The feeling of my body breathing occupies my awareness this morning. My abdominal and intercostal (rib cage) muscles are tighter than usual. The challenges of self-quarantine, filling the hours, and not slipping into negativity require this awareness. Not breathing well can result in oxygen-deprivation to the brain which only makes it harder to cope with aloneness.....harder to experience this time as all-one-ness.

In this moment, all that I can control is my attention to my breath. The tightness is restricting the flow somewhat so I breathe more consciously into the ribs and abdominal area.

My practice today will focus on loosening the torso and conscious breathing.

It is enough. Namaste.

Has anyone taught you to breathe consciously? 

Contact me with questions, appointment requests, or whatever is on your mind and heart:   [email protected] Please consider joining my online meditation group

This current world-wide experience has caused our daily lives to change. At first I was experiencing too many shifts and changes to track. The magnitude of this spreading virus was too much to take in, especially because the reports heavily emphasized the danger to people in my age group - I am 74. 

About 10 days into the first self-quarantine ordered, reality hit me hard. I could not contain or manage the overwhelming grief that passed in and through me. All I could do was honor the decision I had made the day before to watch very little TV. After all, it was the same every day: more reported illnesses, more positive tests, more deaths. I reached out to dear & trusted friends to pray for me. By mid-afternoon, I was calmer, crying less often, and completely exhausted.

Now, by necessity, more people than I can count are alone at home. They are, like me, not being with beloved family or friends. I miss playing with my grandchildren, hugging my daughter, son,...

A number of years ago a dear friend took me on a four-hour hike. We peaked at 5700 feet and it was profoundly wonderful. I had never done a hike like that before and my friend proved to be a compassionate and knowledgeable coach. The sky was close, the mountains had their snow caps on and the sun on the pine needles looked like diamonds.

I am a mountain girl. Like those who long for the sea, I long to look at and visit mountains. I am restored and renewed in their presence. That day I felt the earth breathing and the rocks aware of my presence. There was a tall pine tree partially hollowed out by a fire that had occurred a few years before. The tree survived and had continued to grow. It reminded me of the redwoods of northern California. I walked quietly to the tree and gently touched the scorched bark and the exposed inner wood, tracing the lines of its rings. Then I stepped inside and closed my eyes, resting my forehead against the inside of a living tree! I prefer not...

Yoga and Meditation have brought me to understand that body, mind and emotions are not separate things. They are all one manifestation of the soul or the life essence that is currently in human form. Ancient religions and philosophies, including yoga, teach us to overcome the flesh, to control the mind and to subdue the emotions. None of that ever worked for me. It created so much conflict within myself that it resulted in depression and a sense of hopelessness because I was never going to be good enough, never going to get it right.

Now, through the love, compassion and guidance of my teachers and mentors over the years, I have begun to understand the truth of non-separation, non-duality, oneness and wholeness. Last night I watched a show I had taped on the OWN network. Jane Fonda spoke of her life journey to wholeness. Several times she said, "We are not here to become perfect. We are here to become whole."

Every particle of my being resonates with that truth. The journey is one...

May your mind and heart be open.

May Divine Peace dominate your thoughts

and

fill your heart.

May you remember the Oneness of All That Is.

May you know, over and above all else,

that you are

Divinely Known, Loved, and Sustained.

How can I write this? Because I know that I know....God is Love. I know that all that exists in the material world exists because God is. I know that this is not all that there is.

LOVE IS

YOU ARE LOVE IN FORM

YOU ARE INFINITELY, ETERNALLY LOVED.

 Are you fearful right now? Please let me guide and support you? Let me show you how to rest in the Peace of your Soul. 

Contact me with questions, appointment requests, or whatever is on your mind and heart:   [email protected] And consider joining my online meditation group

With a faltering marriage and intermittent health problems, I was feeling emotionally drained and spiritually abandoned. My quest for healing and wholeness in body, mind, and spirit seemed, ironically, to be tearing my life apart.

Becoming weaker and weaker over a period of months, I had to pry myself out of bed to take care of my family and home. As one diagnostic test after another showed that everything was normal, I began to question the meaning of that word!

One Sunday afternoon as I lay on the bed, exhausted and sick, hot tears filled my eyes. Feeling totally alone, it seemed that I was completely unable to change anything in my life. As I drifted into a half-dream state, I prayed for courage, for the strength to endure this with my sanity intact. Some of the emotional pain subsided, and I found myself drifting, floating on a cloud over a beautiful field of wildflowers. It was lovely, and in that moment, I felt safe and peaceful.

I found myself on the ground, sitting...

Dear One,

We speak to you of harmony and ask that you simplify your understanding of this thing.

In music, harmony is achieved by the careful balancing of different sounds...the more parts, the more complex (and the more beautiful) the harmony.

Harmony in art is the combination of colors, textures, and mediums. What appears chaotic on the palette becomes a visual symphony on canvas.

In literature, words that have little meaning when left to stand alone can, when brought together, lift the heart and mind to realms of ecstasy and truth.

Harmony is what the soul seeks. Drawn by the memory of its former state, it longs to return. This longing leads both heart and mind on a quest for personal Truth, Inner Knowing. It finds no rest apart from oneness with All-that-Is.

Harmony...

meditate here

dwell here

you are one.

As are we, We are Love.

Are you ready to dwell in harmony with Divine Love, Source of All That Is? 

Contact me with questions, appointment requests, or...

The following is from a work I titled "From Venus With LOVE." The messages or thoughts came to me during times of meditation over twenty-five years ago, during the early years of my awakening.

Dear One,

Have you forgotten who you are? Has the journey been so long and so far that you have lost touch with your true self?

It is time, then, for letters from "home" - time for the One who knows you best to remind you of your True Essence, Your Source.

This won't necessarily change your circumstances but it should enable you to navigate the course with more confidence and a clearer perspective.

What matters in reading these thoughts is the Love they contain. The words may not always be accurate but they come from the very heart of the Universe, All-That-Is, Divine Love Itself.

As you read, dear One, listen with your heart. Hear not with the mind, but with the soul and spirit. Grasp those things which spark the Life within you.

Be willing to believe in the reality of your True Essence,...

A number of years ago I recognized a pattern in my life when I experience stress. The source of that stress is insignificant. My response to stress is predictable and counter-productive. I hold my breath.

Welcome to the human race, Catherine Ann.

It is a very common reaction to the challenges life brings. Shortening or holding the breath sets off one of our natural survival mechanisms. The brain signals the nervous system for more oxygen. The nervous system signals the adrenals to fire which kicks everything into a higher gear so that the breath rate increases, sending oxygen to the brain. The drawback is that, in most situations, I don't need more adrenalin in my body because I am not in any danger. What I need are calming body chemicals so that I can make decisions or let something go and float on the calm waters of Life.

Somewhere along the way, I learned that the problem usually reveals the answer. Since I am shortening and holding my breath, the answer...

I grew up Catholic and am grateful for the sense of awe and mystery that was instilled in me through my religious education. As an adult I chose to explore and embrace the Protestant side of the Christian house and am equally grateful for my experiences there. I am a traveler; I journey through life and the universe of spirituality. I am always seeking deeper and wider meanings to life. My personal expression of the Divine Presence in this world is eclectic and ever-unfolding.

At some point in my journey, I was given a prayer titled "O Creative Breath" and it caused my heart and mind to soar with its beauty and tender expression of Divine Love. This was given to me before the creation of the internet so I was not able to locate its precise source. I had only the name of the translator. I now know this is a compilation of six translations of the "Our Father" from the original Aramaic language that was spoken at the time of Jesus, the Christ.

I will share the compilation...