Violet-Flame Meditation

Use the Violet-Flame meditation as a powerful tool to release negative karma, raise your vibration and consciousness.

The violet flame is a powerful tool anyone can use in meditation. It helps release negative karma, raise your consciousness awareness, the frequency of your vibration, and accelerate your spiritual growth. Energy can’t be erased but it can be changed, transmuting negative into positive, darkness into light. This allows you to make the choices you feel negatively about become positive, while also changing your emotional experience. Physically, the violet flame releases emotions and energy pent up within that make you vulnerable to illness and disease.

The violet flame in meditation uses a combination of affirming thoughts and visualization. Once centered, begin by surrounding yourself with white-and-blue protective energy. You may even want to call on archangel Michael for his protection while you go into this powerful spiritual state. Then repeat thoughts such as “I am cleansed and purified by the violet flame.” Picture a huge bonfire before you, its immensity making you feel small beside it, and marvel as the colors flicker between purple, violet, and bright pink. Sense its warmth while noticing that it will not burn you. Step into the flame, letting it surround you entirely while also filling the spaces in your body, your thoughts, even the cells and molecules within you. Once there, focus on the positive things you’d like to create in your life or your hopes for others. Visualize the violet flame in the midst of the scenes as they unfold in your mind. You may want to ask that the power of the flame be multiplied to assist those in need.

When you have finished your meditation, be sure to close with gratitude. The violet flame is a powerful tool that should be used consciously and with intent. Forgetting to close with thanks keeps you connected and may lead to the unintentional misuse of this energy. It is always a good idea when finished with any spiritual practice to give thanks as this creates closure. Saints and adepts throughout the ages have known how to use the violet flame, but it is available for all to use to raise our awareness and, eventually, that of all mankind.

information from www.dailyom.com

CORE of Support

When your core is strong, you'll feel easier in your poses and more capable in your life.

By Andrea Ferretti

This sequence by Harvey Deutch and Sarana Miller, a student of Ana Forrest, taps into your core, the literal and symbolic center of power. But this isn't a "Get a six-pack in six weeks" deal. Instead of focusing on the rectus abdominus (the six-pack), you'll work the deeper layers of the abdominal area, such as the transversus abdominus.

Switching from the six-pack to the deeper layers takes subtle awareness, so be patient even if you can't access the muscles right away. (When all else fails, try laughing, says Miller, since you use the transversus to laugh or cough.)

It's important to persevere, but don't work to exhaustion or you'll end up using your lower back and hip flexors. Plan on doing just a few repetitions each day, and your body will respond quickly. The result of all your hard work? A stronger core, more ease in your poses, and a more powerful you.

Before you begin

Mula Bandha (Root Lock)
Engaging Mula Bandha, or the perineum, contains your energy and strengthens the pelvic floor. Sitting in Virasana, roll your sitting bones back and engage Ashvini Mudra (the anal sphincter muscles). Bring your pelvis back to neutral. Now try to feel the perineum, the area right in front of the anus. Engage Mula Bandha by lifting the perineum (the action is very similar to Kegels). Do 30 lifts 3 times, breathing naturally.

Finding Your TA
The transversus abdominus (TA) is the deepest of the four layers of abdominal muscles. It runs from your lower ribs to your pubis and acts like a girdle, wrapping around your body. Lie back with your feet on the floor. Place your first two fingers on your frontal hipbones and move them an inch toward your navel. Exhale and engage the TA by drawing your belly back toward the ground. Take5 breaths, keeping it engaged.

Please click on the images below to see them in more detail

1. Happy Baby Pose, variation Lie on your back, engage your TA, and reach your arms up. Lift your legs off the floor, with your knees over your hips and your shins parallel to the floor. Keep your TA drawing in as you move your arms and legs back and forth a few inches, like a baby reaching up to play with a mobile. Continue for 30 seconds and then rest. Repeat 3 to 5 times.

2. Toe Taps With your TA engaged, breathe normally as you slowly tap your right toe to the ground and return to neutral. Do the same with the left foot. Repeat 4 times. A sore lower back or hip flexors means you're relying on them instead of your TA to do the work. Reduce the number of repetitions and try it again tomorrow.

3. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose) Bring both feet to the floor. Place a block between your thighs. Reach your tailbone toward your heels and lift your hips into Bridge Pose. This doesn't have to be your highest version of Bridge; focus on keeping the TA engaged. Stay for 3 to 5 breaths. Repeat 2 to 5 times.

4. Dolphin Pose Come onto your hands and knees. Place your elbows under your shoulders and press your palms together firmly. Come into Dolphin, feeling the abdominal area hollow out and the perineum lift. Stay for 5 to 10 breaths.

5. Dolphin Plank Pose Walk your feet back until your body is parallel to the floor. Keep pressing your hands together and hug your inner legs toward the midline. Hold for at least 3 full breaths, using your TA for stability.

6. Salabhasana (Locust Pose) Lie on your belly and bring your arms to your sides, palms facing up. Draw your lower belly toward your spine and lengthen your tailbone toward your heels to engage your TA. Lift your chest off the floor, drawing your heart forward and spreading your collarbones wide. Now lift your legs off the floor. Keep your neck completely relaxed. Stay for 5 breaths.

7. Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose) Come into Downward Dog. To feel Mula Bandha and the transversus, roll your sitting bones toward the ceiling. Then draw your tailbone toward your heels and hug your thighs as if you're holding a block between them. Exhale, then draw your lower belly toward your spine. Stay for 5 breaths.

8. Low Lunge Step your right foot forward between your hands into a low lunge. Bring your hips over your back knee. Press the top of your back foot into the ground and tuck your tailbone. Place your right hand on a block and reach your left arm up. Bend to the right to create a stretch in the left side of the belly. When you're ready, inhale back to center, then step back to Downward Dog. Repeat on the other side.

9. Adho Mukha Vrksasana preparation (Handstand preparation) Stand in Tadasana with your back to a wall. Place your feet a few inches from the wall and hug a block between your thighs. To feel Mula Bandha, roll your pelvis forward and take your thighs back. Then draw your tailbone toward your heels and squeeze the block. Bring the lower ribs toward your spine as you reach your arms up, palms facing the ceiling. Come onto your tiptoes, using the wall for support.

10. Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) Now it's time to put it all together-upside down. Place your hands a few inches from the wall. Come into Downward Dog. Inhale as you kick up. Use your core muscles to help you reach your heels higher up the wall. Stay for 5 to 10 breaths, then come into a forward bend.

information from http://www.yogajournal.com/

3rd eye meditation

Imagine what your life would have been like if you had kept your eyelids shut for your entire lifetime. Your eyes would have worked perfectly and yet your sense of vision would have gone to waste. Similarly, not using your 3rd eye is keeping you in the dark in relation to enjoying the wonders and wisdom of your sense of mystic sight.

Every one of us had our 3rd eye fully open when we were babies. We were effortlessly able to witness the glory of the universe from its subatomic nature to its multi-galactic infiniteness. Through conditioning by our parents, teachers, and peers, we started a process of covering our 3rd eye with layer after layer of illusion. As an example, let's imagine that at one month of age we were laying in our crib looking at the paisley patterned dance of energy that life is. Our mommy stuck a stuffed doll in front of our face and said, "Look at the piggy, look at the piggy." We then started the process of recognizing that particular shape and associating it with the label "pig". We also might have been introduced to the concepts of color, texture, size, and other things. "Baby, look at how pink and fuzzy the nice little piggy doll is." And this began our habit of replacing direct perception of reality with a perceiving, labeling, reacting physically, emotionally, and mentally process. And we went further and further away from an unfiltered pure experience of living life as it takes place. As we aged, we also added a thought analyzing method of judging, comparing, and commenting on every thing our senses brought our attention to, and we got less and less in touch with Now.

The result of this process is similar to putting shutters on a window. No light comes through and those within can only imagine what is on the other side of the shutters. Unfortunately, this really leaves us in the dark about what is real and what life is really about. Just as you can't adequately describe an orange to anyone who has never seen the color orange, or has not tasted one, you cannot understand what a 3rd eye vision is like from reading about it, or hearing it described by someone who has them. You will have to experience it first hand. So, the experience of divine perception, astral sight, aura awareness, mystic vision, or whatever other esoteric label you put on it, will remain only a theory until a way is found to actually open the 3rd eye.

Every time you sit in meditation and do the 3rd eye technique, you remove one of the shutters covering your inner window of wisdom. It is often compared to peeling away layers of skin from an onion. This continues until there is nothing left. And in this No-thing, there is everything. And we return to the pure direct perception of the glory and wonders of the universe we beheld as a baby. But now, we have the understanding that only comes with maturity.

The 3rd Eye Meditation Technique

To begin, place yourself in the place and position that you have found to be most advantageous to meditation. Relax your mind, body, and emotions. Command your mind to cease its chatter, your emotions to stay in a serene mode, and your body to not disturb your meditation in any way. Focus your attention to the sound and feeling of your breath coming in and going out. Return to your breath awareness if you witness that you have lost your focus. At no time during your meditation should you chastise yourself about anything. So, for example, if you lose your attention and then realize this, just accept it without commenting. Return your attention to your breath and then continue with your meditation.

Close your eyes. Place your attention on the area between your eyebrows. After a short time, a point of light will present itself in the center of your inner field of vision. Keep your focus there. For some people, it will be beneficial to raise your eyeballs as if you were looking up at about a 25-degree angle. For others, just directing their attention upwards will be easier and less distracting. After some experimentation, go with one of the ways exclusively. In the beginning of 3rd eye practice, it may help to place your thumb at the outer edge of one eye and your middle finger on the outer edge of the other, while placing your index finger at the mid-point between your eyebrows. This gives you a point of focus to place your attention. It also allows you to prevent your eyelids from fluttering. This commonly occurs, and can be distracting until you get used to the sensations that accompany this technique.

Let the light come to you. Be available to be filled. The more you continue practicing this meditation, the more layers of the veil of illusion will peel away and Reality will reveal itself to you. As you perceive the Truth, your understanding of the delusional concept that you are apart from the rest of the universe will lose its grip on you, and the knowledge that you are a part of all and everything will become undeniably apparent. Your chattering mind will eventually dissolve in the unspeakable transcendent light of love that is now and forever within and without you.

Once you stop being locked into viewing reality from just one perspective, you will start to be free from habitual reactivity. 3rd eye experiences put you in that position. You will recognize that nothing more than a show has been playing out before you in what you considered "real life". And, just like when you are at the theater, you may be interested to some degree with seeing how the plot turns out, but knowing that it is all just a story, you won't take it any more seriously than a show. The constant anxiety and fear that is attached to a singular ego centered view of life will end and be replaced with the bliss of effortlessly merging and identifying with all of creation.

Once a chick has pecked its way out of its shell, it knows that there is a lot more to life than was within its dark confines. Mother Nature, Grace, then gives the chick strong wings that let it fly to the heavens. The 3rd eye meditation technique has the potential to be the beak you use to break out of your shell, as well as the wings to transport you to the infinite, eternal, universal divine reality that is your birthright.

- information from 'cosmic consciousness'

Meditate methods

Turn on some soothing sounds and lay on a heated massage mat.
The heat and massage will losen up tight muscles and joints and help you relax.
Listening to the sounds will help you to drift off and imagine you are in a happy place where you have no worries.
Imagine you are drifting on an air mattress on the water and no one is around to disturb you.
Let all your thoughts flow from your mind and repeat I AM HAPPY over and over. -- steve moore


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Be a tree.

Visualize yourself as a tree, with branches reaching up to the sky and roots extending into the earth.

On every other inhalation, draw air and sunlight in and exhale them down into your roots.

On the alternate inhalation, imagine gathering energy from the earth up through your roots and exhale this through your branches.



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By meditating on each of the four elements (earth, fire, water, air) within yourself, you can see the wholeness of the human body.

Start by meditating on one element per meditation session, and eventually you will incorporate all four elements into a single meditation session.



Begin with the element of earth. Focus on the solidity of your body as you sit, feeling yourself becoming heavy.

Next, move on to the feeling of warmth - the element of fire - pervading every part of your body, starting at your toes and moving upward.

then focus on your blood - the element of water - flowing through each vein and artery.

Finally, breathe deeply and feel the expansion of the abdomen and chest with the element of air.

Return to focusing on your boday. Extend your awareness so that it is united with the earth.

Feel warmth and feel connected with fire. Feel moisture or blood flow and feel at one with water. Feel your breath and feel a deep bond with air.

Meditation is simple

Just sit.
Don't pick up the phone. Don't answer the door. Don't turn on the TV. Don't do those dishes. Don't fold that laundry.
Just sit.
Close your eyes.
Be quiet.
Open your ears and listen to the sounds of life.
Discover the new layers of sound that you never knew existed.
Tune out the surface distractions.
Notice.
Pay attention to the present moment.
Become aware of this moment.
Feel your body.
Feel your breath.
Notice how your body sits.
Notice how your breath moves throughout your body.
Follow your breath.
ZEN.
Use a mantra.
Repeat is silently to yourself, or out loud to your surroundings.
Use it's rhythm to soothe your mind.
Pay attention to your breath to block out distractions.
Focus.

10 minutes

108 Sun Salutations

information taken from an articel written by Cora Wen

The significance of the number 108.

A japa mala or mala is an eastern rosary with 108 beads.

The number of beads represent the 108 human passions.

108 is a Harshad number, which is an integer divisible by the sum of its digits. IHarshad in sanskrit means 'great joy')

There is said to be 108 earthly desires in mortals.

There is said to be 108 lies that humans tell.

There are said to be 108 human delusions or forms of ignorance.

Some say there are 108 feelings, with 36 related to past, 36 related to present, and 36 related to future.

There are 12 constellations, and 9 arc segments called namshas or chandrakalas. 9 x 12 = 108

In astrology, there are 12 houses and 9 planets. 12 x 9 = 108

The diameter of the sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth.

There are 108 forms of dance in the Indian traditions.

Atman, the human soul or center goes through 108 stages on the journey.

There are said to be a total of 108 energy lines converging to form the heart chakra.

There are said to be 108 marmas in the subtle body.

The Hidden Benefits of Yoga - Gaiam Life

The Hidden Benefits of Yoga - Gaiam Life

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