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Make use of the moments in between to build spiritual muscles

Formal spiritual practice is the very fundament for anyone who truly desires to consciously grow and unfold. It is through this formal practice that we make ourselves increasingly open and available to catch insights as to that which is true and real. That we may release and let go of the small and limiting beliefs and perceptions that keep us from going further. That keep us at the level of consciousness that we presently are at. 

However we must never forget to use the moments in between to build spiritual muscles as much as we can. It is in those moments in between the formal practice that we are really strengthening those muscles. 

Like Eckhart Tolle reminds us, it is one thing to have a regular practice of formal meditation, lets say in the morning. And a totally different other to maintain that level of presence throughout the day. 

In other words, formal meditation, although beautiful and powerful, is not enough. Formal praying, although powerful and magnificent, is not enough. The same with forgiveness, visioning and surrendering. But it is what we do in between those moments of formal practice that truly builds those spiritual muscles we need.

5 Ways to Know If You Are Ready For a Yoga Teacher Training

Being a yoga enthusiast, if you likely toyed with the idea of unearthing the deeper layers of yoga through the intense and vigorous study or want to be a yoga teacher yourself, then you must be ready for yoga training. Explore the blog and know if you are ready for a yoga teacher training.

Yoga is the practice of the body, mind, and soul, an inward journey that makes us connect with the true ‘self’. The holistic practice was developed thousands of years ago in the lap of Himalayas, and today it has become the trendiest workout regime amongst the fitness freaks. Many of the yoga aspirants aspire to be an eminent practitioner and a yoga teacher themselves.

If you're contemplating with the idea of deepening the learning of ancient art of life through vigorous and intense training, then yoga teacher training is surely for you. Goals for undergoing yoga teacher training improve the home practice, allow you to have a better understanding of the holistic art and enhance your love and passion towards it. Yoga training even makes an entire career shift by transforming you into a full-time and refined yoga teacher.

In spite of being deeply involved with yoga practice, some yogis feel confused whether they really want to be a yoga teacher.  With the mentioned five ways, find out if you’re ready to take a step in the transformative voyage of the body, mind, and soul with yoga teacher training.

People ask me regularly about how spiritual practice can guide us in responding to the state of our society. They tell me that while the teachings of compassion are alive and helpful in other parts of their lives, they seem out of reach when they read the headlines each day. In a recent e-mail from one of our DC community Spiritual Friends groups, members asked:

• How do we stay compassionate when it feels like so much harm is being caused to vulnerable people?
• Isn’t acceptance a kind of complacency? Isn’t “letting go” like condoning?
• How do we call on meditation practice when we’ve become fearful, angry and disheartened at the hatefulness and viciousness that is so evident in our society?

I’ve had many waves of anger, fear and aversion in reaction to the harm being perpetrated in our society. In my own practice, it helps to keep starting right where I am, not judging my own reactions, thinking “I shouldn’t feel this.” Rather than trying to let go of these feelings, I often reflect that “this belongs,” it’s the inner weather of the moment. Then I can feel the fear or aversion with acceptance and kindness.

Every New Year I wake up with so much gratitude and awe, and think of that fateful night in 1985, when I finally hit bottom, took my last drink, my last drug, and surrendered to my Higher Power. After all you can’t pray for deliverance and not let go. At some point the bottom rises to meet you. Then there is one moment of choice. We choose our future in these kind of moments, where we stand at the turning point and leap into the unknown or go back to the painful familiar.

Today marks 32 years of continuous sobriety from drugs and alcohol and its true that a lifetime has passed one day at a time. Who I was then, is not who I am today.

What I learned by being sober was first to live one day at a time. Every 24 hours if I lived with humility and gratitude I would be choosing a new future. It was in following a spiritual program that I learned that these principles can be applied to any struggle, anything at all that harms or victimizes. Addiction is a symptom of a spiritual and mental malaise at its core. Gratitude is the abracadabra that swings the door to a new world wide open.

I view spiritual practice as the freeing of awareness from identification with anything. That’s a spiritual practice. How that is done is through a wide variety of means. It can be done, for example, in the heart through a devotional practice. In other words, I can bring my mind through to love using some icon, or some being, or some person, and loving it so thoroughly that it frees the mind from all the rest of the stuff. Then I can go into that love so deeply, that I go into the formless love. I go through form into formlessness, and I come to that place of free awareness through love.

For example, I use mala prayer beads. This is a technique for reminding me that you and I are only relatively real. I’m keeping another plane of reality going simultaneously to remind me of the formlessness inherent in the form. In other words, I’m doing a practice while I’m talking to you.

Now the whole idea of a meditative practice is the process of very simply extricating awareness from the identification with thought and sensation.

I am a work in progress … always … and some days are better than others. How about you?

One thing I see a lot in my clients and students, and something I have struggled with in the past myself … is staying connected to spirit … being consistent with my spiritual practice. I have found that for myself, that it is an absolute necessity even though for many years I felt like it was a choice. It’s not, not for me anyway. I soon discovered … that for me …