Make a cup of tea, sit back and take in this interview. In it, I play my Native American Love Flute and answer questions (posed by friend and raw food coach, Gabriela Lerner) about the upcoming Kundalini Yoga & Raw Food Retreat:
"Banquet of Blessings", in Dorset, UK, 11-13 May 2018.
As of today I am going to consciously talk/communicate with my body and its various parts (inner and outer).
We call people on the phone, we email them, we talk with them in person, etc.—and through talking we get to know each other, what we like/don't like, want/don't want, etc. It makes sense that we would do this with our body parts.
Talking to the body, letting it know that we are inviting it to do something ... or asking it what it wants us to know ... asking it what a certain sensation means ... asking it to show via cravings what it would like to receive (food wise or otherwise) ... thanking it, all the parts, for functioning well and even inviting them to function better where necessary ... and so on. Developing a conversation with the Body. Making it a friend and companion, because it is the one physical form that will always be with us in this life time. We might as well make friends with it, as much as we can.
Even before going to sleep ... talk to the Body. Ask it how its day was, what it liked, what it didn't like, how it felt, etc. Ask things like: "Is there anything special you would like me to do for you tomorrow?" ... and so on.
As I sit here writing this, drinking Yogi Tea, I stopped for a while and paid attention to the tingling in my throat and chest (from the spices). I felt it going down the passage ... and I said to my Body: "I invite you to absorb all of the nutrient benefits of this tea as I drink it." (Taking another sip): "Thank you for listening to me and responding so quickly for our benefit."
This then leads me to think ... we need to be so aware of what we tell ourselves. Our bodies are listening and responding.
Enjoy
uninterrupted personal, self-love time ... inclusive of (weather
permitting) an outdoor energy healing treatment amidst breezy trees on
the cliff overlooking the sea.
To find out more about Thou Art Yoga's W.O.W. Self Love Retreats in Tobago, please visit
To book, at least one week in advance, please call (868) 381-8359 OR elspeth (at) thouartyoga (dot) com
Special package rate of $2,400TT includes:
2 nights accommodation * All meals (vegetarian) * Morning/Evening Kundalini Yoga & Meditation * Personalised guidance * 1 Energy Healing Session * Personal Relaxation & Reflection Time * Use of pool and private beach
Choose any weekend ... and it is yours(availability permitting) Each customised "Just for You" Self Love Weekend Retreat caters
for one person at a time. If that person is you, you are dreaming of
spending quality personal time in a supportive, relaxing space ... to
let go, find answers, be inspired, create new possibilities and meet
someone wonderful ... Yourself.
Please click here to visit the site for more info and images.
The Just for You retreat is a product within Thou Art Yoga's W.O.W. (Wonderful One Weekend) retreat series.
(Please click on image to see larger version of flyer)
*
These workshops will be an invaluable experience for anyone wanting to discover their highest potential, power and purpose through the life-changing technology of Kundalini Yoga. No previous yoga experience necessary.
About Guru Meher: Guru Meher Singh Khalsa began studying under Yogi Bhajan in 1981, and has been teaching Kundalini Yoga ever since. He is the Director of Teacher Training at Yoga West, Yogi Bhajan's original studio in Los Angeles, travels internationally to train teachers in Level One and Two programs, and works with the Aquarian Academy to train the next generation of teacher trainers. As a professional Life Coach, he helps people identify and transform personal blocks to their happiness and fulfillment, and as a public speaker introduces non-yogic audiences to body-mind-spirit training.
Yesterday evening, as I sat on the sofa in the Moksha Yoga Studio lobby (waiting to go in for the 6:30 POS Kundalini Yoga class), I was reading the book in the above image. A little boy dressed in his capoeira whites came and squashed up next to me.
"You choose all dem book?" he asked me, pointing to the stack of books on the coffee table.
"They're for whoever wants to read them," I said.
He reached forward, took one and started flicking through it, looking at the pictures.
I asked him how long he had been doing capoeira.
"Is too many years for me to count. I born wid it."
I asked him his age. Nine.
We sat in silence, looking at our books . . . or rather, he was looking at mine, even though his was open on his lap. At one point, when the page turned to reveal a particularly pretzel-ish posture, he looked up at me and asked in all seriousness: "Dem ting does be possible?"
On Friday one of my yoga students who was unable to make it to last week's Humee Hum Brahm Hum gave me this flowering plant as a gift. She couldn't remember the name of it, so I said I would ask my father (who's a Botanist).
Later, I emailed to let her know that it's a Gloxinia. She emailed back with this site and indicated what the Gloxinia flower stands for: Love at first sight.
As it is a public holiday we were able to meet early for our Friday yoga—i.e. as early as in 4:30 a.m. So, it was not a "class", but sadhana.
We had a fantastic sadhana on Shiv's poolside terrace (which looks like it is our new venue, at least for now). When we began, the stars and a huge bright moon were up. Venus was glowing. By the time we were done, the sky was lighter, but the sun was not yet up enough for the day to be hot. We had come to the end of our chanting, but the birds continued on our behalf.
At the end of it all, I gave everyone a bottle filled with yogi tea from the batch I had made yesterday. The labels I made for the bottles each said SAT NAM.
When I dropped Patrice home after, she had something for me upstairs, so I went up to get it. We decided to have our yogi tea and share some with her boyfriend, who was just rising. As she poured the tea from one of the bottles into the pot to heat it up, a drop of tea fell onto the counter ... in the shape of a heart ... and just under the heart was a snakelike drop of tea, quite like Kundalini rising. (Unfortunately I didn't have my camera but Patrice took one or two shots with hers).
As we watched the tea bubble in the pot, the little masses of white bubbles kept breaking up leaving heart-shaped spaces of tea. Amazing confirmation that we had started the day on the perfect note.
Recently my 10-year old nephew, Liu, went on a baking spree to raise money to buy a Mac laptop. He got a huge amount of orders, mainly from my friends, who were all raving about his cakes, cookies and brownies.
One part of my decision to marry Tek Har (about whom you will read more below) was based on the premise that you must love yourself before another can love you. I took it a step further to the premise that I must marry myself before someone else can truly marry me. Do not take this literally. I am not talking about the societal norm of hetero-marriage and wearing a wedding dress in a church, etc. I am talking about the power of being committed to Truth in my Self and Love for my Self (both of which are a continually ongoing process)—to the extent that any Love Partner who enters my life can only reflect that—being that true and loving with/to herself and therefore with me.
Is this as easy as it sounds? I look at the above image (which was the photograph used on the wedding invitation) and I wonder ... who will be courageous enough to fill those empty footprints, to stand honestly, face to face, look me in the eye and truly say & mean: "I love you".
I am doing it for myself first. And when she comes, whoever she is, it will be clear.
ABOUT TEK HAR
Last year, just before my birthday in October, I wrote to write to the 3HO Foundation (Kundalini Yoga) and requested my spiritual name. I had never felt the urge to before, but somehow that day "it was time". One's spiritual name is worked out based on your given birth name and birth date numerology.
The spiritual name I was granted is Tek Har Kaur. The announcement came with a beautiful letter explaining the name's essence. In summary, it means 'the kind, creative, spiritually prosperous Princess/Lioness of God who feels supported by the power of the Divine.'
A spiritual name is a personal mantra, vibrating one's personal Truth.
The power of a Spiritual Name is that the more you speak and hear your name, the more it permeates into your being ... and the more you will experience its Nadh (inner sound current), bringing you into harmony with your destiny. (Excerpt from the letter I received with my name)
At the time of the "Oneness Celebration", I was not sure if, when or how I would transition into using the name Tek Har. It's quite a jump for people who've always known you to start calling you something else ... and it's not like I dislike the name Elspeth, so Tek Har was not necessarily for replacement purposes. The 'marrying' of Elspeth and Tek Har was my way of merging the essence & meaning of the name Tek Har with who Elspeth is. At the time, I thought that even if I never actually used the name Tek Har in public, the meaning would be honoured within me.
As time progressed, Tek Har emerged naturally and gradually, in her own way. Lately I have been using both Elspeth and Tek Har. Each name has a different energy. My Kundalini Yoga friends and associates refer to me as Tek Har and I love how it feels and sounds. Some other part of me is actually activated whenever that name is used. In association with any yoga-related activities, you may hear/see me referring to myself (or being referred to) as Tek Har. Everyone else knows me as Elspeth. Both are good because I am both. And, as I am seeing, they work together.
You will also be seeing more of THOU ART YOGA, my new enterprise. As you can tell from the name, it merges two major aspects of my life: yoga and art. Everything that I do now related to Kundalini Yoga and/or yoga-related art will come under the category of Thou Art Yoga.
Balandra—location of the three 3-week residential immersion sessions
Before we begin a Kundalini Yoga class or individual session, we tune in by chanting two mantras: ONG NAMO GURU DEV NAMO (I call on Infinite Creative Consciousness, I call on Divine Wisdom) - used to open our sacred channel and tune us to the frequency of our Inner Teacher, who guides us through the process.
This is followed by: AAD GURAY NAMEH JUGAAD GURAY NAMEH SAT GURAY NAMEH SIRI GURU DEVAY NAMEH (The Mangala Charn mantra which surrounds the magnetic field with a protective light). It means " I bow to the primal Guru (guiding consciousness who takes us to God-realization), I bow to the wisdom through the ages, I bow to the True Wisdom, I bow to the Great, Unseen Wisdom." Trinidad & Tobago's first ever Kundalini Yoga Teacher Certification course will be held here in Trinidad in 2011, led by Senior Trainers from the USA. This powerful immersion experience, which promises to be positively life-changing, is open to local, regional and international participants.
Please visit the blog for more information (http://kundaliniyogatt.blogspot.com/) and share the link with friends and associates who may be interested in deepening their general yoga practice, expanding their consciousness, increasing knowledge of Kundalini Yoga and/or becoming certified Kundalini Yoga teachers (IKYTA/KRI).
Only now, as I am writing this, do I realise that Camp Balandra (where the three 3-week Kundalini Yoga Teacher Certification residentials will take place) was also the location for the writers' retreat mentioned above.
As human beings we are constantly evolving. Why would we be in this life unless it was to transform and be transformed—ideally in ways that are beneficial to ourselves and others.
I had an interesting experience/conversation Friday evening before last, as I waited for a friend in a yoga studio. As I sat on the couch, two people came to speak with me. One had met me more than ten years ago, the other had met me within the last ten years.
The woman who has known me over the course of ten-plus years told me that she found I was more fun "back then" (i.e. when I used to smoke, drink, party, etc) and that now I'm not fun.
The other person, who met me about two years ago, was open-mouth shocked. "Wow! I think she's a lot of fun!" he said. (I think I am too). He was also shocked to know that I used to drink and smoke. People who know me now usually can't put the two together. (I can't even put the two together!) They see me as being very 'clean'. They see my early bedtime, early yoga mornings, lack of interest in loud music and crowds as the way I have always been. And I guess it is who I always was, under the smoke.
The time I automatically wake up now to do yoga (sadhana) is the time I often used to be going to sleep after coming home early in the morning or being up late doing whatever-I-was-doing.
My desire to not be out socializing in loud/crowded pubs, clubs, etc is not because I never did. It's because they feel empty and false to me. How can you really get to know that person you are shouting at over the music, clouded by smoke and numbed by intoxicants? But more importantly, how can you get to know yourself?
When I started practising Kundalini Yoga ten years ago, I changed and so did my life. On the morning of 8 January 2001 (3 months after starting Kundalini) I awoke and, as I sat up in bed, a clear voice said: "You will not smoke again." I can't explain the experience beyond that. It was very simple and it was not my imagination. The thought of questioning the Voice did not even occur. Clearly I was ready and the Voice knew it.
From that day on, I never smoked again (I used to chain smoke), never even had a craving. On that same day, coffee drinking (I used to have a few cups a day) and consumption of alcohol (social beverage) also fell away. I did not have to try to give up anything ... and I have not looked back. I do not miss them for one second. That day was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Probably saved my life.
I'm not being judgmental when I say this, because I understand on many levels why smoking happens ... but now when I see people puffing away, it looks like an illusion, like some mirage behind a veil (literally and figuratively). It hurts to look at it. I see packs of cigarettes in the grocery and feel my stomach churn. When will they package a few deep breaths in a box? I remember once driving through Manzanilla with a friend who was visiting and, on one particular inhalation that went very deep, I said: "Wow, I feel like I just smoked myself!" In that moment I realised: maybe that's why people smoke - to inhale so deeply (even though that breath is filled with toxins). We are so subconscious about our breathing. We breathe shallowly, we hold our breath for long periods, we take it for granted. Yet each breath is what keeps us alive.
May your words have projective power, may your face shine like the moon, may your body radiate like the sun, may your brightness be acknowledged by those whom you touch, feel, speak to and befriend. May you learn all the faculties of God– totality, reality, infinity, kindness and compassion. May your prosperity shine through you to serve those who are in need and may you extend your hand of friendship to those who are lonely. May your essence flow, may you be recognized by your best qualities, wonderful manners and your livelihood. May this day bring you all these blessings plus more, so that you can live healthy, happy and holy. May your nine holes be under your control. And may you give your heart to that one who is like God to you, so you can find your infinity forever. Sat Nam.
Watching a video like this is unbelievable when I think of my experiences with Toronto as a quiet, safe, embracing, gentle city. My heart broke when I saw the cars on fire, the youths dressed in black smashing windows and running rampant. It looks like a G20 warzone.
Then just a few days ago, there was the 5.5 earthquake that hit TO. To us in TT, even though an earthquake is disturbing because it's so sudden, we are not strangers to the shifts of the earth. For friends in Toronto, however, it was somewhat of a 'first' - and I'm still seeing blogs mentioning it days after.
So, somewhat of a shakeup is going on now for one of my dearest places on this planet. I am extending the below mantra to you (the city, the people - my friends and strangers) for protection. This mantra surrounds your magnetic field with a protective light.
AD GURAY NAMEH, JUGAD GURAY NAMEH, SAT GURAY NAMEH, SIRI GURU DEVAY NAMEH
When I am cleaning out and I come across old letters and cards, I am reminded that the past was once real, but no longer is. We have experiences that can never be repeated - or even if they are, they will never be experienced in the same way. People come and go, relationships transform, we lose touch, we become closer, we part ways and reconnect again - anything can happen over time.
There is an ebb and flow in all of life - the coming and going, shedding and growing. Thinking of it this way, I wonder why we (humans) hold on. The tree doesn't grasp at the leaf as it falls to the ground to serve another purpose. The river water doesn't stop and cling to the pebbles it passes over on its way to the sea.
This morning I woke up at 2:30 a.m. and decided to sleep for another hour before rising for yoga. At 3:30 (usual yoga time) Jasper woke me by pressing his paw into my heart, then lying on my chest, facing my face, purring. I could feel the vibrations running through my chest. He has done that about two or three times (press and purr into my heart). I remember in particular he did it once on a Valentine's Day and once on a Christms day. He definitely senses things - and that must be his way of opening the heart or saying "I love you".
This morning as I finished yoga, a clear question flew into my head: What in life has meaning?
The immediate clear answer was: Only Love has meaning.
I am Elspeth Duncan (Multimedia Artist): writer/columnist, musician, photographer, film maker, interactive conceptual artist, owner of 'Table for Two Made for You', Kundalini Yoga instructor living in Tobago. I create artistic works, productions and experiences to uplift, inspire, shift perspectives and raise awareness in Self and Others. Thank you for being here. Please use the links in the side bar to explore further.
Click here to e-mail me.
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