Today was an exciting day in our nation's history and I am so proud to be a part of it. Looking at the million of folks gathered to watch the inauguration, I was heartened by the unity of those participating. Everyone was included. It's the first time since 1993 that I have been hopeful and full of passion about my government.
Yes, I claim it. I hope you do, too.
Change,
Ma'lena
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Snow . . . and more snow; yes, snow
The steady accumulation of snow has been making it difficult to maneuver around the streets of Spokane. I live on a hilltop, and while I might successfully get down off of the hill, the challenge of getting back up frequently is enough incentive to keep me home.
We have just begun our first session of the new year, 2009. I am hoping that you will all show up for classes in spite of the snow, or perhaps because of it.
This week we will be exploring the theme of hibernation. Slowing down, moving into dormancy and stillness so that we might simply be.
Stay warm,
Ma'lena
We have just begun our first session of the new year, 2009. I am hoping that you will all show up for classes in spite of the snow, or perhaps because of it.
This week we will be exploring the theme of hibernation. Slowing down, moving into dormancy and stillness so that we might simply be.
Stay warm,
Ma'lena
Ahimsa
The Kindness of Strangers, Including Ourselves
By
Ma’lena Walley
2008©
Often it is easier to be kinder to strangers than it is to extend kindness and compassion to our families and ourselves—if we feel secure we release the beasts of anger, violence and cruelty. No matter how we may wish to behave, our limbic system rules our instinctual emotive life.
The basic yogic precept of ahimsa means nonviolence. Along with ahimsa’s nonharming/nonviolence definition there is also the connotation of kindness.. Acting with the compass of kindness makes violent and harmful acts difficult; when done, these then become acts of intention. Behaving, speaking and thinking as well as being mindful in ahimsa obviates harmful or violent acts—in theory because we are humans with foibles, flaws and passions. We fail, we falter, and we lose faith. After any unkindness, we come home to ourselves, the aftermath. This is when we need an open heart, a softening, an opening and an invitation to compassion.
It is challenging to act kindly in our culture of violence. Violence prevails; it is casual and pervasive. We are so desensitized that many of us no longer recognize it. Our language reflects this: think about what happens when you are angry and you say, “I’m gonna rip your lungs out,” or similarly brutal language. Your body and psyche hears this and responds in the limbic system by reverting to the fight or flight mode of shallow breathing, elevated BP, etc. As a complex system of nerves and networks, the limbic center of our brain involves instinct and mood, basic emotions—fear, pleasure, anger—as well as drives and urges. These primal components are often sealed into our cortex in a bonding of memory and sense.
For myself, every time I overeat, or choose unhealthy food I am acting with violence towards my body—I harm myself. The sequela of guilt follows—harming. This cycle continues and I succumb to stress, self-loathing and feelings of failure and futility. Ahimsa allows me to release part of the calculus of failure. When I do eat something unhealthy, I can compassionately accept that it is a behavior with which I continuously struggle. Yet kindness helps me avoid guilt and recrimination and more harmful eating. With guilt removed from the equation, I am free to act with kindness towards myself and everyone else.
Ahimsa requires patience, acceptance and being in the present. When macerating fruit, the fruit sits in a sweetened bath of liquid. While steeping and infusing, the fruit responds by softening, sweetening and taking on the characteristics of the sweetened liquid. Let yourself steep in ahimsa so that you become infused with it. Intensely flavored with kindness, you will telegraph the soft sweetness of ahimsa into your limbic and immune systems, your autonomic nervous system, as well as your heart, mind, and spirit, and these will act in concert to calibrate your behavior. The longer you steep, the more profound the changes.
By
Ma’lena Walley
2008©
Often it is easier to be kinder to strangers than it is to extend kindness and compassion to our families and ourselves—if we feel secure we release the beasts of anger, violence and cruelty. No matter how we may wish to behave, our limbic system rules our instinctual emotive life.
The basic yogic precept of ahimsa means nonviolence. Along with ahimsa’s nonharming/nonviolence definition there is also the connotation of kindness.. Acting with the compass of kindness makes violent and harmful acts difficult; when done, these then become acts of intention. Behaving, speaking and thinking as well as being mindful in ahimsa obviates harmful or violent acts—in theory because we are humans with foibles, flaws and passions. We fail, we falter, and we lose faith. After any unkindness, we come home to ourselves, the aftermath. This is when we need an open heart, a softening, an opening and an invitation to compassion.
It is challenging to act kindly in our culture of violence. Violence prevails; it is casual and pervasive. We are so desensitized that many of us no longer recognize it. Our language reflects this: think about what happens when you are angry and you say, “I’m gonna rip your lungs out,” or similarly brutal language. Your body and psyche hears this and responds in the limbic system by reverting to the fight or flight mode of shallow breathing, elevated BP, etc. As a complex system of nerves and networks, the limbic center of our brain involves instinct and mood, basic emotions—fear, pleasure, anger—as well as drives and urges. These primal components are often sealed into our cortex in a bonding of memory and sense.
For myself, every time I overeat, or choose unhealthy food I am acting with violence towards my body—I harm myself. The sequela of guilt follows—harming. This cycle continues and I succumb to stress, self-loathing and feelings of failure and futility. Ahimsa allows me to release part of the calculus of failure. When I do eat something unhealthy, I can compassionately accept that it is a behavior with which I continuously struggle. Yet kindness helps me avoid guilt and recrimination and more harmful eating. With guilt removed from the equation, I am free to act with kindness towards myself and everyone else.
Ahimsa requires patience, acceptance and being in the present. When macerating fruit, the fruit sits in a sweetened bath of liquid. While steeping and infusing, the fruit responds by softening, sweetening and taking on the characteristics of the sweetened liquid. Let yourself steep in ahimsa so that you become infused with it. Intensely flavored with kindness, you will telegraph the soft sweetness of ahimsa into your limbic and immune systems, your autonomic nervous system, as well as your heart, mind, and spirit, and these will act in concert to calibrate your behavior. The longer you steep, the more profound the changes.
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