Month: March 2024

In working with one of my clients yesterday, I introduced the concept of holding committee meetings with aspects of self. She hadn’t considered doing that before. It helped her let go of the black-and-white thinking, which is common for those of us who were raised in dysfunctional families.

When we acknowledge that we have several different reactions to any given distraction from our inherent peace, we become empowered. Learning to preside over one’s committee of reactions gives us pause to respond from our totality. In doing so, all the colors, shades, and hues become available for us to choose from which frees us to experiment.

When’s the last time you had a committee meeting with your various aspects of self? Can your Higher Self preside over all your internal reactions so you can respond instead of react? Ki to Happiness pauses to choose from a rainbow of responses, coloring her world with playful experimentation.

When our minds are clear, our focus can become one pointed. Fears, doubts, uncertainties all defuse our focus. Processing the information in those hindrances can help us modify our intentions until clarity is found.

One pointed focus gives us the courage to act. Yoga practices help to “calm the perturbations of the mind” as stated in the Sutras. Energy flows in the direction of our intention, courageously acting in alignment and integrity, like my wrist healing in its own time without a doubt.

How clear is your mind? With one pointed focus, what courageous act is called for? Ki to Happiness courageously continues to serve as an instrument of clarity, healing and integration as her body aligns with that one pointed focus.

Tonight, astronomical Spring occurs. This vernal equinox brings us equal times of light and dark in the northern hemisphere at 11:06 pm EDT. In preparation, it’s a good day to do some Spring cleaning and remove some of your winter gear.

Yoga practice gives us tools with which to keep our spirit’s house clean. Our physical bodies benefit through the postures as well as the breath-work, especially when aligned with our spiritual intention. I propose Salutations to the Sun and alternate nostril breathing on this day, to open the way for an uplifting Spring of Spiritual renewal, hope and peace.

What Spring cleaning do you need to do? What are your intentions for this season of light and growth? Ki to Happiness welcomes Spring.

Between and after classes yesterday, I served some Irish treats for our community. The simple fare was well appreciated. I cleaned up in time to prepare for our son’s feast with us.

He arrived with gifts for us, which he brought back from his most recent trip to Bali. We gave him the mail we’d collected for him while he was abroad. After our early dinner we ate outside in the lovely Springlike weather, he said this is his favorite annual feast!

What is your favorite feast? How long can you wait t to hear someone say you make their fav? Ki to Happiness feasts on hearing those words, my favorite!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. As an Irish American, I’ve celebrated this day with my brother, Patrick, throughout our lives. I’ve kissed the blarney stone in Ireland, made Irish Soda Bread annually and played the Irish drum called the bodhran in musical sessions.

I do so, even as I recognize that the story about this day is full of blarney. Saint Patrick was not a saint, was not named Patrick, didn’t wear green, and is not from Ireland where there are no snakes. Like other celebrations that have been shaped for particular purposes, I observe the parts I can and leave the rest.

What part of this day can you celebrate? What ancestry have you descended from? Ki to Happiness loves what she can on this and every holiday.

One of the main issues my students and clients let me know about is the discomfort with uncertainty. When significant relationships, employment, housing, health, and transportation become unstable, anxiety naturally arises. Especially when these things happen in combination or all at once.

Hatha Yoga provides a consistent practice with which to find stability within. The Sutras underpinning the path indicate that the practice calms the perturbations of the mind. When practiced regularly, with serious determination, the mind moves to gracious peace.

Where do you find certainty during uncertain times? How do you stabilize yourself in this constantly changing world? Ki to Happiness finds comforting peace in practicing Hatha Yoga regularly.

I’m a member of a support team for one of our distant community members as she navigates her way through the storm of cancer. It’s an honor and a privilege to participate. When financial assistance was requested, I offered free private services.

As others who have gone through such storms would attest, navigation requires patience. Being present as one waits for results and recommendations necessitates support. Having been through other storms myself, I’ve developed such patience, and I’m happy to provide support at a distance without thought of remuneration.

How do you help someone who is far away? Where did you learn such skill? Ki to Happiness has learned many skills through navigating several storms and helps others at a distance with prayer, Reiki transmission when appropriate and patience.

I taught one of my clients yesterday a practice I learned from Sufism. In doing so, she learned to time her breath rhythm with her heartbeat. That profound somatic activity changed her life.

Sufis say “spirit rides the wind“ meaning the Spirit of Guidance enters us through the breath. Companioning the breath with the heart rhythm brings that guidance into the materializing plane. Through a repeated practices our heart and breath become synchronized into a profound team.

Can you let your heartbeat partner your breath? Can you experiment with timing your breath to your heart beat? Ki to Happiness times her breath with her heart beat and her heart beat with her breath.

In a lovely session with a new client, she indicated that she had learned all she knows from her trips to Hell and back again. I let her know that is an apt description of where my skill set comes from, also. In that way we are joined and have developed deep rapport.

The many challenges that occur for us along our chosen path of growth and development give ample motivation for evolution. I know far more about wrists, having spent the last three months healing from breaking mine, for instance. In this learning lab of life, we are all given lessons which we can convert into bleasing s as we return from the hell of hard knocks.

What kind of hell have you been through? How did you make it back? Ki to Happiness shares the many blessings from hard lessons with students and clients.

The spring forward shift has taken effect. The cats and I got up on schedule an hour earlier after an earlier night. We all took our positions for morning practice.

Free from pain, I sit in my meditation position, and focus on my breath and alignment. I open to guidance and receive several directions about tuning up today’s calendar. In the dark, with the wind blowing our outdoor lights into our windows, the rain descends like the Guidance carried on the wind of Spirit.

Have you gotten on schedule yet? What Guidance do you receive during your spiritual practice? Ki to Happiness acts on the Guidance received.