Last week, I found myself completely overworked and running from one commitment to another. There was a voice inside me saying you are doing too much, and I kept saying, I’ll rest on Sunday. By the time Sunday comes, we begin to overindulge and another cycle of exhaustion begins.
When I was young, my dad came home for lunch at 1 PM every day, and then my dad would go back to work after a quick nap and an espresso. This “espresso time” was a part of my daily culture. There are still places in the world where you can experience this kind of lifestyle. The quality of living depends on the quality of your presence and your mind.
Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of my energy in my acting classes, where I stop my world to listen and to be present. Some of the activities are so intense, that I got to give all of myself. It’s a very healthy place to be in a resolute, or fully committed, as we say in the yoga world. Once we are done giving all of ourselves, we must realize that resting and collective energy is just as important to build our reservoirs.
In order to connect with my home within, I have filled my kitchen with tools and healthy food. I find that my home practices are more essential than going to a public class. I also added a gratitude practice that I have committed to before I go to sleep and first thing when I get up.
I often find myself full of energy when I help a friend or client in need through attentive listening, life coaching or yoga sessions. I am fulfilled when I sit in my acting class and learn new ways of being, or when I take walks by the ocean or in nature.
These are the places I go when I am feeling exhausted and in need some juicy, vibrant energy. You see, I believe that sometimes we become spiritual junkies, looking for more classes, more healers and experiences outside of ourselves instead of looking within. I was like that too, until I realized that what I was looking for was right here - and that was the best day of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I love practicing yoga in a community of like-minded individuals or going to listen to a brilliant scholar, but I love being by myself or spending time at home in my garden just as much.
]]>One of the most important lessons I've learned through yoga has to do with the deep connections linking the mind, body and spirit. It took me years to really understand that our emotional lives affect our bodies, that when our minds are not at peace – filled with negative thoughts – our physical health suffers as a result. It was not until I faced my own health challenges that I realized just how strongly the body, mind and spirit influence one another. Understanding that influence is key to yoga, which by definition seeks to unite those three forces.
When I started my exploration of yoga, holistic food was the first “door” through which I entered its teachings. I was 15 at the time and really curious about how food contributes to health. After a period practicing yoga asana, I discovered Ayurveda (Ayur = life, Veda = science orknowledge). A system of natural healing that originated in India 5,000 years ago, Ayurveda incorporates food consciousness within a larger body of wisdom designed to help people stay vital and realize their full human potential.
They say in yoga, “When the student is ready, the teacher will show up.” And it was true that when my interest in Ayurveda began, I was blessed to find an accomplished Ayurveda master to study with. I wanted a teacher who would help me find my own wisdom, the wisdom that already lived within me. And after my teacher's first lecture, I knew that he would help me find this wisdom through Ayurveda, which would become an important part of my path. I understood it would take years – possibly my entire life – to reach a mastery level in Ayurveda. But that did not discourage me, and I chose to embrace the process. As a student I was mesmerized by Ayurveda, and I kept asking myself this question, like a mantra: "Why don’t more people know about Ayurveda and this lifestyle?”
What I love most about Ayurveda is that it includes easy practices that almost anyone can incorporate into their daily lives, and I have made it my personal mission to introduce these practices to my students. One of the most important has to do with the promotion of healthy fats, which can be added to meals through food or massaged into the body through Abhyanga, a tradition of rubbing the skin with warm oils. There is no greater expression of self-love than anointing ourselves from head to toe with warm oils, which are full of herbs that can relieve inflammation, calm the nervous system and help us age beautifully and gracefully. According to Dr. Chopra, the benefits of Abhyanga include:
decreased effects of aging
increased muscle tone and vigor to the dhatus (tissues) of the body
firmness of the limbs
lubricated joints
increased circulation
stimulated internal organs
elimination of impurities from the body
stimulated lymph, aiding in detoxification
increased stamina
calmed nerves
better, deeper sleep
enhanced vision
improved hair growth and texture
softer skin and reduced appearance of wrinkles
pacification of Vata and Pitta
stimulated Kapha
After years of practicing yoga and Ayurveda, I began working on my goal of supporting women who are on similar journeys of self discovery, empowering them to heal their internal worlds by embracing their femininity and beauty. Every woman should experience what I felt when I received Ayurveda treatments. When warm oils were poured on my forehead, hair, feet, belly and breasts, it was an intoxicating, sensual experience that provided relaxation and rejuvenating energy. Each time I felt like I was reborn.
Since experts traditionally perform such treatments, they are often very pricey. For the sake of saving money, I performed the massages on myself in the comfort in my own home and shortly thereafter taught my yoga students to do so as well. Over the last two years [in a lab of love ;)], I have created nine self-care products filled with Ayurvedic herbs. Also in the mix are essential oils that lend beautiful fragrance and sensuality. Each oil in my product line has a specific use. My main mission is to help women embrace their womanhood and love themselves. If we don’t have a healthy emotional connection with our bodies and inner beings, how can we give to anyone else?
According to the Chopra Center, If we desire perfect health, it’s crucial to focus on producing “ojas,” a Sanskrit term meaning “vigor.” Essential to life energy, ojas is the pure and subtle substance that’s extracted from food that has been completely digested. Your digestive health will determine how healthy you are. The Ayurveda Belly Oil in my product line was designed for rebuilding your digestive fire and connection to love. I really believe that doing daily massage on your belly deepens your connection to your life energy and can allow you to develop a healthy relationship with your belly, a body part many of my women students and friends complain about. It is also healthy to massage to alleviate gas and feelings of stress. After all, they say the belly is where your second brain lives.
The Breast Oil was very important for me to make to improve women’s emotional health. There is so much emotion surrounding our breasts, including sexual shame. Part of my mission is to heal that pain by encouraging women to build a relationship with their breasts rooted in a strong sense of self-care, self-love and awareness.
My oils were created to help ground, invigorate and refresh various systems throughout the body. Ayurveda describes three fundamental energies that govern our inner and outer environments: movement, transformation, and structure; in Sanskrit, these are known as Vata (Wind), Pitta (Fire), and Kapha (Earth). These primary forces are responsible for the characteristics of our minds and bodies to help us stay close to the earth and keep warm. For me, the wind is my challenge, so I use the Vata Oil.
The benefits of an Ayurvedic lifestyle go far beyond what I can capture in this short article. But hopefully you’ve been enticed enough to learn more. I look forward to your questions and feedback.
With Love and Ayurveda,
Osi
Om]]>Of course, a new relationship is exciting in and of itself. It is a period of enticement which can last anywhere from three to six months. After this time of being on a blissful high, then what? You might ask yourself, do you really like yourself? Are you comfortable enough with your body to feel happy and sexy in your own skin?
For me personally, dancing, gymnastics and yoga really helped me with my body image. These are things which helped me begin to to feel okay with the little imperfections that I now see and embrace as part of the fullness of who I am. But that process took time. The more I entered the lifestyle of yoga — which includes eating clean, using Ayurvedic body oils, resting, meditating, channeling my creativity and sending sincere, loving compassion and forgiveness towards myself and others (perhaps the hardest part of all) — the more my confidence rose, and that showed when I was intimate with my partner.
The secret started for me on the yoga mat where I discovered my own power. Sexuality is located in the second chakra, governing our creativity and our inner desires including our bonding instincts. If we move to the fourth chakra, or the heart, our relationships transcend sexual desires and play more upon our humanity: it becomes more about love, expression and communication. At this level, sex is much better as we move from the animal realms to the human level. As a yoga teacher, I learned to work better with imperfections and began to accept them by pouring love into those places.
If you are traveling on a path towards greater understanding and seeking greater intimacy in your life, it is only natural and instinctual that the question would arise, “Do I have the right partner?”
Yet, I believe that before asking this question, the question you should ask yourself first is, “Am I a person I would want to be with?”
If the answer you arrive at is, “yes,” then you are already taking steps in the right direction.
Here are some ideas I wish to suggest for your consideration if your answer is, “yes.”
Do you enjoy your own company when you are by yourself? Are you a good friend to yourself? I believe this is where our own intimacy begins. If we practice loyalty and truthfulness with ourselves, it will carry over into our relationship with our partner and the physical aspects will naturally fall into place.
Take time for yourself to become the best version of yourself that you can be before engaging with another person. Know when you need your alone time and communicate this to your partner. This becomes a step towards greater respect and intimacy. This also can apply to our moods. When we know ourselves well enough to know our shifts in emotions, it is a good idea to make some rules for ourselves, such as to not to engage in angry dialogue. Take a step back, breathe, and then reconnect. Our words are an extension of ourselves. They can be wonderful or they can be cruel. But always remember they are irrevocable once they pass our lips.
After developing a keen sense of self, take the time to create a strong bond between you and your partner. Simple strategies can nourish these ties. They can be as small as a date night to a movie or as extravagant as a weekend trip. Giving your time to another is giving them a part of who you are, a part of your life. It is imperative when developing an intimate bond with your partner.
And lastly, let go of the past. As humans, we have all made mistakes. If you have said you have forgiven something, then make sure that mean it. Do not hold your partner hostage to the past. All that will do is continually erode a relationship instead of allow it to grow. Let the past be a guiding tool, but don’t let it be the tour guide.
Back to the initial core questions, “Do I have the right partner?” and, “Am I a person I would want to be with?”
If your answer is “not really,” then ask yourself what changes and improvements you could make by looking at yourself with a loving eye. If you are single, describe the type of person you would want to be with. Review the qualities you listed and implement them into your own self. Once you become what you want, you will attract the type of person you are seeking.
The qualities I look for are kindness, honesty, sensitivity, the ability to be vulnerable, authenticity, rawness and the ability to communicate no matter how high the stakes are. I believe that if you and your partner are sexually and emotionally connected at both the root and heart chakras, you can reach anything in your lives together and abundance will naturally flow. It may seem like it would take a lifetime to reach these goals, but on this journey, you may find that the person you’re searching for was never that far away to begin with.
Good sex is about a mutual appreciation and attraction in the moment, but great sex is about loving one another’s imperfections and a real desire for heightened energy and a deeper connection. As I continue to practice yoga, I have cultivated the necessary stamina to give the best of myself to another human being. For me, yoga and embracing our earthly elements helped me eclipse my human barriers in order to evaluate my own wants, needs and desires in all dimensions of my life and because of that, I have never felt more free.
I am so blessed to be continually reminded of the wisdom from “A Course in Miracles,” “The only thing missing in any relationship is what you are failing to give.”
May we each find a way to stay rooted in this truth.
With Love and Blessings,
Osi
Om
To learn more about Osi Mizrahi, please visit her website, Facebook, and Twitter.
For more by Osi Mizrahi, click here.
For more on emotional wellness, click here.
This article was originally posted on Huffington Post. To read it there, please follow this link.
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Where is it written you can only have ONE soul mate? In yoga, we venture to know the self. On my journey to love, many people who became close friends have blended into my life. And yes, the soul mate, the perfect match, does not always result in perfect harmony. That person can irritate you and yet share beautiful intimacy.
Is it the soul mate who makes us feel “complete,” once we have found our “perfect match”? I have come to believe the answer to love, to finding our soul mate, is really finding intimacy within ourselves. If someone provokes irritation in you, this shows a weakness in yourself that needs to be elevated. Use this information as a gift to evolve and grow rather than using it to attack another human being. When a person irritates you, they are giving you a gift to be your best self. Once we accept our own shortcomings, we can find our higher consciousness, and thus wake up to our own full potential.
Try this little exercise. Strive to capture the feeling of love that one of those people holds and invokes in you — you are beautiful, smart, fulfilled, acknowledged, etc. — and now claim that feeling as truly your own, not just when that person is around you. It’s yours, own it! This practice is most invigorating to me. Can you claim this feeling for yourself, this intimacy, this expression of love, and call it your own?
In the Kabalah it said that before this world existed we were all one big soul of light. When the world was created, we all separated. When we meet certain people and our heart is open enough to receive them, we can see their light; that shared moment before the world existed. It takes us to the remembrance that we were once joined as the same light.
So, how then can we take this journey towards love and make it our own? It’s the deep knowing that when your heart is open, you can see clearly the love you have for another human being, including yourself. You embrace all the imperfections, limitations and faults. And yes, it is like being married for 21 years. It is a long journey without a book of instructions. I now see how the love grows, based upon kindness, respect, appreciation, honesty and on generosity of the heart.
Recently, I had a deep conversation with a good friend, the songwriter Marion Loguidice, about keeping the heart open, even when you are hurt. That’s the challenge. In Buddhist study, by understanding someone’s suffering, it helps us be less judgmental and kinder. It helps in certain places but not always. So different approaches work differently. I do not have all the answers, nor claim to.
“We must sort out what is of value,” Marion says. “If we truly wish to love we must constantly be asking the question, Is this idea that I am nursing about you opening my heart or closing it? Because the sad truth is that a life lived with a closed heart is a pitiful life.”
And guess what? It is this journey to love that makes life so fulfilling. I do know that keeping your heart open is a full-time job. It keeps you grounded in truth and can lead toward real happiness. For me, this journey for heart-opening started while practicing Kundalini breath work. After an intense practice with Hari Kaur, we all felt like a ball of love and light. Really! I realized then, however, it is impossible to hold it, to grasp it, because, as soon as you do, you lose it. It’s a practice you need to do all the time, every day, like strengthening a muscle.
So along the road, on this journey towards love, stop seeing the failure in people. Embrace the feeling of love and hold it close to your open heart and be at peace. And, of course, you must take care of yourself in this process and make sure your values remain intact. For me, the journey towards intimacy and true love includes being honest with myself and accepting my own imperfections first, so that I can be openhearted towards another human being.
We also need to be comfortable with all the mess that comes with another person and love them unconditionally. Being tender with their pain and scars and not judging them, rather loving them enough that they can choose to overcome their samsara or pain is an obstacle we must face on this journey to true love.
Once we embrace this, our messy life, we can become filled with juicy living.
With LOVE and blessings, Osi
P.S. One last thought: Experiment and look into someone’s eyes, even a stranger. You might just see their soul.
To learn more about Osi Mizrahi, please visit her Facebook, and Twitter.
For more by Osi Mizrahi, click here.
For more on emotional wellness, click here.
This article was originally posted on Huffington Post. To read it there, please follow this link.
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Nature at its core is women.
There is a direct connection — a commonality to the earth and her surroundings — which is uniquely related to women. Naturally, women experience a monthly cycle. We are joined energetically to the phases of the moon, the cycles of the seasons and the flow of sunrise and sunset.
Once you step back from the immediate experience of distinguishing between cloudy and sunny days, the visual of the flow of nature takes form. This natural flow can charge you, feed you and empower you. Once realized, the connection is a powerful tool to tap into the natural energy around you.
Women are connected to the world in unique ways. We are taught from a very early age and on mental, emotional and physical levels that our life contains ups and downs. We learn to adapt to this natural rhythm and cycle. Seen in its entirety, this non-duality and recognition of the power of change can empower women to succeed in inexplicable ways. There is a reason Earth is referred to as “mother.”
Tap into the power of the world around you and serve the flow.
The natural rhythm of life, the organic flow, is the secret to our success. Once we recognize and serve this flow, we can exponentially expand and grow. Success and achievement are just one heartbeat away. The concept of tantric philosophy is that we are already full and have everything we need; we lack nothing.
The Sanskrit word “Purna” is defined as inner knowing. We remember that, even if it is a cloudy day, the sun still permeates. We remember not to become distracted by the illusions around us, even when we cannot see the sun. The mind-chit or consciousness can melt like honey in a cup of tea. In this way, we can see the beauty of the changes of life.
Enjoy the ordinary moments of life, like walking with bare feet on the grass or on the beach. All of these moments are reminders to return to simplicity and to recall that life is simple and has rhythm and flow.
This article was originally posted on Huffington Post. To read the article there, please follow this link.
]]>So what is it that keeps us centered or takes us out of balance? On a personal level, I grew up in Israel. Life was different back then. News for me was local. There was no Internet. I knew only of the things that existed around me. Olive oil and the Mediterranean diet were part of my childhood. And yet, I was overweight and unaware of life outside my comfort zone, my own backyard.
My first step toward balance began when I was 15. I had American neighbors who took me with them on a trip that would change my life. While vacationing with them on a kibbutz, I was offered tea and dessert. I ate the most unbelievably delicious cheesecake. I was shocked to discover that the women had made it without any cheese! How was this possible? I had never heard of vegan or dairy-free dishes before, and I was eager to learn about this new way of cooking. Yet, despite experiencing something completely new, that moment triggered in me a deep sense of familiarity. I felt it was a calling. That experience was also the first step for me to recognize that my life was out of balance. I wanted to know more about the life they chose and how it could become part of my life.
Three years later when I arrived in New York City, health food stores, yoga studios and macrobiotic cooking classes were everywhere. I was a child visiting a candy store full of colorful cornucopia of choices. So many new flavors, tastes, aromas! Practicing yoga, for instance, and learning to cook with umeboshi plum paste were new and exciting passions. These hobbies made me feel grounded, connected and created in me a sense of balance and a feeling of returning home, a feeling I had never experienced before.
Yet, like a swinging pendulum, I began to feel pulled in two directions. I struggled with staying grounded and focused on my yoga and healthy way of life, and yet I wanted to be like everyone else and eat fries and drink beer. I began to wonder how we find balance living in this material world with so many choices. How do we move from a mind that is dual, with good and bad, to one of unity and wholeness where there is no separation? That answer, I discovered, lies within us. We possess our own compass to the soul. It guides us to look inside and encourages us to be honest with ourselves. Only then we start to feel radiant and shine with pure light…
So being balanced involves finding our own individual center. When things get rough, our tendency is to revert to our old patterns, our past scars. It is a comfort zone that often is difficult to break. Being centered, or “smack in the middle,” is a difficult place to hold. But, if you let your center be carried by faith and a deep trust in the process, everything becomes open. The Kabbalah teaches many lessons on how to help find balance. Here, it is said, a person can only learn when they are in a place within their heart’s desire. Some find the center in doing community service, others in devotion or in meditation. Spending time connecting with nature, becoming one with our surroundings, is another technique. One way is not better then another. Each of us has a unique path to reach balance.
Let’s pause and consider yoga’s role in this process. Our yoga practice heightens our sensitivity on every level. We begin to experience a reawakening of our body and our hearts. We are more alive and rejuvenated, and we are not only more open to our own feelings but we are more sensitive to everyone around us. We may even find ourselves moved to tears when we hear a beautiful piece of music or watch a moving scene.
Sometimes our bodies communicate to us via illness. Surprisingly, this can be a blessing in disguise, redirecting us on a new path toward health. Only when I started to practice yoga and meditation by myself was I first introduced to the master, the true healer within me. I didn’t find it in therapy sessions but in the silence within. I experienced balance when I truly went inward and dropped my judgments and became really quiet, quiet enough to hear. The pearl of wisdom lies there… for me, and for you!
In this silence true wisdom and harmony wait to unfold.
For more by Osi Mizrahi, click here.
For more on emotional wellness, click here.
This article was originally posted on Huffington Post. To read the article there, please follow this link.
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