The Earth-Heart Institute of Vision and Healing
Vision Quests, Spiritual Retreats, Women's Retreats, Kundalini Yoga & Meditation, Personal Intensives

July 2005

Welcome to the quarterly newsletter of the Earth-Heart Institute of Vision and Healing. We offer Vision Quests, Spiritual Retreats, Women's Retreat, Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, Personal Intensives, Healing, and Spiritual Counseling. This newsletter will offer thoughts on a chosen topic with simple awareness exercises, meditations, or yogic tips that relate to the topic. We will also update you on our class schedule, recommend books or products that relate to living a healthy and conscious life, and offer some web links to check out that support a greater and more unified Vision of the world, the expansion of the human spirit, and the protection of the environment. If you are not interested in receiving these newsletters once each season, you can click on the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom. Click on our name (above) to visit our complete website.

"A musician is walking around mid-town Manhattan, lost. He taps a passerby on the shoulder and asks,"Excuse me, sir, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?" The man turns and looks at him and says, "Practice, practice, practice!"

PERSPECTIVES

So how do you get to a state of enlightenment, a state of spiritual grace and inner peace? You get there the same way: practice, practice, practice. It's an "action item." It means walking your talk, and it requires your conscious participation.

So, what's been on your mind lately? What do you think about? I don't mean in the hour or so you allow yourself to "be spiritual" doing yoga, or tai chi, or taking a walk in nature, or going to church, or meditating, or doing charity work. (Do you even allow yourself an hour a day for that?) I mean during your other 16 waking hours a day. What are your thoughts when you're commuting to work swearing at yet another driver who cut you off; or you're behind the person at the shortest check-out line at the grocery store who is now slowly writing a check while the other longer lines speed through; or when your spouse does that same-old-thing that they do All The Time that drives you crazy and they clearly-don't-care-about-your-feelings-enough-to-change; or your kids are once again challenging every sentence you utter; or your co-worker is subjecting you to yet another day of annoying personal behavior; or you're with someone you perceive has power over you wishing that they treated you differently because your life would be much better/easier if only they would?

What are you thinking about during those times?

Your thoughts help to shape your physical reality. Check out Dr. Masaru Emoto's work in "The Hidden Messages in Water" if you haven't seen it already. He documents, through photographs, how the energy of thoughts, prayers, words, and sound actually alter the crystalline structure of water. It's a beautiful illustration of the effects of human consciousness and vibration on water, and our physical body is, after all, over 75% water.

My point is, that it's not enough to spend a little time "being spiritual". We set time aside for our daily practice because it's a crucial aspect of raising the bar for our day; tuning into the frequency that we want to live in. So if you don't have a daily practice, it's time to think about starting one. It's not a luxury, it's a necessity, like water to drink or air to breathe. But if all you do is relax and commune with the Divine DURING that small chunk of time, you're missing the forest for the trees. It's not about wishing that all the daily irritations, obstacles, and mundane work would stop so that you could focus more time on your spiritual path, it's about bringing the spiritual into the mundane at every turn. It's about making your drive to work, and your relationship with your spouse and kids and family, and your interactions with the people during your day, PART of your spiritual path.

Like Yogi Bhajan always said, "If you don't see God in all, you don't see God at all." There is nothing that you do that isn't part of your spiritual path here and now. At every moment, what's the lesson, what do you need to do in any given moment to open your heart in the midst of the experience? That's where you'll receive the spiritual gift that will further you on your path. The gift might be greater patience, or tolerance of differences, or a greater sense of humor, born out of necessity. Your ability to access these gifts will depend upon your perspective. Have you already decided in advance that you "know" how a situation is going to play out because it always plays out the same way, that you "know" the person in front of you and you "know" how your interaction is going to proceed, or you "know" what's possible and what's not possible in the situation you're in because you're Smart Enough to perceive the limitations?

Following a basic principle of physics, that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force; I would suggest that a belief system in motion (and the resulting thoughts born from it) will tend to stay in that same motion/pattern, continuing to manifest the same external situations, which then reinforce the belief system and thoughts, keeping them place in an active and predictable pattern, until an outside force acts upon it.

The "outside force" in this case would be your conscious decision to change your perspective. All it requires is the conscious reminder when you catch yourself in the midst of defining a person or situation, to leave a little space, a little breathing room, around your beliefs and thoughts, and what you "know" to be true. If you leave the possibility open in your mind for something new to occur, for a piece of information to come in that you weren't aware of, for someone you think you know well to actually change (and that includes yourself), then you'll find that your experience will change in response.

The "mine field" of your former belief system, where you waited for things to inevitably blow up in your face like usual, is transformed into a larger "Mind Field" where you have more creative capacity than you ever imagined.

Stretch yourself, push the limits of your perspective, take a risk! Challenge what you THINK you know, move into the unknown with a sense of joyous abandon, and open your present experience to the world of alternate possibilities that you haven't yet seen. What are you afraid of? What's worse thing that could happen? I guarantee that it won't be worse than being boxed into a small life in the continuous cycle of "Being Right"...

HELPFUL PRACTICES

EXERCISE #1
Every time you make a statement, defining a situation as you believe it to be (as in "He's always late," or "Things never work out for me," or "Non-fiction books are boring," or "That person is so aggravating," etc.), add one of the following 4 endings on to your sentence:
1) but you never know...
2) anything is possible...
3) maybe...
4) we'll see...

You'll find that this one easy technique is very powerful in leaving the door open for something else to enter. Anything is possible...
(Thanks to Judy Abell for this exercise)

EXERCISE #2
Anyone who has worked with sound knows how powerfully it works on the human body -- even more so when the sound is made with your own voice. Anyone who has done a Vision Quest or spent anytime in profound silence can also appreciate the power of the voice after experiencing what it’s like to come OUT of silence and begin to speak again. This next exercise is VERY EASY and an instant “heart-opener” when fear makes you feel like your heart is closing. Remember that fear closes the door on the unlimited possibilities.

1) Close your eyes, and relax your hands in your lap.
2) Pucker your lips and whistle in the sound “whew!”
3) Then make the sound “Laaaaaaaaaaaa” on the exhale. Make the sound open, relaxed, and full -- from deep within the belly. And make sure your spine and neck are straight and your chin is very slightly pulled back (not down). 3-11 minutes.

NEWS

We are in the final month countdown for the 100-person Vision Quest Aug 6-13th! It's not too late to sign up for it, though we would advise doing it soon, so you can begin to focus your energy toward the event. If you would like to find out more about the ancient rite of the Vision Quest you can check our web site. Our next Quest of this size will not be run until 2008 (though smaller Quests are run regularly). We met a physicist while at our Lighten Up retreat last week, who was VERY excited about the 100-person Quest, speaking to us from the quantum physics perspective about how an event on this scale creates energy exponentially that transcends time and space to create change. Our goal, of course, as we build these larger Quests, is to positively affect global consciousness. Please help us get the word out!

Dr. Val Howard, president of the Ultra Physics Research Institute, has been assembling a team of physicists and M.D.s to teach people about the science behind transformation and transcendence. He was very excited about Earth-Heart's programs because we teach practices that actually transform the way the brain and body function to bring people to a higher level of consciousness. We teach the practices that create the results. We are in discussion about becoming part of their future projects. It's very exciting -- we'll keep you posted!

Allyson will now be teaching regular Kundalini Yoga and Gong Meditation workshops at Yoga Desa in Topanga. Anyone in the L.A. area who is interested in being notified about upcoming dates, times and topics, email us at mail@earth-heart.net

Earth-Heart welcomes artist Sarah Perman on board as a new office staff member. More info on her website address as soon as it's up and running.

COURSE UPDATES

Click on the links below to read about a particular class, or go to Earth-Heart Programs to read about other classes not listed here, and Student Comments to read comments from past participants.

After many inquiries about our artistic retreat Playful Creativity, we have FINALLY gotten it added in the schedule! It will take place March 16-19, 2006 (Thurs-Sun) at the Institute of Mentalphysics in Joshua Tree, CA. This class is going to be pure FUN! You don't need to be an artist to come (though artists are welcome too). If you've never felt like a creative person, this will be an excellent program to show you how limiting that belief is. We are MADE out of the creative force of the universe. We have it flowing in us and though us and it's available to us at any moment if we just learn to get out of our own way by letting go of judgment. We will be doing a wide variety of activities from mask-making, drawing, writing, moving, papier mache creations, coloring, etc.; combining activities in fun and interesting ways to help get the creative juices flowing. Take a mid-winter break and come and dive into that timeless space of child-like playtime, so that you can then bring a creative flow more directly into your life as a creative work-in-progress.

We have added 3 weeks in October for Personal Intensives (only 2 individuals per week). All other available dates in 2005 have been booked at this time. These added weeks will go quickly, and will be the last ones for the year.

There is still space in the Kundalini Yoga Retreat in Sedona, AZ. A certified kundalini yoga instructor through KRI and 3HO, Allyson will be leading this course, and it will run Oct 5th-9th at the Angel Valley Retreat Center. Beginners welcome! If you’re one of the many people who’s been introduced to kundalini yoga at Lighten Up or the 2-Week Retreat, and loved the power of the practice, this is a great chance to come and deepen your knowledge of the science behind it. Especially if you’ve been having a hard time finding a local teacher in your area, and have had only videos to work with! Anyone is welcome, experienced yogis as well as those who've never done yoga a day in your life, but you're curious. (Men, don't rule this one out -- this powerful practice will transform your life and help move you through blocks you haven't been able to get to in other ways).

WORLDWIDE “WEB OF LIFE”

We want to support organizations out there who are working for the uplifting of humanity. If you know of websites that are doing really good work in the world, email them to us for possible inclusion in a future newsletter. We’d like to help get the word out.

Check out www.radicalsages.com Radical Sages hopes to change your perspective on politics. They see inner spiritual work and transformational social action as inseparable, and that wisdom is both insight and action. They believe that our time is calling us to participate wholeheartedly in a social and political life, to evolve the ideal of sage as "aloof witness" to sage as "passionate advocate for peace, freedom, and social justice."

Or celebrate the resilience of the human spirit at www.everydaygandhis.com where they share stories of peacebuilding from people who have known war and violence, in the hopes that sharing and receiving the stories will be healing, and will awaken the peacebuilder in every one of us.

Then take a fun quiz at Beliefnet.com http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html that will show you which religions your personal beliefs are in line with. It may surprise you to find that traditions you have very strong pre-conceived notions about (or some you may never have heard of) are actually high on your list! It's a great tool for teaching people more about the varied world traditions.

"Free your mind, and the rest will follow..."

Many blessings to you all,
Allyson and Malcolm