Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Click on one of the players below to listen to a 10min meditation audio guiding you to experience gratitude.
 

May our consciousness and our behaviour be of service to all beings, liberating all into the heart of the mystery of this and every moment.
May the river of Life support and guide you in 2012 and always.

Love to you all,
Mita

What can you do when things are about to blow? Here are some thoughts on working with anger – or any other strong emotion – with mindfulness.

We’ve never had to defuse a real bomb but we’ve probably had our moments with metaphorical ones: the times when you feel you are about to blow. That’s when we need emotional bomb disposal skills, and find we can’t access them. We all know the theory: it’s good to keep your head in a crisis; yelling at people winds them up and doesn’t achieve what we want; patience and tolerance are important qualities … But when it comes to the heat of the moment we lose it and our good intentions vanish. The gall rises, the clock ticks … kaboom!

The key is remembering, or rather, remembering to remember. Usually, our focus is on the unacceptable thing that has just happened that has provoked our anger and things go wrong when we just act on that without pausing to notice what’s really happening or consider our response. Paying attention to our responses can eventually become a habit, but to start with we need simple things we can do in the moment. Firstly, it helps to place your attention on something that has a calming effect. That’s where the breath comes in. The generations of mums who told their children to take a breath and count to ten knew what they were doing. For most people, the breath – especially the out breath – tends to be calming and reassuring. Paying attention to the breath in this way also takes our attention away from the thoughts that are screaming in our heads, giving us the all-important distance and space we need.

In that space it’s possible to remember mindfulness. Like someone defusing a real bomb, you need to stop rather than just acting out the emotion that’s in you.  We aren’t very good at doing two things at the same time, so it’s hard to both feel angry and at the same time to stand back from our anger, observing and exploring it. Just paying attention to feelings of anger tends to diffuse them.

But mindfulness isn’t just a calming device: it means exploring what’s happening in all its dimensions. So, take a breath to create some space and then ask yourself: what am I looking at? You will probably notice that a whole array of sensations come together to comprise the experience we call ‘anger. There are feelings: irritation, distress, the urgent need to defend oneself. There are thoughts: ‘This isn’t acceptable’, ‘I’m not standing for this!’ ‘Just who do they think I am?’ There are feelings of anger and perhaps frustration and upset just beneath them. And if you stop for a moment you may notice that there are also intense bodily sensations: tightness in the stomach that keeps bubbling up into an impulse to move and act. Pay some attention and there’s a whole volcano down there! Then there’s the situation itself. What has just happened and what it means to me. There’s what the other person said, what I bring to it myself, and the meaning I make out of it.

It is helpful to distinguish feelings, thoughts and sensations because they express different needs. The thoughts about the situation may be true and they may be untrue – they probably need some reflection. But even when they are accurate, it helps to separate them from the feelings underlying them. When you need to make a point to someone, it can undermine you if you are feeling upset and haven’t fully acknowledged that. So acknowledge to yourself the painfulness of what has happened, breathe with them and give them some space.

Whatever we are feeling, our emotions often manifest in the body, which is why our stomachs churn when we are upset, our shoulders tighten when we are stressed and our jaws clench when we feel determined. Those are typical responses, at any rate, and each of us experiences emotions in our own ways. Not everyone experiences emotions in this way, but if you do, you have a remarkable ally in bringing awareness to what you feel. Our emotions express the impact of things that are important to us, and it isn’t enough to decide consciously to push them down. Noticing the bodily manifestation of those feelings is an excellent way of paying them attention without identifying with them or being bowled along by them.

These are essential bomb-disposal skills that we all need. Mindfulness doesn’t mean that you don’t speak out, but it might help you say the important thing that will really get through to the other person. It also doesn’t mean that you don’t get upset, though it might mean that you develop a wider perspective on those feelings. Above all, it means that when difficult things happen we have access to all the wisdom and understanding we have developed in our lives and the skills to apply it, whatever is happening.

So many people these days are victims of the Internal Busyness Syndrome—the breathless, stress-addicted feeling of having way too much to do and way too little time to do it. Internal Busyness, a complex of internally generated thoughts, beliefs, and bodily responses, can certainly be triggered by an especially busy day or a lot of competing demands. But unlike External Busyness, which is the more straightforward but often unavoidable state of having a lot to do, Internal Busyness doesn’t go away when your tasks are done. External busyness—the admittedly challenging pressure that comes from juggling a demanding job, children, financial worries, health issues, and all the tasks of running your life and household—can be managed. It can even be a yogic pathway, if you know how to practice with it. Internal Busyness, however, manages you.

So when people tell me “I’m so busy I can’t find time to practice,” I always ask them which kind of busyness they’re distressed by: the External or the Internal. One tip-off that you might be suffering from the Internal Busyness Syndrome is this: When you don’t have an immediate task that has to be done, when you have a moment that could be devoted to taking a few quiet breaths or just spacing out, do you ever find yourself still spinning internally, wondering what you’ve forgotten to take care of? That’s Internal Busyness.

The paradox of busyness is a bit like the paradox of stress. On the one hand, human beings are built to be busy. We’re hardwired for action; when it comes to developing our minds, muscles, or life-skills, it’s use them or lose them. To live is to act, as Krishna crisply and unequivocally reminds his disciple Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Besides, there’s a lot of bliss in using our skills. Given the choice, most of us would opt for a full life, even at the cost of having too much to do. Happiness, so elusive when we’re pursuing it, has a way of sneaking up on us when we’re fully absorbed in doing something, even if it’s just washing the dishes.

But there is the dark, compulsive side of busyness. You feel overwhelmed, driven by your schedule, yet afraid of what will happen if you let something go. You run on caffeine and adrenaline, get impatient with your kids and then feel guilty, dread passing a friend on the street because you know you’ll have to stop and talk to them. Feeling really busy or in a hurry can make you so task-focused that you ignore others’ needs as well as your own. In the famous Princeton Good Samaritan study, nearly all the students observed, walked right past a man apparently having a heart attack. When interviewed later, most of the people who didn’t stop gave as their reason that they were in a hurry to get to a class. Being busy overrode their humanity every time.

Busyness as a Time Bind
Internal Busyness is rooted in our attitude towards time. When the pace of work is intensified, as it is in modern industrial and post-industrial societies, we come to see time as a finite, ever-dwindling commodity, like our oil reserves. Because time feels scarce, we try to get more out of our minutes, to squeeze the maximum productivity out of every minute of time.
That’s one reason why when you feel busy, you tend to spend less time on activities like meditation. This assumption—that if we’re going to spend time on something, it needs to produce a measurable yield—is one root of Internal Busyness.

Practice Breaks
One powerful way you can work with your tendencies to internal busyness is to give yourself periodic 2- to 3-minute pauses during your day. Whether sitting at the desk, doing the laundry, even driving, play with a yogic practice like the ones that follow—just for its own sake! The idea is to do it without expecting results. (Of course, there will be a result—you’ll feel better.)

Practice Break: Anti-Rushing
This practice releases the compulsion that often arises when you’re in a hurry. Try it now, then practice it the next time you feel yourself rushing.
Stop. Stand or sit totally still for one full minute. First, say to yourself, “I have all the time in the world.” Then, bring to mind the image of a Spiritual Master or yourself in meditation. Hold the thought of that in your mind while you breathe deeply and slowly five times. Feel free to keep that image in your mind as you continue on your way.

Busyness as an Addiction
Activity addiction is like any other addiction; as it progresses you need more and more activity to get the original glow. So you add one more item to your schedule, and another. People ask you to join a committee and you can’t resist. You hear about a conference or a project and angle to get on it. You add clients, or classes. You speed date, go to two or three parties each weekend, sign your kid up for after-school activities six days a week. It’s not just that you’re distracted. Being busy has become an addiction.

Busyness and Self-importance
Another reason we keep ourselves busy is because it helps us feel needed, competent, even important. But there’s a balance issue here. While it’s normal to derive healthy self-esteem from being engaged with our world, the ego’s addiction to busyness has at its core a terror of its own emptiness. The ego feels, “If I’m busy, that means I exist. I’m worthwhile. I’m wanted.” When you’re active and engaged, you feel like part of the rhythm of life. Other busy people find you worthwhile and interesting. Our culture reinforces our assumption that being busy equals being productive and important. Very often, before we can move out of our busyness syndrome, we need to remind ourselves again and again that we are not defined by our job, our role, or how sought after we are. The following contemplation can be done in a moment or two, and it’s one of the great practices for recalibrating your sense of yourself.

Practice Break: Find the Non-Verbal I Am
Stop. Close your eyes. Ask yourself, “When I’m not busy, not engaged, not productive, who am I? When I’m not thinking, not moving around, not emotionally engaged, who am I?”
Rather than looking for a verbal answer or an insight, tune into the space that opens up.

Yoga for Internal Busyness
Dealing with External Busyness nearly always demands some practical solutions—delegating, dropping or letting go of certain activities, maybe even giving yourself a weekly Sabbath, a real day of rest and inner contemplation. But Internal Busyness is the domain of yoga. To really address your internal busyness, you need two types of yoga: First, you need inner practices that take you to your centre, to find the calm beneath the storm. A daily meditation practice is crucial, but so are micro-practices that you can do throughout the day. Second, you need to cultivate attitudes that turn your frenzied activity into karma yoga, which is the path to union through action.

But work becomes yoga only when you act with inner focus. Otherwise, you might be doing wonderful things in the world—making great art, doing poverty law, or working for the environment—but still feel overwhelmed, under appreciated, and burnt out. To have inner focus is to be in touch with something inside us that is still, that is not touched by action.

Real karma yoga shifts your relationship to time. You might have actually experienced such a moment, when time seemed to cease to exist. Maybe you were truly engrossed in a task. Maybe it happened on a walk, or on your mountain bike, or even when your car skidded on the ice and swerved off the road. One minute, you’re in “normal” clock time, maybe feeling normal time pressure, or wishing the clock would move faster. The next, time slows, and you’re in the gap between Now and Then, between Past and Future. In that gap, the Timeless Eternal Present moment arises. There is no time pressure, because there is no time. When you can enter that zone, you have all the time you need to complete whatever task is necessary.

The shift comes with a decision to focus inward at a moment of stress, and to allow the Gap, the place of stillness where time slows down, to show its face. In the space between the end of one action and the beginning of the next, between one breath and another, we can merge into the source of all action, “the still point between the turning worlds.” Known in Sanskrit as the Madhya, the Center point, or the Gap, this doorway into spaciousness arises in every moment. We just don’t normally notice it.

Meditation is the way we train ourselves to notice. (It’s not an accident that when Krishna began teaching his disciple Arjuna the actual methodology of the yoga of action, he started him off with meditation.) When we meditate, we practice resting in the still point, in the Ground of Being. Once we’ve learned to inhabit it with our eyes closed, we can begin to recognize the Gap when it shows up in the midst of activity and actions that flow from that quiet place, have a power beyond the ordinary mind.

Practice Break: Find the Still Point in the Midst of Action
Right now, in your seat, begin to sway slowly from side to side, inhaling to one side, exhaling to the other. At the end of each phase of the movement, notice the pause. Tune into the pause that shows up on the right side, then on the left. Focus on the pause for a few seconds, then let the movement flow from that. Do this for two minutes. Notice the effect. See if you can hold that space of quiet when you move onto your next activity. If you can move from that place of quiet, even for a few minutes at a time, you might find that even in your busyness, you can find the timeless.

As we all know, the Earth has shifted once again. Just the slightest change from deep beneath the waters, a crack in the fabric of her lining, and islands quake while tsunami waves rush across shorelines. We awake believing the world – our world – is stable, only to learn again and again that this Earth is as much a living, breathing, moving, active instrument of life as we are. It is the grandest live organism we shall ever encounter, this wondrous Being that sustains us each second of our life. Weeks ago, a cyclone of unprecedented size hit Australia and an earthquake shortly afterwards moved the ground beneath Christchurch, New Zealand. Buildings fell like toys, leaving much of the town in pieces. Who knows what the final death toll will be in Japan?
We are now living at a time when all cycles and systems of life are out of balance, including our system of perception itself. We do not “perceive” life clearly at all and thus, we as a society make choices that are based on endless illusions. And illusions lead to disasters.

Human beings were still human beings in those days before the Age of Reason introduced a love of logic and a God who had scientific reasons up for why all things happen as they do in this whole big universe. Civilization was also a dark and dreary place back then, with disease and the plague, and endless wars and starvation. What they did not have that has driven our civilization to the brink of madness is an epidemic of narcissism blended with an epidemic of blind doubt about the existence of the cosmic structure that holds together this fragile place called Earth. Back then, no one doubted the existence of this invisible reality. Today, that doubt is an epidemic and the absence of respect and reverence for the Earth is reflected in the choices governments and corporations make as well as individuals. The Earth will continue to have an increase in earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, and whatever else is required to reestablish balance in Her environment.

While earth shifts are essential for the Earth to survive, they are tragic for us. They result in enormous loss of human life and we must all hold in prayer the souls and the families of the people of Japan. The fear, pain, and grief of the thousands of people is unimaginable. We learn from this tragedy once again that the life we awaken to each morning may well be completely different by the end of the day. We kid ourselves by telling ourselves that we are in charge of the length of our lifetime. We are not. We must treat each day as a gift as well as every person dear to us. We learn from this event in Japan that we can be with the Japanese community of people through prayer, through email, through FB in an instant. We are truly learning an enormous cosmic truth: We are one. And we are meant to use that truth: Pray together, heal our fellow human beings together, and heal our beloved Earth together. Put your soul to work.
The human challenge is inconceivable and, in many ways, has just begun. For millions, the foundations of physical stability have been shattered. What remains is the strength of heart and will, and the power of people helping each other. If you would like to participate in that effort here are some websites that you can donate through:

The Prem Rawat Foundation
British Red Cross
Save the Children
UNICEF
Other Charities – Charity Navigator

May love flow to and through you,
Mita

Yoga For Unity Trailer from Roundtable Films on Vimeo.

A child born into the slums of Nairobi walks an uphill path from the start. Tribal warfare. Endemic poverty. Violence. Disease. Lack of opportunity. It’s been this way for a long time. The millions of Kenyans scraping by in these slums need so many basic things – security, sanitation, healthcare, jobs. It may seem that the last thing they need is yoga.

But one organization sees things very differently. The Africa Yoga Project (AYP) was founded in response to horrific violence that followed the contested 2007 presidential election. AYP has since grown into a vibrant community of unlikely yoga teachers, a haven of peace in a city ringed by some of the worlds largest slums.

These yogis were themselves victims of the same tribal violence and poverty that grips much of Kenya – that is, they were victims until yoga showed them a way out. Now you can find them venturing daily deep into the slums of Nairobi and into regions of Kenya seething with tribal discontent. The go out to soothe the wounds of war, to restore dignity robbed by poverty, and to march ever further from their own darkness into a life of possibility. Their work had taken on a new urgency as Kenya faces down what could be another era of violence: the 2012 elections are just around the corner, and they know that Kenya needs them — now more than ever.

Their commitment to transformation is truly inspirational. This is why we’re doing a documentary – the world needs to know about this better way.

The Africa Yoga Project was founded by Paige Elensen, an American yoga teacher who saw the magic and power of yoga as a vehicle for personal and community transformation. One of her primary teachers is Baron Baptiste, the founder of the Baptiste Power Yoga Institute. Baron’s powerful blend of yoga practice, philosophy and transformational development work inspired Paige to see new possibilities and contribute to people in unimagined ways. Paige’s early work in creating AYP in turn inspired Baron, who became a strong development partner and champion of the project, by leading training for students in Kenya, sponsoring students, encouraging volunteer participation, and providing significant financial and training support.

Roundtable films is partnering with Anthem Multimedia in America and Vivid Features in Nairobi to document this story as it happens.

Support the yogi’s mission to beat back tribalism and violence with your donation.

I would like to share an amazing and inspiring video entitled ‘The Call’ by keith Wyatt, whose message is rapidly spreading around the world and has the potential to empower our collective evolution.

I encourage you please to take a few moments and watch ‘The Call’. And if it touches something within you, then do send it to all your friends.

The Call – “The Awakening Trilogy” Pt. 1 from keith wyatt on Vimeo.

In this timeless spiritual classic which has inspired millions around the world, the wise sage of the title, shares a life-affirming, thought-provoking way of looking at the world that is at once free of dogma, free of power structures and metaphysics. The work`s 28 short chapters reflect the words of a prophet as he prepares to depart on a journey. What flows from the prophet`s lips are philosophical and spiritual insights that reflect all aspects of life. Kahlil Gibran`s work covers the entire range of human experiences and includes the Prophet`s sayings “On Friendship,” “On Pain” and “On Death.” Gibran`s haunting, lyric style has a power and lucidity that in another era would have been hailed as divinely inspired. Readers have found themselves returning to The Prophet`s pages again and again to recapture the majesty and wisdom of Gibran`s masterpiece.

Download here

You can participate live on as many calls as you like or listen to the recordings later at your convenience.

Don’t miss this opportunity to join world renowned spiritual luminaries, authors and teachers for a life-changing inquiry into humanity’s deepest longing!

The Future of Love

“I love you.”

Consider the impact that these words – spoken in the right place, at the right time, by the right person, in the right way – have had on your life. In our time, so many of the old words of the sacred have lost their capacity to move us, dethroned by the rigorous critiques of modernity and post modernity. But the authentic expression of love always holds a radical power to touch and even transform our lives.

We sometimes wait our whole lives to hear “I love you” spoken with total authenticity. 

We may wait even longer to be able to say it. But to hear or speak these words sincerely is a complete affirmation of all that is sacred. For many of us today, the words ‘love’ and ‘meaning’ are virtually indistinguishable.  

Yet, what do we mean by “love”? Is love simply the tender feeling you have for a friend or a relative, a lover or a spouse? Or is there something more profound about love’s meaning, something that accounts for its power to transform a life, in every way?

During this remarkable series of teleseminars,
we explore questions such as:

~ Which skills and principles of Integral Love can immediately raise your level of consciousness, and transform your relationships?
~ How does the dance of the Integral feminine and the Integral masculine affect almost every facet of your life?
~ Why is love the most crucial ingredient in effective shadow work, which we engage in to heal the unresolved emotional trauma of our past?
~ How does love impact the evolution of consciousness in the life of an individual and the life of a community?
~ How is love impacted by the level of consciousness of the lover and the beloved?
~ What is the relationship between love and spiritual enlightenment?
~ What new gifts for the world can and must emerge from this radical inquiry into the nature of love?

Spirit’s Next Move 

Join 14 of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most cutting edge spiritual teachers and leaders!

It is clear that the time for the emergence of Spirit’s next step is now, and that the emergence of a World Spirituality is an evolutionary step in human history.

This FREE online teleseminar series brings together leading edge integral thinkers, teachers, and scholars from all the great traditions to chart the principles and practices of a sustainable World Spirituality.

Inspiring Women Summit

Featuring dialogues with some of today’s most talented, inspiring and fabulous women. 

The 8-day program explores many facets of being an inspired woman including: feminine leadership, women’s health, communication, relationships, manifestation skills, sensuality, community organizing, spirituality and much more. Panel dialogues will focus on questions of importance to women, which will then seed your conversation with other participants.

Hope you make the most of this wisdom,

Mita  x

Are you part of the Shift?

Let’s accelerate the next evolution!The Shift Network empowers a global movement of people who are creating an evolutionary shift of consciousness that in turn leads to a more enlightened society, one built on principles of sustainability, peace, health, and prosperity. Now is the time for an upgrade to our planetary operating system. If you are part of this Shift, please join us!

If you are interested in free events, paid courses and products that enrich your life and expand your horizon then check out The Shift Network by clicking the following link.

https://shiftnetwork.infusionsoft.com/go/tsn/mitashah/

Wishing you inspiration on your Journey of Awakening,
Mita

Have you lost a sense of your personal power lately? How many of you could use some NEW tools and techniques to reclaim your power?

I’m so pleased and delighted to share with you a free and exciting event that’s just started. It’s the third season of the The Aware Show teleseminar series… Tools To Reclaim Your Power.

Each guest on The Aware Show Teleseminar Series is either a best-selling author or new thought leader in their own right, but how do you think they came up with the tools they use to get them through challenging times and rise to the top of their field? You can get first hand access to the tools and techniques that some of the greatest minds in the human potential movement use in their own lives on a daily basis. How many of you could use some new techniques to reclaim your power?

The series is produced by renowned host of The Aware Show, Lisa Garr who has interviewed the most established leaders in the human potential movement. She is now bringing her connections, insights and remarkable interview skills to a new interactive forum where you can question and converse with the best of the best. You’ll appreciate her engaging and enthusiastic interview style.

   http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3560020

Lisa will be interviewing me twenty four experts about “Tools To Reclaim Your Power”. Quite often, as we face our own challenges in life, we slowly lose our own sense of self-worth and we wind up operating with half of the energy we need in order to be happy, make quick decisions, and deal with life. This process often happens without our awareness until it’s too late. Would you like to know how to reclaim your power that might have been lost?

Joining Lisa will be guests who will be sharing their tools and techniques to reclaim your personal power so you can learn and be able to immediately apply new techniques to manage your life to its fullest potential

Here is a sampling of the amazing experts who will be a part of this series…

Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer is one of the most popular best-selling authors and Lecturers on spiritually motivational topics. With over 30 books, many audio programs, and videos. Wayne has also delivered his inspiring message on thousands of television and radio shows.

Caroline Myss

Caroline Myss has been in the field of energy medicine and human consciousness for 20 years. Since 1982, she has worked as a medical intuitive, providing individuals with an evaluation of the health of their energetic anatomy system. She specializes in assisting people in understanding the emotional, psychological, and physical reasons why their bodies have developed an illness.

Lisa Nichols

Lisa Nichols is a dynamic international motivational speaker and powerful advocate of personal empowerment. She is the Founder and CEO of Motivating the Teen Spirit, which is recognized by many as one of the most comprehensive empowerment skills programs available today for teen self-development.

Peggy McColl

Peggy McColl is a New York Times Best Selling Author and an internationally recognized expert in the area of goal achievement AND an expert in helping experts create products, make money online and create “best sellers”! With her goal achievement seminars, speaking engagements and books she has been inspiring individuals, professional athletes and organizations to realize their goals and reach their maximum potential for the past twenty-five years. Her purpose is to make a positive contribution to the lives of millions!

Judith Orloff

Judith is the author of the new bestseller “Second Sight: An Intuitive Psychiatrist Tells Her Own Extraordinary Story And Shows You How To Tap Your Own Inner Wisdom”. She is a psychiatrist, intuitive, and New York Times Bestselling author who offers traditional medicine with intuition, spirituality and energy medicine.

There are 24 speakers in all including: Michael Beckwith, Marci Shimoff, Yvonne Oswald, Hans King, Sheila Stewart, Joe Nunziata, David Wolfe, Bernie Siegel, Maryam Webster, Joan Borysenko, Alison Armstrong, Chris Howard, Gay & Kathlyn Hendricks, Michael Tamura, Les Brown, and more.

The first call was on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 6:00 PM Eastern (5:00 PM Central, 3:00 PM Pacific).

I know you will enjoy connecting with this amazing group and it’s free.

Take advantage of this invitation to interact with these personal development experts right now. Click on this link to register for your free seat…

    http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3560020

After you register, keep an eye out for Lisa’s email with the details for listening in on the calls.

Also, be sure to click on the special link in Lisa’s email and grab your bonus gifts that you can use right away. They are yours just for enrolling in this free series.

Wishing you empowerment,
Mita

P.S. Also, if you can’t make the LIVE calls, they will be recorded and available after each show for a limited time so you won’t miss a thing. We’ll send you the web address of the recording as soon as it’s posted on our website. So join us now…

    http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3560020