The practice of shifting anger to passion

Keep the light shining

To understand the language of compassion and love, we have to be willing to experience them. The intellect chews on ideas and concepts, yet the depth of understanding arises from our true experiences. It’s the courage to go “inside the skin” of the body and witness the qualities of expanding the space in our hearts as the actual act of breathing. I have been catching myself holding my breath or hoarding the tension around my chest as a protective layer from the outer thoughts.

Life right now is a huge roller coaster of emotional moods. Is my inner peace dependent on the outer world? So much of the collective consciousness is full of noise. I am being pulled daily into the extremes of polarity, and it is one big distraction from my own inner harmonious sounds of stillness. I am having to make an even greater effort to maintain balance as I continue to sustain a state of yoga.

Living is the experience of my practice, and I practice walking in the opposite way as I attempt to stay in a compassionate understanding that others might see, hear, and experience life from a different lens than I do. I catch myself in judgment, and that only leads to anger. Arising from my own need to control the situation as I am right and someone else is wrong.

Humility is my practice as I can feel my heart ache and my stomach churn with confusion over how the world can be so fragile. I witness so much venom being projected out. Language is tricky, and words hurt and tone can cause huge suffering. I live my practice by witnessing my own thoughts. How do I maintain passion, commitment, integrity, and voice my heart without appearing righteous or dogmatic in ideals? Where is my moral compass for living in right thought for right action?

I have a passion for living with the roots of humanity valued as a soul. Yes, the body is brilliant, and my “container” is my vehicle to experience life. However, to live in greater joy and thrive in the higher vibration, I have to move past my anger at seeing the pain of war, famine, and all the ways shaming is being used to control the spirit of humanity. This is a tipping point for me to celebrate the voice of the female.

I am roaring with passion to move past the horrors of an angry ego. I am making a deeper commitment to inspire healing and grace and to cultivate the willingness to live in truth. As I practice turning my inner light on, the sattvic guna, I will move that quality of inner light upward as an actual experience in my meditation to expand the glow of love. It sounds so lofty and ridiculous. It’s not an “airy fairy” concept when I actually can feel the shift from tension to ease. The nervous system shifts and the body armor melts its gripping nature.

As my mind stays focused on the sensation of the breath as the object of my practice, I feel an effortless quality of ease moving past the wall of my identity. I no longer hold on to my need for safety when I feel the fullness of my inner space. My mind can actually rest in my inner self.

Practice, practice, practice. It is not a quick fix, and yet, health demands my willingness to move in this direction inward. Turn off distractions, worry, and the noise of fixing things. Sit in the awkwardness of not knowing. Let the experience become a new memory or pattern, and trust that these tools are healing humanity. I am practicing for all beings.

I am passionate about maintaining our sweet studio as a place of rest and restoring the human spirit to feel safe and nourished. We are moving forward as a healing studio and offering wonderful new workshops and experiences to learn the tools of yoga. Asana is a wonderful tool but it is not the only tool. Yoga has so many ways to experience being balanced. Come as a beginner to every class and enjoy living fully today.

Blessings always, 
Laura Jane

Yoga is a State of Balance

The summer days bring in a blanket of thick, moist, warm air. We are experiencing humidity and heat, and yet, the loud vibration of the cicadas has passed as they return to the moist soil for another 17 years of sleep. We have arrived at the heart of summer, welcoming the month of July as the world keeps spinning with noise and distraction and the constant fluctuation of extremes.

Staying in a state of balance is mandatory now, as the mind’s habit is to wander into a summer haze of confusion. Our nervous systems will react quickly to bite. Being overheated physically can burn us out emotionally. We know that health is a state of mind; the mind’s nature is to roam, and we need a practice of focusing to slow down and stay present. In a world of rushing and doing, how do we cool the mind down and feel the ease of just being?  

 YAF is a place to come inward and share within a community the practice of feeling at ease. To cool the agitation of our outer distractions filled with our inner stories of constant struggle. Life is beautiful, and we need to experience the peaceful sanctuary of feeling safe. Our minds must be able to come inward to heal our physical and emotional bodies, and health is our abundance.  

We have to create space and time to practice. Coming into YAF offers us a safe harbor to get on the floor and breathe. Let the tensions of overthinking shift to an experience of feeling relaxed. Feel the calm that can wash over us as the physical body releases the tension. It takes practice, but this is what yoga offers us—a way to feel the experience of relaxation in being present.

We are not an exercise studio offering only a “workout in heat.” We are a healing studio that uses the practice of yoga to feel the sweet ease of letting the body become stronger as the mind releases its grip on the tensions in the body. The effect is a quality of peaceful coolness. I always say that until one experiences the words I say, they mean nothing. Yoga is all experiential.

How can I explain the feeling of riding a bicycle? I can describe it in terms that only make sense to the intellect, but actually taking that first moment of balance and ride is an individual moment, which is the intelligence feeling the effort. A teacher who inspires and nourishes the effect of feeling balanced is the magic.

Come and enjoy our wonderful teachers as they guide you inward through the brilliance that all yoga is restoring our balance. Yoga is a state of balance as our nervous systems are restored, and our hearts can open to the beauty of being alive. Healing is a state of balance.

View our class schedule and book your spot.

Love and light,

Laura Jane

Staying Amazed

Being amazed at the extraordinary within the ordinary functioning of my day, I can live in the chaotic noise of this world and still appreciate the mystery. To hold a sense of astonishment, with a deep curiosity and bafflement over the random moments presented, I can stay aware that this is the gift of being alive. Sitting with the doubt and the questions and being content with not knowing the answers.

Instead of seeing what’s wrong with the world, I have started to make a commitment to see what’s right with the world. Whether I like it or don’t like it, pleasant or unpleasant, or familiar or unfamiliar. I am choosing to embrace the moment as pure grace unfolds. What’s happening is not happening to harm me but to offer a gateway for practice. I am living my yoga as best I can in the midst of challenges and obstacles that remind me of my vulnerability and the conditional state of being human.

The cicadas have become my practice of patience, tolerance, and awe. Nature reminds all of us that we are not in control. My wild hair has succumbed to being a refuge for a few, trying to get onto that safe zone of the trees! My sweet dog has enjoyed a buffet of them as we walk, and I begin my daily adventure of acceptance.

This, too, shall pass. This quote has become my mantra as summer arrives and my flowers and garden come alive. Color is restored in Illinois, and the miracles of this season return. I listen. The early morning wake-up sounds of the birds have been louder than I have ever remembered, and thus, I begin my practice of staying amazed.

Let’s not rush into the day and start with the habit of doing, getting, and striving, but let the day unfold gently. Begin with a shift and choose to witness what’s being presented—the practice of absorbing the sensations around us.

The mind is tricky as it links to the habit of fear. Fear and the movement of thoughts into the fire of anger lead us to repeat doubt and worry. Life is challenging now for so many, and hearts are breaking with this world of chaos. Minds are spinning, and words can be harsh as we get exhausted from the rage we see in the world.

When I am tired, overwhelmed, and doubtful, I have no desire to move in another direction. It takes great effort to shift the noise and chatter of fear into the space of the breath and oxygenate the blood. Breathe into the body and purify and release the accumulated tension within the muscles and fascia.

The learned mind of habits and patterns keeps this false protection, and we believe we are just NOT flexible. Everybody can shift from what we have held as a false truth. We all can start to feel better with baby steps and start moving into the space of wanting to feel alive. To be human is to be vulnerable, and we must risk letting go and moving forward through a stable mind that feels rooted in an actual experience of feeling calm and at ease.

Desire to feel the body dropping its armor, feel the tightness around the chest, hips, and pelvis, and welcome the awkwardness of a spacious release. Energize and inspire the passion of living in amazement. Health and vitality are possible even amid deep emotional and physical pain. This spiritual gateway is through the heart. We are sharing a human experience of humanity breaking open, not apart.

Stay amazed and flexible with the constant shift of living from what we think to what we feel is Truth. This summer, we offer wonderful opportunities at YAF to heal and nourish our collective hearts. Come and join in our welcoming space and begin the practice of being “Amazed.”

See our June/July class schedule and book a weekly class.

Reserve your spot at our upcoming workshops and events.

with love and light,

Laura Jane Mellencamp-Murphy, MS, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500
Owner, Director, Certified Yoga Therapist
Yoga Among Friends, Downers Grove, IL