Oh my gosh, the freaking phone and all the issues and miracles it brings.  We love our phones.  I will be the first to say I am attached to mine.  It is always with me.  Even when I run.  But, I know my attachment to the phone isn’t really about the phone.  The creators of all the magic in the phone are making money by feeding a different problem.  Because really, its not the phone that is the problem.  The problem is ego.

Ego is what keeps us separate.  I am different than you. I have been through things no one else has.  I have my stories.  I am great at these things.  I am terrible and these other things. The ego creates likes and dislikes.  I like this, I can’t stand that. Craving and aversion are ego attributes. 

Yoga, at its inception, was a practice to transcend ego.  Meditation and physical practice were all one thing designed to transcend the lower self (ego) so that we could connect with all that is greater.  When we cater to our likes and dislikes we are giving power to the lower mind and stunting our progress of expansion.  Same thing with fear and avoidance.

What would happen if we stopped living every moment of our day ruled by likes and dislikes, fear and avoidance?  How much would we open up?

So this brings me back to phones.  The makers of apps and the existence of social media skillfully cater to ego.  In ego state, we are in a state of discontentment.  We feel uneasy, bored, alone, like we lack something, irritated, angry, incomplete, sad, depressed and/or anxious.  The creators of what is available on the phone KNOW this and put, in our little hand, the distraction that feeds candy to the ego/lower self.  And we keep reaching for the candy.  I feel myself do it.  I have an uncomfortable thought, and I grab my phone.  It is automatic.  And it BUGS me.

How to stop?  Disrupt the habit field and create new habits.  This takes practice.  And being extremely conscious about what you are doing.  Talk with someone you love.  Create a healthy delicious meal for yourself.  Get outside.  Move your body.  I have to say it…. meditate.  See if you can overcome some likes and dislikes and open up a tiny bit more to what is available to you.  Which is everything.
​

$77 entire series
$60 5 classes
$15 1 class drop in

Begin your day with focus and intention in a morning meditation class.  The class includes a 20 minute guided mindfulness meditation, ideas for practicing mindfulness throughout your day, Q & A, and reflection. Jill creates a safe, supported space that allows you to begin or deepen your meditation practice.  You'll develop a deeper connection to yourself and others, and leave class ready to meet the rest of the day with clarity and calm.  Jill's teachings meet you where you're at with your meditation practice.  Class is designed for all levels- beginner to advanced meditators.  ​​

Our most valuable currency is time.
​When I was in India, I had the opportunity (the GIFT) of spending time thinking about how I spend time.  Time has always been an elusive thing to me.  Sometimes, I literally count how many minutes I have in a morning or afternoon, how many tasks I need to do, and plan exactly how many minutes I can spend on what.  In fact, before I went to India, I was so manic about everything I had to do that my motto became “No minute left behind!”  I have been doing this since high school.  It is a habit I am trying hard to break, this iron-grip on time.  This struggle with it.  The anxiety it gives me to think about.  Karma is a subject for a different newsletter but an English word to describe Karma is bondage.  It is bondage you are born with or you get from your upbringing or environment.  In our lives, part of our purpose is to recognize and break free from the bondage.  For me, time is bondage.

My teacher in India would say:

Time is your most valuable currency, how are you spending your currency?

This is something I work on all the time, how am I spending my currency in a way they brings me the most joy.  Or if not more joy, less stress.

This brings me to Summer, which technically hasn’t even started but it already seems very over scheduled.  I am trying to back down, without guilt.  There is so much power in solitude. 

Solitude gives us super-powers.

This is my hope for us all, this Summer, among all the Summer activities and fun, we can also find solitude.  Unwired, outside, or in a meditation, or a yoga practice, or a walk, or a hike, or a paddle, or whatever you love.  Deep quiet time, alone.

Date: Friday, May 17th, 2019
Event Time: 6:30pm - 9:30pm​
Price: $47 early bird / $67 starting May 14th 

Experience a profound liberation from worry and anxiety. Pave a powerful new path of deep fulfillment, abundance, and live your bigger purpose
 
Are you a health-loving person who has done yoga, read your share of self-help books, attended healing workshops, and perhaps had some powerful spiritual glimpses, but when it comes to your everyday reality you still struggle with overwhelm, anxiety and the feeling that something is missing?
 
Come join us for a rare opportunity to journey with internationally renowned healer and master teacher Julia Mikk through a life-changing breath-sound-healing-ceremony. 
 
You will experience emotional relief, touch deep inner peace, and access clear Soul Guidance for your life!
 
"Beyond bliss, working with Julia was a journey to my pure self. I directly experienced the powerful love and light of the universe and felt myself expand and return to that state of being. I have never felt so aligned, so open to receive the beauty and gifts of the universe! I feel completely clear, cleaned out, connected, peaceful and calm. No longer do my thoughts spiral into anxiety or worry." -Laura Hodge, healer, Ojai, CA
 
Julia Mikk, born in Estonia and now living in America, is an internationally renowned healer, teacher, bestselling author, and founder of Breath of Love work. During the last 20 years she has worked with thousands of people worldwide. 
 
Julia’s sessions instantly change people's lives. Her clients come from many different countries to experience the Breath of Love process, receive a deep emotional and physical healing, and embody courage to live their soul purpose using this very same powerful  healing process that will be introduced in this 3 hour workshop. 
 
Many have said that it's like no other healing work style out there. It is very powerful, incredibly efficient and quick in its ability to break through stagnant patterns. Yet, even though the work comes with a powerful force of light, it also offers an astounding depth of Divine Feminine gentleness and nourishment. 
 
Join us to:

• Find out what it feels like to have profound clarity, and pure peace permeate your whole body and mind. 
• Rewire your nervous system and clear trauma energy from your body.
• Open the channels to connect with your Soul's clear guidance.
• Manifest your bigger vision and purpose with courage and confidence

Date: Friday, May 17th, 2019
Event Time: 6:30pm - 9:30pm​
Price: $47 early bird / $67 starting May 14th ​

NOPE.  No rules to being a Yogi.
I am pretty open about the fact that I am vegan, and I don’t drink. (And I am not THAT boring!!) But it wasn’t always like that.
I also now enjoy quiet.  And being alone.  I crave it.  It definitely wasn’t always like that.  At all.  I used to avoid quiet like it was my job.  Fill my schedule to the brim.  Stay busy.  Don’t sit still.  Get as little sleep as possible.  GO GO GO!

So, what changed?  I started meditating and practicing yoga.

This example in my own life reminds me of something the great Yogananda once said to a student.

A tiny bit of background: Paramahamsa Yogananda's autobiography — titled Autobiography of a Yogi — is one of the most iconic books in yoga today, about his life spent bringing the yogic teachings from the Himalayas to the west in the early 1900s. (You'll even find it on our yoga teacher training required reading list because his Kriya Yoga practices and Meditation Technique are from the same lineage as what we learn in Yoga Hive's Yoga Teacher Training).
 
In Awake, the documentary about Yogananda’s life, there’s an interview with one of his students where he recalls a conversation with Yogananda — the one that popped into my head this morning. The student was asking his teacher what he's not allowed to do as a student of yoga.

Yogananda: Do you smoke?
Student: Yes.
Yogananada: You may continue. Do you drink alcohol?
Student: Yes.
Yogananda: You may continue. Do you enjoy the opposite sex promiscuously?
Student: Yes 
Yogananda: Well, you may continue!
Student: Wait a minute. You mean, I can come up on this hill ... with all these wonderful people ... and study these teachings, and I can go back down there and do all these things? 
Yogananda: Absolutely! But I will not promise you that as you continue to study these teachings that the desire to do these things won't fall away from you. 

 
That’s just it: On the path of yoga, over time, our preferences change. What charms us refines. Sometimes, whom we surround ourselves with changes too.


At first, this can seem abrupt and unfair. Why is this happening to ME?! Why am I the one that has to live without this person, this food, this drink, this activity? Why am I the sober vegan?

What I’ve learned through yoga is that change is ultimately good in all its forms, and that life doesn't happen TO us. It happens FOR us. Looking at life that way shifts everything — and it doesn't eliminate the inevitable pain of being a human sometimes... but it does eliminate unnecessary suffering. Change becomes a surefire sign we’re moving forward, and everything is (always) working out.

This is a yogi's evolution. Yoga teaches us to release attachment.  Over time, instead of pushing away that little voice telling me I should stop drinking alcohol, I trusted the voice. More importantly, I trusted that when I did, everything would be ok. People wouldn’t stop inviting me to social events.  Or, if they did, it was a sign for my social circle to change and evolve. I knew what my body and soul needed, and I let the habit fall away.
 
I bet you, too, have heard that voice in the back of your mind begging for something you know is good for you. Or begging you to stop a habit you’ve had for years. Or a deep desire to try something new. 
 
So wherever you’re at, maybe this will be the nudge you need to make that change your body has been asking for. And if it involves doing more yoga, you know where to find us!


See you soon at The Hive!

In light,Blaine

I, like many of you, do a lot of things to keep myself healthy.  I eat lots of plants that have fiber and loads of antioxidants and micro nutrients, I abstain from alcohol and drugs, I exercise frequently in many different ways, I limit sugar, I use essential oils, I meditate, I take supplements, I see a Chiropractor, eat fermented foods, I could go on and on.  And I, like many of you, get pulled into advertising.  I should be on this particular green juice, I need this expensive coconut yogurt, what juicer should I buy?

Even though I do a lot of things, and don’t do a lot of things, the real reason why I feel great is simple:

I get sleep, I drink plenty of water, I move my body, I am involved in my Community.

Everything else is second place to the above.  When I am making tough choices about what will get done and what won't, sleep is a big factor in my decision making. I am not going to make this a research paper but the biggest bang for your buck in health are the basics.  And there is no buck, or not much of one.  Sleep, water, stretching and moving, the love of your Tribe.

And if you immediately feel yourself pulled into resistance as you read this, “I don’t have time to sleep!”  That is ok.  Be gentle with yourself.  Notice the thought pattern.  There is no perfection to be achieved.

Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement.  We can only focus on a couple of things at once.  In an effort to continuously improve, getting enough sleep, staying hydrated, engaging in physical activity and spending time with other people who have your back, and you have their's, is a great place for self-work.  And self-love.

See you soon at The Hive!

In light,Blaine