The Family That Asanas Together, Stays Together

By: Ginny Simon, Creator of Mindful Organics & Green Monkey Guest Writer

I cannot express the joy and pride I feel when I enter a Yoga studio with two of my boys and husband in tow.  I feel so incredibly blessed as I waited a long time for this to happen. And though I have been practicing for many years now, there was a time in my life where I was searching for some answers.

I went to see my Rabbi, who thought I should start Karate. He felt I needed more secure boundaries because I wasn’t reserving enough of ‘me’ for me.  Instead, I walked into a Yoga studio and never looked back.

Yoga became my refuge, where I went alone each morning and practiced in a very small group, doing Mysore. Everyone in their own space, movements and pace.  Peace. Silence.  Then heading home afterward to a very young and busy household of 4 young babies, feeling ready and so happy to be back in the fold of the action.  I thrived on this contrast. Yoga does that for you, gives you clarity and the understanding of your place in the world.

Understandably, I wanted to share this with my family, but my four sons and very athletic husband met me with strong resistance, not understanding that Yoga isn’t about how much weight you lift or how many push ups you can do, but instead about the total package, mind, body and spirit. Not to mention that the body strengthens itself quite beautifully with Yoga.

It took my youngest son’s Lacrosse coach calling me and telling me my son needed Yoga.  He said that the stretching would strengthen and lengthen his muscles – so that when he came into LAX season after completing basketball, his injuries would lessen. They wanted him performing hard. And when the coach speaks versus the mom, things happen. And so – Kevin was sold, and one of his older brothers became interested as well (insert glorious choir chant here!).  I called on my long time friend and beloved Green Monkey instructor – Amy Rabin to work with my boys. To make them fall in love with Yoga. And she succeeded. I have no idea how she managed it so quickly and so thoroughly but they are true Yogis now. Kevin now wants, when his schedule allows, to become a certified Yoga instructor and now I see Michael opening up to a more spiritual side of life.  Now you’ll see them around the Tree House regularly during school and sport season breaks.

So, please know that when they walk in with me my heart is feeling so full, and I am so filled with love. My husband – seeing us all with mats in hand, raring to go – threw in the towel and now joins us. And now each time he comes along, I am so grateful and bursting with an increased love for this man that I adore.  So this past Valentine’s Day I paid tribute to my Yoga studio, to Amy, my fellow Yogis and mostly to these gorgeous men I get to claim as my own. And my family – stronger, spiritually synchronized and beautifully aligned. I am blessed.

Happy Valentine’s Day (and month) to the beautiful Green Monkey community. I am honored to be a part of it.

Ginny Simon is a Certified Integrative Holistic Health Counselor (Institute of Integrative Nutrition, New York City), Drugless Practitioner and Life Coach, based in Miami Beach, Florida. Ginny can help guide and educate you and your family to incorporate healthier choices and habits into your daily life by consuming healthier, minimally processed, whole and organic foods and making time for fitness. For more information visit www.mindfulorganics.com.

Love Is…

By Corrina Steward, Green Monkey Staff Writer
To contact Corrina click here

“Love. Love is.  It is our universal connection to one another.  It is the fuel of our creative being. It is the spark that catalyzes us into the unity of the sacred heart.”  These are words I wrote recently for a book I’m writing with several additional authors on where we are headed as a global society.  No sooner had I written these words than I received a lesson on the universality of love.  It is the drum beat that can be felt around the world.  When we feel it, all separation dissolves and the magic of love is revealed.

First let me tell you about the sacred heart.  Imagine: your heart is where love is created and expressed out into the world.  It’s as if you have a love “container” within your heart that fills with love, pours out into the world, and then, fills again.  The supply of love is endless.  Our container always becomes full again.

Every human being has the same heart that can create and express love in endless supply.  How amazing is that?!  Think about this the next time someone hurts your feelings in some way.  You share the same heart.  Many have forgotten this and don’t know to fill their love container.  Now that you know, fill your container and give away as much love as you can.  It’s free and infinitely abundant.

One of the easiest ways to know the feeling of “free” love filling your heart and releasing into the world is through a good friend.  A dear friend of mine is travelling through Brazil in search of life purpose and healing.  She emailed me the other day about some of her recent experiences.  As I read her words, tears began to flow.  I was overwhelmed by the feeling of love.  It not only filled my heart, it burst my heart open.

I felt love for her journey that she did on behalf of herself and her family. I felt love for myself and my journey for a similar peace and happiness.  I felt love for all human beings as we have put our best efforts forward from small to large measures to find meaning in life.

As I cried more and more happiness filled my heart.  I recognized that my friend’s journey affected my life too.  Her journey is my journey and her healing is my healing, because we are all one.  It is universal law.  When the winds blow across the sand dunes of the Sahara, the Caribbean beaches are built.  Everything is intricately connected.

While I was still reveling in the love I felt for all people and things I made a drive to do some errands.  On my way home I was stopped by a beautiful sight of four graceful, strong deer standing in the middle of the road.  Their stately eyes peered at me for a minute as if to convey a message that I did not yet understand.  Then, the moment of stillness was over, and they dispersed.

Certain that there was a message for me in the appearance of the deer, when I returned home I looked up the meaning of the deer spirit.  Many indigenous people, including Native Americans, pay attention to animals as nature’s spirit messengers.
I have found that animals not only carry messages for us from the spirit world, they are the embodiment of aspects of ourselves wanting to get our attention.  This is what I read,

“Deer has entered your life to help you walk the path of love with full consciousness and awareness…the balance of true power lays in love and compassion….only when we move through life in the spirit of love for all beings can we melt the barriers that separate us from others, from other life forms, and from the beautiful mystery which is our own magical and spiritual gift.”

These words summed up the feeling of love, fully awakened in my heart, which I was experiencing.  Love without barriers moves freely from one human being to the next.  It started with my friend’s love pouring from her heart to mine.

Then, the ‘magical’ gift arrived.  I emailed my friend about my reaction to her email and the arrival of the deer.  She emailed me back later that day.  Soon after sending her initial email to me she went outside, and there was a rainbow in the sky.  With this she knew her intentions for love and healing were confirmed.  Simultaneous magic!  As she was peering at a rainbow, 4 pairs of eyes were staring at me with the same confirming message.

The universe responds to love.  Love was heard around the world because my friend and I connected our hearts.  Love brought on my tears.  Love connected me to the deer.  Love created my friend’s experience with a rainbow.  Love showed me that the sacred heart that connects us all is real.  Love is teaching me to trust.  Love is telling this story.  Love is finding its way to you.  Love is filling your “container” now.  Love is pouring out of your heart.  Love is circling the world again.  Love is finding another.  Love is filling their container.  Love is unfolding again and again and again and again.  Love, is.

Corrina Steward is a life coach, sustainability consultant, writer and spiritual seeker.  Her e-book Be an Everyday Humanitarian: Powerful and Sustainable Life Practices to Change the World from Home teaches us how to live from our personal power and to discover our authentic selves for a more sustainable, transformative world.  She hosts New Humanity Radio on BlogTalkRadio.  You can read more of Corrina’s writing and join her on her quest for spiritual and life purpose on her blog.  Corrina can be contacted at: corrina@beaneverydayhumanitarian.com.

Love That Makes the World Go Around

By: Britt Mittemeijer, Green Monkey Contributing Writer
To contact Britt click here

Thinking about writing this article made me look at this subject more deeply.  Surely, the definition of LOVE is not something we could all agree on.  Love comes in different “colors and flavors” and means many different things to many people.  The Beatles sang:  “All you need is love ….” Another song sings “…Love makes the world go around” and I Corinthians 13:13 says “Faith, hope, love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” All these LOVE references relate to different kinds of love. Yet what all the different meanings have in common is that they all raise your vibration by making you feel good.

Now we have just celebrated Valentine’s Day this month.  First of all, I “love” the fact that among all the holidays we celebrate in the U.S. we have one that celebrates LOVE, and romantic love at that. Romance is the nice, fuzzy feeling that connects strangers who have “fallen in love” and have become lovers. Merchants are very good at encouraging these sentiments with promoting a variety of gifts: flowers, chocolate and romantic dinners have become the most associated gifts for that “special Valentine.”

It’s great to celebrate Valentine’s Day in all its glory, and I hope you did.  I did, too!

Some of us like to include into this “love bubble,” family members and friends, and maybe even expand to people we do business with or meet every day.  You might include also those who have performed a service for us; maybe even strangers.  A token of love, a hug, a note, a telephone call, or even a smile goes a long way.  Spreading love around lifts everyone’s vibration; so don’t be afraid to be generous.  I “love” this quote:  “Practice daily random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.”  Such sentiments spread out like ripples in a pool of water and lift Spirits wherever they land.

Spinning the Love theme further, I realized that Valentine’s Day is merely a reminder, not an end in itself.  Those we really love deserve to be loved all the time.  Gifts are nice, but treating the people around us with kindness and with respect is what really counts and what creates uplifting bonds and relationships that cushion the stress in our lives.

Making someone feel loved is a great gift.  My husband of 52 years knows how reluctant I am to get up in the morning so he reminds me several times by rubbing my back that it’s time to rise and shine.  When finally I do rise but fail to shine, he has coffee ready for me.  You bet I feel loved and I do favors for him daily to recirculate his love.  Chocolates, flowers and gifts are wonderful, but love can be expressed in many little ways that cost nothing but mean a lot.

I hope that you enjoyed Valentine’s Day! My desire is that you spread your love into all directions, and perpetuate the feeling into the days, weeks and months to come.

Happy Valentine’s Day (and month)!

© 2011 Britt Mittemeijer

Britt Mittemeijer has been interested in health and wellness for herself and others all her life.  She has always followed the “green” lifestyle principles before it became a popular buzzword.  Her website, Easy Health and Wellness, presents “green” products for everyday living and she maintains two blogs, Britt’s Green Blog and Bottled Water Costs Too Much. Britt lives in NC with her husband of 52 years, a son and daughter and 4 grandchildren.  She is a Reiki II practitioner.

One on One with Carol Ann Bell

By: Christi Kochifos Caceres, Green Monkey Columnist

British-born Carole Ann Bell lives in South Beach.  She owns Belle & Company – an agency handling top photographers, stylists and other creative artists.  When not on a fashion shoot or at hot cocktail party, she will likely be found (and fabulous) on a tennis court.

How would you begin your day if you had no obligations or obstacles?
I would start with a walk to the beach, early, and I’d stand at the edge and just breathe the air and clear my mind.

What is your drink of choice?
If I had to pick one – Grey Goose and tonic with a twist.  My mother introduced me to it.  But I could really go nuts telling you all my favorite drinks.

Where is your ideal home?
One place I would love to live is Marin County.  And the South of France, and I love Miami.

Do you have a favorite restaurant?
We’re sitting there right now!  (Author’s note: The interview took place at Sardinia Enoteca Ristorante.)

What do you wish you did not have to do?
I wish we did not have to look so damn hard to find a great man in Miami.  It’s hard to find quality people.

What can you not live without?
Tennis.

What do you consider to be the ultimate luxury?
A really lazy Sunday afternoon – not having to do anything but please one’s self.
Or a fabulous pair of shoes… and a Lilly Pulitzer dress.

What books, films, or music do you love?
I love Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.  When I was home during the holidays I wanted to read British authors and really got into Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park.  My favorite girly movie is Pretty Woman.  I’m a romantic.  And you can’t beat The Four Seasons, by Vivaldi.

Who do you consider to be brilliant at what they do?
My mother, in that capacity.  I so admire what she’s able to do.  If she weren’t my mother she would still be my friend.

Where do you find inspiration?
I’m inspired by the people around me.  And you!  I mean that.

Who has influenced your life most profoundly?
Jason.  If he had not helped me start my business I wouldn’t be here right now.
He believed in me – so many people say they believe in you – but he put his money where his mouth is.  And it changed my life.

What would you change about yourself if you could do it by just snapping your fingers?
I would be more… able to communicate how I feel.  Being British, I’m very reserved.  It’s not easy for me to be open.

What do you consider to be your gift?
I’m a great listener and a great friend.

How do you think your therapist would sum you up in one sentence?
I don’t have a therapist!

What do you wish you could stop doing?
Procrastinating.

What helps you feel balanced in your life?
Playing tennis.  It’s one of the few times I’m not thinking of anything else but hitting that ball.  I can take out frustrations and anxiety.  I started playing in Florida – you can play here the whole year.  I’m so happy I found it.

What will be the title of your biography?
A Portrait of Carole Ann Bell.

Have you met your perfect partner?
No.  I really don’t know.  In the moment I’ve thought I have – I admit I’m a romantic and an optimist.  As important as it is to have a partner it is equally important to have a friend.

What question have I not asked that you would like to answer?
If I’d like another drink!

 

Christi Caceres is a meditation and yoga instructor, writer and consultant.  In addition, she represents nutritional and skin care companies and is developing a line of organic baked goods. She is trained in Transcendental Meditation, Zero Point Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and 305 Spiritual Gangsters, and has completed Deepak Chopra’s Primordial Sound Meditation and SynchroDestiny courses.  She writes an interview series and articles on for Green Monkey, The Camel Saloon, and other publications.

Finding Unconditional Love

By: John Maccari, Green Monkey Meditation Columnist

There are many kinds of love, and the term love can have many different meanings.  We can love our:  spouse or mate, parents, children, and pets.  We can also love certain material things like: a job, car, certain type of food, houses, etc.  But do we have the capacity to love unconditionally?

We typically love that which brings us some sort of pleasure, or happiness.  We would probably not love our material things if this were not true.  If your job, car, or other material thing did not bring you some excitement or positive stimulation you would not refer to it with this great affection.  As for our children or parents, they may not always bring some sort of pleasure or excitement.  They may, at times, be difficult to appreciate. But do you stop loving them during those times?  Of course not.  We love them without condition.

Our mate is a different story, and we select a mate for many reasons.  Our attraction to someone is primal.  We smell their pheromones, which are a soup of aromatic molecules that we all give off and are unique to us.  Of our five senses our sense of smell has the strongest impact on our moods and behavior. Although you cannot consciously detect the odor of someone’s pheromones they do have an affect on you.  When these pheromones are of the right mix of chemicals they will have an incredible impact on our brain ultimately affecting our mood or behavior.  They trigger our brain to create a certain kind of chemistry that is similar to the opiates from opium.  These molecules created by our own brain feed very specific pleasure centers creating that feeling of elation or excitement when you are around that individual.  But, as the way drugs go, overtime, we build up a certain tolerance to this drug that we are creating within our brain, which allows us to settle into a less volatile relationship.  We start to appreciate our mates for their other positive qualities, for who they are inside.

So where are we in the definitions of love in regards to our mate at this time?  We still have a conditional love, I will love you provided that you love me back.  If you have ever been in a relationship where you felt that the other person did not love you back, or love you in the same way, you start to ask yourself the question “what am I doing here”?  At this point the relationship becomes unstable.  This is emotional love, it tends to be a roller coaster ride.

Part of being in an amours relationship with someone is this emotional love; you cannot get around this fact.  Just recently, many of us have struggled with showing or demonstrating our emotional kind of love during Valentines Day. But there is another kind of love, and that is unconditional love.

Unconditional love is a very powerful state of being.  It is about opening your heart without condition.  It is about loving from your heart and not your emotions.  It is about accepting someone as they truly are, not as you want them to be.  Although, this concept can be challenging when it comes to our mate because our emotions are involved.  How do we combine the two states of being?

First we must understand how we feel about ourselves. Do we love ourselves unconditionally?  If we do some soul searching most people will answer no.  We have a tendency to focus on our faults, or perceived faults.  As a child we may have been told by a parent, teacher, or other authoritarian figure that we have a fault.  Or we may have been programmed at a young age to feel unworthy.  Our first step is to learn to love ourselves unconditionally, and this is the hardest step.  Once we are able to love ourselves unconditionally we then can easily love others unconditionally.

We can start this process by working with an energy healer. We have many clouds to remove before we can see the sun or our true inner light.  It is not the energy healer’s job to remove these clouds but to facilitate this process.  They will help open the door but you have to walk through, only you have the keys to the bonds that you have created throughout this and other life times.

Meditation is also a great way to travel that inner road to your true self. Create a special place or environment that will help you get into a meditative state.  For example, you can use incense, candles, and music to help you on your journey. Often times it helps to read something inspirational of a spiritual nature just prior to meditation.

Once you are ready, take three deep breaths and on the exhale of each breath allow your self to let go of everything you are holding onto, both good and bad.  You are releasing yourself form the world and all of its connections.  Do not worry, anything that you should keep will be there when you get back.

Next, quietly surrender to yourself. Sit or lay with your palms facing up to the sky, and surrender.  Give yourself up to a higher state of being.  This is where you accept yourself for who and where you are at this point in time.  It does not mean that you cannot change or you do not want to change, it is simply your starting point.  Open your heart to loving yourself without conditions.

Once you  are ready to come out of the meditation, allow your self to come out slowly, and as soon as you are ready start to write in your journal.  Just write about your meditation experience and allow the writing to flow.  Often you will write messages to yourself.  The time just after meditation is a great opportunity to receive valuable information, you are an open channel; allow the writing to be spontaneous.  As you repeat this process you will start to notice changes within you.  You will start to become more nurturing of yourself.

As your view of yourself changes, your view of others will also change.  As we start to love ourselves unconditionally we will then be able to love others unconditionally.  Allow this unconditional love to become the corner stone within your relationships.  Balance your emotional love with unconditional love, it will help smooth out the flow of the relationship.  Will unconditional love fix all relationships, no.  But it will make it easier for you to understand and identify the truth in your current relationship and allow you to have new appreciations for others.  As you move through your life strive to stay in this state of unconditional love, keep your heart open, strive to bring this balance to all aspects of your being.

As always finding balance in our lives is the path to our own true happiness.

“Loving ourselves unconditionally is the first step towards true freedom”
-Do’shi.Un-

Interview with DJ Derek Beres

Derek Beres has devoted his life to exposing people to international music, yoga and mythology, and better nutritious choices as a means of creating both better individuals and a more understanding global culture. He is one of the leading figures in international music in America, working as a journalist and DJ as well as producer and presenter. He has published five books, and has contributed to dozens of magazines and websites regarding the traditional and digital realms of global music, currently writing for AOL’s Shoutcast, National Geographic, Yoga Journal, Huffington Post, and Relix, among others. He is one half of global music producers EarthRise SoundSystem, which creates innovative contexts for 21th century music and cultures to be explored. He currently teaches twelve weekly yoga classes at Equinox Fitness and two at Pure Yoga. In honor of Winter Music Conference and Green Monkey’s Spin in Balance week he will be joining us, bringing with him his inspiring yoga practice and music.

What is it about music that most moves you?
On a social level, the innumerable ways in which human beings around the planet have created to express a very few, basic fundamental truths about the human condition. On a sonic level, a good rhythm and/or a heartfelt melody.

How has yoga changed or improved your life?
Yoga offered me a way to understand myself that I found lacking in other religious/psychological systems that were more concerned with metaphysics, like resurrected humans and godly demands, than with the ethics and morals of our time. The foundation of the philosophy – the yamas and niyamas – is very simple to understand, but as anyone who has practiced them knows, can be difficult to implement.

How would you describe yoga to someone who has never practiced before?
Some have described yoga as a means of self-realization. And sometimes that involves realizing that your hamstrings are tight, or that you have weak abs. Those realizations can be profound, too, depending on how you understand them.

What kinds of music do you find most inspirational or moving to practice to?
Deep percussive grooves with prominent bass lines – does not have to be at faster dance levels (120 bpm), but rather I prefer songs that are in the neighborhood of 90 bpm, to give me a little more space to improvise.

What about yoga do you most like or identify with?  Do you have a specific kind of practice you prefer (Kundalini, Vinyasa Flow, Power, Ashtanga)?
I practice every style when I have the time to, as anything can inform your own personal teaching. I teach and most enjoy practicing a strong Vinyasa flow that’s not a speed race, just continuous and conscious with a long cool down with plenty of deep hip stretching.

What do you hope someone participating in this class takes away from the experience?
A little bit stronger, a little calmer, a little more focused, a lot more understanding of others. Class moves in two directions – I attempt the same for myself through my students.

Love Yourself

by Anonymous Campus Monkey Writer

I was the life of the party. My head was an anvil, my arms made from lead and unable to brace my falls. My stomach burned and my legs wobbled helplessly. Balance was nearly unattainable, the floor felt hard and cold, the room was black even with the light on and I was alone. Everything spun. Thumping bass, footsteps, words and shouts all melted together in a chaotic swirl of painful sounds. Inside, I screamed profusely. Outside, I lay unable to move or speak, my bed of cold concrete my only grasp on the real world.

Then the morning came. So began the longest day of embarrassment and hate, and not to mention headaches, of my life thus far. They all asked how I felt and their judgment was overtly apparently. I felt awful. People called me back who I had apparently spoken to and told me what was said. Yet more people told me of events I failed to recollect. I was the life of the party, and I didn’t even have to know I was there.

It’s easy to get caught up in a life that’s out of your own hands. It’s easy to forget that there are consequences to your actions. It’s easy to let your temper get the best of you. It’s easy to make a mistake. It’s not easy to fix one. After the events described above, I decided it was time to prioritize and so began a long period of self reflection; the hunt for whom I was before I had let demons into my life. During this time, I removed poison people from my life, worked first to secure an identity in myself, and then to rebuild relationships with people I had lost. I like to think I matured coming out of this. Only time can really tell, but thus far I can honestly say I feel better.

So what’s the point of this story? I guess to say there are a million ways to deal with problems but making yourself a problem is not one of them. I’m not trying to say don’t party. I still do. The difference is now I do it to enjoy myself and be social, not as an unhealthy medicine to any problems I may be facing. When you party with the wrong intentions from the start, it’s easy to take things too far.

College is about living a healthy, balanced lifestyle. It’s about studying and getting an education, about living away from home and making new friends and about learning to make your own decisions. So take the time to wonder: do the ways you resolve problems help or hurt? Build your confidence or bring you shame? Make you happy or just make things worse? At this age and in the world we live in today, it’s more important than ever to be happy with who you are. So use your time in college to better yourself and those around you. Remember to love yourself.