Let Go and Let GOD

Everyone has a different idea of what GOD means. God for some people is the religious version of God, which may or may not be spiritual, and is often thought of as a being to be feared and obeyed. For others, God is spiritual, a being who loves us unconditionally and does not judge us or punish us. In Kundalini Yoga, GOD stands for "that force which is always Generating, Organizing and Destroying" (and/or Delivering, depending on who you're talking to). Yogi Bhajan said, "God is not living on the seventh story, and no lift goes to Him. God is you. He is your expression. He is your identity in existence. That is why God is everywhere. Because wherever you are, God is. Because wherever you generate, organize and destroy, it is a fraction of the same that is already prevailing in the universal human. Therefore, we can conclude that the human is the image, or the finite activity, of the universal activity in operation."

This past weekend was my last weekend in Kundalini Teacher Training, and it was bittersweet. I am looking at it as a beginning instead of an ending. As part of our weekends together, we always check in as a group and go over what's happened since the last training weekend. We also check out, and just go over how we're feeling after the weekend of training, and what we're looking forward to. This weekend, when we checked out, we told everyone what we were releasing and what we were taking with us from this training. I released, "Everything" and took with me, "Love, clarity and me."

My teacher training class and teachers!

I'm not sure if I've told you before, but releasing for me takes place on many levels. Spiritually, I let go. It's easy. Mentally, I let go. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it takes a lot of work. Physically, I let go. This is sometimes incredibly ugly, and my poor family got to witness it on Sunday after graduation. (I won't go into details here.) I am also feeling the physical release as a pressure on my back. The body releases energetically through the back of our chakras, so it only makes sense to feel this.

But I'm getting off track. Or maybe I'm not? Let's go back to this weekend. Our graduation ceremony was on Sunday, and we invited friends and family to join us for the ceremony. Prior to the ceremony, we set intentions for what we wanted our practice to look like that we read aloud in the ceremony. It could be any "I am..." statement, so I chose one of my favorites that came to me last year sometime, and that is "I am the healing power and presence of God's Infinite light." I think I may have heard it in a Deepak Chopra meditation at some point.

I was so grateful to see my family and friends show their support of my choice on Sunday! It was truly amazing and inspiring. 

We also selected a Yogi Bhajan quote to share at graduation. My quote has been a mantra of mine for much of this training, so it wasn't hard for me to come back to it. Yogi Bhajan said, "Let go and let GOD." This is such a good way of expressing the surrender that's needed in order to achieve a spiritual life and practice. It encourages us to go with the flow, because everything is already taken care of. Stop trying to control your life, your body, your mind and just let it be connected to the Infinite being that you already are.

You are amazing just the way you are. You don't need anyone else's approval but your own. Go play. Do what makes you happy. If something makes you happy, don't let anyone take it from you. Wake up every morning and do what brings you joy. Surround yourself in beauty and love and people who support that in you. Everything you create is beautiful. Just be you.

Love and sat nam,
Emily Rose

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

They just keep on comin! I've made yet another move into what we're calling the Summer Home. I moved in with Beck. To some, that may seem like a big move, a huge commitment to move in with someone. For those of you who know me at all or have been reading this blog for any significant amount of time, you've probably already figured out that commitment is something I struggle with right now. We're getting around this by saying it's just temporary. Hence, this is my home for the summer. In August, Beck will be moving to Cookeville, and then I will have another decision to make about whether to go with him, stay here in Nashville, or find a new home altogether. Bali is looking pretty amazing right now. Just sayin....

I knew that I was making the right move when I was on the verge of cancelling my Thumbtack account and had a request from someone in White House, approximately 6 miles from my new front door. It turned out that they're musicians who travel a lot for work, but when they're home, they want me to teach them yoga as much as possible. That was pretty life-affirming, not just in my decision to move to White House, but also in my decision to become a yoga teacher. I don't know why it makes a difference, but when someone of this stature decides to put their body and spiritual development in your hands for an hour when they're at home for such short amounts of time, it makes you think, "Hm, maybe this really is where I'm meant to be."

I feel that way every time I end a class, too. I am so humbled by the gratitude that people express on their way out, when people tell me they feel like they've just gotten a massage, when people grow on their mats. It fills my heart with love and gratitude that my path has brought me here. I've said all along that I don't feel like this is my final resting spot, but it's a pretty amazing stepping stone.

Another change that has come into my life over the last few months is the opening of the Nashville Center for Alternative Therapy (NCAT).  NCAT is a one stop shop for alternative healing modalities. They have massage, acupuncture, yoga, energy work, hypnosis, sound therapy, and so much more. The things they don't have in-house, they have a network they can refer you to. I have "office" hours there every Friday from 1-8 pm! I'm taking on clients who want to use yoga or energy work to heal their bodies and minds. It's such a great spot to be, and I'm so grateful to the owners for their love and support as I'm growing my practice.

I can't help but acknowledge another major milestone that passed last month. I quit my job as an engineer in February 2014, and almost a year later, I'm actually able to pay most of my bills with yoga and energy work. Granted I've simplified my life and purged unneccessary items, services and expenses, but I'm making it work. Eventually, I know that as my practice and clientele grows, I'll be able to add those things back in. For now, though, I'm happy with where I am and where I'm headed. I hope you are, too! I'm so grateful that I get to wake up every day and help someone, even (especially??) if that someone is me.

I also have a new beautiful little being in my life. My niece was born in early February to my brother and his beautiful wife. She and my nephew are such beautiful little beings, and they have amazing parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles to love them and teach them the ways of the world. Their smiles melt my heart, and I love being able to spend time with them!

Oh, and one more thing that I want to share about my move to White House, is that it's in the country, y'all! White House is country. There are fields with cattle and cute little white farm houses and just amazing things all around me. I went to high school in New Harmony, Indiana, a small town in the middle of the corn fields and cattle farms in the southwest corner of Indiana, and being out here feels closer to being me than I have in a long time. Here's a beautiful photo I took on my run along the country roads a couple weeks ago.

Also, I'm making things. I crocheted a pretty cool hat that I gave to my sister for the cold spell we had here in middle Tennessee, and just this past Saturday, I went to visit my mom, who was cleaning out her closet. She found a sweatshirt from a trip my high school took to Washington DC for the 1997 inauguration, and tried to give it to me. She knew I am living a more simple life now, so she wasn't offended when I said no, but couldn't bring herself to get rid of it. My brain started rolling, and I was like, "Maybe we could make a pillow out of it." An hour later, we had this:

It's now sitting on my couch, and is pretty comfy. I had no idea I could make a pillow that quickly! I'm so grateful to my grandma and mom for teaching me how to sew when I was little. Grams also taught me to crochet, although I use the internet to find a lot of the patterns now. It's amazing the things you can do when you put your mind to it. We're such strong, powerful creators when we just open ourselves up and let it flow. Just do it!

I'm going to leave you with this St. Patrick's Day blessing to pay homage to my Irish roots:

May your troubles be less

And your blessings be more

And may nothing but happiness come through your door.

Love,

Emily Rose

Yoga and Meditation Opportunities with Emily Rose:

Tuesdays 7 pm NCAT Yoga - $12

Thursdays 6 pm NCAT Meditation - suggested love offering $5-10

Fridays 1-8 pm Private Yoga or Energy Sessions - $40 if you mention this blog

Saturdays 7 am Run<3Yoga<3Love Ampitheater at Bicentennial Mall - FREE

Saturdays 4:30 pm Gentle Hot Yoga at Kali Yuga Yoga in East Nashville - $13 drop-in

And COMING SOON: Spring into Kundalini Yoga 11:30 am at Kali Yuga Yoga (a six week introduction to Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan) - $13 drop-in/$60 series

A Little Self Love in this Holiday Season

You are beautiful and perfect in every way.  How does that feel?

Imagine if you heard those words every day.  Well, I do.  I hear them from myself, and I mean it when I say it, too.  I'm not sure that it could get any more powerful than that.

I've been on this healing journey for a long time, and to be honest, at the beginning of the journey, I was not very kind to myself.  This extended out to the others in my life, too, and I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart if I was ever unkind in any way to you.  I didn't mean it.  I was hurting.  I still hurt occasionally, but I am happy most days now.  I actually had someone tell me recently that I was the happiest now that she's ever seen me.  She thought maybe it was because of my newish relationship with Beck, and, yes, he had a little something to do with it.  I wouldn't have found him, though, if I hadn't fallen in love with myself first.

I did a self love revolution challenge several months ago that solidified that love for myself.  For one week, I did exercises that opened me up to see myself in a new light.  It helped me see the real me and love the person I saw.  With the permission of the facilitator of the Self Love Revolution, I'm going to share those exercises with you here, but first, I have a challenge for you.  For the next week, the first time you look in the mirror for the day, stop whatever you're doing, ignore whatever small blemish or out of place hair you're critiquing, look yourself in the eyes, and say, "<Your name>, you are beautiful and perfect in every way, and I love you."  It takes two seconds, and it will change your entire day.

I would love to hear from you after the week is over to know how it went, so please comment here or on Facebook or send me a message.  You are very special to me and I love you very much.

And before I go, I want to share a card that I wrote to myself in my Sister Circle a few months ago.  If it resonates with you, feel free to borrow it.  I read this to myself a lot as a reminder.

You are beautiful and perfect just as you are.  You don't need anyone else's approval but your own.  Go play.  Do what makes you happy.  If something makes you happy, don't let anyone take it from you.  Wake up every day and do what brings you joy.  Surround yourself in beauty and love and those who support that in you.  There is nothing you can't do.  Everything you create is beautiful.  Just be you.

Much love,
Emily Rose

Give Thanks, Lack is Just an Illusion

It really is.  Lack is an illusion that we create when we forget or just stop being grateful for the beautiful things that come into our lives.  This is yet another lesson that I have learned several times over the last year, well, really over my life.

Let's talk about money for a minute.  It's something that we are taught from a young age that we can't live without.  It's something that we're taught to keep track of, spend wisely, only buy things you have money for, don't use credit cards, and so many other things. So, what happens when we don't have enough, or at least think we don't?  We freak out!

I spent a very large part of my life tracking every penny I spent.  I put Microsoft Money on my computer and sat down at the end of every day and input my spending for the day.  My budget was tracked on there and my bills were tracked in there so that I knew exactly where every one of my hard-earned pennies was going.  The fun part about this was when we were on a debt repayment plan and could watch the debt charts decreasing as the savings increased.  The not-so-fun part about this was that I was spending at least 30 minutes of every day obsessing about money and worrying about where everything was going.  It kept me from living my life the way I wanted to live it.

Oh my gosh, over the last couple years, I threw all of that out the window.  I did everything the exact opposite of what they told me to do!  You know what??  Who cares?  I could beat myself up.  I could moan and complain about how I don't have enough money to go get a pedicure or go out to lunch with a friend or whatever.  Or I could just forget all that and find gratitude for the things I have.  I have amazing friends who want to have lunch with me, and I have lunch with them when it's meant to happen, even if I'm only buying a $2 cup of soup while they buy lavish meals.  I don't let things like this stop me from enjoying the camaraderie and love I feel when I'm surrounded by some of my favorite people.

At some point over the last five years, my therapist recommended I start a Gratitude Journal.  It's not a new idea (Oprah does it!), but it is a life changer.  The idea is to find at least three things throughout the day that you're grateful for.  There are Facebook Pages devoted to this concept where you can login and share the things you're grateful for.  There are accountability coaches who check in with you every day to make sure you've logged your gratitudes.  At first, I was writing them down in an actual journal.  In the last few months, I've actually started a text string now with my family, and pretty much every day, we list three things we're grateful for.  It sometimes doesn't happen a few days in a row when we're very busy, but when we need it, it's there for us.  The changes I can see in my outlook, and the group outlook is amazing after just a few days in a row of logging our gratitudes.

Along those same lines, a few years ago, I noticed that a work friend of mine was posting things she was thankful for every day during the month of November.  It's such a neat practice leading up to Thanksgiving that I have adopted it, too!  Taking those few minutes every day to just stop and feel sincere gratitude for something or someone amazing in my life (and isn't it all amazing??), brings me into my body, into a state of well-being, into a state of gratitude and really improves my outlook and my mood.  This has been a game-changer for me, so I wanted to share it with you.  This Thursday, when the turkey and stuffing are on the table, take a minute to look around and give thanks for the people sitting at your table.  Maybe you can even take a minute to speak out loud the things you're grateful for in each of those people.  And don't forget to give thanks to the Universe (I use this interchangeably with what you may call God, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Yaweh) for bringing the abundance of food, people, and prosperity (whatever you're feeling grateful for) into your life.

And at this point, you've probably already forgotten about your lack (or the illusion that society has created).  If not, don't give up yet!  Since it's an illusion, all it takes is just another perspective, so here are some more helpful tools that I've collected over the last few years.

1. "Need" implies lack. Just the words that we use can create situations in our lives.  There have been studies that show that some words have higher frequencies that make us happy, and some have lower frequencies that make us heavy, sad or depressed.  "Need" is one of those words that I'm working to eliminate from my vocabulary.  If I catch myself using it, I'll stop and change my statement from "I need that shirt." to "I want that shirt."  Am I really lacking that shirt?  No.  What would happen if I didn't have that shirt?  Not much, really.  So, I really do "want" that shirt, not "need" it.  So, I find the beauty in the shirts that I already have, and I attract more of those into my life.  This works for everything, shirts were just an easy example.
2. This brings me to my next tool, The Law of Attraction.  If you haven't heard of it yet, you can read about it here, but this is my take on it.  Basically, what you focus on brings more of that into your life.  So, what happens when you focus on the "lack" in your life?  You'll bring more of that in.  Which brings us full circle back to gratitude.  What happens when you show gratitude for the things you already have in your life?  You're going to bring more of that into your life.
3. Which brings me to the next tool: affirmations.  There are so many out there, but one that I'm using right now is, "I am now open to receive the loving gifts that the Universe brings to me and to everyone."  I think this may have come from Doreen Virtue, but I don't remember exactly where it came into my life.  I have a reminder set on my phone to sit with this affirmation every morning after my daily practice.  There are so many others out there that I could share, but one will come to you that resonates with you.  When you find it, sit with it.  Love it.  Let it help you.
4. Another great tool is meditations and mantras.  Meditation recently brought so many good things into my life. For me, it was the Kundalini Meditation for Prosperity II.  It came into my life when I was at a low point financially, and it has already started to bring so much good into my life after just a week of practicing it.  I can't wait to see what else it brings. (Something I want to point out here, though, is that the good comes in different ways for everyone.  It might not be someone on the street handing you money, although that could totally happen. Let's not rule it out completely.  For me, it is coming in ideas or offers for me to help others on their journey in exchange for funds.  I am forming new relationships almost every day that are bringing in new opportunities, and for each of those relationships and opportunities, I am so very grateful!)
5. Make way for more good to come into your life. Get rid of the clutter.  I am reminded of this almost every day.  My healer shared with me in one of my classes that we should remove 7 things from our home every day.  At first, I thought there was no way I would be able to maintain that for an extended period of time, but even after the mass purges that happened last year when I sold my house, I am still able to maintain this.  It is absolutely amazing how much stuff we bring into our homes every day.  Go through your purse or wallet.  I'd be willing to bet there are seven things in there that you could get rid of right now.  You don't have to just donate it or throw it in the garbage.  Sell it, have a garage sale or list it on Craigslist or Ebay.  And then, just notice how much lighter you feel when it's gone.  And then notice what good things come into your life in its place.  (Just a little side note here, if there's something that makes you sad to get rid of, hold onto it for another minute.  Ask yourself what it is about that thing that you're holding on to.  There might be some emotions attached to it that you need to process before you can release it.  This might be a good opportunity to ask for help in your releasing.  If you need it, I'd be happy to refer you to someone.  I have a network of people who can help!)

So, I'm going to wrap this up by making note of three things that I'm grateful for today.

1. I'm grateful for the sun that shines even on cloudy days.
2. I'm grateful for the Nashville Center for Alternative Therapies, and the healing opportunities, relationships and earning potential it has brought into my life and will continue to bring. (Check out their Indiegogo campaign here.  You can get some great services and help fund the center at the same time!)
3. I'm grateful for my family and friends who continue to support me through my awakening and have brought many blessings and lessons into my life.

Universe, thank you for providing everything I want when I want it.  Thank you for the blessings you have bestowed upon me and the entire human race.  I now open my arms to receiving the loving gifts that the Universe brings to me and to everyone.

Much love,
Emily Rose

P.S. I have secured an indoor space for RunYogaLove! Details will be posted on the Facebook page soon!  I'll see you all this Saturday for a beautiful sunrise run/walk and yoga!