Art, children and yoga...

Friday, July 20, 2007 4:43pm

Namaste Everybody!

I just noticed that it had been 11 days without writing! Time is going so fast! I just feel great here, doing so many things that I like, It is beautiful to feel so good!

I have been going to yoga everyday, 6 times a week in the morning at the Iyengar Institute + receiving private medical classes from my special friend Joe, who is taking very good care of my lower back, he had been an iyengar yoga teacher for a very long time and is here practicing yoga (advance classes) and learning medical yoga and physiotherapy.

I am also volunteering to a center for children and adult spastics (people suffering from cerebral palsy which is the dysfunction of the Central Nervous System or in other worlds, when the mind and body do not function in accordance with one another).
They are wonderful, pure souls, like children. I am helping them with everything that I can, but mostly with trainings that the center teaches like papel shredding, coloring, pottery, batik, mostly art related creations. This help them to improve their manual abilities and to recollect funds for the center. We are organizing a fund raising party for them on next week with all the yoga people! I will send you more info later in case any of you would like to donate money or sponsor a child.

The first day I was a little nervous about how to relate with them, assuming that they needed to be help, but very soon I realized that they are happy, joyful and just need help with their physical needs. About their minds there is a lot to learn from them, like innocence, love and friendship! Contentment and living the present! Just as children! I really feel grateful of this opportunity!

I keep doing my lessons in drawing and painting as part of my training to fulfill the requirements for the MA in art therapy. And all this experience is helping me to know if I really like it, and honestly, so far so good! I am very excited! :)

And last but not least, of course I am taking pictures around the city, going out with friends, to restaurants, dancing parties and having so much fun!

Ahh, just to let you know, I don’t know what happen to the moonson, but its not raining anymore, first week was really heavy raining all day long but now we are really enjoying of a marvelous sunny weather!

I have a dinner at home with my roommates, Francisca, a wonderful German woman who lives in Bali, Lis, a fantastic Australian lady who lives in New Zealand, Joe, our awesome friend from NY that its cooking, and our two new neighbors from Sri Lanka! :)


I feel healthy and strong so no worries!



Love and joy to all of you!



Debbie

Art with Heart

Monday, July 9, 2007 4:00pm

Namaste loving friends!

I know that has been less than a week since the last time I wrote but to many things happen so I am here again!
I went to Osho to do the "Art with Heart" course, but as soon as I arrived I discovered that I had to pay around $300 extra! (for 3 days its really expensive for Indian standards). So I decided not to do it because I do not have a lot of money in my checking account. Then a venezuelan woman told me that was possible to take out money from my credit card. I was very happy and went to the bank with my Venezuelan credit card, when arriving there they told me that I needed my passport in order to do that transaction but I did not have it, so I believed I was not going to do the course, but I decided to keep trying so I went to the Osho’s registration office to see if the had a copy of my passport which I provided the first day, they did not but they gave me a printed paper with my passport number written on it, so I returned to the bank to see if they accepted it, they say YES! So I say to myself: Perfect! I am doing the course!
They took the card and tried to take 15.000 rupees from it but it was declined (they tried smaller amounts and it did not work, by the way I don’t have a clue of what is happening with my card…) So I said to myself: Ok, it seems that I should not do the course.
I walk to the plaza to tell the facilitator that I was not going to do it, and the Venezuelan woman again told me: "You know, it’s a shame that you speak Spanish not Italian because they are looking for a Italian translator" Then I was feeling really weird! So I approach the facilitator and told him that I speak Italian but he answer me that they already had somebody, at that time I really could not care less, in fact I was enjoying what looked to me as a game :) As you can imagine, I stayed in the Plaza chatting with the Venezuelan woman and after 5 minutes the facilitator called me and tell me that told the other translator what was going on and she was happy to let me in because she had other things to do! So I was in and free :)

I think that sometimes, when you want something and do everything to achieve it, its good and healthy to understand that at the end is the universe who will decide if you are in or not, and the way it happen is sometimes more important that the final objective. Because it is where the real learning is coming from. I could leave the resort after knowing the price or after going to the bank or after knowing about the already existing translator, or being really frustrated or angry, but I keep trying with I smile, open to all possibilities and trusting the universe (light or god, whatever you like to call it) to provide me the best!

The course was amazing, it was not about painting techniques, it was about opening our hearts, and connecting to the creativeness within us, without letting the mind to take control of ourselves. We faced fear, learn to support other people and to feel supported, practiced being independent and entering to a world of infinite possibilities, let go, let flow, and connect with the energy within and outside us, without judging, just observing.

For me was mostly about walking outside my safe and protected place and trusting myself, facing pain, fear and growing thru it. Letting go and enjoying the process… Really beautiful!
I painted an eye, huge eye with flowers and leafs and the second day suddenly while painting the top of the canvas, I put to much water and all the green painting was falling on one edge of the eye. When I look at it, it was like the big perfect yellow eye was crying, green tears no stop falling!

I asked the facilitator to help me but he told me that I was alone in that part so I just sat in front of the eye while feeling my own warm tears falling, did not know how to stop his pain, my pain… Finally I just put my hand in my heart and begin facing the pain, observing it, felt supported from something inside me, bigger that myself, and knew that everything was going to be fine, that everything was already good, even tears and pain where ok. (It was not about the painting, it was a mirror!)

Just fantastic, beautiful, magical and amazing experience!

So much love, hugs and light to each one of you!

Debbie

my first shared painting expo @ osho meditation resort :) The best part was to see people of every age, religion and nationality dancing in front of them and to dance with the other artists, my beloved friends from the course! LOVE IT!

Pune, after 1 week :)

Pune, July 4th 2007, 7:15am

More than one week has passed since I left Miami, it seems more to me, maybe its because the intensity of living that I am experiencing here, and with it I mean the growing and awareness that I have the purpose of developing during this (continous) journey.

My room feels like a home to me, I redecorate it, put some photos, my journal/books, put the bed under the window and my grandma’s alarm clock near me. I have new friends from Australia and Spain, very nice people!

I began my art lessons with drawing, I love it and found it very relaxing, as a meditation practice, as having just fun playing. It was interesting to realize that I was REALLY fearful of drawing, of not-being-able, of not-being-good-enough… but, not good enough for what? As I am reading the book “Radical Acceptance, by Tara Brach” (thank you so much Susan for this present!), I can clearly see how my mind keeps doing that sometimes, making me feel not good enough.

Tara, in her book, calls it the trance of unworthiness, and is something that everybody must face in their lives. It’s beautiful to find so many ways of going thru it, the more I go in any direction, more I think there are not magic formulas for jumping over it, its all about facing it. Like transpersonal psychology teaches: a deep and beautiful journey inside ourselves, "el camino del heroe", a magical story tale with huge obstacles as dragons, a gorgeous treasure, a maze, wizards, fairies; each thing having a deep meaning in our inner path towards our inner development of true happiness.

As every journey, it has moments of difficulties, when fear arises, sadness take us and delusion confront us, but the prize is worth the journey: unconditional love for ourselves and others, no more conflict between good and bad, fullness of spirit and a peaceful feeling that light is everywhere, in every cell of our body and eternally connected with the light outside, with the universe. Its beautiful when our hearts dive completely in the warm feeling of being part of something really big, in a ocean of light, only possible when we just let go…

:) I completely forget about the blog, but isn’t it about sharing?
I feel so joyful of feeling the openness to share with the world, with you that are my friends and family, with everybody willing to connect…

I have Iyengar classes every morning, where I am learning to find opportunities from learning instead of judging what I see. At the beginning I (my ego) was very disappointed because they did not assign me the most “important” teachers which I expected, but was a matter of minutes before I trusted again that whatever-happens-is-the-best.

I like my no senior teachers, don’t know them all because they change everyday, but until now I am feeling that I am learning and practicing (yoga, humbleness and contentment). The westerners that I know that are going to Geeta and Prashad teachings (Mr Iyengar’s daughter and son), says (and I saw that already) that they scream at people, mistreat them, and are not really hospitable, even if their teachings are great.

I find it good for learning that there are not fixed paths to happiness but only great teachers with tools that we can use however we want. I am sure, Iyengar Yoga is a powerful tool for developing awareness and a non pain life in a physical and intellectual level but like everything else, must be used as a tool instead as a unique reality where the ego can lay down and feel that now he knows everything.

On the other hand, I went to the Osho Meditation Resort, and found it amazing! Beautiful, clean, spectacular, with breathtaking gardens and minimalistic buildings, with lots of courses and different activities to join, so... I decided to go next Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a 3 day course called Art with Heart, that seems to be as Art Therapy :)

Last but not least, I have been hearing all the Kabbalah lectures that David download to my i-pod before living (Thank u a thousand times!) I absolutly LOVE IT, it gives me a lot of clarity, answers, new tools and probably a new passion.

I love to find out that there is a realm of no contradiction nor opposition, where everything that you learn, no matter who was the channel for that specific teaching, it’s the same :) It’s all about LOVE and LIGHT and personal practice and helping others and peace, so simple, isn’t it?

Ohh!! The sun just came out! What a wonderful day! See you all very soon! Blessings and light to everyone of you, let’s connect and hug ourselves and wish for a better world and light, light, light to come to our lives and the world!

“All you need is already within you, only you must approach yourself with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors… all I plead with you is this: make love of your self perfect.” Sri Nisargadatta

I took this one from my bedroom window, it is the post office of Model Colony @ Poona :) Love the trees here! The other 2 photos are on my way walking to the institute, huge grren trees everywhere! This is how things look around here!