The Blue Room

Here we all are .... another year older (if we're so lucky) .... celebrating another New Years Eve and Day.  How can it be a year already?  My dear friend, Cindy Rabbitt, reminded me that I wrote a post as 2013 turned into 2014 which I didn't even REMEMBER.  Maybe turning 60 eight months ago is affecting my brain cells .... or maybe I'm just too busy .... or maybe I'm not busy enough.  So many questions, so few answers.
 
The only thing I am very aware of today is the ticking of the clock .... tick tock, tick tock .... TIME IS MOVING ON.  And oh good Lord .... Facebook and Words with Friends .... WHAT A TIME SUCKER!!!

But I digress from what I want to share today, as we release the old and move forward into The New Year.  I want to share a powerful practice of Release and Forgiveness.  It's called The Blue Room.
 
The Blue Room is a safe place where you can have a conversation with a person in your life, whether living or deceased, where you feel the energy needs to be cleared, exchanged or rebalanced.  It works very well with any relationship where you suspect old, karmic ties may be influencing your relationship.  Personally, I believe MOST relationships have some sort of karmic pull, and The Blue Room allows a safe space for making peace.  Since many of us are here to finish and release old business, possibly all of our close family, friends, and work relationships have some sort of karmic energy affecting us. 
 

The nice thing about this meditation is that it is not about cutting cords or ties, but instead it functions as an energy exchange and rebalancer.  Many times we don’t want people completely out of our lives, but we want to love them NOW, without all of the past life craziness.  The Blue Room allows this to happen in a graceful and gentle way. 

 

 

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As we release 2014 and move into 2015,
I invite you to experience The Blue Room ...

Close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths.  Imagine yourself in a room FILLED with all blue things.  Blue floor, blue ceiling, blue walls, blue furniture.  You are enveloped in blue.  You see a blue sofa and you walk over to it and have a seat.  You lean back comfortably, and again take 3 deep breaths. 

Now tune into whomever you want to invite into the room and welcome them to join you on the blue sofa.  See them walk through the blue door and walk over to you on the sofa.     Invite them to sit with you.  See them in your mind's eye; every detail of them.

Now calmly and sincerely explain to them
why you feel you were hurt, and how painful it was or still is.  Explain how much it’s affected you.  Take a deep breath, and look them directly in the eyes.  Say whatever is on your heart, both good and bad.  This is your time to speak honesty.  Listen to their response.   

Tell them that your intention is to live in balance with them from now on.  Tell them that you forgive them and wish them well.  Ask for an apology, and accept it.  Know that your Higher Self is interacting with their Higher Self,
and that we all want to be Loved.   

Tell them that you will be reclaiming any karmic energy of yours that has seeped into their being, and that you will be returning any karmic energy of theirs that has seeped into yours.  Perform the exchange and know that in doing so, you are ACTUALLY changing and rebalancing the relationship “in real life”.   

When you are done, you may hug the person or just let them go.  Whatever needs to happen will happen.  Follow your feelings.

Watch the person leave the room, through the blue door.  Feel free to invite another person into The Blue Room and welcome them to join you on the sofa.  Repeat the process until you have no one else you feel drawn to invite.

When you are ready to leave The Blue Room,
rise from the sofa and walk to the blue door.  Gently open the door and step back into this reality.  Take 3 deep breaths and open your eyes. 

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  MAY EACH OF US  enjoy a very
Honest, Heartfelt, and Loving 2015.

Happy ReNew Year!

 

 

 

 

 

^ * ^ * ^ *  I love you, my Angel friend, Terry French, for introducing me to The Blue Room many years ago. 

Fly high and fly free! ^ * ^ * ^ *

 

 

 

Treat Yourself to 20 - 20 - 20

As a computer, smart phone, and tablet user, my guess is that you're like me and get COMPLETELY SUCKED INTO your device.  Isn't it amazing how time seems to DISAPPEAR when working (or playing) with our devices?  It is almost scary how they seem to be taking over our life. 

Today I was blessed enough to participate in Universal Avionics Health Fair for their employees.  Of course the Rule of The World came into play; I was invited due to my friendship with Deb Carnsew.  Thanks, Deb!

Having never exhibited in a Health Fair before, it was fun and creative to determine what I wanted to offer to the employees.  I decided to theme my table using a combination of Yoga and doTerra Essential Oils.  And what fun it was sharing both ideas with the employees!

I offered a hand-out of yoga poses that can be done in and around a chair, and offered sniffs and drops of several doTerra Essential Oils (Lavender was the biggest hit!) 

I also offered Tootsie Rolls to all with the reminder of ...

TREAT YOURSELF TO 20 - 20 - 20. 

 This means ....

• Every TWENTY minutes step away from your computer (or device)
• Look TWENTY feet into the distance
• For at least TWENTY seconds
• And TWIST, stretch, yawn, breathe, whatever ... just MOVE.

I was surprised at all of the head nods I received, and it made me feel so much a part of humanity.  WE ALL INSTINCTIVELY KNOW what is good for us, but we all find a thousand reasons not to follow our inner voice and hearts. 

You know the old saying .... "we teach best what we most need to learn" (Richard Bach).  I'm grateful that I had fun laughing at myself when asked "do you do this?"  Of course I admitted that I don't consistently follow my own advice.  But we did all agree, how necessary the practice of remembering 20 - 20 - 20 is. 

Have you figured out a way to avoid getting sucked into your device?  If so, PLEASE SHARE! 

I am a student first, and a teacher second.

 

Dear God ...

 

 

Lovely In Her Bones

I know it's been exactly 7 weeks since I've posted to my blog.  Why?  The biggest reason is because of the month of JANUARY.  I am so grateful to be in the accounting (QuickBooks) business because the first month of the year is typically crazy busy.  And this year was exceptionally busy.  Thank you God.

The flip side of that coin is that I spent many hours in my desk chair, staring at my monitor, and unfortunately many hours hunched over my keyboard.  Not good, I know.  I envy friends who have physical jobs as they get their exercise while working.  But, we all know there is no one right, perfect answer.  EVERYTHING has its trade-offs.

But since I returned from my training in Sedona, I have been toying with the idea of LIFE BEING EXERCISE.  And today my thoughts were justifed when I found this article ~

            How To Exercise Without Really Trying

This is very much what I have been thinking about.  Why do we feel like we have to "go to" the gym, or "go to" yoga class, or "go to" Zumba, to get exercise?  Certainly the social aspect of the "going to" makes it more enjoyable (or not ~ I guess it depends on one's personality). 

Trust me ~ as a yoga instructor, I'm not saying "don't go to" class.  However, typically a class lasts only 60 minutes, while the minutes we are typically awake during a 24 hour period, totals 960 minutes.  Why can't we take advantage of those extra 900 minutes each day and use those moments to focus on our movements?

A good friend of mine has shared with me her inability to exercise at home, very similar to my challenge of creating a TRUE Home Yoga Practice.  So I say to both my friend and myself .... CARPE MOMENTO.  Let's make EVERY MOMENT be an exercise. 

Here are the movements I have experimented with myself:

1.  Let's start with something we ALL do ... sit on the toilet.  Be aware of your leg muscles when lowering down and standing up.  Don't hang onto the sink or wall ... inhale completely, and then exhale and sit down using the thighs, and drawing the belly in .  Stand up on the inhale, again using the thigh muscles.  You can also do leg extensions while on the pot.  Slow the movement down, move with your breath, and FEEL it.

2.   My mother was The Queen of this one.  Use the extra few moments in bed each morning to stretch your arms and hands UP.  Open and close the hands, do wrist circles, palms to the ceiling and twist the hands from side to side.  Then roll on one side and do the yoga pose of cat and cow.  Wake up your spine.  BREATHE.  Then visualize and plan your day from bed.  What we think, we create. 

3.  When brushing your teeth ~ do legs lifts backwards, forward, and to each side. My electric toothbrush beeps every 30 seconds; there is my cue to change directions and/or sides.  Be sure to bend over the sink using your core to hold you up instead hunching over the sink and resting your forearms. 

4.  When waiting for the microwave, do side-stretches or forward bends. 

5.  When at the sink, stand up on your toes and release.  I also like to do this when standing in line at the grocery store. 

6.  Another fun experiment when standing in line .... imagine you have angel wings folded into your shoulder blades.  While you're waiting, E X P A N D those wings and flap them free.  You might be surprised at who turns to look at you; your energy DOES expand and light up when you do that.

7.  When watching TV, get down on the floor and do some forward folds over your legs.  You can still see the screen.  Or if you can't tear yourself away from the TV show, at LEAST do it during the commercials.  Even a few crunches during each commercial will add up to big benefits. 

I bet everyone of us could add to this list, and I invite you to share your thoughts below.  I struggle with going to exercise class just like most everyone else.  But I bet we would all agree that once the class is over, WE FEEL GREAT.  So let's take that thought one step further .... if EVERY MOMENT was an exercise, then we would feel great all of the time.  And maybe because we DO feel great, we'd be more willing to GO TO that social exercise class and feel even better.

Hey ~ NONE of us are getting any younger, and as my wise sister recently said to me ...

       WALK, or GET A WALKER. 

Let's take advantage of every second of every day and make our Life a Living Exercise.

I welcome your ideas!

From my almost 60 year old heart to yours ~
Diana

Twenty-Fourteen ...

That number just doesn't compute for me.  Maybe it's because I have thought about that number for about 40 years of my life (since my 20's) and I just couldn't really imagine myself being here.

But here we are in Twenty-Fourteen.  I'm here.  And so are you.

So NOW what? 

I have more questions than answers, but I do know one thing ...

 

WHAT DO YOU KNOW THIS YEAR?
I'd love to hear your thoughts. 





 

A picture is worth ...

... a thousand words.

No longer putting off moving into my office waiting for the carpeting to be installed, Dennis was sweet enough to set up my Creative Corner Computer so I could create the below YouTube of my experience in Sedona.

It's funny to look back at the pictures 4+ weeks later.  I didn't take ANY pictures during the many, MANY hours of yoga practice and training, but I obviously captured many images of our 4-times-per- week hikes in the beauty of Sedona.  Gee whiz ... if you didn't know me, and you just watched this video, you'd think I was NEVER in training. But that is far from the truth.

I am so grateful for the experience I had with everyone, both faculty and students.  I will ALWAYS REMEMBER everyone.

Brew a cup of tea, turn up the volume, sit back, and I hope you enjoy ~

Calgon ~ No ... EPSOM SALT ...

... Take Me Away!  Does you remember that Calgon slogan?

I believe we don't need to buy another "product" from a big corporation; simply go back to the tried and true Epsom salt and take the time to take a bath.

Of course it's rather ironic that I'm gaining this realization after REMOVING our soaking tub in our master bathroom to replace it with a huge walk-in shower.  But I'm grateful that we KEPT the bathtub in our front bathroom so I can follow this advice.

What is Epsom salt anyway?   After Googling (I love researching on the Internet!), I learned that it is Magnesium Sulfate, an inorganic salt made of magnesium, sulfur and oxygen.  The name was derived because one of the earliest discoveries of magnesium sulfate was made in Epsom, England. 

Potentially, more than half of all Americans are deficient in magnesium, which, like any deficiency, can lead to various health problems.   Sulfate helps forms brain tissue and joint proteins, and can strength the wall of the digestive tract.  I am all-for anything that I can do naturally to keep myself healthy, and taking an Epsom salt bath, 3 times per week, seems to have many benefits, just to name a few:

• Improved heart and circulatory health
• Improves the ability of the body to use insulin
• Flushes toxins and heavy metals from the cells
• Eases muscle pain
• Regulates electrolytes which leads to improved nerve function
• Relieves stress ~ and we ALL know what a killer stress is
• Reduces inflammation to relieve pain and muscle cramps
• Improves absorption of nutrients
• Restores pH balance (remember the pH strips I mentioned on the last blog?)
• There are even claims that it can reduce belly fat and help one lose weight!

So ~ how does one take an Epsom salt bath?  First of all, you buy the salt in any drug store.  I bought mine at Walgreens.  Dissolve 2 cups of Epsom salts in a bathtub full of warm water.  I've read that super hot water strips away protective oil from your skin (that explains why I always feel so dry after being in our hot tub, not to mention the chemicals).  I also love to add a few drops of Lavender Essential Oil to the stream of water filling the tub for a beautiful aromatic experience.  And of course, PAMPER YOURSELF.  Get some candles (battery operated are my favorite), turn on some soft music, and turn down the lights.  Use this time to visualize your strong and healthy body.  Stay in the water for at least 12 minutes.  Rinse off any left-over salt, and be sure to moisturize your skin immediately after the bath.  If you don't want to use a chemical-laden moisturizer, then try sesame, sunflower, or coconut oil.  Sesame is very warming, while coconut is cooling.  You can always try a mixture of different oils, as well.  Experiment and have fun with it!  Just be sure to have a special set of clothes to wear while the oil soaks into your skin. 

My mother ALWAYS took a night shower.  She told me that it helped her to sleep.  Besides, who wants to crawl into bed with all of the day's germs still on the body?  I've personally discovered that MOM WAS RIGHT (again).  It DOES make me sleep much better.  So I'm going to add these baths to my health regime. 

I'm very grateful to Kim, my roommate in Sedona, as she is the one who brought this information to me after giving me a FABULOUS MASSAGE one evening in her in-home massage room. Because she worked on some muscles that were tender, she suggested I take an Epsom salt bath, drink a lot of water, and go to bed.  And man, did I sleep that night!  Thank you, Kim.

A note on Kim ~ if you find yourself in Sedona, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you book a massage with her.  Her massage room is peaceful, her table includes an amethyst crystal biomat which is WARM, and her technique is crazy good.  Check out her blog, too ~

Sedona Expressions


There are so many wonderful ways to keep ourselves healthy without buying into the drug culture.  I encourage everyone to do their own research and try out different natural remedies before popping a pill.  I believe God already gave us everything we need to naturally live a long and healthy life. 

Believe in your own discernment and the wisdom of your body.