Tag Archive for: guru

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11 Minute Life Changing Meditation|Kirtan Kriya

Over the past several years, I have gone through some amazing, transformational shifts that have led me on a beautiful journey. I have learned how to let go of stress and open up to the divine vibration. This change has allowed me to live the life of my dreams. And meditation has been one of the strongest tools to help me get there.

I recorded this meditation on the tropical island of Koh Phangan, Thailand after trekking deep into the palm tree jungle to a secret waterfall. Thailand is the land where my dreams awakened into reality.  I first traveled to Thailand for a yoga and meditation retreat in 2008-2009. There I experienced a spiritual transformation. After that trip, I knew my life as it was before, was never to be again. It was then that meditation became a daily practice for me and I burst wide into my spiritual awakening.

Kiran Kriya is my #1 favorite and meditation. It was one of the first meditations taught by the Kundalini yoga master, Yogi Bhajan back in 1969. He said if all other meditation technologies were lost, this one mediation would be enough to carry us through the Aquarian Age. Which is the age and time we are living in now.

There are so many benefits to this meditation. It works on clearing the psyche and is an incredibly powerful spiritual cleanser. It has the power to break patterns and addictions, lifts brain fog, increases memory and reorients the mind allowing the possibility of transformational change.  Whatever you need at the moment, it will readjust and align you, bring balance into your mind and thus your life. 

Just last year, during one of my “life storms”, I practiced this meditation for 40 days straight. The results were miraculous. Everything that was going wrong spun on it’s heels. All that needed to be released, gently melted away. I emerged with clarity, vibrance and joy.

How to do it:

This is the 11 minute version. It can also be done for shorter or longer times. During particularly stressful times, it should be done for at least 11 minutes every day.

You chant the mantra

Sa, Ta, Na, Ma while simultaneously  incorporating the below mudras (hand positions)

  • SA, press the thumb and the index finger together
  • TA, and press the thumb and the middle finger together
  • NA, and press the thumb and the ring finger together
  • MA, press the thumb and the pinky finger together

As you do this, visualize the energy coming into the crown chakra from the top of the head and out through the third eye. In an L shape

Do the above series, with the mantra and mudra  first for

2 minutes OUT LOUD, then

2 minutes in an audible WHISPER, then

3 minutes chant SILENTLY while continuing with the hands, and mouth moving, then

2 minutes WHISPER and 

2 minutes OUT LOUD

Release the mudra. Inhale deeply, suspend breathe 30 seconds

Exhale eyes remain closed, breath normally for 30 seconds

Inhale, stretch arms up over-head and shake

Release

I invite you to try it. Whether you practice it once, occasionally or for 40 days, we’d love to hear from you. Let us know your experience with it.

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Merry Meditation

Merry Meditation

The weather has shifted, the lights have lifted and we are in the full swing of the holiday season. With that comes shopping for gifts, time spent with family and… yes, stress. Let’s face it, with all the planing that goes into the holiday season, spending extra time with the colorful personalities of our families or missing loved ones who are no longer with us, can all lead to chaos in the mind and in our lives.

This holiday season, try moving into the stress free zone with a daily mediation practice. Meditating offers an opportunity for the mind to relax, recalibrate and rejuvenate. It’s a time to just be. There is no place to go, nothing to do, but to be still and present. Sometimes our mind goes into overload. Meditation allows you to let go of all the garbage and chatter that is swirling around in your head.

I love the way the late Kundalini Yogi Master, Yogi Bhajan, describes it. He said, “If when meditating — all your garbage does not come out to greet you — you are probably not meditating.”

 

Quiet the Mind? 

When I first started meditating, I found it challenging. Quiet the mind? How? We have so many thoughts running around our heads and ruling the show. So I started to experiment. There are many types of meditation. You can try Guided Meditation. This type of meditation paints a picture or story of peace and serenity in your mind’s eye. That way you have something to focus on. Then there is Mindful Meditation, the act of being aware of your thoughts, physical sensations and surroundings. And my all time favorite is Kundalini Meditation, which uses mantras (sounds), mudras (hand positions) breath work and body movement. These are just a few types of meditations. So if one doesn’t work for you, try another.

Meditation Tips:

Keep in mind, meditation is not about being perfect. So don’t get caught up feeling that you are doing it wrong.

Watch your breath. Allow the breath to enter into your body though the crown chakra, top of the skull and send it on a path to your core, the center of the belly. You can visualize it as a white healing light.

As thoughts enter your mind, just let them float past you like clouds. This is what meditators call, “being the observer of the thoughts”. When we merely observe them, we detach from them; allowing you to break the patterns that are not serving you.

Meditating has allowed me to understand that the perceptions in our minds are just an assemblage of impressions. And impressions are not facts, they are perceptions. We can have hundreds and thousands of perceptions and opinions on one single event. So detach from the story you are creating in your mind. Release them and let them go. I give credit to my spiritual teacher Guru Singh for that one. 

So just sit back and allow the act of meditation to shift your awareness. Soon you will find your perception shifting and the mind calming. And when the mind is calm, it’s most conducive to problem solving. You start to become more present and more productive.

And if you find yourself in the midst of stress, when you are feeling at your wit’s end, just take several slow deep breaths. Gives you a way to escape the chaos of the challenging times.

Here’s a simple yet powerful Kundalini Meditation. 

AM, I AM

“The complete mantra is ‘I am, I AM’.

‘I am’ is the finite and ‘I AM’ is the Infinite and the

mind must shuttle between the two. ~Yogi Bhajan

Posture: Sit with the legs crossed on the floor or sit on a chair with the feet flat on the floor. Hands on the knees or thighs, eyes closed, spine tall and straight. Tuck the chin down slightly. Inhale and exhale deeply 3 times. Then repeat the following in easy rhythm for 11 minutes.

I am… (Simultaneously bring the right palm to the left chest.)
I AM. (Simultaneously bring the left palm to right chest and return the right hand to leg.)
I am… (Again, bring the right palm to the left chest and return the left hand to leg.)
I AM. (Again, bring the left palm to right chest and return the right hand to leg.)

Keep repeating this cycle.

Start with 3 minutes. You can work your way up to 11 minutes. When finished, inhale deeply and relax.

Try it out. The conversation continues below on the blog. Let us know how the meditation worked for you. Or share some of your favorites.  

 

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Keep Calm and Do It For The Love

 

Have you ever found yourself spinning out of control and stressing out on your projects? If you anything like me, a type A personality, then you probably know what I’m talking about. In fact, I found myself doing just that recently. 

 

Earlier last year, I embarked on a journey to expand my yoga accreditation and enrolled in Kundalini yoga teacher training. For me, Kundalini yoga is totally amazing and I LOVE the way it makes me feel. It’s quite different from traditional hatha or vinyasa yoga which I’ve been teaching since around 2007. Kundalini is known as yoga of awareness. It’s actually a science. It uses a mixture of movement, breath work, mantra and meditation to calm the body and elevate the spirit. The benefits are remarkable! After a class, you leave feeling incredibly revived and connected to the inner guidance within your heart and to the higher universal energies. Honestly, its magical!

 

Well… that’s the way I felt about it up until I signed up for the training. Now let me start by saying, my teachers are great. The best in the world! I have so much respect for them. The practicum is fabulous. But as per my usual type A personality, I started to stress out about it… all the reading, the final test, 12 hour days in class. My mind went into overload and I thought, oh God, can I really absorb all of this.

 

Why Do We Put So Much Pressure On Ourselves?

 

You see, right out of the gate, I started to worry about the end result. Nine months of work if ya look at it all at once is of course overwhelming. And the final test, YIKES. Why was I worrying about that now? So much unnecessary pressure! I was taking all the fun out of what I came to do… to learn more about this beautiful practice so that I can grow in my spirituality and in turn help others to grow. But here I was, getting all freaked out. 

 

Does any of this resonate with you? Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? 

 

As I explained this to a dear friend who is also a Kundalini yoga teacher, she looked at me quizzically and said, “Why in the world would you get so caught up on the tests? You said yourself you love kundalini yoga. You’ll learn more by living it, going to the classes, submerging yourself in the lifestyle… and then it will come to you naturally and organically.”

 

She proceeded to tell me a poignant story about her college days. That she did all kinds of things that were good for the resume. Becoming student president, joining clubs, doing all sorts of extra curricular activities. But she didn’t do all of these things because she felt she had to for her resume, rather she did this because she was enjoying all of them. 

sev-school-stress-mdn

Conversely a friend of hers had done all the same, but attached a ton of stress to it. You see, this person was doing it because she felt she had to do it. She overloaded herself not only with the workload, but with non-productive anxiety and pressure. Unfortunately for this girl, she crashed and

and actually dropped out of school.

 

Which brings me to a simple realization, we don’t have to fight through life. Do the things you love, because you love it. And let your grip release from the end results. You’ll be much more apt to enjoy the process. Stress out and put undue pressure on yourself, and you may very well crash and burn and perhaps lose the entire benefit or love for what you started out doing to begin with. And what a shame that would be!

 

My mantra for today is “Let go and do what you love for the love of it. Period, end of story. Attach nothing to it and let it all unfold beautifully.”

And do help you smoothly sail along your journey, here are three of my top three tips to Keep Calm…

1. STOP OVER ANALYZING AND START DOING. Yogi Bhajan would say, “When the time is on you, start and the pressure will be off.” Just by consciously engaging in the relationship of your project puts you in the game. Work on it, put your energy into it. The act of starting and taking steps everyday will get you closer to the finish line. 

2. CHOOSE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS OF WHAT YOU CAN HUMANLY GET DONE. Break it down. In my case, the training is broken down into 9 months. That’s a lot of time to get all that work and study done. In that 9 months, we break it down to weekly, and then monthly goals. So get out a pen and start to dissect your project into digestible, realistic chunks.

3. REWARD YOURSELF. What happens to a car if you drive it non stop? You will run out of gas of course. Set rewards for the work you have done. Once you’ve finished a chunk of the work, give yourself a gift. Maybe a walk to the park, have dinner with a friend, take a yoga class. And repeat this Love Mantra, repeat it until you believe it. ” have done great work. Congratulations. (insert your name here).

I hope you can translate this into your own life and KEEP CALM and do it for the LOVE.

 

If this story resonates with you, you think it could benefit someone else, feel free to share. After all sharing is caring and it just may help someone you know. 

Shine on,

Jewels Bertrand 

colorado mudra

 

burned, got sick

 

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The Power Of A Daily Spiritual Practice

As some of you know, I have recently committed to expanding my yoga teaching accreditations to encompass Kundalini Yoga. I’m in a 9 month training course studying under some of the best Kundalini Teachers in the world. Guru Singh, Amrit Khalsa, Guru Prem Singh and Simran Khalsa, just to name a few.

 

Discipline 

As part of this intense teacher training, we were required chose and perform a specific 40 day kriya (physical yoga practice) along with a meditation. The direction was to do this practice for 40 days straight. If ya miss a day, ya have to start over. Needless to say, The discipline it took to finish this 40 days was at times extremely difficult and arduous.  And being the over achieve that my nature dictates, I chose a rather rigorous kriya. Ugh, what was I thinking???

 

No Time

Often times when I mention that I’m a yoga teacher, people tell me… “Oh, I wish I could go to yoga, but I just don’t have the time.” 

 

Ya know, life is pretty much always full. We manage our home life, personal life, work life, social life, deadlines and commitments. Most of us have a pretty full plate. But if we don’t take care of the most important aspect of our lives, YOU, what do you have? 

 

But what if…

And what if by doing spiritual practice like yoga or meditation it actually helped you along in your life? Helped things to move in and out more freely, helped you to feel better, be more peaceful and calm. And what if it actually helped to open doorways and opportunities for you? Wouldn’t it be worth it?

 

That’s pretty much been my experience with my spiritual practice since I first began my yoga journey almost 10 years ago. Oh I’ve gone through sh*t storms just like everyone else. But somehow, when I keep in my practice, I can draw the power to center myself in the eye of the storm. Chaos swirling all around me, but steadily and gracefully I stand. And just if by magic, things turn out just the way they should.

 

Transformation

During my actual 40 day Kundalini spiritual practice, I have experienced such transformation. I was joking to my fellow students during our last meeting. Saying that with all the change and movement, uncertainty and shedding that I’ve gone through this month, the old me would have mentally broken down or hid in bed. But with the Kundalini yoga and meditation, I was able to keep up and spiral up. 

 

I mean, my plate was full. I had to travel back and forth across the country, pack up and move from my Manhattan apartment I loved and called hOMe for almost a decade, sell all of my furniture, get through Christmas, entertain guests, start a new business, move my life to my new home and still go through 14 hour days of teacher training. 

 

Powering through

I needed to be extremely disciplined and dedicated. Yet during every single aspect of it, I endured. Oh trust me, at times I cursed it. Screaming up to the heavens to the beloved Kundalini yogi master, Yogi Bhajan saying, “I am too tired, can’t I just skip a day?”  LOL.  And then there were the times that I cruised through the practice with joy and ease. 

 

Victory 

I can proudly say, I finished it! And all I can say is, wow. I feel so radiant, so calm and strong. I have a sense of freedom. Like I unleashed the inner warrior within me and I’m ready to take on the world. 

free-flow-sign

 

I read a lot of books and articles about practices of successful people. And low and behold, ya know one common thread? A daily spiritual practice. Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, Gabby Bernstein, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Russell Simmons, Arianna Huffington, Russell Brand, Hugh Jackman, Gweneth Paltrow, Richard Gere, Sting, Orlando Bloom, Katie Perry, Howard Stern, I could go on. 

 

I’m telling ya, this stuff is powerful!!!

 

I leave you with these words by Yogi Bhajan referring to Kundalini Yoga. I find this quote so comforting

 

“Keep up and you will be kept up”

 

Please Share

If you enjoyed this blog, please share it with a friend. Sharing is caring. 

 

What Is Your Experience

I’d love to hear your insights. Do you have a daily practice or ritual that elevates you? The conversation continues below. Something you bring up may help someone else in their journey.

Sat nam,

Jewels Bertrand

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