When I speak, it is not my intention to tell you how to live, what you should believe, or how to improve yourself.

My intention is to offer some pointers, some radical new perspectives that will shake you up, and loosen the fixed ways you have of looking at yourself and your world.

Instead of filling you up with more information, these pointers can awaken you to a field of intelligence which I am calling ‘The Heart.’ This field of intelligence functions in an entirely different way than your conditioned mind.

Discovering the nature of this wisdom for ourselves allows us to ask ourselves some powerful questions about what is actually working in our lives, what we really want, and what matters most. 

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“Only the unexpected is real.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

Did you ever notice how certain themes run through your life, rising up and falling away, only to appear again sometime later, maybe in a slightly different form?  For me, over the last while, it’s been about creativity, spontaneity, the flow of life which is unstructured and unrehearsed.

We had a great discussion about it one evening in my ‘Alchemy of Writing’ group. I’ve been offering to my students a vision of creativity as something that is innate and universal, because it is our true nature. It’s not something that belongs to anyone, and especially not to a privileged or special group of people. Creativity is how the whole universe emerges into form- over and over it demonstrates this spontaneous power of expression at the very heart of life.

When I really allow my heart to open to the sense of this vast field of creative energy, I realize that each one of us was born to discover ourselves through this process of free expression- to experience directly that who we are is not a fixed and static thing, but a flow of energy that is always new and dynamic.

As we explored this way of looking at things in my class, we realized that a lot of confusion happens when we equate creativity with skill. They are not the same. Skill is a learned thing, something acquired through practice and intention. We can practice creativity too, but only in the sense of learning how to open, to surrender to something that we can never control.  Rumi was pointing to this when he said, “The more skill you have, the further you are from what your deepest love wants.”

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Soma Yoga Retreat in Yelapa Mexico, Soma Yoga & Transformation

Dear friends and yogis:

One of my longtime yoga students, Tracey Scanlan and I are offering a Soma Yoga retreat in Yelapa, Mexico, Dec. 1-8. The full flyer is at the end of this newsletter. Please speak to us if you have questions. It’s going to be a marvelous retreat, an opportunity for deep renewal and awakening.

I have been encouraging all of my students to relate to their yoga practice as a living, evolving thing. If we do this, then our experience keeps growing deeper and more alive-we stay on the ‘living edge’ of what is unfolding for us.

Since the spring, we have been going deeper, opening up to ‘the inner body,’ the whole field of energy and presence that underlies our physical body. When we are able to directly contact the aliveness that the body is actually made of, our capacity to heal, regenerate and renew ourselves really opens up.

We have also been focusing on building more core strength, grounding down into the earth, and experiencing how that core strength supports us in showing up for our life, and meeting each challenge as it arises.

The original purpose of yoga was to connect you with your authentic being, which is not a separate, static thing, but a living, flowing field of presence.
When we look at the body from the outside, it certainly appears as a solid object. But when we drop inside and open to our inner experience, all that we find is a stream of experience, sensation, and feeling. And when we let go a little more, we realize there is a lot of spaciousness and tenderness in this experience, an openness that lies at the heart of who we really are.

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The Fall Soma Yoga Schedule, Soma Yoga Retreat in Yelapa Mexico, Soma Yoga & Transformation

Dear friends and yogis:

One of my longtime yoga students, Tracey Scanlan and I are offering a Soma Yoga retreat in Yelapa, Mexico, Dec. 1-8. The full flyer is at the end of this newsletter. Please speak to us if you have questions. It’s going to be a marvelous retreat, an opportunity for deep renewal and awakening.

Our fall schedule at Shanti Yoga studio is just starting. I am now teaching my Saturday morning class as usual, from 10am-11:30am, and a Wednesday evening class, from 5:30-7pm. Please come and bring a friend with you. Your yoga buddy receives their first class with me for free. And our new punch pass, 5 classes for $48, has no expiry date on it any longer.

I have been encouraging all of my students to relate to their yoga practice as a living, evolving thing. If we do this, then our experience keeps growing deeper and more alive-we stay on the ‘living edge’ of what is unfolding for us.

Since the spring, we have been going deeper, opening up to ‘the inner body,’ the whole field of energy and presence that underlies our physical body. When we are able to directly contact the aliveness that the body is actually made of, our capacity to heal, regenerate and renew ourselves really opens up.

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Last night my partner Jonathan and I had a very simple and powerful conversation. As we were preparing dinner he said, “I’m really struggling inside myself.”

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

“I’m experiencing a global feeling of resentment, and I don’t like it at all.”

“Can you change it? “ I asked him. “Can you actually choose the feelings that arise in you, moment to moment?”

“Well, I’m telling myself that I should be able to, that I should be able to choose something else right now, other than this resentment.”

“But is that true?” I asked him. “If you ask the part of you that really knows, can you actually exercise that kind of control over your experience?”

He paused for a moment and dropped inside himself. “No,” he said, “I can’t. The only thing I have control over is how I respond to what arises.”

“And what happens,” I asked him, “when you focus on not liking that feeling and wanting it to go away?”

“It gets worse.” he said, “It feels solid and compacted.”

“And for me, “ I said, “ in relation to difficult feelings, I often get caught in wanting to know why-why am I feeling like this, what is this really about? But as long as I am resisting what is, there is no insight, just suffering.  When I finally stop struggling, and open to whatever is here-then directly out of the experience itself, insights begin to flow.”

“Yes, “ he said, dropping his shoulders, and taking a deep breath, “that’s just how it is. When I decide that I can’t stand my present experience, I end up being resentful about being resentful!”

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Live your life in a spirit of openness, confidence, and determination.

In many of the ancient, indigenous traditions, the fall was understood to be the beginning of the year. As the harvest comes in, and we receive what we have sown, what has flourished and blossomed begins to return to the root, and a whole new cycle of life begins. New beginnings are an exciting time, and they are also full of challenges. In order to begin, we often need to learn how to release, forgive and let go of the past.

The Chinese sages called this part of life, ‘Difficulty at the Beginning,’ and compared it to the energy and vitality that a tender young shoot needs when it first pierces through the seed, or a young chick when it pecks its way out of the egg.

It’s not necessary to do this all by yourself. That’s why autumn is an optimal time for personal coaching sessions and numerology and human design readings.

These sessions can help you focus, inquire, listen to what is calling you right now, and open to the nature of your natural gifts and deepest resources.

These sessions can also help you achieve completion in your life, learn to stop ‘tolerating’ what is no longer working for you, and open to new ways to being and moving in the world. Achieving completion opens a clear space from which to manifest your deepest intentions- to act decisively, from the heart, without ambivalence and doubt.

Please call me if you have questions: 250.352.7908. or 1. 866.795.4968

For more info re Human Design and Numerology Readings and Barefoot Coaching, visit these sections on my website: http://www.barefootjourneys.net

I’ve been in love with inquiry for long time. Whenever someone asks me a real question, a question from the depths of their being, it’s just like receiving a priceless gift.

I received such a gift when I was speaking on the phone last week with a dear friend. He asked me if I was familiar with the work of Byron Katie.  I said I was, and that I have engaged in what she calls ‘The Work,’ her particular form of inquiry.

“Well, “ he said, ‘I enjoy listening to her very much, but there’s one thing she keeps saying that I just can’t go along with. It does make sense when I listen to her interacting with people. But afterwards I really wonder about it.”
“About what?” I asked him.
“It’s when she says that reality is always benevolent,” he said.
“Oh yes, “ I said. “I’ve heard her say, “In the face of everything that appears to be real, only kindness remains.”
“I understand,” replied my friend, “ that to say things are bad is just the mind making up a story about what is. But it also seems like a story to say that life is kind. Let’s face it, life can be very cruel sometimes.”

I realized in that moment what a big question that is : Is Reality kind?
Is the Universe benevolent? Some people might think it ridiculous to try and answer such a question, or that we should leave such questions to the philosophers. The truth is, we are all philosophers, and many of us have experienced the answers to these deep questions emerging out of our whole experience of life. Sometimes we’re not conscious of what we assume or believe about life, but our answers to such questions affect every aspect of how we live and experience the world.

I watched this week, as this question from my friend came alive in me, crawled deep into my heart, and would not let me alone.

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Dear Shayla,

Thanks for sending these wonderful Lifeletters.  I always enjoy them.  I thought you might like this description of the ego by Baba Hari Dass:

“ The Self is the sovereign;
nature is its kingdom;
mind and intellect are ministers;
and ego is the governor,
which rules for its own self-interest.”

Love,
Michael

Dear Shayla,
re: ‘The ego is like a mini-corporation, driven by its own addictions..’
In support of your original letter, I thought this was an excellent sentence. Since all human behaviour rests on the ego, to transform large negative-impact corporations, we should be looking at our own addictions. We vote to add to their power every time we open our wallet in their direction.
I take your friend’s point that there are good corporations, but, heck, the bad ones have such huge negative impact this needs naming and addressing.
Perhaps there should be another word created for ‘good corporations.’
Kaia

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