Labels & inspiration

Make sure that the labels you use to describe or define yourself are in service of your sense of rightness, inspiration and freedom. They should not constrict, crush or detain you in any way. Remember who is in charge of your inner world.. You are in full control of where you let yourself dwell internally. Take control. Don't linger in or feed thoughts, feelings and attitudes that bring you heaviness, insecurity or depression. Discard that garbage. And also throw away labels that prevent your expansion and vibrant self-esteem.

Labels can be used to help you to keep growing, feeling positive and inspired to continue on your path of persona authenticity and enhancing/following your sense of inner-rightness. Use them wisely! 

Contemplation of Perfection

See past your obstacles and current reality to the ultimate reality... Train your eyes to bow to your heart.

Know that you are the love and kindness you give to others, you are the beauty and strength you see in others as well.. Do not make space for jealousy~ jealously means that you have found a reflection of a piece of your soul that you have not yet allowed yourself to express or experience.

Love is abundant, but you will not feel this until you can stop hating yourself for being human.

Hold no space for excuse making, take full responsibility for your health and happiness every day, do not pass the buck to others.. Not even your family, your friends, your doctors or your government. At the same time, be patient.. Know that transformation is a process and that trial-and-error learning is our forte as humans.

Perfect yourself to live in dynamic alignment with your passions, joys, things that set you free, bring you health and a sense of inner peace/rightness.. But discard repeatedly the false concept of a sort of perfection that doesn't contain quirks, stumblings, or changes. That perfection is non-existent and it's pursuit will destroy your possibilities for happiness and wellness, as well as undermine your discovery and expression of your individual life purpose and light. 

You are never supposed to be anything other than your most raw and deepest sense of truth indicates. Ever. Please stop being afraid to be so amazing and powerful and instead make the most of your gifts and light. 

Health of Your Body Colors Your Worldview + Interactions with Others

An amazing, mind-blowing insight that came to me yesterday is this: when your body is off, unwell, polluted with toxins or unhealthy food it colors not only your mood, but your interpretation of others and their moods, actions, and words. It taints your view of everything and everyone. So if we take care of our health and physical fitness (without imbalanced obsession) we are taking care of how we will be able to see, serve, love, and interact with others and our world.

I have known this, I have encountered it before: seeing how on the days when I mentally felt like garbage, my interpretation and opinion of my self in the mirror was very dissatisfied and poor I realized how malleable our perceptions are. And I have known that all layers of being inter-penetrate and are one, but this is the first time this exact observation hit me over the head with its actual experience in my life. And I couldn't be more grateful!

So yet another reason to eat good, clean vegan whole-foods, drink lots of water, practice daily yoga, and listen to our bodies needs and requests... It alters our entire experience of life, relationships and ourselves! Minimize the toxins, live lighter and freer, and enjoy this wild and precious life!

Take good care of each other and don't cling to the reactions of others, even the ones you love most. Keep a broader perspective to avoid fixating on a passing mood or moment as if it were the end of everything. Moods and opinions and even what else we share are crystallized moments, relics reflecting a vast interaction of phenomena and history and reaction to sensory experience, including physical and mental states, all colliding in this very moment. Don't grab on and freak out and think that the ship is sinking. Give yourself and others permission to ebb and flow, grow and change, express and absorb.

Yet again, taking a little space around actions and reactions makes our experience of life clearer, more satisfying, less stressful, more beautiful.

Yoga Saves My Life!

I have noticed for years that on my days off, I feel off. By the time the weekend is over I don't at all feel like myself. My ego flares up fearfully taking every subtle fluctuation of my loved ones moods as a threat to my being loved. Things don't roll off my back so well. I feel less strong and confident. My digestion isn't as well as usual. Every week, I crawl to my first class of the week humbled and seeking refuge. I walk away like a new human, freshly risen from the ashes of yesterday and remember myself.

I usually don't practice on my days off. It stems from my days of teaching about 29 classes a week myself. On the 7th day, I needed a break in self-defense. Then came my precious child, and I had this being that needed my whole attention and wasn't down with hanging out for an hour while I adjust my attitude on the yoga mat.

Well, my boy is bigger. And I only teach 7 classes each week. And on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays I need to start practicing, with my son at my side. He needs to grow up seeing what yoga practice does for me. He can join in or watch or do his own thing, but I need this. I feel the difference, the aggregation of garbage and misdirected flow of energy building up by Monday afternoon. Why have to do damage control after every weekend? Why not do what it takes to align my body, my heart, my mind everyday? Why not be my best self, feel my best everyday?

My practice has transformed my relationship to myself, to the individuals, to the world, and has saved me from a lot of suffering. It honestly and without exaggeration has saved my life. It has vastly improved my experience of life, my outlook, my whole world. An hour or even less each day is a small price to pay for incredible health, physical fitness, mental clarity, inner peace, deep satisfaction and an abiding joy that permeates my every experience.

What effects do you get from yoga practice? How often do you practice? Would practicing everyday change your life?

I offer numerous free videos on the Natural Yoga Method YouTube channel, please see the link on www.enlightenAmsterdam.com and let me know your requests as well.

Gratefully... LH

Yoga De-mystified

Because yoga roots are wound in esoteric writings and a richly textured cultural background, there is a sort of mystery to it, especially when carried into the Western world.

The truth is that the essence of yoga can be de-mystified and gently unwrapped from its original cultural package to reveal shining truths about the heart of what it is to be a human.

Yoga practices and exercises are designed, at the most fundamental level, to reveal to us who and what we are, beyond all of the layers of accumulated baggage. They cut right through all false concepts of self and self-consciousness and reveal the shining heart of our individual identity. They not only help us to blossom fully as an individual, but they connect us to the universal layer of our selves as well, the layer at which everything is completely interconnected.

So while on the surface we cleanse our bodies and minds- tone, stretch, realign our bodies; balance, focus, and calm our minds; investigate our psyche; we also connect to the deepest layer of our existence on both individual and universal levels. This enhances our peace, health, happiness, creativity, social skills, success, sense of connection and compassion, feelings of satisfaction and leads us to a state of wholeness.

Yoga in essence describes that state of balanced wholeness, living in our fullest positive potential. Yoga can be found in any moment, in any experience, in any activity. Yoga is a state of being that is natural to every human being, across all external differences. Yoga is at heart what it is to be human.