Posts Tagged ‘Rhythm’
Joyful Rhythms
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
I woke up early Saturday morning and headed to Park Slope in Brooklyn to give a Joyful Rhythms workshop to a group of women from the Joyful Heart Foundation. The day was about experiencing our heart rhythms through drumming circles, movement, meditation, and reflection. After many attempts to get into the yoga center, we realized we didn’t have a key to one of the locks. We waited outside the door and shortly before the group arrived, a locksmith pulled up and changed the lock. I smiled and said, “Isn’t this the way of it. How often do we close our own hearts and need a locksmith to open it and let love in?” And so the workshop began with a locked door and finished with open hearts.
Some of the women had never played a drum before. One of the participants from the workshop wrote an amazing poem after her experience of the day that she read to the group and provided to me to post.
I am a descendant of the drum.
Loud, mighty and strong is where I come from.
It’s love is a language that courses through my veins
If you strip away all other noise my truth remains.
– Tomika Anderson
And so, we are all descendants of the drum moving with joy and opening our hearts.
Joy-filled rhythms, always,
Mary Anne
Much love and gratitude to Allison Talis and everyone at the Joyful Heart Foundation~
Monthly OM Meditations – January
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
In my last post, I shared about my Happiness Project and offered some ideas on how to start your own. One of my happiness project themes included “self-care” and that meant setting aside time daily to meditate, even if it is for 10 minutes. These meditations have been so powerful and sweet that I have decided that every month I will post some of the questions and thoughts that have flowed from these contemplations.
As an invitation, feel free to close your eyes, sit with your spine straight, and take a few soft breaths. Then inhale a little deeper through your nose, and on the exhale, repeat the mantra OM (AUM). Do this three times. Allow yourself to really feel everything and become the observer of your thoughts. Feel free to focus on one question or statement below and just allow your experience to unfold.
What is your love poem to God/Spirit? Speak it, share it, sing it.
What is the spring from which everything flows?
Supplies of the heart are abundant.
Be love. The rest is just details.
I will wait for you – always. In your time, I am here.
Go with what is and the rest will take care of itself.
I am aware of what my breath is teaching me in this moment.
I am present to my breath.
There is a sunburst of light waiting to glow in the sky of each heart.
Each person will have their own experience so the invitation is to be open for whatever thoughts flow through you. Allow your mind and body to expand into the meditation (without judgment). Feel free to start with a mantra that calls to you.
My experience of the mantra OM is beyond language–it’s a powerful vibration–the sound before sound.
See what makes you feel happy and follow that rhythm. I would love to hear about your meditation experiences – drop me a line anytime!
OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti,
Mary Anne