The Currency of Your Life

What is the currency of your life?

“The next phase for us is where our thinking is no longer disconnected from our love.”

-  Marianne Williamson

The basis of the life experience is inquiry, experience, and expression. The opportunity for freedom exists in the saying “yes” to all that is arising in a mindful, loving, respectful, cherishing way. Each breath is a doorway in. Each day is a portal for appreciation. Each person who you let touch your life is a nurturing of your relationship with self discovery.  Cultivate a “Just this now” psych-social internal ecosystem of being “Centered – Grounded – Relaxed”.  Accept the beauty that you are already whole. Let “perfectly imperfect” be the new road sign for your path.  The integrity of you is to show up and shine this moment’s understanding of that.

The trajectory of your life is one of discovery.

The currency of your life is what you are spending and receiving.

The pulse, beat, rhythm and flow of you at the deepest level is that of love.

Live from this depth. Serve from this depth. And receive from this depth.

~~~ ~~~

For 2019 become clearer on your P’s of Purpose, Passions, and Practices.  Rest your navigation compassion points for these tracks to the horizon goal.  Then  simplify (involves letting go and de-cluttering too), clarify (involves dedicated pausing, mindful resetting into presencing, journaling, declining unnecessary small talk and distractions), and trust your inner guide (goes by various names – wisdom, soul, Higher Self or Guide, Source Energy).  This is living the truth of you.

When we pause to look deeply we can see an aspect of our true being in all things. The determined quest is to remember to pause, look, see, feel and be. On your morning walk stop and touch that tree on the path. Place a palm there and say “Hello”. Say “Hello me”.  There is an art to choosing peace, just as there an art to choosing right action.  It begins and ends with love.

Step forward into the active arc of your life with a growing sense of your own currency as being valuable and needed.  Remind yourself of Debbie Ford’s words, “Today I accept my worth and my worthiness.”  Each moment can be a reset button for a clearer understanding and acceptance of your existing wholeness.   There is an opportunity for self discovery with each breath. This remembering and doing of small steps, actions becomes a compounding habit that takes you to the top of the mountain.

                                                richard hammer

                                                     12-23-18

Resources Used in 2018

Resources Used for My Greater Awakening and Well Being in 2018

These are the “Best”, meaning most worthwhile, online links for me in 2018:

Daily Om – loved for both for their daily thought and many excellent inexpensive online courses!  https://www.dailyom.com/

Kathryn Woodward Templeton – mindful wisdom – Love Out Loud daily thought

http://katherinewoodwardthomas.com/lol-daily/

Yoga for Healthy Aging – Baxter Bell, Nina and other excellent contributors. Large archive of postings - http://yogaforhealthyaging.blogspot.com/

Brain Pickings – Maria Popova is excellent in her continuing review of important writings https://www.brainpickings.org/

Uplift.tv – View many films, music, talks   - https://uplift.tv

Soul Spring – a weekly offering of articles on the web https://soulspring.org/

On Being – is on NPR too. Krista’s interviews are excellent.

  Subscribe to the weekly The Pause –  https://onbeing.org/newsletter

Mind Body Green -  Daily -   https://www.mindbodygreen.com

Mindful – https://www.mindful.org

Life Spa https://www.lifespa.com  - Ayruveda – Dr John Douillard – Great resource.

Elephant Journal – daily - https://www.elephantjournal.com

Sonima Welleness: Yoga, Meditation, Fitness, Food -   https://www.sonima.com/

Sacred Planet – Jocelyn Mercado  - find her many offerings on youtube  Sacred Planet

     Learn more - http://wearesacredplanet.com

Haven of Relaxation - Glenda Cedarleaf  -  https://www.havenofrelaxation.com/home.html

 ----- 

 The Shift Network – https://theshiftnetwork.com -many courses and summits here of possible interest. Recent for me was with Raja Choudry, Awakening Kundalini. 

Sounds True – Insights at the Edge monthly interviews  - https://www.soundstrue.com

Chopra – 21 Day Meditation offerings, weekly newsletter  – https://chopra.com

Food Matters TV - https://www.fmtv.com – from Australia, so much more than just food.

Spirituality and Health - https://spiritualityhealth.com/

Udemy courses – relatively inexpensive - https://www.udemy.com

            --------- 

Yoga Related podcasts listened to (many of these have youtube channels too)

Tara Brach https://www.tarabrach.com/

Jonathan Foust  - https://www.jonathanfoust.com/

J Brown  https://www.jbrownyoga.com/ / Check out the weekly interviews -https://www.jbrownyoga.com/yoga-talks-podcast/

Melissa West – yoga teacher in Vancouver.  She offers sooo much! https://www.melissawest.com/

On youtube   -  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNzYcdg3bBmC5eHOSQXzisA

Yoga Body – Lucas Rockwood – very good po -https://www.yogabody.com/

Yoga Hub –   http://www.yogahub.tv

Buddha at the GasPump – https://batgap.com  - large number of worthy  interviews

Nidra -  Richard Miller - Try iRest now  - https://www.irest.org/try-irest-now

            ---------

>> For access to deeper yoga education, (monthly member fees required) <<

Yoga International –  $15/mo. Very worthwhile.  https://yogainternational.com/

Yoga U – https://www.yogauonline.com/ - Huge offering of diverse coursework and monthly education – Membership $47/mo

Embodied Philosophy – large archive of offerings - $27/mo

http://www.embodiedphilosophy.com/

Sattva Yoga – Anand and staff from India – Kundalini style offerings of talks, practices

https://sattvayogaacademy.com/yoga-masters-anand-mehrotra/   Anand Mehrotra is the youngest known spiritual master in the world to develop Himalayan Yoga tradition.

The above listing does not even cover my specific study areas of personal communication, counseling, spiritual growth, travel, writing poetry, and QiGong that I follow. An example would be Jeff Carreira’s Mystery School, https://jeffcarreira.com/, and Susan Piver’s Open Heart Project, https://susanpiver.com/open-heart-project.

Holidays Ahead

Holidays Ahead

As we head into the Holiday of Christmas the words Peace, Love and Joy have been strongly appearing in my consciousness. Even in my wide awake times of insomnia I have been repeating these three words with a three part inhalation practice:  

Breathing in a single breath in three parts: (Known as Durga breath)

  Belly - Peace

  Heart - Love

  Upper chest - Joy

Manifesting the full energy of these words.  Filling my cup. 

Then releasing with a single exhale, releasing Peace -Love-Joy out to the world.

Doing this at least three times, each time taking in ever deeper breaths.

Frequently seen on Holiday cards are the words Joy and Peace.

 Let us fully embody these words in all our days.

~~~~ 

Part of the first week of December I spent at the Amrit Yoga Center in central Florida doing a Ayurvedic Mini-Detox. One of the teachers, in the leading of the morning yoga practice, frequently invited us to remember:

    Let go of what is leaving.

    Embrace that which is arriving.

This requires of us to come into stillness.

Stillness is that place that originates all right minded action.

~~~~ 

While there, my massage therapist, Derek, began my session with a seated centering. Seated on the edge of the table, he stood in front of me. Our palms came together, with our right down / left up.

Then he repeated the words - Grounded, Centered, Relaxed. (I think of it as GCR)

A pause to feel that spoken energy, then a single Om chant together!  A very nice way to begin an oil massage, known a Abhyanga. 

 ~~~~

In one of the Amrit bathrooms was a sign - In silence we are visible to ourselves. 

A particularly good remembrance for any time, the encouragement to slow down, especially for the Holiday Season. 

~~~~ 

May you know Love, Joy, and Peace 

this season and throughout 2019. 

ॐ

What Is Calling

   

    What Is Calling?

There is an opportunity

            to expand and explore

The opening that invites

            discovering and connection

The mental awareness

            of awe, coherence, alignment.

This is the flow of manifest being,

            the joining of opposites in synchronicity.

Stillness invites in the dynamic 

            rhythm of wholeness.

            richard hammer

                 12-19-18

            

               ~~~~~~    

   Notes to Being   

There is a stream of consciousness that

  invites you to ride the wave,

  to observe the wave,

  to be the wave,

 

The invitation of sat-chit-ananda  is

  to be all the three now  -

  Truth – Consciousness-and resident dynamic

  Peace, Wholeness, Being, Flow …

  Shiva and Shakti creatively manifesting.

  yin and yang complimenting each other.

There is a truth that lies beyond current embodied Awareness. 

Our practice is the alignment with this Inner messenger.

To Listen, Receive, and Respond.

Open consciousness that which has been unknown.

Open consciousness to give the gift of flowing into

  Wholeness to all of life

Your creative life is calling you.

It knows your name! Will you say yes?

Will you embody the riches that are here?

      (12-11-18) 

      ~~~~~~~      

Living By Moments As Blessings

Living By Moments As Blessings

Gratitude is the practice of opening your heart so others can see it.

Fearless gratitude is the desire to be authentic, present, and fully alive.

As in yoga it is a practice. Practice does not “make perfect”.

It opens the door for all good to enter in.   

Gratitude is the remembrance that you are Oneness in expression.

Even with all your seeming flaws, quirks, challenges, and conditions

know that you are “perfectly imperfect”.  

There is no one else like you and that is a gift to the universe.

Each moment is a gift to take in the next breath.

Each moment is a gift to say yes to the day.

Each moment is a gift to be inspired by the beauty all around.

Each moment is a gift to create and share.

Each moment is a gift to reach out and touch another with love.

Each moment is a gift to feel grace and gratitude.

What are you saying yes to in this moment?

richard hammer

11-18-18 

A Witnessing Presence

A Witnessing Presence

There is an opportunity to engage, to be present with witnessing authority

and acceptance over you and what is arising, staying, and leaving.

There is oneness, agency, and sovereignty in this,

in this mindful acceptance.

The cultivated opportunity is that of exploration

and allowing the right and perfect action to occur as a result.

Endless Knot Karma 

Spiritual Master

   Spiritual Master

Can you live with paradox

  and still find peace?

Can you live at the edge

  and still know the center?

Can you live between the seasons

  of rising and falling and know flow?

Can you live with the ache to know beauty

   and yet push nothing away?

Can you live with the universes, both inside and out,

  and still practice your dharma with ease?

Can you live with paying love forward

  without attachment to the results?

Can you live with a sense of stillness inside of tumult

  and know spiritual freedom?

Can you live in the state of presence being available

  for the next breath, step, thought, act?

Can you be the peace, love, beauty

  that you are without control?

Can you touch and be touched and

  live with the mystery of it?

Can you be a fearless blossom of grace

  open to both giving and receiving?

  Then you maybe a spiritual master.

            richard hammer

                 9-19-18

            Cape Coral, FL

                  ~~~~  

“We have nothing to offer the world

     except our spiritual integrity.”

         – Joel Goldsmith

September is Yoga Month

September is Yoga Month

How will you celebrate it?

There is so much worthy of my sharing at this time on this blog site. Last month I spent ten days at the Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, MA attending three programs –

Todd Norian, Ashaya Yoga, https://www.ashayayoga.com

Dr Roger Jahnke, QiGong and Tai Chi, http://www.feeltheqi.com

Sally Kempton, https://www.sallykempton.com

I create handouts for my yoga classes, sometimes on yoga, mine or others, sometimes on things floating across the screen of my mind. Here is part a handout dated August 30^th -

Practice your yoga with integrity. Never hurting, always creative.

--- 

Let the practice live in you.

Let the practice be a purification so you release into a sense of your innate, true wholeness.

~~~

Share your light.  Don’t hide it.

Find the stillness -  And let it speak to you.

~~~

Can you say “I am here.”

with a sense of conviction and strength,

with a sense of authority and authenticity,

with a sense of willingness to explore unknown territory?

Then walk forward allowing presence to light your path.

~~~~~

Question:  If your purpose was to live in alignment with your highest truth what would that be?

~~~~

In the rawness there is light, truth, and opening.

In the breath there is the way.

~~~~ 

Mastering your energy is coming into alignment and coherence with it.

It is energetic intelligence.  Reality comes to us in levels and layers, waves, and rhythms.

We are an expression of the infinite in the here, now.

The quality of your life is how you are experiencing it here, now.

We are playing in the relative field of time.

~~~

The path of effortlessness is through effort. The universe is a collective dance.  Effort and effortlessness are part of it. In the state of integration there is effortlessness.  The challenge is the path.  There is intelligence in the challenge. Do what life is asking you to do.

True wisdom is beyond evaluation. (The Path of Radical Self Mastery program – Sattva Yoga).

~~~

Yoga is the investigation of purpose, meaning, and path.

It is coming into the understanding of the imperatives of being.

~~~

“Find that place where your deepest joy and the world’s hunger meet!!”

~~~

Enlightenment is understanding that you are love.

~~~

My current major Living Teachers (some):

Yoga: Anand Mehrotra, Sally Kempton, Todd Norian (Ashaya Yoga), J. Brown, Sadhguru,

Ram Dass, Dr Baxter Bell (Yoga for Healthy Aging), Yoganand (Pranakriya Yoga)

Others: Gina Lake (Radical Happiness), Jonathan Gustin (Purpose Guides Institute.),

Ekhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson.

----------------------

Resources for your awakening and enjoyment.

Sally Kempton had us repeating a mantra during my weekend with her at Kripalu. Here it is:

OM AIM HREEM KLEEM CHAMUNDAYE VICHCHE

https://youtu.be/RsvKnNzqWsk – 20 min youtube version - It continues to echo in my head.

Find Sally on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sallykemptonawakenedheart/

Jim Gelcer gave a wonderful evening kirtan at Kriaplu when I was there. See his info. and music -

http://jimgelcerkirtan.com/ and on Bandcamp - https://jimgelcer.bandcamp.com/album/bhagavan

See Todd Norian practices at https://shri.tv/maestro/todd-norian (Or at Ashaya Yoga)

If you have not discover the Tao of Dana, take a look at http://www.fengshuidana.com/

Also visit,The Epic Self (free) - https://www.theepicself.com/

450 guided meditations for all and you can sort by subject.

Listen Well – Listen to the short monthly archived audios of Spoken Word Exploring the Divine

http://www.listenwell.org/audio-offerings/archived-audio-offerings/

If you have not yet discovered Gina Lake take a moment: ttps://www.radicalhappiness.com/index.php

She also offers a 60 Meditations for Greater Happiness program on Daily Om that is excellent. https://www.dailyom.com There are many excellent courses t

here!

Check out UPLIFT Media Channel. A community of positive change-makers bringing you positive news and events from around the World. https://upliftconnect.com

As J. Brown ends his weekly podcasts “Let's be kind to ourselves. And let's be kind to each other.”

ॐ

Sadhguru

Sadhguru

In 2017 when I visited south India I stayed for a few days at the Isha facility that Sadhguru calls home. It might be called a combination of ashram, temple, school, gathering place, center of enlightenment, or service opportunity.  Sadhguru, the author of Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy, has a very large fallowing, both in India and in the U.S. where he has an ashram in TN.  Find our more   https://isha.sadhguru.org/us-en/isha-usa/

He has an easy fluid speaking style and many talks posted in youtube.

Here are Sadhguru quotes that I like:

There is no such thing as having achieved your fullest potential. As a human being, 

you are a limitless possibility.

If you evolve within you, there will be no pride, no prejudice. 

You will perform action out of pure, absolute sense.

If your goal is Ultimate Liberation, every breath, every step, every beat of your heart 

should become conscious.

How effective you are in life is essentially determined by your level of clarity and balance.

  

Yoga is about attaining to absolute Balance, piercing Clarity, and an inexhaustible Exuberance. With this, you are immensely fit for life.

You come into this world with nothing and you go empty-handed. 

The wealth of life lies in how you allow its experiences to enrich you.

The source of creation is subtle. Only if you make your body and mind shut up, it will speak.

When sounds are in tune, they become music. Out of tune, they become noise. It is the same with you. When all aspects of you are in tune, you become music. Out of tune, you become noise.

Truth is not hidden – you are hiding from it.

Our lives become beautiful not because we are perfect. Our lives become beautiful 

because we put our heart into whatever we do.

More Sadhguru Quotes

Whether you experience stress, anger, fear, or any other kind of negativity,

there is only one basic cause – being ignorant of your inner Nature.

Yoga is the technology of upgrading, activating, and refining your inner energies

for the highest possibilities.

If you break the shell of your personality, you will simply be presence – as life is,

as God is, just a Presence.

Once you go beyond the compulsive, cyclical nature of existence, life becomes spectacular.

Hatha Yoga should not be taught as an exercise form but as a live process;

then asanas will lead to ecstatic states.

A fundamental flaw in human nature is we try to enshrine our differences without being aware of the essential unity of existence.”

ॐ

The Question

  The Question

 There are transitions,

  borders, and territories.

There are memories,

  inclinations, and intentions.

There are shifts,

  contexts, and foundations.

Each has a divine intention for you -

  to be with, learn from, and move on.

Can you feel all of it?

  the cosmic interplay

    delight and sorrow,

    beauty and desire,

    purpose and pulse,

    chaos and creation, 

A tapestry of threads,

  a tensegrity of wholeness,

  a life in discovery.

Beyond descriptions and definitions,

  in the language of wonder,

  there is an arising.  

Can you feel it?

What does your body love like

  the wild geese where there is a calling

  for connection to all things alive?

Can you live and the love the question?

With fearless abandon can you fly to the horizon?

             richard hammer 

                   5-11-18

(Inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese”)

A Flow in All of Life

There is a flow in all of life that invites opening.

It seeks a balancing and thriving.

It knows itself as energy and presence,

as dynamic form and formless creation.

You are that flow.

Breathe. Feel. Be. Know.

~~~

Practice Qigong and open to the Qi in you and around you.

Spiraling Form

     Spiraling Form

There is beauty, grace, and joy

in this moment. 

There is the eternal, and the passing

in this moment.

There is the remembered kiss of a lover

and the desire for another in this moment.

There is the immense quiet of deep space

and the ringing of temple bells in this moment

I am being held captive by all of it

and have willingly surrendered to it.

Each sigh a release.

Each laugh a discovered joy.

Each smile a connection.

Each touch an affirmation.

The bamboo flute plays its song

in my heart.

The sun rising awakens

my inner fires.

The passing river speaks

it wisdom to my ears.

I will listen.

I will feel.

I will be.

One light on the spiraling form.

           richard hammer

               3-19-18

           Cape Coral, FL

April is National Poetry Month. In preparation consider reading or listening to a read poem each morning. Why? Because poetry invites us to consider mystery and meaning. It can be a door way in or out.... and we are always coming or going, or being present.

For poems read by their authors, go to - https://onbeing.org/project/poetry-radio-project/ -

For interviews by Kritsta Tippit, go to - https://onbeing.org/series/podcast/

Your Life Is a Poem – Krista talks to Naomi Shihab Nye (3-15-18 On Being)

Naomi's new volume is Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners - 2018

April is National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month

It is invitation to open into words.

I have followed and greatly appreciated Oriah Mt Dreamer's writings for years. She shares her journey with great athenticity and vulnerability.  In other words, she is "real".

The Green Bough  -  Waking Up with Joy -  05 Apr 2018

“Some days, grace saturates my dreams and follows me into wakefulness. And I am quietly alert, smiling even as I open my eyes filled with a joy that does not deny the pain of the world or the trials and tribulations of one small human being. And I am filled with awe at having a life to live, of being an ensouled body/embodied soul.

I cannot make this happen- it is a gift that cannot be earned. And, of course, there are other mornings, mornings when I wake up worrying for the world and those I love, trying to pull away from small aches or searing pain, wanting to lodge a complaint with Anyone-In-Charge.

Remembering this makes me smile this morning as I whisper into the half-light, "Thank you." ~Oriah

http://oriahsinvitation.blogspot.com/2018/04/waking-up-with-joy.html

~~~~~ 

  Did You Notice

The bird over your shoulder singing invites you to love.

The unique gift that you give is one of beauty and presence.

The grace that you are invites in union, touch, and flow.

The letting go of overt striving invites in receiving.

Open and allow yourself to rest in the generosity of your being.

       by richard hammer  4-4-18

Poetry As A Gate

Poetry As A Gate

April 2018 Creativity Speaking

Poetry is the opportunity to explore the familiar with new eyes.

Poetry is the opening of consciousness for experiencing the gift

of life more deeply.

Poetry is the sampling and savoring of language, emotions, and

the many landscapes of being.

Your writing of poetry invites in the muse who has been assigned

to you to create with language.

There are musical muses, and other artistic muses.

Each needs to be invited in.  Some need to sit by you in silence,

others in nature, or perhaps while running down the road.

You will know when the muse taps you on the shoulder and compels

you to place words to page.  Your muse will remind you to carry pen

and paper at all times to record the imperatives of your insights.

Pause now.  Listen.  And then write.

Pour out what is coming to make space

for receiving what is to come next.

Let it be a wild, fierce flow or a gentle, surprise in what appears.

There will be a beat, pulse, rhythm in your unique style.

Accept what arises.

The urge to write will rise.

Resist it not. Let it come.

Let it be an invocation, an utterance, a celebration, a declaration,

a cleansing, an offering.  Let it come.

richard hammer

3-31-18

What does it mean to you to be a yoga teacher?

As I went through older files this week I came upon a response I submitted to a website that publishes current thinking and questions about yoga - It's All YOga Baby.  Here is what I found  --

What does it mean to you to be a yoga teacher?

At the beginning of April 2014 on the “its all yoga baby” web site (iayb) there was a request by the site manager for readers, meaning yoga teachers, to respond to the question of “what does it mean to you to be a yoga teacher”.

Here was my posted response:

Being a yoga teacher means to dwell in G.R.A.C.E.

G - Gratitude for what has been given me that I might serve others.

R - Real and raw, authentic being from the marrow of one's bone.

A - Awareness of what is arising, what is here, what is dissolving.

C - Centeredness and compassion.

E - Energy, the cultivation of which is aligned movement in all the Koshas (bodies).

- it is showing up as best you can, again, and again, ….....

~~~

Apparently the manger liked it enough to send me a prize – a copy of

Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship - by Donna Farhi.

~~~

May we all bloom and blossom into the fullness of our expression as

a teacher and student of yoga, and lover of life.

May we remember that our students are our teachers.

May we honor all paths and traditions.

May our dharma path be made ever clear

as we partner with love and joy

to shine our light more brightly

to bless all beings.

Courage and Clarity

I have been taking an online course through the Shift Network titled The Enneagram of the Virtues with Russ Hudson. We are in week 9 and the subject is Type 6 of the 9 types, which is head centered (5, 6, and 7s). Type 6 is seen as Questioners. 

I have been posting on their fb group for this series one of my poems for the type under discussion.  Here is the one for today  -

Courage and Clarity

There is the courage to go in

to see what is really there,

both light and dark.

And there is the courage to go out,

to expand, open, receive the unknown.

There is the courage to hold onto

when so many things scream for release,

and the courage to let go,

to live beyond the old, familiar.

The courage to stay.

The courage to leave.

The courage to speak up.

The courage to remain silent.

The courage to release the riddle

in the making or the solving of it.

It takes courage to ask for help.

It takes courage to see a better way

for your one amazing life.

Take this moment to say yes

to the you that is showing up

to ask yourself this question -

What is the next step forward for

what my heart is asking for?

Clarity comes with asking

the right questions.

What is the right question to be

asked in the moment?

What is the version of you,

2.0 or perhaps 8.0, that is

seeking voice or to be seen?

richard hammer

   3-6-18