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So what is our essence?

Our essence is found in that inner-most part of us which when we deeply connect to our body, offers us those beautiful innate qualities that we then naturally express in and from. These qualities as an example may be sweetness, purity, grace, playfulness, tenderness… and the list goes on.

At the core of all those qualities is a stillness, joy, harmony, truth and love – all there for us all to tap into and live from. Those qualities are always there despite the fact that we may have lost sight of them as we get bogged down or burdened with our issues, hurts or simply the intensity of life.

Living from our essence…

We can liken living from our essence to the feeling of what it was like to live as that innocent and buoyant child where the days seemed timeless, where the joy, bounce and love for life was in every step. An image that comes to mind is that little girl skipping along the footpath enjoying simply being herself without a care in the world, or that little boy staring in awe at a bee or caterpillar.

When we are in our essence, there isn’t a holding back, rather there is openness, expression, a joy that wants to shine through for all to see. When we live from our essence, there is an abundance of energy there to be shared with all.

So why is it that most of us are not living from our essence? Why is it that we do not fully shine? Could that be a choice?

Ultimately the key reason is that we have not yet dealt in full with our unresolved issues or hurts. We all hold the responsibility to look at why we are not living with that full honouring and connection with our body, the essence of who we are and the world around us. We can blame others for the way our life is and how we feel or take full responsibility for the fact that we carve out our future by the way we choose to live in the present moment.

One difficulty behind letting our essence out is that if we were to truly shine, then we will stand out from the crowd, people will notice us, we could no longer play it small and will have to step up our responsibility.

Could it be that for many of us it is easier and more comfortable to hide or stay hurt then to make the choice to live all the love that we actually are?

Living from our essence IS a choice, a choice that is there to be made – moment to moment. Connect with our body, our gentle breath, our inner-being and live and express from this place – no matter what.

When we live from our essence, we offer that reflection reminding another that they can choose to live from theirs too.  It is a lot more fun and joy-full to live from your essence than not to. Go on, try it, work with what’s in the way, see how you feel.

Alexandra Plane and Donna Nolan offer Yoga/Yoga Therapy, Meditation, Esoteric Healing, Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and Massage at their clinics in Balmain ,Cammeray and Northern Beaches. Contact them for enquiries or bookings.

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Read more about meditation and download further free Meditations.

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane offer Gentle Yoga Classes and Meditation in group, private sessions and live online. Contact us for more information.

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December is upon us and once again doesn’t it feel like it has come around quickly?

As we enter into the end of year festive holiday season, it is a great opportunity to pause and reflect on the choices (our lifestyle choices and all others) we have made throughout the year and how all those choices have affected the quality of year we have had, where we are at and how our bodies are feeling.

One of the biggest realisations that we have had this year is the power and joy of self-appreciation, and how when we cultivate self-appreciation in our life – not so much for what we do or achieve, but rather for who we are, what we bring, our qualities, commitments and values – how this grows and opens up a flood gate of appreciation not only for ourselves but for others, all the small things in our lives and the world around us.

We personally have embarked upon a program where we have buddied up and shared via text message with each other twice daily something that we appreciate about ourselves. It can be something as simple as appreciating the quality in which we choose to walk or put ourselves to bed, to allowing more space in our day to simply be or our growing ability to refuse engaging in self-sabotaging activities or thoughts. Our daily appreciation can be anything that we truly value and appreciate about ourselves.

We have been committed and doing this daily for over a month and there has been much beauty in the unfolding nature of this program. It is very simple and offers much richness and rewards in opening up appreciation of yourself and then to others. The key was to do it consistently and daily so that self-appreciation naturally becomes your new normal.

It seems that numerous studies have been conducted on the benefits of appreciation including around brain functioning, corporate efficiency and as a health tool. What we have learnt from our little experimentation is

1. Self-appreciation is not about being positive nor is a mental construct, rather it is a sensation that is felt in the body

2. The importance to actually express, voice out to someone our self-appreciation

3. There is always something to appreciate about ourselves each and every single day even on the days when we are feeling a bit down and out

4. When we appreciate ourselves, we then automatically appreciate others and our lives more

5. It is heart opening and it felt deeply supportive to our health and wellbeing to appreciate ourselves and others on a consistent basis

You may want to experiment with giving yourself and all in your life this gift of appreciation in December and feel the difference in how you see yourself and others. A great way to end this year and prepare you for the new cycle that lays ahead as we approach 2016.

Alexandra Plane and Donna Nolan offer Yoga, Meditation, Cancer Support sessions and Esoteric Healing at their clinic in Balmain  Northern Beaches (Balgowlah) and Cammeray. Contact them for enquiries or bookings.

You may also like to read Donna’s blog Appreciation – A Pathway to Love

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Relationship issues affect us all – men, women and children – and are everywhere – at home, at work, on the roads etc -, and blaming others for the relationship problems we experience is a common thing we do.

What if we stopped wanting and looking for changes to happen in others to fix or better our relationships, and rather started with where it can only truly start, that is looking at the quality of the relationship that we have with ourselves?

What we have discovered for ourselves and in our lives is that as we develop, deepen, heal and take responsibility in our relationship with self, then so too do all our relationships with others can change and be imprinted with more honesty, open communication and harmony – rather than needs or fears.

This year’s upcoming Women in Livingness event in Sydney is a Relationship Workshop that will be held on the 19th July. This workshop offers women the opportunity to expand their understanding of relationships, including those with family, intimate partners, friends and work colleagues. It offers pathways for breaking down the ideals, beliefs and misconceptions that hinder the loving relationships we all desire.

We very much looking forward to this event. To book your place at the Women In Livingness One-Day Workshop on Sunday 19th July go to www.esotericwomenshealth.com/sydney

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane offer Yoga, Meditation and Esoteric Therapies. Contact Them for enquiries or bookings.

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This sense of deep well being, simplicity and joy experienced and expressed by our clients is a feeling that naturally derives as they re-connect back to themselves and their body.

Another typical comment they share with us is “if only I could feel like this ALL of the time.” Well the fact is that this is possible. “Really? How? I feel so relaxed, I would never get anything done like this” – we hear you say.

Well, the truth is that we become far more productive when we connect with our body and our inner presence before we actually do anything, then hold and honour that connection as we attend to whatever it is that we do.

In this quality of being (connection), there is no push, no drive, no expectation nor waste of energy, and the things that need “to be done” don’t feel like a “chore”, a “bore” or a “drain”. Rather ALL the activities of life become something that you simply and effortlessly attend to where “you” take “you” to everything – being an activity that you could have so far considered pleasant, unpleasant or have no particular awareness of or feeling for.

In other words when we live from connection, we do not compartmentalize how we are and feel in life anymore, accepting to maybe be grumpy at work versus relaxed and playful during the week-end or the holidays. As we commit to ourself and a way of living that is harmonious, we develop a consistency in how we are and feel in everything everywhere with everyone.

We would like to offer is some simple tips that you can playfully explore throughout your day, to develop or deepen your connection with your body and your being so that you gradually and naturally live with this quality of being ALL of the time.

1. Offer yourself moments to feel your breath throughout the day.

   Enjoy developing an intimate relationship with your breath starting to notice its quality throughout the day. Can you feel the touch of the breath on your nostrils, its temperature, its texture? Are you holding its flow or breathing more rapidly or shallowly in certain situations?  A gentle breath through your nose is a good indicator that you are connected with yourself and your body, with your body and physiology relaxed – breathing your own breath as opposed to stress or situations.

2. Develop an intimate relationship with your body – moment by moment.

   As well as noticing your breath, become aware of how your body feels or reacts in different situations. What is your posture like generally, when you stand up or sit, when you are on your own or with others? Does your body language change depending on who you are with or who you talk to how and what does this reflect, to yourself and to others? Our body gestures and postures communicate far more than our words.

3. Listen to your voice and its tone as you speak.

   Does the quality of your voice and tone change depending on who you are talking to? Are you putting on a voice in certain situations such as one of authority or are you communicating with your natural and true voice with everyone everywhere? Do you think and or plan what you are going to say (i.e are you going into your head), or do you trust, connect with your body, feel what to say and express in full?

4. Choose to move your body with awareness and in a way that feels gentle.

   The quality of our movements (e.g rushed, jerky, anxious versus gentle, precise and graceful) reflects the energy we hold in our body and as such the awareness of the quality of our movements is a powerful tool to catch ourselves when we are off and bring ourselves back.

5. Develop a repertoire of activities you commit to attend to from connection.

   You could explore sitting down and standing up making the commitment to yourself that each time you do this action, you will do it gently, with absolute awareness of feeling what you are doing and all that there is to feel. Once you have mastered the first couple of actions, choose another and continue to slowly build your repertoire.

The practice of living with the awareness of your inner presence and your body (conscious presence) starts with little steps to lay down a foundation, then a bit like any good building, you slowly steadily and lovingly build on top of this.

Give yourself the space to explore the above tips playfully and gracefully, holding yourself in love and acceptance of where you are at – i.e no judgement or criticism. Living with conscious presence and awareness is our natural way to be, so even though it may feel difficult and challenging at the start there is nothing that you need to better, improve, fix or achieve.

There is immense wisdom, healing and beauty in the practice of connecting back to ourselves and our inner essence and in living in that quality of being. This is something worth exploring and a gift that only you can give to yourself.

Alexandra Plane and Donna Nolan offer Esoteric therapies, Massage therapies, Yoga/Yoga Therapy and Meditation at their clinics in Balmain, Cammeray and Balgowlah. Contact them for enquiries or bookings.

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When we talk about healing, we are not referring to some miraculous recovery from an illness, or taking a magic pill and all of our woes go away. Healing as we refer to it here, in our yoga classes and in the context of our esoteric therapy sessions, is about getting to the bottom of the underlying root cause of what is going on for us in our body or with those thought patterns, reactions or behaviours that we know are not conducive to our health and wellbeing.

Healing is not about reducing the symptoms of an illness or disease, nor about making a situation or a reaction more manageable. There are many quick “fixes” and a myriad of “solutions” offered out there these days but healing is not about fixing or temporarily relieving either.

Healing, in its true meaning, is about bringing honesty and truth to what is coming up to the surface and clearing what is underneath the manifesting issues/symptoms so that these issues/symptoms are not repeated (fuelled) anymore.

So how do we go about true healing? Here are some simple steps.

1) Put your HONESTY cap on

Be honest about what is there in the body, the mind and what might currently be going on in your life (relationship wise, at work, sleep rhythm, eating patterns etc). It is easy for us to put on a happy face and say it’s all OK, but really, is it? With honesty comes a surrender and an openness to the truth of what is there underneath our issues or symptoms. It is from this place that we can begin to truly look at and address them.

2) Tune into your body

What can you feel? There will be some tension, emotions, aches & pains, stress, heaviness etc somewhere in the body. All of those, along with anxiousness, bad quality sleep, emotional eating, dis-functional body systems etc are all ways for our body to communicate with us. Are you listening? Be open to feeling your body as “ The body is the marker of all truth”  – Serge Benhayon.

3) Take responsibility & deepen your expression

If someone has done or said something that makes you feel hurt, sad, annoyed, upset, angry, go into jealousy or comparison, or brought up any other form of reaction – look at your part in this. Could it be that your reaction comes from an underlying hurt in your body being triggered? This is worth considering as if you heal the underlying hurt, you won’t react anymore. What are the particular circumstances reflecting to you? Are you allowing whatever is hurting you to happen? If what has been said or done did not feel like it was coming from a loving or caring place, consider that this may need to be expressed.

4) No intense analysis – come back to surrender and feeling

DON’T try to work it out from your mind especially if you are in reaction – it won’t work! When we lose our inner-connection, we can quickly get stuck or lost with repetitive thoughts and go nowhere. It is very difficult to get a true feeling of what is going on for us from our mind when we are in reaction. From steps 1, 2 and 3 – clarity will gradually and naturally come.

5) Be open to support – from you and others

This may come in the form of talking and sharing what is happening and how you feel with a trusted friend, creating space for some “me time”, re-connecting with yourself with the Gentle Breath Meditation, enjoying a gentle yoga practise or maybe seeing a practitioner for a healing session. When we open up to support it is always there. It may not always come in the form we expect it, but it will be there.

As we return to a greater level of connection with our body and inner presence, our ability to hear and listen to the messages from the body increases and our understanding deepens. With this we can address more easily the root cause of our symptoms and ways of life that cause us harm and suffering – either mentally or physically. As we heal and clear the underlying causes of the symptoms/issues, those symptoms/issues will NOT resurface anymore because there will be nothing (no source) to create them in the first place – this is the key.

The process of true healing goes hand in hand with developing self-love.

As we start to deepen how we relate with ourself, applying basic self-care routines, refining our rhythm and exploring self-nurturing, we gradually open up to self-love. It is during this process that the underlying root causes of all our ”ills and woes” (held in our bodies) become exposed for what they are and a choice to heal them is being offered.

Ultimately, healing is a natural part of a way of life where we leave no rock unturned and choose to open up to true health and wellbeing.

Written by Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane. Contact them

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Following on from our previous blogs “Do you have difficulty with sleep?” and “An Introduction to Rhythms and Cycles around Sleep“, you may wish to explore our below favourite self-loving winding down tips for a good night sleep.

1) “Tune-in” 2 to 3 hours before your bed time (for us it is around 6pm)

Make a conscious effort to become even more aware of the quality of energy that you are living in ie. are you rushing, doing mode, in drama or emotional overwhelm? Choose to stay present with what you are doing moment to moment and connected with your body (i.e feel your body, your breath, the quality of your movements, your voice etc).

2) Favour “being” over “doing”

Notice if you go into rushing to get things done so that you can have some “me” time. Make your “me” time be about you being with yourself in what you are doing as you are doing it, whatever that is. Remember we are “human beings”, not “human doings”!

3) Develop a regular routine of going to bed at the same time

Your body will love a regular rhythm. The best quality of sleep and what is most supportive for healing from an esoteric medicine point of view is from 9pm – 3am. If you are a night owl, try going to bed a bit earlier in small incremental stages, perhaps half an hour earlier for a month or so, see how that feels and then slowly move your bed time to an earlier time. Feel how it is for you in your body. This is a little easier to do in winter – so try now!

4) Engage in quality activities

Turn off both the computer and the TV at least an hour before you go to bed so you are not going into additional mental, intellectual or nervous stimulation before sleep. Enjoy maybe taking a nice evening walk, a long shower or a nurturing warm bath and really use this last hour to prepare yourself – physically and energetically – for your night sleep.

5) Don’t engage in heavy conversations before bed that will lead you into more thinking and potential emotional upset

Save them for the morning when you are feeling fresh.

6) Open your awareness to “cycles” – Meet tomorrow now

Have you noticed how we are met in the morning by the exact same quality of being we go to bed with? Such as going to be with un-resolved emotional issues, an exhausted body or an out of control mind. The answers to that is to develop a quality of being in our daily evening rhythms that equals the quality of being we want to enjoy for the day ahead.

7) Make time to “digest” and/or reflect on your day

What was the quality of your day? Did you react a lot? Did you take on a lot from others or circumstances around you? In other words, how was your ability to simply observe and not absorb. Appreciate and celebrate what you did well and learn the lessons for those instances where you lost your connection with yourself.

8) Gentle Breath Meditation

If you feel your body and/or mind out of sorts and difficult to settle with conscious presence and gentle movement, try the gentle breath meditation.

9) Put yourself to bed lovingly, tenderly and with awareness

Take a few gentle breaths feeling you lying down in your bed. Let your body go, surrender.

10) Close your eyes to be with you

Open and close your eyes slowly, gently and with presence a few times – coming to feel the warmth of your eyelids and the spherical nature of your eyeballs – until you feel to close them the last time to simply be with you. Falling asleep with ourselves is very beautiful, both deeply self-honoring and healing.

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane teach Yoga, Meditation and assist people in their healing via Esoteric Therapies, Massage, Yoga and Meditation. Contact them here.

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Choose a time of the day when you can sit or lie comfortably without being disrupted. Begin with bringing your awareness to your breath. Start to focus on feeling your breath through your nostrils.

Feel the quality of how you are breathing and then begin to focus on making your inhale gentle.  Feel the breath come in through the nostrils, feel the temperature of the breath and continue to follow it into your body. Repeat this and continue for several minutes until you establish a connection of your mind being with your breath. Once you have established the inhale then turn your attention to the exhale. As you breathe out, make the choice to do so gently and ensure that the quality of how you let the breath out of your body, that it too, is gentle.

Continue with a focus on both the inhale and exhale and the quality of the breath. Once you practise this for some time being present with your breath and you feel the connection of being with yourself, then when you get up from your formal meditation practise and head into your day, choose to maintain this quality of connection that you have established with your body via the meditation. When you complete your formal meditation practise, continue to feel your body as you go into your next activity holding your connection in what it is that you next do.

The development of the mind being with the body is called conscious presence.

Once conscious presence is developed and practised throughout your day, the racy thoughts of the mind start to slow down. That part of your mind that is always thinking of the next thing to do, or that tantalises you and causes suffering, those thoughts begin to lessen. Of course, this takes time and practice, but the more this is practiced, the mind stabilises and becomes more clear.

Try it – and see how it feels for you in your body. Here is a link to free instructional audio download library of the Gentle Breath Meditation.

You may also be interested in reading our blog What is Meditation?

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People often associate yoga and meditation as being separate, however, they are actually the same thing. According to Patanjali (father/author of the Yoga Sutras) the purpose of yoga is to bring the mind to a one pointed focus. He then goes on to explain the various stages of ‘astanga yoga” (no, not the sequence of postures that was taught by Pattabhi Jois, but the eight limbs of yoga), which outline the necessary steps to take towards living in a state of yoga (connection with oneself).

The final 3 limbs of yoga, Patanjali discusses meditation in detail. So could it be that yoga and meditation are actually the same thing? To developing a connection with your being and your body that you can then take into your daily life.

Putting history aside, let’s delve into some practicalities on how meditation can support you in your day-to-day life.

Meditation isn’t something that we do for just part of the day be it 10 mins or 2 hours and then forget about until the next time you practise. Yes a formal meditation practise sitting for 10 – 15mins can be very useful to help us to learn to re connect, to focus our mind and body. But where the gold is in meditation is when it starts to become part of how you live throughout your day.

The practice of meditation in your daily life, is simply being with your body in all that you do. It is about developing an intimate connection with yourself.

And how do you build this connection with yourself? Here are some simple steps:

1) Connect with feeling your breath and make the choice to breathe a gentle breath.

You may notice that when you are upset, your breathing becomes a little more erratic. Making the choice to breath a gentle breath brings a different quality of energy into your body. One that is more true than the up and down emotions that we may feel. When we steady the breath and it is gentle, it is much easier for us to re connect with our innate essence (ie. without the emotional roller coaster that we may use to be riding).

2) Make the deliberate choice to be with your body in what you do.

That is placing your mind with your body in whatever activity that you are doing. This way, you are giving your mind something to do.

3) Feel your body as you do that activity.

For example, feel your legs as you walk, feel how your hips move, feel how your arms sway.

4) Become aware of your thoughts

As you start to go into following certain thought patterns, make the choice come back to your connection with your body so you are present with what you are currently doing rather than follow certain thought patterns that may not be constructive.

As you take meditation into your daily life, you will find a whole new way of being present with your body in what you do. This way you begin to enjoy what you are currently doing on a whole new level rather than thinking ahead or reflecting on the past. Read more on How to Meditate.

Donna Nolan offers private meditation tuition, Massage, Connective Tissue Therapy and Esoteric Healing in her clinic in Cammeray and Balgowlah. Contact her at donna@yogaandhealing.com for bookings.

Free guided Meditation Download Gentle Breath Meditation

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