 Yesterday I was in session with a dear client. We were working with her limiting beliefs, her story of scarcity. A story that is deeply rooted in her grief, sadness and loss. As we were tapping together (doing EFT) to clear this painful story, I came to a very poignant realization. The journey of grief is in fact the Bhakti path- if used as a resource for awakening and opening. Grief is inherently connected to your pain and suffering. It connects you deeply to your losses, to release and letting go. Moksha (liberation) is in fact a process of release, letting go and endings. (You can see what your relationship is with Moksha and loss, simply by looking at the 12th house in your jyotish chart. It's also the house of death and the ancestors because of its connection to transformation.) Release and letting go are natural parts of life. Nature's intelligence shares this process of release and transformation with us consistently. Particularly through the ever-changing seasons. Yet loss is one of the most challenging things you will ever face in your lifetime. Small losses or big, life changing losses, the process of letting go is not easy. Grief is a natural response to the pain of letting go, of releasing some attachment. When you choose to use your grief process for self awakening, for liberation, the journey becomes very different. Grief can become a spiritual resource- one that awakens you from deep slumber. The pain you experience during your loss will show you the places within where you have not been fully conscious. The gift of your pain is the awakening to your unconscious patterns, behaviors and choices. It is the ultimate wake up call. Most people will never use their grief as a spiritual resource. As a tool of self awakening. A way to awaken from their deepest slumbers. Using the grief journey as a path of self realization is a poignant practice. One that I am very passionate about. I've experienced (and continue to experience) the power of leaning in closer to my grief- my inner pain, darkness, shadow and suffering. Please join me for a heart-centered class to help you deepen your inner wisdom and relationship with Spirit. This process of leaning in closer- to your self and your pain- is actually a practice of devotion. Devotion to the self. Your consistent presence, the act of showing up for yourself in your pain, takes bravery, courage and willingness. Something profound begins to shift within your being with this simple, consistent act of arriving. Arriving back to the self- over and over again. This is the practice of Bhakti, heart centered devotion. Devotion of the self. Heart-centered devotion requires that you show up in these ways: - Be consistent. This is a practice which requires you return again and again. Arrive with presence. Your attention to the self is your mantra. - Non judgment. As you notice what is arriving, just honor what is. You are simply bringing your attention to the movement within your emotional body landscape, without labels or trying to change it. - Devotion. Your ability to arrive again and again with presence for your emotional body landscape, is an act of devotion. Remember that your emotional body is a powerful resource. This is also the place of your Divine Feminine wisdom. How to Deepen Your Devotion As you practice showing up for your emotional body, honor it. Be a witness, then lean in closer. What is your emotional body telling you? What is the underlying need? The gift of your emotional body is that it will always share with you a need that is either being met, or not being met. Listen closely. When you can arrive for yourself again and again with non-judgment, with openness and honoring, you can also awaken more loving kindness for yourself. It is likely you have never been mirrored this container of loving kindness during big waves of emotion. Think back to your childhood. How did your parents "manage" your temper tantrums? Your powerful emotional outbursts? This is likely the same way you are still "managing" your emotions as an adult. Through avoidance, resistance, fear, challenge or resentment. The first step to re-patterning this old conditioning is committing to arriving. Showing up is 50% of the process. Don't just commit to showing up though. How to Master the Process of Self Devotion: Can you show up for yourself without judging your emotions? Can you separate the emotional body messages from the mental body stories? Can you harvest the need underneath the emotional body message? Can you show up for yourself with more loving kindness, honoring yourself with non judgment- no matter what is arriving? Can you honor yourself for arriving, trusting that this simple act of showing up is in fact a path of devotion, a process of deepening self love? Self love requires that you show up for yourself- your whole self. The act of self love is devotional by nature. It is a process of accepting, surrendering, honoring and bringing compassion to your whole being. This is the practice of Bhakti. Heart-centered devotion requires that you honor and allow all parts of yourself. That all parts of your being make up your wholeness. This includes your pain, sorrow, darkness and illusion. Your grief. Your ability to honor your grief- as a way to open your heart and awaken your inner wisdom- is the most profound act of devotion you can give yourself. Please join me this weekend for a Bhakti centered practice. I'll be sharing potent resources to support your spiritual and emotional body awakening. This is the last chance to register! Doors are closing!
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 Karma is such a loaded word. This ancient Sanskrit word is often used incorrectly as a reminder that you will either be punished or rewarded by your actions. The reality is that karma just means action- neither positive nor negative. Every action, however, does have a reaction, a result. I remember my guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, saying that "No one knows the ways of karma. No one." This was a very bold statement coming from such an enlightened man!! As a jyotishi, someone who studies karma, this is an especially intriguing and thought provoking statement for me to contemplate. Jyotish is in fact the study of karma and it intimately involves looking at the results of one's previous actions. Your jyotish chart is a map of your karmas at the time of your birth. All the actions that were incurred from previous life times that led you to the moment when life force, prana, brought you to life. I think of karma like luggage. Your bags are packed and they come with you on this journey through life and death. Some bags get unpacked, some do not. Some may get partially unpacked or re-packed. We all are carrying luggage and must work creatively with what we have brought with us. How you work with the contents of your karmic bags will determine the results and outcomes you receive. Can we change our Karma, the contents of our suitcases? There are karmas that can be changed and karmas that can not be changed- no matter how hard we try. Karmas are created just being alive, in a human form. Complexity arrives with our pre-determined karmas vs. our personal choice- karmas that we are creating right now. This is where the debate comes up about how much choice we actually have in changing our lives. The Four Types of Karmas: Samchita karmas are accumulated actions. They are dense, collective, and the sum total of all our past actions. These past actions are a very fundamental factor that determines your incarnation. Prarabdha karmas are those actions we’ve undertaken in this life time by being born. They determine the type of birth we will experience in this life time and what we've incurred karmically from our previous births, as well as the family karmas we've taken on. This is the karma that is packed into our suitcase. The Prarabdha karmas effect all aspects of our current incarnation and even the birth process it self. Your jyotish chart shows these karmas very clearly. The jyotish chart tells what actions have been incurred thus far and the possible ways they will ripen in this life time- for better or worse. Kriyamana karmas are based on our choices in the present life. These karmas plant the seeds for the future and the results that will come to us as a result. We are influenced greatly by our previous actions- which effect our current choices- however, with diligence, willingness and determination, we can make life changes through Kriyamana karmas. This is where the debate of free will begins. How much choice do we actually have to change our lives when so much is actually pre-determined? Agama karmas are those actions which are coming or approaching us. These karmas are created by our desires (expressed through Rahu). Desire is why we have incarnated into a human form on the Earth plane, into this lila, or play of life. It is a vital part of our existence, our creativity and manifestation process. The mind (imaginal body) creates from our desires while other influences support or negate these desires. The Agama karma's will cycle back into future karma's for this life and life times to come. This is where we must work very consciously. It is also why jyotish is so importing for creating self awareness. Using one's jyotish chart to time life events, manage our desires, find "best practice" for our efforts and even temper our desires, can help us bring more consciousness to our karmas. Using Vedic wisdom, meditation and specific healing modalities, we can start to make more conscious choices and action steps. Samchita and Prarabdha karmas can not be changed. They are actions that have already occurred and have set us up for our current life time. However, working very diligently with Kriyamana and Agama karmas can greatly effect our future karmas. Diligence and willingness (often determined by the Samchita and Prarabdha karmas) are vital for making life changes that will effect our future karmas. These choices can create new patterns for ourselves that will bear fruits in this life time and future life times. But it's not quite that simple. Karmas also have levels of intensity based on how strongly they are gripping us. There are three levels or strengths that determine how easily a karma can be changed or moved. These karmic strengths can also be determined by studying one's jyotish chart. Drdha karmas are very strong and solid. Their grip is tight, closed and fixed. The Buddha called Drdha karmas "written in stone". Some karmas are not as fixed or firm. These karmas are Drdha-Adrdha Karmas. These karmas are not as solid and they express the middle range of intensity. With effort, determination and conscious action steps, these karmas can be shifted and changed. Adrdha karmas are easily changed. Through conscious choices, life changes, remedial measures and positive action steps, these karmas can be more easily shifted and transformed. The Buddha referred to these karmas as "written in sand". In one's jyotish chart, one's karmic life map, the intensity of your karmas can be assessed and determined. Four factors are necessary to analyze one's karmas- the houses and the house lords as well as the karaka (indication) of the house itself. Finally, the house arudha (visible, tangible, externalized significations of the house) is a determining factor in karmic results. Additionally, fixed signs show karmas that are more drdha, dual signs offer more drdha-adrdha and moveable signs offer more adrdha results. Ready to unlock the mystery of your karmas? The simple reality that every action has a reaction can not be disputed. It's the results of our actions that can be difficult to determine though. There are millions of possible responses with every action that is taken, so how can we be sure we will have more positive outcomes? I remind my clients to be clear on their intentions. What is your intended result for your action steps? What type of response do you hope for? Use your intention as a tuning fork and keep aligning your actions to it. Then, notice where you feel this intention in your body. What impact does it have on your physical being? The body is the ultimate tuning fork, which can help us align with our highest potential. The messages of the body can help you determine if an action is going to have positive or negative effects on your life and overall well being. The physical (and emotional) bodies are intimately linked to our intuitive capabilities, our inner knowing. This is one of the main reasons I use embodiment resources in conjunction with the wisdom of jyotish. Studying your jyotish chart is the most powerful tool for unlocking the mysteries of your karmas. Using your karmic life map to deepen your understanding of why you were born and what you are here to accomplish is invaluable. In fact, the resource of jyotish is without a doubt the most powerful resource available for personal development and growth. I don't want you to take my word for it though. I want you to discover this for yourself. This is why I am so passionate about sharing my weekly Jyotish Basics Classes with you! My classes help you unlock the wisdom of your personal jyotish chart and discover your unique gifts and life purpose. Learn to understand your jyotish chart so you can determine your strengths and your weaknesses, your greatest challenges and also your most essential resources. There is no other tool of self-awareness more powerful than the wisdom of the jyotish chart! Are you ready to unravel the mysteries of your karmas? Please join me for my weekly Jyotish Basics Classes. May registration is now open, but only until April 29th. Sign up early to receive my Early Bird pricing as well as a free copy of your jyotish chart. Sign Up Now. Need some extra guidance and clarity? Schedule a session with me. Plan your week in tune with nature. Never miss a planetary update. Sign up for my weekly newsletter. Was this post helpful? Please share it with a friend! Thank you. * My favorite Jyotish resource was used for this article, The Science of Light, by Freedom Tobias Cole. Four Simple Steps Back to Neutral When Overwhelm Strikes Have you ever noticed that overwhelm can arrive suddenly after a seemingly insignificant experience (say, coffee spills in the car)? In a moment, life feels completely chaotic and out of control! Sometimes more stressful experiences are happening in your life, but it may not take much to push you over your edge. Small or large, you know you have hit overwhelm when emotions are released and they feel uncontrollable. This "flooding" of emotion may come with anger, tears or even deep sadness. Maybe you yell, sob or even feel stunned and frozen. It's important to realize that those of us who are sensitive have special traits that require awareness. In fact sensitivity can be used as a self development resource if we use it wisely. One of the unique attributes of being sensitive is that we get overstimulated and over-aroused more easily than our non-sensitive family members, friends and co-workers. This over-arousal puts our nervous system into "high alert" swiftly, resulting in a series of responses. Over-arousal and over-stimulation may be felt on any of the four levels of our being- mental, emotional, physical or spiritual. It's important to remember that the response systems in the body are a normal function. We need them to alert us to our needs, but balance is vital. Overwhelm actually builds upon past experiences. It may seem as though it hits suddenly, but in fact our sudden response is not an isolated experience at all. Overwhelming experiences layer upon each other until suddenly we are at our maximum capacity! Taking these many layers into consideration is very important for unraveling our personal mythology, our many "stories". Layers of over-stimulation in the nervous system can trigger a sudden response in a sensitive person very quickly. Becoming conscious of our stories and their layers is an important part of transformation and change, healing and growth. I personally love using EFT (the Emotional Freedom Technique) for this purpose. I also find it highly effective for calming chaos and overwhelm since it effectively in reduces fight, flight and freeze responses in the body. As a sensitive person you must arm your self with a large tool kit and multiple resources. Having a personal practice that helps you self-track is one of those essential tools. This resource is especially important because our ability to become over-aroused and over-stimulated easily means that chaos and overwhelm can also occur more easily for us as well. If we can track ourselves and note the physical, mental and emotional responses happening within us, we will have a better chance of getting the right resources for ourselves. The three level check-in is a very basic tracking resource in order to build inner awareness. Helping ourselves come back into balance, or a neutral place, is an important part of caring four ourselves properly, and is in fact an essential for health and well being. Balance requires a certain resiliency, an ability to bounce back from any extreme. There are many ways to help your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies build resiliency and balance, but often when we are in a state of chaos or overwhelm, our tools and resources get lost or forgotten. Remember, when chaos and overwhelm set in, we will need extra reminders, support and assistance with the process of coming back to neutral. The physical body is our primary home, therefor resourcing from the body directly is very important for creating a stronger relationship with it and with its needs. Using the wisdom of the physical body is the fastest way to get back to a place of neutral when overwhelm hits us. Tracking sensations builds awareness, resiliency, and provides ample resources. Here are four simple steps to help you come back to a neutral place within. Use these steps as a daily practice for building more inner awareness, for self tracking, and for cultivating more resiliency even before chaos and overwhelm strike. Listen to my podcast below for a guided practice. 1) Ground. The breath is a powerful way to come back to the present moment. All your power resides in the present- not in the past and not in the future, but in the now. Become aware of your breath and its quality. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, notice your connection to the ground beneath you. Notice the sensation of your body connecting to the surface underneath you whether it be your feet connecting to the floor or your sitz bones and spine connected to your chair. Keep returning to breath awareness and the connection your physical body has with the surface under you- even when the story of overwhelm is strong. It will keep pulling you out of the ability to sense your physical body's connection to the ground, but keep coming back to breath and grounding points anyway. 2) Tracking. Self tracking is an essential resource for building inner awareness (interoception) but when overwhelm and chaos hit, we can easily lose our ability to track what is happening in the body. (This is where having a coach or therapist can be helpful in order to help you strengthen your self tracking abilities). In fact, self tracking is a skill that can be strengthened with practice. I invite you to notice where the chaos and overwhelm lands in the body. Where do you feel this sensation of overwhelm in the physical body? Is there a certain body part or point of tension where you notice this landing within you? Notice how it feels. What are the sensations? Is it tense, tight or hard? Does it have a color or a shape? Maybe a sound? Be curious and open to what arrives. 3) Resource. Resources bring us stability, support and connection. We need these for balance in our lives. Resources can arrive within us and outside of ourselves, but in order for lasting resiliency, building a strong ability to resource from within is imperative. Find a place in the body that feels opposite or most unlike the challenging sensation in your physical body. Notice it and be curious about it. Does it have a sense of softness, lightness, ease or gentleness? What sensations are you aware of? Do any feelings, images, shapes or colors arrive? Maybe a sound? What does it tell you? Get curious. 4) Shift. Shifting our focus can be a very helpful way of finding our way back to neutral. This doesn't mean we are by-passing or avoiding our chaos experience, but in fact using it to inform our choices, actions and responses. Shifting focus, or de-centering, can come from a variety of options. Allow yourself to make a shift. Whether it be a change in your environment, your activities, or even who you are with. Maybe you take a break and go to the bathroom, walk outside, make a cup of tea. Do something that shifts your attention somehow. You may need to return to steps one, two and three. Notice if your body part resource has a sound. Let this sound emerge and let it express itself. Use this sound as a means of shifting your focus. How can this sound become a resource for you when overwhelm and chaos return? My favorite resources for shifting focus (or de-centering) are the arts. This body part resource you discovered can be taken into a drawing or even a movement exploration. It could inform a song or a movement gesture. Creativity is an important part of our transformation and release process. I highly encourage you to use the creative arts as a way to build inner awareness and growth in conjunction with self tracking. I specifically use the Expressive Arts in my work for this reason. Read why I use art as a healing resource. Did you catch my *free* class Ultimate Self Care for Sensitive Types? You can still listen to it until April 4th. I've also just re-launched my Be Your Gift class series for those seeking deeper support for their sensitivity. Sign up to hear the replay. Need some extra guidance and clarity? Schedule a session with me. Plan your week in tune with nature. Never miss a planetary update. Sign up for my weekly newsletter. Four steps to get you back to neutral when chaos and overwhelm strike.
A simple guided practice to help you self track and find an inner resource.  How to Use Jyotish Wisdom to Heal Your Body Most people think of Jyotish Astrology as a means of charting the planets, the stars, the movements of the heavens. For those of us who subscribe to this very ancient body of Vedic knowledge though, we understand that there is a correlation between the cosmos and our own inner nature, our experience of life. There is a connection between the macrocosm and the microcosm, the two are not separate, but dance, mingle and co-create. This divine interplay is what makes studying Jyotish so valuable. I use Jyotish as a means of explaining and exploring the inner being, the inner realms of our own felt experience. In fact all of my transit reports are a reflection of my own experience with the cosmos, my own expression of their movement. This is why the consciousness of the Jyotishi is of the utmost importance; traditionally, the life of the astrologer has been one of constant purification and refinement, so as to "see" more and more clearly. Jyotish after all is the science of light, the science of vision, sight. If we can use the wisdom of Jyotish to see within ourselves, our consciousness, we can use this awareness for healing insights as well. Truthfully, Jyotish is so vast and all-encompassing, it includes all expressions of our humanity- our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies, or the four bodies. I share more about this unique correlation in my article on sensitivity. Quite literally the Jyotish chart (I strictly use a North Indian style chart) shares in detail the connection to our various bodies- through the planets, houses and even the nakshatras. We could even say that each one of these pieces of jyotish wisdom connects to one of the four bodies, so that ultimately when we are looking at our jyotish chart we are looking at a web of energies, a web of our own cosmic energies. The multiple layers of the chart are so interwoven, it is this complexity that we study in Jyotish in order to see the many relationships between energies and how they express themselves uniquely through us. This is a nuanced and intuitive awareness that comes with much studying, clarity and inner vision. I believe in fact that this gift is possible for each one of us to embrace; it is after all connected to our intuition, our felt senses, our inner knowing. This is a refinement process we can learn and create. One of my greatest passions is helping others awaken to their own cosmic nature- studying one's jyotish chart gives us that ability. I encourage all of my clients to study their own charts, in fact, I believe that is really the whole point of Jyotish! To know ourselves, truly, inside and out. To awaken to our own cosmic nature! This is why I'm offering my ongoing classes, Jyotish Basics for Transformation and Healing. So that you can begin to awaken to the wisdom of your own existence, your path, the effects of the transits, and how to track these changes within you. Get all the details about my Jyotish Basics classes here. Because I bridge my Jyotish knowledge with the wisdom of the body, as well as the creative arts, I use the Jyotish chart a resource specifically to study the physical body and its myriad of expressions. My embodiment work is deeply intertwined with body part metaphors and the implications this has on our life experience. Therefor the connection one's chart has with specific body parts is of the utmost fascination and importance for me. We can look at the body part connections within the chart from multiple lenses- whether it be through the houses, the planets or the nakshatras. To keep it simple, I'll share in this article the specific body parts that are connected to specific houses in the chart, as this is a wonderful first step for identification purposes. We can then connect the houses of our own chart to our own specific body parts. If for example you are having hand pain, you would look to the third house to see what is effecting the "house of hands." There is also a natural connection to Gemini as well because Gemini correlates to the number three, or the third house. The body parts (and houses) also connect us to specific chakras as well. For now, let's just stick to the houses and their correlating body parts and keep it simple. First House: Head and face Second House: Throat, neck and mouth Third House: Hands, arms and shoulders Fourth House: Chest, heart, lungs, breasts Fifth House: Upper stomach, solar plexus Sixth House: Lower abdomen Seventh House: Pelvic bowl and organs therein Eighth House: Sexual organs, genitals, excretory organs Ninth House: Legs but specifically thighs Tenth House: Knees Eleventh House: Calves, ankles Twelfth House: Feet My work specifically includes a synergy of Jyotish wisdom, embodiment tools and art therapy resources, so working with body parts specifically is highly useful for making diagnosis and prescriptions for my clients. Often we can get ample wisdom from the body itself, and then take that information back to the chart for deeper investigation. It's this cross checking that becomes a very potent healing and transformation tool. To give you an example of this, I'll share a Creative Ritual here so you can get started with the self tracking process. We will be working directly with these tools in my Jyotish Basics Classes for Transformation and Healing. If you want to grow in the wisdom of your body and its cosmic intelligence, I strongly encourage you to join me for these Sunday classes. Register here. It will also help if you have your own North Indian style chart to study. If you need a copy of your chart, I offer this service here. Creative Ritual Self Tracking, Learning from the Wisdom of the Body {Audio recording below} 1) Sit, stand or lay down. Close your eyes and fall into the rhythm of your breath. Notice the rise and fall of your chest, the waves of breath moving in and out of your body. Take some time to relax into this rhythm. 2) As the body moves to greater stillness and relaxation through breath awareness, locate a sensation in the body. This sensation might show up as a tingling, a pulsing, or a sense of vibration. There might even be a color, a shape, a sound or a word that arrives in connection to the body part. Listen and honor whatever arrives for you. Don't filter the messages, judge or critique them. Your only job is to listen right now. Be curious, be interested, and be present to the body's messages. What body part emerges? What sensations are arriving? What messages are shared? Take note of this wisdom coming to you from your body. 3) Create an image of this physical body sensation that arrived through your self tracking. Use craypas or paint and put your experience on paper- so as to transfer the felt senses into a tangible, visual expression. This is a powerful part of the process and one that can shift us into deeper awareness of our body wisdom. 4) Once your image is complete, give it a title. Now, let it speak. What does your image have to share with you? If your image could speak, what would it say? 5) Pull out your Jyotish chart. What body part emerged in your self tracking exploration? What house of the chart is connected to this body part? Study this house within your chart. What do you notice? We can analyze the experience of the house by noting: What planets are sitting there, if any? What sign is located in this house? Do any planets give their drishti (gaze)? Finally, note the current transits and what planets might be effecting this house currently. Your body is sharing with you a very specific message. This message is directly connected to your needs, your desires, your deep longing for nourishment, comfort, safety and support on some core level. When we can access the wisdom of the body directly, we get very clear, unfiltered messages and insights. The cosmic intelligence of the jyotish chart can then help us further identify what is impacting us both macrocosmically and microcosmically. This is the vital information we need for deepening our healing and transformation process. Ready to learn more? Want to dive into more about this divine interplay between your body and your karmic Jyotish map? Learn more about your karmas and how to overcome blockages hindering you from being well fed by life. Please join me for my June Jyotish Astrology Classes. Get the Details. Need some extra guidance and clarity? Schedule a session with me.
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