Take Two: Shooting Videos with Swami Kriyananda
Last June I initiated a project to film short video clips of Swami Kriyananda while he was at Ananda Village, promoting a few of his books from Crystal Clarity Publishers.
This project kept getting postponed, possibly so I could learn a few lessons along the way. The original shooting date was postponed due to the uncertainty of Swami’s health. We left the new date open-ended to see how Swami would feel each day.
Every morning I awoke and wondered if this was going to be the day. Nothing happened. Then Swami moved to Los Angeles in August 2010, and it was agreed they could do the filming of the video clips in LA without me being present. In my mind I let go of doing the project.
While attending a book marketing convention in Fall of 2010, I found out that short video clips are a cutting edge medium to market books. This convention lit a fire under me. Since no one in LA had as yet filmed the video clips, I contacted Swami and got a concrete date set for the video shoot.
I...
Eat, Pray, Love All in Italy
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the book Eat, Pray, Love, did not have to leave Italy to find “eat,”” pray,” and “love.” As we all know, Italy is known for its spectacular sumptuous food. I especially love the variety of healthy food at the Ananda Assisi retreat center. Living at a spiritual retreat center makes it very easy to fulfill the “pray.” Being in a new relationship, I can more easily feel my heart filled with love. Italy is probably one of the most romanticized countries to dream of visiting. However, I did not write this blog to talk about Italy. Instead, I would like to share a couple more profound realizations related to “eat, pray, love.”
“Eat, pray, love” does not need to be mutually exclusive. When Ananda Assisi opened, they were trying to figure out how to create a diet that suited the Italian appetite and followed Paramhansa Yogananda’s dietary suggestions. Upon asking Swami...
Seven Years to Heal
Seven Years to Full Cellular Rejuvenation: A Mother and Daughter's Healing Journey
They say it takes seven years for all the cells in the body to fully regenerate. A year ago both my mother and I completed a seven year cycle. Before those seven years both my mother and I were known to be active energetic people. At the beginning of those seven years we both noticed challenges with our health. At first we went about our normal business and hoped it would go away. Instead the challenges became more debilitating and we started a long quest to discover the source of our health issues.
It was quite strange to have constant headaches, extreme fatigue plus a few other odd bodily symptoms. As a yoga and fitness instructor I needed my physical body in order to teach and felt I was expected to be a role model of good health. I could not hide that my painful knee prevented me from leading all of my fitness classes. I never told anyone my muscles seemed to be getting weaker...
About this blog
Dear Great Soul,
With a flood of ideas coming to me over the last few months, I thought it would be fun to write them down and share them. It is a thrilling venture as writing has never been my forte in the past. Yet as I write this introduction, a half dozen other blogs are also spilling out of me.
During his final summer in U.S. in 2012, Swami Kriyananda--the founder of Ananda Sangha and direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda,--declared he wants all of us to be Swami Kriyanandas. I do not believe he meant for us to be exactly like him. He expressed this without judgement creating the space for the full expanse of our potential.
With Swami Kriyananda's passing last April (2013) I find it ever more important for us to actively continue his mission; to dive more deeply into the spiritual path and in turn to write, speak, and share his love, teachings, and devotion to Master.
For now I am calling this blog The Dance Into Divinity not just because I love the art form of dance, but...