Silence as good medicine, just like beauty sleep!

Kalani Wedding Flowers ©LE Fine Art (photo)

“If there were a little more silence, if we all kept quiet…maybe we could understand something.”

  ~Federico Fellini

The month of October was a very special month for me.  After a solid commitment and about 4 months of careful preparation, that included a renewed daily yoga practice, more silence and lots of focused inner work, I felt ready for my retreat at Kalani with one of my teachers’ Cass.  The title of our retreat was Path of Love and its focus was LOVE.  Love as a practice, love for the journey itself, love through all of the spirals, curves, twists, turns and for the SELF.  The retreat center itself was on the Big Island of Hawaii, where Pele the goddess of fire and passion resides.  Kalani retreat center is a beautiful backdrop and sacred container for any retreat, gorgeous jungle, clean air and away from civilization.  Truly a ‘bubble’ enclosing a tropical paradise serving as a crucible for many a phoenix rising.

Our retreat encompassed diving into breath work, movement, art-making, dancing, bio aquatic time in the Watsu pool, silence, sharing and  lots and lots of PLAY in the quantum field of LOVE.  During our 5-day “intensive” together, we honored a day of silence.  This intentional silence time/space truly provided me with my nourishment and the integration that is essential after so much deep unwinding and unraveling…. Yum!  I enjoyed that silence time so much that after retreat concluded, I spent more time in silence during my extended stay at Kalani.  I experienced pure pleasure as I steeped in my own medicinal brew of heightened  SELF awareness, synchronicities and surprises.

Silence has also been a core theme of my long time Raja yoga meditation practice started up in 2001.  So, this was nothing “new” to me, but is so so so integral to propelling my creative evolution forward at this juncture.  What this silence provides for me now is the critical “stitching up” and full embodiment of what emerges and is dis-cover-ed through such a retreat, or any created space for personal growth.  So, as each day rolls out, my beat goes on of weaving the tapestry of my gifts to offer up to our world in a form that is visible, vibrant and juicy…

Thank you for reading and I invite you to write your contributions via comments and connections and would love to hear from you via this blog, my face book page, or email lorien@lorieneck.com.

In love, gratitude and beauty…

Personally Experienced and Recommended Resources

Awake-One

Cass Phelps is an amazing individual and his inspired body of work and offerings have been a phenomenal resource for me! His work is comprehensive, relevant and rich…I am eternally grateful to one of my lifetime teachers, Cass.

Kalani Retreat Center

         Kalani is Hawaii’s largest retreat center, one of the best-loved centers  in the world for more than 35 years.

The Torus

The involuting of the Self into itSelf.

www.lorieneck.com

“When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner still alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.”

-Eckhart Tolle

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Surfing the Waves of Change

Waves ©LE Fine Art 2013 (photo)

The secret of change is to focus all your energy,

not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

~Socrates

Firstly, Happy New Moon! We’ve arrived to the harvest month of September, the time of the year when the gradual transition of the autumn season starts to stir in the winds. This time of the year is also very rich and fertile for me, as it’s the time of my solar return, my birth-day~ now what I refer to as my “re-Birth” time of the annual cycle. I love it! The feeling that I relish in is what I have come to know as the “pregnant pause“. It’s the introverted, reflective and introspective pause when I relax into this pause before both my personal and the collective seasonal transition comes to pass. And, this is the harvest season and blossoms, and abundance is everywhere!

Themes that I have been exploring lately in the midst of these winds of change, (and that are also being experienced in my friends and family circle), are the themes of acceptance and receiving. Looking at each separately is not viably possible, in my opinion, these themes are inextricably linked.

I have been meditating on and folding in acceptance of who I am, as a multi-dimensional being; ALL of myself, my brilliant light, my shadow, my sacred wounds, my need for community and support, and my Divinity. Accepting what is, accepting people as they are, and accepting each moment for its beauty, its perfection and its imperfection. Acceptance is an act of generosity, compassion, patience and love towards the Self and others. Sometimes when there is a lack of understanding, compassion or patience, acceptance is the medicine that soothes like a healing balm. Acceptance is the ultimate act of grace. (Jessica Shepherd) What comes to mind is the beautiful work of my friend Alaya DeNoyelles, from her book The Sovereignty of Love. Her work weaves together the Hawaiian healing art of Ho’oponopono, ancient wisdom and modern science inspiring what she calls: unconditional loving presence. This also sums up what I am feeling about acceptance from Osho: “Don’t say this is good and is bad. Drop all discrimination. Accept everything as it is. Liberation cannot be desired because desire is the bondage. When you are desireless, you are liberated. Tantra accepts everything, lives everything.”

Receiving is the call of the Sacred Feminine within all of us, the rise of the Divine Feminine in our times is to balance out the energies of the masculine and feminine within/without. Being a woman and conditioned to give, to over give, and at times in the past, to give from a place of deficit, has come up for transformation in 2013 and receiving fully has become my soul’s natural evolution. Receiving had not been a habit or behavior that was modeled for me, therefore, I am in a process of remembering how to receive. Learning to receive is an ongoing practice of mine inspired to balance out the imbalance of over giving in all areas of my life: career, personal relationships and across the board really. What I am especially and more importantly interested in is in receiving myself whilst I am giving. Giving in and of itself is essential, yet to give from a place of wholeness, completeness, fullness and love, is the key to avoiding experiencing ‘burnout’ or feeling drained. What does that mean, to receive oneself? I invite you to reflect on this for yourself and I’ll be exploring more on this beautiful topic in my future posts.

In closing, the tides of change are upon us, in the cosmic realm and on an individual deeply internal level. It is a great time to take it all in stride, to integrate the new and let go of the old, continue to live from our opulent, abundant space and give lavishly to ourselves and each other. Love much and love often!

I invite you to write your contributions via comments and connections and would love to hear from you via this blog, my face book page, or email lorien@lorieneck.com.

In love, gratitude and beauty…

Personally Experienced and Recommended Resources

Awake-One

Cass Phelps is an amazing individual and his inspired body of work and offerings have been a phenomenal resource for me! His work is comprehensive, relevant and rich…I am eternally indebted to my teacher Cass.

Mystic Mamma

I love this website, always on the pulse of the cosmos in a positive way.

Moonkissed Astrology

I enjoy Jessica’s perspective and writing style!

Rob Brezny’s Free Will Astrology

Pure Awakened Genius!

The Sovereignty of Love

by Alaya DeNoyelles

_______________________________

“Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it,

you will live along some distant day into your answers.

Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart.

Learn to love the questions themselves.”

~Rainer Maria Rilke

“What we are, the world is.
Without our own transformation,
there can be no transformation of the world.”
~Sri J Krishnamurti

www.lorieneck.com

 

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Always Bring Your “A” Game

Ciel/Mer XIV, 29″X41″, Mixed Media on Paper ©LE Art & Design

With my 3-part Pray, Love, Eat series coming to a halt (for now) I am now free to share, well, free-ly!

September is one of my favorite times of the year… why you might ask?  Well, it’s really all about my birthday!  😉  But frankly, it does have something to do with the annual cycle of my early September birth-day and rhythms that this time of the year seems to invoke in all of us.  Time to go back to school, get serious, summer is over, it’s time where the “rubber hits the road”, and when we re-commit to what we maybe took a summer “break” from….

Does that resonate with you?  Do you re-examine and re-commit to the lofty plans, dreams, intentions that you planted seeds for in the winter and spring during this time of transition of late summer to the Autumnal  Equinox?
If not, why not?  It is a naturally easier time to “get serious” with the collective going back to university, grade school, or secondary to teach or be a student, so everyone is that groove.  As this cycle comes around again, I find  myself naturally self-reflecting into what my deeper, most meaningful passions and intentions are and either digging my heels in deeper or letting some ideas, seeds, plans go…And, when these intentions for creating and action are firm and feel good, then it’s time to bring your “A” game!

What does it mean to You to “bring your “A” game”?  I ask you to think about that for a second….  do you know what that looks like for you, whatever the context or circumstance?  I experienced a situation recently where this very question came up for me and it was a revelation to deepen my experience of the I AM, my highest and best SELF.

Days after this revelation, I was having a conversation with a good friend about this topic and he commented, “how can you NOT bring your “A” game?”  And, you know what, he’s right! Even if you do not want the job, the opportunity, the girl, the guy, etc…. that’s NOT what the “A” game is about.  Of course we “bring it” when we have expectations and desire a certain outcome, but that’s not was this is about.  It’s about how you and (I) feel about ourselves… It’s about self-respect, self-worth, deserving, and the lot.  It’s all about YOU!  At the end of the day… it’s all about the I AM.

Thank you for reading and I invite you to share your contributions via comments and connections and would love to hear from you via this blog, my face book page, or email lorien@lorieneck.com.

Until Next time…

Much love and beauty,

Lórien

Recommended Resources

Inside Out

Phenomenal New Music Album from friend

Michael Timothy

Essence Building Heart Breath

with Essence Coach Kathleen Nelson Troyer

AMAZING, effective quick process to connect with your Heart!!

Deserving Vs. Entitlement with Ask Teal

Spot on to the Point and empowering in ALL ways….

www.lorieneck.com

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