Becoming Your StellarSelf

Go With the Flow

Recently, my Reiki mentor told me I need to be mindful of staying present in my body, to not put too much emphasis on my relationship with the mental or spiritual aspects of myself to the detriment of the integration of all aspects of myself. I thought this went without saying, as I am fully appreciative of the fact that I live in a physical reality and enjoy it very much! Then I recalled that I had been given the same advice a couple of years ago, while vacationing in Cancun, by a female Shaman who guided me through a Temazcal experience. She said she got the sense that I was not integrating my body and spirit and recommended I look into Tensegrity exercises developed by Carlos Castaneda. I found a video and tried the exercises, but it just wasn't for me. The movements felt very unnatural, and some actually hurt. Several years earlier, I had studied Tai Chi, which also serves to integrate the body and spirit, and this had felt much more natural to me – I loved the flowing feeling of it. So, I thought about trying Tai Chi again, but life got busy, and I got distracted.

Recently, a friend mentioned that she really loves Vinyasa yoga because of the dance-like quality. This idea appealed to me because some of the most enjoyable exercise I've done has been West African Dance, which I studied when I lived in Connecticut – something I haven't done in a couple of years. I loved it because of the "flow" (in the Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi sense of the word) that I experienced once I had a series of movements down. It was a wonderful workout, but it also made me feel completely in the moment. In addition, the live djembe drumming that accompanied our dance provided a wonderful visceral, energetic component to the experience. With this in mind, I sought out a Vinyasa video to see if it would foster the feeling of "flow" that I had previously experienced.

I found an interesting video, Shiva Rea's Fluid Power, Vinyasa Flow Yoga, and tried it out for the first time today. I have practiced various forms of yoga, most recently Bikram Yoga and Power Yoga, but this was different. The video contains 6 pre-set practices as well as 20 different sequences that you can mix-and-match to create a custom practice. This was my first experience with Vinyasa, so I have nothing to compare it to, but my observation was that Rae's version was very dance-like. And the overall effect was a wonderful blending of my favorite components from yoga, West African Dance and Tai Chi. One sequence of moves was actually accompanied by African drumming, and another sequence included Tai-Chi-esque movements.

I'm looking forward to trying out all of the pre-set practices, as well as all of the individual components. Vinyasa flow yoga is a very enjoyable form of mind-body-spirit exercise, and one that I plan to explore more fully. And I am thankful that those observant, spiritual women prodded me to take a closer look at how I could better integrate the spiritual, mental and physical aspects of myself.

DVD Giveaway Announcement Postponed

Today is the day that I am supposed to announce the winner of my Seven Spiritual Laws of Success DVD giveaway. However, I am traveling, and due to some technical problems with the laptop I am using, cannot access the full list of entrants. So, I will have to postpone the announcement until next week when I have access to my faithful Mac. Thank you to everyone who entered. And thank you for your patience!

Waking Up

This will probably seem weird in the context of this blog, but the other day I watched Shaun of the Dead for the first time and really enjoyed it. Yes, it was terribly bloody, and yes, it was a zombie movie, but I feel the movie has a lot of merrit. I had watched it because my husband had expressed interest in it for sometime, and our local video guy had recommended it highly. I went into the situation thinking that I might not completely hate it.

I didn't. And I must confess to watching it not once, but twice. After watching it the first time, I came away thinking, "Well that was an okay British Comedy Zombie movie." But after mulling it over, I realized there were a lot of subtleties that had only come to me after some reflection. I chose to go back and watch it to see what else I had missed.

The protagonist of the movie is a 29-year-old British fellow who works in the UK equivalent of Best Buy. He is stuck in a rut, and fears moving out of the comfort zone of his very drab daily routine, even though his girlfriend, whom he loves very much, wants very much for him to try expanding his horizons for both their sake. Shaun is content to move through his life on auto-pilot, even though it seems he knows on some level that this isn't enough. He is forced out of his comfort zone when a zombie epidemic takes over his neighborhood and much of London. It is through this crisis that he has a chance to find his strengths and is finally able to move beyond the rut he has created. The wonderful thing is that Shaun maintains his humanity despite the extreme circumstances, and in the end is a stronger person for it.

It's a very dramatic analogy, but the idea of going through one's life on auto-pilot, knowing that things aren't right, but not feeling able to do anything to change it, is not uncommon. A large number of people don't feel happy about their lives, hate their jobs, are in unhappy relationships, but don't take the initiative to make things better. Sometimes it takes a major event in our lives to shake things up, but it doesn't have to. All it requires is that we take an honest look at ourselves and our lives, then make the decision to change the things that aren't working for us. The hard work starts then. But it's completely doable, especially if we tackle one area at a time.

Let's Get Spiritual...Spiritual

About eight years ago, a friend gave me an audio version of Deepak Chopra's, Creating Affluence. I listened to it several times, and was intrigued by what Chopra had to say. Drawing from the Vedic tradition, Chopra explains "the mechanisms by which the unmanifest become manifest." It was my first formal exposure to the concepts of intention and the law of attraction.

A couple of years later I revisited this topic by reading Chopra's book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, which focuses on the essential points from Creating Affluence. Then a couple of months ago, I heard that Seven Laws had been turned into a DVD, and consequently, I received an email asking if I would be interested in receiving a review copy.* I thought it would be interesting to see how Chopra's words would be translated into a images, so I happily agreed.

The key concept behind The Seven Spritual Laws is that we have the ability to co-create our lives, our reality, with the Universe. In Chopra's words: "When we put ourselves into harmony with nature, we create a bond with our own desires and the power to make those desires materialize." An article in the Summer '07 issue of Pathways Magazine (a DC-area holistic resources publication), the DVD is described as a "...powerful voyage into a virtual labyrinth of life [that] reveals the universal laws, as explained by Chopra, for living a more purposeful and satisfying life. Join Deepak and friends as they investigate the true meaning of success and the mechanics through which we can manifest our greatest desires and dreams."

The DVD co-bills Chopra with Olivia Newtown-John. Chopra had apparently helped Newton-John in her meditation practice during her battle with cancer. Through that experience, she says that she learned to recreate her life in a more positive, balanced, meaningful form. The video takes the essential points from the book and expands on them with groovy graphics, touching testimonials and mellow music by Newton-John. The movie has a What the Bleep? feel to it as it interweaves Chopra's descriptions of the seven laws, interviews with people who are living the principles of the laws, an ongoing vignette about a couple that learns to live the laws, and images of Newton-John wandering through CGI backgrounds.

For viewers new to Chopra's concept of the seven laws, this DVD could be an entertaining introduction to his ideas. But because I came to this with an already strong impression of this area of his work, I often found the interviews and images distracting. The DVD comes with a handy study guide, which outlines the seven spiritual laws. I found this helpful as I wanted to revisit the key points even after watching the video a couple of times.

I really enjoyed the audiotape I had of Creating Affluence in part because of Chopra's eloquence and his soothing voice, so I was disappointed that the DVD did not contain more of him. For a nice dose of Chopra, you can view an online video of his appearance on The Colbert Report last December to promote his book Life After Death.

The 64-minute DVD is available on Amazon.com or Chopra's website.

*I will be giving away the DVD in a drawing to my newsletter readers. Details in the August issue of StellarSelf News. To sign up for this free monthly newsletter, please visit the StellarSelf website.