The inner and outer worlds of water

Water flows in us, through us and around us. Between 55 to 75 percent of human body weight is water. Our brains are about 70% water.

Water seeks movement by gravity, diffusion, wind and pressure. Water is heavy but it moves with grace, power and ease. Seventy percent of the earth's surface is covered by water. Life as we know it could not exist without water. It is constantly changing through movement. We usually think of water in its liquid state but it can also change to a solid (ice) or a gas (water vapor).

A Japanese entrepreneur named Masaru Emoto began to photograph water crystals through a microscope as they started to melt after being frozen. These crystals emerge for only 20 - 30 seconds. He found that the water crystals had beautiful shapes when they were from clean water sources but were almost formless, ugly shapes when they were from polluted sources.

He also experimented with distilled water, the most neutral form of water. He exposed the water to words, either spoken or written, and the vibration of these words would cause the crystalline structure of the water to change.

Negative words caused crystals to form that were like water from a polluted source, very ugly and dull. Words that have a positive meaning formed brilliant crystals. Love and gratitude together form one of the most beautiful crystals (seen in the photo above) that Dr. Emoto has photographed. Just as water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen, love and gratitude work together to complete a key vibration.

Dr. Emoto's experiments have not been validated by other scientists. But what a beautiful metaphor he offers us for the connections between our inner and outer worlds. We know our bodies are more than half water and we can feel how emotions affect our bodies. Could it be possible that the crystalline shape of water is transformed through energy vibrations?

When we practice yoga we want to feel love and gratitude in our hearts and minds. If we practice from a place of self-criticism our practice will not flow with grace and ease. Holding our breath or not breathing fully restricts our practice. If we focus on our hamstrings being tight, our body will tighten in response to that thought. But if we direct our attention to feeling gratitude that our hamstrings have something to teach us and they can change, it will help the hamstrings to open more naturally. When our thoughts are stagnant, they have a direct impact on the condition of our bodies.

Try sitting and thinking of the words "hate and despair". How does that feel? Now sit and think of the words "love and gratitude". Do you feel different? Love creates an opening and expansion and gratitude creates a grounding and wholeness. What we feel on the inside is reflected on the outside. Make a practice of focusing on love and gratitude and observe how your life will unfold.

Parable of the white horse

There is a parable about a farmer who owned a beautiful white horse. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. "May be," the man replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it a dozen wild horses. "You are so lucky," the neighbors exclaimed. "May be," replied the old man.

When his son tried to ride one of the wild horses, he was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "May be," answered the man.

A few weeks later military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "May be," said the farmer.

Many unexpected things happen in life. Initially we may feel each one is either good or bad. But we need to accept what has happened and move on with our lives without letting that event define us. Be willing to be open to new possibilities and release any feelings that may hold us back from experiencing the fullness that life offers. We cannot know everything, but we can appreciate how vast and amazing life is.

Important lessons are often learned in hard times. Life is full of change. We will always experience times of joy and times of sorrow. This is the fabric of life.

Sometimes we are forced into change we do not want. For example someone may lose their job and feel depressed and worried about the future. But out of necessity they may find or discover a new job or career that uses more of their natural talents and skills than their previous job. It is best not to get too upset or attached to what happens in life.

Yoga teaches acceptance. It teaches acceptance of each moment, respect for our bodies and equanimity of our minds. Yoga can help us be more aware of our gifts and limitations without becoming egotistical or depressed. We can learn that each moment changes and some days are better than others but nothing is static for long. Just turn to the breath, the essence of life, and use that to guide your practice.

Every day brings new challenges and rewards. We can experience our sorrows deeply and then let go. We can fully delight in our joyous times which will inevitably be interrupted. And we can appreciate the moments of stillness and peace that refresh and replenish us.

Clouds

Clouds are familiar but elusive and mysterious. From a distance they have a shape but when we are inside a cloud the rest of the world is hidden.

No two clouds are identical. The three main categories of clouds are cumulus, stratus and cirrus. Cumulus clouds are puffy, dense and tall, sometimes extending upwards hundreds of meters. Stratus clouds are more horizontal and spread out like a blanket and can extend for many kilometers across the sky. Cumulus and stratus clouds are the clouds we commonly see in the sky. Cirrus clouds are very wispy and feather-like and are composed of ice crystals. They are almost translucent and form about 7 kilometers above the earth's surface. Cirrus clouds are the highest clouds are not seen as commonly as cumulus and stratus.

Each cloud is composed of an astronomical number of nearly invisible small drops of water. Each drop of water is less than a thousandth of an inch across. A small cloud just ten yards on each side contains as many drops as there are stars in the galaxy.

Even though they are far away and untouchable, clouds greatly affect our lives. We can get an idea of the weather from their formations, they provide us with rain and relief from the hot sun, and they recycle the earth's water supply. And they capture our imagination.

Clouds are always changing. They change shape, size, direction and color. They can appear playful or dark and threatening. When a cloud touches the ground it is called fog. When clouds are in the sky they look as if they could be touched. But when they are close to us on the ground as fog, they are impossible to grasp.

Our energy bodies are like clouds, expansive and spiritual. They cannot be totally explained or understood. But we know they are there. They are connected to our physical bodies when we are alive. At death they detach from our physical bodies but continue to exist in the spiritual realm.

The practice of yoga involves our physical bodies but it can also be an expression of our energy bodies. Like clouds our poses have shape but the edges are soft, expansive and changing. Standing poses are like the cumulus clouds, very strong and tall. Reclining poses are more like the stratus clouds with a horizontal feeling. Meditation has more of the quality of cirrus clouds. Both have a feeling of lightness and detachment. Yoga helps us to feel like we are grounded in reality but our spirit is reaching for the clouds.

Clouds are a link between the earth and the heavens. We are a link between our physical form and the supreme consciousness. Allow your imagination to soar with the clouds.

Planting a garden

Gardens are a way of working together with nature to add beauty and nourishment to our lives. The more we understand nature and collaborate with her, the more plentiful, healthy, and beautiful our garden can be.

First we start with an intention to create, nurture and be open to what our gardens will teach us. Preparing the soil is the foundation of a healthy garden. Timing when to plant the seeds is important. Waiting for the right time of the year and even the right cycle of the moon can influence the health of our garden.

The life of a plant starts with a tiny seed. The seed naturally sends roots downward and the body of the plant upward. Seeds need a balance of water and sun to thrive and grow. We can cycle different plants that do well in different parts of the growing season. Some plants need more shade and some need more sun, so we can arrange our garden with the taller plants needing sun to shade the plants needing more shade.

Feeling the earth under your fingers, and getting a close look at the growing plants connects us more intimately to a world that we can easily take for granted. There have been books, studies, and documentaries showing that plants can sense the emotions of living things around them. Taking the time to slow down from our busy lives and find a connection to nature through our gardens is very calming and healing.

Practicing yoga has many similarities to planting a garden. Setting an intention for our practice is like planning our garden. Grounding downward through our pelvis and lifting upward from our core gives us the same rooted and expansive qualities found in our garden. As our practice unfolds, it is like a garden coming into bloom. Just as a plant reaches towards the sun, our goal is to create an expansion that gives fullness and life to a pose.

Planting a garden can be a metaphor for anything we do in life. Plant your seed with awareness, water your garden with love and dedication and fully savor the fruits of your labor.

Transformation

Transformation can happen in an instant or gradually over time. It can be something we create or something that happens to us without our control. It can be subtle or dramatic,

When Mount St Helens erupted, the landscape was dramatically transformed in an instant. The forces of nature had been invisibly at work before the eruption but the actual physical change happened without warning and the landscape was changed permanently. Powerful acts of nature like earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and hurricanes can cause this instant transformation.

People can be transformed instantly in an accident becoming paralyzed, losing a limb, losing their sight or losing part of their memory from a stroke. These transformations are beyond our control. Afterwards we have a choice with how we deal with the changes but life gives us unexpected challenges.

Over time as we age, transformation happens gradually. No one can stop the aging process but we can control how dramatically it happens by our lifestyle. People who stay active with their body and mind typically age more gracefully than someone who is inactive and doesn't challenge themselves physically and mentally. Habits like smoking and excessive drinking can negatively impact how we age.

People can transform their physical appearance through diet and exercise. When someone loses 20 - 150 lbs the transformation can be very dramatic. This transformation takes place gradually over time with our concentrated efforts. When our bodies undergo a change like this it often changes our mind and attitude about ourselves because we feel better.

A chance encounter can be transformational in gradual subtle ways. We could meet someone who we end up marrying or starting a business with. A person might introduce us to a sport or art process that becomes our passion in life and transforms how we identify ourselves.

Yoga brings about a gradual transformation in our bodies and how we view life. The practice of being gentle with ourselves combined with discipline and concentrated awareness on the mat can help us to be more forgiving with ourselves and others off the mat. Yoga invites to explore parts of our body that are forgotten and in that process we can open up both physically and emotionally. We play a part in that transformation but other aspects of our transformation may occur as a side benefit to our efforts.

Real transformation requires a significant energy exchange. It happens when a huge amount of energy changes something quickly like a volcano erupting or when consistent energy over time creates a substantial lasting change like changing your eating habits for optimal health. Something quick and easy like cutting your hair to change your looks would not be a transformation. Energy transformation is happening all the time within us and around us. Instead of letting life overwhelm us with unwanted transformations, we can mindfully focus our energy to create the positive transformations that bring joy and contentment.

Wake up call

Wake up calls demand our attention. We can be so absorbed in our emotions and habits that in a way we are in a kind of sleep. Wake up calls abruptly make us stop what we are doing and at least temporarily take a look at something that we have been ignoring.

For example someone who has smoked for many years may get pneumonia and the doctor tells them if they do not quit they could die. This kind of wake up call gives many people the incentive to quit smoking. The impact of the consequences is so devastating that they take action.

Runners may run for years without stretching or without good technique. Over time they get stiffer and stiffer, developing chronic pain. The pain is not bad enough to make them quit running or really question if there is something they need to change. Then one day they tear a hamstring that forces them to stop running. This is the body's way of getting their attention.

There is no guarantee that a wake up call will bring permanent change. Old habits and patterns have a strong hold on us. Sometimes we can make an instant change because we know intrinsically that this wake up call is in our best interest and helps us to make a change we have wanted to make but just did not want it enough to do the work required to make the change.

Death is the biggest wake up call we can experience. If we lose someone suddenly who we deeply love, we realize we cannot take life for granted or the beings in our life for granted. Some people have been pronounced clinically dead but come back to life. This near death experience has a profound effect on how they view life and death.

Sometimes people start practicing yoga because of a wake up call. They might be so stiff or stressed that they decide to give yoga a try. Yoga begins the gradual process of opening up tight muscles and relaxing the body and mind. The more consistent we can be with our yoga practice, the more benefits we will see. Yoga can give us gentle wake up calls. We may discover how tight we really are in our shoulders or hips. We may realize how difficult it is to focus or how impatient we may be with ourselves when we find a pose difficult to do.

Wake up calls are immediate but the changes we need to make often take time. It may take a series of wake up calls to help us stick with our new habits and not revert back to the old ones. A big part of making the changes can be to consistently renew our intention. Wake up calls may not always be pleasant, but there is always something to learn from them. If we can slow down or stop long enough to view our situation with a fresh perspective, we can shift our lives in positive ways.

Listen to your inner voice

“Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.”
Henry Winkler

Our inner voice speaks gently with a deep wisdom. This voice does not nag or repeat itself incessantly. It is more like a gentle nudge to a greater awareness.

We have many voices in our heads. Our minds are constantly chatting up a storm. Too often that chatter is negative, derogatory and repetitive. These voices are the ones we need to change. They do not help us but rather hold us back.

The inner voice that comes quietly often urges you to do something beneficial. For example it might remind you to put on gloves when you are pulling weeds in an overgrown area. If you ignore that spontaneous thought you could end up with a bad case of poison ivy.

It is easy to ignore our inner voice because we become so preoccupied with other thoughts of the future or the past. Sometimes we are just caught up in our emotions and refuse to stop and do what our inner voice is telling us. For example sometimes when you are upset with someone and are about to say what is on your mind, a thought might pop up that says this is not the right thing to say. So you either listen to that guidance and probably have a better conversation, or you ignore it and typically end up hurting the other person and not really accomplishing what you wanted anyway.

In times of real danger or fear this inner voice can come as a stroke of insight. It could let us know the course of action that is safe. The voice comes in a flash and then is gone. It does not hang around and repeat over and over again. But somehow we have a sense that the voice is telling us the right thing to do.

Yoga can help us be more receptive to our inner voice. Just being with the breath and being aware of our bodies with a deep focus helps to filter out the mindless clamor of our random thoughts. It is not always easy to come to the mat when times are difficult or when we are busy. But if you can just start with a simple pose that may be enough. Or you may find you just keep going once you have started. You may even receive little internal messages while practicing that will guide you to enhancing your pose.

Our inner voice sounds tiny but it is huge. It is connected to the supreme consciousness. It has our best interests at heart. So next time you hear that tiny voice telling you to do something that you know instantly is the right thing to do, don't ignore it. Time after time you will learn that paying attention will give the most reward.