Author: Heather Wiest

Be Still.

On By Heather Wiest

Be still and know that I AM God. ~ Psalm 46:10
Be still and know I AM.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.

Our intention this week is to explore MEDITATION. In the classical yoga tradition, asana yoga is practiced as a preparation for seated meditation. Yoga Nidra, Restorative, and Yin Yoga are also wonderful meditative practices. What exactly is meditation? The definition is “to think deeply or focus for a time for spiritual purposes or to relax. To think deeply or carefully about something.” Whatever we think deeply or carefully about becomes what we meditate on. What fills your mind, my friend? The Hebrew word for meditate is DOMAH, and is literally translated as “to liken, compare, to make oneself like.” Whatever we meditate on, think deeply about, is what we become like. The more we sit with our thoughts, the more likely we are to act on them. Are we carefully and deliberately choosing what we meditate on? I choose to meditate on pure, positive, present thoughts, connecting with the Peace within me. What’s the best that can, and will happen? ❤️

Meditation 101
By: Claudia Cummins

To give meditation a try, sit comfortably, set a timer for 10 minutes, and explore one of the following strategies. And consider yourself forewarned: Meditation is a delightfully simple practice, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy!

Just Sit: Commit to doing nothing more than sitting quietly and watching what happens. Don’t pick up the phone, don’t answer the doorbell, don’t add another item to your to-do list. Just sit and observe the thoughts that arise and pass through your mind. You will likely be surprised by how difficult it is to sit quietly for 10 minutes. In the process, though, you may learn something important about the qualities of the restless mind and the ever-changing nature of life.

Listen to the Sounds of Life: Close your eyes and tune in to the sounds percolating both within and around you. Open your ears and adopt a receptive attitude. At first, you’ll likely hear only the most obvious noises, but over time, you’ll discover new layers of sounds that you had previously tuned out. Challenge yourself to observe what you hear without clinging to it or resisting it. Notice how the world feels more alive as your awareness of the present deepens.

Practice Bare Attention: Notice the raw sensations of the present moment—feelings of warmth and coolness, hardness and softness, pressure and ease. Which parts of your body are in contact with the earth? How does the shape of the body shift with each inhalation and exhalation? How does your experience change over time? Cultivating an awareness of the present moment will foster a more serene and attentive mind, one that is able to settle into the here and now.

Follow the Breath: Attach your mind to the breath. While you’re breathing in, note that you’re breathing in, and while you’re breathing out, focus on the exhalation. Don’t manipulate the breath in any way; simply watch it with your mind’s eye, just as you would follow a tennis ball bouncing from one side of the court to the other during a particularly engrossing match. When you find that your mind has strayed, as it inevitably will, gently refocus it on the breath and begin again.

Use a Mantra: Choose a favorite word, phrase, prayer, or fragment of a poem, and repeat it slowly and softly. Let its rhythm and meaning lull you into a quiet, contemplative state of ease. When you notice that your mind has wandered off to other thoughts, simply redirect it back toward the words you’ve chosen as your touchstone and rededicate your awareness to them.

Practice Kindness: As you sit quietly, focus your inner attention on someone you know who might benefit from an extra dose of kindness and care. In your mind’s eye, send this person love, happiness, and well-being. Soften your skin, open the floodgates of your heart, and let gentle goodwill pour forth.

The Weaver and the Loom, by Danna Faulds

Sit here for a bit. Place yourself
outside the frenzied pace of life.
Slow down long enough to 
appreciate birds in flight, water 
drops like prisms in the grass and 
countless shades of green. Step
off the fast track and listen to the
sound of breath and birdsong. Take
a moment to just be, and in the being, 
know the whole of this creation, 
mystery and madness, passion and
profanity, know it all as one, stunning
tapestry. Sit still and the thin line
between sacred and profane simply
fades away. There is nothing then
to reconcile. All the disparate threads
are woven on the loom of life. Sit here
for a bit and your unique place in the
pattern becomes clear. Take the still
point with you when it’s time to walk
away. Make the choice to see affinity, 
to watch the picture taking shape as
thread joins thread. Dare to be the 
weaver and the loom, creator and
creation, the sower and the sown.
In a moment of stillness, all that 
came before is seen as one.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious — the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Philippians 4:8-9, The Message

May you incorporate some new meditative practices into your busy life this week. Begin to crave the calm connection — just be. “Show up for what’s up, so it won’t keep showing up! When you think you’ve surrendered, surrender some more. Be the humble witness of what will unfold.” ~ Gabby Bernstein

What’s the best that can, and will happen? ❤️

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“May my meditation be sweet to Him.” ~ Pslam 104:34 NKJV

Focus Your Energy✨

On By Heather Wiest

I decided many years ago to ditch the Post-it® notes and reduce the reminders. For decades, I thrived on structuring my days and completing tasks deemed important. My practice of yoga kept encouraging me to let go of control, to let life flow naturally — just like with the breath. So, I gave up the lists. I began to really see and sense what mattered most in the moment. I became more present and alive. Situations seemed to unfold better, and I actually accomplished some extra projects along the way! Yes, I also completely spaced an important appointment — that ended up rescheduled for the perfect time! 😊 I am learning to trust Divine nudges and timing, and to focus my energy.

“There is a time to be open, almost unfocused, as we take in what the world, the universe, is showing us. There is a time to get out of our heads and quietly take the journey our hearts lead us into — following with the openness and wonder of a child. But there also comes a time to aim our attention and focus our energy on what we want to accomplish. Instead of floundering with scattered thoughts and possibilities, we choose one, then act on it. We stay in step with the natural rhythm, but we’re pulling our scattered attention together and focusing it as part of that rhythm. To do that, we may have to work through or push away inner distractions. Moving through our inner obstacles enables us to accomplish our goal — whether that’s a task, a particular piece of work, or learning a new hobby. Is there something you want to do? Is your heart urging you to learn something, accomplish something, go somewhere, do something? Make it a goal. Focus your energy.” ~ Melody Beattie

What is the fire in your heart that has become dim, because you’ve been consumed with day to day life? Let go of the minors, and focus on the majors. Intend to make a difference in this moment. As we say in yoga, the energy flows where the attention goes! ✨

“When we focus our energy towards constructing a passionate, meaningful life, we are tossing a pebble into the world, creating a beautiful ripple effect of inspiration. When one person follows a dream, tries something new or takes a daring leap, everyone nearby feels that energy; and before too long they are making their own daring leaps and inspiring yet another circle.” ~ Christine Mason Miller

Focus Journaling Questions inspired by Elena Mironov

✭ If your life is busy right now, WHAT is keeping you busy? Is this still important to you?
✭ What IS actually important to you?
✭ Is what you’re doing a source of fulfillment, or are you just in a constant habitual or reactive state?
✭ Are you putting your energy into something that is helping you grow–evolve–develop into a higher version of you?
✭ Are you letting distractions carry you off track? Are you tired or unmotivated?
✭ What gives you a sense of meaning and a feeling that you’re helping–contributing–giving back?
✭ What would you like to change right now?

Focus your inner fire and energy and take that daring leap! 🔥

You must learn poise, soul-balance and poise, in a vacilating, changing world. Claim My power. Use it ceaselessly. You cannot ask too much. As long as you get back to Me and replenish after each task, no work can be too much. My Joy I give you. Live in it. Bathe your Spirit in it. Reflect it.

God Calling: Relax, January 15

May you go with the natural flow, yet focus your energy. Pursue your heart’s passion. Make a difference in this world. You are strong & capable of ANYTHING! ❤️

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Autumn Aspirations 🍁

On By Heather Wiest

The Autumn equinox is the moment where our days and nights find equilibrium, marking the start of a seasonal shift. We take this time to reflect upon the past few months and the lessons learned along the way.

A new season is a great time to set some new intentions for your life.

❦ What has been coming up for you in the last days, weeks, months?

❦ What isn’t serving you, what do you want to let go of?

❦ What new intentions do you want to bring forth and cultivate?

You don’t have to fear change. What you need to fear, a friend once told me, is things remaining the same. When that happens, life has stopped. Your life is constantly, quietly evolving each moment into something new, something different, something that adds gracefully, beautifully, and perfectly to what was.  

Melody Beattie

Autumn is referred to as a Vata (air) season, which means the presence of air and space is more noticeable in and around us. You may feel more light, carefree, creative, or even spacey and scattered. We harmonize this by learning to go with the flow more — physically, emotionally, and spiritually. As we practice letting things come and go, it is a particularly good time to remind ourselves to breathe deeply. The heart and lungs are a focus of this season, and the breath flowing through helps make space for the release of whatever the heart is holding to tightly, or resisting. Autumn is a very special time to make space around and in the heart. Step out of your tension, out of your fear. Laugh. Lighten up. Loosen up. Change your energy. Relax until you find the flow. Relax until you find your rhythm, until you feel life’s rhythm again. 

In order to protect ourselves from taking on any negative energy from other people or situations; we can learn to SHIELD. There are times when you may find that being around certain individuals or groups of people leaves you with feelings of discomfort. It may be that spending time with a particular friend feels draining or that dealing with a specific coworker exhausts you. Being around toxic or angry people is also draining. And you may even find that being surrounded by a crowd of people lowers your energy levels rather than perks you up. This is not that unusual. Each of us radiates energy and is capable of being influenced by the energy of other people. It is important to learn how to shield yourself, so you don’t unknowingly take on someone else’s energy.

There are a number of ways to avoid being affected by people’s energy. SHIELDING is one preventative technique you can use. Center yourself and envision being enveloped in a cocoon of loving and protective light. This protective layer should allow you to consciously regulate the energy around you. The intent to shield oneself is all you need for this technique to work. You can even create a TRIGGER WORD to assist you in quickly creating a shield. Say this word each time you create a new shield, until the word and the shield become automatically associated in your mind.

While it is important to know how to shield yourself from energy, there are those energies that you may not want to shut out. The energy of laughter from a newborn baby, the feeling of joy radiating from someone in love, and the frequency of calm emanating from a mentor are just some of the energies coming from others that you may want to have around you.

Adapted from Taking on the Energy of Others, by Madison Taylor

Maybe Not by Danna Faulds

Begin somewhere. Take one deep breath and dive. Plunge into the core of your most persistent fear or your greatest joy. Grow comfortable with the act of exploration. Well, maybe not comfortable, but confident of your ability to be sure footed on slick rocks, steady while the winds gust. Well, maybe not entirely confident, but willing to set out despite persistent doubts, breathing your way into whatever you are facing. Well, maybe not even all that willing, but you take it anyway, that first step into the unknown. Courage is starting where there is no secure outcome, no sure result. The secret is you can begin again at any time. Take one deep breath and dive.

God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways—the path that brings me back to you. ~ Psalm 139: 23-24 TPT

I am at peace in the midst of change. I am listening to my heart and soul — creating space for new intentions — breathing deep and diving in. I remain completely relaxed and receptive regardless of the end result. My body is light, my mind is at peace, and my heart is unconditionally open. 

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Embrace the mystery.✨

On By Heather Wiest

Rise up and come away with me. Live in the mystery, with no full understanding of what I am doing in your life. Faith will provide the insight you need, to know where I am taking you and what I am doing deep in your soul…

Be like my faithful one Moses, who turned aside to gaze on the fire of my presence. I will draw you into secrets where dancing flames bring revelation and wisdom to your soul. Lean in to my presence, and I will pour out the fragrance of divine love. Come closer, and you will taste the mystery of our sweet union. See beyond the veil. Forsake the confines of your understanding, and embrace the mystery of life with me. ~ I Hear His Whisper 

I read this devotional as I was flying back from our AMAZING retreat in Africa (see our lovely group in the photos above ⬆️). Long haul flights provide plenty of time for reflection. We truly “embraced the mystery of life” in so many ways on this adventure of a lifetime…visiting 5 countries, 9 hotels/lodges, witnessing gorgeous scenery, cultures, wild weather and wildlife (the big 5)! We bonded as a group through shared experiences, laughter, long drives through Africa, sensational safaris, and forever friendships and memories imprinted in our hearts.❤️ 

And, to share something a bit more vulnerable that was a true joy moment for me…  

On one of our extended drives through Namibia, I was sitting in the back of the safari vehicle (as one who does not get car sick) gazing out the window, when sadness came over me as I flash backed to a traumatic memory of being a 9-year old girl on a bus turn around trip from Yuma, Arizona to the San Diego Zoo. I believe my mom and step-dad sent me on this excursion to get me out of our travel trailer home during my school spring break. I remember feeling so lonely as I did not know any other children on the city sponsored trip, and did not bring snacks or a lunch as was suggested (I ate some of a leader’s lunch). Upon returning from the zoo and the trip late that night, my mom was not there to pick me up. This happened many times at school and elsewhere as she struggled with addiction…

Why was I remembering this now, on such an amazing trip of a lifetime (que wild animal correlation)?!

Triggers often have no rhyme or reason or optimal timing. But, I have learned to allow the emotions to surface, to feel all the feels of unmet needs and expectations, and with a present awareness, calm nervous system, and God’s supernatural love and grace, invite parts of me into the wholeness and fullness of who I am today. I am safe. I am not alone. I am loved. I am living life fully on purpose in this moment. I embraced my 9-year old self who was lonely, sad, and disappointed. I held her and met a need that had not been previously voiced.

This became a beautiful joy moment of reclaiming a tender part of me that had been suppressed in the depths of my being. 

I will draw you into secrets where dancing flames bring revelation and wisdom to your soul. Lean in to my presence, and I will pour out the fragrance of divine love. Come closer, and you will taste the mystery of our sweet union.

If we are open and aware of our inner workings, and allow the presence of God to reveal and heal areas of hurt and tenderness, it becomes such a gentle, beautiful process.

Who knew I would experience this as I was co-leading a retreat? God did. He provided the ideal set of circumstances and the divine timing for me to reclaim this childhood part of me into the wholeness of who I am right now.

Priceless.

Forsake the confines of your understanding, and embrace the mystery of life with me.

“God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways—the path that brings me back to you.” ~ Psalm 139: 23-24 TPT

Amen. 🙏🏻

Embrace the mystery, 

Heather

Walking Meditation

On By Heather Wiest

There goes my crazy wife
With her cinnamon eyes
And her simple life

On a sunny day she’d rather
     walk than ride
With her hair pulled up
And her lengthy stride

The clouds of the north
And the clouds of the south
Are separated by her
     seldom ceasing smile

Her heart beats slow and steady
Pumping praises to her
     Prince of Peace

“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
Intercede Jesus, Jesus
Plant a seed Jesus”

She tears for the searching souls
     that surround her
She walks on her knees

My husband wrote this sweet poem during our early married years. Walking was my moving meditation and prayer time, connecting me to nature and the Divine. Many years later, yoga opened my heart wide open and became my favorite form of moving meditation and connection! ❤️ Urban trekking, desert hiking, and downward dog-ing are all amazing ways to tune into Spirit, discern truth, heed wisdom, and fully integrate body, mind, and soul.

❤︎ What do YOU need today?

❤︎ Are you seeking wisdom, or direction, or an answer to a deep seeded question? 

❤︎ Is there something you would like to release, creating space for the new?

Walking Meditation Instructions by Tara Brach

Meditation is a practice of presence that you can bring alive in all settings and activities. The formal training in walking meditation can be particularly valuable for helping you to cultivate an awareness of your embodied experience in each moment, allowing you to bring your body, heart, and mind together as you move through life.
Begin by choosing a place – an indoor or outside walking path about 10-30 paces long. Start by standing still and sensing the weight of your body at your feet, feeling your muscles supporting and stabilizing you. Your hands can be in whatever position is most comfortable – resting easily at your sides, folded gently in front of you, or at your back. In the stillness, remain relaxed and alert.
As you begin walking, start at a slower pace than usual, paying particular attention to the sensations in your feet and legs: heaviness, lightness, pressure, tingling, energy, even pain if it’s present. For the walking practice, this play of sensations – rather than the breath or another anchor – is often the home base for our attention.
Be mindful of the sensations of lifting your feet and of placing them back down on the floor or earth. Sense each step fully as you walk in a relaxed and natural way to the end of your chosen path. When you arrive, stop and pause for a moment. Feel your whole body standing, allowing all your senses be awake, then slowly and mindfully – with intention – turn to face in the other direction. Before you begin walking, pause again to collect and center yourself. If it helps, you can even close your eyes during these standing pauses, often called “standing meditation.”
As you’re walking, it’s quite natural for your mind to wander. Whenever it does, you might mentally pause, perhaps noting inwardly the fact of thinking, or even where your mind went: planning, worrying, fantasizing, judging. Then, gently return your attention to the sensations of the next step. No matter how long you’ve spent lost in thought, you can always arrive right here, bringing presence and care to the moment-to-moment sensations of walking.
During the walking period you might alter your pace, seeking a speed that allows you to be most mindful of your experience. In this way, you’ll move back and forth on your pathway, discovering that you are not really going anywhere, but are arriving again and again in the aliveness that is right here.

Reflection & Insight:
How did this experience feel in the body? Sensations? Body temperature? What happened in the mind? Did thoughts arise from the past, present, or future? Were you planning, worrying, fantasizing, or judging? How did this meditation feel in your spirit? Write down any insights, any information received.

“The LABYRINTH is receiving an amazing amount of attention, because walking the calming, circuitous path addresses many psycho-spiritual needs. Whoever you are, walking the labyrinth has something to offer. If a project is challenging you, walking can get your creative juices flowing. When struggling with grief or anger, or a physical challenge or illness, walking the labyrinth can point the way to healing and wholeness. If you’re looking for a way to meditate or pray that engages your body as well as your soul, the labyrinth provides such a path. When you just want reflective time away from a busy life, the labyrinth can offer you time out.” ~ Melissa Gayle West, Exploring The Labyrinth

Find a labyrinth near you! 😊 labyrinthlocator.com

Wherever you are at, be all there. ~ Jim Elliot

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