Appreciating Your Body

Yoga of Love and Forgiveness is Appreciating Your Body.



We see a great car and go "Wow!"

By regularly making the quantum leap that is Yoga of Love and Forgiveness, we are going, "Wow!" to our own human, physical body. And it loves this! Our body likes to be appreciated.

I don't need to tell you what a marvel of interactive systems we are. We might say that we owe it to ourselves to give these systems focused, conscious love and even self-forgiveness for the times when we forgot to take care, or when we didn't know how to do better. Besides good food, rest, and aerobic activity, the YLF approach is like putting the cleanest, highest octane fuel imaginable into your body. Your positive focus coupled with gentle yoga movements allows a deep experience of appreciation because you are speaking to your body in its language: movement. And it can get this. You will notice that you are getting it by how your body responds: it lets go and releases pent up energy for you to use- perhaps more wisely than in the past.

What do I mean by wisely? Is this a value judgment? No. You determine what is wise for you by keeping your eye on your goal and doing the things that line up with your goal. My goal is to consciously and clearly serve the Spirit. I am learning how to do less of what doesn't line up with that, and more of what does. Among other things, this takes courage and teaches humility. I like this very much, and the benefits are divine!

Sometimes people come up to me and say, "I've never done yoga before, and I'm 40 (50 or 60...) Can I really start now?

And I say, "Yes! While giving you a fantastic workout, the magic of Yoga of Love and Forgiveness is that it is less about commanding great poses and more about imbuing your body with great energy that comes through appreciating it. The poses come as a by-product. You can start at any age."

You are God. You believe what you say to yourself. And, the more you show up for yourself, the more you believe in yourself. This is the foundation for YLF. We are showing up for ourselves.

No matter what has happened in the past, who you are is worthy of your own appreciation right now. Start doing YLF regularly and see how much more energy you have! No matter what size, shape, age, or condition your body is in, YLF is about APPRECIATING your body.

A Miracle

YOGA of Love and Forgiveness means UNION of love and forgiveness with the physical body. Miracles can occur by doing this. Here is a miracle for you...

Awhile ago, I prepared to receive radiation treatment for a condition of swollen lymph nodes known as Hodgkin’s Disease - a disease from which some people die. My doctors readied me by saying, “You will soon be on a liquid diet because your salivary glands will be rendered inoperative by the radiation treatment we are going to give you. Your liquid diet will last for about 4 weeks.”

A liquid diet? All I could think was, “the dude will not abide!”

I turned to forgiveness. For God’s sake let’s forgive everything and everyone we’ve ever judged we can SO WE CAN EAT!

In order to guarantee they hit their marks in my nodes, the techs made a plaster of paris mask for my face and buckled me down onto a gurney to keep me immobile while I was inside the big machine receiving the radiation. Can anyone say “claustrophobia?”

Each morning for about a month I would report to the hospital, slip into my sexy hospital gown and use the “shpilkes” (nervous trembling) I felt while being strapped in, as a cue to begin forgiving.

As I forgave the many judgments I had made over the years, the claustrophobia was replaced by a warm balmy feeling throughout my body. I began to relate to the trips to the radiation clinic as an invitation to this all encompassing, sweet state.

I forgave my mother for judging me as a bad kid. I forgave myself for judging my mom as a bad mother. I forgave myself for having a bad temper. I forgave my dad for having a bad temper. I forgave myself for judging the Jews as pushy people with bad tempers. I forgave myself for judging bad tempers as a bad thing. Our lymph system is a kind of sewage system, and apparently mine had gotten backed-up with judgments.

Soon, I noticed more and more ease inside. Sweetness filled my thoughts. More warmth filled my heart. Buoyancy bubbled through my body. This was the real me, the true Karen, and I began to focus more and more on that.

Week one passed and I was eating our favorite burgers from “The Charcoaler”. Week two ended with a caprese on focaccia. Week three passed with succulent roast chicken, and after the final week, week 4, we celebrated with champagne and crunchy chicken tacos. No liquid diet!

This and other graceful things he observed seeded my Oncologist’s new integrative medicine practice. He thanked me. As for me, I was learning that forgiveness is indeed the Key to the Kingdom -as in the title of John-Roger’s book. The kingdom of my replenished, powerful self and celebrating this in gastronomic delight!

XO
Karen