Dead Heading

Most of us are in our heads all the time, thinking and re-thinking about what to do, what we should have done, where to go, worrying about things we can do nothing about - blah, blah, blah. Gardening gets us back into our body, connecting with the earth. It feels so good digging in the dirt, planting a seed or a bedding plant. Watering makes all the difference. Over water and the plant will get sick and die; under water and the same fate awaits the poor plant. Watering just right perks up plants and people. Gardening is calming and creates patience, as well as an appreciation for the beauty and abundance of life. Once we have planted, our gardening karma is to water and weed.

Last week I went to visit my brother and sister-in-law who live on an acreage. They were transplanting bedding plants and I taught them how to dead head! Dead heading makes all the difference in the world to a flowering plant.  If we don't do it the plant gets spindly and won't give many flowers, because all the power goes into making the seed pods. I especially like petunias and really notice how they perk up after I dead head them. 

What is dead heading? Dead heading is a type of pruning. When a flower is wilting and looks like it is tired, follow the stem down to the origin and snip it off with your finger nail or with scissors. It is a good idea to learn how to dead head our over abundant and totally insignificant thoughts that are draining our life force, causing us to lose sleep and energy. How do we dead head our thoughts? We create calm in our minds by meditating or contemplating.  There are many different meditation techniques. Just find one that suits you and do it when you feel like it. You will perk up just like a beautiful plant!

Birth

In our family there have been three births in three months! What a blessing. Each baby is so innocent, pure, delicate and sweet. Each birth for everyone is different. It all depends on our karma. Some babies shoot out of the womb, impatient for life experiences, some have to be pulled out with forceps, not quite ready to release from the safety of the womb. There are so many different ways to be born - as many as all the people who have been born.  Some babies are sleepy for the first month, taking it easy as they adjust to life on planet earth, while some babies are born wide-eyed and alert.

I teach Prenatal Yoga and enjoy seeing the growth of mothers' bellies. Sometimes I wish there was a belly window so we could view all the amazing changes taking place inside. That "preggy glow" is special as the mother literally shines and radiates her brilliance. In Yoga we are taught that we have 72,000 nadis or subtle channels of our energy body. When a mother is pregnant she is glowing with her 72,000 nadis and her baby's 72,000 nadis for a total of 144,000 nadis!

Last year I was asked to be at a birth and was there for quite a few hours, then I had to go teach a yoga class. The baby was born while I was away! This year I was at a water birth, which I had never seen before. The mother so enjoyed sinking into the warm water, relieving the pressure. Baby shot out of her like a cannon! The umbilical cord was about eight inches away from the mom. It looked like a braid. The baby was beyond that, floating under the water! Apparently, if the baby stays under water, while still attached to the cord it is fine (and looks so amazingly surreal). Within moments a nurse pulled baby from the water and voila - a new human being! Birth is a miracle.

Saw Deepak Last Night

Deepak Chopra is an icon. He modernized spirituality and defined it to skeptics in scientific terms. I saw him last night at a talk he gave. "We have 100 trillion cells in our body and they all have consciousness." It is amazing that each cell knows exactly what job it has to perform and never doubts or complains. It is doing Karma Yoga - the Yoga of action, the Yoga of service.  So, what happened to our brains that we hesitate, procrastinate and doubt our connection to the universe? That is for each of us to figure out by being aware of every moment. It helps us to read good books by Deepak and Eckhart Tolle who are two of the foremost current informers of cosmic consciousness. Happy reading!

Birth of a Yogini's Blog I Wish I Could Spend a Day in Your Head

Someone once said to me, "I wish I could spend a day in your head." 

"What for?" I asked, because for me, sometimes I wish I could spend a day out of my head! "You look at the world so differently from anyone else I know." she said. That may be true, as my life has been different from anyone I know. When I was 18 years old, I was walking down a street in Edmonton with a school friend and I had an unusual feeling inside. At that moment I knew that my life would be different from the people I grew up with. It scared me a bit because I wanted to "fit in" and "be normal." Well, that ain't the way it worked out.

When the door was open, I flew through. You know how someone wise said, "Think before you act." For some reason I didn't get that message in my genetic make-up. I wanted to experience as much as I could in this life time. Little did I know that you can go too far - to the other end of the world! In India I was introduced to Yoga by a very smart man who looked like Santa Claus, Swami Gitananda - Hatha Yoga, Yantra Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Laya Yoga, Karma Yoga, Yoga Chikitsa (therapy) and more. Yoga became my work, my life and I have loved every moment of it! Welcome to my blog.