Co-Creating Compassionate Communities

FORUM ~ Weaving a Compassionate Culture

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:49:46 -0500

A human being is a part of the whole called by us “the universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Albert Einstein

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Spirited Women Collaborative is looking for a web wiz to build an online community
Please contact Louise@coCreations.ca if able and interested !

Yoga: The Ultimate Stress Buster

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:55:33 -0400

A front page story in the Citizen notes that mental health absences cost the Canadian economy $51 billion a year. This figure is quoted from a new report published by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The report reveals respiratory illness, muscular-skeletal problems, digestive issues, anxiety and depression are among the leading contributors to this financial loss. The report authors say companies should invest in early intervention strategies to cope with stress. One intervention strategy that can benefit people suffering from the stress related complaints noted in the study is a regular practice of yoga. Why does yoga work so well? Here’s a few reasons.

Yoga Promotes Awareness
First and foremost, when yoga is practiced from a place of stillness and quiet observation, it helps us be more aware of our thoughts and our reactions to things. Since modern day stressors are mostly symbolic, training ourselves to quiet our mind and leave our worries behind, at least temporarily, can minimize the physiological effect of stress.

Yoga Trains Our Brains to Focus
When we are chronically stressed our minds tend to be scattered and lack focus. Yoga aids us in staying on task. Many of the balancing postures help us learn to focus while others help to integrate the left and right hemispheres of the brain. In addition, working with mantras (a repeated sound) and meditation builds our ability to hold a single point of focus for an extended period of time. This is a very beneficial counter to the over stimulation resulting from today’s high tech, high speed, computer-based society.

Yoga Teaches us to Breathe
A key component of yoga practice is a focus on breath. Slowing and deepening our breath triggers the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, slowing our systems down and reversing the stress response. In addition, the focus on alignment through asanas, or yoga postures, improves our ability to move air into our lungs without the constriction that poor posture causes.

Yoga Tones the Nervous System
Yoga asanas and pranayama (breathing techniques) both stimulate and relax the nervous system. This effectively tones the nervous system allowing the activating sympathetic nervous system and the relaxing parasympathetic nervous system to swing back and forth as the situation calls for rather than staying constantly on high alert. This constant state of “fight, flight or freeze” eventually wears our systems down and leads to illness.

Yoga Lowers Stress Hormones
One of the major stress hormones (produced by the adrenal glands) is cortisol. Prolonged levels of this hormone can have adverse effects on the immune system, and blood sugar levels. Practicing yoga helps keep stress levels down and cortisol levels at bay.

Yoga Can Lower Blood Pressure
High blood pressure contributes to problems such as heart attacks, kidney failure and strokes. The relaxation techniques that are integral to yoga practice are particularly beneficial in reversing the stress response and lowering blood pressure.

Yoga Improves Digestive Functioning
Chronic stress can lead to diarrhea and/or constipation and other digestive complaints like gas, bloating and irritable bowel syndrome. In addition to lowering general stress levels, yoga postures stimulate better flow of food and waste products through the digestive system.

Yoga Improves Awareness of Tension
When we are stressed, we tend to hold tension in our bodies unconsciously. This tension is called bracing. Yoga helps us to be more in tune with our bodies and be able to recognize where we can let go of unnecessary tension. Many yoga classes incorporate the use of toning or chanting, which is known to have a positive influence on the body and mind, leading to a more relaxed state.

Lori will be offering Tools to Tame Tension, a 3 hour workshop October 21 as part of the Spirited Women Collaborative series of workshops. She has been practicing and teaching a variety of relaxation techniques since 1985 and is a certified relaxation therapist, fitness instructor, yoga instructor, reflexologist and holds a degree in recreation.

Raise a Little Consciousness!

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:43:13 -0400

Today, more than ever, we are all called upon to sing this global spiritual anthem. The world is experiencing an unparalleled breakdown in all facets of life. The container that has held society until now has become tarnished and rusted. Structures, as we know them, are breaking down faster than we can even comprehend. The economic, environmental, and social fabric is becoming unraveled and many of us are starting to feel its effects.

Too many people are running around feeling time pressured, exploited, living in a world that has lost its compass and reason for being. BUT GOOD NEWS IS HERE! Within every challenge, lies the opportunity for growth, revitalization and the potential to reach even new heights. So many individuals are hearing this call—this call to expand, to be all we can be, to finally allow are diving spark to shine.

It is so easy to see, when surfing the internet, that there is a tidal wave of people starting to awaken to their inner greatness and break out of the emotional and spiritual prisons they have been keeping themselves in. Recently, I was on a call in an internet course involving women's role in social change, that included women from 36 countries. At one point in the call, they asked for one representative from each country to say hello. What an overwhelming feeling to realize I was on the phone with women from all over the world who were feeling the call to reach their full potential and to help our world to do so as well.

It seems as if the heart of the world is cracking open to allow spirited growth to happen. The pain of this cracking is that urge that many of us feel to become all we can be—to loosen the shackles of the old self with its beliefs and negative habits. This urge is felt in the desire to fully feel joy again and start doing what we were put on this planet to do—to not wait for who knows what. There is an urgency to all of this—the clarion call has sounded and we must act.

What this means is that all of us must take full responsibility for opening our own personal spiritual containers to allow them to be refilled. We must be open to meeting our own inner genius and start making conscious decisions from that center. We must be willing to find our own voice and to shout out the sound of the very vastness of our human potential. We are called to begin this time of metamorphosis now and to take action to change our own consciousness and that of the world's. We need to become unrelenting ambassadors of big L love, of compassion, of joy, and of peace.

Otherwise, what are we here for.

So, join with others who feel so called. Become empowered through finding like minded individuals and gift one another with your infectious transformation. There are many, many ways we can help to resurrect our greatness. Some of those include:

• Prayer and meditation
• Dance and Music
• Spirited conversations with friends
• Play,laughter
• Self reflection on your life purpose
• Changing the organizations you find yourself in
• Daily practice of gratitude
• Exercise/yoga/body work
• Removing blocks that have held you back
• Creative activities

Do not delay this electrifying and wondrous journey into authenticity. Join The Spirited Women's Collaborative this September for our workshop series that is designed to catapult you into your fullest expression.

By Tammy Hoffman, M.A., M.Ed.
Tammy is a member of a group of amazing women known as the Spirited Women's Collaborative who are committed to raising individual, community and global greatness.

Rushing to Slow Down

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:04:44 -0400

Have you ever found yourself running to a yoga class to get there just in time to sit into a space meant to instill peace? When I have tried to squeeze in yet another task before a class, I have found the transition uneasy and lacking immediate success; my brain, still juggling a hundred ideas and lists of things to do, is jarred into a conflicting desire for stillness.

We have trained ourselves to use our brains so well, and so rapidly, most of us have become experts at multitasking. This, of course, is fantastic when you have many things to accomplish at once, or have limited time to accomplish many things. Multitasking, in itself, is a great tool. The problem is that most of us have come to accept it as a way of being, making it a normal part of our lives. Making multitasking indistinguishable from a healthier pace causes us undue stress, which leads to ‘dis-ease’ in its individually suited forms!

When we multitask, our focus separates in several different directions all at once. When our focus separates, so does the feeling of wholeness (the original sense of the word “health”). This feeling of separation brings an incongruence, making us feel unwell.

When we focus on one thing alone, an immediate calm sets in. This happens when you read a book, sit to watch a movie attentively, meditate, do some gardening, putter about with a hobby or engage in arts and crafts. Finding activities that bring back some level of calm is what gives us a sense of well-being.

Answers to our questions often come after relaxing, or engaging in playful activities. Playing with intent and awareness regularly connects us with spirit, or subconscious. This time yields new insights from ideas and metaphors that emerge.

Have you ever stopped and wondered how amazing your body is? How your heart has been beating a regular beat since time you were born; how your lungs have been breathing, without your direction, for all those years? Have you ever wondered how your brain works? How your eyes see? How you recognize smell? How perfectly tuned all your systems are? Isn’t it an incredible mystery?

Even though there have been huge leaps in science to explain much of how we function, many delightful mysteries remain. One of the most fascinating to me is how we think, feel, know, express and create.

Creating something is sharing from within ourselves. It is also assimilating an unquantifiable amount of data and ideas that come from those around us and before us. So how does this happen? How is it that some people seem to be so easily creative? How do they know how to make things work? How does it come so easily to them?

As mysterious as it may appear, it is not magic. The creative process is absolutely and totally innate; it is something we all have. Some of us have practiced it more than others, and thus it appears to be a special gift. Everyone is creative! Yes, every one creates. We all create in different ways and many of our creations are taken for granted. When you get up in the morning and choose your clothes, your accessories, and the way you comb your hair, you are creating you! Sure, that’s no Picasso you’ll say! You’re right! Nonetheless, the way you adorn yourself with cloth and jewels says something about you.

When you start recognizing that all your actions are acts of creativity, however small they may be, you start recognizing that you create your life: that your life is like a canvas, or a series of canvasses.

As adults we often lose flexibility and put away our toys as we acquire jobs, kids, and mortgages. We are all born creative, curious, and hungry to explore the world around and within us. The Artist’s Way teaches and reminds us how to keep those qualities alive and flourishing.

Slow down and smell the roses! Listen to your inner desires and notice where they lead you. You can create the life you want to live.

"The first value is our own creative self.... Everyone has an urge to create. Its expression may flow through many channels: through writing, art or music, through the inventiveness of work or in any number of ways unique to all of us, whether it be cooking, gardening, or the art of social discourse. The point is to honor the urge. To do so is healing for ourselves and for others; not to do so deadens our bodies and our spirits. When I did not write, I suffocated in silence."
Gabor Mate, When the Body Says No

Louise is the only accredited Artist’s Way facilitator in Ottawa. She is an artist, facilitator, and creativity coach. For more information you can call her at 613.565.2013 or visit www.coCreations.ca.