In this blog I am going to talk about a recent experience with spirituality and exercise (Primary Food). I have had a very rewarding, but stressful life as a restauranteur for the past 28 years and prior to that working for a Hotel corporation for twelve years. AT IIN I have been paying special attention to ways of reducing stress. There are several exercises that I have incorporated into my lifestyle from my IIN educational experience.
Breathing exercises to reduce stress (4,7,8), breath in 4 seconds, hold 7 seconds, breath out 8 seconds as an example has worked great especially when getting stressed. Daily meditation has worked its way into my life as well. Morning Pages (Julia Cameron author of The Artist Way) free form journaling after first waking up with affirmations and thankfulness has given me new perspectives and alertness to my daily activities. I am becoming much more mindful. (observant of myself and my surroundings, thinking, inner thoughts, perspectives etc.)
Recently we had a speaker, Taryn Toomey, a mind-body expert and creator of ‘The Class’ that gave me perhaps one of the most mind-blowing experiences yet. Before we get into that experience with ‘The Class’ I would like to provide the reader with some thoughts on spirituality.
What is spirituality?
“This paper proposes that eight positive emotions; awe, love, (attachment) trust (faith), compassion, gratitude, forgiveness, joy and hope constitute what we mean by spirituality.
These emotions have been grossly ignored by psychiatry. Spirituality is not about ideas, sacred texts, and theology; rather, spirituality is all about emotions and social connection.”
‘The Class’
Taryn Toomey was a yoga instructor for six years when she realized something was missing, she confessed. There was something inside her that needed to come out. She felt she needed Fire! This unimposing, petit, smiling ever so slightly teacher proclaimed to our class with a growl I need Fiiirrreee!!!
She developed a 75-minute class that I highly recommend (you can find her and a demonstration on YouTube). ‘The Class’ is a meditative, high energy forum designed to hear the inner voice you have. This voice helps you visualize the thing that might be holding you back, may be keeping you from being your true self, keeps you from realizing your true potential. And you need to get it out!!
As best as I can describe, I stood in my office with my eyes closed listening to her instructions as she told us to stand and ground our body with our feet. With music and a Aboriginal tribal beat in the background, our minds became sedated as she asked us to let our arms and hands hang, shake them out, loosen your bodies, bend the knees slightly, get into the music, get into the mind. She instructed us to breathe in and out deeply and after a while, eyes closed we started rubbing our hands together. We did that for several minutes and were told to open our hands and lift our hearts.
Then in a timeless moment, she asked us to visualize the thing in our mind that’s keeping us from what we can achieve? Visualize it, what does it look like? Meditating on this, I followed her lead. I pictured in the center of my mind, a big, dark spikey ball, rotating slowly and I knew that had to be it. With the music and beat in the distant background I envisioned this oddity. As we maneuvered through this meditative fog, Taryn questioned, what will it take to get rid of it? Unable to rid myself of this vision I was led back to where we started, our class lasted 20 minutes of the normal 75-minute program.
For me it was profound. I found a spiky ball in the center of my mind, what the hell was it. Taryn, in her diminutive, calming voice, with her slight smile, as if she knew something we did not, continued to say something that struck me. She mentioned something about running with that same loosening of the hands and body and finding that inner voice and vision. I’m a runner, so my running goal was to get that thing out of me that was saying I was tired, I couldn’t do it, my legs were heavy. All the negative energies needed to be released! And I believed I could do it. My senses were enlightened, I couldn’t wait to go run the next day.
Before my next blog look up Taryn Toomey and check out ‘The Class.’
This topic is to be continued…stay tuned!
