It wasn’t until I met the goddess Tara that it became clear to me that I have been driven by the power of the word my whole life.  That moment of clarity, the moment that came while sitting on the grass in India shifted something within me. A softness came, an understanding.

For the longest time I tried to control the world around me, events and people by my words. Carefully crafting and choosing which words to say and when, I believed would promote ease rather than miscommunication, clarity rather than confusion. I would hold lengthy conversations in my mind planning out what I would say and how I would respond. I put so much energy into this, I poured my energy into the pre-planning and crafting. Rarely did it go as I planned, leaving me foiled and wondering what just happened and why.

Words have meaning. Words convey meaning. Words carry a tone. Words carry an energy.

There is a force within them. Behind them. Words leave traces. Words shape.

Words impact and influence. Words carve grooves, patterns and habitual ways of being.

Words generate environments. Words maintain environments.

This is the power of the word. I have also written extensively about their power, specifically in the context of thoughts. Thoughts of the mind.  It took me a long time to catch on, to realize that the work I am here to do is to work with the mind, the power and strength, the immense capacity of the mind.  And one way I have been able to do this is through these practices.

Becoming aware of the narrator, the stories that my mind creates to hold and maintain its position, its power.  There are many ways that have led me to exploring this voice within, the voice that has shaped and molded me, crafted and created me into the being I am today.  And with this awareness, this awareness of a witness mind paired with these practices, I have come to work with the mind, to meet myself before the stories of the mind. To meet myself beyond the limits of my mind.

And it is here, from this place of possibility that I am sharing words here in these forms of mantra, mediation, affirmations, intentions, I am statement, declarations.  These are actual phrases, pieces, words that I have worked with, words that I work with daily to support myself and my commitment to master my mind. I have found that I am my strongest opponent, my mind is strong and its tendency to pull me off course, to take me into realms of fear and scarcity are real.  It requires a lot of effort, will and violation to reframe, reteach and reset these well grooved routes. It requires diligence and steadfastness to create new pathways, new ways of being, meeting and interacting with myself.

My intention here is to share what I have used and what works for me.  Maybe you read these words, maybe you listen to the sound of my voice. Maybe you choose record yourself reading the words that are written here and listen the sound current of your own voice through your ears and to be received by your heart.

Explore. See what feels best. Connect with what resonates. Lean into that which holds you. You are your greatest ally. Allow yourself to speak kind words, comforting words, encouraging words, words of love and grace. Words that back and support and hold you. Words that flow from the very core of your being, the truth of who you are.

Mantra

Man means “heart” and tra meaning “expansion” and “liberation.”*

 

While working with mantra we are expanding and liberating the heart. We are opening up the heart center, the Anahata Chakra, “The seat of the unstruck sound,” the beginning of sound, our heartbeat.

 

Some mantras have energetic signatures and when we chant them, we are tuning into and aligning to their vibration. Others can be used as a genuine prayer, a request that arises from the heart center itself. The words and sounds of a mantra, are like deep call within the core of our being and when we chant with sincerity and devotion, our message, our call is heard, it expands and its reverberations travel out to the far reaches of the cosmos.

 

Mantras can be chanted alone or with others. Some are chanted silently, in the core of your being, others can be chanted out loud. Mantras have energetic values, so the way in which you approach a mantra is paramount. We work with mantras to shift our energetic state, to enliven the energetic value that we are evoking.

 

The mantras I am sharing here, are mantras that I have worked with. They lift me up. They expand my field of consciousness. They ground me. They help me transcend and rise above moments that feel challenging and hard.  In simple words, they shift me.

Ahem Prema

By chanting Ahem Prema, I am love, Love of the Great Mystery, we are calling in the ever present presence of love. The very core of our being, the foundation of our essence. Here, we chant 108 rounds.

Ahem Prakasha

Here we chant 108 rounds of the mantra Ahem Prakasha. Ahem Prakasha meaning, I am light, Light of the Divine. When we chant these words we are evoking the presence of light within, activiating the systems upon systems of light in which we live in.

Intentions

Teach your body to listen to your intention. Not your conditioning. Not your programing.

Show yourself that you are greater than your conditioning, your programming.

Hold your attention on your intention.

I have found, that if left on its own my mind will carry me off in all sorts of directions. It yanks me back into the past, it projects into the future. It will do whatever it can to take me out of the present moment. You know what, I am on to my mind. I am aware of its tactics and tricks. I have been watching and studying it for sometime now and I have got some things figured out. One thing that I know to do, is to surround myself with intentions - to set intentions for my day, my practices, my interactions. I set these intentions and I hold my awareness on them. I focus my attention on these intentions and when my mind wanders, which I know it will do, I simply bring it back to my intention. Intentions are like roots and anchors for me. They set me firmly in the now and when the wake and tides of my mind come and attempt to take me away, I find my center in this way.

Trace the breath traveling in

Trace the breath as it travels out

Access yourself through your breath

Access yourself in the field of silence

 

 

Meet yourself before your mind

Turn your awareness towards the breath

 

Focus your awareness on the breath

Inhale, exhale

Access the gap, the space in between

 

Breathe here now

You have all the time to think

 

Let go of the doing

Enter the being

Relax into the effortlessness of the breath

 

 

When we feel the need to do more with our time

There is an invitation to do nothing, here is the invitation to do nothing

Access stillness with the breath

  

Access the space where you don’t need to get something done

Where you are not trying to reach, to grasp, to grab

Relax into the breath

Breathe

Breathe

Be

When you remember who you are

That is when life meets you

Exactly where you are meant to be

Let everything fade into nothingness

Access the stillness

Where the voice within resides

 


Quiet the mind

Turn the awareness toward the breath

Come to stillness

Allow silence to arrive

 

 

Teach your body to listen

To your intention

Not your conditioning

Not your programming

Focus your awareness on the breath

 

 

Breath in, fill the body up

Breath out, release it all

 

 

Inhale newness,

Exhale all that no longer serves

 

 

Inhale energy up from the earth

Exhale, send the used breath down into the earth

 

 

Root to rise

 

 

Ground to uplift

 

 

Bring your attention back to the breath

No attachment

No grip

No holding

Allowing nothing to stick

Come to a center

Come to stillness

 

Inhale in love and compassion

Exhale out competition and comparison

 


Inhale in grace and ease

Exhale out judgement and jitters

 

 

Inhale in forgiveness

Exhale out anger

 

 Harness the power of your attention

Harness the power of your mind

Give attention to what grows you

Place your focus on that which grows you

 

 

The mind is not our enemy

It is our greatest ally

Refine your mind

 

The unrefined mind remains restless, fragmented, distracted

The untrained mind drains our energy

Anchor the mind through the breath

Refine the mind by accessing your breath

 

 

Connect with your breath

Anchor yourself in the breath

Allowing the breath to bring you into the present moment

 

I am not the thoughts

I am not the stories

I am not the fear

I am the space. I am the witness. I am the observer.

I am the one who can see.

Questions to Ask Yourself

This section is dedicated to and in honor of my beloved sister, sister Pam. When I was sharing my intentions for this site, she encouraged me to add this section, sharing, “You always ask the good questions, the ones that go to the root.” Or something like that… So here they are:

Who am I?

What is my purpose?

What is my role?

Is it possible?

Am I willing?

Am I doing what I love?

Am I living a life that I am meant to live?

Am I taking this time for granted in a passive way or utilizing it and its potential for greater good?

Am I savoring or simply going through the motions in the sludge?

Why do I care?

What am I attached to?

How do I control?

When do I seek control?

Why do I control?

What is control?

When does judgement arise in me?

Where does judgement arise from?

What is beneath or behind the judgement?

Who do I judge?

Why do I judge?

What kinds of conversations do I have with myself?

What kinds of words do I use?

Am I aware of what I am are saying?

Am I aware of what I am not saying, yet conveying?

Am I willing to have conversations that challenge me? That provoke me? That ask me to look within?

Where do I have conversations with myself?

When do you notice the inner conversations of the mind?

Do I listen?

How do I listen?

Do I hear?

How do I hear?

Am I open to receiving the message?

How do I show up for myself?

How do I see myself?

What labels do I use to describe myself?

How do I see others?

What labels do I use to describe them?

What might happen if…?

What are my core values?

What drives me?

What action can I take now to shine light into my community?

What do I allow to define me?

What perceptions do I allow to define me?

What memories do I allow to define me?

What interpretations do I allow to define me?

What misinterpretations do I allow to define me?

Declarations

Call them what you would like, declarations, I am statements, affirmations. The intention is the same, to shift the inner dialogue from a negative one to a positive, embracing, loving, compassionate, caring, nurturing one. One that is full of grace and acceptance, energy and enthusiasm, love and more love. Yes, let’s have conversations with ourselves from a place of LOVE.

Speak these words out loud, from the very core of your being- your heart. Maybe they even rise up from your belly with heat and fire. May you speak these words and receive them. Allow yourself to feel them, the truth of them, the truth of who you ALREADY are!

I am powerful.

 

I am strong.

 

I am capable.

 

I am here to learn.

 

I am here to grow.

 

I am learning.

 

I am growing.

 

I trust myself.

 

I am trustworthy.

 

I am worthy.

 

I am deserving.

 

I have a voice, a voice that is meant to be used, heard and shared.

 

All of the steps I have taken have led me here and I am worthy of being here and claiming my space.

 

I am surrounded and held in love.

 

I am supported.

 

I am love.

 

I am never alone, there is a huge support system backing me and this support system is love itself.

 

I have so many folks cheering and guiding my on.

 

I am doing it! Yes, I am!

 

I am the one who sets myself free.

 

I am here to be the me I am meant to be.

 

I get to choose the me I want to be.

 

I am the me I choose to be.

 

I choose love over fear.

 

I choose unknown over known.

 

I choose joy over resentment.

 

I carry myself with a strong spine and a soft, open, compassion and grateful heart

 

I welcome with open arms expansion, growth, prosperity, fulfillment and abundance into my life.

 

My experiences are gifts, treasures that have guided me here.

 

I have gifts and capacities to share with others and these gifts shift their lives, I share them joyously.

 

I am open to receive that which is meant for me, my growth and my expansion

 

My life organizes around love.

 

I live, spread and share pleasure, joy, love and delight.

 

I am who people want to see- honest, authentic, real me.

 

I am worthy of being seen.

 

It is okay to be seen.

 

I am full.

 

I come from fullness.

 

I am whole.

 

I come from wholeness.

 

I am exactly where I am meant to be.

 

I am exactly who I am meant to be.

 

I trust all that is unfolding as I step into the unknown joyously.

 

I am abundantly blessed.

 

I no longer live within the narrow confines of limitations.

 

I have invested in myself and this is a wise and worthy investment.

 

I guard my time, my time is how I invest in myself.

 

My actions serve, support and uplift others.

 

I trust my interconnectedness.

 

I trust my innerconnectedness.

 

The more I open up to love, the more of myself I meet.

 

I trust this reciprocity.

 

I respond to the need of the hour, minute, moment.

 

I receive what I put out.

I am doing it! YAY Me!

This piece needs no introduction, as the title says it all.

In the early morning hours, in the space before light, this piece came to me. I was on Bowen Island and it was mid-February 2022. The night before I stood around a fire, rooted firmly in the knowing that I am here for a reason. It is as if this piece is written to claim my space. While a few had heard this before, at an open mic night she took her first breath and was shared out with the world.

Recorded and witnessed by Beloved H.P.

In keeping with the Power of the Word, it is important to note, to call attention to those whose words have guided me here and whose words have guided the words that you see and read here, typed on these pages.

*I have been taught, initiated and received training through Sattva Yoga Academy, in Rishikesh India. Some of the passages that you read here on these pages are inspired by the words that are written in my teaching manuals as well as the spoken word of Anand Ji himself. I share the words as they have been shared with me, in deep reverence, gratitude and grace.

**One of the greatest gifts we can offer one another is the gift of taking total responsibility for our stuff, our actions and our choices. Rebecca first introduced me to the idea of Personal Responsibility in regards to my practice, when I sat with her in her Opening To Love circle. The words written here are based on a foundation that she shared with me. You find them in written form on the Introduction to the Practices page as well as under the Personal Responsibility heading. I am grateful for her gift of direct and precise words. Thank you Rebecca for finding a way to invite this responsibility in a graceful and clear way. Hari Om

***The furthermore section, the one about liability, release and hold harmless has been shared generously from the Yoga Alliance.