A True Story About A Mantra

Once upon a time, I was a teenager in an economically depressed neighborhood where drugs were rampant and violence loomed on the streets. I walked to school each morning with my brother or a group of friends past grim apartment complexes and run-down houses with bars on the doors and windows. And at night, after I finished my shift at the dingy, local sandwich shop, that same group of friends would escort me home as protection against a gang that had taken a special disliking to me.

This gang had attacked me once. I’m pretty sure it was random, that I just happened to be in their path when the flush of violence overtook them. But my apparent lack of fear (I was in shock) on that occasion struck them as intolerable, and I became a target. They would station themselves outside the sandwich shop and threaten me with punching gestures from just far enough away that the police could not or would not intervene.

On the occasional nights when the coast was clear and I walked home from work alone, I carried a knife.

I was afraid. I was constantly afraid. But I was even more angry than afraid. Angry at being trapped in this circumstance and feeling powerless against physical forces mightier than my own. Angry at the drugs and the culture of violence ruining the lives of so many people around me.

It was a difficult time. But it was living in this environment, that I discovered the power of mantra.

This was during the late 1980s, before yoga had proliferated in the U.S. and before pop-culture championed positive affirmations and self-talk. I was not reading esoteric texts, seeking enlightenment. I don’t think I’d even heard of yoga at the time. My mantra experience was born from an entirely different physical practice: jogging.

I took to jogging during daylight hours on weekends when other kids in my 'hood were trying to score an eight ball, an ounce, or a relatively innocent forty. (That’s meth, pot, and malt liquor, respectively.) I began to jog because I did not know what else to do with that particular teenage energy that is a combination of rising life force and frustration. So I ran. And as I ran, I discovered that my mind would try to match the rhythm of my body.

My sneakered feet would pound a rhythm on the pavement, and my mind would write lyrics to match that beat. Maybe it was the influence of the military culture I had been steeped in my entire life prior to my dad’s retirement and our subsequent move to this city of modest means. Cadence, it’s called, when soldiers train to a chant.

This was my cadence: “I can do whatever I choose.”

Over and over again: “I can do whatever I choose.” Again and again, marking each syllable with my feet.

In hypnotherapy, we would call this an autosuggestion. In new age lingo, you’d call it an affirmation. At its essence it is a mantra, a repeated phrase used in spiritual practice to train the mind away from distress or distraction toward a desired focus.

I didn’t know to call my chant anything at the time. I just jogged and chanted, jogged and chanted. Sometimes I would repeat my mantra silently while walking or before sleeping at night. My mantra turned my energy away from helplessness, fear, and anger and toward empowerment, autonomy, and choice.

When an ecosystem doesn’t support a person’s health and wellness, but rather colludes with violence and despair, it’s easy to stay stuck. Mantra is a tool for organizing and strengthening one’s life force energy into a coherent new story.

I could have listened to the story being told all around me: that watching TV all day and doing drugs by night was an appropriate use of my life force energy. Instead, whether by grace or by chance, I listened to a different story. A story told in rhythm by my own body through a very mundane — yet very magical — mantra.

Mantra was not my only resource during my transition out of this environment. I had help from others — the friends who protected me, the school officials who eventually intervened with the gang, the guidance counselor who steered me toward scholarships for college, and my family’s unwavering faith in my abilities and commitment to my future. To these allies, I offer my gratitude. And to the mechanisms within us that respond to our own self-talk, I also say thank you.

***

Take a moment to reflect on mantras you’ve used consciously or unconsciously to liberate yourself from old stories or depleting patterns.

What new mantra could you bring to your sitting meditation or to your physical exercise? What does your body-mind system need to hear from you — regularly, repeatedly — to steer your energy toward a better future?

February Full Moon Greetings

Love is in the air. I say this not because the cultural milestone of Valentine's Day approaches, but rather because I believe it simply to be true: Love is in the air.

When evolution unfurled you into being, it blessed you with breath. This gift of breath is the gift of life. When you breathe air into your lungs, you are breathing in a primordial gift from a primordial source. That's what I would call BIG love.

But love is not just a lingering gift from an aeon's past blast. Love is made new by the words you choose and the songs you sing and the laughter that dances its way out of your lungs.That is the love that is in the air. Your love.

If your life feels loveless, ask yourself: how am I putting love in the air? Because the sun sure is with its unceasing radiance. And the birds with their songs. The trees, too, in that very practical, life-enhancing, oxygenating way that trees do. Mix your love with theirs. This is called making love.

Create love. Right now. With a word. Or a song. Or a single musical note, drawn out long - aaaaaahhh!

There is so much love in the air.

***

And speaking of love, I am thrilled to be returning to the San Francisco Bay Area, the home that I love, a bit earlier than expected next week. I've been on the East Coast for the past four months, working on publishing projects... including my soon-to-launch revised and expanded print edition of the Seeds of Wisdom guidebook. Fittingly, I will be back home on Valentine's Day.

If you've been waiting for in-person sessions to resume coaching with me, let's set up your next appointment!

And be sure to check out the events I'll be offering in the Bay Area, including an empowering transformative arts workshop, a Reiki 2 training, and some speaking engagements.

***

Enjoy the power of this full moon. Tonight would be a great night to do the February ritual in my Ritual Journal, available in my online shop.

However you mark this lunar cycle, know that I - with my breath right now - am sending love into the air for YOU!

10 Ways I Use the Arts in My Work as a Transformative Coach

The arts figure prominently in my work as a transformative coach and workshop facilitator.

I utilize a range of creative processes sourced from a variety of arts disciplines to help individuals digest experience, express difficult emotions, articulate complex ideas, access inner wisdom, deepen awareness, and unlock potentials.

Here are 10 examples of how I might guide you in a private coaching session or workshop, using arts integration techniques:

1. After a trance or guided visualization, “summarize” your inner experience in images.


2. Upon waking each morning or prior to a dreamwork session, write your dream in words, then draw your dream in images.


3. Recount your spiritual autobiography — historical influences and current expressions — as the “roots and shoots” of a tree.


4. Articulate your core “issue” (or chronic feeling-state) using only images.


5. Stage an important memory (peak experience, pivotal moment or low point) as a theatre scene using other workshop participants (or objects in the room) as props and/or characters. Direct the scene as it actually happened. Invite other participants to change the scene to observe another possible experience and/or outcome.


6. Articulate a difficult or complex experience using only non-verbal vocalization and gesture.


7. Express your awareness of yourself through visual metaphors, including biological, mythological, historical and fantastical archetypes. Examples: What kind of flower are you most like and why? Draw yourself as that flower.  Which Roman goddess are you most like and why? Make a collage of yourself as that archetype. What historical era are you most resonant with and why? Create a costume for yourself in that style. What kind fantastical creature are you most like and why? Construct that creature using only found objects.


8. Set a goal or intention. Craft an object or collage a pocket-size image that symbolizes you reaching this goal or achieving your intention. Write a song that emphasizes this intention and sing it while holding your object.


9. Using simple materials like paper bags or socks, craft rudimentary puppets of two characters. One character possesses all your great qualities; the other, all your “disowned” or “shadow” qualities. Script a theatrical interaction between the two puppets with a story arc that overcomes a conflict and arrives at a positive resolution. Alternately, improvise a dialog between the two puppets while a partner observes and afterwards feeds back to you her observations.


10. Prior to or during an important life transition, create an altar that represents where you’ve been, where you’re going and the threshold space you currently occupy between the two. Choose objects, colors, materials and spatial arrangements that symbolize the physical, mental and/or emotional dimensions of your experience; the personal, familial and/or social contexts your transition affects; and qualities you desire to experience during your transition.

January Full Moon Greetings

2012 already. Have you done your annual strategic planning?

If you're one to fret over pinning things down, just remember: it's all a draft. You have the power to put your ideas down in your planner... then revise if you need to. But not having goals, targets, and do-by dates can lead to feeling directionless, uncertain, and ungrounded.

Time is grounding. It's one of the gifts that a body has that a mind doesn't. A mind can leap forward and back in time, even beyond time. A body is exactly where (and when) it is. Making friends with time is fundamental to making friends with your body. (Read more of my ideas on time at this blog post.)

If you could use a hand bringing your spiritual awareness to your strategic planning, then you're certain to enjoy my "Live Your Light!" planning tool and my new "Ritual Journal." "Live Your Light!" is my gift to e-list subscribers. The new "Ritual Journal" is an eBook for sacred/strategic planning, available in my online shop.

Online shop? Yes, I've refreshed my website - ElkaVera.com - with a new look for the new year, and that includes some new features like a place to showcase my creations.

Speaking of creations, keep your eyes peeled for some juicy new products in 2012. They're (only slightly) hush-hush. I'm sure you'll discover them when you click through my site.

Also, new in my site is an updated events page, where you'll find the first of many Success Groups to come in 2012. I launched Success Groups in 2011 as a way to empower independent entrepreneurs... and they were a big hit! Affordable, powerful, inspiring, fun. Is it time for you to join one?

In closing, on this wonderful first-of-the-year full moon, I offer these words from the "Initiation" card of my Seeds of Wisdom mobile app (which is now the portal on my home page):

"Behind you is everything you have known. Ahead of you is a threshold into the unknown. Blue skies invite you to take the leap."

End of Year Ritual to Release the Past and Welcome the New

This ritual appears in my new Ritual Journal eBook.

***

Reflection brings us to closure. Closure allows the subconscious to allocate energy for the new. Let your December ritual be the opportunity your psyche needs to close out this year in preparation for the next. It’s best if you perform this ritual near the end of the month. (Like today!)

Prepare a sacred space at your desk or kitchen table, wherever you’ll be most comfortable for writing. Light a candle and set out some objects that feel special and/or inspiring. Have at the ready your journal, two strips of paper and a fire-safe container.

Begin by letting your mind wander over the past year. January... February... March... April... May... June... July... August... September... October... November... December...

What stands out in your memory? Achievements. Failures. Beginnings. Endings. Things you created. Experiences you’ve had. Feelings you’ve felt. People you’ve connected with. Relationships that have changed. Skills you’ve mastered. Lessons you’ve learned.

In your journal, jot down these memories in whatever order they come to you.

See if there are any themes connecting these memories. If there were an overarching “soul-theme” for this past year, what would it be? It could be... “Adventure”... “Cataclysmic Change”... “Amazing Grace”... “Slow and Steady Wins the Race”... “Taking Care of Myself”... “Love Conquers All”... “Freedom”... anything at all.

Once you’ve identified an overarching theme for your year, write it down on one of the strips of paper. Hold the paper in your hands with a mindfulness that this year is coming to a close.

Now burn the paper in the fire-safe container while saying or chanting:

Rhythms of earth, cycles of sun —
bless this year and all that’s done.
Wax and wane, ebb and flow —
I release what’s past and let it go.
I am free, open, clear —
Ready to welcome my new year.

After the last wisp of smoke from your burning paper has dispersed, pause with the full awareness of your closure. Have a deep breath and release it completely.

In the silence of completion, discover what emerges in your heart as a blessing for your coming year. This blessing could be a single word, an image, or a tumble of thoughts. If your heart-response is complex, use your journal to record the fullness of it, then choose just a few words to represent that complexity.

Write this new year blessing on the remaining strip of paper. Say it aloud, followed by these words:

Universe, hear my heart’s request.
Bring it in the way that’s best.

Blow out the candle you lit at the start of this ritual. Place the paper on your altar, in your day-planner or on your desk — some place you’ll see it when you do your new year planning.

***

Blessings to you as you prepare for 2012.

If you are inspired by this ritual, you can purchase the Ritual Journal eBook at http://www.elkavera.com/ritualjournal.html.

December Full Moon Greetings

Did you see the eclipse this morning? What meaning do you make of it in your life?

Imagine how our distant ancestors must have experienced a full lunar eclipse. The moon, slowing darkening, until it's extinguished from the sky! But then, ah, it is restored again. A miracle!

Miracles are the hallmark of the winter season's religious holidays. Pagans celebrate the miracle of the sun's return on Solstice. On Hanukkah, Jews celebrate the miracle of long-lasting light that occurred during the re-consecration of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Christians celebrate the miracle of Mary's virgin birth to Christ on Christmas.

Today -- to honor the full moon, the energy of the eclipse and our season of miracles -- light a candle and tell the story of some miracle from your own life. Your miracle could be huge and life-altering. Or it could be simple and small -- easily missed.

Call a friend on the phone and tell your miracle tale, or write it down in your journal.

When you tune your consciousness to the presence of miracles, you polish the treasure of faith. Life itself becomes a miraculous event.

Here's to celebrating the gifts, the magic, and the miracles of the season!

Shrink the Shoulds in Time for the Holidays

Here's a timely waning moon practice to immunize yourself against the "shoulds" of the season. The new moon (and eclipse) is on Friday, so take some time tonight or tomorrow to un-shoulder some shoulds.

***

The time of "shoulds" is upon us. I should do this before the year ends. I should do this over the holidays. I should call my mother. I should take better care of my body. I should start planning my new year's resolutions so I can carry a weight of shoulds for the whole next year!

Shoulds take up an incredible amount of mental and emotional space. They are the noises that crop up during moments of rest. They hang out on the psychic to-do list, preventing us from enjoying the present moment.

Shoulds are ambivalent little buggers, too. On the one hand, they represent our aspirations and inner wisdom. "I should take out the trash" means the trash needs to be taken out and I'm the one to do it. On the other hand, shoulds are internalized expectations often handed to us from other people. "I should go to this party" can signify a burdensome social contract that does not reflect our true needs or desires.

On this waning moon evening, examine your lists of shoulds. Take out a piece of paper and write at the top "I SHOULD." Now free-write for 5 minutes on all the shoulds that come to mind.

Whew. It feels good to just get it out on paper. Less clutter for the noggin.

These shoulds shouldn't (forgive the joke) surprise you. The question remains: now that they're here in front of your very eyes, what do you want to do about them?

Pick one should from your list. Just one. Ask yourself: Do I want to do this? Do I have to do this? Will I do this? If the answer to all three of these questions is yes, then either do it right away, or write it in your planner and commit to handling this with the passion I know you're capable of! If, however, you answered no to any of these questions, take a pause...

If your desire and your will are aligned, it doesn't matter if you have to do something. The action will find its way through you. The only question is when. Give yourself the gift of handling the should right now or scheduling it in your planner.

Problems arise when you feel you have to do something, but your will and/or your desire are not aligned with it. You may recognize this sense of obligation as a clenching in your stomach, a weight in your heart, or some other unpleasant physical sensation.

Dig into this should which you feel you must do, but which you won't or don't want to do. Do you really have to do it? What will happen if you don't do it? Who will benefit if you do it? Who will benefit if you don't do it? And finally ask this question: what is the truth inside your heart?

It may be that this should is not something you really need to do at all and the wise soul inside knows it. In this case, use the power of the waning moon to let it go.

Repeat after me:

Shrinking moon, shrink this should.
I shed this weight for the greatest good.

Now take a deep breath... and let it go.