Saturday, August 30, 2014

Reflection

Please take the weekend to reflect on your journal entries this week. Look for patterns in thinking, explore ideas in more detail, and summarize what you learned about yourself this week.

Swami K

Friday, August 29, 2014

Fifth House

Daily Reflection
Today we will be reflecting on our fifth house, the house of creativity, love affairs, and children

If you enjoy astrology and wish to learn more about which planets and sun signs affect your personality, feel free to do so. For the purpose of our reflections today, we are just going to take a look at our lives as they are in this current moment and observe the main features we see. This is only a preliminary investigation of each of the 12 houses. We are only familiarizing ourselves with the basics.

Today I want you to reflect on the role of creativity in your life. How important is creativity to you? What are some of your creative outlets? Do you belong to a creative community? How do you go about creating your life? What parts of your life would you still like to design?

You should also reflect on love affairs either past or present. Who have you had love affairs with or who did you wish you had? What role do these affairs have in your life now? In the past? What are your attitudes towards love?

Finally, you should reflect on children. Are there children in your life? What are your attitudes towards children? Do you want children or want more children? Have you decided not to have children? Are you young at heart? Do you still feel the child alive within yourself?

Swami K

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Fourth House

Daily Reflection
Today we will be reflecting on our forth house, the house of home and mother.

If you enjoy astrology and wish to learn more about which planets and sun signs affect your personality, feel free to do so. For the purpose of our reflections today, we are just going to take a look at our lives as they are in this current moment and observe the main features we see. This is only a preliminary investigation of each of the 12 houses. We are only familiarizing ourselves with the basics.

Today you should reflect on your attitudes and relationship towards your mother. How well do you know your mother? How did you feel about her as a child? What is your relationship with your mother like now? If your mother has passed on what do you most miss about her? What similar personality traits do you share? How are you different?

You should also reflect on your home environment. What is your home environment like now? Is it similar or different to your home environment as a child? Is your home life satisfying? Are there any changes you would make? Do you like where you live? Would you prefer to live in a different structure or place? What are some of your family traditions? How have you kept them alive?

Swami K

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Third House

Daily Reflection
Today we will be reflecting on our third house, the house of communication.

If you enjoy astrology and wish to learn more about which planets and sun signs affect your personality, feel free to do so. For the purpose of our reflections today, we are just going to take a look at our lives as they are in this current moment and observe the main features we see. This is only a preliminary investigation of each of the 12 houses. We are only familiarizing ourselves with the basics.

The main feature of the third house is our communications with others, so today you will reflect on how you communicate. What is your primary communication style? Do you tend to be confrontational? Do you like conflict? Do you hate conflict? Do you try to mediate or synthesize? Do you find your communications with others to be mostly positive? Negative? Easy? Hard? How receptive are you to the ideas of others?

You should also reflect on how you communicate with yourself? What approach do you take? Do you tend to lie to yourself or are you truthful?

Swami K

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Second House

Daily Reflection
Today we will be reflecting on our second house, the house of wealth.

If you enjoy astrology and wish to learn more about which planets and sun signs affect your personality, feel free to do so. For the purpose of our reflections today, we are just going to take a look at our lives as they are in this current moment and observe the main features we see. This is only a preliminary investigation of each of the 12 houses. We are only familiarizing ourselves with the basics.

Today, you will be reflecting on the wealth that is present in your life. You should first examine your financial situation. Are you in a good financial place right now? Do you wish it was different? Most people could all use more money but how much money is enough, in your opinion?

Our house of wealth is not only about how wealthy we are financially, so you should also examine other areas of your life in which you feel wealthy. Do you feel wealthy in love? Wealthy in children? Wealthy in knowledge? Wealthy in career pursuits? Make a list of all of those areas that bring wealth and blessings to your life.

Swami K

Monday, August 25, 2014

First House

Daily Reflection
Today we will be reflecting upon the first house, the house of our personality.

If you enjoy astrology and wish to learn more about which planets and sun signs affect your personality, feel free to do so. For the purpose of our reflections today, we are just going to take a look at our lives as they are in this current moment and observe the main features we see. This is only a preliminary investigation of each of the 12 houses. We are only familiarizing ourselves with the basics.

What I would like you to reflect on today are the main features of your personality. What characteristics describe you? What is your natural disposition? Your outlook on the world? Your personal interests? This will tell you more about your own personal lens. This is the filter through which you see the world, so it is a good idea to begin investigating the main features of your personality. In the words of Socrates "know thyself". Smiles.

Swami K

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Reflection

Please take the weekend to reflect on your journal entries this week. Look for patterns in thinking, explore ideas in more detail, and summarize what you learned about yourself this week.

Swami K

Friday, August 22, 2014

Day 5 - Major Life Events

Daily Reflection
If you have come to this post on Day 5, go back and take a look at Day 1 first and work your way up to this day. We are going to be spending the next 5 days reflecting on the major events of our lives. This is going to take some time and is a practice you may want to continue because it will give you many details about who you are, how you handle things, what the patterns are in your life, what your strengths are, what your challenges are, etc. This practice can be very helpful to you, particularly if you have questions about yourself, your life, what you want to do next, what your problem areas are, etc.

In your journal you have been exploring each of your life events. Please continue this process today.

Make your way through as many of these as possible and continue this process for as long as you wish. You may want to go back to it at various point in your life. Think about what you discovered about yourself this week. What you found challenging, where your strengths lie, what events really affected who you are today.

Swami K

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Day 4 - Major Life Events

Daily Reflection
If you have come to this post on Day 4, go back and take a look at Day 1 first and work your way up to this day. We are going to be spending the next 5 days reflecting on the major events of our lives. This is going to take some time and is a practice you may want to continue because it will give you many details about who you are, how you handle things, what the patterns are in your life, what your strengths are, what your challenges are, etc. This practice can be very helpful to you, particularly if you have questions about yourself, your life, what you want to do next, what your problem areas are, etc.

In your journal yesterday you began exploring each of your life events. Please continue this process today.

Make your way through as many of these as possible and continue this process on day 5.

Swami K

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Day 3 - Major Life Events

Daily Reflection
If you have come to this post on Day 3, go back and take a look at Day 1 first and work your way up to this day. We are going to be spending the next 5 days reflecting on the major events of our lives. This is going to take some time and is a practice you may want to continue because it will give you many details about who you are, how you handle things, what the patterns are in your life, what your strengths are, what your challenges are, etc. This practice can be very helpful to you, particularly if you have questions about yourself, your life, what you want to do next, what your problem areas are, etc.

In your journal yesterday you wrote down one overall feeling next to each life event you recorded. For example:

Birth of 1st child - fear
Marriage to second husband - great joy
Separation of pelvis - opportunity
Move in 3rd grade - relief

Today and for the rest of the week you will be describing the experience and why you felt the way you did as well as discussing how it currently affects your life. For example:

Separation of pelvis - I saw this as an opportunity because it gave me time with my new daughter. I couldn't do anything but sit in a chair and so I just held my infant all day long. If my pelvis had not separated, I would probably not have taken this time to just hold my daughter. How this has affected my life today - I still have challenges with my pelvis and go through periods of time in which I have trouble walking but it reminds me of this special time I had with my daughter. It still brings feelings of opportunity and joy. My daughter and I share a very close bond. Spiritually, it reminds me to take a break, slow things down, live more in the present moment and look at challenges positively - see them as opportunities rather than hindering.

Make your way through as many of these as possible and continue this process on days 4 and 5.

Swami K

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Day 2 - Major Life Events

Daily Reflection
If you have come to this post on Day 2, go back and take a look at Day 1 first. We are going to be spending the next 5 days reflecting on the major events of our lives. This is going to take some time and is a practice you may want to continue because it will give you many details about who you are, how you handle things, what the patterns are in your life, what your strengths are, what your challenges are, etc. This practice can be very helpful to you, particularly if you have questions about yourself, your life, what you want to do next, what your problem areas are, etc.

In your journal today write down one overall feeling next to each life event you recorded yesterday. For example:

Birth of 1st child - fear
Marriage to second husband - great joy
Separation of pelvis - opportunity
Move in 3rd grade - relief

We will be moving on to the next step on day 3.

Swami K

Monday, August 18, 2014

Day 1 - Major Life Events

Daily Reflection
We are going to be spending the next 5 days reflecting on the major events of our lives. This is going to take some time and is a practice you may want to continue because it will give you many details about who you are, how you handle things, what the patterns are in your life, what your strengths are, what your challenges are, etc. This practice can be very helpful to you, particularly if you have questions about yourself, your life, what you want to do next, what your problem areas are, etc.

In your journal today you are simply going to list out all of the major things that have happened in your life - your birth, any major childhood events that were significant, young adulthood, adulthood, marriages, deaths, births, health issues, divorces, etc. Make sure to include the things that you saw as positive as well as negative experiences and everything in between. We will begin working with these on day 2.

Swami K

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Reflection

Please take the weekend to reflect on your journal entries this week. Look for patterns in thinking, explore ideas in more detail, and summarize what you learned about yourself this week.

Swami K

Friday, August 15, 2014

Working with Change

Daily Reflection
Life is about change. Change is all around us and is continually reoccurring. Today I want you to think about how you respond to change. Do you embrace change? Do you struggle against it? Do you lie to yourself and say, "oh, things have not really changed." Do you mourn the change? How does change affect you?

In your journal today, reflect on some of the major changes in your life - a move, a birth, a death, etc and think about how you responded to this change. Try to answer some of the questions I ask above and also think about these questions - did I handle this change harmoniously or did I cause myself suffering? How can I best work with change in my life?

Swami K

Thursday, August 14, 2014

What Would You Teach?


Daily Reflection
During the ethics class that I teach I often ask the students to tell me what they would teach to others? What often develops out of our conversations is that they find a purpose, a drive or a passion within themselves that arises as the result of the discussion. While the exercise for them is meant as a process to discover a topic for a persuasive research paper, what they actually discover is so much more. Just by answering the question what would you teach to others, they sometimes find their own life song and go on to share these ideas with others. The question acts as a catalyst to find meaning in one's life.

In your journal entry for today, reflect on this question for yourself. What would you teach to others? How might you go about bringing this practice into your daily life?


Swami K

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

What Did You Expect

Daily Reflection
The choice lies in front of you. What do you decide? What are the results of that choice? They are often very different from what we expect. Let's take an example. Let's say you decide you want a new job. There are some problems at your old job and they begin to be intolerable so you decide that a new job is the answer. You begin searching for a new job and you apply to 50 companies. You go on some interviews and finally you are hired. You are very excited and maintain that excitement for a few months. Then, you begin to see that this new job was not quite what you were expecting and that some of the features of the old job no longer seem as annoying as they once were. The environment of the new job is very toxic and after 6 months you begin longing to be back at your old place of work. You start planning a way to leave and to approach your old boss. Your old boss is happy to take you back and addresses some of the previous problems you had. You are back at your old job and some of the old tensions have been resolved.

Our expectations of what is happening and how something might happen in the future are usually different than what actually happens. It can be very helpful to your spiritual practice if you let go of your expectations and just let things unfold. The more tightly we cling to our expectations, the more dissatisfied we become.

In your journal today reflect on a situation similar to the example I gave above. Discuss a particular situation in which you became dissatisfied with something and thought you might be more satisfied if you made a change. Look at your expectations. What did you expect to happen? What actually happened? What might have happened if you never had any expectations in the first place?

Swami K

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Nature of My Life

Daily Reflection
Today we will be reflecting on the nature of your life. We want to evaluate what activities you are most focused on at this time.

In your journal today make a list of everything you did today. For example:

4am - 6am worked on reflection posts for my blog
6am - 8am teaching work
8am - 8pm went grocery shopping, spent time with kids, did house chores

Once you have your list you will be able to see what the main focus is of your life and how much time you are spending on each activity. If you were to look at my list above, you would notice that most of my time and energy goes to being a wife and mother. I spend the majority of my time attending to my children, spouse, and the daily maintenance of the home. What this tells me about myself is that I find my home life extremely important and that I also find it rewarding. This exercise can also help you evaluate whether or not you want to be spending this amount of time focused on one particular thing. It could be the case that I am spending all of this time and energy on my family life but I don't find it rewarding. It is important to note down the feelings and emotions associated with where you are spending your energy particularly if you wish to make a change. You can use this as a starting point to evaluate your time, how you spend it and whether or not you would like to be spending it in a different way.

Swami K

Monday, August 11, 2014

Change Your Lens

Daily Reflection
We all view life from our own personal lens. We see life through the filters we have. It can be very challenging to see someone else's point of view or why that person made a particular choice because of the lenses we are looking through. It can be helpful to us if we change our glasses. If we put on a new set of lenses from time to time to try to experience life in a different way. For example, if I am experiencing difficulty in a particular area of my life, instead of continuing to struggle, I need to change my lenses. I need to look at life through a different pair of glasses. This can be very powerful and can help you get unstuck from those places where you are stuck.

In your journal today talk about one area of your life in which you feel stuck. Now, try on a different pair of glasses and look at the problem again. Try looking at the problem through the eyes of your partner, your friend, your mother, a child. How would each of these people see the problem? Now, try looking at the problem through the eyes of The Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, Oprah, or any other mentor or teacher you find powerful. Record all of these thoughts in your journal. Choose the lens that best suits your needs to work with the problem.

Swami K

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Reflections

Please take the weekend to reflect on your journal entries this week. Look for patterns in thinking, explore ideas in more detail, and summarize what you learned about yourself this week.

Swami K

Friday, August 8, 2014

The Teachers Around Us

Daily Reflection
The universe has sent you many teachers over the years. These teachers are all those people you come into contact with in any given moment. Some teachers have a very brief lesson - perhaps you smile at someone at the grocery store to learn more compassion or help him if he is having a bad day. Other teachers are those friends that we met in our childhood but are no longer in our lives because we learned their lessons. Some teachers stay in our lives for a long time. Our partners of 20 years, our long term friendships, our children, our parents they are all our teachers too.

In your journal today make a list of all of the current teachers in your life. Write down each name and reflect on what they have to teach you. For example, my daughter is always content and joyful in almost every moment. She teaches me how to be more joyful and content. My mother often discusses her struggles in life and teaches me how to become a better listener, how to act compassionately and she has also been my role model. She has been a wonderful mother and has taught me how to be a mother to my children. Who are your teachers and what are they teaching you?

Swami K

Thursday, August 7, 2014

The Lesson of the Universe

Daily Reflection
We might not notice it but every day the universe is sending us a lesson to learn. How do we find out what this lesson is? Through our daily journaling practice and observations of where our lives are right now. All you need to do is take a look at your life and the activities you find yourself doing and you can find out what the universe is trying to teach you. For example, my daily life consists of teaching and being a wife and mother. So, right now, I am learning the lesson of how to teach and how to be a wife and mother. But, let's get more specific. If I look back at the last 10 years of my life, I have largely (with some slight variations) been doing the same thing. This means that I am still learning these lessons or that I have more to learn.

A good place to look for what else you might need to learn in your life as it is right now is to examine your frustrations. What do you get frustrated about over and over again? Perhaps you find that you are always angry with your partner for the same thing (boy, I wish he would pay more attention to me, work less, or whatever your usual thinking patterns are). What this tells you is that you need to learn how to let this go and work more harmoniously with the situation or circumstance. Your partner is not going to change but you can change. This is part of the lesson. Once you no longer get upset or frustrated with this same problem, you have learned this particular lesson and have moved on to the next.

In your journal today, reflect on what you think the universe is trying to teach you? What thought patterns are constantly challenging you? What frustrations do you have with yourself or with others? Have you learned the lesson or are you in the middle of this journey? Just observe where you are right now. Be gentle with yourself.

Swami K

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Back To Balance

Daily Reflection
One morning many years ago I woke up one morning and thought, "how did I get to this point in my life"? This happens to all of us from time to time. It was as if I had awakened after a very long slumber and suddenly noticed that the life I was leading and who I was no longer matched. My life was out of balance. I set an intention and I asked the universe for transformation. This question, which seemed so simple at the time, set into motion a series of huge changes to my life. Divorce, split custody, single motherhood, meditation and yoga practice, seminary, teaching, and later on a new man, a new daughter, a move to another state, and the changes keep coming as I keep unfolding. The transformation the universe offered me was not what I thought it would be but much, much bigger. The transformation was not a new job or a different career. Instead, the transformation has been a quest to bring my life back into balance. Every day, over the last 9 years, I have moved into greater and greater harmony. Notice that I said 9 years. This is not a quick process and it continues and does not stop. The practice takes place one day at a time.

I am thinking that you have found yourself on my website because you too are experiencing a transformation, because you too are seeking to realign your life and put it into greater harmony.

In your journal today, write about when your transformation began, how you got here and where you are now? Reflect on what you have learned so far. Reflect on how balanced you feel right now, in this moment.

Swami K

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Where is Paradise?

Daily Reflection
We have heard the question before - where is paradise? We look for paradise in external places - the sandy beaches of Florida, Pike's Peak in Colorado, the ashrams of India, the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower. We travel the world in search of paradise. We hold on to that moment of peace and beauty when we see these beautiful sites, and just for a moment, we are content; we are happy. People have been searching for paradise for centuries. They have been setting out on a journey - a journey to find bliss. What we come to find as we practice yoga is that we don't need to leave, set out on a journey or travel to find paradise, to find peace, to find contentment, to find happiness. Paradise is found within. Paradise is a state of consciousness.

In your journal today, write about all of those places you have gone to in order to find your version of paradise. Maybe you didn't travel but instead associated paradise with a job, career, relationship, etc. What is your own definition of paradise? If you lived in paradise, what would that look like to you? Ask yourself why? Why have I chosen these things to define my paradise? Slowly begin to shift your thinking from external things to your internal spirit. Go within. Perhaps do a short meditation. What shifts do you need to make to your state of consciousness to create that type of paradise that is your very core, your very foundation, that paradise you carry with you everywhere?

Swami K

Monday, August 4, 2014

The Order of Life

Daily Reflection
Everything that happens outside of me is happening within me. We often think our lives are chaotic and we have trouble understanding what will happen next in our lives. Life can look completely disorderly. However, this is only a misunderstanding of the patterns of our lives. What I mean here is that what we think, we do. This might be very obvious when we think, "I'm hungry" and then you go and get some food, but it is less obvious, when your spouse becomes angry with you out of the blue. What has happened is that the way you have been responding to your spouse (or best friend, or child, etc) has changed slightly and that person has become aware of the changes on a subtle level and is responding.

Our minds wax and wane as does the cycle of the moon but we are often unaware of these changes. Our job here is to keep this journal as a way to identify these patterns. If we know what is going on internally then we can control what happens externally. We can make some order out of the chaos.

In your journal I would like you to reflect on your life as it was yesterday. What kind of mood were you in? How did this affect the day you had? What were your responses to others as a result of that mood?

Swami K

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Reflections

Please take the weekend to reflect on your journal entries this week. Look for patterns in thinking, explore ideas in more detail, and summarize what you learned about yourself this week.

Swami K

Friday, August 1, 2014

Holding Grudges

Daily Reflection
A grudge or a feeling of resentment towards someone else that has hurt you can block us along the spiritual path. When we hang on to this feeling in our hearts, we create a state of thinking or a state of consciousness that irritates the mind and blocks us from our own happiness and feelings of joy and contentment. While it is natural to have an immediate response of hurtful feelings when somebody does something to hurt us, it becomes a problem if we hang on to that feeling. Some of us can hold a grudge for years. A grudge can control us if it is a powerful one.

Today, in your journal, think of someone you have been holding a grudge against. Explore what happened, write it all down, explain the exact experience and how it hurt you. Think about how heavy this experience has made your heart. Think about how holding this grudge has controlled you. For your own sake of peace, do something nice for yourself and let it go.

Swami K