spirituality

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Sixth Chakra Love

April 8, 2010 in spirituality by bursty | 2 comments

crocus

To our delight this spring, these little beauties started popping up all over our yard!  The previous owners were masters of creating a space and a yard where there is *always* something blooming, and it is so much fun to watch it come up — what a gift!  I chose these crocuses for this post, as they are purple, and the chakra of the week vibrates at the frequency of purple.  Ajna, in sanskrit, the sixth chakra, is also known as your third eye, seat of enlightenment and intuition.  It is located in the middle of your head, between your eyebrows.

Ajna is connected to all four focuses of the body:  spiritual, mental, emotional and physical.  It’s where insight and intuition rest, and a fully functioning ajna can open our awareness to other worlds, and help us to deeply understand ourselves and the world that we live in.  The third eye is physically associated with the brain, eyes, forehead, neurotransmitters, pineal gland, and regulation of hormone function.  Because ajna is so intricately connected to the pituitary gland and hormone regulation throughout the body, keeping it in balance particularly affects some major systems in the physical body including the reproductive system, metabolism, oxygen utilization at the cellular level, insulin regulation, etc.

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Bluebonnets and Love

April 1, 2010 in Farm Fresh, spirituality by Andrew Lee | No comments

bluebonnetsSpring is here!  Where are you seeing the signs of the Spring?

Last weekend I took a long freeway drive through rural Texas.  I was on a journey to meet one of my Aunts who I haven’t seen in seven years.   She’s been in Zambia busily founding a series of schools, I’ve been bouncing around the country making theater, and we haven’t been able to connect in what feels like forever.  The last time I saw her was when my grandfather passed away and since then, both of us have had major life changes.  This week she happened to be stopped in Houston on a fundraising tour in the U.S., so we decided to meet halfway between our cities.  I drove east out of Austin and into the hills of central Texas.  At a diner in Columbus, TX we caught up on each other’s lives.  We told stories, detailed our future ambitions, laughed, cried, and felt the warmth of family and love.  It was beautiful.

On my drive to the diner, I noticed the roadsides were filled with fields of a brilliant blue hue.  The bluebonnets are blooming!  Even more remarkable, in my three hour drive I counted no less than 12 cars that had pulled off to the side of the road to take in the experience.  Families unloaded from minivans and walked through the flowers.  A man in a Toyota got out and snapped photos from his camera phone.  A trio of friends were taking turns posing amongst the blossoms.   A whole collection of strangers, compelled by nature’s beauty, stopped their journey across central Texas and wandered into wildflower fields.  Or maybe their journey was to find spring’s bluebonnets.

I stopped as well.  It was beautiful.

Spring is in the air.  A season of renewal.  I hope you’re finding the beginnings of spring, wherever you are!

[image via flikr, fake_plastic_earth]

Clear your Throat [chakra]!

March 30, 2010 in spirituality by bursty | 1 comment

bluebird

Vishuddha, the fifth chakra, is located in your throat (or just above it, in the energy field).  This chakra vibrates with the frequency of sky blue, and it represents your voice center (pretty intuitive, right!?).  A person with a healthy, open and clear vishuddha speaks openly and truthfully to express herself to others.  This chakra is associated with the thyroid gland, which is very important to regulating our body’s homeostasis (especially metabolism).  The area of the throat chakra is also in control of talking, hearing, chewing, swallowing, and breathing (many of your senses!). 

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Worm Moon Words

March 29, 2010 in Quotes, spirituality by bursty | 1 comment

Worm Moon (by Mary Oliver)

1
In March the earth remembers its own name.
Everywhere the plates of snow are cracking.
The rivers begin to sing.  In the sky
the winter stars are sliding away; new stars
appear as, later, small blades of grain
will shine in the dark fields.
And the name of every place
is joyful.

2
The season of curiosity is everlasting
and the hour for adventure never ends,
but tonight
even the men who walked upon the moon
are lying content
by open windows
where the winds are sweeping over the fields,
over water,
over the naked earth
into villages, and lonely country houses, and the vast cities

3
because it is spring;
kaleseedsbecause once more the moon and the earth are eloping –
a love match that will bring forth fantastic children
who will learn to stand, walk, and finally run over the surface
of earth; who will believe, for years,
that everything is possible.

4
Born of clay,
how shall a man be holy;
born of water,
how shall a man visit the stars;
born of the seasons,
how shall a man live forever?

5
Soon
the child of the red-spotted newt, the eft,
will enter his life from the tiny egg.
on his delicate legs
he will run through the valleys of moss
down to the leaf mold by the streams,
where lately white snow lay upon the earth
like a deep and lustrous blanket
of moon-fire,

6
and probably
everything
is possible.

Feeding the Heart Chakra

March 24, 2010 in Vegetables, spirituality by bursty | 4 comments

green

Anahata, your fourth chakra, is located at your heart center.  If you bring your hands together at the middle of your body, straight in from your elbows, your hands are just over (or in) anahata.  Anahata is a beautiful chakra (they all are, but this one is particularly emotive).  It is your center of emotion, unconditional love, compassion, and also sadness, fear, and grief.  The task of this chakra is achieving and maintaining self-love so that you can give unconditional love and compassion out to others and the world.

It vibrates at the frequency of the color green, and it is the center chakra — the one around which all of our other chakras turn.  Therefore, affecting the energy of the heart chakra more than the others affects all of the others directly.  When the heart chakra is out of balance you may feel sorry for yourself, paranoid, indecisive, afraid of letting go, afraid of getting hurt, or unworthy of love.  Physical illnesses include heart attack, high blood pressure, insomnia, and difficulty breathing. When the heart chakra is balanced you may feel compassionate, friendly, empathetic, desire to nurture others, and see the good in everyone. Body parts for the fourth chakra include heart, lungs, circulatory system, shoulders, and upper back.  (see here)

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Together

March 20, 2010 in Quotes, spirituality by bursty | No comments

dsc_1632

And when you crush an apple with your teeth,

say to it in your heart,

“Your seeds shall live in my body,

And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,

And your fragrance shall be my breath,

And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.”

-Kahlil Gibran, Eating and Drinking

Nourishing the Solar Plexus

March 17, 2010 in Personal Health, spirituality by bursty | 6 comments

yellow

The third chakra is known as the solar plexus.  In sanskrit it is manipura which means “lustrous gem”.  Your third chakra is located just below the bottom of your ribs — it is associated with self esteem, intellect, power, and vitality.  In Kundalini, it is known as the nabhi chakra, and the task in balancing nabhi is to achieve satisfaction with what is.  An imbalanced manipura manifests in worry and anxiety for things that are to come or for things that one wants (materialistic).  The third chakra also demands that we honor ourselves with self respect.

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Nourish Your Second Chakra!

March 9, 2010 in Personal Health, spirituality by bursty | 1 comment

orange

Continuing with the theme of nourishing the chakras that I started last week, I thought we’d delve into the world of second chakra healing and opening.  Svadhisthana (sanskrit) means “dwelling place of the self”.  This chakra is located a couple of inches below the naval, and it is the center of creativity, procreation, emotion, and sensuality.  Svadhisthana vibrates at a slightly higher frequency than muladhara, similar to the color orange.  Where muladhara is focused on meeting one’s physical needs, svadhisthana begins the work of relating to others — specifically one other individual (first your mother, typically, during your first year of life).  

The tasks of balancing this chakra include allowing for emotional and sensual movement, opening up to pleasure, and learning to “go with the flow”.  So when your second chakra is unbalanced you might feel a tendancy to control, avoid, or ignore your feelings.  You might experience emotional rollercoasters and overly emotional reactions to things out of proportion to the stimulus.  This being a feminine chakra (where muladhara is a masculine one), it promotes wisdom and acceptance.  When it is balanced you feel even and open in relating to others, and you are able to express yourself freely and with passion — painting, dancing, writing, singing!

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Food to Nourish Your Root Chakra

March 4, 2010 in Personal Health, spirituality by bursty | 2 comments

muladhara

In an attempt to incorporate some energy work into my writings on AGAD, I’m going to take some posts in the coming weeks to explore ways that you can [macrobiotically] nourish each of your seven major chakras.  As the last few posts demonstrate, I am a big believer in the energy side of macrobiotics — intuitively discovering the yin/yang energy of foods, as well as the various energies that surround me on a daily basis.  Although you can have energy work done to your body by a healer to balance out the chakras, you can do a lot to balance your chakras simply by being aware of them, and intentionally nourishing each one with meditation, movement, and food.

So let’s start off with the first chakra, the root chakra.  This chakra is located at the base of your spine, and its extensions are the legs and feet, which connect you to the earth.  Muladhara in sanskrit, this is your center of security and trust.  Read the rest of this entry »

Aryuveda/Macro Mash-up!

February 22, 2010 in Personal Health, spirituality by bursty | 4 comments

glass

I’m currently participating in a class at a local yoga studio that has mentioned the concepts of Aryuveda a few times, and it has sparked my interest.  The principals that I’ve been hearing about sound remarkably similiar, or at least complimentary, to macrobiotic principals.  The word “aryuveda” is derived from the Sanskrit roots of ”Ayus” meaning life and “vid” meaning knowledge, therefore translating to “knowledge of life”.  Practitioners of Aryuveda believe that each aspect of our being: the physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional, contributes to overall health, and that balance of the four is necessary for optimal health.

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