Symbolic Living » Inspiration and Wellness

The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes

Symbolic Living — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:55:37 +0000

A young girl, passionate about her future and the future of our world, makes an important speach to the United Nations.

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Tai Chi For Beginners

Symbolic Living — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:27:20 +0000

If you haven’t practiced tai chi, you’ve probably heard of it, or at least have seen people practicing it in parks.

For those who haven’t tried Tai Chi before, or are curious, here are a few selections great for beginners.

Incorporating gentle flow of movement, breath and visualization, these simple exercises will give you a renewed sense of being present in your body while balancing your mind.

The movements are great for a simple morning routine to start your day in an easy way without strain or stress. Whether you enjoy yoga, tai chi or other practices, adding variety will make your attention to your body and mind more interesting.

The following tai chi video’s are simple to do, so we though it would be a great way for anyone unfamiliar with Tai Chi to get more in touch with self-awareness, health and well being.

This one is great for warming up your joints. Very simple, and great for anyone with stiff shoulders and needing more flow in your upper body.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video has four easy, flowing movements that are relaxing while energizing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you like visualization, or would like to get better at it in a simple, guided manner, this video is easy to follow.

Something interesting to pay attention to when you’re focusing on the energy circulating around your body while following this video is if you notice areas where you find the energy is more difficult to focus on, as if it dissipates, and others where it’s easier to sense.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Your body deserves that little bit of extra attention. Making an effort in stretching, breathing and working with your energy to start your day can make you feel much more centered and self aware.

We’ll be sharing more health, wellness and inspiration regularly. Have a great day.

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Gardening for Balance in Life. Motivation and Inspiration.

Symbolic Living — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:31:46 +0000

Have you ever felt out of balance? Sure, we all have. There are days when any on of us may just feel under the weather and we can’t quite figure out why. It feels like there’s a weight on you; not just on your shoulders but inside your body. You may not even feel tense or evidently stressed, you just feel heavier overall.

It usually has a lot to do with things in the back of our mind. Remnants of the past or worries about the future all rolled up into one. All those things that you are hemming and hawing about having to do, but aren’t quite motivated to do now will surely turn your procrastination into depression. Being in a funk is not fun.

A lot of people work in an office, or from home, or in some way are strapped to computers, paperwork, a desk, or some related form of confinement. Others have more flexibility but still have a hard time finding motivation at times with so much on their mind, all the responsibilities seem overwhelming all at once leading to immobilization.

Well, there’s an easy solution to brighten your day. The key is to do something different. Not as a distraction to prolong your procrastination, but to shake up your energy a bit.

Starting a small garden of flowers and plants, potted or in your yard can get your energy moving. Choosing the plants you like is up to you, just go with what catches your eye and livens your senses. Fragrant flowers will also lift your mood. You can even start a few seeds like easy to get apple seeds, beans, herbs, vegetables. Transparent cups lined with paper towel lets you see life beginning to take root. Watching seeds grow is the magic of life before your eyes. If you already have a garden it may be time to give it some tender loving care for the sheer pleasure of it. Add some new plants and flowers to renew the vibe of your garden.

The point is, spending time out of your brains regular routine of recycling ideas and worries will give you an internal shift that will help you get back on track and motivated in life. What gardening will do is take your mind off your own worries and put your thoughts and emotions towards caring for something else for a while.

The pruning, the watering, the dirt, the fresh air, the colors, the fragrance, will literally shift your consciousness.

Not only is it fun, but it’s rewarding. Gardening is tending to your personal needs as much as it is the needs of the plants. You’ll create a bond with the earth, your body, and the process of organizing will give you a sense of feeling more in control of what you’re doing in a holistic, enjoyable way. This will elevate your mood and your sense of accomplishment and capability. You’ll feel more inspired to see how you spend your time in a new way and will become more motivated to spend more moments of your life in a more consciously directed way.

Gardening, and tending to your plants will stretch you to understanding your environment and allow you to be creative. Even caring for one plant with attention and mindfulness will give you a new relationship with the earth and yourself.

Plants symbolize a connection with the essentials of life revealed in the beauty of the life force.

As your garden grows and flourishes, and you continue to visit it to renew your energy, you’ll find it becomes a sacred act of self-care.

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Cleaning Your Space for Self-Transformation.

Symbolic Living — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:49:10 +0000

A lot of people dislike cleaning, or are simply too busy, or lazy, to spend the time to clean and organize their space. However, whether you realize it or not, being disorganized is a real hindrance on the flow of energy in your life.

For those who don’t have enough time, realize this: The more organized your space is, the more time you’ll actually have. Knowing exactly where everything is when you need it free’s up time you would likely spend searching for what you need. When your space is organized, clean and supportive of how you want to spend your time, you’ll find your life flows in a more orderly fashion.

Everyone is trying to find balance in life. So many distractions can pull us in so many directions. We have to make a choice. If your space repeatedly gets disorganized, it reflects your mindfulness and your priorities. For most people there really is enough time, if you prioritize doing what actually serves your life.

Cleaning your environment is a step towards a clearer consciousness

Your environment, and your interaction with it, is a reflection of your internal world. Your environment not only reflects the organization of your mind, but it also influences it. The cause and effect energy works both ways.

If you’re taking care of your environment as a holistic approach to your life, you will be taking care of your extended body. Your home, your work space, is an extension of you.

Cleaning can be a spiritual experience symbolic of you purifying yourself of negative energy. It can also be approached like a meditation. The sheer focus and attention to detail can transform your perspective on life and your sense of well being immensely. You will feel accomplished in creating an environment that reflects a more harmonious lifestyle.

Yoga teaches us about our relationship to our most immediate space; our bodies. When you are attentive to the body, your energy shifts. Clarity and contentment arises. The life force energy flows better when your body is in line with a balanced, attentive, focused mind, and vice versa.

Getting rid of old things can be like a cleansing ritual. You make a bold statement of what truly serves you and what no longer does in the new vision you have for your life. You are literally and symbolically getting rid of things you no longer need, opening yourself up to allow new things to enter your life. What you value is reflected in what you surround yourself by.

When you organize your space, you organize your thoughts.

This is what it’s all about. Organizing your space, will organize your thoughts, which naturally leads to a more organized life. You will have more sense of freedom, awareness and ability to do what you wish to do. The pathway is clearer.

Free Your Mind

As you go throughout your day, you’ll have many thoughts and idea’s that come to mind about so many things, from work, to creative idea’s to errands. Writing them down is a healthy practice of organizing. By writing down your thoughts, you get them out of your head relieving yourself of a cycle of disorganized patterns of repeating thoughts, in the hopes you won’t forget what’s important.

Writing things down in your electronic device can be helpful if it’s not too time consuming and tedious. Another option which helps is the back to basics method of pen and paper. Have paper in a few designated area’s in your home. Writing your idea’s on random paper will only contribute to disorganization and actually is just another reflection of your mind being scattered. Instead, having one or two specific places where you can always go to jot down your idea’s will make your life easier.

Then you can compile what your idea’s are in a more logical pattern, and categorize the idea’s. If you’re writing everything in a list, you can make icons beside each type of thought for easy identification. Such as a star for important work, an eye for inspiration and idea’s, and E for errands, or use colored dots according to category, etc. This will help you keep the idea’s orderly. If you want to save time, have a tabbed book, with each category – easy to flip as you write. This is just one simple way to start giving your mind more freedom.

Designating area’s for each thing, returning them to their place when finished with them, relieves the mind and keeps your space orderly.

Chaos. Now or Then

When you cleanse your space, you are cleansing yourself. Messiness, and accumulating dust, represents energy that isn’t being paid attention to and stagnates. When your area is clean, you will rid yourself of the stagnant energy and have more opportunity to send positive energy out there. The space will encourage and support you to have a more positive energy flow. In return that new, positive energy will flow from you into your environment, to the people and things around you. It’s a win-win situation.

Some people live and work in “beautiful chaos” and swear it works for them. They can handle knowing where everything is. Most people though, are not that on top of where everything is when it’s all over the place, in a mess. If you’re really honest with yourself you’ll realize when the flow of energy really isn’t suitable for you. Don’t fool yourself as an excuse to not take charge of your life. If it works in an area, great, but if your entire house is a disaster area, there’s a problem.

For some, life is so busy, weeks can go by and everything piles up. Where everything is, represents not only what you did mindlessly, but also the choices you made to. That shirt on the living room floor – you made a decision to leave it there. Those dishes on the counter, that pile of paper on your desk, all got to where they were because of actions you took, or didn’t take. Where are you focusing your life force energy, and where are you neglecting applying yourself for your own benefit? If you don’t do it now, know that later will eventually become “now”, and you’ll be in exactly the same place.

If you’re the type of person who’d rather have someone come in and clean your space, fair enough, but if you continue mindlessly messing up your space because someone else will take care of it, you are missing the deeper point.

Remember, cleaning is more than just the surface of things. It gets down to the core of who you are and your willingness to transform your internal and external way of living.

It’s easier when it’s in harmony

Cleaning and organizing just one area can start you on an all new path. It can be overwhelming to consider tackling everything at once and will leave you scatterbrained. Break it down, and give yourself smaller area’s to focus on. If you try to do everything, you’ll be all over the place doing a little here and there, instead of getting into that meditative zone of honing in on an area with attention.

You don’t have to spend all your time cleaning. Once an area is clean choose to do small things that will help maintain it’s cleanliness. For example, don’t wear your shoes in the house. This drags random dirt in, reflecting a scattered mind.

This is the point – changing your relationship to your space and how you see and interact with it will realign how you view your environment. It will also enhance how you get to experience your time overall. The little things you choose to do, and don’t do, will transform your space and your life. This will lead to a feeling of being more aware and in harmony with yourself and all around you.

Flow vs. Order

Well what about flow, if I focus on such precision am I blocking flow, will I be too controlling? This isn’t about controlling everything and living in a rigid, logical manner. That is what happens when obsessive compulsive behavior occurs; the logical side is on overdrive, leading to imbalance. If you’re fanatical, you know you’re off track. Nothing can be perfect, its the intention that matters. Freaking out at people who may mess up your cleanliness also reflects rigidity in an unhealthy way.

In fact, the very opposite of obsession is the intention here because this is about uniting your logical side of organizing with your creative, flowing side, in balance. When you’re organizing and cleaning your space, trust what feels right, not just what you think would be right. When you approach your space in a more holistic manner, you’ll notice the movement of energy flows so much better in your life. You’ll feel lighter, and more capable.

This also isn’t about living in a sterile environment without any creative input, color or spontaneity. Instead, it’s actually about giving you clearer thinking and attentiveness to yourself so your creative side can flourish. Your creative self won’t be hindered, but will instead be liberated.

Speaking of creativity, organizing your art area will make your art projects that much easier to focus on instead of searching for the tools you need. Painting, for example; with all your paints organized, your brushes, water, pallet, etc., your mind will be relieved of thinking where each item is when you need it, and you’ll be able to focus on the creative aspect itself. Your creativity will be free to work within an order you designed specifically for the task with your intention. The same goes for your office space, or any area where you would do best to designate an area for each tool for easy access.

Consider this: the world as we know it is abundant with possibilities, but beneath all the options are the laws of nature that exist as a framework allowing us the freedom to choose many directions. Order in the universe is necessary for the life force to flow. You can choose to align yourself with order, so your life force can flow in the direction you wish.

Music is a great way of clearing the energy of your environment. Loud music that has a good beat, shakes up the vibrations of your space, literally. If you play music that has a positive melody, you are promoting that consciousness and harmony into your space. For example, classical music like Mozart changes the way your mind works, and will also motivate you by giving you a positive mood. Cleansing your space will be enjoyable.

Practicing cleaning your space and engaging in a positive relationship with your environment are expressions of self care. Care for yourself. Your body is your temple, your space is your castle.

We’re going to be providing many more tips on enjoying your space like this soon. Stay tuned. Join our mailing list for updates, and follow us on twitter.

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Interview with Michael DeCorte founder of Jock Yoga

Symbolic Living — Mon, 30 May 2011 22:06:39 +0000

As many of you who visit our site know Nadiya Shah is not only a regular contributer in sharing with us her Astrology Forecasts but she is also a close personal friend. We are very pleased to showcase her online show Nadiya Shah Productions.

Nadiya has recently conducted an interview with Michael DeCorte, founder of Jock Yoga™ in Toronto. His story of personal growth and determination to fulfill a higher purpose for his life is inspiring. We are pleased to share with you Michael’s story and know it will inspire many of you to recognize your own personal challenges and fears and realize you have the potential to follow through with whatever it is you are passionate about that really can reinvent your life.

Nadiya and Michael discuss determination, inspiration, and spirituality in the current and collective. Enjoy learning more about Michael and his passion.

Click here to view the embedded video.

http://www.jockyoga.com

http://www.strongbodystillmind.com

Visit Michaels site to find out about his classes.

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Alan Watts – A conversation with Myself

Symbolic Living — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:06:55 +0000

Alan Watts was a thinker, academic, philosopher, writer and teacher who saw the beauty in the mundane world and was pleased to share his wisdom on life.

Learning from Allan Watts comes naturally when listening to his articulate thoughts and philosophical discussions. He gently, yet profoundly, teaches us to see and think in new ways, immediately expanding perspectives in interesting and holistic directions. The wisdom he shared is eastern philosophy with a zen approach; universal, understandable and accessible by all.

In this talk, Alan Watts considers our place in the natural world, how we relate to it and how we consider ourselves separated and connected to the whole of our reality. He explores our ideas about ourselves and human consciousness. This recording was made in 1971, 40 years ago and is as relevant and applicable today as it was then.

We’ll be featuring work by Alan Watts again; he has much to teach us, and revisiting his lessons is always a pleasure for those important reminders in life at just the right time.

No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now. ~ Alan Watts

So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself. ~ Alan Watts

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Christy Turlington

Symbolic Living — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:47:12 +0000

“Any spirituality can be enhanced with the practice or study of yoga.”

“It is possible to experience an awakening in this life through realising just how precious each moment, each mental process, and each breath truly is.”

Christy Turlington is a woman who knows success in career while also finding time to focus on the importance of internal balance. She has shown beauty really does come from within.

“I was interested in cleaning my body on a deeper level. Yoga really purifies your organs and blood. You feel that. You feel that circulation of energy. But the real lesson yoga gives you is learning how to be present.”

Astrology Quicky:

Christy Turlington was born January 2, 1969 (time unknown) in Walnut Creek, California.

In Christy’s birth chart

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Moon sign is unknown because Christy’s birthtime isn’t known, but would likely be Gemini or Cancer, which would depend on the time of day.

Mercury in Capricorn, Venus in Aquarius, Mars in Scorpio, Jupiter in Libra, Saturn in Aries, Uranus in Libra, Neptune in Scorpio, Pluto in Aries.

Looking at Christy’s Transits for 2011 it appears she’ll have a wonderful birthday filled with a focus on her spiritual desires for the year leading the way. Now that Jupiter and Uranus are going direct and in the Sign of Pisces and moving into Aries this year, this should be a good year for Christy. These planets being in Libra in her chart, and Saturn currently in Libra, she will find this year shows an increasing importance in finding balance, and lots of expansion, and growth in this area will be gained with her focused efforts.

Mercury in Sagittarius for her return chart this year, shows a lot of learning through her philosophical and moral direction. Travel will also increase her exposure to much wisdom. With her birth chart Mercury in Capricorn she naturally has a practical way of thinking, able to rationalize and use her thoughts constructively. The Moon nearby Mercury on her birthday adds optimism and the drive to grow, but there may be some impatience. However, as we can see Christy has created a life where she is capable of finding balance in many challenges. She naturally has luck with words and conveying her idea’s with articulation with her Jupiter and Mercury in easy aspect.

Neptune conjuncts her Venus on her birthday. Beauty will truly be at a higher level with much deeper meaning, even divinely inspired. That beauty may come through at a soul level in relation to others and the self.

Enjoy the videos to learn a bit more about Christy’s life. Happy Birthday Christy.

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Being Unique

Symbolic Living — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 03:55:18 +0000

Being Unique, should be a blessing, not a curse.

In a world where lives are destroyed and ended at the hands and words of bullying, awareness, understanding, compassion and loving kindness are what we need more of.

When I was young it was always the unique people that were interesting. It was always the people who had their own quirky behaviors that stood out, and that was a good thing… in other words, they had character. They had something about them that showed me their humanity, their vulnerabilities and their strengths. That resonated with me, as I saw those same qualities as true for myself.

Still to this day, I find those people most interesting. Those are the people I want to know more about. Those are the people who have stories, and uniqueness to share about who they are.

Imagine how much more wonderful life would be for everyone if we were celebrating this great festival of uniqueness of all the many individuals the Divine placed on this earth rather than damning others with our opinions and judgments.

We should be recognizing the beautiful tapestry all the people of the world make up, together. No two people are alike, nor should they be. It’s all a beautiful, evolving design that deserves dignity and deserves to be cherished for the few moments we have while on this earth. Everyone’s life is short.

All of us suffer. All of us. We all feel pain, and joy. Imagine bringing more joy into the world while you’re here. Everyone has someone who loves them, and feels pain when they see the person they love suffer. With the short time we have, what we do matters so much.

“Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”

Judgment is ingrained in us. It is our ego’s, but we can transcend it for the good of others and ourselves.

Make someone smile today, with real joy.

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Dalai Lama: Purpose, Peace, and Happiness

Symbolic Living — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 15:50:21 +0000

The Dalai Lama reminds us to have as much compassion for ourselves as we consider compassion for others.

In a world where money is so often on people’s minds for happiness, where can we find more meaning?

“When you become a compassionate person, your life becomes meaningful”

Daily Prayer by the Dalai Lama ~

I would be a protector for those without protection, a leader for those who journey, and a boat, a bridge, a passage for those desiring the further shore.

For all creatures, I would be a lantern for those desiring a lantern, I would be a bed for those desiring a bed, I would be a slave for those desiring a slave.

I would be for creatures a magic jewel, an inexhaustible jar, a powerful spell, a universal remedy, a wishing tree, and a cow of plenty.

As the earth and the other elements are, in various ways, for the enjoyment of innumerable beings dwelling in all of space;

So may I be, in various ways, the means of sustenance for the living beings occupying space, for as long a time as all are not satisfied.

Balancing your purpose and happiness with the larger world systems we live within.

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Freedom of Choice and Egoism

Symbolic Living — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:18:10 +0000

Our Freedom of Choice and Egoism manifesting in our lives.

A short documentary exploring what we want and why, the real causes and results of our desires. Our place in accordance to the laws of nature. What is freedom of choice all about?