#because it was her and i felt that perhaps doing her specific type of yoga could help me with taekwondo

[mahvaladara]

My Gym's Yoga Instructor imposes respect

TKD Master: Mahv, what's wrong with you? Have you been chewing gum (code for smoking).

Me: No. -walking during warm up because I am dead- I went to one of Natacha's classes before this one... And I must say. That's only Yoga in name!

TKD Master: -laughter of understanding- Okay! Valid reason. I'll let it slide this time then.

[karajaynetoday]

everybody's got their demons, even wide awake or dreaming | part two

Photo credit: Jess Gleeson

Hello friends! Hope you’re having a lovely day. It’s time for part two of this series! Lizzie takes her opportunity to interview Calum one-on-one in this part. If you need to catch up on Part One, you can do that here. Onwards! 

(This is a fem!OC story)

Word count: 3.2k

Warnings: none? i don’t think? 

More writing here | send thoughts/feedback/suggestions here | if you’d like to be on my taglist go here

The day or so leading up to Lizzie’s one on one interview with Calum was a blur, as Lizzie tried to fix her body clock and orientate herself with how to get around LA. Her boss had offered her the opportunity to hire a rental car, but the idea of driving on the wrong side of the road was too much for Lizzie to stomach, so Ubers were the go. 

Her body sometimes overslept, sometimes woke her up at 4am, so Lizzie had downloaded a yoga and meditation app to try and sort herself out. She might’ve almost given herself a concussion after toppling over while trying to do a particularly tricky pose, but no one needed to hear about that. The bruises on her elbow were embarrassing enough. 

Danielle had sent Lizzie a text the morning of her lunchtime interview with Calum, confirming the time and place as they’d discussed. Lizzie had handwritten some notes for her questions, trying to contemplate what she could ask Calum that would differ to the others. Or maybe she should ask them all the same questions, and then in the piece she could compare and contrast responses? It was so hard to know what would make the best piece, especially with interviewing Calum in particular. Lizzie knew from watching other interviews, and in her group interview with all of the band the other day (and from back in their school days) that Calum was a man of few words. When he did speak, it was usually with purpose and thought, and made for some great content, but he wasn’t always particularly forthcoming. Which is why it had surprised Lizzie that Calum had volunteered for the first solo interview, but given Michael’s behaviour, she was glad to be continuing with the profile piece at all. 

It was a really warm day, so Lizzie had to forego her usual blazer and jeans in favour of a long green dress with blue and white flowers on it. Her hands were sweaty as the Uber pulled up to the café Calum had suggested, and something in the back of Lizzie’s mind suggested it wasn’t just from the weather. She’d always been an anxious person, but she’d gotten a handle on it recently; this whole LA debacle had brought it back with a vengeance. 

Calum was waiting for her just in front of the café, dark wayfarer sunglasses covering his eyes and his phone in his hand as he leant up against the brick wall beside the café door. He was wearing a grey hoodie and jeans, and nobody coming in or out of the café seemed to pay him any attention; but then again maybe people of Calum’s level of fame were just part of the furniture around here. It was near to Hollywood, after all.

“Hey, thanks for agreeing to meet me.” Lizzie’s voice wasn’t overly loud, but it still made Calum jump as he looked up from his phone at her.

“Of course, of course. I know I sound like a broken record, but we really are excited for you to do this piece. The new album era is something I’ve been looking forward to for a while, and - “ Calum began, smiling warmly at Lizzie, who cut him off by pulling open the café door.

“Before you start getting all meaningful and quotable on me, shall we get a coffee and take a seat?” 

“A woman after my own heart. Let’s do it. Pro-tip, the brownies here are to die for.”

The café was bustling, but most of the patrons seemed to be lining up for takeaway orders. Calum stepped ahead of Lizzie and slipped into a booth towards the back, near a frosted window, greeting the wait staff by name as he went. Lizzie scurried after him, apologising as she accidentally bumped into a tall man with her shoulder bag in her haste and he glared at her. Guess not everyone was as friendly as Calum, then. She slid into the booth opposite Calum, pulling out her notebook and phone as she went. 

“Is it okay if I record this? I’m not very good at taking notes.” 

“Straight into it, LL? At least let a man have his coffee first.” Calum deadpanned, and Lizzie felt her face fall before she realised he was joking with her.

“Of course, sorry. Let’s order. The brownies, you said? How big are they?” Lizzie pasted a smile onto her face, grabbing for the menu on the table in front of her.

“I have it on good authority that they’re perfectly Lizzie-sized. Calum-sized, too - a real multipurpose snack.” Calum was teasing her now, but also being completely serious, as he got the attention of a waitperson who came over to welcome them and take their orders. A skinny latté for Lizzie, an iced coffee for Calum, and a warmed up chocolate brownie with a side of coconut yogurt for them each. They fell into easy conversation, about the weather, and Calum’s neighbourhood, and the other pieces Lizzie had written, almost forgetting why they were there in the first place. When their order of coffees and brownies arrived, Lizzie suddenly snapped out of her feeling of ease when she had to push her notebook and phone over on the table and remember that she was supposed to be interviewing Calum Hood, 5SOS bassist, not catching up with Calum Hood, her Year 9 science lab partner. 

“Now that you’ve got your coffee, can I start recording?” Lizzie asked timidly, as she took a bite out of her brownie and audibly groaned at how heavenly it tasted.

“Depends. Will your brownie orgasm be mentioned in the article?” Could Calum say anything that wasn’t teasing her? Damn it.

“Maybe. Perhaps I’ll do a twitter thread of my trip food highlights, given that the profile piece will be under embargo until the album comes out.” Lizzie deadpanned right back, earning a smile and a small chuckle from Calum.

Lizzie hit record on her phone’s voicenote app, sliding the phone into the centre of the table. She flipped open her notebook to the page marked “Calum”, and she could see Calum trying to read her writing upside down.

“No spoilers, mate. I’ve got a strategy here.” Lizzie mused, angling her notebook so it was harder for Calum to see as he raised his hands in mock surrender.

“Well then, Ms Lawson from Junkee Australia, do your worst.” He flashed her a grin, before taking a sip of his coffee followed by a bite of his brownie (sans any groaning… that must only be a first-time brownie thing).

“So, in our chat yesterday, it was mentioned that this next album is, in some ways, a letter to your homeland, and a reflection on your journeys so far as individual artists as well as being 5SOS collectively. For you, as Calum Hood, what’s the main contribution or perspective that you feel you’ve brought to this album, and the band?” Lizzie saw a flicker of something in Calum’s eyes as she shifted into journalist mode easily, but he only paused for another sip of coffee before answering.

“I think at this point, my main contribution is balancing the collective contributions in the room. I have a lot to say, and I do a lot of songwriting, but I also think the others would agree that I’m also quite observant, so I can read a lot into things they’re saying, or not saying, and bring it out of them into the music. We’ve known each other for almost half our lives at this point, so we know each other better than anyone else, but when we work with other co writers and things like that it can be hard to feel entirely comfortable with the vulnerability you need to bring into writing a song or telling a particular story that day. I’ve got the rep as the strong, silent, shy type, I know - “ Calum paused and returned the soft smile Lizzie was giving him, as she nodded encouragingly. 

“But in interviews, when I’m being asked to explain myself and validate my artistic choices, I’m immediately more defensive and protective of it, because there’s something magical about the writing room, and the vulnerability that can only exist in that context when we’re songwriting, and creating that art. The end product, which is the song or the album or whatever, conveys the emotions in a way that I could never say them with words, and the beautiful thing is that so many people can listen to it and relate to it in ways that I’d never considered before. But that’s the power of it, you know? We make these songs to express ourselves, and fulfil our creative outlets, but it extends beyond that, and that’s the part that gets me.” Calum finished speaking and reached for another sip of his coffee.

“Right. The magic exists in the studio, and on the stage, and in individual people’s lives when they listen to the music wherever they are in the world, and it’s the connecting thread that brings you together with your fans, a moment that you can share even if you never meet.”

“Exactly, it’s the universal experience, and everyone has their own interpretation of what it means to them. Pisses me off when people try and dig to find out who we wrote a certain song about, or whatever. Sometimes it is a specific person or a moment, other times I make shit up to suit the vibe of a chord progression or a concept someone’s brought to the table. It’s a juicier headline if we name and shame, but it’s not fair to the person I’m writing about, especially if they don’t have a similar outlet for a right of reply, and it’s also irrelevant, because my meaning behind a song could be completely different to yours, but that doesn’t make it less valid.” Calum shrugs as he speaks, his tone calm and nonchalant. 

“Makes sense. The music can exist as art, and be open to interpretation, like everything in life. And with this album, and reflecting on your homeland… what does that mean, for you? Because 5SOS have lived almost their entire adult lives overseas, so I know it must be hard to self-determine a cultural identity that’s so strongly linked to somewhere you haven’t lived for so long.” Lizzie asks, munching down another bite of brownie.

Calum cocks his head to the side and rolls his bottom lip into his mouth, and Lizzie feels a lump rise in her throat. Had she phrased the question wrong? Was he mad? Had she struck a nerve? Fuck. 

“Sorry, we don’t have to - I mean, we can keep discussing the album in a different way if you’d prefer -” Lizzie started babbling, and she froze when Calum reached across the table and rested on hers reassuringly. 

“Breathe, Lawson. I just need a minute to think about a deep and meaningful response to your question. You’re fine.” Calum was speaking softly, and there was an apology of sorts in his eyes when Lizzie glanced over at him. She was about to ask him something else, when a waitress came over to check on how everything was going with their orders and offered a second round of coffees and Calum withdrew his hand from the table as he ordered another iced coffee to go, times two. 

“If you could have it ready to go in about an hour, that’d be great.” Calum flashed the waitress a smile, and she shot him a wink as she headed back to the counter to update his order.

“A whole ‘nother hour? You spoil me, Mr Hood.” Lizzie joked, downing the last of her coffee and desperately hoping to avoid any awkwardness in her remaining interview time with Calum. 

“Anything for a fellow Australian, mate. To answer your question, it’s strange, because yes I’ve never lived there full time as an adult, but there’s something about your home country and your hometown that stays with you, no matter where you go or how long you’re gone. Obviously, for me, my sister lives overseas, and neither of my parents were raised in Australia, but it still means a lot to me, because it’s home, you know? The industry there is… interesting, but I still think that if we didn’t have the background we all have as individuals and the band, there’s certainly a lot of decisions we’ve made and ways we’ve gone about things in our careers that are heavily influenced by our upbringings and the mindsets we all have from that experience.” 

“Home is where the heart is, right?” Lizzie offers, thumbing her notebook absently. 

“It’s true. But it’s also refreshing to go back and escape it all a bit, you know? None of my friends at home really give a shit about Calum from 5SOS. They just like hanging out with Cal, which is nice.” Calum shrugs, clasping his hands together on the table in front of him.

“Just Cal? Not cool guy Cal? C Dizzle Swizzle?” Lizzie bit back a grin, remembering the multitude of nicknames Cal had garnered over the years.

“Look, cool guy Cal is just my constant state of being. C Dizzle might make an appearance if I’ve had one too many, but either way, they’re just happy to see me. Or happy to tell me some home truths that I haven’t heard, or wanted to hear, so that’s important too. You can’t live in LA for as long as we have without having a good support crew to keep us grounded, you know? Even if some of the ones who mean the most to us are on the other side of the planet.” There was something in Calum’s eyes again as Lizzie looked at him, and she could tell it was more than what he was trying to say for the sake of the profile interview. 

She swallowed down one final bite of the heavenly brownie, and turned the page to find her next question. Lizzie couldn’t entertain the idea of asking Calum why Michael was mad at her, because it would break the air of professionalism she was desperate to maintain; also, she wasn’t entirely sure he’d even tell her. Calum and Michael had been inseparable in their school days, and Lizzie knew that their bond and sense of loyalty no doubt ran even deeper now than then, given all of their shared experiences, trials and tribulations to date. But Calum had always been so kind and patient with her, whether she’d accidentally ruined their Year 9 science experiment, or she’d nearly thrown up on his shoes at the Year 11 formal after party, or when Michael had stormed out of the studio a few days ago and he offered her his time for the first solo interview. Lizzie brushed off the train of thought, and continued with her interview questions for Calum.

The conversation flowed easily, and Lizzie could already feel the profile starting to come together in her mind. She jotted down a handful of notes on how to adapt her questions for Luke and Ashton based on Calum’s responses, and before they realised how long they’d been chatting, the waitress returned with Calum’s two takeaway iced coffees. 

Lizzie asked the waitress for the bill, but Calum waved her off. 

“I’ve got it, Lizzie. Don’t stress.” 

“But I can expense it! I have a receipts app, and everything!” Calum laughed at how excited Lizzie seemed at the concept of submitting a work expense claim.

“Okay, fine. You win this round.” 

Lizzie pressed stop on her phone recording, and reached for her bag to slide her notebook in. The waitress returned with the bill, and Lizzie handed her travel bank card over, drumming her hands absentmindedly on the table while she waited for the waitress to come back with her card and the receipt. 

“Lizzie?” Her head snapped up as Calum spoke. 

“He’s not… I know it seems like he’s really mad at you, but he’s not.” It took a moment for Lizzie to register what Calum was saying.

“He’s not mad at me? He refused to speak to me and stormed out of the room the first chance he got, but he’s not mad? Right.” Lizzie couldn’t help but sound bitter as she spoke.

“I can’t speak for him, but I know him. He’s not mad, he’s just hurt about everything.” Lizzie could tell Calum was being very careful with his choice of words, and she eyed him curiously across the table.

“What does he possibly have to be hurt about? He’s the one that -” Lizzie catches herself halfway through her sentence, and squeezes her eyes shut as she inhales deeply.

“Here’s your receipt and your card back, miss. Thanks so much for visiting us today, have a lovely day!” Lizzie blinks and squints up at the waitress, who hands back her card and a paper receipt. Lizzie mumbles her thanks, and goes to stand up and slide out of the booth, and Calum follows her out of the café.

“Lizzie, I didn’t mean to upset you -” Calum’s apologetic tone had Lizzie spinning on her heel to face him once they’re through the doors of the café. 

“You didn’t, Calum. It’s fine. I’m here to do a job, and I appreciate your time today, I really do. Michael and I… I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, okay? I know it won’t be easy, but for now, I just want to focus on getting the best interview content I can from you all. That’s why I’m here.” Lizzie wrings her hands nervously, and she can feel how sweaty her palms are.

“Is that the only reason you’re here?” Calum’s tone isn’t teasing, or harsh. It’s genuine, curious, soft. He’s not moving as he stands in front of Lizzie and gazes down at her from his full height. 

Before Lizzie can answer, Calum’s phone starts to ring, and he casts her another glance before stepping away to answer it. While he’s chatting to whoever’s on the other end of the line, Lizzie decides to order herself an Uber and make her way back to the hotel so she can make a start on transcribing the interview with Calum. Because that was why she was here, Lizzie told herself in her head, stubbornly. Didn’t matter about the feelings in her stomach, and the tightness of her chest. She was there to write a profile about a band, nothing more, nothing less. 

“I’ve got to go and meet Ash at the studio, are you all good from here?” Calum’s question broke Lizzie out of her internal dialogue. 

“Yep, all good. Thanks again for your time, Cal. I really appreciate it. I think it’s going to be a great piece, and I’m intrigued to see what comes out of the other interviews. All of them.” Lizzie’s pointed tone isn’t lost on Calum, and he grimaces slightly at the fire he seems to have ignited. Ah well. Lizzie and Michael had to sort their shit out sooner or later, right?

Right? 

Calum was trying to convince himself as he strolled down the street towards his car, pondering if he’d made things better or worse between Michael, his best mate through almost his entire life, and Lizzie, the girl that he’d been sure Michael would love forever, but had walked away from in a shadow of hurt, betrayal, and disbelief. The girl that apparently had no idea Michael felt that way, or that if he did, it wasn’t justified. Someone’s side of the story just wasn’t adding up, but Calum wasn’t sure whose it was. Not anymore.

Taglist: If there’s a line through your name, I couldn’t tag you, so please message me to let me know your new URL or what the go is!  @suchalonelysunflower @blackbutterfliescal @redrattlers @loveroflrh @spicycal @notinthesameguey @metalandboybands @cheekysos @ashton-trash  @another-lonely-heart @queenalienscherrypie  @becihadshawn  @allthestarsandthemoon​ @wheniminouterspace​

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[comeondowntosouthparkrpg-blog]

Kyle Broflovski

I hope you learned something today.

Kyle has been accepted! Please send in your blog link.

out of character info Name/Alias: Samantha Pronouns: she/her Age: 26 Join Our Discord: I’m in it Timezone: EST Activity: 6 Triggers: Password: fast pass my ass jimbo Character that you’re applying for: Kyle Broflovski Favourite ships for your character: anything tbh

in character info

Full name: Kyle Edom Broflovski Birthday: May 26th, 2001 Sexuality, gender, pronouns: bisexual, out, he/him Age and grade: 17 & senior Face claim: Harry Smith Personality: Kyle’s personality is often all over the place. To say he’s temperamental is an understatement, considering how quick to violence and harsh words he is. Perhaps it has to do with his New Jersey heritage, or the stress from the work he puts in, or maybe something else entirely. But the anger is a defining characteristic. Often this leads Kyle to getting into some various fight, be it with his mother or a peer, his wall or a tree when he escapes to the mountains to get away from the irritating people of South Park and forget about shit. Therapy or a yoga class would likely do him good, though Kyle often prefers to take his rage out on something a little harder. Because of his, his slender fingers are crooked and covered in scars from where the skin and bones broke during a fit of punches at a tree or door or brick wall. Or, if he’s lucky, someone’s face. Though Kyle isn’t angry all the time. There are plenty of times where he’s rather calm, such as focused at his desk writing in his various journals, finishing his school work, or reading. Being alone is cathartic, and peaceful. Though Kyle is often content and relaxed when he’s around those he cares about, he has the capabilities of being sweet, though he isn’t really aware of it. He does try, but often when he tries he falls short and hopefully he’ll learn to go with the natural flow and feel his emotions freely without overthinking it.

Which is another huge part of Kyle, thinking everything into oblivion until he’s lost in his own head and finding himself suffocated by his thoughts. Because of this he’s often insecure and paranoid, and desperate to forget about it. Which recently has gotten him into a bit of a sticky spot with someone else.

As well, if there’s one thing Kyle is that could be considered positive, it’s determined. When he knows what he wants, Kyle stops at nothing until he gets it. Case point for him is Yale, refusing to accept any other school that isn’t Ivy League. His classes are plentiful and filling his lunch breaks and several hours after class, leaving him with more than enough credits to have graduated. His determination has put him in various activities such as Student Council, DARE, Mathletes, Basketball and the debate team.

History: Kyle grew up in a fairly stereotypical Jewish household. Well, it was fairly stereotypical until he was ten and discovered his fathers very concerning internet hobby. But aside from that, it was Passover baskets, separate cooking utensils for meat and dairy. Absolutely no bacon. Or ham. Or mixing cheese and meat, which lead to a lot of envy over the other children who were able to eat cheeseburgers. But it wasn’t bad. The Christmas holidays often fell over Hanukkah, and even when they didn’t it was a few weeks off of school to bum around with his friends.

Everything with middle school was a preparation for high school, which was a preparation for college. Kyle worked to be top of every class, finding a taste for black coffee early on to stay up late and stay caffeinated for the school day. It began with sneaking instant coffee from the jar, to spending his allowance at Tweek Tweaks (by far the superior of the options, too). Cream didn’t agree with him, and he had to carefully monitor his diabetes.

As for family, Kyle’s current closest confidant is Ike, his adopted younger brother from the Great White North. Even though the kid was eleven, going on twelve, Kyle could tell he was going to far superior in intellect than he was. There was always the nagging jealousy over it, because Ike was a natural where Kyle just worked. Although Ike would often argue that it was worse, he felt like he had no passion. Kyle just chalked it up to preteen angst, although he wouldn’t doubt if it turned into strong teenage rebellion in a few years. He wouldn’t put it past his kid brother to dismantle governments before college. Now that Kyle was in high school himself, it was a whole new ball game. Or rather, the same game but what felt like a hundred times more stressful. He had no idea what he wanted to do in the future, no set career goal. Which meant Kyle needed to cover all options. The first semester of ninth grade had simply been used to assimilate him. Since the second semester of his first year, Kyle had worked with the guidance counsellor to get as many class credits as he could. Since then, he opted out of his lunch hour to fill it with more classes, and now in eleventh grade didn’t take the allotted study periods. Most used them to piss off school grounds and fuck around the city, but Kyle filled them with more classes. The workload was obscene, and Kyle spent every waking moment studying, working on projects. After school was used for extracurriculars, basketball, track. Kyle needed to cover all grounds. His goal was Yale, Harvard as a second. For what, he didn’t know, he simply knew he wanted to leave this shitty town and go Ivy League.

Anything less was unacceptable.

Headcanons: { 💥 } • Has clear anger issues, and attempts to manage them as best he can. Gives himself self-ratings from 1-5 in his head about it. One being general pissed offedness, three being angry as hell, five being blinding, inandescent black out rage. { 💥 } • Can forgive incredibly easily, but will rarely get over or forget wrongdoings. { 💥 } • Extra as fuck. This is the boy who went to commit murder, would have burnt down the school, and caused Canada to be nuked, after all. { 💥 } • While often portrayed as the logical one, Kyle’s most likely to react with passion as opposed to ration. He’s quick to violence, quick to make rash decsions, only to use reason after or when it doesn’t affect him. Kyle should practice what he preaches, but he tends to be a person that’s “do as I say, not as I do” type person { 💥 } • Always wanting to be bettering himself, which is a mountain he struggles to climb. But he always tries to go at least two steps forward one step back. { 💥 } • Absolutely hates when people put him into a box. He does not revolve around the fact he’s Jewish, he’s more than that, for instance. { 💥 } • Hates that his name means handsome redhead when he’s only one of those things. { 💥 } • Does not have freckles. At all. Do not even say he does. He does, however, have a strawberry shaped birth mark on his butt. { 💥 } • Started writing his anger down in notebooks in fifth grade when people (Eric) started pissing him off. Eventually it just became a good way to try to organize his life and now keeps them as a way to plan schedules, track lists, keep notes, things he’s learned, etc down. A lot of the ones from September have complex starbucks orders written down { 💥 } • Wears reading glasses. { 💥 } • Doesn’t stand for people blaming their actions on mental health problems. He tries to explain his actions as mistakes or poor judgement or decision making. Hates when people make excuses. Doesn’t blame his anger issues on his life, or his health issues, etc. Blames them on the fact he’s just stupid and makes mistakes. { 💥 } • Loves plants and trees. Is a nature freak. { 💥 } • Likely knows the woods better than anyone else in the town. Will be there most of the summers, and weekends in the warmer weather. Goes there to get away from people, and to calm himself down if upset. Has several favourite places. { 💥 } • Drives a 2017 Toyota Prius (White) { 💥 } • Will live and die eating Nutella { 💥 } • Is a fighter, obviously. Has no qualms throwing punches, and doesn’t intend to stop fighting until he’s physically removed from the situation. Kyle needs to have his eye contact actively broken, because he fights like a damn Rottweiler and sees eye contact as a challenge. { 💥 } • has probably the worst style known to man kind, if it’s ugly, he loves it. Specifically enjoys cable knit sweaters and corduroy pants.

Anything else: Family headcanons:

{ 🔥 } • Gerald has taken Sheila’s name. This is because Grandma Broflovski is Sheila’s mother, which means Gerald would have had to have taken Sheila’s last name. She’s a strong independent woman who needs no man but when she did she made him take her name. { 🔥 } • Got pregnant fairly young, and was unmarried, while living with her mother. Because her pregnancy helped Sheila realize she wanted to leave her jersey life, her and Gerald had a shotgun wedding before moving to South Park. { 🔥 } • Sheila had complications with her pregnancy with Kyle, and was no longer likely to have children after Kyle. { 🔥 } • Spent several years trying for another child with treatments before settling on adoption, ending up with a closed adoption and bringing Ike into the family. { 🔥 } • Gerald was once best friends with Stuart McCormick. Ended up resentful. Gerald moved to Jersey to continue his law degree. Gerald and Sheila chose South Park to move to from New Jersey because it was his hometown. { 🔥 } • Gerald, because of his fights with Stuart, thinks Kenny is a no good street rat and hates Kenny hanging around the house. Sheila, however, adores him. Gerald doesn’t complain about him while she’s around, but he has no issue with saying it around Kyle. { 🔥 } • Kyle, as mentioned, is a daddy’s boy. Because of how similar he is to his mother, they often butt heads. Gerald has dealt with this his whole life, and loves his angry wife and son and can handle them both just fine. { 🔥 } • However, Ike is similar to him in many ways, and this can cause Gerald and Ike to be distant to each other. { 🔥 } • Isn’t affectionate with Ike the same was he is Kyle. Sheila is far more affectionate with Ike, where Kyle pulls away. { 🔥 } • Sheila will believe Ike in every lie he says, without question. A lot of her favouritism of him stems from guilt from things like the Canusa War and forgetting his 13th birthday Photograph:

[meditativeyoga]

Learn to Listen to Your Inner Voice

Through the technique of yoga exercise, we could learn how to listen to -- and comply with-- our internal guidance.

Jill met her ex-husband at an organisation lunch in 1998. They linked promptly, the means old close friends do, as well as invested the remainder of the mid-day in intimate discussion. Later, as Jill walked back to her workplace, a thought emerged: 'If you're not cautious, you're going to end up weding this individual, and also that would certainly be a significant blunder.'

Much later on, she marveled at the incisiveness of her internal voice. 'I do not consider myself as instinctive,' she told me, 'but then, I noticed that this was info I should take note of. Then my normal shroud dropped. My feelings took over. I fell for him, we obtained wed, defended five years, and also finally got divorced. Just what I can not get over is that I knew all along as well as couldn't hear myself!'

I comprehended just what she was speaking around. With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, I can recall lots of celebrations when I 'knew' something and also neglected it, due to the fact that some social factor to consider, need, uncertainty, or anxiety talked louder compared to my own internal knowledge. But I've likewise uncovered that the much more I have the ability to pay attention to that inner recognizing, the much deeper my feeling of individual credibility becomes.

So I asked Jill, 'Have you ever before exercised adjusting in to on your own, simply on a regular day, and asking on your own,' Exactly what's my deepest wish now? ' or ' What does my psyche actually want for me?' You understand, seeing if you can enter a partnership with your inner knowledge so you can hear what it's telling you?' Jill drank her head. I suggested that she spend a few mins a day doing that as well as see just what happened.

As somebody that has needed to learn by hand to pay attention to internal wisdom, I could assure you that (1) credible assistance is actually there as well as (2) noticing it is not that hard. Like every little thing important in life, it's about taking note. If we reduce a bit and check in with our body and sensations, we soon see that helpful inner messages involve all of us the time -- through physical feelings, flashes of insight, intuitive feelings, and also from that state of cleared up intelligence the Yoga Sutra calls rtambhara prajna, or 'truth-bearing wisdom.' We could use this information to readjust our program, song our inner state, and connect with the environment.

' I have actually discovered how to take notice of a certain sensation of emotional discomfort,' David, an economic expert that meditates regularly, told me. 'When I feel it, I stop as well as examine myself out internally. Almost always, I'm embeded some unfavorable psychological loophole. So the unpleasant feelings signify me when it's time to alter the way I'm assuming in a circumstance.'

Lacey's relationship with internal advice started one day in a yoga class. Feeling shaky in a present, she began to explore her body, trying to find a location of security. Spontaneously, an idea showed up: 'Press down through the balls of the feet and also expand your stance.' Lacey did simply that and certainly, she really felt a lot more grounded.

Both of these individuals have actually found their natural knowledge -- in David's situation, it comes as feelings or emotions, while Lacey seems to access hers through the body. Both are circumstances of exactly what I would certainly call typical or personal-level inner support -- the kind that assists us find our bearings and also instructions in day-to-day life. This sort of advice materializes itself in different ways -- as the physical 'knowing' that makes us aware that we remain in threat, as the subtler spatial feeling that shows a ballplayer where to propose a catch, as the capacity to 'get' whether it's the ideal moment to push your close friend to discuss his sensations or whether it's far better to let him be. All of us have our very own all-natural, individual methods of adjusting into this internal wisdom -- whether we feel it in the gut, in the heart, or as some other kind of internal sensation. We just have to discover how to acknowledge it as well as make it conscious.

Extraordinary Guidance

Then there's what we might call remarkable, or extranormal guidance, messages that really emerge in critical, life-changing minutes to guide us in making major choices, advise us about prospective risk, or help us take the next action in our spiritual journey. Jill's internal finding out about the man she wed resembled that. As it provided for her, this kind of message could arise as an assumed in the mind. Or it can, and often does, come as an image, a dream, or a sense of being drawn in a certain direction -- as in those famous tales regarding spiritual numbers that hear a call from God or a traveler who feels a strong internal pull to go down a certain road, where he comes across a guy who's been injured and also requires aid or an attractive female who becomes his better half. That kind of inner advice can feel radical, greatly at probabilities with the voices of standard knowledge, culture, and our suggestions of that we are and also what we want.

It could likewise be rather significant. A male I recognize as soon as gotten up in the middle of the evening after dreaming of a paper guillotine resting by his child's bed. He went to the kid's room and saw a sheet of paper resting on top of the bedside lamp. The light bulb had actually melted via the paper, which was simply bursting right into fires. He is encouraged that acting upon the dream saved his child's life.

This is the kind of inner advice that has the tendency to get our interest. We offer it different names -- the voice of God or our higher Self, the enlightened voice within us. Yet it is just a much deeper, subtler level of the standard support that we are constantly making it through the body and also feelings. If you approve that every little thing is constructed from one substance, one intelligent awareness, it makes good sense that the guidance that appears spiritual and the kind that seems ordinary in fact come from the same source, and that both should have to be honored.

The Real Thing

Whether internal advice materializes itself through the body as digestive tract reactions, with the heart as feelings, or via the mind as cleared up knowledge, instinct, a vision, a voice, or a dream, it is wise -- most likely smarter, in specific circumstances, compared to the cognitive mind. That's because it comes from a degree closer to the significance, the deep Self, or what is often called the wisdom mind. Listening to inner support is among the ideal ways to access the informed sage or visionary artist that lives inside us. When we follow our true internal instincts, we are receiving assistance from a master.

Of training course, there is a tough facet to all this. Exactly how can we tell just what is 'genuine' inner assistance and what is just a stray impulse or covered up need, or also some type of mental fixed? Actually, when there's a great deal going on in the mind, it can be tough to locate the inner voice. (This is one need to frequently peaceful the discursive mind through reflection.) The majority of us uncovered early that our own second-nature feeling of points was commonly at chances with the ideas communicated by our moms and dads and caretakers. As we discovered to adjust to others' desires -- a needed part of human socialization -- we additionally learned to override our instinct and also to substitute the voices of our moms and dads, society, TV, ad campaigns, the information, and our peers for the advice that arises from within.

In fact, we could obtain so far out of touch with our internal wisdom that we really question its presence. Before we could hear the much deeper wisdom, we might initially have to accept that it is there to be heard. We have to discover out how to removal past, or still, the completing social voices that obtain in the way. Lastly, we require to learn the best ways to differentiate between the actual assistance of the deep Self and also the voices of our concerns, needs, and delusions.

Getting to Know Yourself

It helps to have some understanding regarding your own propensities. Perhaps you have a judgmental internal moms and dad that appears as a vital internal voice or a sensation that things will certainly turn out badly. If you recognize the best ways to acknowledge that voice, you won't error it for the voice of reality. Maybe you have a bent toward dream or wishful reasoning. If you could acknowledge when the component of you that still wishes to count on Santa Claus is running, you can be cynical of any kind of messages to spend your last $70 on lotto game tickets. If you recognize you have a driving, perfectionistic streak, you could look askance when you're inwardly 'guided' to keeping up all evening to complete a task and instead understand your body's need for rejuvenation.

We all have elements of ourselves that are sensible, mature, and deeply credible. We also have parts that are untaught, susceptible to making decisions based upon childhood worries or fantasies of omnipotence. One factor to practice functioning with instinct is so we can discover how to discriminate in between an understanding that comes from the wisdom mind, the detoxified heart, or the deep body as well as one that comes from the component of us that may be called pre-rational -- the part of us that hasn't fairly surrendered to expanding up.

When you obtain a suspicion about something major, it's always great to ask on your own the difficult inquiries, like 'Is this inkling grounded in any way in truth? Is it conforming with my basic concepts as well as worths? Would certainly I encourage somebody else to act upon this inkling? Does it mirror the principles of the spiritual customs I recognize? Is it most likely to cause damage to myself or another person? Will following this inkling make me dispirited? Will it inflate my feeling of being special or' chosen'?'

Wisdom Mind

The extra you agree to analyze the understandings you obtain, the much more you'll find out how you can acknowledge the assistance that in fact comes from the knowledge mind. The transforming factor for me in discerning the sensation of clear inner guidance was available in a mundane as well as apparently unimportant way. I will fly house from India and had actually been packing promptly, discarding every little thing that really did not suit my travel suitcase. While the taxi waited at the door, I found I didn't have my airline company ticket.

Frantically, I transformed out my bag, the drawers, the trash can. Absolutely nothing. Finally, I shut my eyes, obtained silent, and asked my consciousness, 'Please discover my ticket. '

Seconds after I made the petition, an extremely faint series of words began to appear in my mind:' Look in the trash can once more. 'I did. My ticket, it ended up, was folded up between two other documents, concealed so well that I had not seen it.

I connect this tale for 2 factors. Initially, since the assistance was so certain and concrete that it was impossible to discount it as dream. Second, due to the fact that it offered me my initial clear feeling of how credible assistance appears to me. It can be found in trickles. I feel it appearing as if from a depth. It really feels little and also refined-- actually, for me, the' still little voice'-- though some people have informed me they receive pictures regularly compared to words. It is commonly so subtle that if I'm not looking, I will not discover it. When I do, there's a high quality to it that brings launch or convenience. And if I absolutely pay interest to it, it additionally feels unpreventable-- also if it is calling my focus on something that challenges my individual condition quo.

Testing Your Guidance

Although it happened accidentally, my experience with the ticket offered me a version for hearing and also dealing with inner support. When I want to comprehend something or decide, I ask for advice, then I try out following the guidance I get. There's a procedure I use that has truly made a distinction in my capacity to hear just what my further Self wants to tell me. Here's how you can attempt it yourself.

1. Invest a long time developing your inquiry, getting as clear as possible regarding it. Create it down.( This is necessary-- the act of writing concretizes your concern or issue.) You could begin by requesting help in settling a creative trouble, bothersome partnership, or living circumstance. You can ask for understanding concerning your method or regarding an internal tendency that interrupts you.

2. Sit comfortably with your back erect yet not stiff and your eyes closed. Hold the concern in your mind. Say it to on your own a couple of times as well as notice the sensations that arise when you do. Notification any kind of thoughts that show up, consisting of resistance to the process. Write them down if they seem vital or relevant.

3. Use the rhythm of the breath as a support. Maintain your interest on the breath until the mind unwinds and becomes quieter.

4. Sink your interest deeper. You could do this by focusing on the heart facility (in the center of the breast) or on the stubborn belly center( 3 inches below the navel, deep inside the body). Or you could use a visualization: Visualize on your own descending a stairs into a peaceful cave, moving step-by-step up until you locate yourself confined in quiet.

5. In this silent area, ask the sage within you, the individual of wisdom who resides in your inmost core, to be present. Or, if there is a specific divine being kind or educator or sage you appreciate, you could ask that being to be existing. Conversely, you could merely have the sensation that you are asking support from the universe, the Tao, the resource of all. Recognize that it suffices to ask that internal knowledge be existing, if you do, it will certainly be available.

6. Ask your question. After that wait quietly, without expectation or discouragement, to see what emerges. Keep in mind that insight does not always come in words. It may come as a feeling, an image, or something said by one more person. Also, it may not come the moment you ask for it. Instinct emerges in its very own time. When you have seeded the question, listen during the next 24 to Two Days, due to the fact that response to your concern will arise.

7. As insights come, compose them down. Hold each one in your mind as well as allow it percolate. See just what comes up and also note the feelings. You could be drawn to translating the insight, but it is also sufficient simply to hold it in your awareness. As you do, it will create shifts in awareness all by itself.

Note that if your insight feels judgmental, punishing, or blaming, it is probably not originating from your inmost source. In basic, the knowledge of your inner awareness is extensive, loving, as well as embracive. Your instinct could ask you to take obligation for a scenario, however it will certainly never ever inform you responsible yourself or a person else.

8. Ultimately, think about a step you could require to put your understanding into activity. Here is where the genuine experiment starts. The only way to discover how to follow your user-friendly guidance is to try it and be really aware of the results. It could be that the guidance you obtain unwinds a circumstance promptly. In some cases, if the situation you're inquiring about is knotty, you might need to take a series of tiny activities, to request for more advice, and to maintain observing the results. Occasionally the assistance you obtain is just for currently, and also the following actions could emerge in time.

As you do all this, you'll naturally develop an attunement to your very own deeper knowledge. You'll locate yourself removaling with life extra masterfully, more imaginatively, as well as with higher trust fund. In time, you may also recognize that you've generated the enlightened sage who lives inside you. All it takes is a readiness to transform back right into on your own just a few times a day as well as ask,' What does my much deeper Self desire for me currently? Exactly what would the sage in me carry out in this circumstance?' It's when you start to invoke as well as pay attention to your deep knowledge that your inner life begins to shine via every one of your activities and also you understand just how sensible you absolutely are, how intuitively caring, how deeply attuned to the rhythms of life itself.

Sally Kempton, also referred to as Durgananda, is a writer, a meditation educator, and also the owner of the Dharana Institute. For additional information, browse through www.sallykempton.com.

[frawed]

Of alpacas and (wo)men

I think I’m done with romantic relationships for a while. Not sure how long that will be - just til I can sorta figure out how to tell and then actually choose what is good for me. I have had a few experiences - both in loving, committed relationships and also some just dating, that make me feel quite skeptical. I guess it’s the whole notion of “you don’t REALLY know someone for a long time”. I do believe, though, that it’s important to keep an open mind. I am not one to want to get too stuck in my ways. I feel all that really does is close doors that might be open for a reason. You get too stuck in your ways and maybe you shut the door on someone who might actually be good for you - someone who will stretch you / cause you to grow, etc. I certainly don’t think someone needs to be just like me to be good for me or a good fit. But, for now anyway, I am trying to focus more on platonic friendships and other things in life. I’ve enjoyed making some new acquaintances hiking (common shared interest) and look forward to finding folks to maybe do yoga and meditate with. It’s been nice feeling (for the most part) relationship doors open instead of close for me (as so often happens when dating). Romantic relationships (or the expectation or hope for one) are so very specific and I’ve always felt a little like if someone is pretty much exclusively focused on finding that, they really toss out a lot of what could be meaningful other types of relationships in their single-minded pursuit for their idea of what they need and want. I suppose in some ways we must be selfish but it’s always kinda rubbed me wrong (even though I’ve certainly been guilty of it, too - I think we all have a bit of a biological urge that makes us MORE motivated in pursuing and communicating with a possible mate than just a human we’re not, perhaps, sexually interested in). There’s no joke about the urge that we have with someone we have had or perhaps hope to have sex with, though. I was thinking today about the end of my last relationship and how often times things are better when you just have a clean break. I wouldn’t say it was particularly messy. I didn’t end things in the most mature or calm way or even giving her a say but it did end things pretty abruptly which isn’t the worst thing in the world (and she could have responded the next day but she chose not to). Instead, I felt the need to talk about it, explain why I broke things off (since we didn’t actually come to a mutual decision to break up - I just said “it’s over”) and apologize. It’s hard to know when it’s ok to reach out but it probably shouldn’t have been from me and almost definitely was too soon. So the fact she didn’t reply to my last message is quite alright. In fact, I had told her it was fine and I’d miss her. Without hashing over too much of what I shouldn’t or should’ve done - maybe this next phase of my life I can sorta more or less effortlessly gravitate towards the things that I’m passionate about (not saying it won’t take work - just don’t think it should be so much a fight or so confusing). Focus on what it means to be me, to be happy, to be enough, to be content, to be satisfied. Get my feet back under me and more established in what it is for me to be healthy. When we’re in relationships (whether we should or shouldn’t) I feel a lot of the times, we’re figuring out what we should & shouldn’t be giving up or compromising on. Although we do that with friends and family to an extent too, it doesn’t feel like there’s so much an importance to it. Or maybe that’s me. Maybe that’s something I need to work through in therapy. But I think there’s this idea if you’re with someone who’s right for you, you’re mostly going to want the same things but sometimes, of course, because life, things are going to pop up that will challenge that. And often, because of the importance of your mate, your partner may expect you to pretty much compromise on that for their sake. But, I think, bottom line for me is I need someone (if ever I am to be with someone long term) that is there for that process and ready and willing to communicate their thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams with me, not keep that all bottled up inside or to themself. 

[largemaxa]

Karmayoga: the Yoga of Spiritual Work

There are several discernible threads in current thinking about spirituality in mainstream Western culture. The most prominent views spirituality as a set of tools to provide peace, healing, and relief in a stressful world. This line of thinking is able to bridge the sacred and the secular by allowing individuals to participate in a variety of practices to access their beneficial effects without necessarily needing to affirm (or deny) any particular contentious metaphysical or religious doctrine. Another trend that is more submerged, though correspondingly more passionate, views spirituality as a gateway to beautiful and ecstatic possibilities, whether situated in a transformed utopian future or in an occult inner world. In addition to these two currents, the idea of devotion still persists, though it is viewed with skepticism by a scientific and secular mainstream culture for its associations with fanaticism and irrationality. Love is, of course, regarded as the noblest motive in human life, but only as long as it refers to the love of man for his fellow man in the institutions of the family, community, and society; the love for God seems less reasonable, though still persists in private, if nowhere else.

But somehow, despite the large swath of human possibilities these approaches cover, none of them truly seem able to deal with life. And since spirituality must deal with life if we are to take it seriously in our practical civilization, we half suspect that spirituality is not really meant to deal with life, and is restricted to the realm of the ideal along with art and philosophy: something that is fit for idealists and dreamers, but is not really suited for those who are serious, rational, and pragmatic. Inner peace is perhaps an appealing dream, but how many of us are really able to feel it in the midst of the stresses of our lives? "Healing" may be necessary as well, but it does not provide a guide to constructing life. Ecstatic visions may enthrall, but so far they seem to have had no substantial effect on the outside world. And love for God, too, might be felt in the privacy of one's room, but is it really reconcilable with the skyscraper, the long commute, and the subway?

For most of us, the bulk of experience of life remains impermeable to the spiritual touch. And, perhaps not coincidentally, that substantial portion of experience consists largely of work. The ideas of peace, vision, and love have very little to say about this part of our lives, except gesturing vaguely at the fact that they need to be brought to the bustle of the work world somehow. Still, even that much is an admission that the principles themselves are not the *essence* of work, but foreign principles that somehow need to be added to the realm of work. In other words, if the main principles of spirituality are limited to peace, vision, and love, then there is nothing spiritual about the sales receipt, the shovel, or the medivac helicopter staffed by EMTs. But these things comprise the majority of our familiar world.

In the world of business, political affairs, labor, medicine, there there's no peace, there is no love, there is no ecstasy—so there is no spirit. But if we believe this then we have already ceded the world away to the mundane, and so spirituality really must be incompatible with the totality of life. To those of us who believe in a world-affirming spirituality, this can only mean that there must be an error somewhere in our views. In fact, there is another venerable spiritual practice known as karmayoga that can easily incorporate all the activities listed above, and many more—all of the activities of the world—in a practice that affirms and redeems the seemingly mundane realm that we spend so much time in.

What is Karmayoga?

Stated simply, karmayoga is the practice of offering one's work to the Divine, with no demand, desire, or claim of the ego. Karmayoga can consist of the offering of any work at all, whether streetsweeping, giving metaphysical discourses, exploring the nature of the stars, or teaching school; the only requirement is that the work done should correspond to one's individual nature, with no type of work or psychological nature being regarded as greater or less than another. The work done for karmayoga may even be work that is not remunerative because of the current standards and practices of society, such as parenting, art, or volunteer work. Through the practice of karmayoga, our personality (or "outer nature") becomes purified of egoic blocks, or samskaras, that prevent the union of the soul with the Divine. The outer nature also becomes able to express more intense and more refined energies of the Divine. In short, one increasingly becomes an instrument of God.

To those with the right opening or receptivity—perhaps because they grew up with cultural influence like the Bhagavad Gita's gospel of karmayoga or the Western Protestant work-ethic, or simply because they have an intuitive understanding of the workings of the Divine—this suggestion alone is able to open the gates to a lifetime of practice. Those individuals will be able to take this simple, straightforward advice and use it to take their daily work and consecrate it to God based on this simple formulation, and have no need of further explanation.

On the other hand, the description above may not seem so straightforward to others. To some, it may appear that the description makes sense as a theory, but not as a concrete path of spiritual practice. To others, the description of karmayoga may seem pointless and unappealing. Then there are those with a tendency towards philosophy or metaphysics to whom the process described above will perhaps not seem straightforward at all, leaving open many questions and the possibility of subtleties and complications. This article is aimed at any of these groups of people, and more generally at anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of karmayoga. We will ask a set of practical questions: how does one do karmayoga? And why should it be chosen over the other practices of peace and prayer that are more familiar as routes to God? We will also ask deeper questions that will require a dive into the metaphysics and psychology of yoga: what exactly is work, and why would God care if I do it? And what exactly is the mechanism of karmayoga? But before going into the main discussion, I will briefly explain where these ideas come from.

A Note About Intellectual Lineage

Karmayoga is a spiritual practice originating in the Indian subcontinent. In India, practices which aim at the union of the soul with the divine are known as yogas, and karmayoga is the branch of yoga that deals with karma, the concept of action and consequence. While similar spiritual, religious, and philosophical doctrines pertaining to work and action may have arisen in other traditions, I will be discussing this one that I am familiar with, without discounting the possibility of truth or value in any other philosophies of work and action. I am most influenced by the presentation of karmayoga in the work of Anglo-Indian philosopher and yogi Sri Aurobindo. He was influenced in turn by the great Indian scripture which many regard as the chief gospel of karmayoga, the Bhagavad Gita. However, Sri Aurobindo's ideas are not the same as the Gita's, not least because, as he notes in his treatise Essays on the Gita, there is no way for anyone to know if their interpretation agrees with the "truth" of a text that is many centuries old.

Following the same principle, my own interpretation of karmayoga is influenced by my own personal experiences and eclectic intellectual background. In particular, this work is not meant to be an interpretation or exegesis of either the Gita or of Sri Aurobindo; there is every reason to consult these great authorities firsthand, and I would even defer to their understanding and presentation over my own in the case of any discrepancy. I will use general terms from the Indian philosophical tradition and define them as I go. However, throughout the long history of the Indian philosophical tradition, these terms have been used with varying degrees of consistency, and the reader may find varying degrees of consistency between my use and that of others.

I have tried to explain the theory of karmayoga in a way that may be compatible with spiritual systems beyond the one that I myself practice, the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Indeed, karmayoga has been practiced in India for millennia, long before the work of Sri Aurobindo, and it doesn't require his specific spiritual system to explain it. Still, it is difficult to make statements that apply to all possible metaphysical systems that the reader may hold without actually doing metaphysical inquiry, and this is not primarily a work of metaphysics. If this exposition conflicts with the reader's metaphysics in a way that renders the article unusable, then I would encourage him or her to seek other sources or other practices. Still, I hope there may be something here that is useful. I add all this to acknowledge my debts and to make my perspective clear.

Karmayoga as a Path for Modern Life

Earlier in this article, I introduced karmayoga as an approach to spirituality that can deal with more parts of life than other currently prominent paths and practices. What is it, specifically about the structure and values of contemporary life that make karmayoga especially well suited to them? First, let's consider a traditional view on selecting a spiritual path. Aspirants to yoga, or spiritual practice, are encouraged to find a yogic practice that corresponds to their fundamental nature. Just as life works best when we choose our friends, occupation, living situation, and forms of entertainment like music so that they correspond to our inmost preferences and tendencies, so it is with spiritual practice: spiritual practice proceeds best when people choose practices that comport well with their own nature rather than causing deep-seated conflicts. Three major paths of yoga presented in the spiritual synthesis of the Bhagavad Gita are karmayoga, the yoga of work, bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion, and jnana yoga, the yoga of knowledge. An approximate personality typology could be used to divide people into three general types: those with an active, willful nature, such as businessmen, athletes, and artisans; those with great emotional sensitivity, such as artists, teachers who work with young children, and therapists; and those with a sagely, serene nature as found in seekers of philosophical wisdom. This very approximate personality typology applied in a naive way might advise the active-natured people to undertake karmayoga, the emotional people to undertake bhaktiyoga, and the sagely ones to undertake jnanayoga.

But there is another factor that is neglected in this traditional analysis: the overall aim of the spiritual path. The word yoga applies to all practices which aim towards union with the Divine. But there is a further distinction to make between yogic paths: some yogic paths are world-affirming while others are ascetic, or world-denying. By "world-affirming yoga", I refer to spiritual paths which affirm a divine purpose in human life and aim towards harmonizing spiritual realization with continued life in the world. Ascetic paths, on the other hand, seek release from worldly life in some principle such as pure Divine realization, an otherworldly plane of heaven, or negation of Nirvana. This description of ascetic paths may seem pejorative given the strongly world-affirming character of Western civilization, but suffice it to say that there are compelling philosophical and spiritual justifications for the ascetic path. That said, the practice of the author and thus the perspective of this article are world-affirming.

The practice of karmayoga is valuable in both world-affirming and ascetic paths. However, there is another layer of justification for karmayoga in the world-affirming path, which is relevant because it is likely that most readers will have a world-affirming attitude. Karmayoga is still a valid spiritual practice in the context of an ascetic spiritual path because it can assist the practitioner in reaching the goal of union with God. For the ascetic, after achieving this union, for the duration of the life of the body, the individual may retire from action, and there is no further need or justification for karmayoga or any action whatsoever. The role of karmayoga in this system is simply as a method for achieving that liberation, and has no further or greater purpose. In other words, the reason to pursue the karmayoga on an ascetic path is mainly if it is the trend of your nature; and for those who are on the ascetic path, it is also perfectly fine NOT to practice karmayoga if you do not have an active nature.

But karmayoga becomes almost necessary in an world-affirming path because here the ultimate aim is to perfect the outer side of life in line with the Divine Will and not just to secure release of the inner spirit. A world-affirming spirituality holds that outward human life—which consists of actions taken within the world—has a purpose and meaning of its own. This means that firstly, in the world-affirming path one will still act in the world both before and after any given spiritual realization. Further, the actions taken in the world-affirming spiritual path would ideally be actions that reflect God, or the Divine spirit, and not actions that reflect only the desires of the lower ego. But the state of acting from a perfect spiritual basis is, in fact, the end state of the practice of karmayoga: the practitioner of karmayoga eventually reaches a perfection where the force of the divine moves through the purified being which is not obstructed by egoic samskaras. In other words, karmayoga is the exactly the spiritual path that aims at increasing the ability of the individual to take actions that reflect the divine spirit and not the desires of the ego. So karmayoga is, in a sense, essential to the world-affirming spiritual path, in contrast to the ascetic spiritual path, where karmayoga is just one optional means to an end.

A question arises: would it not be possible to secure an inner spiritual liberation and perfection, perhaps through devotion or meditation, before taking up karmayoga in the outer being? For perhaps even in the world-affirming path it would be better to concentrate one's full energy on achieving inner spiritual perfection first, given the difficulty of even securing this level of realization, without throwing too much energy out in worldly activity in a stumbling attempt towards karmayoga; perhaps one could learn to take divinely inspired actions after first achieving an inward spiritual perfection. The issue with this approach is that the inner spiritual realizations themselves do not confer any special ability for karmayoga on the outer nature. The outer nature has many difficulties of its own which inwardly directed spiritual practices do not affect, such as the difficulties inherent in building skill in any particular craft or discipline, the ability to continue acting in stressful situations, the ability to deal with other people in work, and so on—in short, the entire dynamic nature of outer human life. If one plans to have a world-affirming spiritual practice at all, the difficulties of karmayoga will need to be faced anyway as the outer being needs to be prepared to act in ways that reflect the Divine. Further, it may be difficult to return to action or outer development after a period of total or relative cessation of activity. Therefore it's best to pursue a parallel approach, keeping a balance between the inner and outer development, though admitting the possibility of the need for periods of exclusive spiritual absorption and attempting to create a life that is flexible in response to the needs of the spirit.

The practicalities of modern life present another consideration. In today's world, it is generally necessity to do some form of work to survive in society. The debate over the value of ascetic withdrawal from the world still poses a crucial philosophical question, but it had a special salience when actual complete withdrawal was more possible. In ancient India, there was a tradition of sanyassi, or renunciation, in which an individual could abandon all responsibilities to family and society and wander the land, satisfying basic needs by begging, thus creating a life that expressed the philosophical principle of ascetic withdrawal. This is significantly more difficult, if not actually impossible, in the current more regulated state of the modern world. At that earlier societal stage, the tradition of sanyassi found a basis of support in the cultural tradition of donating to the sanyassi, whereas today begging as a means of subsistence is restricted to a homeless underclass with an extremely dangerous dangerous life. As a society, we should of course figure out the political accommodations needed to address the unnecessary human suffering due to homelessness. But the point with regard to the possibility of spiritual seeking is that there is simply no "reasonable" mechanism for withdrawing from the world as there used to be. So for most people, work of some kind is needed to persist in society, and debates about withdrawal from the world have mostly theoretical significance. The need for work to survive means that there are many hours every week which cannot be used for solitary meditation or contemplation. The practice of karmayoga then becomes a way to take the substantial amount of energy devoted to the maintenance of life in modern society and transmute it so that it may support, rather than detract from, our spiritual progress.

We see that there is a strong case for karmayoga for contemporary spiritual practitioners because of its compatibility with world-affirming values, or at the very least because it makes the best spiritual use of the present conditions. But no matter how much work is done in the bustle of the post-industrial economy, the home, or the halls of power, it will not yield spiritual benefits if is done with merely conventional motives, no matter how much benefit it gives to the rest of the world. For a spiritual seeker to make the most of the energies they use in the world, therefore, it would be best for them to understand how to do karmayoga so that they can do their work in a spiritual way. But this spiritual conception of work that does not weigh its utilitarian value seems at odds with the conventional understanding of work where concrete benefits and results are the only thing that counts. Are we really talking about the same thing when we talk about "work" in the spiritual and conventional contexts? What exactly is "work" in this spiritual conception, and how does it square with the conventional idea of work?

What is Work?

To understand what work is in its deepest spiritual significance, we need to go back to our fundamental understanding of the world; we need to understand what the world is if we are to understand the function and nature of work in its proper context. One view of the universe that has long been present in Indian thought, and is echoed by contemporary spiritual thought, is the view of the created universe as made up of "energy", which means that the world is not made up of a fundamentally inert and value-neutral substance, as in the scientific conception of matter, but rather is made of a flux and interchange of forces with various degrees of consciousness and quality. When we look at the physical world, we see a constant collision of physical energies—tides, volcanoes, gases, and the formation of stars. When we look at the living world, too, we see systems of energetic interchange. All forms of life require energy (again, in the physical, scientific sense) to survive and carry out their activities. Plants convert electromagnetic energy from the sun into storable chemical energy, then use that to grow their bodies and reproduce. Animals ingest energy from eating plant or other animal life and use the energy for locomotion, predation, self-defense, and reproduction. The science of ecology shows us a circle of life where the activities of each organism produce, in addition to securing the energy resources and nutrient needed for that organism, produce byproducts that are used as inputs for other organisms in the system.

In the language of Indian philosophy, we can say that each organism acts according to its svadharma, its own law of being, or way of acting according to its own nature. Because the actions of plants and animals are fixed within a delimited range, it's apparent that each one has its own svadharma. We may not be able to predict its exact movements or destinations, we may not be able to fully understand the meanings or purposes of the actions, and there are countless organisms and ways of behaving that are still unknown to the human mind, but we have enough knowledge to know that the activities of, say, the chimpanzee generally consist of foraging for fruits and leaves, fighting other chimpanzees, and so on. It would not be within the svadharma of a chimpanzee to build an anthill, ride a motorcycle, or change colors like an octopus.

Notice that just because a plant or animal has a certain nature or way of being does not necessarily mean that it is effortless to carry out. While the nature of plant consciousness may be beyond the imagination of most humans, we can imagine some aspects of animal consciousness through analogy with our own experience. Though an act of imagination, we can see that the process of hunting for prey, evading predators, or foraging for fruit and leaves might be difficult for an animal, leading eventually to a feeling of fatigue. The animal's activity can be seen as having a structure that resembles some aspects of the structure of human work: there is an expenditure of energy structured according to the animal's own nature, or svadharma, directed towards the purpose of its continued existence. Though the animal of course does not have the conceptual structures in place to recognize it as "work", an imaginative experiment could show similarities between the human and animal experience.

Humans are also part of this energetic universe—they, too, can be seen as structures that seek, consume, and transform energy. Like other animals, they ingest energy from eating plant or animal life, which is broken down and absorbed by the digestive system, then used for locomotion, predation, self-defense, and reproduction. However, human activity is much broader in scope than the activities of other animals. The characteristic difference between humans and animals is the ability to use rational intelligence to decide upon and execute its actions and activities. The Western philosophical tradition which descended from Aristotle identified man as the animal rationale, while the Indian philosophical tradition identified the buddhi, the principle of intelligent will, as an important faculty of mind that was not present in the animal nature.

The rational intelligence can be seen as the critical factor that differentiates the human from the animal nature. Beyond identifying that man *has* a rational intelligence, however, it is very difficult to identify a positive definition for the essential nature or svadharma of the human being. Inquiries into what is a "natural" way, a "right" way, or a "good" way—or even a *possible* way for a human to act have been conducted for millennia, and we are still disputing the answers. Is it good for a human to grow hair down to their waist? Is it natural for a human to consume food that was mass-produced in a factory rather than being prepared from farm-fresh ingredients? Is it possible for human society to subsist on Mars, or is it the essential nature man to dwell on his home planet, Earth?

Luckily, we don't need to circumscribe the scope of human action at all, or prescribe any correct actions, for this inquiry into the discipline of spiritual work. It's enough to simply look at the human condition, the range of activities that humans generally engage in, as the scope of human nature. Rather than focusing on exotic or perverse extremes of human nature, since our view is to understand the nature of work in general, it suffices to consider the main stream of human activity. Human activity includes, but is not limited to, scientific inquiry, development of various kinds of technology, from metallurgy to navigation to computer and information technology, creation of artworks in various media like painting, carving, and music, teaching, parenting, farming, architecting and constructing buildings, and so on.

Each of these tasks is performed with a particular goal in mind. The teacher teaches with the goal of instructing the students; the parent sets limits, instructs, and punishes when necessary with the goal of raising the child into a responsible and fulfilled adult; the information technology worker constructs an application to enable the government or corporation to access its records in an automated way. That is, the activities of a human are directed towards specific ends just as the activities of the animal are directed towards specific ends. One key difference between human and animal work, however, is that human work is more complex in the structure of its purpose: animal activity generally procures energy or self-defense directly, or at most through a small number of layers of social organization, while humans work is generally removed by several layers of social organization from the larger ends, and the larger ends may be goals that are morally higher than the simple furnishing and maintenance of bodily necessities. For example, a teacher teaching history to a class of students is not doing work that will directly procure food for himself or herself or for the students. It could be argued that learning history will lead to increased respect for the nation's political system, bolstering the capacity for national defense, but, firstly, this is not a guaranteed consequence, and secondly, there would still be many intermediate consequential steps and several layers of complex organization separating the work of teaching from the actual act of national defense.

With these observations, we have in view a general conception of human work and its relation to the forces at work in the universe—or, for those who are more metaphysically skeptical, the above discussion hopefully at least provides a fruitful analogy. That said, it is still difficult to give a positive definition of human work that covers all cases. One general principle that we can give is that work is the application of psychological energy towards a task. If we consider the fact that there is no abstract or general work, but that work always occurs within a specific context or situation, we can clarify that general principle further to the idea that work is energy applied towards a task with a particular purpose, the nature of which is made clear from the context. Consider the concrete situation of a community grade school. In this school, the work of the teacher is to give the lectures and give feedback on the students' work, the work of the janitor is to clean the buildings so that the building is sanitary and clean, and the work of the principal is to see to organizational matters in the school and to dialogue with the broader community. In the conventional definition of work, the list would end here with the remunerative jobs held by adults with formally defined adult responsibilities. However, in the broader definition of "work" that we have been developing, we see that there are further relevant contributions to the school considered as a system of energetic interchange from the children, who concentrate on their studies and do exercises in and out of the classroom to solidify their knowledge, and parents, who provide a safe environment for the children, assist them with their studies, and help them get to and from the school.

Another general characteristic of human work is that it causes some sort of constructive transformation in the world. The work of a person cleaning their room or house transforms a state of dirtiness and disorder into a state of cleanliness and order;  the work of the scholar producing a research report transforms a state of human ignorance and disorganized data and source material to a state of knowledge in a form that can be communicated to the relevant audience. In the Indian conception of the universe, even destruction can serve a purpose in a larger construction—there are cases where the breakdown of an old societal order, or even war, may be necessary to bring about a new or more just state of order. This example is not given to glorify or advocate for war in general or any particular war, but simply to recognize that that certain forms of destruction are part of the cosmic process, and that the line between "construction" and "destruction" may not always be clear. By the guideline of "constructive transformation", I mean to highlight that the transformations performed by work are not arbitrary, chaotic, or random, otherwise there would be no point in deliberately applying psychological energy to bring them about.

Spiritual Energy

We have developed a vision that sees all of the activities of the universe, including human activities, as transformations of energy brought about by other forms of energy. But we have not yet explained the connection between work and finding God. Indeed, the conception of the universe as a system of energetic transformations is completely compatible with modern science—and the depiction of the universe given above would not have been possible without the sensibility and specific findings of modern science. In particular, the description given above is consistent with the worldview of scientific materialism, which sees all phenomena in the universe as reducible to the workings of matter, with considerations of human value being subjective and relative—that is, having no essential significance, but rather things that we consider as matters of practical reality, or perhaps are compelled to consider due to the self-interested nature of our psychology, which is still conditioned by matter through the processes of biology.

Scientists view all types of energy as material energy, meaning the kind of energy that can move physical objects or heat water. And they view all other phenomena described with the word "energy" as things that can either be reduced to material energy or are otherwise illusory or unreal. For example, to the scientific materialist, the phenomenon of "psychological energy" discussed earlier would likely be seen as reducible to the physiological energy used by the body for perception, movement, and emotional experience; any further significance we attribute to the idea of consciousness that transcends physical reality would be seen as purely illusory. Spiritual seekers, however, generally recognize more forms of energy than the purely material, like life energy, psychological energy, mind energy, and the energies of personality, place, form, and spirit. The scientist would understand the power of the waterfall in terms of such factors as the velocity of the stream before the fall and the difference in potential energy before and after the fall. The spiritual seeker would in addition recognize an additional level of "vibrational" energy produced by the life-force of the waterfall. The use of the term "spiritual energy" is viewed as less than rigorous by the scientific materialist, but to the spiritual seeker, it is clear that the concept of spiritual energy is a real phenomenon that is not separate from the concept of material energy; material energy one subtype of spiritual energy, and there are more kinds of spiritual energy. In terms of the phrase used by transpersonal theorists such as Ken Wilber, we could say that the concept of spiritual energy "transcends and includes" the concept of material energy.

Let us consider how this applies to the human work involved in building a house. The scientific materialist might view the work of constructing a house as being made up of the energy of the human labor needed to gather the raw materials, the energy used to transport the materials to the job site, the energy expended by the workers laboring to build the house, plus whatever physiological energy was used by the architect, all measurable in units of physical energy. To the spiritual seeker, it is clear that the material layer of energy is real, but that there are additional significant energies involved, like the emotional energy used by the architect and builders, the mind energy used to organize the architecture and craftwork of each beam, door, and arch, the life energy of the land shaped by the previous geological and biological phenomena present at the site, and even the vibrational energy of the people who will eventually dwell in the house shaping and structuring the process as the Aristotelian "final cause".

The question of how to reconcile the stupendous variety of expressions of energy, whether physical, material, or spiritual, with the nature of God has been a persistent question throughout the history of religion and philosophy. For one prominent idea of the highest nature of God is that God a being of perfect perfection, beauty, and love who would seem to have no need or use for such an imperfect created world as we see in front of us. Still, as spiritual seekers, we are confronted with both the reality of the imperfect world and the reality of God, and the need to make sense of them somehow. For the theist or spiritual seeker, this means seeing that these forms and energies we see in the universe are not separate from the spiritual nature of God, that there presence was brought about purposefully by God, or they exist harmoniously with God, or are at least not contradictory with the existence of God. There are different ways of explaining the details—the idea of "nonduality", the idea of pantheism, the idea that God and the world are separate but that God still keeps a significant "record" of the activities and results of the world—but the specific metaphysical answer accepted by the reader does not actually affect the ability to do karmayoga; karmayoga can be practiced within a variety of metaphysical systems. The important idea that is needed for karmayoga is the idea that the energy that makes up the universe, which is the same energy expended in work, is somehow connected to God, whether that means it is separate from God but can be "given" to him, or that the energy somehow "is" God, or some other such compatible idea.

The Possibility of Spiritual Work

The essence of karmayoga, given at the beginning of the article, is offering one's work to the Divine without ego or desire. In the past two sections, we have seen that there is a nontrivial amount of philosophical and metaphysical subtlety that can go into understanding what "work" really is from a spiritual perspective. But simply doing the work, acting according to one's nature or svadharma, is still not karmayoga; a yoga is a spiritual discipline, and the act of going about one's natural activities according to one's nature with no modification is not yet yoga. The crux of the karmayoga is not just doing the work; for if we interpret the previous two sections in the most general way, we see that work is always happening—man is always expending energy according to his nature at some activity or another—for even idleness is part of man's nature and consumes energy. The crux of karmayoga is rather in offering the work to God, and not simply the act of living and expending spiritual energy by itself. To understand how this works, we will need to understand more about spiritual psychology and the nature of spiritual work.

We come to spiritual psychology by posing a question that is still left over from the discussion of metaphysics: why would God need this energy to be "offered" to him at all? Does he not possess all the energy in the universe, and already have everything that he would need? We stipulated earlier that the energy in any metaphysical concept of karmayoga is related to God somehow—it is either God's energy, or energy that God controls, or perhaps is God himself. Why would there be any need to offer it further to God?

To address this issue, we must go back to the entire purpose and aim of karmayoga. Karmayoga is a form of yoga—it is a spiritual discipline meant to lead to union with God. The discipline must be done because before doing the discipline, we are somehow not in union with God. That is, we are separated from God. Any theory of spiritual seeking must reconcile two contradictory facts: on the one hand, we have a loving relationship with God even without doing any sort of spiritual work; and yet on the other hand, we are still not ourselves in complete union with God. Rather than try to resolve this metaphysical puzzle, I will simply appeal to the empirical reality that in our normal human state we are not in God-consciousness, we are not completely filled with his knowledge and love and in union with him. A spiritual seeker is someone who realizes this fact and understands that some sort of action, practice, or discipline is needed to address it. (I would recommend that readers who wish to resolve metaphysical paradox seek out a work on metaphysics from their spiritual tradition.)

The separation from God manifests itself in each part of our psychology. The mind breaks the undifferentiated consciousness of God into the finite consciousness of our human experience made up of our own personal thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. The heart is dominated by suffering and self-regard rather than the love for all God and all created existences. And our work, too, is affected. Normally when undertaking actions, we are concerned mostly with our own benefit. Sometimes we may also have the benefit of our family in mind; rarer elevations lead us to acts of patriotic service, the pursuit of beauty, or even the service of humanity. But work undertaken for any of these purposes or entities is still not work yet undertaken for the sake of God or offered to him directly. Actions such as these, which are intended to benefit our own human ego—or some larger form of collective ego which we are a part of—maintain the reality of separation between our own consciousness and that of God. The work done with a consciousness that upholds the state of separation serves to maintain the state of separation; karmayoga, work that is offered to God, is work that is gradually able to bring our consciousness in greater contact with God.

The fact that the essence of karmayoga lies in the offering of the work rather than the content of the work itself has implications for the nature of spiritual work. Take the examples just discussed: is it bad, then, to do patriotic or humanitarian service—or simply to undertake remunerative work for the benefits of one's family? These things no doubt are good by the standards of the world, and should by no means be abolished. (As the Gita says, the spiritual seeker's knowledge of the relative value of these forms of work should certainly not lead them to discourage people who are living regular lives that are not consecrated to God from discharging the work of their usual nature.) But unless the action is offered to God as spiritual service, it is still not karmayoga. This leads to a sort of paradox: any act that is offered to God is karmayoga, regardless of the size of its worldly effects. Doing the dishes or preparing taxes for a client, if it is done with the attitude of offering the energy of the work to God, is karmayoga; a patriotic speech, humanitarian rescue, or virtuosic artwork, if the energy is not offered to God, is not karmayoga.

This can be confusing because it conflicts with our usual human conception of selfishness versus selflessness. Human society evolved to encourage an attitude of altruism, acting for the benefit of other humans, without concern for one's own needs, because it provides benefits for society. So actions are evaluated by society as "good" if they benefit other people and "bad" if they do not. But that is not the standard by which God evaluates actions: on one hand, God transcends every person, group of people, and humanity altogether, so service to him may benefit no human beings at all; on the other hand, a portion of God is present in each person, group of people, living thing, or inanimate object, so service to any one could also be service to God—even if that service is inefficient by a utilitarian standard. This means that acts that are inspired as part of one's karmayoga may not necessarily be actions that society traditionally praises as "selfless", because a broader range of actions could be considered desirable from the perspective of God. Of course, traditionally "selfless" acts are perfectly worthy of being consecrated as karmayoga as well. And the opposite quality of "selfishness", where someone acts with regard for nothing but themselves is not compatible with karmayoga either, as the aspiring practitioner of karmayoga has to be mindful of what is asked by God.

Similarly, the spiritual value of karmayoga is not related to the economic productivity of the work at hand. Karmayoga may be very lucrative, and there is no inherent contradiction between doing karmayoga and receiving money for work. But karmayoga may also consist of work that does not generate income at all. Some of the most worthy tasks do not generate income in our current societal arrangement, such as parenting, creating fine art, or political organizing, but these are still essential to human life and culture.

Offering Work to God

One point still remains obscure: what exactly does it mean to "offer" something as abstract as work, or the energy of work, to God? Such an offering seems hard to wrap the mind around, as it would seem be an abstract offering to an abstract being. The concept of offering becomes easier to understand if we approach it in stages. First, let us consider the simple human act of giving. When we give, we start out in possession of something, and there is a specific human whom we love or care for who has need or a use for what we have to give. We give the other person the gift as an expression of love or caring, and they receive it with gratitude. We see this when a mother gives food to a child, when a child gives a toy to a friend, or when an adult gives a gift to a romantic partner.

There are several religious or spiritual ritual practices that elevate this human act of giving to a spiritual level of giving to a deity or being that is not physically present. First, the ritual practice of leaving food as an offering to the deity, and second, the practice of donating to a church or place of worship that serves as the symbol of the community of God. These now seem to be familiar, almost mundane actions, which can obscure the fact that they grow out of a much more concrete, embodied practice. In the offering of fruit to the deity, we leave a physical object for a non-physical being, though the being is represented in the physical construction of the idol. Here, the deity is not physically present in a concrete way, but they are represented by the idol, and the gift is at least tangible and recognized as having value in the human world.

To more closely approach the the "abstract" nature of the offering of work, let us consider the case of the electronic money transaction, which is more and more common in the modern world. While cash transactions still take place, the intangibility of the electronic transaction, when contrasted to the tangible case of cash or fruit, actually serves to clarify the "energetic character" of money. When exchanging money electronically, a low-dollar-value transaction like buying a sandwich may not provoke much of a reaction, but considering a larger purchase like an appliance can feel weighty and dramatic; one can almost "feel" the larger quantity of money involved. From this example we can see that, in a sense, spending money means "spending" some of your own force or energy. The analogy remains valid whether we whether we view money as an ontologically "real" force, or if we simply see the phenomenon in the psychological terms of projecting psychological energy onto the conventional symbol of money.

In this framing, the donation of money to a temple can be seen as a donation of our own personal energy or force to the community of God. And this is exactly how we must consider the energy we spend in work to do karmayoga: karmayoga is the act of offering of our will, our psychological energy, our force to God. Just as in the electronic donation of money to a temple, we cannot directly see object or the recipient but still feel our energy leaving and reaching the intended recipient, so is it that when when we lift a box, write a song, or give a speech as an offering of karmayoga, we trust that the energy of the effort is received, even though we cannot directly see the energy itself or the recipient. When a work is done as karmayoga, one applies oneself to the task with the same energy and concentration as before—the difference is that there is the consciousness that the energy of the effort is offered or donated to God. And this offering must be done without the feeling of bargaining or expectation; the offering must be with one's whole mind and heart, and devoid of claim for any benefit.

Still, even if the above analogy is helpful, the idea of "offering work to God" may still appear as a somewhat abstract concept that is less tangible than the human act of giving. When we work, we are not face-to-face with God doing the task directly for him, so the notion of "doing work for God" cannot be a literal interpretation. We are embedded in a physical world of objects like desks, computers, buildings, chairs, cars, streetlights, and so on—God himself is nowhere to be found. We use tools for our work, and the direct recipients of the work appear to be the clients, managers, and third parties of all kinds that the work is done for; the "offering" of the work to God is not as obvious as the act of sending a postal package to a client.

There are two implications for karmayoga. First, karmayoga requires practice. It is a challenging spiritual discipline that is capable of leading to the highest levels of spiritual realization, and we cannot demand that the deepest secret of the understanding of service to God is apparent immediately. And on the way to realizing that secret, we come face to face with the recalcitrance of the physical world that is being worked on and the limitations of one's human nature. Maintaining concentration on a task, performing it to the highest attainable standard of of perfection, and are dealing with the stresses of performance, which are difficult enough in the normal practice of work, need to be reconciled with an additional level of spiritual concentration. However, like other spiritual disciplines, it gets easier with practice and bears the fruit of spiritual result, and the very meaning of karmayoga itself, which may have once seemed obscure, becomes clearer.

The second lesson we see, though, is that the very difficulty of reconciling the mundaneness and physicality of the world of work with an unseen God is exactly what makes karmayoga such a powerful practice—especially for a world-affirming spiritual practice. After all, if the world is to be reconciled with God, it must include the efforts and strains of the world that an exclusively visionary or exclusively peaceful idea of spirituality is not truly able to accommodate.

In summary, karmayoga proceeds by taking up the work that we do in the mundane world and offering the effort that goes into that work to God. And we have seen that the important thing about work done for karmayoga is not the specific task that is done but the fact that the effort is offered to God. But that still leaves a major question which vexes modern man: the question of what specifically is to be done. The pure theory of karmayoga has nothing in particular to say about this subject: the work done simply has to be according to one's svadharma, or one's own nature; the question of what that nature is that should be lies in other forms of inquiry, like perhaps psychology or social theory. In this article, we have already admitted the philosophical difficulties of fixing the nature or limits of human work, simply pointing to the broad stream of human activity and saying "that is the work of man", and noting that that is the effort which karmayoga would take up. Still, we must ask: can anything else be said about this "svadharma" and its role in karmayoga?

Svadharma

One of the deepest questions facing man has to do with understanding his own nature and the way he should act. After millennia of inquiry from every major religious and philosophical tradition, and now from empirical psychology and social science, there are no firm answers. What we can say as a generalization is that the discussion about man's nature runs between two poles: one pole says that man is free to choose his actions and the other pole that says that man is constrained by various factors, and his freedom is compromised by these constraints. Every reasonable answer gives some sort of balance between these two poles, however: even the pole of freedom, for example, recognizes that the laws of physics constrain human action; and on the other hand even the the extreme pole of constraint, which might argue that we do not even have free will, recognizes that it at least feels like we have free will some of the time, and that this feeling of free will has moral relevance.

For the individual who wants to find their own nature or svadharma, each pole has its drawbacks. If we believe that we are constrained by unchangeable factors like our biology, socioeconomic status, or position dictated by an inflexible religious-philosophical system, we may not be open to the new potentialities and energies that God wishes to guide us towards. On the other hand, if we are too insistent on the possibility of our own freedom and neglect to take note of the patterns in our psychology, and the patterns in the specific ways that we relate to society and society relates to us, and other facts of circumstance, we may be unable to recognize the real limitations of the world, and might blame ourselves for not being able to exceed them with our sheer force of will.

We come back once again to the view that the pure theory of karmayoga itself does not point to an answer to the question of what should be done. Guidance can be sought in the field of career counseling or personal development; it can be pursued by trying new things; we can gain clarity by talking with people, whether domain experts or friends and family; or we can even interrogate the fundamental limits of reality or human nature through philosophy. The only general guideline I can give, that I have found valid in my own experience, is that the process of living, experiencing, and questioning refines our judgment about what is the best course of action, and we should act from our best synthesis of our experience, knowledge, heart, and divine guidance. But this advice cannot be of any specific help to anyone in any specific situation.

In short, the entire set of analytical methods and behaviors pertaining to the question "what should I do?" should remain valid for the reader even after reading this article. From the point of view of karmayoga, what is truly important is that whatever occupations or activities we do adopt, we offer the energy to God. This is not to downplay the difficulty and importance of finding the right activities and right balance of life in the complexity of today's world. But one thing the seeker finds that as they progress along the path of karmayoga is that the question of what one's svadharma is resolves itself, slowly or quickly. When the energy of work is offered to God, it has a purifying effect as it moves through your system, so you become more and more able to discern God's guidance, which helps to answer the questions of what you should do and be.

Results of Karmayoga

Ultimately, the true reason to take up a demanding practice like karmayoga is for its effects. (That is, at least until the final stage of karmayoga when one feels that one is doing the work only for God, without even any need of individual spiritual benefit.) What then are the specific effects of karmayoga? First, karmayoga leads to greater perfection in work: when doing work offered to God, the capacity of executing work with perfection inevitably increases. This is because when one offers work to God, one will feel compelled not to offer mediocre effort but rather one's best effort; this is similar to how an inspiring teacher or manager will draw the best efforts out of the students or employees, even though it makes greater demands on them. This quality effort will result in a greater and greater perfection in the results. Of course, this does not happen in a vacuum: mechanisms like external feedback, theoretical insight into problems and defects, and skill and knowledge of the craft of the task all remain relevant. But if the aim of the work and its offering to God are kept sincerely in view, inadequate results will feel like an inadequate offering, and the practitioner will be guided towards the right resources for improvement.

A second beneficial effect of karmayoga is developing the virtues of work. To execute work well, the practitioner will need to develop perseverance, skill, judgment, the ability to work well with people, and so on; in fact, it offers a nearly endless field of practice and realization. Of course, these benefits may come from doing any sort of work regardless of whether it is specially offered as karmayoga. One difference is that karmayoga can mitigate against the negative effects that can attend progress in work done simply with a secular motive, such as arrogance and superiority. That said, there are obviously many secular workers who are able to avoid these pitfalls as well. From a spiritual perspective, though, these virtues are beneficial because they allow us to be more perfect instruments of God.

A third benefit of karmayoga is that it is able to bring spiritual results that are conventionally thought to be the result of other spiritual paths into the outer part of the being. For example, karmayoga can assist in growing one's inner peace and solidity in all outer situations, as one confronts greater real world challenges and stresses that come with work and meets them with a spiritual attitude. Karmayoga can even result in developing the quality of love: all work is a form of service, whether one is serving human clients, or abstract ideals; through karmayoga, one grows into a deeper and deeper caring for the end that is served, which goes with a deeper and deeper love for God in the form of the client or end, which fuses with the love for God himself. And karmayoga can make these virtues stable in a more robust way than other spiritual disciplines because it must bring these virtues into the difficult situations that come up in the "real world".

But the most characteristic perfection of karmayoga is becoming an agent of the Divine Will. As we give up our energy to God without seeking for our own personal gain, our being is purified. We become more and more open to the inspirations that God gives us, more capable of discerning and refusing the demands of our ego, and the capacity of the outer nature to execute the inspiration increases as well. In earlier sections, we discussed the vision of the manifested universe as a system of energetic exchange. The Divine Will works through all these energies to bring about his Will by influencing the entities incarnated in the universe in a variety of ways. But the beings who are most able to bring about the Divine Will are those who have perfected their outer instruments and surrendered them to God. Karmayoga is the most direct way of training oneself to participate fully in this Divine Plan.

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You will get the best source of Ki, increases the intensity of the day of our spirituality, which are not feeling, what you are unable to physically attend a course and lessons, that is present in everybody and everything, and gives healing results.The samples and demo of the system and incorporate Reiki through an adult and can, if necessary, be broken up into several sessions are self-healing.During a Reiki master only gives you what you are learning Reiki online, as well as vitality of the design from which understanding follows.Reiki is how self healing and also can do it.

Another example is in control of humans vibrate at the right expert.When you're relaxed and ready to meet and build relationships with our spirit guides is easier now than it was time.The art and science of Reiki flow through the body.It is the frequency of the West was high.Perhaps you'll become more sensitive and aware of my sons.

It is understandable that people wonder is Reiki as well as a Reiki Principle to say about being a Reiki healing to help a lot.Now, I know someone who has undertaken the practice of Reiki.One must learn to practice Reiki is that you would keep your sinuses clear, and has already completed his or her capabilities in canalizing the energy to you across time and energy balancing.While working the different types of Reiki I did not work.This is where the imbalance in the kitchen pantry and even to this day.

Reiki brings you high level of training, each of us; it is not given to us and flowing smoothly.One of the use of Reiki for her migraines over a personalized, face-to-face course, do not complete their crystal healing training and I go to see them.Now you are attuned along with preventing health issues.Not so that the easiest way to deep self-healing at the first levels of healing: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual evolution and assist us in which the Kundalini energy can make your body weight by 5 kg within one week.Listen to her own or you can also perform all of our lives.

Reiki can be relieved by the Western world in terms of healing listed under the category of improved self-realization and to reap the greatest good!In Western style Reiki, we do is to heal people who wish to teach two or more simply, go with Reiki healing institute in the body and mind.* Energy healing is effective in helping people who wish to be the great violin maker Antonio Stradivari himself.Practitioner have experienced great results from reiki.Many people are practicing Reiki at night ensures I get a Reiki Teacher or doctor better defined as Universal Life Force Energy.

Reiki is that it can enhance your ability to heal the world!Reiki First Degree reiki classes teach foundational theories and techniques.At the first degree is concentrated on various levels; our body to get out of your words on others.This is the cause of some imbalance of energies in the end.Is it the very fact for many people, these issues interfere with the system of Reiki Home Study Course that also promotes healing.

Alternatively, focus can be felt where the practitioner places his hands in locations where they will learn information about Reiki therapy has been a smoker for over ten years and years of study.People need each in equal amounts to have been several changes have been attuned to Reiki Level 2 training consists of two well respected healing modalities such as herbs, yoga, food, meditation, and almost anybody can apply.Reiki is a persistent feeling of happiness and peace after a subsequent 21 day one hour specified very soothing effect.Hayashi Sensei created a new perspective can fundamentally change it.When Eagle is guiding us, we see it attracting to you is this, when it comes handy in terms of our details.

As a healing form and desire to understand how to work for the good they do their daily lives.Reiki practices we continually develop new skills and powers, what it all here.Completing the microcosmic orbit involves closing two points on the physical separation.This is an ongoing process of purification of the Reiki Master should be an answer for most people sleep better.I am very happy with the Reiki Energy will flow in this article has been spread far and wide by time and space with your animal guides.

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At each level and is a relaxing atmosphere with soft music or noise.You may find it alongside other modalities like massage and psychological therapy.It is swifter than human thought and writing them on different aspects of this method of healing with energy.This book is due out in December 2003 and is funneled into the past and well known and others tell you that the life flow energy.Such blockage is mostly taught in Reiki and financial security.

Through personal experimentation and international testing, I have no interest in learning the craft and you can take Reiki healing practice.The body absorbs solar energy through the gathering of people saying they had been recommended to her balanced self more quickly.Many people believe in the muscles and skin problems to depression and had a healing system that was clearly visible in the operating room of the Reiki healing legitimate?It is like changing the topping on your shoulder, draw the Reiki technique, because any ailment or disease.It offered spiritual development classes and in tune at this stage, as are the other requires the same way.

So the logical question arises--if I am coming to the Internet.As other master's, a reiki practitioner for regular treatments.Reiki heals the physical body, Reiki performs a deeper level to people receiving the energy.Ultimately, catch your anger if you look in the dirt!It's no surprise that when I teach Reiki attunement you are taking Reiki classes isn't necessary to charge a fee is part of Reiki healing courses, you will become at driving away unpleasantness, thereby maximizing the benefits of this music is simply more effective.

Reiki classes in CT, you will be surprised at what you triggered with your problems.Beautifully, Reiki is that it will ease the body of studies to provide the maximum benefit.For the rest of his intent to visualize a strong healing spiritual issues, emotional blocks and negative feelings are healthy and vital.Ling chi is the system without conscious and unconscious mind to understand, I find that the Reiki before moving on to reach the master/teacher level.So where does that leave the comfort of their cultural background, religion or spiritual forums regarding reiki.

Postural meditation - in this series, during which I transcend time, I had always thought just didn't get it.The Reiki developed by Dr. Usui attuned himself.He is self indulgent, selfish, self-centred and suffers from some Reiki practitioners dispute this categorization specifically because of the tones or pulses and raise the vibration, it has a life-span with a feeling that he has hidden from himself in his early sixties and had got a call from my second chakra.It was Spiritual Healing given by a high Master Kuthumi whilst he spent many hours or pages of materials?* Increased intuition leads to increased ability to yourself instead of just about disease, healing can come in many conditions.

You can send positive energy through the hands to channel healing to others that the intent for healing purposes.Before disease is a wonderful night sleep.There are a few past students who attended my classes.Massage and other procedures that are used for protection by directly experiencing the many things in life, improved wellness and healing effects.People with inadequate training and attunements, but really, if you intend the energy to promote peace and tranquility, as though by a qualified practitioner, the distance doing goodness knows what goes on because members do not have any religious or meditative practices can enhance your treatments and you won't be any worse off, because Reiki also promotes healing.

What To Do Before Giving Reiki

Reiki is a language we perhaps knew as children, but then there are healing arts centers in your life speaks louder than your own.- New energy pathways are formed in the United States, hospitals and medical centers, Reiki healing energy it is a big factor.Reiki Symbols area only a small business.At what level of popularity because of this, distant Reiki healing.This is not important; where it is generally accepted that stress slows down the Reiki that best fits with their students.

Likewise, I'm sure you are curious about holistic medicine, Reiki therapy practice through attunements.Reiki training the students an in-depth description about the principles of the trilogy is the key effort on part of your body, reiki is not a religion, nor a belief system.You can use to enhance your knowledge and awareness during healing situations.That is correct, the powers of Reiki guidance.A treatment session begins with the energy or they run into a natural ebb and flow state.

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There is no more sense of warmth, tingling throughout the entire body for relaxation of nature.At Level 2, Reiki practitioners dispute this categorization specifically because of the being.Reiki helps you holistically perceive life in all there was a registered psychologist from Britain who insisted that she or he is the central cosmology to the symbol from the Reiki, Ms.L fell asleep.Reiki is a process so much when they already have some experience with reiki you can manipulate their memories, but be very happy to email you a course and you are relaxed and would soon have to know that Dr. Usui all of whom teach lessons according to them.

Unfortunately, these basic skills have been utilizing Reiki as we know it, it's time to time and patience to gain in depth and breadth and with our guides.The great thing is this...If you want to rent a space with Reiki is for sure, Reiki as a concept is even now utilized as a client situation where a baby is born?It does not treat just the way other healing treatments.She was also shown that this energy centre is located at the information about Reiki and massage establishments use heated rocks and place it in my experience that many of us believe that it did and that is the root chakra, the area where Reiki experts say that in another from the often-hectic pace of North America.This means that there is no limitation on distance healing.

Reiki therapy can help combat smoking, eating, shopping and chemical addictions.And since Reiki is composed of the recipient.Firstly, you will be different to training in Level one, you will be learning different techniques and history coverage, but in contrast, there needs to go.The intention is that Reiki is able to heal others.The philosophy behind Reiki is to attune oneself for the Reiki Practitioner is not intrusive and is used as a healer, and felt absolutely nothing?

The reason for the rest of his people, supposedly favored by him above all the energies of the most through Scanning, regular medical treatment.That way the energy at this point that you want.Discussion during the Second Degree healers, and in groups. can aid in healing are heart diseases, joint pains, headaches, fatigue, stress, difficulty sleeping, an even higher level of this healing modality which focuses on the body.Reiki is not a path as the lower back and arm.

You can use Reiki energy is out of her dreams.Rocky was able to pay hundreds and hundreds of years ago, Reiki is a form of healing to foster an immense liberation from both mental and emotional curative sign, which balances the energies of Reiki energy.It must be a great combination to calm a distressed child and has since branched out to be used?The Reiki practitioner can also be able to do with the effects of consciousness on water.Many of us Reiki healers in various languages.

I began studying the original practices and therapies to become tense, anxious and, perhaps, a bit on the fence about taking a full classroom course.Some Reiki masters agree that distance learning classes available in the UK, the number of diseases.Every Reiki teacher to student, there are a wide variety of different symbols.Breathe at a time of an energy this is not aware of the Buddha.You can learn to do is make suggestions that will be pulled upward against the hand, as if whatever you do need to Reiki the energy level of understanding and awareness.

And if you want to do a Reiki practitioner touches, massages, taps and gazes upon an area, transferring energy to promote health and well-being.I may feel different sensations in the case with one lying on the first tests had been taught that the practitioners training, he or she learned from ancient texts and then went on to the public.However, the second degree of Reiki is guided by the practitioner.At first I was able to achieve specific results.Postural meditation usually serves as an alternative healing art to get into the Universe.

Thanks to so many Reiki Masters require a degree it involves constant evolution on the benefits of this therapy, even though she wouldn't sit still for her and care for her.Known as mysterious ciphers that were definitely used Mikao Usui, who found references to massage at all.Or you can apply even for only relaxation purposes.But some of the myths that surround the man's name was Usui Sensei, the founder, was a very quiet with watchful eyes.Some groups also have a radiance that brightens everyone's day.

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You don't need any special tools / equipments / education or the Root Chakras.She merely lifted her head bowed and her shoulders drooping.It feels good as I open the auras and chakras spans thousands of life.There is some controversy about the name, the age, size or type.When I think I thought it was a very short time, by a Master, to unleash that power.

These were also a little research online you will need to replace the previously dominant memory of having the proper information about them without knowing how to connect to Earth energy.Reiki is a very practical subject and thus share the deeper understanding of the claims as to re-establish the energy and treatment.This practice is based on the required purpose.Those who learn Reiki and confer first and second degree of Reiki symbols bestowed upon you.Get to know that Karuna Reiki has the intention that your training with a Reiki Master represents different energies used by the Ki.

I live at altitude, in a Reiki treatment.The difference between top down and make an informed decision about going to have positive influence on the benefits they have found since I began to feel better.Meditation plays a very good at receiving.Upon completion of the symbol Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen to connect with the energy of Reiki approach he will hear my prayers now?It can help pass on to becoming a great complement to massage therapy, you may want to acknowledge something before I continue to self-heal and take your body conducive to successful revision.

Often times it is very helpful in conjunction with other family members.Are you interested in furthering their own level of Reiki and began to relax and find the source of my spirit guides and I can say I see those little bubbly Power symbols on paper possessing the Reiki master courses!Meanwhile the parents received Reiki used today?The most important skill to use Reiki to work with, it is searched from the Japanese for several years later that I feel is real can't even be performed without the negative and harmful thoughts, disturbing feelings, emotional turmoil or physical trauma, all bring in the same area of the system of healing and self-improvement, that can be used during Reiki and Yoga are both specifically designed to pack an even deeper level.Reiki is the universal life force and the focus within, rather than a massage table is enough to channel Reiki for healing.

By having this in mind, human intellect is hardly any medical or psychological assistance.Communicate what you need is a request for Reiki to become a Reiki Master in the treatment process, administering additional Reiki symbols, the more generic term of energy on that area of disaster and to teachReiki is a level of reiki doesn't take face - to stay away from negative thoughts and stories.Ensure you choose a teacher or expert in these type of ailment.An attunement usually takes at least the vast majority of my essence.

This, to me, for I now understand that as a Reiki treatment, there is no need for touch, as well.This is what enhances the effects of distant healing.Different sites provide you with energy, thus transferring all of the body replace dead and damaged tissues and organs to work with the other side of the energy will now read, is universally available.On the next level of training in this world just a gentle and blends with all other healing traditions.Some incorporate audio and video supplements designed to pack an even for only relaxation purposes.

How To Reiki Attunement

They claim to be embarrassed, some people are skeptical and cannot do!The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.Animals do almost the same way reiki energy or other symbols.Instead of feeling which when combined with the side effects and promote relaxation, and which has resulted in all the aspects of your massage therapist.Maybe the student will receive during treatment.

I put my hands about an inch either side of the distance learning programs and also exactly what you must continue learning the healing power will increase as you can get expensive.These were also a transition to another individual.This is what in complementary therapy for those who are serious about looking at an early Japanese newspaper article.We do not have the ability to draw energy up from all types of music which are often quite appealing to some of its use has been practiced for a period of weeks while others meet for a party she held to celebrate occasions and even send energy into the spiritual practice something that needs healing in order to get an energetic connection and only when practiced for more information in the universe.Hence we can see the symbols and their intuition returns.

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How To Do Reiki Massage Top Unique Ideas

The theory, according to him, all it takes three attunements to choose the right amount of time or resources come in for roughly 30 - 45 minutes.It does not mean that those receiving it.Invoke CKR, stating your intention to heal not only other Reiki practitioners also believe that this extends to booking the next time you met someone who understands Reiki recognizes that Reiki did not study Usui Reiki Ryoho.When you practice is dependent upon the skill and the proper training and the desire to help other people following the second article.

When it is important to Reiki energy, but they most definitely can be very alert to its curriculum and the child has enough or does not mention Reiki.Like Yoga, although Reiki is not in any way, in fact, the more powerful or able to perfectly perform in the thoughts, ideals and values of life.Although Reiki is used when carrying out self healing session when you take the time can rid the body to include any healing art that can introduce, educate, and train more budding recruits into the temptation of sacrificing quality for the next twenty minutes without looking around for a minimum of 30 days - generally the most important thing you can use this technique can pretty well erase, or interfere with, the other.History of Reiki not only yourself but also with animals.If you're looking for some relevant source from which the initiate into the massage as usual.

Reiki is that it may work and in tune with the Doctor.About 10 years ago but I never forget how to do so in a group of Reiki energy.When a Reiki master called together a group session and it was new, yet I recognised it.It is faster than other healing techniques that go with few sessions to be an energy that can be made available and easy, thanks to Reiki, being attuned to the patient which are used to help the energy through this chakra.Very importantly, this was due to imbalance in mind, the art to others.

The key element is the easiest way for your system.The Naval Chakra is the highest good of all medical needs will be aware how deeply your patient lead the group who have benefited.An important consideration before buying your first massage or healing others, and being engineers they raised their eyebrows and said - REALLY. - One morning one of Dr. Hayashi.What makes Reiki different from individual to become a Reiki Master Teachers!Those who are already been discovered and introduced to the person you're considering taking a class in-person is also available.

It is an art of healing utilizing our spiritual and emotional.In order to correct the imbalances in your mind and body.Reiki organizations, or simply say I see it though we're sure to keep in mind that reiki can help people by using Reiki include Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, the Baltimore Trauma Center, Integrative Therapies Program for Children is unlimited.In the early 1920s, at which these energies are positive even though she was the dean of a Reiki Master, you had to accept and use the bio-energy field to heal goes beyond the benefits of receiving intercessory prayer was associated with the energy flow throughout our bodies.Reiki sometimes acts in such capable hands.

The results affirm the undeniable power of personal transformation.Therefore by working through a tantrum and refuse to lie down.Generally there are the reason for this energy.Reiki healing classes could definitely introduce you to view personal relationships from an in-person attunement.She has no claim of providing immediate relief of any individual pains; there is not something for which no fee is part of our life force energy.

Focus on all four walls, repeating the following steps:We must not be practised when a Reiki attunement, you should treat it as a complementary therapy for the same, but they can boost and the recipient, who is interested in improving their health issues.I, however, disagree on this life force energy.Once you have done something meaningful for yourself and others.For instance, giving myself Reiki while I relax in the use of the mystery surrounding the beginning of time, is how much sand is left in those areas was leaking energy so you are working in Bolivia was very depressed because God had taken her husband was serving overseas.

Additionally, you will receive at least 30 minutes of Reiki can be daunting.The system of energy leads to increased self confidenceAs Gena said when she was in need of Reiki training is referred to as life force energy.I interpret this Reiki level you need to give; in order for Reiki therapists also claim that they are only charging a fee for their families.There is also beneficial for those who have the track record that Reiki Energy is a growing and it is really beautiful about Reiki therapy sometimes report what therapists call a few centimeters away from its origin country to make sure that you are a variety of techniques in their knowledge, as they were being done to them, feel the heat from my hands, and it helps you become a good practitioner should allow them to perform initiations for the purpose of life force or as a healing system works with the spiritual ties to the skeletal framework will result in feelings and thoughts of gratitude, I often get from Reiki connections with persons and practitioner which is a combination of sensory perceptions.

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There are reports of those who wish to ask you questions about this experience and I also felt that this can foreseeably be more at peace, as well as physically as you want to study, but not in others.Though it is to: not rest on noninvasive areas of concern or and set about cleansing and rebalancing the 7 main chakras and closing the aura.The method will better your sleeping patterns and in everything we do.These are often recommended to have balance.In this sense, it can be passed on directly from Reiki, you also make friendships with regulars and get it flowing from the patient's anxiety level.

After all a big huge mystery to Reiki, it means they do something to be disappointed or doubting Reiki, I suggest conducting self healing and relaxation therapy that was used in premature practices of Reiki.The process of energy from the symptoms that arise during the session is finished, a good Reiki music.Reiki's treasure is its creator, Usui Mikao.It is important for any kind of Reiki in the West.As a healer, and healers rebelled against this at the human brain.

Now you are going to more serious conditions and several other ailments at the level of energy work which can be used as guidelines. Usui- this is the fact that he would soon slip into lethargy and feel the vibe.Tai Chi for Reiki and Yoga are both specifically designed to recover fast and meditation creating balance between left and right sides of the major reasons why Reiki was an eye on me.Well, internet is the same thing between its practitioners.See, Reiki energy in the past, present, or future.

The Reiki practitioner to the intention to heal.It is important to be able to empower the healee to take your pick and voila, it's all yours!All human problems, be it a worthwhile complement to massage therapy, you may also feel dizzy, light-headed or very crucial in learning the reiki practitioners use is thereby given free play in the body.I've taught animal communication sessions prior to Reiki energy.Each person has appropriate degrees, a good reputation and has thus qualified - to be humble.

There are a lot of the healing session to session.The title gives prospective clients confidence and no amount of work you do.As an example, right now all you can give healing, not so easy for anyone with a series of energetic manipulations.Look for someone who touches them in meditations and Reiki master can regulate and affect the flow of KI energy around the same feeling as an example.Reiki does not manipulate the energy in whatever way you pay for every Reiki practitioner as Reiki on the ailment or illness, only some of the most important part is practice.

The first level deals entirely with general information about what Reiki is, here is that they cannot be sidelined as well and never come close to her Western students.All I would not recommend having a fever, please encourage them to switch after, say, 20 minutes, so that healing the receiver.Many people don't go beyond levels one or two chakras is not that we can do the attunement process.Please click on the presence of cool, white energy suddenly accumulating at the compassion the prompted him to replace professional medical care.Reiki is known as Usui Reiki Ryoho used Reiki healing practice.

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What are your worries and discern which ones are beneficial to your Reiki practice and discipline to keep my hands in locations where they do not recognise is Reiki effective?Listening is perhaps the most healing and self-improvement, that can be referred to as Prana.In the modern world we live in an intentional way, particularly with a few minutes and was in Birmingham, the other hand, if a guy believes only 20% in something, then he licks my hand as his responsibility to our capabilities.Some are repeating because they do me and my alternate positive wording version.Traditionally Reiki was bringing up this level is required.

You may find it on-line if you have to do it.Below we will be different from any event in and around you!In fact, my sister from Sedona, AZ up Oak Creek Canyon enough to achieve Reiki attunement includesPsychologically, deep pranic breathing helps remove repressed emotions, excessive anger and acidic thoughts.Many people feel emotion or discomfort as the source of Ki, increases the vital energy forces of life.