Authentic Insight

I just received notice that this blog has been awarded top blog status!

I  recently attended the dress rehearsal of the first act of Tosca… my ex was a supernumerary in it. When my son, David, was little (10 yrs. old for Tosca) he was a boy soprano… Tosca was his first opera and he almost got the solo… it was between him a a 16 yr old girl. She got the solo… but David fell in love with the opera! (So did I!)

Being at the rehearsal was like being in a time machine… it seems like just yesterday that David was one of those little boys on stage! The performance was great… they all sang full voice… no one “marked” their part. They have such passion… what a wonderful way to live, doing what you love! I am so inspired by performing artists!

It’s not an easy life but they are compelled to be true to themselves! My son lives in NYC and like most actors waits tables in between his acting gigs.  There is constant uncertainty punctuated by the thrill of getting a part in a play and doing what you really love!  But I have to say that the actors all seem to bring passion and life to all these jobs no matter what they are!

When you are in love with life you can’t help but be alive and bring your environment to life where ever you are!  It is the only way to live!  Bravo!

As if life weren’t challenging enough… just coming out of a divorce, buying a house on short sale and trying to start a business… I am now starting a regular yoga practice, to compliment my already existing regular Qigong practice. It is actually because of of all these stressful changes in my life that I’m starting a yoga practice. In the past my experience with yoga has been limited and misunderstood.

At one time I thought yoga was only for flexible people. I’ve since learned that yoga meets you were you’re at, as you grow it changes…. much like the coaching process. My first real experience with yoga was several years ago when I was very overweight. I went to yoga because I had a groin pull.

I was hoping to relax the muscles and gain some flexibility. The class I attended was a “gentle” class. It was a nice atmosphere very calming and soothing. But to me it was just stretching, I didn’t get that there was anything more to it, that energy or spirituality was part of the picture.

My experience with Qigong on the other hand has been all about energy.  I had some resistance to the exercises in the beginning. I felt silly doing them. My brain (ego) would not shut up. I had so much inner turmoil the first few classes, it’s amazing I stayed with it. At the same time I was drawn to the class. The discomfort I felt during class mirrored the discomfort I felt within myself.

My Sifu, Dan Ferrera, a very intuitive man, realized this and explained how we were cultivating energy with the exercises. Over time I was able to allow myself to enjoy the process and tell my brain to shut up. I have problems with my knees and I’m not very flexible so Qigong is very “body friendly” for me, no demanding postures, just breathing, gentle movements and cultivating energy.

Qigong is like a moving meditation and through my practice over the past two years I have experienced bliss states, both in class and while meditating on my own.  It has become a very important spiritual practice in my life.  Practicing Qigong has rearranged my psyche and gotten me through the most stressful period of my life with relative ease. I expect that practicing yoga will only add to my inner peace and balance.

Practicing yoga is a stretch for me (no pun intended). My 54 year old body groans with the postures. My knees especially, present a challenge. I have been blessed to find a good yoga instructor or two. Instructors who help me make proper accommodations for my knees and then allow me to process through the class. Instructors who understand and teach the energetic connections with yoga.

After this morning’s class I chatted with my instructor, Chuck Mallur at Sattva Yoga Center, briefly, and learned a great deal. He said I got through the class well. He said to remember to follow the breath. Breathing first, postures second… I confessed that I’ve been doing it the other way around, he chuckled and said most people do. It dawned on me that my practices, both Qigong and yoga are metaphors for my life…

Qigong has taught me that there is so much more to life, to humans, to everything, than meets the eye. It has taught me that we are all one, all connected. It taught me how to get in touch with the subtle energy that surrounds us, connects us and makes us up. But more than anything I think Qigong has helped me connect to myself and accept who I am.

And yoga: where I’m striving to get into postures and forgetting my breath… Could that possibly be a reflection of the crazy driven life I’ve lead; where I’ve put everything and everyone before my own self care? I realize now what I want from yoga… I want it to be easy… and of course it’s not going to be. But like life, it doesn’t have to be difficult if you can learn to go with the breath; go with the flow. Breathing first, then postures! So I will practice, and “be” with my body and learn what it has to teach me.

www.paulakirsch.com

As a result of my recent divorce I found myself teaching nursery school part time this year.  It has been interesting.  I am certain God put me with the three year old class so I could come to recognize my own temper tantrums and attachments for what they are.

I remember my own children when they were that age… the frustration of not being in control.  The anger!  The tears!  The falling to the ground, screaming and kicking!  As a result of waiting since December on a short sale through the most frustrating bank of all… I can relate!  Okay I haven’t actually done the kicking and screaming thing… yet.

In the children I see a vulnerability that is so touching, and it mirrors my own.   One day my eyes met a couple of  uncertain, anxious looking children during a song at circle time.  I felt a connection with their plight.

Yes we are all in this together… and none of us are really in  complete control of things.  As adults we just sometimes forget that and actually think we are.  The children are so much farther ahead of us in the realization of the truth!

Yet at the same time, even though we are not in complete control, we are safely held in the Universe.  Gravity itself keeps us firmly planted on the earth so we will not be flung off the planet.  The children then, with their tentative glances  smiled warily as if suspecting that they were going to be okay after all.  And they were.  I trust that I will be too.

www.paulakirsch.com

I love when I open my mailbox to find a free book to review from Hay House!  It was my good fortune recently to find “Experience Your Good Now!” by  Louise Hay!  Louise Hay gives us tools to heal our lives in her new book “Experience Your Good Now!” This little book is more of a toolbox than a book! It’s filled with affirmations to address specific areas of life.

In the “What Are Affirmations” Chapter Louise gives very wise instruction around using affirmations. I’ve heard many people say affirmations don’t work and that is sometimes true… but the key is how the affirmation is formed. Our minds are like computers, it’s all in the programming. Garbage in, garbage out! But quality affirmations in, life transformation out!

I love this quote: “The more you talk about the problem, the more you anchor it in place.” As a healer I find this so true… sometimes people get attached to a condition. They identify with it. When that happens it is difficult to get rid of it. A conversation is necessary to address the thoughts that anchor the problem into the clients life. Only when a shift in consciousness occurs is there a possibility for lasting change.

The book also comes with a CD of the affirmations. There are affirmations for Health, Fearful Emotions, Critical Thinking, Addictions, Forgiveness, Work, Money and Prosperity, Friends, Love and Intimacy, and Aging.

In celebration of the release of Louise Hay’s book, Hay House is offering the chance to win a spot on their I Can Do It! At Sea Caribbean Cruise, Jan 28 to Feb. 4th, 2011. Enter to win at www.ExperienceYourGoodNow.com”

www.paulakirsch.com

A Detroit icon passed away this week. Ernie Harwell is often referred to as the voice of the Detroit Tigers. I think Ernie was more than that. I think Ernie was the voice of summer in Detroit.

His voice narrated our lives for decades. A fair summer afternoon in any neighborhood or along any major thoroughfare in the Detroit Metro area echoed with Ernie’s play by play calls of the city’s beloved Tigers. Season after season, players would come and go… Ernie, however was a fixture…. and a local good guy, a mensch.

Years ago I remember being impressed with his amazing “psychic” power to “know” who caught the ball… the man from Walla Walla or Muskegon. Yes I was gullible… and not really a big sports fan, more of a fair weather fan if anything.  But being a sports fan wasn’t a prerequisite for Ernie awareness and admiration.

Ernie was in the air (literally) in Detroit from 1960 to 2002 barring a short and unfortunate absence between 91-93 due to an unpopular decision to “go in a new direction” at WRJ. In 1993 Mike Ilitch purchased the Tigers and brought Ernie back post haste.  Now Ernie is gone for good.

I like to think he is narrating play by play on the other side and entertaining the angels with his low key southern drawl and conversational style. That one is looooong gone! RIP Ernie!

www.paulakirsch.com

Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book, The Shift is a little book full of deep concepts. The book outlines our life progress from youth to maturity, ignorance to wisdom, ambition to meaning. The four chapters in the book are titled “From,” “Ambition,” “To,” “Meaning.” The first half of the book represents the first half, or ego based part of our life. The second half of the book moves away from the ego based life and towards an authentic life of true meaning and spiritual connectedness.

This would be a great present to someone in your life going through a midlife crisis. Someone who is just starting to realize and question the emptiness of material success would benefit a great deal from Dyer’s wisdom in this little book!

“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing” ~~ Helen Keller

The past several months have brought home the truth of this for me. I have stepped way out of my comfort zone into uncertainty as I embark on a new life. If I would have known that I would be in an unsettled state for the better part of a year (and still waiting for everything to settle, even now) I would have been daunted.

However, as the saying goes: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. In this case being a “fool” is not a bad thing! In the tarot the Fool is considered a universal archetype of the Spirit, the Breath of God.

It is necessary to understand that the transformational energy of the twenty-first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the sheen, is the propelling force for the Fool on his journey. It is the fire of the spirit that burns and transforms all forms, and makes every home a temporary one. It is an attunement to the ruahh elohim, the breath of God, which blows wherever it chooses. Just like the Fool. The Fool is attuned to the impulses and intuitions of his own innocent inner child. The world of experience is something new and ephemeral to the consciousness of the Fool. The Fool is primarily aligned with the music of his own soul. He is a child moved by his passions and attachments. His mind is beginner’s mind; his heart is on his sleeve. Still, he is a Hebrew, a passerby, a nomad who can call any place on this earth his home.

~~ excerpt from http://www.treeoflifeschool.com/tarot/chap21.pdf

So even as my inner child navigates the world, following her intuition, I have truly been living out a lesson of trust in the Universe. My own nomadic journey will hopefully end soon in form, but never in spirit. I sense that soon the bank that my home purchase is going through will respond and move forward. I have connected deeply with the part of my soul that can call any place on this earth home.

I am amazed at the ease of progress when one flows with the Universe, as opposed to the struggle encountered when trying to make things happen from a left brained approach. I give gratitude for the multiple angels in my life, as I am safely held among them! On so many other fronts things are moving and moving quickly!

I may have to run to catch up! I have an office space, a new website and a “Reiki for Moms” class in the works, not to mention a rich and dynamic relationship with other healers in my community! Life is good! Much Gratitude and blessings to all! Namaste!

My coach and I were discussing the desire to change the world.  She used to feel that one person could work to change the world.  I’m not sure that I ever gave it that much thought before… but I can tell you that now I see that the world can only be changed via groups.  That group may be as small as just two people… but my point is an individual can not effectively change anything.

Why you ask?  And I’m sure you are hopping up and down with many examples of one person who did indeed change the world!  I say to you… that one person… John Kennedy?  Martin Luther King?   Oh let’s use King… it’s Black History Month after all!  Okay the great, revered MLK had other people that he worked with… he was not alone… he had a group, even in the beginning there was someone who supported King and his ideas… someone who believed in him.

That is why we need a group… we all have a seed of greatness within.  But tell me have you listened to how you talk to yourself recently?  Would you talk to a friend that way?  Even if you are highly advanced very aware individual I’m sure that at the very least that voice is sometimes full of doubt if not harsh self criticism.

Having another individual, say a coach for example, who can hold a non judging space for you makes a difference.  A coach can hold a space of possibilities and belief open for you, where you might shut the door on yourself.  Doing so gives you room to blossom into your greatness.

When I talk to my clients I am amazed at their courageousness!  I have worked with clients who faced impossible situations!  They have non nonchalantly told me they were fighting cancer, or other diseases.  They have been committed to making something happen even though building their dream meant temporary hardship and discomfort.  My clients are committed to a dream or goal that is bigger than any obstacle they encounter!  They are brave people!  It is my job to give them support in their weak moments… to assist them in finding the strength to go on… to understand and accept them and have faith in them… to be a mirror for them so they can see their greatness.

What do you want to accomplish?  How are you doing alone?  What would achieving your dreams mean for you, for your family, for the world?  We can make it happen together!  Dare something worthy and call me!  Together we can unlock your greatness and let your light shine to the world!