Be inspired, May 2018 / 01 May 2018

Pratyahara

ASHTANGA YOGA SERIES   What if someone told you there was a simple set of practices that could help you manage every aspect of your daily life, and at the same time take you to a level of human potential beyond your wildest imagination? Would you be interested? Most people would at least be curious. That is in fact an accurate explanation of the practices of Yoga, but most people don’t realize it. Yoga includes a holistic set of practices for overall self-development and the well-being of the body, mind and soul. A few thousand years back, the great sage Patanjali compiled the current yogic practices of that time into a simple framework consisting of eight parts or limbs, and that framework is still used today. It is known as Ashtanga Yoga. But the practices of Yoga have evolved since Patanjali was alive, in response to the needs of the time and especially during the last 150 years. So in this series DAAJI explores each limb of Yoga in the light of the modern day yogic practices of Heartfulness. He shows us how to integrate inner spiritual practices with living in the world and refining our personality, so as to create that true state of Yoga – skill in action and integration of the spiritual and worldly aspects of life. PRATYAHARA Pratyahara is the fifth of Patanjali’s eight limbs of yogic practice. While it is one of the most important concepts in Yoga, it is not well understood. The lack of Pratyahara is the reason why many of us struggle with a meditation practice, and also why we don’t benefit as much as we could from the practices of Asana and Pranayama. Here DAAJI helps us to understand the significance and purpose of Pratyahara and how to bring it into…

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Interview, May 2018 / 01 May 2018

Mindfulness Heartfulness

VASCO GASPAR speaks about meditation, thoughts and experiencing the inner world. Q: Please tell us a little bit about yourself and the kind of work you do with mindfulness? VG: I like to think that I work  as a Human Flourishing Facilitator, investing my energy in trying to inspire change and transformation globally for a more human and compassionate world. For that I’ve been sharing information online, writing books, giving talks and facilitating programs online and face-to-face, mainly within the corporate setting, but also for the public ingeneral. Mindfulness is just one of the ‘awareness-based social technologies’ that I’ve been sharing in the last years, mainly in Europe and South America, but a powerful one to open the field of consciouness. One of the most requested protocols I deliver is Search Inside Yourself – a Mindfulness-based Emotional Intelligence program that was created at Google in 2007. It gathers Mindfulness and neuroscience in a secular way to create wiser and more compassionate leaders. I also developed my own Mindfulness protocol in 2013, an 8-week program called ZBHD, that has already been done by more than 3,000 people worldwide. Studies show that even a few minutes of daily practice can lead to significant changes in measures like stress, social  trust, mental well-being and attention. I’m now dedicated to merging different practices, like Mindfulness, Heartfulness and Presencing, into the  same protocol at the service of the greater good: human flourishing. Q: You’ve taught Mindfulness in corporate settings and organizations for many years. What surprises people when they start an introspective practice for the first time? VG: There are several reactions actually. Some people feel restless and scared in the beginning when they notice how much mental noise they have inside themselves: ruminations about the past, storytelling about the future and so on. Others…

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May 2018, Quotes / 01 May 2018

Creativity

Focus, May 2018 / 01 May 2018

Presence & authenticity with children

ELIANE SAINTE-MARIE  is the founder of Parenting For Wholeness, creator of the acclaimed Clean Parenting program, author of Clean Parenting – The Peaceful Parent’s Essential Handbook, and mother to three wonderful adult daughters. Here she shares her gift of helping parents take peaceful parenting from theory to day-to-day reality. In my own family, as well as many families I work with, I find presence and authenticity in parenting to be the key to accessing a quality of relationship with our children, and a quality of flow and aliveness in our lives with them, which most parents don’t even realize is possible. I am a parenting coach, and most moms come to me thinking they need to build new skills in order to be effective parents. But though I teach some skills, the bulk of the work is designed to help them become present. Present to their children: to their children’s inner experience, essence and uniqueness. To truly see their children through every interaction with them. Present to themselves: to their values, so they have clarity in their priorities and focus. To their feelings, their needs and their own experience, so they have access to their own guidance. To their conditioning, so they can become aware of obstacles and hopefully be free of them. Present to what’s happening in the moment, instead of being in their heads, caught up in some narrative that does not support them to deal with the situation effectively. Some parents come to me seeking specific parenting techniques and solutions to parenting problems, but I don’t provide them. In part, because I don’t believe it’s what best serves parents in the long run, but mostly because no one else can know what’s right for them, for their children, or their family. My wish for all parents, my…

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It changes everything, May 2018 / 01 May 2018

A different way to play – part 2

SARAH BALDWIN continues her conversation with DEBRA LYNN DADD on non-toxic toys, including storybooks, seasonal toys, play silk, and other organic materials for art and craft that are available on Sarah’s website, www.bellalunatoys.com. Q: I remember some years ago when I first started discovering these toys, my husband and I bought different toys just because we wanted to have the shapes of different things. At that time he was trading futures for pork bellies, and I bought him a little pig. He just loved it because he loves anything that’s wood. Even though he’s not a child, he still appreciates the smell and touch and feel of wood. I was looking at your website, and there are so many different and interesting things. I’d like us to talk about some of these different toys, how children play with them, and how they give children a different view of the world. The page I’m on right now is about children’s books, and I see that they revolve around the seasons. The book talks about children engaged in springtime activities, like playing with new-born lambs, planting a garden, decorating Easter eggs, watching baby birds, and things like that. SB: Yes, the series you’re looking at is a set of four board books for toddlers. Just as I was talking before about the simplicity of toys, there is simplicity in these books too. They have no words, just as Waldorf dolls have no faces. A child and parent can look together at these pictures of children doing seasonal things, like dyeing Easter eggs in spring, and walking through a mud puddle or jumping in leaves in the autumn book. So this will help children with their own language. As a toddler is developing his or her vocabulary they can make up the words;…

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