Author: Ki McGraw

Yesterday’s global meditation required 1 million of us to envision this planet as a place for all to live in harmony, and peace. Leading my preparatory live streaming meditation on Hatha Yoga Center Facebook page, we prepared for that moment. I could feel the others who were participating with me.

15 minutes later, the global focus began. My experience shifted to include the sense of many others. Impossible to quantify. The felt sense was that of the top of my head opening to all the others, interconnected in a web of light embracing the earth with our truest desires.

Were you one in a million who participated in the global meditation? What was your experience? Ki to Happiness is grateful to be among those who are part of this web of light.

Even as the global pandemic sweeps one hotspot and another, life goes on. Babies are being born. Lovers are marrying. Birthdays parties are happening. The birds are singing. Blossoms are blooming. There is cause for celebration.

When others are ill, sad, afraid, grieving, dying, it may be very hard to access your inherent joy. Yoga theory holds that our most essential spirit is full of bliss. The practices help us to access this nature.

Are you allowing yourself to feel joy at this time with so much sorrow? What new life can you celebrate? Ki to Happiness shares the following Yoga Sutra: (Book 1, number 33) By sympathy with the happy, compassion for the sorrowful, delight in the holy disregard of the unholy, the psychic nature moves to gracious peace.

Now with the prospect of staying home and staying healthy for another month, we do well to use this time to be creative in following inner guidance to work towards creating a different future. The past is gone. The present requires sequestration. The future remains to be seen…

As a facilitator of change, I have explored many beliefs about how we transform. The Sufis meditation master, Pir Vilayat Khan says “The pull of the future is greater than the push of the past”. Dr. Joe Dispenza says “ we must fall more in love with our future than our past.“

What from the past are you still in love with? What future can you envision that you could fall more in love with? Ki to Happiness is feeling the pull of the future.

The Hopi elders offer this medicine as we face the global pandemic: We have all been prepared well for this time so we can choose wisely between the two different ways of approaching the present condition. We can either fall into a hole of despair or face our fears and pass through this portal into a new possible world of our co-creation.

Using the tools in our metaphorical toolboxes, let us rise to this challenge together at a safe social distance in song, dance, and artful expression. Balancing our spiritual nature with our social responsibilities we can learn valuable lessons to benefit all.

Which do you choose? What can you envision manifesting from what you are learning now?Ki to Happiness envisions a safe passage for us all into global harmony.

As we continue staying home and staying healthy, it’s a great time to plant a few seeds. For just a moment as we consider how it is we would like to move forward, we can take solace in nature. It’s beautiful resilience shows us how after the long dark cold of winter, possibilities spring forward. Hope abounds!

As you find a few seeds to plant in your garden, or on your windowsill, add to your planting, the soil, and some water, finding a sunny spot. And add your own intentions. Planting seeds for a new perspective, new experiences, new feelings as well as for spiritual growth and evolution.

What good may come from this time of the global pandemic? Which seeds can you plant to symbolize your intentions? Ki to Happiness plants seeds of unity.

As we enter into April, generally there is the awareness of silliness, pranks, spoofs, and otherwise antics afoot. In the present atmosphere, that could easily be well advised, to help uplift our vibrations. And yet many of us are hypersensitive right now to any kind of sarcasm or off color humor.

Some of us have an appreciation for dark humor. Gallo’s humor. While others may have lost their sense of humor. The changes required may have shocked and surprised us, diminishing our resilience now. Our ability to detect intention is effected with the way that social distancing influences our usual methods of interacting.

How’s your funny bone? What makes you giggle at noone’s expense? Ki to Happiness has a wide open “clown” chakra, knowing that “life is a funny booger” as Jimmy David Post sings.

This is the last day of March. As the month began, we were still in winter. The weather was blustery, windy, cold, with the possibility of snow in many areas. Now, as we have to turned the corner in to Spring, the winds may be subsiding, and the temperature is rising. There’s more sunshine! The flowers are blooming in our region and the cherry blossoms display their grandeur.

On another level of reality, the month began with the initial concern over the Lion of this virus that’s on the planet. There were many opinions, differing approaches, conflict among the different voices, anxiety and fear. And now, at the end of the month, we are finding our way to make peace with being at home and healthy as Lambs.

Are you aware of how well you have adapted? Have you acknowledged yourself on your flexibility? Ki to Happiness appreciates both the lion and the lamb.

Many of us have had a long-standing desire for a specific spiritual journey. A retreat from your usual patterns and habits for deep reflection may have called to your soul. There may be a holy place on the planet that you have had a desire to visit. A particular sacred spot for you to deeply immerse yourself in your spiritual practices. Many of us find appealing the facilitation by a guru, teacher, catalyst or guide.

Kabir wrote poetically about this in the late 1400s. A brief poem entitled A Great Pilgrimage follows:

I felt in need of a great pilgrimage

So I sat still for three days

And God came

To me.

Has your soul longed for a great pilgrimage? Did you know that you are on one now? Ki to Happiness deeply immerses in health and happiness during this opportunity to retreat in place!

Today I honor my maternal grandmother‘s birthday. She was born on this day in 1902. Last night to celebrate her, I watched the movie 1917. Considering the global environment when she was just 15 years of age, combined with the flu epidemic of 1918, I am aware that it is miraculous that I am alive. Her behavior was often perplexing to me as a young one in the 60s. And yet as the years go by, I come to understand and appreciate her more and more. I don’t miss her. I feel her with me in my strong limbs, in my willingness to sing and dance, in my black Irish humor and even in my choice of mate and residence.

What have your ancestors gone through? How might that support you as you continue to stay home and stay healthy?Ki to Happiness honors those who’s shoulders we stand upon.

As we stay home and stay healthy, there may be new information that you are discovering there. You may find that there are places in your house that you have not spent much time in. Perhaps you’re afraid of the clutter, or afraid of the others with whom you are sequestering . There may be deeper intimate issues coming to surface. And if you are alone, you may be facing your shadow material. Here is your opportunity for growth.

Here is your opportunity for evolution. Take a breath and acknowledge the fear, the resistance, the avoidance. Recognize the truth in the history of all you’ve been through. And in the light of that, allow yourself a moment to consider that your future could be different in your past. Certainly, your present is different than it has ever been. Imagine yourself for just a moment utilizing the safety you feel right now, right here expanding and increasing.

From the safe space, take a moment to glimpse, or peak, at that what you are afraid of. See it in the new light of possibility. What does it look like now? How safe do you feel? Ki to Happiness faces fears with safety.