Greetings!
The end of winter – Pisces Season
Spring Equinox – Astrological New Year – Start of Aries Season
Rebirth
These are all themes related to this time of year. Thus, this month our journal prompt is VISION. What is your vision for yourself? For the year? For the day? We can get bogged down in the details sometimes we need to see the bigger picture. Before we rise in the spring, let us dream in winter soothed by the peaceful waves of Pisces.
Greetings beloveds,
I hope you have a having a wonderful day! Yesterday we went over various ways to get active and start moving. To support you in this endeavor I have put together a list of yoga poses that will stimulate circulation and get that blood pumping followed by a quick flow using these poses.
Here’s to sacred movement in all of it’s forms!
-Rose
Yoga Poses to Stimulate Circulation
Warrior II – Counterpose downward Facing dog
Warrior I – Counterpose: downward facing dog
Revolved Extended Side-Angle – Counterpose: standing forward bend
Chair – Counterpose: standing forward bend
Revolved Half-Moon- Counterpose: Standing forward bend
Legs Up the Wall – Counterpose: Corpse
Cobra – Counterpose: Childs pose/lying on belly
Camel – Counterpose standing forward bend/childs pose
Locust – Counterpose: lying on belly/childs pose
Pigeon – Counterpose: knees-to-chest/seated forward bend
Gentle Spinal Twist
Seated Spinal Twist I- Counterpose: staff
Seated Spinal Twist II – Counterpose: staff
Head to knee forward bend – Counterpose: knees to chest
Revolved Head to Knee forward bend – Counterpose: seated forward bend
Open Angle – Counterpose: Knees-to-chest
Garland – Counterpose: staff
Kneeling Pose – Counterpose: staff
Sage – Counterpose: staff
Gentle Yoga Flow to Stimulate Circulation
Start seated with your legs crossed comfortably. Inhale feeling your back lengthen and straighten as you do. Place your right hand behind you and exhale into a twist bringing your left hand onto your right knee for seated spinal twist. Hold here for 3 breaths.
Now extend your legs in front of you into staff making sure your spine is straight by imagining each vertebrae stacking one on top of the other. Inhale arms overhead and exhale bending at the waist into seated forward bend. Hold for as long as you need.
Inhale slowly raising your arms overhead and exhale lowering your arms. Repeat 2 times.
Next, spread your legs as far apart as is comfortable for you into a v shape. Inhale arms up exhale bending at the waist placing your hands on the floor in front of you where ever you feel comfortable for open angle. Hold for 2 breaths then on your next inhale raise up slightly and on the exhale bend forward from the waist lowering deeper into the pose. Hold here for 2 breaths. Repeat as many times as you like until you have reached the deepest pose for you.
Now inhale slowly raising up out of the pose and find yourself in legs together, abdominal muscles activated, arms comfortable at your side. Inhale raising your arms overhead letting your shoulders slide gently down holding your arms parallel to each other elbows and palms facing inwards into Mountain pose. Take 2 breaths and then exhale lowering your arms as you do so. Repeat 2 times. On the third, exhale bend forward at the waist for standing forward bend. Repeat this again 2 times. Return to standing position arms lowered at your sides once again.
Plant your right food firmly on the ground at the front of your mat if you are using one, feeling each toe connect with the ground. Step your left foot back behind you with your foot turned out. Align yourself until your hips are squared. Inhale slightly up and exhale bending your right knee to a 90 degree angle. Exhale, rotating your core and turning your head so that you are looking out over your right hand into Warrior II. Hold for 2 breaths or longer if desired. When ready, exhale lowering your left arm down along with rotating your core back towards the ground. Inhale, slowly raising up from the waist bring your arms to rest on your hips.
Inhale rising up slightly. Exhale keeping your right knee bent at a 90 degree angle you’re your torso still facing to your right. Place your hands firmly either on your knee to steady yourself. When you’re ready inhale your arms up in the same fashion used in Mountain pose for Warrior. Breath here, using your feet to feel the connection to the ground. Your weight should be centered in your hips, your core strong supporting your upper body. Hold here for 4 breaths. Inhale raising up just slightly and exhale releasing your arms back to your knee.
On your next exhale lower your arms and place your hands back on your knees. Inhale, and on your next exhale lower your hands to the floor. Now inhale and raise your left leg up behind you. Inhale bringing your right hand to your hip for a breath. Then on your next inhale shrug your right shoulder towards your ear and lift your right arm up opening the chest area completely into Revolved Half-Moon. Breathe here for 3 breaths If you are feeling too challenged here, lower that right arm and raise your left forearm to bring your hands into prayer pose. Your core still rotated to the right. Hold and breathe here. When you are ready, exhale lowering that left arm to the ground placing your right hand on your right hip. Inhale, raise up slightly moving your left arm to your right knee and bring your right hand to meet it there.
Both hands resting upon your knee on your next inhale step your left leg forward both feet together knees slightly bent. Steady yourself and inhale slowly rising up into standing. Repeat again on your left side.
Once done, standing tall inhale your arms up overhead into Mountain and then exhale releasing your arms to your side. Repeat as many times as desired. On your last exhale bring your hands together in Prayer pose at your heart chakra.
-Rose
Greetings beloveds,
I hope that the exercises and information that has been shared about how our thoughts affect our reality have been useful for you. Changing the way we think effects the energy we attract and in turn the types of relationships that we will have with ourselves and others. Yet it is also important to understand how the brain works so for today we have a bit of homework to do.
I’ve compiled this quick list of links to sites that cover the physiology and functions of the brain.
Web MD- Brain Human Anatomy
Inner Body- Human Brain and Nervous System
Brain HQ – The Brain in Love
Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute – Love and the Brain
Now that we have an idea of how the brain works and how it interacts with what we have come to recognize as love some of your behaviors and patterns in relating to others may make more sense. Overall, how we relate to others depends on how we have been trained and what we have found works (or at least we justify that it should work) to get us the results we desire.
If you haven’t already test it out. Take note of how you feel when you are around a person, animal, or thing that you love. Then note how you feel when you eat certain foods such as chocolate or others that personally for you have positive associations. Do you find that you are experiencing similar feelings in both situations? Take notes and let me know what you find out.
With love as always,
-Rose
Greetings beloveds,
Now that we’ve covered ways to clear our mind now we can begin to direct our thoughts towards sending energy towards creating the life we desire. We’ve all heard of the law of attraction which states that what appears in our life depends on the energy we put out whether we are aware of it or not. Things get sticky when it comes to this conversation because who would put out an energy to attract pain, abuse, or fear? What about the children who are hurt? How could they have put out an energy to attract that? The choice to harm another comes solely from the perpetrator never from the one receiving the abuse. We live in a world of co-creation with a lot of wonky lingering energy. This energy has been around for so long we are often unaware of its presence and thus are unable to direct ourselves away from it. This is why it is important to take time to become aware of your thoughts and clear out space to evaluate whether they are thoughts, experiences, and energy that you would like to have in your life. If not then work must be done to let those thoughts go.
Now we have some space to grow, to create. What are your dreams? What do you want your world to look like? This space is calling for you to put forth what you would like your world to include yet often we are so busy living our lives and caring for others we let the same energy come right back into our consciousness. Using tools such as a mind map or a vision board can help you find clarity. Once you have an idea of what you desire it is then time to turn your attention towards those desires. Find images, draw, sing, dance, create affirmations, do whatever you can to bring your attention towards that which you desire.
It is important though to use that heart connection to assess whether your focus is on your lack of what you desire or on the feelings on joy and anticipation of receiving your desire. If it’s coming from a spirit of lack time to go general. Find whatever brings you joy and focus on that. For me, it’s Bob’s Burgers the cartoon. This show makes me laugh no matter what is going on in my life. It immediately makes me smile and feel happy. What’s your Bob’s Burgers? Find it and use that as a springboard to get to that feel good space where you ready to turn your attention towards your desires. Then if you feel that edge of “but I don’t have it”, “it’s hard to get this”, “I can’t wait for it to be here” that’s your signal to move your attention to that joy button and get back in that space of attracting what you want and not what you don’t.
If you’re a bit skeptical of whether you have the ability to not only influence but create your life here’s a little experiment that you can do. Pick your favorite color, dessert, book, or item and spend 5-10 minutes of your meditation time on that thing. See yourself eating, reading, or with your favorite thing. Picture how happy you are when you have it. If it’s difficult to use visualization then perhaps turn this into a song, write about it, or paint it. Just find something to use to focus your energy on that thing. Know that you have it. Do this for 5-7 days and then release it. In time it will come to you most likely in a way that you didn’t expect.
Have fun dreaming and creating loves!
-Rose
Greetings beloveds,
Sometimes we just need to take a mental break. We are constantly being bombarded with information from everywhere as energy is constantly moving and aligning with us. As such our sensory organs (eyes, nose, skin, mouth, ears) are taking it all in and it’s up to our brain to sort through it all. Our brain that ends up doing the grunt work. It’s kind of like the goffer of the office. Running here and there to take care of all the needs of the body and soul while also ANTICIPATING what may come in order to be prepared.
So much stimulation though can lead to us feeling overwhelmed and overworked. This is that time when the thoughts are running through our mind so quickly of things we need to do, stuff happening in the current moment, and all the things that have previously occurred. We get to the point where we may begin to drop the ball or we are going 90 miles an hour to get everything complete, never really giving anything our full attention. When our minds are moving so quickly it makes it difficult for us to make the best decisions because of our inability to fully consider the issue because we are so distracted. So many areas of our lives may suffer due to our trying to handle too at one time.
Here are some signs that it you may have gotten to that point:
If you find that any of these apply to you it might be time to figure out how to give your mind a break to give your best to yourself and everything that you do. I was at this point 2 years ago. I had started my first “adult” job while completing my thesis and comps for an additional degree. I went from writing 6 hours a day on my own schedule to trying to rearrange my life into the 8-5 lifestyle while still needing to write. Needless to say it started with my diet. I found myself not feeling like I had the time or drive to fix fresh meals like I did before. So I started eating out more and more. Then the physical activity began to diminish as I found that the time I would spend working out, spending time outside, or doing yoga now needed to be spent at work because of the more rigid schedule. Eventually I had stopped doing many of the things that kept me balanced and feeling my best. I had to make a change.
My source of change came from the completion of my degree first which provided me with more time. After that I had the opportunity to put my energy towards figuring out what I needed in order to feel my best while still meeting the requirements of my job. This meant putting my spirituality, physical health, and diet on the same level of importance as my external obligations. For you, this could mean that you take a vacation, staycation, read a book, watch a movie, or take a walk outside. I found that a morning routine that included meditation became a priority even if it was only for 10 minutes. It may seem easier to become overwhelmed than it is to take a break due to society’s glorification of busy which often happens simultaneously with shaming visible inactivity. But the trade off is worth it. So here’s some ideas of how to clear your mind so we can start the process of giving our brain some love and attention.
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-Rose
Greetings beloveds,
It’s finally happened! Texas has finally experienced a cool front and that means that everyone wants to be outside. This is a great time to start or restart your movement practice. Since fall is ruled by the element of air, we are looking at movement that brings our attention to our breath. I know for me I always become aware of my breath while practicing intentional walking, jogging, or running. I say intentional walking, because for many folks walking is their primary mode of moving their body from one place to another. Because it is something we do all the time, it becomes an automatic behavior. We do not have to think about all the systems that are necessary for our bodies to allow for us to walk. Yet, if for any reason we are unable to move in that manner or our attention is brought to the physical systems involved in that form of movement. When we intentionally walk, we are bringing our attention to our organs, muscles, breath, and energy while moving.
Anytime we focus on our attention on something it gives it power. Not power over us, but power to be utilized and amplified. We then can decide what we would like to do with that power. Sometimes you need to circulate that energy internally other times you may need to perform a little magic to enhance your external world. The choice is yours. What is important is to make the decision to take the action. Even if it is just to clear your mind, movement that can shift your energy is a way to improve your well-being. What is even more magnificent is that breath itself is a form of movement. If possible take in this beautiful weather through some intentional breath, walking, or running. We will cover some specific techniques in our next post on movement during the fall.
Have a beautiful day,
-Rose
Can you believe that it’s already November. 2018 flew by and I know for many of us we could not be happier to move along this year. This November is all about self worth and healing. What has been holding you back? What are the unconscious scripts that guide your life? With all the talk of shadow work it might seem like this is something that can be done quickly or once you have done this bit then you’re finished. Shadow work is just like any other form of personal development. It never ends. The more we bring to light more shadow we cast. This is a marathon not a sprint. So we move forward sometimes quickly sometimes slow as molasses. How quickly we change does not matter, it’s the work that matters most.
Let’s get into some highlights of Novembers’ Astrology
November 6- Uranus square True Node, True Node enters Cancer, Uranus retrograde enter Aries
I’ve talked about this before last year but it’s here!! You ready for change, cause it’s ready for you. Swallow your pride and go into your fears today. Here’s what we can do to best utilize this energy. My faves Caroline Elliot uses this in her course Influence and Amber Khan is currently taking folks through this process in reference to the book Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. It’s creating your new life through actively seeing it as you want it to be on a “movie screen” in your mind. More importantly, Amber emphasizes the importance of rewriting what I call, our life scripts to better fit what you desire to accomplish.
The best way I’ve enjoyed describing this process is that you are an actor. You have been hired to play a role so you head in to read the script. You receive a character profile with all the personality traits and characteristics of who you will be playing. Then you get the script which has all the details of what will happen to your character. This is only the first season or movie in the cinematic universe so there’s space for the character to grow and change. This character interacts with others and through this interaction their life unfolds with twists and turns. Yet, they remain true to their character profile. Suppose though that there is a major event that happens in the world. Characters will be impacted, the story will change. Your work will adapt yet, your character profile will remain the same. Perhaps, you decide that it’s time for your character to change. You want to react in a way outside of your nature. You see potential for your character so you start to slowly incorporate changes. Next thing you know you’re character has evolved and the story that was written out no longer makes sense. So it changes again.
Your personality is the character profile, you are the actor , and your life is the story. When you decide to make a change if you do not change your character profile your personality and identity stays the same. Your story remains on track. So we must change our profile and we do that through placing ourselves into the movie of our lives. We live out our desired life through visualization. When you encounter resistance, breathe through it. You are worth the work it will take to rewrite your character profile and update your script.
Go, imagine, be.
Kamilah Rose
Greetings beloveds,
I’m resting in a small 5 room inn and restaurant in Glastonbury after 3 days of immersion in the energies of Avalon. It’s been 5 days since my 31st birthday. This past year feels like a flash of light. I spent the beginning trying to navigate a really toxic work relationship while getting back to my true self. One that made me face my darker aspects that are mean, petty, and envious of others because I still compare myself to what others have achieved. It’s something that I am constantly working on to change my inner dialogue about my worth and my relationships to others. My inner dialogue sometimes is so supportive but at other times I say very disparaging things about myself. Some of these things are so ingrained in my psyche that I do not even realize that I’m saying them unless I’m being consciously aware of my thoughts.
My intention for my 31st year on this subject is to turn my thoughts towards the positive. I want to not feel that anxiety and rise in energy when there’s something really big I want to work on or achieve. So here’s my list of goals for the 31st year.
The goal that feels the most vulnerable to me is to open my heart. To move from my heart and use the wisdom I have learned along with my powerful will to manifest the life that I want.
I’ve had several folks share with me that my higher self has visited them asking why I continue to hold her back. My only response is that I’m scared of what would come. In my heart I know that things will work out but there’s still this fear of losing my current lifestyle that I am holding on to. I want to expand and do more but I also feel so tired. I must spend my time taking care of myself. What this means in relation to my goals, I’m not sure but I know that I can make headway on many of them. So here’s to a new year for me as we transition from the energy of harvest to death. I welcome change and new starts. I hope you do too.
With love,
Kamilah Rose
Greetings beloveds!
Are you singing summer time love songs solo to yourself, your lover, or a new friend? It’s no coincidence that summer is associated with love, sex, and creation. The heat calls us out of our homes and clothes sometimes. Ruled by the element of water, we are pulled within to the shell of the crab Cancer to gestate. This allows for us to build and be reborn. This summer the theme will be developing and practicing compassion. Compassion towards yourself and towards others. We can get so wrapped up in our own lives and creating our own realities that we forget that others are doing the same. It goes back to the 4 Agreements from Don Miguel Ruiz.
We do not know what others experience and how the experiences affect them. Everyone has their own lives and their own paths. When we make assumptions about others feelings, experiences, dreams, purpose, background we limit what they can be to us. If we hold on to these assumptions we can not fully experience the other person. We only see what we believe they can be. We will all be healing. The Masculine Shadow is being addressed. This can bring up really difficult feeling and behaviors for our self and each other. Find your own ways to see through others eyes. To see what they experience. This will develop your own ability to love and receive love- the key to manifestation.
July
Find ways to show that you care for others. Show up for the work that as being done. If you find you do not have the capacity to hold space, create spaces where folks can care for themselves. I do this with my blog and other social media efforts. Although I am not directly in contact with you all, this space connects us. We are able to explore our thoughts and feelings. To move forward. We can all create spaces for support. Be creative and open.
August
Find your love language and the love language of those close to you. Then discover ways to express that you care through those languages. The more that we give the more we receive. This does not always mean that you have to sit with someone for hours. What are the ways that you express that you care for others? How do they prefer to receive love? Fill your cup. Keep it full. Then let it overflow. From the overflow, share with others. This pool is endless and you always have access to it but you must find your connection. That is the work.
September
Love does not end. It is from this endless pool that we realize that every connection we consciously make is fed through our unconscious reality of being fully connected to all things, times, and spaces. True infinity. There will be challenges this month. The seasons are beginning to change. The air starts to shift. We move from the heart to the soul. Connect these two through Heart, Third Eye, and Crown Chakra work. Breathe deeply so that you are able to take everything in. I believe in you. I love you.
Kamilah Rose
Greetings beloveds,
Sometimes you just need to clear the cobwebs from your brain so you can think again clearly. Today, while working, cleaning, while you sleep, or while meditating take some time to listen to the video below to clear your mind and energy.
