Inspiration

Mindful Mondays – 08/18/14

Mindful Mondays

My second week of my Chakra challenge has come to an end!

In learning to balance my Sacral Chakra, I honestly didn’t feel any differently. I loved the yoga, and sometimes went through them multiple times a day, but didn’t feel any differently. The meditation is still a challenge for me. I am a tad bit upset that this part of the challenge didn’t go as well as the first. On the bright side, my anxiety hasn’t been flaring up! However, I am still angry. It scares me how much anger I have. Just having people bring up memories that make me feel as if my experiences are being discounted, I get extremely angry. Since my anger has been bubbling at the surface in the past few weeks, I am hoping that balancing my Navel Chakra will help. Not only do I hope that my anger will subside, but that I will be able to face someone who I have not faced in over a year. I am supposed to go to court and testify against him, and I am absolutely terrified. I will need courage.

The Manipura Chakra, or Navel Chakra, is located in the stomach area. This Chakra affects the digestive system, and when it is unbalanced you can suffer physically in the form of digestive problems and eating disorders, as well as emotionally. The emotional issues that arise from a blocked Navel Chakra include anger, greed, and envy. This Chakra is believed to govern courage, self-esteem, and willpower. The symbol of this Chakra is a yellow lotus flower with ten petals and the element is fire.

In order to balance my Navel Chakra I will doing a few suggested poses from yoga.com. These include the Boat Pose, Warrior 2 Pose, and Sun Salutations. I will also add in Cat and Cow poses, and Plank Pose.

Rather than doing a simple mantra, I will be doing one a bit more personalized. Hopefully by having a more personalized mantra, I can enjoy meditation more. My mantra for this week is “I am strong. I am capable. I am driven. I am worthy. I will love and respect myself.”

Namaste Y’all,

Autumn

P.S. Just as a reminder, I am by no means an expert. I am not a yoga instructor (although I do hope to become one in the near future), I just read a lot about yoga, meditation, and Hinduism. I am just going through this and sharing my journey.

Edited using "A Beautiful Mess" App

Edited using “A Beautiful Mess” App

Mindful Mondays- 07/28/14

Discovering Autumn, Inspiration, Mindful Mondays

I had a difficult time today. I definitely struggled with being optimistic, mindful, and I don’t even think I had a moment of happiness. I missed my morning yoga routine along with my meditation due to some other circumstances, I didn’t eat a proper meal; basically the beginning of my day didn’t start the way it usually does. I kept thinking to myself, how can I write about mindfulness if I can’t even find the time to meditate? How can I spread the gospel of mindfulness if I ended up having a bit of a cry fest today?

That’s when I realized, sometimes you just have to cry. Sometimes a good crying sesh will help clear you mind, and help you get out all that tension. If done correctly, it can be almost as restorative as a short meditative session.

But, you can’t just cry. You have to realize WHY you are crying. Note what caused it. For me, it was the feeling that I was losing control. I didn’t finish an important assignment (in a class I’m not doing so well in), didn’t get any of my other work done, my morning routine became screwed up royally; things seemed to just keep going wrong.

That’s when my stress and anxiety levels rose so high, that demon of depression to rear its hideous heads. I shut down and went numb, not even being able to make myself do my work. I couldn’t even hold in my crying.

After that crying, I regained myself. I decided I couldn’t keep letting these things get to me, I couldn’t keep letting these bad days completely throw me off track. That’s where my mindfulness came in on this horrible, terrible, no-good Monday.

So, I ask, how do you lovely people deal with “off” days?

Hope you had a Mindful Monday, and Namaste Y’all,

Autumn