The Power of Presence-How to live with less pain, more joy and enduring peacefulness.

"The greatest gift you can give is the quality of your presence". - Richard Moss

The more you live in the present moment, the greater your opportunity to transform your life from a stuck painful place to one embodying ease and peace.

What is the Ego? What prevents us to go beyond our illusions?

Being present in this very moment encourages you to detach from the ego and the constructs it builds from past and future thoughts. The Ego's aim is to keep you identified with a certain "me" it creates from past experiences, and conditioning. So we come to believe we are our titles, our status in society, our traumas of the past, our cars, homes, bank accounts and even our diseases. You thus fall asleep to your true, or higher Self. A Self that needs nothing to exist. It doesn't need praise, discouragement, antagonism or constant approval. The higher Self is pure awareness, experiencing everything as an observer and unconstrained being.

The power of presence has become one of my main focuses in my work and life. If we can incorporate more and more moments of just "being" instead of doing we are offered an immense opportunity to truly awaken to the blessings at hand.

How much has passed you by because you became enthralled by negative states and thoughts? How much of that thinking was based in the past or future?

So you are living in illusions, with events that either do not exist any longer, or haven't even manifested. The moment I realized I was doing this I couldn't believe how insane it truly is to live that way.

That is why we experience pain, suffering, "dis-ease", and all that is opposing our true peace filled Self. We may then hurt others and project the pain, because all too often it becomes unbearable to sustain ourselves. We may neglect our own needs because the Ego will convince you, you need to be liked, and approved by others. We begin to own other's baggage with feelings of guilt and self blame because again we are fiercely scared we may lose all the supposedly "unconditional" love given to us.

This is our true pain. It is our separateness from our Source, and if I may, God. Every time we lose our Core Connection to that Source, the One that creates and gives life to everything, we feel pain. It's really that simple. We are never separate from God. It is only that we fall asleep and lose awareness of the Presence.

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How to Become Present: 3 Simple Practices:

One great thing about being present, is that we realize how blessed and amazing our lives really are. Staying stuck in the past or anticipating the future keeps us in a state of dissatisfaction and we easily lose perspective of all the abundance already present in our lives.

1) Stop/Pause:

Take 5. Drop everything, shut it all off, and just be. Make it a habit to just take a 5 minute pause twice in your day, and feel your body, your breath and check in to see what is happening inside. You can also pause just before you leap out of bed, before starting the ignition, before you take the first bite of your lunch, or just before you say something in a moment of conflict. It is not as time consuming as you may think, it just requires regular practice and effort.

2) The Breath:

This is the cornerstone of everything. It literally is. The breath is what animates you, a direct link to your inner being, and physiologically, a key tool to relax the central nervous system and adrenaline stress response. Breath from below the belly button, inititating the inhale there and allow the chest to fill and follow. Exhale in the opposite manner, allowing the chest to fall and then contract the lower abdomen.

Breath into your pain, whether its physical, mental or emotional. Being present with uncomfortable sensations gives us the opportunity to feel what is really going on, and not suppress the emotional state. You grow to realize that pain is fleeting, a momentary thing and not your essential Self. You come to your most compassionate self when you can just allow yourself to be human.

3) Prayer/Meditation:

In prayer we find the opportunity to forgive, accept ourselves and others, and practice gratitude. These three things are based on love. They are what heals our wounds, our suffering, and our physical illnesses.

In prayer and meditation you can let go, of your judgement, your anger, your guilt, your need to defend and realize there is a higher path. One that enables you to see how blessed and love filled you already are. Once we come to this place, then we can share and offer that outwardly, creating positive change and transformation in our lives and with those we love.

Wishing you many moments of the now,

Namaste

Piera

What is Yoga?

So you have started a yoga practice I hear!

FANTASTIC!

I'm excited! Ecstatic! Love love love that you are exploring a new terrain! Yoga can open new paths in your life you never thought possible. It has for me, over and over and over again. I started practicing about 10 years ago and haven't looked back.

In the beginning it was just a "condiment" to my fitness routine. I would take a class maybe once or twice a week, to undo the damage I was doing in the gym with weight lifting and running. Eventually I "awakened", and I mean that in a literal and figurative sense. I literally felt more connected to my own intuition, and the process of unraveling years of "stuff" just began to happen. Not always pretty, and for the greater part very very rewarding.

For me Yoga allowed me to step out of my mind, and into my body, and further on into deeper realms of my essence. Again, it's a process. It never really gets done, and the magic, the beauty of this thing we call Yoga is that every single time you come onto your mat, you experience a whole new practice. Even if you did the exact same class, with the exact same sequences, it never ever is the same!!!

I just love that! So for the ADD kid in all of us, this is a god send :)

Yoga means "union" in the broadest sense of the term.

You are "yoking" the Self in you with the Self of every other thing, person and place in existence. Ok perhaps that is a little hard to wrap your mind around right now. Let's just start with the union of You to You.

Essentially yoga nurtures the "Core Connection" we all are capable of. Yoga is thought to be only the physical practice of the asanas (poses) on the mat. However the real yoga is in every single moment, every single experience and every single breath. So what we learn on the mat, is useless if we are not bringing that "union" or "Core Connection" further into our daily lives.

Once we engage that Core Connection I so often talk and teach others to do, we initiate a very profound process that enables us to release stress, focus, and participate from a place of presence. The chaotic mind recedes into the background, and you essentially become free to feel and live at your highest level. You come to learn how being present, in this moment, right here and right is true liberation from suffering. It is our attachments to our past, our future, and ultimately the identity we have created about ourselves.

So Yoga allows you to let go, and let go, and let go some more.

If you can take one thing away from this today, please let it be the following. The only thing you have that is real is this very present moment. What happened this morning, doesn't exist. What you may think will happen in 2 months from now doesn't exist. Only your thoughts create this things, and they appear to be real for you. They appear to be your "reality". Why hang on to illusions, or things that don't exist? When you can be here, right now, enjoying what is.

To your health always,

Namaste

Piera

How to breath to Nirvana in 5 minutes!

Feeling a little blah? Are you struggling to feel more energy and less of the heaviness and low vibes you may be experiencing lately? We all want to get to Nirvana at some point...well most of us at least can admit to wanting joy and a more satisfying life experience. So where do we turn?

Inwards.

Its starts with YOU.

You can buy all the "magic" energy pills, go on a extreme diet, get the great new self help book out there, or repeat affirmations till your blue in the face, but all of that is not the best direction to take.

The energy and capacity to feel your authentic true vibrant self is already within.

What do I mean by this?

Many of us are grasping outwardly. I call this the "grasping syndrome". We look, reach, seek, and GRASP outside of ourselves continuously. We look for another to love us, to accept us, and to acknowledge our needs. It gets to the point you don't even know your doing it. Your on AUTO MATIC PILOT , AND black berry, iphone, ipad, youtube, msn messenger, skype, twitter, facebook, stumble upon, google, fire fox, RSS feeds, Flickr, and on and and on and on.

THIS is a huge energy vampire, that can suck the life out of you.

We look to material things, media icons, what Sally next door with the white picket fence, 2 kids, gorgeous husband, and beautiful 5 bedroom house is doing. We COMPARE ourselves to externals and then wonder why we keep feeling tired, unhappy and unsatisfied.

The connection to feeling better, more joy, more love, and eventually FANTASTIC starts by simply stopping all the chaos in our minds, stopping physically, and taking a moment and being with YOURSELF. I call this "pushing the PAUSE button".

Sounds too easy? A fairy tale fantasy to get your wish? Give it a try, what's the worst that can happen?

Assign yourself 5 minutes, 2 times in your crazy day. Ya I know, we all are BUSY, and have NO time apparently. 5 minutes, can be while your sitting on your toilet.(I'm exaggerating here, and I know you get the picture). Let's stop making excuses, and get to the work we need to do to live our best, and fullest life.

Here is how:

5 minutes - 2 times in your day.

Sit, listen to your breath, elongate the breath till you can count 4 seconds for every inhale, and 4 seconds for every exhale, and just be. You'll reset your whole nervous system, get clarity and springboard yourself from YOUR own center, not Sally's!

Allowing yourself to be more creative, productive and living what you are passionate about in life is so very possible, if you take the initiative to do something for your health and well being on a consistent basis.

Because, frankly if your not loving what you do, who you are and what you have then you got some work to do on YOU. Breathing isn't all that difficult and the best place to start ;)

See what happens, and let me know :)

Namaste

Piera

How to Breath to Beat the Blues

Depression is the big D word lately. It appears that this ominous condition is reaching epidemic proportions in north American populations. In practice I would say that at least 50% of my clients have encountered some form of depression in their lives and have proceeded to take pharmaceutical medications to cope with their struggles. It also appears not to have any discretion for age or sex. I've treated young teenage girls and boys right to retired seniors.

Q: What is depression? Why is it seemingly so invasive in our western society today?

A: Loss of Core Connection Plain and simple.

Walk down the street in any downtown North American metropolis and just observe city folk. I do this often as I walk extensively everyday. There seems to be a void in many people's faces. An emptiness that is so pervasive you can't miss it and not think "Why do people look so absent, almost robotic ?". It seems people are very closed off emotionally, to the point that I have witnessed just this past month someone pass out on the sidewalk and no one even flinching in reaction to help.

We have lost our connection to our inner PRESENCE. Our source of all JOY. In essence our CORE CONNECTION has been blocked, suppressed, and neglected by our MIND'S and the conditions we have placed on ourselves. Conditions based on limitations and learned patterns of belief by our parents and society.

Your inner joy is ALWAYS present. Your CORE is the source of all your creation. All your circumstances, experiences and manifestations are dependent on your center. The circumference does not determine your HAPPINESS. The circumference does not determine how rich or poor you are, your career satisfaction, the quality of your friendships and intimate relationships, nor how much you weigh.

YOUR CORE determines all of that. When you live from the truth of your core, you manifest abundance from the core.

So yes depression is real. But primarily in the MIND and mainly from the mental constructions we build based on past conditions and limitations.

Feelings and emotions of sadness, apathy, greif, anixety, anguish and many others are also very real. But they are not PERMANENT. They are transient. To emote means to move, transition, or change. Your feelings are not YOU. You experience them, and you feel them, but they are not your CORE truth. It is when we IDENTIFY with our emotions that we suffer, feel threatened, less than, insecure and above all FEARFUL.
Eckhart Tolle is a living success story of how intense depression can be healed. He reached the point of contemplating his own life on numerous occasions. Until one day, he literally awakened to the insight that perhaps all of the depressive thoughts were not him. But were the fabrications of a mind riddled with egoic contentions, pain bodies and false beliefs based on external forms.

Your inner truth is not a tangible form. It is the living force that animates you. It gives you bliss, enlivens you, animates your whole being and never betrays you. Your mind on the other hand has another agenda. Your mind is the processor or CPU that will absorb anything you program it with. We are all prone to negative conditioning and so therefore keeping the mind free of these "viruses" is almost impossible. But if we can detach from the mind, and the conditioned thought processes then we can CONNECT to the living eternal truth within!

But how???? I can just hear you all scream.

Start with the BREATH! Your only choice really.

It is the direct link to the inner living truth and knowing we all possess. When you perform breath work you come to an awareness of your inner stillness. When we get still enough we are then able to hear the all knowing voice of our inner sage. We come to know that EVERYTHING is ok, and perfect just as it is. Because we feel the JOY of our eternal CORE being that can't be bought or substituted by anything else.

How to Breath to Beat the Blues:

• Set aside at least 10 minutes to be in complete stillness and quiet. Just before you go to bed or 10 minutes before hopping out of bed is best.

• Sit your butt down on that cushion and come to an awareness of your breath. Listen to the quality of your breath at first without changing anything. How do you breath? Where is the breath initiating? How does your upper, middle and lower abdomen move in relation to the inhalations and exhalations? Once you know how you breath, then you may explore and proceed to lengthen the breath and deepen it.
  

• In the beginning I would suggest that you choose 2 words that you mentally say , one for the inhale and the second for the exhale. I.e: In/out, Ah/Om, or calm/release.

• Pay attention to the pauses between each inhale and exhale.

• Follow the breath every inch of the way. Meaning: be aware of the full inhale, pause, then feel the full exhalation and don't rush to begin the next breath. Feel it in its ENTIRETY.

These are basic tips to assist you with mediation and your breathing practice.

In future posts I will expand on more breathing exercises and share my knowledge of Pranayama- or the yoga of breath.

For now, I wish you stillness, bliss and love

Namaste

Piera