Life as Practice Sept Newsletter

September 2011

Welcome to Integral Wellness Solutions

Greetings!

     We are transitioning out of Summer into Fall when leaves change, the weather cools, and we incubate from the hot months as we transition into the holiday season.
     On September 23rd was the Fall Equinox that marks the first day of the Fall. Equinox's are great times energetically to start a new project, endeavor, set goals, etc. because the change in seasons supports changes being made in our lives. If you have been putting off starting a new business, work out routine, meditation practice or whatever, now is the time to start!
     Plan to kick off this week with a new vision of how you want to end your 2011. 2012 is going to be a big year of individual and collective transformation, prepare yourself to let go of old habits that don't serve you and position yourself to thrive as you continue to emerge as a fuller and fuller expression of your unique self.

In service,
Mike Signature

Mike Brabant, Founder/CEO

Allow Yourself to be Yourself

Self Love If you were honest, how much of the time do you completely accept who you are? In other words, do you embody an acceptance of yourself however you are, or do you put conditions on what you need to demonstrate in order to feel OK with you?

Stay with me on this, because it sometimes is very subtle. Perhaps there is a body part of yours that every time you see it in the mirror, part of you cringes, makes it wrong, makes it bad and therefore makes part of YOU bad, wrong, etc. Maybe you judge yourself for comments that you make in social situations, or think there is something fundamentally broken inside of you.

Anyone on an explicit path of healing, awakening, transforming, whatever you want to call it, will come across aspects of themselves that will not necessarily make them proud. It can be tempting to rely solely on spiritual technologies such as meditation, yoga, and other forms of practice and transcend these darker aspects of yourself. However, when you totally allow for the organic unfolding of evolution through your body mind, you will synergize with the evolutionary impulse and allow transformation to flow through the path of least resistance.

Ironically, by taking your foot off the accelerator of self-actualization, the seeming obstacles impeding your path have the spaciousness to move, transmute, and move towards manifesting a more loving, clear, and open-hearted you. So take this time to just feel into how you are relating to yourself. Are there parts of you, in this moment, that are contracting around some way that you are showing up in this moment? Are you in a subtle way making part of your being-ness wrong?

     Read the following exercise and then allow yourself to close your eyes and practice it before reading the rest of the article:

   Close your eyes and simply STOP telling stories in your mind about how you are or are supposed to be and just experience the nowness of you. Simply relax doing, moving outwards, towards, away from what is here. Just stay here, and now. Then notice if your super-ego has decided to make the way your mind is racing or back is aching or anything else that is arising in your experience, wrong for happening. Can you radically allow whatever is happening, to just happen? Can you allow yourself to be imperfect? Just relax the expectation of yourself being perfect in any stretch of the imagination and totally allow all that is arising from you and through you to simply rest as it is. Just simple beingness, total acceptance, unconditional presence.

     How was that for you? Did you find ways you were not allowing yourself to be yourself? This short meditation is simply an inroad into an awareness that can be cultivated over time by recognizing when you judge yourself, negate who you are in some way, or otherwise make YOU wrong in any way, shape, or form. Let that judgment be a reminder to embrace that which you are pushing away. Wrap up in your heart, all aspects of that you are looking down upon, are ashamed of, and/or are wanting to forget.

     The more we open to ourselves, the less we judge others. The more we love ourselves, the more capacity we have to take the risk to open our hearts to others. This practice is lifelong and continuously challenges our cutting edge of compassion. It is time we stop making ourselves wrong and experience the clarity that comes from deep self-acceptance. It is from that clear and open heart that we offer our gifts to help shift the world from greed and scarcity towards mutuality and abundance.

Just Doing "OK"?

We have set the bar low in regards to how we are supposed to feel. The media tries to show us what its version of happiness looks like so we can buy the products to participate in the illusion of happiness it preaches. Despite perhaps not being ecstatic to be alive, most people function well enough to meet their responsibilities in life.

     What about passion? What about being excited to wake up every morning to see what glorious events the day will hold? Does this sound like an impossibility? Sometimes life begins to drag from the baggage of unexpressed emotions, unlived dreams, and unspoken conversations. Signs of fatigue, morning depression, insomnia, erratic diet, and apathy can indicate you have out grown the way you used to engage in your life. Your symptoms are telling you that something needs to change.

     We were not meant to just be "OK." We are meant to thrive, be free in mind, heart, and spirit and serve in the world by sharing our unique gifts in unique ways. By engaging in a self-inquiry process, such as Integral Awakening Coaching, you can begin to free up stuck energy and engage more deeply in your life, love bigger, experience a greater range of emotion, and follow your heart's desire in some tangible way.

     I've realized that Integral Awakening Coaching is a unique modality that integrates various approaches and healing technologies. Therefore I want people to have an affordable and palpable way to get an idea of the immense benefit this healing modality offers. I would highly encourage you to take the advantage of trying a 30 min session of a sampling of what Integral Awakening Coaching can offer you. The sessions are $30 and can be scheduled throughout the week to be held at my office in downtown Walnut Creek or in Danville at the Danville Yoga Center, or via skype if you are not in the Bay Area. Please call 925.997.9449 or email mike@integralwellnessmb.com to schedule an assessment or inquire deeper about what to expect. Also click on the link to the right to see a flyer about what the 30 min session will include.

Please click here to see what to expect from the initial 3 sessions of Integral Wellness/Awakening Coaching. Feel free to call the above number and schedule a free over-the-phone 15 min consultation to discuss your healing, and/or wellness and/or transformation goals and see if our coaching program can aid you in achieving your goals as well as go far beyond what you thought you were capable of becoming.

To learn more about the practice of Integral Wellness Coaching in general, please click here.

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Regular Public Yoga

Description: All-levels, Heart-centered yoga

Where: Danville Yoga Center, 125A Town and Country Road, Danville

When: Tuesdays 8-9:15a (through the end of Sept except for 9/20)
Mondays 9:30-10:45a (starting Oct 3rd)

Investment: $17 drop in, $30 for 3 classes new student special, other packages available

Click here to view the flyer

TYC Logo

Description: All-levels, Heart-centered yoga

Where: The Yoga Company, 130 Ryan Industrial Ct., Ste. 216, San Ramon

When: Sundays 5-6:15p

Investment: $16 drop in, $25 for unlimited classes new student special, other packages available