natural.

The ballet dancer who is confident in her/his step, balanced on her toes, and naturally graceful in her movement is a relief to watch. At one ballet performance I noticed myself relax in my seat when the...

A couple recent conversations within LoveWorks, a relationship training program, helped me get clear on my relationship with the term “commitment” and its connection with “freedom.” This exploration revealed some enriching ways to view commitment and freedom that I thought would be fun to share.

 
On a phone call we were discussing the idea of surrender. I asked for someone to explain to me what it is like to continue to surrender over a long period of time. I added I have only been in commitments for shorter periods of time. In response to my question, Sonika, one of the leaders of LoveWorks, suggested I reframe the question to something more uplifting like “What have I been committed to over a long period of time? What have I continually surrendered to?”

 
Right away I knew I had an answer to that question, God; seeking truth and tuning into God’s will. Many times I have gone into something feeling calm and right about it. Then...

This past weekend’s Energy Dance with Sonika Tinker and Christian Pedersen started with the video above. Right away it reminded me of the days I used to dance with a partner. I was never that trained, nor that courageous, nor quite that risque, but I am sure some of our experiences are the same.

 
You may ask, how can they do that? Well, you can’t think about it. Of course you have to focus on what you are doing but there is no space to question trust and if it is possible.

I remember I used to run and jump on my partner while we were creating pieces without either of us knowing what would happen. I never used to think about it. I would just do it and let happen what happens. In reality, I knew he was not 100% trustworthy because he was still human and had injuries. Yet I trusted the divine that somehow it would all work out. We only ever fell once and did not get injured.

 
In that process of trust and openness, I was always amazed at what physical feats I would...

The words "Go On Alone" seem to be one of the themes coming up for me recently. I was just reminded one of Swami Kriyananda’s last requests for Crystal Clarity Publishers before he passed away was to put the book A Place Called Ananda back in print with the title Go On Alone: A Struggle Between Personal Integrity and Group Conformity. That concept can have many layers. The layer I have been focusing on is how to play your part as an individual to better support the collective whole.

In choir practice the other night our leader had us close our eyes while we sang. We were all amazed to hear how much better we sounded when we had to tune in more deeply on our own instead of just following the choir conductor. While sounding like one unified sound, you could also hear each part more poignantly.

I remember when I used to perform dance pieces without music and without the ability to see all the dancers at once. We only had our breath and attunement to the group rhythm that we had...

Feeling my usual sense of adventure and independence, I took off on a weekend backpacking trip. I had gone on many backpacking trips by myself with great ease and pleasure.

With the warm climate and short length of the trip, I packed light; just a tank top and shorts. A light sleeping bag and open net tent. For the first time, I wore hiking sandals instead of sneakers so I could be lighter and faster on my feet. Just enough food to make it through the weekend but lots of Gatorade as it was hot.

It was a short walk, maybe a mile or two to the creek where I would set up camp. Just a flat, straight and forested trail leading into the valley. Eager to get started with my long dayhike, I hung my backpacking pack from a tree and took my small backpack with all my emergency supplies, a good amount of water, and some snacks.

Slowly the forest opened up as I reached the hill. I had about a ten mile hike to make it around a loop to return to my campsite. The trail was to head straight up the...