Daily Dose - Oct. 21 2013 - MoonDay/Shiva/Luna - Shiva, Yoga, & Peace.

What a powerful week and a half we have just passed through! With that full moon in Aries plus the eclipse, we're all experiencing very potent shifts! Today's daily dose contains a couple of my quotes on Yoga. If you are not practicing Yoga (which includes many branches and styles) or something similar (Qi Gong, Tai Chi, etc.) I invite you to receive these words as confirmation to start or go deeper! These systems of spiritual science teach and allow us to embrace the quickly shifting and changing times, and how to smoothly ride through the experiences of life, especially if they are difficult or challenging.

Monday is often considered Shiva's day of the week (as if they weren't all his ;P ) and is a particularly good and auspicious day to fast.

• Yoga teaches us stability in life. It does so by giving stability to the body and mind, and so it is reflected in Life. Sometimes we fall or stumble, but we do so sincerely, and are stronger and kinder for it.
• Yoga is not just stretching; it requires a commitment to become strong; to be strong and adaptive, being firm and elastic simultaneously, in the body and the mind.
• When we slow the breath and focus the mind, the bliss of stillness enters our awareness. By this state of being we perceive and experience the miracle of life constantly - peace is the result of this.

"The Tao never does anything,
yet through it all things are done.

If powerful men and women
could center themselves in it,
the whole world would be transformed
by itself, in its natural rhythms.
People would be content
with their simple, everyday lives,
in harmony, and free of desire.

When there is no desire,
all things are at peace."
- 37, Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell

Oct 9 2013 - Wednesday/Woden's Day/Mercury/Thoth - Emotions, Yoga & Letting

• Things happen, Life happens, there's nothing we can do about that. Our reactions to those things, however, dictate how we experience life, and the quality of that experience.
  
  Essentially, the reality of our happiness is a reality and decision we either create or deny by our every day actions and attitude - we can choose to smile and be grateful and joyous for our life - and all that it is - or we can choose otherwise. The former is Yoga.
  
• Having the ability to witness emotional reactions within the body and mind and choosing to release the proceeding attachment to and identification with that reaction and emotion is Yoga. Thus we are never disturbed from our sense of peace and experience life with clarity and joy.

"The gentlest thing in the world

overcomes the hardest thing in the world.

That which has no substance

enters where there is no space.

This shows the value of non-action.

Teaching without words,

performing without actions:

that is the Master's way."

-43, Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell