Weekend Workshop at Yogaville – Upgrade Your Story!

Stacy Kamala Waltman’s Weekend Workshop at
Integral Yoga’s – Yogaville in Buckingham, VA
June 22 – 24, 2012

Click here for more info:
Upgrade Your Story: Life Coaching and Yoga

To register:
Life Coaching and Yoga – Upgrade Your Story,
engage your inner alchemist ~
with
Stacy Kamala Waltman

~

Read Full Post »

AN OPPORTUNITY TO POUNCE!

“Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the
outside world.” ~ Nicola Tesla

The title of my blog post was Is Yoga a Religion or Cult?  The body of the article answered this question yet in the approximately 20 places I posted; only one person actually read the message and responded within the context of the missive.

On the other hand, eleven people replied to the question, Is Yoga a Religion or Cult without reading the content of the blog’s message.  Their answers lead the conversation over to their preferred arena; a particular website or educating me about yoga.

While I am always open to new information, it was clear from their remarks that they did not know the extent of my 30+ year yoga training.  It was simply an opportunity for them to “teach” and apparently they “needed” to teach.  Some call it pontificating, I call it pouncing.  The ancient’s called these reactionary tendencies to blindly respond, samskaras.

Samskaras are simply a reaction waiting to happen; an auto-pilot.  Samskaras are our tendency to interpret information in a certain way or look at a particular view of the whole while the ego locks on to a small facet and launches a reaction.  Unchecked these behavioral loops of bias repeat and behaviors become more entrenched.  Oh, and by the way, we all have samskaras and most are hidden from view; blind spots.

Sometimes, after much thrashing about, Stress Management Programs like yoga catch our eye and we begin to consider what it would be like to perceive the world with a new lens and respond in a different, non-habitual way.

Yogic Stress Management tools of cultivating awareness, breathing practices, and self-reflection help us de-magnetize the power of our samskaras/tendencies.

The first step in pulling away from samskaras is gaining awareness of these habitual responses.  This in my opinion is nothing short of a miracle.  Often people get to this place after they have tried over and over again to see their blind spots but they miss what they can’t see.  They are able to consider the edges of their periphery but their blind spots are…blind.

Yogic practices to cultivate awareness include but are not limited to: Meditation, Yoga Nidra, Pranayama, and Life Alignment Coaching.  Each of these programs teaches you how to slow down, take pause and become more aware.

When you take a moment to pause and notice the desire to pounce, check in with yourself and ask, “Have I missed, skipped or ignored something?” or “Am I looking at this situation, person or event with fresh new eyes or dull biased ones?” and “It may be or feel unfamiliar, but I am going to do my best to respond differently to this situation, right now.”

Please enjoy one of my favorite quotes:
“Thoughts can create such a barrier that even if you are standing before a beautiful flower, you will not be able to see it. Your eyes are covered with layers of thought. To experience the beauty of the flower you have to be in a state of meditation, not in a state of ‘mentation’. You have to be silent, utterly silent, not even a flicker of thought – and the beauty explodes, reaches to you from all directions. You are drowned in the beauty of a sunrise, of a starry night, of beautiful trees.” ~ Yogic Wisdom

My thanks to the eleven people who “needed” to teach me about yoga as a result of my previous blog.  It provided us with a worthy topic for discussion.  For those of you who missed the original article, here it is:  Is Yoga a Religion or Cult?

Please share your thoughts on this topic.  It is so lovely when people respond from their own experience in a conscious way.

Here’s my Twitter info if you’d like to join:  YogiKamala

Blessings ~

~ Copyright © 2012 (Stacy Kamala Waltman)

~

 

Read Full Post »

YOGA, is it a religion or cult?

Q. Is Yoga a religion or cult?

Stacy Kamala Waltman answers:

    “Yoga is a holistic approach to health and balance. It is not associated with any religion although it is spiritual; the practice connects us with our highest and most lighthearted state.

Meditation techniques have been used in many religious traditions: Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, etc. The tools used in a yoga practice include every area of one’s life including healthy food choices, reverence for the Divine, flexibility in mind and body and deep connection to the breath. When all areas of our lives are in balance we tend to be truly happy, healthy and more loving to ourselves and others.” ~ SKW

“I have learned so much from God that I can no longer call myself a
Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist or a Jew.

The truth has shared so much of Itself with me that I can no longer
call myself a man, a woman, and angel or even pure Soul.

Love has befriended Hafiz so completely. It has turned to ash
and freed me of every concept and image my mind has ever known.” ~ Hafiz

 

Kamala Yoga:  www.kamalayoga.com

~

Read Full Post »

STACY KAMALA WALTMAN’S WORKSHOP AT YOGAVILLE ~

Professional Life Coach and advanced Yoga teacher Stacy Kamala Waltman will lead you on this journey, using visualization, asana, various concentration and meditation techniques, and her expert insights and skilled guidance.

Kamala has been studying yoga for over 30 years and is RYT500 certified.  For more information and to register, please visit:  Yogaville Workshops.

~

Read Full Post »

YOGA IMPROVES JOB PERFORMANCE ~

Q. How do Stress Management Programs like Yoga increase productivity, efficiency and job performance?

“Yoga, in its full spectrum approach to balance and health on all levels utilizes the body, breath, mind, and subtle energetic systems in a synergistic whole.

Yoga is not just physical; it is an ethical, conscious, aware and holistic approach to life. The Sanskrit word, yoga literally means yoke or union so when yoga neophytes say, “Do more Yoga!” That’s like saying, “Do more union!”  We don’t DO yoga. We are either in yoga or we are not. We are either balanced or we are unbalanced.

Instead of doing more yoga, be in yoga.  Do more asana or meditation practice.  Actually treat your Self to the bliss of yoga nidra rather than just thinking about it and by all means expand your study of what yoga is in all of its fullness.

True yoga transforms how the mind, breath, body and emotions respond to stress in an interconnected dynamic.

Just as the body can learn a new standing posture that eventually becomes ingrained, so the mind can learn new thought patterns and ways of shifting awareness though meditation and yoga nidra.

Additionally with practice, the nervous system can learn to manage stress through breathing techniques called pranayama.

Over a period of re-training in a yogic holistic practice, when challenges arrive in any environment, they begin to flow through rather than overwhelm us. As a result, we become more conscious; efficient, clear, balanced and compassionate rather than reactionary, numb, robotic or punitive.

At work and at home; in all aspects of our lives we become more productive, joyful, efficient and aligned as a result of being in yoga.”
~ Stacy Kamala Waltman, Meditation Master and Advanced Life Coach

Please join me on my new website:  www.kamalayoga.com

~

Read Full Post »

Not Even the Symbol Remained ~

The Naked Saint by Shernaz Wadia

When scantily clad women of the 21st century are frowned upon, she dared to go around naked in the 12th century!! Who was this dauntless woman? This was the young, defiant, vibrant, one and only “Akka” – respected elder sister of the world – Akka Mahadevi of Karnataka.

She was liberated by her unstinting devotion to and love for her Cenna Mallikarjuna, Lord, white as jasmine, Lord Shiva. Staying nude was a common practice among male ascetics in those days, but for a woman it was considered nothing less than sacrilegious and shameless. Legend has it though, that her nudity was totally protected by her beautiful, long hair. Her statue too, installed in her birthplace, stands thus today.

People,

male and female,

blush when a cloth covering their shame

comes loose

When the lord of lives

lives drowned without a face

in the world, how can you be modest?

When all the world is the eye of the lord,

looking everywhere, what can you

cover and conceal?

Akka Mahadevi lived during the 1100s in Karnataka, a region on the southwest coast of India. She was born in Udatadi of Banavasi, in a pious Shaiva family. According to Shaiva literature her parents were Nirmala and Sumati, themselves steadfast devotees of Lord Shiva.

That was the time of liberal Veera Shaivism, a reform movement. Its leaders – political and spiritual radicals ¬¬ aimed at direct communion with the divine, rather than through meddlesome mediators. The satsangs of the Veera Shaivites had no room for the caste system. At their gatherings all were required to work, eat, study and practice together. Rituals were reduced to the barest minimum. Their community thrived outside of society and developed a strong spirituality alive till today. Outstandingly, in their households, daughters were taught to read and write and were allowed to study scriptures, putting them on par with the men in these respects. Theirs was a direct spiritual and political rebellion against the orthodoxy and religious sway of the Brahmin priests.

Akkadevi grew up under this progressive influence, with the framework of Shaivism as her paradigm. Little is known about her childhood, except that she studied under Shivagamacharya and started writing vachanas from a very early age. She is said to have written about 350 extant free verse lyrics in the Kannada language, known as vachanas (literally, “sayings”), in praise of the Lord, whom she had accepted as her mystical husband and lover. Like that of other bhakti saints, the imagery of her verses too is based in the everyday, familiar language of ordinary people.

She had wanted to remain an unmarried devotee of Shiva, but her family forced her to marry the ruler of her land, King Kaushik, who having fallen in love with her beauty, sent her a proposal and threatened her family when she rejected him. But she still kept him at a distance asserting that Shiva, was her only lover and husband.

“Listen, oh, Mother! I love Him,

He is the one, the only one.

He knows no birth and death.

He is unchained by caste or clime.

He is boundless, changeless, formless;

He is beautiful beyond comparison,

All others fade away and die at last.

I will have none of them.

My Lord shall forever be

One day, when the constrictions of household life became too claustrophobic, she ran away rather dramatically from her husband’s house. With the rejection of family life and worldly belongings, she shed her clothes too as a symbol of her asceticism. She roamed free throughout South India, singing her songs and worshipping her Lord, eating and sleeping as and when the mercy of strangers permitted it. Her act was considered a defiance of the varnashrama dharma which suppressed the shudras and women. She proved that a woman has every right and has all the means to pursue a life exclusively engaged in the exploration of the divine. She is even believed to be a major figure in the social empowerment of women. one of the first feminists and to date she inspires those fighting for women’s emancipation.

Other men are thorn

under the smooth leaf.

I cannot touch them,

go near them, nor trust them,

nor speak to them confidences.

Mother,

because they all have thorns

in their chests,

I cannot take

any man in my arms but my lord

white as jasmine.

~*~

I love the Handsome One:

he has no death

decay or form

no place or side

no end nor birthmarks.

I love him O mother. Listen.

I love the Beautiful One

with no bond nor fear

no clan no land

no landmarks

for his beauty.

So my lord, white as jasmine, is my husband.

Take these husbands who die,

decay, and feed them

to your kitchen fires! [Ramanujan, p.134]

~*~

Later she wished to join a community of Veerashaivas (a new and radically democratic group of Shiva devotees), and many of her poems are from the report of her successful attempt to prove to the male Veerashaiva leaders gathered in the city of Kalyan that she was worthy to be part of their community.

Why do I need this dummy

of a dying world?

illusion’s chamberpot,

hasty passions’ whorehouse,

this crackpot

and leaky basement?

Finger may squeeze the fig

to feel it, yet not choose

to eat it.

Take me, flaws and all,

O lord white as jasmine.

At the ashram here she met the famous Veera Shaivite Guru, Basava. He doubted her sincerity as a serious spiritual seeker. Her nudity covered by her hair was questionable to him, but when she argued that she did it to spare him embarrassment, he recognized her genius and she entered his ashram as his disciple.

“It’s only when the fruit is ripe within

That the outside doth lose colour.

If I covered the symbol of sex,

It’s lest it hurt your eyes.

Why does it needle you, O Brothers?

Spare this poor maid

Who has surrendered herself to Cenna Mallikarjuna.”

She attended many gatherings of the learned at the Anubhavamantapa in Kudala sangama to debate about philosophy and attainment of spiritualism

“Seeing the feet of the master,

O lord white as jasmine,

I was made

worthwhile.”

She is believed to have died in her 20s, supposedly disappearing in the banana groves at Shreeshaila, in Andhra Pradesh while in ecstasy entering mahasamadhi (divine union) with a flash of light. This merging of hers into her Lord white as jasmine is thus described by Vasanti Mataji –

“The bee that was engaged all along in drinking the nectar from the white jasmine is consumed totally in that very process. Not even the symbol remained” ~ Vasanti Mataji

www.kamalayoga.com

~

Read Full Post »

Are you Giving Up or Surrendering?

Happy Spring!

There is so much abundance around; such beauty. I hope you are all getting outside and surrendering into life!

Many people misunderstand the concept of surrender. Surrender is not inaction or giving up or even accepting defeat or being codependent. Surrender is giving up our expectations of how things should be. When we expect or demand a certain result we are operating from a standpoint of control rather than deep surrender. Bargaining with the Divine is not surrender; “I’ll do this, God… if you do, that.” Surrender is making plans, utilizing our intelligence and capacities but not being attached to the fruits of those actions.

In one of my favorite books, the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells the warrior Arjuna that making plans, taking action, even painful action, is not only necessary it is the only way we fulfill our destiny (dharma).  A more contemporary version of this theme is by baseball legend, Yogi Berra. He said, “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.”

We often get stuck in intellectualizing about how things “should be” rather than how things actually are. Clarity comes when we practice and apply what we know rather than theorizing.

Are you more comfortable imagining, conjecturing or instructing others rather than taking your own inspired action?

This week I invite you to take one specific action step each day. Then, give up your ideas of how things should turn out. Cultivate the art of noticing and being watchful. It is an enlivened and stress-free response to living life to its fullest.

Join me on www.kamalayoga.com ~

To your great health and happiness!

Stacy

~

Read Full Post »

Benefits of Yoga Nidra ~

Depending upon one’s dexterity, there are many yoga asanas which are considered to be beyond our physical capacity like the sitting position of Full Lotus or the flexibility and strength required in the yogic posture of Pincha Mayurasana – Forearm Stand.

Aside from yoga, if I asked you where you experienced your current greatest life challenge you might respond, “Getting everything accomplished!”, “Finding time to relax” “Getting to sleep” “Handling all of my varied responsibilities” or “Letting Go”.

For those of us who aren’t suffering from insomnia, we may remember how to sleep but many of us have lost the art of how to truly rest.

For some, it takes great effort to resist turning on the television, and, once it’s spiraling on, can become even harder to turn off.  We are often mesmerized by its constant promises of entertainment as time drains away from other more nourishing pursuits.

In this day and age of over-exertion, over-extension, a coffee hut on every corner, media over-stimulation, and excessive noise, relaxation has been pushed aside.  Replaced by activity and consumed by the effort, we think ourselves lazy if we aren’t busy.  Our ability to be fully present and the degree of our authenticity often become lost in forward moving, frenetic activity.

Wisdom too becomes lost and harder to access when we don’t pause to notice our current state of being and check in with our habitual or reptilian responses from the limbic part of our brain.

Yoga Nidra – the mental and physical equivalent of deep relaxation is often the most difficult yoga experience for people.  Part Shavasana, part Pratyahara and part karma buster, it is the least physically challenging posture in the spectrum of yoga asanas because we don’t have to do anything with our bodies other than give our self permission to receive and surrender. 

The challenge of experiencing the benefits from Yoga Nidra comes from the mind’s tendency to want to hold on, to do something and remain active.  Yoga Nidra teaches us to let go while it supports us in total health.

As the mind adjusts to settling down in Yoga Nidra the body learns to lean into itself and the internal organs begin to unwind.  Blood pressure regulates, accumulated stress begins to dissipate, the adrenal glands relax, and breathing slows and deepens. The body’s natural healing powers are allowed to rise as we surrender into inner ease.

Students who practice Yoga Nidra over time begin to relish the cumulative benefits of this restorative and rejuvenative experience.  As our body relaxes the mind becomes calmer and we begin to feel better.  We begin to notice that sleep is richer and our capacity for kindness expands. 

As a result of our new found inner peace it becomes easier for us to make decisions with mental clarity, and we feel more connected to source.

In the practice of yoga nidra, the mind gradually becomes one-pointed allowing focus to lead into deep concentration which further leads into meditation and later, deep mediation.  We learn to enter Turiya, the state between sleep and wakefulness, without loss of awareness.

According to the Mayo Clinic, if we are experiencing a great deal of stress in our lives, it is imperative to find the time for relaxation and just a few minutes a day isn’t enough to provide the stress reducing benefits of deep relaxation. For a clearer, less stressed mind, body and spirit, 15 minutes of deep relaxation a day is good while 30 minutes a day is best.  This is rest at the core level leading to optimal health.

As a precursor to meditation, deep relaxation also provides relief from headaches, reduced body pain, improved concentration, emotional stability, elimination of insomnia, lowering of blood pressure, reduced fatigue, improved bowl function, reconnection to our source and less depression and anxiety.  The quality of observing without judging is also developed in this pose.

When do you truly and deeply relax?  The Mayo Clinic recommends a daily practice of deep relaxation.  Yogi’s do too.  If you add to your daily relaxation practice with a gradual and regular series of at first 5, then 10 and finally 20 minute Shavasana classes, you will enjoy the peace, clarity, strength and restfulness of this miraculous yoga posture. 

Turn down your mind and begin to turn up the quiet with Shavasana – The Corpse Pose.

Copyright © 2008 (Stacy Kamala Waltman)

 

Read Full Post »

KamalaYoga.com

Hi all,

I’m moving over to a new blog.  It’s called, Kamala Yoga.com.  Hope you all join me over there.  Here’s the link:  http://kamalayoga.wordpress.com.

To your health!

Smiles,
Stacy

Read Full Post »

Seeds in the Garden

 

 Here is an excerpt from the book, The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist: 

Buddha told his followers that whatever they chose to give their attention, their love, their appreciation, their listening, and their affirmation to would grow in their life and in their world. 

He likened one’s life and the world to a garden ~ a garden that calls for sunlight and nourishment and water to grow.

In that garden are the seeds of compassion, forgiveness, love, commitment, courage and all the qualities that affirm and inspire us.

Alongside those seeds and in the same garden are the seeds of hatred, the seeds of prejudice, the seeds of vengeance, the seeds of violence, and all the other hurtful, destructive ways of being.

These seeds and many more like them exist in the same garden.  The seeds that grow are the seeds we tend with our attention.

Our attention is like water and sunshine, and the seeds we cultivate will grow and fill our garden. 

If we choose to invest our attention in the seeds of scarcity ~ acquisition, accumulation, greed, and all that springs from those seeds ~ then scarcity is what will fill the space of our life and the space of our world.

If we tend the seeds of sufficiency with our attention, and use our money like water to nourish them with soulful purpose, then we will enjoy that bountiful harvest.

Where are you putting your attention?

Read Full Post »

“Yoga Nidra with Stacy” on Amazon.com!

Am very pleased to announce that my 5 CD Yoga Nidra, Level 1 program is now available on Amazon.  Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0075ETB68/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me&seller

To your health!

~

Read Full Post »

The Meaning of Things ~

Written by:  Stacy Kamala Waltman

 

Having been away from San Diego for a long period of time I have seen it grow from a small charming Navy town to a large urban city. Its quaintness has been replaced with savvy smooth restaurants and nightclubs yet there is still a small sliver of small town appeal. As with all change, there is both good and bad with the new and many faces of evolution this city displays. My mom has been living in San Diego continuously for some time. She loves the town and its transformations except for the one she says is most glaring: the weather. She claims “June Gloom”, a phrase used for the marine layer which turns any summer day into a cold foggy soup, is no longer just one month out of 12 but rather lasts for longer stretches of time.

My mom and I were talking on the phone a few weeks ago and she said, “San Diego has now become the new San Francisco!” I ponder this statement and funnel it through my lens of observation; the level of sophistication the city now exhibits. “Yes, I say to myself, San Diego has become more of an international hub.” And in the course of my conversations with others, I repeat what my mother said, “My, how things have changed! San Diego has become the new San Francisco. It’s now so sophisticated.”

Several days later my mother and I were having lunch and she says again, “San Diego has become the new San Francisco!” I think I know what she is talking about. This time she adds though, “You know I don’t like the fog!” And I then realize she never intended to make a commentary on the level of sophistication the city now wears but was simply making a statement about its change of climate. Ha!

How many times do we think we know what the other person is intending to communicate? Sometimes we check in with them for clarification and at other times we just go along thinking we understand and are being understood. Our filters sift through information on a regular basis; categorizing and evaluating experiences based upon what’s in our consciousness at any given moment.

Keeping the mind open to alternatives is a skill developed with practice. Meditation is a useful tool to help train the mind away from this tendency to limit and categorize as is Yoga Nidra.

Join us for the next Yoga Nidra telephone series on February 8. There are still four spots left.  Click here for more information and to register:  http://www.integrationcoaching.com/YogaNidraLevel1February8.html

Blessings ~

Read Full Post »

Deliverance!

Written by: Stacy Kamala Waltman
October 2, 2010

I wrote this note yesterday not realizing it was Ghandi’s birthday. It was in response to the death of 18 year old Tyler Clementi who killed himself after being “outted” on the internet.  We have an opportunity to transmute this tragedy into one of leadership. Perhaps Tyler’s spirit agreed to perform this tragic role to elicit such a collective shift toward true leadership. ~

Here’s the note…

When we see atrocities, our ability to teach a different way is being called forth that embraces and includes all with love and respect.

Hard to do – no one promised this path to be easy – the magnetic pull is toward whatever collective consciousness is prevailing at the time.

How do we develop our capacity to “fight” something without fighting it?

How do we transmute the energy of hate into a path of learning so that we honor and educate rather than meet hatred with more of the same?

There is at least one if not a multitude of ways to meet any tragedy. Look at the peacemakers of Brother David Steindl-Rast, Ghandi, Mandella, Azim Khamisa, The Trevor Project Founders, Martin Luther King, etc. for inspiration to develop ways to be successful and effect enormous change through love rather than through hate.

Rather than rage at the injustice we see around us, I invite you to develop your creativity and design a new model for what angers you the most.

Be the change you wish to see. Pick up the gauntlet and lead!

Yes…..you!

Copyright © 2010 (Stacy Kamala Waltman)

Read Full Post »

Developing Compassion

Written by:  Stacy Kamala Waltman
September26, 2010

Before the heroes journey our laser sharp and strategic mind identifies and postulates experiences outside – intellectually, abstractly and compartmentalized.

Everything neatly in its place constricted, rigid and controlled by repetition and stale, lifeless air.

Synapse grooves deepen becoming more and more entrenched.  Caring for others only when payoff wafts and ego satiated.

Enter Grace; as miraculous intervention.  With veiled eyes her gifts are discarded; valueless.  Our sight on another horizon of glory.

Refusing the rebuke while turning up the heat, Grace stands firm remaining cloaked.  We begin the journey; unawares.  A reluctant traveler still holding on.

Tests accelerate; tackle once depended upon melts as we enter hot swampy depths; tar pits, shadow selves and skeletons abound.

Hell, this must be we decide.  How will we survive?  We can’t possibly deserve this wrath!  After all!…..but the ripening has begun in spite of accelerated protests.

Applying what we know, failing again and again.  We need to become firmer the past demands!  Take hold!  I AM in charge!

Constricting tightly, then inevitable shattering into slivered shards.

Yet Grace still there gently smiling, showers us with fresh new gifts; courage and vision.  A newer and richer life  reflected in those threads of glass.

Light cast in radiant hues.

Vulnerable, scared, hopeless yet brave; new unfamiliar tools slowly hammer within.

Awkwardness increases in direct proportion to vision, vast.  Yesterday’s certainty a dusty mirage.

Beginner’s mind congeals as we traverse this dark night.  Unsteady and staggering we forge anew.

Today’s discomfort fights yesterday’s certainty; battle raging in a field of ambivalence.  To the death each one cries!

One is annihilated, the other truly born.

Grace, like a firefly flickers again with encouragement seen only with vision, clear.

Emerging from the darkened swamp, demons vanquished, black wood drizzled with dappled light; knowledge transmuting.

Wisdom weaves then integrates into cellular memory, the decay giving rise to the bloom.  A blossom rare.

As seasons pass, compassion springs forth from these seeded fields, no longer feigned.

Allowing, letting go, surrendering into interconnectedness. ~

Copyright © 2010 (Stacy Kamala Waltman)

Read Full Post »

The Blind Men and the Elephant ~

 

It was six men of Indostan

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the Elephant,

And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl;

“God bless me!  But the Elephant

Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk

Cried, “Ho!  what have we here,

So very round and smooth and sharp?

To me ‘tis mighty clear

This wonder of an Elephant

Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,

And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his bands,

Thus boldly up he spake:

“I see, “ quoth he, “the Elephant

Is very like a snake!”

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,

And felt about the knee:

“What most this wondrous beast is like

Is mighty plain,” quoth he;

“Tis clear enough the Elephant

Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,

Said:  “E’en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;

Deny the fact who can,

This marvel of an Elephant

Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun

About the beast to grope,

Than, seizing on the swinging tail

That fell within his scope.

“I see, “ quoth he, “the Elephant

Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan

Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

And all were in the wrong!

Moral
So oft in theological wars,

The disputants, I ween,

Rail on in utter ignorance

Of what each other mean,

And prate about an Elephant

Not one of them has seen!

~

Read Full Post »

Special Teleseminar Offered!

 

Professional Transformational Life Coach and Spiritual Intuitive, Stacy Kamala Waltman who specializes in moving past grief in all areas of our lives and into Radical Forgiveness is holding a special teleseminar titled, “Upgrading Your Story”.

“We are a compilation of our stories – which are all untrue – yet the very fact that we repeat them and identify with them makes them very true for us.” ~ Stacy Kamala Waltman

The quality of our life is determined by two things: the level of awareness we bring to each situation and the content of the stories we focus upon. Since we are going to tell stories about our lives, let’s focus upon stories of our abundance and live from that place outward.

In order to do this, we have to retrain ourselves; sometimes daily, sometimes hourly, and often moment by moment because the stories we tell ourselves are embedded into our being on every level including the cellular level.

When we believe negative and self defeating stories about ourselves and draw “evidence” of their truth from our selective perceptions and interpretations, it is very difficult to change our experiences in the world. That is why it is so important to practice seeing with a different vision.  This seminar will help train you to look through and interpret life through a new life enhancing lens.

Having been on the spiritual path for over 30 years, Stacy Kamala Waltman brings clarity and a laser like precision to her courses honed through advanced study, living these principles and deep refinement.

This teleseminar will be a four week course held each Tuesday evening from 7:00 – 8:00pm PST, beginning on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 thru Tuesday, November 2, 2010.

This teleseminar event meets up via telephone and there will be some homework.

To calculate your time zone, please visit this resource:  http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock

Space is limited to the first 8 participants!

This four week series is only $88. 

To register, please visit the following PayPal link – this allows secure payment through all credit cards or via checking account:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=dhod31MM6qpzLGKG07ewm8-DqJkTkr0HfK-spG2yvK29opvoZlsUqzyRqKC&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8dc18bca4c6f47e633fcf61b288f5ebea2

Please email the PayPal confirmation page to:  ic@integrationcoaching.com so that we can send you the conference number and access code to this life changing teleseminar!

To your abundant happiness,

Stacy Kamala Waltman

Read Full Post »

This weeks’s theme: “I can’t meditate”!

For those of you who are trying too hard to meditate and finding it difficult to get past negative thoughts it’s OK. Scale back your expectations of meditation perfection and simply start noticing your breath for ten minutes each day. That’s all. With each deep breath notice an expansiveness that is available to you during this exercise.

Relax and notice how your breath moves in and out of your body without any effort on your part. Nothing more is required of you. Simply allow yourself to notice and enjoy your breath.

If a thought comes up…so what? Let it go. Don’t worry. Just keep practicing and enjoying watching your breath. You are exactly where you are in this journey and you are not expected to get it all right away. There is no “right or wrong” way to begin noticing.

Enjoy learning about your mind and how it works by simply noticing. Your mind is not your enemy but simply a tool that we need to learn how to use. Be gentle with yourself. Practice – allow yourself to make mistakes.

Even if every second of that ten minute noticing time is filled with conflicting and distracting thoughts that’s OK. Your effort, diligence and gentleness with yourself are the keys to noticing and will eventually allow you to shift into a different type of meditation.

There is no hurry. Just keep practicing and allowing. Be lighthearted about this process and you will succeed.

To your deep breaths,
Stacy Kamala Waltman

Read Full Post »

~ Launching into 2009 Grounded ~

So much information in the world focuses on lack.  What we don’t have and how we should improve ourselves can take center stage.  Often making New Year’s Resolutions focuses on our dissatisfaction’s with our current state of being and we can feel discouraged rather than empowered.

This year, in 2009, I invite you to make New Year’s Appreciations for what has been before launching into the future.  Make a list of all you have accomplished in 2008.  If your mind starts to inject a , “Yes, but……” decide to redirect your thoughts back to your magnificence.  It is your choice and within your power to chose the thoughts which are capturing your attention.  Allow your head to quiet and your heart to speak of your strengths.

Empower yourself to take pleasure in the grandeur of what you have experienced this past year.  Write down every LITTLE and big thing that you have done out of the ordinary in 2008.  Fill yourselves up with that fullness.  Turn off outside sources which are focusing on scarcity, lack and fear.  Fill yourselves up with how magnificent you are – this is your place of strength.

Every single one of you has done something outstanding this year.  Write these events down. Keep a journal.  Reflect on your greatness.  When your spiritual state is healthy, the future will unfold gracefully.

Now is the time to reconnect to prayer and meditation.  Allow 2009 to be the year when you  expand your spiritual path.

After you have fully grounded yourself into your past accomplishments in 2008, then go ahead and put your dreams for 2009 down onto paper.  Launch into 2009 grounded, from a place of fullness and gratitude.

With great love and respect,
Stacy Kamala Waltman

Read Full Post »

A Road Toward Balance and Happiness !

The Bend Bulletin newspaper’s “U Magazine” has interviewed a couple of Life and Business Coaches, of which I am one in this article called,  “A Road Toward Balance and Happiness.”

Please click on the following link to enjoy this article and have a Happy Thanksgiving!  

U Magazine – November 2008

Namaste,
Stacy Kamala Waltman

 

 

Read Full Post »

How to Choose a Life Coach ~

With the proliferation of executive, spiritual, and life coaches and the coaching industry in general, I often wonder when it all started – the concept of coaching.

There sure are a lot of coaches out there to select from and once we’ve decided to embark on a coaching journey, it can be challenging to decide who we should choose to be our guide.

What criteria do we use when evaluating a coach’s ability to help nurture us through this rite of passage from a life of unconscious existence into a re-arranged and authentic life?

Should clients consider hiring coaches whose lives look perfect and constrained on the outside or is certification from an accredited school the criteria that really matters? 

Should potential clients select a coach due to a referral from a colleague or do they select someone who, like the proverbial phoenix, has been decimated from hard times yet rises up again? 

The lotus flower and the phoenix bird are powerful symbols of resurrection through hardships artfully developing resilience as they rise again – stronger, wiser, and more compassionate than before.  A coach’s hardships, lessons learned and resiliency are their greatest and most worthy credentials. 

Just as there are some doctors who are more skilled than others in spite of identical training, so it is with coaches. A skilled coach is like a tincture of gypsum that breaks up the old, stagnant, and toughened clay before planting delicate seeds and later serves as a mulch of new tools protecting and nurturing their client’s tender shoots of strength, authenticity and perspective.

When evaluating a life coach, consider which one might ask us tough questions in the context of getting past our blind spots. In the spectrum of coaching choices, which coach is more likely to have a profound impact on our life?

Which coach may be afraid of offending us and therefore may let us slip by because they are invested in us liking them. And which coach has mastered the finer qualities of intuition, strength, and active listening? 

Which coach skillfully weaves a tapestry of safety so we can be the most transparent – allowing our true self to emerge fully rooted and which coach would we be trying to impress as we hide our deepest fears, dreams, and weaknesses from them – entrenched in our makeshift image?

Coaches don’t have to lead perfect lives to be highly skilled in this craft, just as some good doctors don’t have the healthiest of lifestyles or habits yet they exercise the best of care for their patients. Similarly, therapists don’t counsel themselves and often have their own therapist, doctors don’t operate on family members and lawyers rarely represent themselves. 

Great coaches though, do need to be professionals who are comfortable living within ambiguous contexts instead of pigeon holing their clients or trying to “fix them” and they must have the ability to listen exceptionally well and hear what is not being said – those deafened or noisy, tense areas that keep us looping in unconscious behavior. 

Qualified coaches are comfortable in their own skin complete with its imperfections and idiosyncrasies. Their acceptance of themselves is the soil with which clients learn awareness of their own Self. The one begets the other.

Which coach will cultivate our feelings of strength allowing us to access new skills during those times in our lives that evoke our strongest fears and trigger over-used, outdated and destructive habits?

The best coaches are compassionate yet fierce, adept at seeing larger or different perspectives, insightful and forthright and have a great deal of intuition and compassion. These skills can’t be taught in school but they can be honed and developed through awareness.

Great coaches believe their clients are “naturally creative resourceful and whole” even in the midst of struggle, grief, hardship, disappointment, loss, and the tumult of change.   They learn to encourage the process allowing it to develop on its own time instead of forcing a premature solution.

Which coach will help you let go of your dependence on what is familiar and move past your resistance into a new direction? Which coach will be side by side with you as you shed light on the areas in your life you haven’t been able to face before?

I wonder, which airline first announced that in the case of a loss of cabin air pressure passengers should first put on their own oxygen mask before attempting to help their children or other travelers. Was the airlines policy of “putting on your own oxygen mask first” a twinkle in the coaching profession’s eye or was it some other seemingly innocuous event that triggered this line of work?

“Putting on your own oxygen mask first” has profound implications for us all. I don’t know which airline first taught this valuable life skill, but I wonder if they realized how profound this instruction is to the quality of our lives and safety on the ground as well as in the air.

“Putting on our own oxygen mask first” is a learned skill that is developed during the coaching dynamic. We take care of ourselves first by becoming a clear channel before we are capable of truly caring for, loving, and working well with and serving others.

Clean clear oxygen is intoxicating.  So is the coaching dynamic and living an inspired life free from habitual patterns.

May your life be invigorating and may you become clear enough to see all the serendipitous occurrences happening all around you ~ most, if not all of the time.

Stacy Kamala Waltman~

Read Full Post »