"Keep Your Eyes on the Prize---Hold on!"

On this lovely Spring day, let's dive deeper into a few nautical metaphors of the Inner Constellation work. One of my favorites is the idea of “North Star." The North Star is briefly summed up as your personal highest ideal, or motto for life. It guides you when the going gets tough, the waves are a churnin' and clouds come rolling in. First step in the IC practice is to identify your personal North Star (feel free to contact me if you'd benefit from some assistance in this area, it's one of my favorite topics:). Once your highest ideal is identified, the second step is keeping your North Star in sight so you're aware of incoming weather and don't get blown off course! One of my all time favorite ways to keep my North Star in sight is to do what I call, "Dropping Anchor."

Dropping Anchor is consciously stopping and reorienting oneself to that which is most important--your individual North Star. It allows a body to ride out any surrounding storms without getting blown off course. Here's "Dropping Anchor" in four easy steps.*

1) Focus on dropping your attention into the area of your heart
2) Breath evenly and comfortably in and out of the heart area as if it has its own respiration
3) Call to mind and appreciate all the times when you've experienced or expressed your North Star
4) Ask yourself, "what is one way to exercise my North Star today?"

My personal North Star is to establish love as the number one condition. Step 3 for me means envisioning all the people, places, and critters I care about and feeling this love, allowing it to seep in deep. Step 4 might include practicing patience with a particularly difficult person that day.

Why should we take time to Drop Anchor? I find it particularly rejuvenating and helpful to start and end my day with this practice to set me on the right course, it's also a fabulous practice when I've been knocked off course. Most beneficially, Dropping Anchor allows me to realign and move forward rather than look back into unproductive territory.

Mavis Staples understood the importance of being internally guided by one's North Star when she sung the following lyrics to bolster her fellow freedom fighters during the civil rights movement:

"Ain't no man on earth control,

the weight of glory on a human soul.

Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on....

When you see a man walk free,

it makes you dream of jubilee.

Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on."

On this beautiful end of May day, I hope the practice of Dropping Anchor prepares you to propel forward into the waters that await. Keep your eyes on the prize....  

*steps 1,2,3 adapted from Heartmath® Quick CoherenceTechnique®

Become a Chinese Finger Trap Part Two!

I just got my hair completely shorn! My decision was inspired by a second meditation retreat, an all day affair rather than the 10 day silent retreat that fueled the popular blog article, Become a Chinese Finger Trap. Let me explain my great aha moment while inside my Inner Constellation for a day. First, I almost didn't attend the retreat because my “To-Do” list was a mile long, and I was stressing to get everything done before taking a day off. The anxiety part seemed counter-intuitive to attending a retreat, and I almost convinced myself to just “do” the list rather than go on retreat and simply “be.” I mean how much do you really get done by “being” inside the Inner Constellation for the day. Ha, how much indeed!

I made a deal with myself that I’d drive the 40 minutes down the mountain and just stay for the first part of the day, until lunch and then head back so I could be productive.  I must have been sending out the fleeing vibe, because the visiting teacher finished her introduction, described the day’s activities and then looked square at me and said, “I encourage all who come not to leave half way through or they miss the full benefit of what I've prepared.” Well, being a fellow teacher, I could only smile politely and nod my head in agreement, knowing I’d been busted.

The focus of the retreat was, “Who do you take yourself to be.” It sounded a bit new-agey to me, but by the first sitting my suspicious edge dissolved, and I began contemplating how I had defined myself that morning: someone who needed to return backed up emails, clean a messy home and study for my ACEP (Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology) Ethics test—I mean, really, on a Saturday, no less, when the weather was spring time spectacular?

Through the day, I practiced the Vipassana technique and when my mind wandered in and out of the familiar stretching and pulling sensation (See Become a Chinese Fingertrap Part 1 for more of the nitty gritty details), I found myself considering this fact—it’s near end of May and spring has almost escaped me; less than a month until summer and I here’s who I take myself to be—a woman who spends way too many hours in cyber space!

I reminisced back to when corresponding meant a bicycle ride to the neighbor’s house, a letter in the mail, a phone call—not an inbox of over 50 emails to return (add another 10 while I sat in retreat—argh). I recalled racing off to the cornfields with my pad of paper and pencil to write, rather than pecking away on my laptop. I journeyed back, I did, and then as I stretched and pulled still further inside the Inner Constellation, my aha moment surfaced:

 I define myself: my involvement in cyber space and my stress level, no one else.

I mean, dang, emails, cyber-communication, my “To-Do” list are completely self-imposed.  Now, you might be saying, what does all this have to do with getting one’s head shorn?

I have always, always, always hated the fact that hair gets in my face. When my hair was half way down my back, I almost always wore portions of it back. Truth be told, I have always, always wanted a super short, get-it-out-of-my face haircut, but I was never brave enough. Who do I take myself to be? A girl who’s approaching summer and wanting her hair out of her face!

So, this afternoon I entered the salon, walked into the stylist’s bathroom, closed the door and noticed a sign with a variety of encouraging words, “surround yourself with happy people,” check, got that one going on. I went through the list with confidence until I arrived at the last one, “be brave.” It takes bravery and confidence to go against the grain of cyber space and honor one’s inclinations. I walked out of the bathroom and with no pictures from my cell phone, no preparation other than being, my beautiful artistic friend and stylist created a masterpiece from the canvas of my head. The most fun was seeing her work her creative magic so joyfully.

Who do you take yourself to be? Whatever the answers, may they be perfectly aligned with our intentions, inclinations, and those things that give us lasting joy and fulfillment. 

The Bane of Your Resistance!

Howdy, Doodies! I just blew off the afternoon and spent it in my garden, coaxing up green growing things and fully rejuvenating. Then, of course, it was tough going back inside as the sun set and picking up responsibilities, so...decided to shirk work and let spring fever overtake me by creating a blog article!

I got to thinking as I was planting seeds and watering my newest garden friends that I truly do not want this season to escape me. I absolutely adore springtime, besides the popping of new life, my schedule tends to relax about this time of year, and I often aspire to begin personal projects that, sadly, do not always come to completion.

From a holistic framework, springtime often engenders the creation of something new, fresh and budding, but unlike the natural world, which will always coax the newness into fruition (i.e. summer), human beings like myself often start out with a pop, but then fizzle. I tend to do this most consistently with my goal of writing. I love to, love to, love to write, yet with all the other hurry-flurry of life, writing often gets placed on the back burner even though I feel pent up and passionless if I don't let the juices flow. OK, so all this said and done, keeping company with my tender, growing friends inspired me to accept a writing challenge:

Commit to write for 15 minutes a day, period; no more, no less, unless of course you wish to continue. 

More writing hints such as the above can be found at The Bane of Your Resistance blog. Don't you just love the catchy name? The author, Rosanne Bane, explores a fascinating angle of neuroplasticity and the brain, in search of answering the question--why is it so hard to find time to do what I love to do? Check it out for more awesome ideas. I refuse to allow Spring and Summer to slip out of my hands (which means I'll be spending more time in my back yard and writing for at least 15 minutes a day:). Happy Spring everyone, and may it encourage new life into whatever you are most passionate about!

Remembering to Star-gaze

I was feeling otherworldly last tonight and decided to step outside. There's been a star next to the Gemini Twins that's just been going off lately--all blues and whites and greens, sparkling up a storm. My time beneath the great Outer Constellation inspired a poem in my deepest Inner Constellation, enjoy:

The Infinite
written 5/02/13
©Karla Johnston, InnerConstellation.com

Stepping beneath the stars tonight,

I lowered down to gaze
and heard the clear and plaintive call of an owl,
over and over,
reminding me how much of life remains unknown
behind closed doors

while such vastness turns around me.

Raw Gratitude

What if there's nothing else to learn, nothing else one needs to do to have a fulfilling and good life except this one secret--gratitude? It seems too simple, huh?

I just read, Kissing the Virgin's Mouth, a novel by Donna M. Gershten that proposes the above, through and through. Here's how the book opens, and I don't know about you, but I was captured in the first paragraph:

I have begun to teach Isabel the important things. Just as I taught my hija. Feel gratitude. That's what I told my little five-year-old cousin yesterday when she found a coin in the grass. Wrapped her fat fingers around a peso, eyes bright. Say thank you, I tell her; like this: I kneeled beside her, pretending the peso was inside my tight fist and I closed my eyes and filled my heart and kissed my fist long and firm like a mother who finds her lost child, like a father saying good-bye. She did it too. Thank who? That is not important. 

Some people think that I am religious.

I am not. 

I believe in gratitude.

Gratitude, raw gratitude. I aspire to begin each day, end each day and smatter the day with gratitude. Feeling it when I'm hooked up to my HeartMath gets me in the green coherent state every single time. Is it enough? What if it is in fact everything, all we need to learn? Raw gratitude.

Do you ever wake up in the morning and get a snippet in your head clear as a bell? This happens to me sometimes in the moments between sleep and waking. The day before the Boston bombings, I woke with this snippet--Sit and open, Creator will come and do the steady work.

Once I was up and moving about (and doubting mind was fully awake), I questioned, how do I open? Answer seemed too simple to be effective--gratitude. Later the following day, when I turned on the news for information about the bombing and felt the pain to the heart that I'm sure you all recognize, I experimented because I didn't know what else to do: I sat, opened and let Creator do the steady work of repair. I continue to give thanks to the fine people who rushed in to help with compassion overpowering their bodies, rather than fear, I give thanks to the cameras that held steady so that information could be gleaned, I give thanks to the men and woman who used their medical skill and expertise to save lives.... In my own life experience, through joys as well as tragedies, raw gratitude has softened and opened the heart.

Boston Marathon Heroes

Monday after I heard the news, I text my family on the east coast to see how they were faring. One remark was, "this world is ruined." I text back my first thought, a mantra that I would go back to again and again and write on the board of my classroom Monday night when my sad and bewildered students entered the room for evening classes:

Goodness is not as loud as bombs, yet it quietly and persistently surrounds the people of Boston. 

Are you guys seeing all the hero stories out there? If not, go to this heroes link and this inspirational one if you want more. Among the most iconic of the heroes was the man in the cowboy hat, Carolos Arredondo. After losing both his sons as a result of the war in Iraq, he was at the marathon supporting a charity group running for fallen veterans, and leapt into action, saving the life of a young man who would ultimately lose both his legs below the knees. I wonder if the deaths of his sons were somehow transformed in the act of being at the marathon and saving the life of another young man (IC Truth #3--Everything, no matter how challenging, has the ability to be transformed)?

Remember my last blog article, inspired by the banner in FDR's presidential office, "Let Unconquerable Gladness Dwell." Don't lose hope that goodness, in its quiet and persistent nature is everywhere, all the time and leaps into action when it is most needed. May the heroes of the Boston Marathon inspire you to carry their light of hope in the days to come. 

Unconquerable Gladness

I spent a day witnessing miracles in my clients and experiencing a sense of awe for the challenges they're managing so very beautifully. As I drove home last night, I thought of the motto that decorated President FDR's office, "Let Unconquerable Gladness Dwell." This was his North Star, that which encapsulated his beliefs and values and got him through leading our country out of the Great Depression and international conflict.

I can think of no better technique for cultivating, "Let Unconquerable Gladness Dwell," than the practice of gratitude. Practicing gratitude is big news and has the ability to direct our attention to the good, which is always a reality, always, even in the midst of challenges. This kind of resiliency is what my clients demonstrated to me yesterday. It takes great faith to rest in "Unconquerable Gladness" when hardship knocks at our doors and is inescapable. I go back to one of my biggest challenges to the practice of gratitude--the recent loss of my father. On the day of his remembrance and burial, I committed to doing my ultimate experiment in gratitude and made a pact with myself: today, I will grieve and not stop the flow of sadness, but after today is through, I will do my best to focus only on the goodness of my Pop's life and let these memories sustain me. The reward of this practice has been a lightness I did not think possible after the passing of one so dear. Another unexpected bonus has been incredible visits from my father in my dreams, and these, of course, have strengthened my "unconquerable" gratitude for his precious life.

Let Unconquerable Gladness Dwell. Let in the these-are-the-good-things-and-I'm-holding-to-it gratitude. Then, if you're brave, come into my office and hook up to the HeartMath technologies and see gratitude in real time and the positive effects such reality has on your body, mind and spirit. Take untangible emotions like gladness and gratitude, and see how your physiology responds. The best medicine is generated within us--Let Unconquerable Gladness Dwell. Let it in, let it in, let it in....