​On 11-10-18 our Shala community committed to one year of the Metta Meditation. The intention of the practice was to raise the vibration and light in our lives and the lives of our families, friends and community. It has been a powerful year of transformation and love.
 
On this anniversary, 11-10-19, let us all commit to another year of raising the light and vibration!
 
Sit in silence. With eyes closed, imagine a light coming from a huge, extravagant source. See the light move through the top of your head and into your entire body, filling and surrounding you with vibrant light. When you feel the energy in and around you, offer your prayer:
 
May I be filled with love and kindness.
May I be safe from inner and outer danger.
May I be vibrantly healthy in mind, body and spirit.
May I be at ease and at peace.
May I receive this light and be a light in the world.
 
See and feel the light around you grow and expand to a larger orb of energy surrounding you. Welcome the ones you love. Invite your family, friends, pets, people you love on the other side into the light. Offer your prayer:
 
May you be filled with love and kindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer danger.
May you be vibrantly healthy in mind, body and spirit.
May you be at ease and at peace.
May you receive this light and be a light in the world.
 
Extending the light beyond your orb of loved ones. Include people you feel have hurt you, misunderstood you, those that have a different perspective on life, those you find a challenge to love.
 
May you be filled with love and kindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer danger.
May you be vibrantly healthy mind, body and spirit.
May you be at ease and at peace.
May you receive this light and be a light in the world. 
 
Together our prayers and energy will make the world brighter.
 
 
 
 
"Go through the day as if you were the Dali Lama undercover."  
-Jack Kornfield
 
Homework:
Join us and commit to practicing our Pacific Ashtanga Metta Meditation through this new year. Receive and send love and light daily through this beautifully simple but powerful practice. Observe with gratitude when shifts begin to show up. Namaste.

​For Longing
by John O'Donohue
To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings



Blessed be the longing that brought you here
And quickens your soul with wonder.
 
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
 
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.


May the forms of your belonging—in love, creativity, and friendship--
Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul.
 
May the one you long for long for you.
 
May your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire.


May a secret Providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling.
 
May your mind inhabit life with the sureness with which
your body inhabits the world.
 
May your heart never be haunted by ghost-structures of old damage.
 
May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.
 
May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.

​“Watch your thoughts, they become your words. 
Watch your words, they become your actions. 
Watch your actions, they become your habits. 
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
-Lao Tzu
 
"Practice is a kind of universal and fundamental skill that is applicable to everything... By being occupied with the doing instead of the achieving, you can stop worrying about the end result... then we can start focusing on the activity of learning, on doing the doing, in full enjoyment of doing."    
-Kasper van der Meulen
 
This week we continued to discuss Kasper’s book, “Mindlift,” and Diana shared personal stories from her Wim Hof training and her time learning from Kasper. Her excitement over the cells, nervous system and molecular science of it all informed her teachings on the Vagus Nerve and her incorporation of innovative modalities that support a healthy nervous system. When facing anxiety, stress, depression... learning to center your mind and utilize your body’s built-in medicine cabinet is a natural and accessible way to shift from your sympathetic to parasympathetic nervous system. From “fight or flight,” to “rest and digest.” We are reminded that our 2 hours of focused breath, movement and drishti on our mat each day should be positively affecting the other 22 hours in the day. This is our time to refill our own cup... to downshift... to quiet ourselves down and be truly present. We are designed to live fully (to be chased by tigers, so to speak), but we are also designed to REST (to return to our “cave”). This retreat is what supports us as we begin to move out of our habitual patterns. We shift from focusing on talent to focusing on effort. Instead of practicing with a goal, we are aiming to be good at practicing. Keep in mind that what you practice is what you become good at. Instead of practicing complaining and worrying, we could be practicing gratitude and love. What do you hope to practice this year?

 
"What a time to be alive!”
~Kasper van der Meulen
 
"The ability to stay focused will be the superpower of the 21st Century."
~Cal Newport
 
Strengthen your Yoga Superpowers ~ Breath, Dhristi andAsana
 
This Week’s Homework:
Read or listen to pages 1-41 of 
“MINDLIFT: Mental Fitness for the Modern Mind”
by Kasper van der Meulen

With Kasper van der Meulen
Wednesday October 23,2019
Time: 6pm - 8pm
Cost: $99

Click here to sign-up on our Calendar of Events page

A biohackers' guide to mastering your nervous system and optimising your lifestyle. 

In this workshop, Kasper van der Meulen will take you on a journey through your own physiology and teach you to gain deeper control over your nervous system. The modern world puts a constant strain on our mind and body and stress seems to be a constant threat. But is doesn’t have to be this way! With some simple tweaks in the way you understand your own body, mind and breath, stress can become a superpower. This is not about pushing through the pain or hacking yourself into oblivion, but about deeply understanding the workings of human nature and using it to re-learn self care in the deepest sense of the word. 

Kasper will demystify the latest scientific understandings of human biology as it relates to self-optimisation and state management. You will learn easy-to-implement breathing protocols, lifehacks and mental techniques to access states of flow, focus, productivity, rest, regeneration, sleep and joy. 

Kasper has a background as a science teacher and has transformed himself from being burned out, depressed, overweight and unhappy to living a lifestyle of personal freedom and optimal health. 
​
He wrote his amazon bestseller “MindLift - Mental Fitness for the Modern Mind” in just 30 days and and co-founded a human performance center called “Move Lift Act Breathe” where he tinkers with all things biohacking, breathing and human optimisation. His teaching style sparkles with engaging storytelling, “in-plain-English” scientific explanations and powerful techniques. Also be prepared for the “occasional" pun or dad joke.