arline jernigan

I have been getting used to being back in Memphis after my wonderful retreat to Italy. With the way the energy is now, with the imminent election, people are charged, and can hardly help from reacting. I myself included. I am therefore going to draw on the wonder of my time in a beautiful place, and the time spent with the beautiful people who shared the experience with me.

This post will be mostly visual:

I have already shown a lot of pictures from Santa Maria del Sole, and by the way, we are going back again next year!!!!!!!!! More on that later.

Here is the Ionian Sea>

And pieces of rome>

the coliseum

The Vatican, the smallest city, and the richest city, by far

beautiful ceilings and floors.

I could not take pics of the Sistine Chapel, as no photography was allowed (some people did though).
I also failed to take pics of a lot of other things as well. There was simply too much to see. Let’s just say I was highly inspired!

The contrast between Santa Maria del Sole and Rome was huge, but wonderful none the less. I can’t wait to go back.

This is the outside of my room on my Italy retreat, front view and side angle…

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A back door path…

This is only a taste of the charm of Santa Maria del Sole. I will write much much more, after I gather my bearings. It is a wonderful place to be, and the people are beyond words. Love knows no bounds and language barriers can not stand on the way of it.

More later.

In 8 days, I am going to Italy with a group of amazing people to teach yoga. I am sooooooooooo excited.

It seemed so far away for so long, in fact, it was almost like a dream, but it is actually right around the corner, and it is happening. Someone asked me if I was prepared, and the answer is no, not yet. I have been suddenly hit with a bazillion things that need to be taken care of before I leave. I am making the list now.

I”m not worried though, I am too happy to be.

We are flying from Memphis to Amsterdam, then on to Rome. Once in Rome, we will get another flight to Brindisi, and will be picked up and taken to the site where the retreat will be held.

We will do yoga twice a day, morning and evening. There are plenty of things to do or not to do while there. I can’t wait to see the place, it looks beautiful from the pictures. I hope to take a bunch of my own pictures (note to self, get new memory card).

After the actual retreat, several of us will head on to Rome, just to explore. I can not wait to see the architecture, and the art. We wont forget yoga while there, no no, I plan on teaching there too, as a gift. We may have to move some beds and do it in the hotel, but we don’t care.

I have so much to do I can’t sit here. More later…

Love and Hugs

In my classes, I have really been focusing on the chakra system. I have touched on what the chakras are in the teaching yoga section of this site, and I plan to really expand on it soon. >EEK< I just looked at it, and it is a mess. I will fix it ASAP!!!!!!

My overhaul has started, as I said in an earlier post, with many papers and files. I tend to write things in random places, and put them away, and write something related some other time, and put it else where. Hence the need to organize, get a sense of ground.

Anyway the chakra that I am personally focusing right now, because I have felt inbalance, is the muladhara chakra (root chakra) . This chakra, has to do with life force and feeling connected to it, feeling secure, and taken care of. It is powerful and swirling red energy. Much much more can be explained about this and the other chakras, but this post is just touching on the root.

There is a lot of unsettled energy in the world today. So many people are worried about the economy, and the state of our nation, (one can see why) which creates much fear on so many levels. It is a challenge not to get caught up in the swirl of it all.

I just try to bring it home when ever I get caught up in the energy that dovetails with my feelings of insecurity, because when I focus on what is "wrong" out there, I get distracted from what is going on in my own heart, and find it difficult to find solutions for ANYTHING.

SO...

Basically, I have been working on feeling grounded in my meditations. It is really quite simple. I visualize warmth and security, I return over and over to the breath, which happens to be wise in any situation, and I sit no less than 20 minutes (this amount of time works for me now, it is not a magic number, sometimes it seems, we can only spare 5 minutes). Just getting still, like I mentioned in my last post has been extremely helpful, and I have gotten a ton of insight. I really do feel connected and more peaceful lately. That certainly does not mean my mind doesn't go bonkers with worry in moments, but I am really starting to see how to rein it in more easily.

The mind loves distraction, and loves to play games and be entertained, but not always in a fun sense. So I try to view my thoughts (at least when meditating) as clouds passing in the sky, and allow them to float by rather than attaching or identifying with them. < that is a major practice>

Gratitude is at the forefront, and I express it as much as I can. I say thank you every and all day long, for my life and my breath, my body to express who I really am.

I am in my head today, and I don’t much like it. I need to get out and do something fun.

My brain seems to be hardwired to think, analyze, and systematically “figure things out”, to the point of nauseum.

Conversely, I am highly creative, and this part of me laughs at the scheming, analytical part of my mind.

The two worlds have not been in sync lately, and it has caused some frustration within me, and since this is my stomping ground for working things out, and sharing my process, here I go.

Part of suffering, comes from this identification to who and what we think we are, and what we do everyday. For example, I am a girl, a woman, an artist, a yoga teacher friend, sister, a daughter etc… Going deeper > identifying with beliefs that make up our make up or character, which could be affirming or pejorative, “I am good or I am bad, I am ugly or I am beautiful, smart, stupid. But the things we identify ourselves by are just constructs, and are really not the essence of who we are. We think we are ’something’ and we spend our whole lives trying to live up to the image that we construct, yet we (most people at some point, anyway) seek meaning and purpose, beyond what is in our everyday world, so we search and search for something or someone to no avail. Therein lies the dilemma, and suffering takes place. Why, because we don’t have to seek, what we really want, is inside each and every human being. Most of the time we don’t recognize this, because we get caught up in our little web of story line.

Through my studies and practice, I really am starting to see, at least with in myself, all the ways that I cut myself off from the essence of my being, how I cut off the creative flow, and when the blinders come on, and how deep this matrix goes. Seriously, I have been practicing yoga for a while now, and part of that practice is intense self study, so I have seen patterns in my body, mind and behavior a lot, it is just that I don’t always know what to do with the information that I gather.

Then it dawned on me… I am to do nothing. I am to sit still, do absolutely nothing, and be with what is right there. Through the act of being, not doing, I will be guided to places I truly need to be. Next, I have to really tap into that inner love, that is pure and real.

I am sure that I have had this realization before, but today it feels like a light bulb went on, though only after I did a number on myself, through massive self pity and through berating myself for being caught up in the self pity.

It is quite laughable.

I will surely keep doing the things I do, I love them, most of them anyway. I just have to remember to be still too, and let the breath take care of my thinking thinking thinking. Yes, then I am open to receive, and am able to give.

Now, it is time for me to go out, and find some fun to have. : )