KARMA Yoga

Here are a few words of GRACE from Gurudev, Yogi Amrit Desai:

Grace
This non-reactive way of being is living in the "fire." It takes great courage to sit still and surrender. Meditation helps. That quiet approach to constantly alternating positive and negative experiences is the ultimate, invincible defense. Sitting in that fire is the real surrender of ego. When the ego burns, grace showers. You are taken to the unified field of all creativity - Self-sourcing. In this surrendered state, all evolutionary expressions and actions spontaneously and effortlessly emerge. In this grace, your highest desires are fulfilled without having to strive for them. Such desires are founded not in separative consciousness, but in the field of unity and integration. When intelligence is rooted in the field of unity consciousness, you are grounded in Self-sourcing, and can act with maximum creativity and efficiency. The action itself is self-fulfilling rather than the end result. Instead of reaction, there is only Reality.
Yogi Amrit Desai is a world renowned teacher and author on yoga and consciousness. Originally from India, he has based himself in the United States for over 35 years.

From the Trans Quarterly, Spring 1997, Volume 12, No. 1, Page 11-12.

Lions and Tigers and MIND, oh my!

Yoga under palm trees
Gentle breeze
Reminding you to breath
Observing the animals
You're not supposed to feed...


This sign on the way into the park made me laugh as I knew immediately I could mention it in class. What "animal" should we be mindful of? The mind, of course! We have the option to use our attention to feed our thoughts, or we can remove our attention and simply observe the problem-making monster in progress.

NOW

Photos:Rachel Kemper


As I mentioned before, I'm now officially certified as an Amrit Yoga Instructor! I am so happy about this transition in my life that allows me to share with others what I myself have experienced through the teachings of my Yoga Guru, Amrit Desai, also referred to as "Gurudev" which means "Beloved Guru."

As I begin this journey of teaching it's almost overwhelming to think, "where do I start?" I have received so many gifts that reach far beyond knowing the correct position of the asanas on the yoga mat. I say ALMOST overwhelming because one of the most powerful gifts from Amrit Yoga is the skill to observe your thoughts, reactions and habitual patterns as they come up, and then realize that you have a choice to either dismantle that reaction, or to REACT to the reaction. For example, my first reaction would be the thought arising, "where do I start?" As I notice this thought I am then at a point where a habitual pattern might be to attach myself to the feeling of stress that arises with that thought. I could allow my mind to continue with, "how am I ever going to teach people everything I know?" or "will they understand me?" or "what if they don't like me??" This is a great example of what Gurudev says that, "we think we have control over our minds, but really our minds have us!" So how do you let go of the destructive second reaction? As soon as you realize that you are caught in a habit, the simplest thing to do is to connect to your body and the present moment by taking a slow deliberate breath (or a few!). When you are in a destructive thought pattern you are not aligned with what is present in the moment. You are worried about what will happen tomorrow, or reacting to a condition of the past. The TRUTH is, all that you have and all that you could ever need is happening right NOW! How can anything ever be different than how it is right now? Align your Self and ACCEPT that everything is as it should be, right now.

All of the energy we give toward fear and our ego minds is exactly what you'll learn to dismantle with Amrit Yoga! As we practice on the mat, we observe what our mind is doing during the deliberate action, willful surrender, and each transitioning moment in between the poses. The more we learn to observe, the less we react from our mis-alignment to what is happening NOW.

Pregnancy Photo-shoot

Hi again. I wanted to share this photo. I did a fine art maternity session a couple weeks ago and could not have asked for a more beautiful woman to photograph! Unfortunately I can't share most of the pictures because they are nudes, but I wanted to share just these two.

Yoga Certified.

When I think back about starting the certification process at the Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs (Ocala) Florida, I laugh at what my expectations were. Namely, the goal of the next roving target of goals on my life's to-do list. Real estate license, check. Art school, check. Life turned inside out through dismantling my ego's 27 year old identity, major check!! And yet, I wouldn't quite call this an identity crisis, if you learn to see the true nature of yoga, you soon observe the transformation that touches every aspect of your life, starting internally and overflowing outward. This process is more powerful than I ever thought it would be...or should I say, more powerful than my ego mind could ever realize? What I've learned is that thinking instead of FEELING is a trap that our ego mind plays on us over and over again. I look forward to sharing my discoveries with you!

A reminder...

You have everything you could possibly need in this moment, right now!

I am DANCING!

Art is the expression of your inner and outerworlds dancing together timelessly. Won't you dance with me?