Freedom Looks Good On Michelle

Reach by Michelle Miller

It's awesome the way a new artistic medium ignites my creative process. Encaustic wax is a beautiful thing as are the human skeletal system and actively practicing my unique skills and talents.

Although Encaustic Wax has been used as a painting medium since 200A.D., it has only come into my view in the past 2 months. I spent a few days wondering which came first, the space in my life or this inspirational new medium. Did this new medium drive these beautiful drawings or did the freedom I've come into insist on a creative expression?

Anna and I talked and she suggested it didn't necessarily matter. That they were one and the same. She's probably right.

I realize today that Freedom for me is simply being in the process, getting my hands dirty, and making a visual statement. Working. Playing. Creating. Easy!

Pelvis by Michelle Miller

Guest post by Michelle Miller, March 31, 2014

Brand New Nuanced Freedom Assessment Tool!

No Handbook, No Problem

Background
You all know I've been sitting in satsang with Mooji (up until Friday when I completed the final sit). What I haven't shared yet is that Emma and I have been watching the show "Flashpoint" at the same time.  We love this show; it's Canadian!  

Okay, but that's not why we love the show.  

If you are not familiar with Flashpoint, the show features Team One of the Police Strategic Response Unit. Team One is called in to resolve hostage, bomb and other explosive situations that most officers are not trained to handle.  They always acts as a team and prioritize a peaceful resolution.  

Training
To maintain presence and clarity while in high-stress situations, Team One participates in ongoing, intensive training.  Today we watched episode 15 of Season 4, when a new member of Team One - Raf - is placed into a situational role play with the Tactical Team Leader - Ed.  Ed plays a gunman holding another member of the team hostage.  In this scenario, Raf's role is to talk the gunman down and resolve the situation with no casualties.  

Over and over Raf fails.  And it starts to drive him crazy - what is the answer?  How does he guarantee that nobody will be hurt?  How can he anticipate all possible outcomes and ensure everybody's safety?  How? 

His commanding officer, Sergeant Greg Parker, is not impressed with Raf's carrying on and tells him: 

The moment you think you have all the angles covered, 

you have failed, my friend.

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At the end of the show, Raf approaches Sgt Parker: 

Raf: I think I know the solution.

Sgt. Parker: Go on.

Raf: There is no solution. The failure, it's built in, you know. And it ain't even about beating the drill.  It's not that.  It's about learning to live with the choices you've made. 

Sgt. Parker: My man.

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The moment I think I have all the angles covered, I fail.  Not fail like I am a failure of a human being.  But, fail like I have lost sight of the Mystery, I have lost sight of the Unknown, I have lost sight of the Awareness, the Freedom and the Love that I am which is beyond thinking, which doesn't need to anticipate, which doesn't confuse rational linear thinking with "truth", which doesn't second guess, which simply IS.  There is no handbook for Being Free.  We simply are.  

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Living in the Country
Before going grocery shopping today, I assessed the clothes I was wearing. My outfit was perfect for sorting the recycling, writing some emails and laundry.  I loved how my tank top was the exact same color as the word "baptiste" on the shirt Karen Yencha gave me, and I love that years ago Alice gave me the pants I was wearing.  I could have worn this outfit into town, no problem.  But, then I said to Emma, "If I go out like this, people might think I've given up.  I don't want to depress the good people of North Conway." 

We laugh.

This is me "dressed up" for town. 

This has nothing to do with Flashpoint.  So what?!?!!

It cracks me up, like this Selfie song.  

Alice Speaks: A Girl, Some Yoga, and Redemption

I am honored to be a guest blogger, writer, and person on the Wonder With Institute page.  Anna and I have shared and shaped each other’s worlds for 7 years plus and just as much as I have been her yoga teacher she has been my “human” teacher – she tells it like it is and continues to peel away the layers of her experience that stand in the way of her awesomeness!

I pondered and thought hard about what to share and was going to write something pithy and current when I stumbled upon a story in the cobwebs of my Microsoft documents.  You will now read the edited version – it’s a story about a girl, some yoga, loss, gain and well, redemption!

And so it begins…

Everyone has her story.  

The story usually starts with something like,  “Once, when I was a drug addict”, or “Once, when I was overweight”, or “Once, when I was tossed out and left for dead”…you get the picture.  These stories are important to share.  However, there is another story to be told, a story that is very common and somewhat invisible.

 Drum roll please…

It’s the story of the Perfect Life.  The story where it looks like it is all working out.  The happy or at least not awful childhood, the loving parents, the groovy marriage, the financial success story, the “it all looks good on paper” life.  Yet, if you read between the lines, the heroine is dying a slow death of losing her joy and her life spirit.  At the end of the story, the heroine is left to her own devices, trying to figure out where she “went” wrong even though she believed she was doing everything right.

You know this person.  The householder, the person who lives a good life but is not quite satisfied.  The person who knows that gratitude is the way to go and yet cannot muster up the energy to be thankful.  With this as the backdrop, a low-grade dissatisfaction becomes the normal experience and daily unhappiness goes unnoticed. The person becomes numb to themselves, to the people around them and end up going to their grave with the proverbial question, “what was it all for and why”?  Final gasp, curtain down.

Well, as you may have guessed, I was that person. The rub is that I didn’t know I was leading an unconscious life.  I truly believed if I played by the rules, I would get the life I wanted or that I was supposed to have.  If I was good, I’d be liked, if I did drugs, I’d be cool, if I got married, I’d be complete, if I had a child, I would feel needed, if I stopped doing drugs, I’d be spiritual.  If I said and did the right thing, God (read: Higher Power) would give me what I needed to get the things I wanted to lead a comfortable life that would lead to more unconscious living.

It wasn’t until I started to take my yoga discipline seriously, and by that I mean practicing for over 10 years and then one day deciding to practice everyday for a year, that I slowly began to snap out of it.  AND, I will add that it took me 53 years to get to that place; the place where I began to understand the discipline of discipline.  Before I hit that 10 year mark, I even used my yoga discipline as an “Alice improvement plan”.   I thought if I did it enough (the triple type A approach) I would get better.  I thought it would make me a better person, because I needed to be fixed, and by the way, so do you!  Or, I’ll practice when “I” know it’s right because “I am so in touch with my feelings” approach.  If I could do it my way as opposed to committing to an actual discipline and even open a yoga studio, it would all work out A OK.  

Boy was I WRONG!  But, in the best way possible.

Through the discipline of my yoga practice I am beginning to understand the famous quote by the famous yogi Pattabhi Jois, “practice and all will come.”  And, by the way, there is no one way that all will come.  Yoga is a personal journey of mystery, transformation, breakdown, breakthrough, blood, sweat and tears.  The yoga journey is the path that leads us back to our humanity.

Over the last 2 years, I have had a yoga studio, almost lost a yoga studio, and then built a new studio.  I have been elated, terrified, exhausted, ashamed, depressed and then some.  I tried to fix it, justify it, name it, judge it, evaluate it, give a name and avoid it. I did everything and have done everything EXCEPT give up my discipline of yoga.  And by that I mean the down and dirty practice, no music, no lights, no fancy pants stuff, and no mixing it up.  Just the same old shit, day in and day out, and I can tell you this:

I love my life!  I have a strong body and a spirit that is peeking out behind the curtain, open to the possibility of light, love and faith.  I feel strong and connected while simultaneously feeling it could all slip away at any moment.  It’s my yoga discipline - the relentless ongoing quality of the boring day-to-day grind - that has revealed to me the joy in the everyday quality of life and the access to seeing the spirit of this joy in the people I meet.  I don’t care if I lose everything tomorrow because my yoga discipline has given me everything that I will ever need.

My yoga has given me my LIFE and for that, I will be forever grateful. 

- Alice Riccardi
portlandpoweryoga.com

Locks and Freedom, by Emma

Freedom is not only letting go but accepting that you have some picking up to do, even if it isn’t your mess. Which is hard for me because I am a “fair and not fair” person. (Obviously, I’m fifteen.) So even though there’s a mess in me that someone else should be picking up, living with a messy castle in my head is no way to get revenge on the person who made it that way.

Show them you are free. Clean up. 

Now my mom likes to leave her heart open to everyone, and I think that takes a lot of clarity and self-awareness. That isn’t how I think or want to think.  As I said, I’m fifteen. 

Once I am done cleaning, you can be damn sure I am changing the locks and putting an electric fence and a gate up. 

This is my way of proving to myself that you can be free even with a guard up. 

Because being free doesn't mean loving all and everything. Have a little self freedom. Remember that it is okay to clean up and lock up. You aren’t being closed hearted, you are protecting yourself, and who ever said that isn’t freedom?

- Emma Allocco

love and liberation

Pema Chodron teaches us to regard everything in life as a key to freedom, a passage to our inner nature.  

Eckhart Tolle makes everything immediate.  I am.  Now.  Bam!

Direct experience for 5 weeks with Mooji is available for anyone with a desire for freedom.  He embodies truth; liberation is our natural state.  

Stars and Mountains and Music. Very Good.

Thank you for giving attention to freedom. Personally, I think we're revolutionaries, the vanguard even!  I'm not saying that other people aren't, by the way.  I simply have experience - in one way or another - with you all and I declare each of you and our collective attention to be positively impacting everyone on the planet such that each of us feels more enlivened, connected and relaxed.  Anything else you'd like to add?  Put it in.  

It seems like there's no answer, no solution, no problem, no prescription. Only discovery.  I mean, really.  No answer.  It's blowing my mind.  But, I vowed (to myself) to keep this post low on Anna drama.

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What a beautiful exploration.  There's something in each of us - curiosity, sweetness, fire, devotion - that said yes to experiencing Free Like That.  All those somethings together are like:  

Here's a link if the video clip doesn't make it to the blog page. 

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As for my ego and I... Mooji said in the satsang that I watched this morning:
   If there is a sniper season 
   and you take things out, that is okay.  
   But this is not full time work. 
Yesterday, I was feeling thusly. The tone has shifted, however.  Now we're here.