Are you ready for a year of Bliss, Grace and Ease?

I don’t know about you, but I sure am. Last year was a bumpy ride. According to the Mayan calendar – (the whole 2012 thing, that we may or may not be watching or actively involved in following)– 2011 ushers in the next passage called BLISS.

All of us are the most affected by weather, seasons, geography, the held values by those who live in our community, the imprinting from how we were brought up – and – you guessed it – the movement of the planets. Try as we might, astrological information, provides us with fact, fantasy and sometimes a very accurate pathway to explain how we are relating to occurrences. Well, right now, some really distinctive occurrences are happening in the sky. We are about to come into planetary alignment with the galactic centre of our milky way. The actual ‘date’ is up for grabs. But the event itself is a significant journey for humanity.

In effect, our planetary cycle of movement is much like going through one of those infinity shaped egg timers. It takes 26,000 years for the ‘sand’ to fall through and create one cycle. Then the egg timer is turned upside down and the whole thing starts over again. Right now, we are in the very narrow middle of the last few grains of sand sifting through which is called the cycle of “Bliss and Oneness with Creation” according to the Mayan Calendar.

11:11:11

Yogi Bhajan, who popularized Kundalini Yoga in North America (and all over the world for that matter), has stated that the last sands will sift through the passage of time November 11, 2011. In effect, it will be the biggest New Year’s celebration in literally eons! All dates aside, because there seems to be some real discrepancies in them, I really like the idea that the focus for 2011 is BLISS.

What if we all set our personal New Year’s resolutions around the essence of ‘living in Bliss’ – feeling the connection to what we are experiencing in each moment – fully.

When I first started my massage practice – the one line that most described what I did with clients was guide them to Feel the BLISS of Healing and Balance”. In all these years, that hasn’t changed! There is no other word to describe that sense when everything is in perfect balance, even the imperfect things. They just are – and that is the observation point for ‘what comes next’.

As we move into the ‘Aquarian Age’ – as this new age is being called, the rules are different.

It’s like playing a game and while you are in the middle, someone changes the rules, but neglects to tell you. Until the majority start playing mindfully by the new rules, the game is very confusing – and that’s where we are now – moving from confusion and chaos – into a time when everyone will understand the new rules.

So what are the new rules?

Yogi Bhajan gave us some of the ‘common features’ of this New Age.

*In their hearts, people will understand what is going on.

*They may not find words to express themselves, but one day they will.

*They will like to uplift their fellow beings.

*The walls of hatred will fall down.

*Instead of ill will and gossip, there will be prayer on the tongues of everyone.

*Rather than competing for wealth, people will compete for spiritual growth.

*We will have a common belief of higher self, love for our Creator, and love for our consciousness and grace.

–Yogi Bhajan, September 24th, 2002

The race Toward Enlightenment

Personally, I find it reassuring that we are just making the transition into playing a new game with new rules.

In yoga and the healing arts, the premise has always been the same:

-that you are a spiritual being having a human experience

-if you step aside and out of your own way, the capacity to experience the Higher SELF that exists beyond the ‘survival self’ is an extraordinary experience

-we are held in perfection by the energy blueprint of the higher self – no matter how badly we screw up as ‘survivalists’, the opportunity exists to always move into that blueprint of ‘godlike’ perfection by choice, if only for a few significant glimpses at a time.

-most of the time, moving into that blueprint of the higher self – often called the ‘soul self’ – requires courageous acts of surrender

-there are no words to describe the process, because it exits beyond what can be discussed with words or vocabulary. It must be FELT as an insightful experience, which is significant to us alone and experienced as balance, oneness or truth.

Yogi Bhajan was a man of words that ring very truthfully for many.

He spoke so clearly from the heart, that those in his presence were able to hear his words with their hearts. Kundalini Yoga is full of song (being a NAAD yoga, or the yoga of sound) and in one song Yogi Bhajan speaks to the nature of these times we are now engaging in:

“All therapies and all health and all knowledge is going to be absolutely obsolete. People need immediately self-exalted experience. And that’s what all essence of human life is.”

Perhaps this is the Bliss of this next year – the opportunity for self-exalted experience – to be found in each moment.

As we move toward Bliss, we are also moving into times governed by the element of ether as in: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Ether is the most ‘unbound’ of the 5 elements that make up our nature. Expanded awareness emphasizes ether as an element. The Hindu chakra system (energetic anatomy) clearly progresses through biological life as ascending both UP and DOWN through these elements.

As above, so below has always been the motto.

In my work with clients everyone runs a perfect, yet different combination of the elements within the character of their own personal make up. The system of health that speaks to this constitutional make-up is called Ayurveda in India; tattwas in Tibetan; 5 elements in Chinese Medicine and earth elements in Indigenous cultures.

Clients that are very earth centered find that moving UPwards is much more challenging and clients that are very star centered, find moving DOWNwards much harder. And so, we keep the universe together as One. The challenge being to stand in the center and be able to ‘access’ the above, while living in ‘the below’ at any time, by choice, and do it effectively while existing in a body, on the planet. ..and that is what all the mystery traditions have developed tools and techniques over the centuries to try to do.

Distilled plants, by nature, are the ethers of the universe with their scent-filled subtle beauty. Aromatic essential oils contain all of the elements of the cycle of growth – earth, air, fire (warmth/sun) and water. The final distillation produces ether – the subtle fragrance – and ether feeds the soul directly.

How lucky am I to be working with essential oils in these times. So, next time you have a massage or use essential oils in your daily routine – consider the context of the times – the opportunity for bliss – and to engage each moment in a self-exalted way.

Visit Anita at:    http://genieinabottle.ca/Genie_in_a_Bottle/Massage.html