By: Stacy Dockins, Founder of Yoga Project studios, Yoga and Mindfulness Educator, 500 Hour E-RYT, Corrective Exercise Specialist (NASM-CES), and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP), and author of Embodied Posture

Navigating daily life as a teenager can be a challenging feat. The teen years are times of rapid physiological change; and the demands of relationships, school, and family dynamics can be overwhelming. Add to this, an air-brushed, social media environment that makes it very difficult to avoid comparison and negative self-relationship. We are constantly bombarded with images of perfect bodies and glamorous lives. Research shows that 53% of 13-year-olds are unhappy with their bodies. This number grows to 78% by the time the girls reach 17. Per the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, by mid-adolescence, girls are twice as likely to develop mood disorders as boys. This disparity could stem from the idea that girls develop faster in terms of emotional regulation as boys, and this sensitivity to emotional stimuli can make them vulnerable to anxiety disorders. The Embodied Posture Scholarship aims to empower young women with the skill of mindful awareness as a tool for increased self-compassion, and stress-resilience—as learned through the practice of yoga.  

As a teen, I struggled with anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. It wasn’t until I gained the tools for self-compassion and stress-resilience that I learned how to navigate my life from a healthier space. I can vividly remember how gripping my emotions were and how inescapable they seemed. I simply didn’t have the tools to decipher between my thoughts, emotions, and who I was as a person. Yoga has been profoundly transformational for me, and I attribute its efficacy to the fact that it is a body-based practice. Because of the struggle of my teen years, I had become dis-embodied as a survival mechanism. I had shut-off my ability to land concretely in my body sensations. I am finding that this is a common pattern for many people, regardless of their experiences with anxiety or stress. 

Re-learning how to sense my body and breath in postures, I discovered a way back home. Being in my body helped me foster new relationships with the tumultuous weather patterns in my mind, as well as gain a new sense of self. It gave me the tools to self-observe and regulate my emotional energy. Yoga taught me that I was normal, and ok—and that I held within me—tools for softening the blows of anxious feelings.  

The Embodied Posture Scholarship was created out of my own personal experience and my desire to offer tools for increased wellness and empowerment to teen girls. I have been training yoga teachers since 2007 and have led numerous workshops and programs on mindfulness, stress physiology, breath anatomy, self-compassion, and wellness. Mindful awareness is at the heart of all my training programs. My passion and expertise lie within teaching anatomy and biomechanics as a means for increased awareness and agency. 

I’ve had the privilege of training my daughter, my niece, and many other teen girls within our teacher programs and have witnessed these girls carry the tools gained from yoga into their college years.  I am seeking a group of 20 diverse, young women between the ages of 15-20, who are experiencing some sort of financial hardship, to give full scholarships to attend our upcoming 10-day Yoga Teacher Training in Fort Worth, TX on July 25-Aug. 3rd. The main prerequisite is that the applicant has an interest in yoga and mindfulness. The program will focus on using yoga as a tool for cultivating self-compassion and stress-resilience. The girls will be taught:

For additional information and application, please visit: www.stacydockins.com

About Stacy Dockins

Yoga and mindfulness educator, Stacy Dockins, has dedicated over 25 years of her life to studying the human body and teaching yoga. Her immense understanding of the science and practice of yoga is supported by her Bachelors of Science and certifications in 500 Hour E-RYT, Corrective Exercise Specialist (NASM-CES), and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP).

Stacy recently developed her first book, Embodied Posture, which empowers readers to align yoga postures to best suit one’s bio-individuality. This innovative perspective combines body awareness, science, and exploration, lending practical tools and information that can be immediately applied to the mat. 

In addition, Stacy and her husband Dave own three leading yoga studios in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, called Yoga Project studios where she creates and directs yoga teacher training courses for 200 and 500 Hour RYT programs. 

Through EdX.org, she co-taught the online course, “The Science and Practice of Yoga,” which had over 19,000 participants from around the globe thus far. Stacy has contributed to outlets such as Well+Good and I AM & CO.

You can find out more about Stacy and Embodied Posture, here. 

The post Yoga & Empowerment appeared first on Dallas Yoga Magazine.

By: Aloisa Zimm

One of the great things about yoga is its accessibility, with hundreds of resources and classes available to help you get started on your practice. Yogi Amy Jo Crowell recommends expanding your practice through as many avenues as possible, whether through trying new types of yoga or learning about its history. If you’re a beginner, now is the perfect time to learn as much about yoga as you can.

With this in mind, podcasts are a great way to supplement your yoga practice: you can find podcasts to help you meditate, or else listen to seasoned practitioners talk about their own journey with yoga. Researchers from the University of California found that storytelling and meaning-making through podcasts engage the mind, which can lead to improving focus and taking in information better. Below are five podcasts that beginner yogis will definitely enjoy:

Yogaland by Andrea Ferretti

Yogaland blends Andrea Ferretti’s training as a journalist and love for yoga into insightful podcast episodes. This podcast is centered on conversations with experienced yoga teachers who have traveled and practiced all around the world, providing an avenue for beginners to dig deep and further cultivate their love for yoga. The best way to learn about yoga is to immerse yourself with as many different perspectives as possible, so listen to this podcast both to and from your yoga class and get inspired.

Mindfulness Meditation Podcast by The Rubin Museum

New York City’s Rubin Museum, known for its collection of Himalayan and Indian art, hosts weekly meditation sessions inspired by works of art from their galleries. Each session is recorded live, which means you can enjoy the feeling of being in a class even from the comfort of your own home. The Rubin invites different teachers for each session of the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast, so you can listen to several of them to find whose practice best speaks to you.

Tara Brach

Greater public interest in alternative wellness methods has brought about a rise in medical professionals who are promoting meditative and health-boosting practices like yoga. A post by Maryville University notes that job growth for health educators is driven by exactly this, as more and more people look to improve their health through good habits and holistic treatments, as well as lowering their overall healthcare costs. Psychologist-turned-yogi Tara Brach fuses her practice with the psychological benefits it brings through her self-titled podcast, using yoga as a way to stave off anxiety and practice mindfulness.

Yoga Talks by J. Brown

J. Brown’s podcast is loved for its incisive look into the yoga community. Yoga Talks features topics ranging from the rise of yoga Instagram profiles to more hard-hitting examinations focusing on sexual harassment. Because of this, Yoga Journal notes that the podcast presents beginners with a look on what being a yogi truly means, and how its principles go way beyond your mat. The podcast features a rotating host of guests, from fellow yoga teachers to trained physicians — a great pick for those who are naturally curious and want to go beyond guided meditations.

Yoga Practice Podcast by Jason Crandell

Jason Crandell is one of the best teachers a beginner yogi can have. His voice is soothing and instructions are clear, making it easy to follow along even without a visual aid. His podcast means that there’s no reason to miss out on a yoga session, as all you’ll need is your mat and a working speaker. Fun fact: Crandell is actually Andrea Ferretti’s husband, meaning you get the best of both worlds with her insight and his peaceful practice.

The post 5 Great Yoga Podcasts for Beginners appeared first on Dallas Yoga Magazine.

By: Nena Watkins, Lac, Licensed Acupuncturist, Oak Cliff Acupunture

Healthy living means different things to different people. For some people, it means going to a doctor and taking western medicines, for other people, it means staying healthy and avoiding western medicine. Luckily, there is a natural option for everyone. Chinese herbal medicine is an ancient system of using herbs grown in China to both treat illness and keep people healthy. Even though it is old and from another country, it is in perfect alignment with the modern American lifestyle.

Chinese herbs are given in groups, called formulas. These formulas are specific to parts of the body, the pattern of illness in the person, and the symptoms one is having. One formula will contain herbs to address all of a person’s problems. Formulas generally contain between 3 and 12 herbs. So, you don’t have to buy a bunch of different supplements. You take one and get all your herbs in a balanced dose.

Chinese herbs can be taken in different forms. The original form is as a tea. One puts the herbs in water and lets them simmer for an hour. You can drink the Tea. Most American don’t have an hour to cook herbs, so instead, herbs are ground and can be stirred into a hot cup of water. Instant Tea! That’s more like it! But even that is too much cooking for some people. For you guys, the teas have been condensed into tea pills. Yes, Pills!

Many people believe that herbs are not regulated, and often they are not. Or they are sold by sales people with no medical training, like at most CBD stores. Chinese Medicine is NOT a multi-level marketing approach. Acupuncturists in Texas are Licensed by the Texas Medical Board, after completing national board exams and years of training in Chinese Herbal Medicine. You can get non-GMO, gluten free, heavy metal tested, preservative free herbs, dispensed by a licensed Acupuncturist, at a very reasonable price.

With a pharmacopeia of 500 herbs imported from China, Acupuncturists naturally treat illnesses, including anxiety, insomnia, allergies, colds, infections, digestion, and infertility, to name a few. Chinese herbs sold in America are regulated through the Good Manufacturing Process to assure safety and assurance in the purity of the herbs. And YES, Cannabis Sativa is one of our Chinese herbs! You probably won’t get it in your formula though. It is a fantastic herb, but not for everything. We use herbs as needed and more effective herbs are used to quickly and effectively treat many health conditions.

Chinese herbs are not as well-known as other forms of herbs and people are generally surprised that they work so well. These herbs are given to alleviate symptoms within hours to days. These are not vitamin supplements. These are plants grown and harvested because of their medicinal qualities. When given in the right dosages, and combinations, healing is immediate. If you are wondering which herbs are best for you, then call your local licensed acupuncturist and experience the natural medicinal herbs of Chinese medicine.

Contact Nena Watkins:

Oak Cliff Acupuncture located at 210 S. Madison Avenue (Bishop Arts) Dallas, 75208

Call to make appointments: 214-840-3445

http://www.oakcliffacu.com/

The post Chinese Herbal Medicine… Better than CBD? appeared first on Dallas Yoga Magazine.

By: Akshay Sharma

Your oral health is up for a toss every time you are savouring sour delicacies that include popping in sour candies or relishing your favourite orange fruit. Sugar is not just the only culprit as far as tooth decay is concerned.

The sour taste can make your eyes squint and cheeks pucker, yet it never goes out of public demand and in fact, is on the rise.

However, your teeth can have a very different opinion regarding the same. Your teeth can suffer from the repercussions much after the sour taste from your last candy that you enjoyed has gone.

Your pearly whites can be worn away by the sour and acidic foods which include everything from the sour candies to wine. These can have far-reaching consequences like tooth discolouring, sensitivity and decay. If you have orthodontic appliances and braces, then this damage can further harm you.

But that does not mean that you have to get rid of all kinds of acidic and sour foods from your diet. The method in which you consume these foods can make a whole lot of difference to your teeth.

What is Tooth Erosion?

When the protective surface or the enamel of the teeth is worn down, the underline material called the dentin can get exposed and this is known as tooth erosion. This leaves the teeth vulnerable to bacteria and plaque which can lead to teeth decay. Tooth erosion is one of the greatest impacts of having more sour foods.

Signs of Teeth Decay

It is quite difficult to notice tooth erosion in the beginning. Nevertheless, erosion and sensitivity happen to be early warning signs that can get more severe with continued acid attack.

Here are some of the signs of teeth decay that you should be aware of. Take a look.

When tooth enamel wears away, sensitivity occurs. You may feel teeth sensitivity while consuming something hot or cold or something very sweet when you have teeth sensitivity.

Along the biting edges you can view transparency in the front teeth.

You can witness a slight yellowing of the teeth which is sign of discolouration of the teeth.

Ridges and cracks can appear along the edges of the teeth.

Dents known as the cupping can develop along the teeth’s chewing surfaces. Fillings can also rise up at this severe stage.

Along the surface and edges of the teeth, rounding appears.

Because of the loss of the protective outermost layer, tooth decay is caused.

How to Protect the Teeth

The best way you can protect the teeth against tooth erosion is by the preventing the acid attacks on the teeth. The first and foremost way to do that is to consume sour foods less.

In order to prevent, keep the tips below in mind. Take a look.

Try having acidic foods along with the ones that have higher pH level and hence are low in the level of acidity. Some of these foods include cheese, nuts, mangoes, oatmeal, apples, bananas, vegetables, melons, whole grains and brown rice. Lean meats and fish also have low levels of acid. These foods can assist to protect your teeth from the acidic and sour foods by neutralising the saliva and by offering the minerals and the calcium required to be back in teeth.

Reduce the consumption of sour foods as mush as possible.

If you do have sour foods, try to swish the mouth with water and drink cheese or milk afterwards for neutralising the acids.

Try avoiding sucking the sour treats like candies for long periods of time. This way the acid attacks get prolonged.

After having a sour food, you should wait for an hour prior to brushing the teeth. Brushing immediately after creates more harm than any good to the teeth.

Go for chewing sugar-free gums for protecting the enamel.

Use fluoride toothpaste with a soft toothbrush for protecting the teeth.

If the erosion has begun, you should immediately consult with your dentist whom you can find by typing in “best dentist near me” in your type engines without delay so that she can guide you regarding how to prevent it from getting severe and also reverse the process if possible, with advanced dentistry. So the faster you act the better for you in this case.

If you stay away from sour food and follow the above tips, you will be able to protect your pearly whites and retain your oral health without experiencing any kind of sensitivity or enamel loss for years.

The post How Can Sour Food Affect Your Teeth? appeared first on Dallas Yoga Magazine.

By: John Mestyanek, Financial Educator

We live in a brilliantly abundant universe, yet through my years of being involved with the metaphysical, spiritual, and holistic communities I have noticed a common pattern. Within this community are people who care deeply for others and the well being of our future generations. They often overflow with positivity and love for others and would bend over backwards to help a friend in need. My life is blessed to be connected with so many individuals with such huge hearts. Yet my heart is often made heavy when I see how these same individuals often struggle to make ends meet or establish the dreams they have to impact the world because of a lack of financial resources. This has been a struggle in my own life as well that I have had to learn to overcome. Over the last 5 years or so I have delved into this issue and have made major transformations in my thinking, my beliefs, and my financial state. While I am and will continue to work diligently on myself, this is a journey I hope everyone begins. We all deserve an abundant spiritual and material existence and it begins by becoming conscious of our past programming around money and finance.

I was born and raised in extreme poverty. From living by candlelight because my single mother of 4 couldn’t afford to pay all the bills because of her addiction issues, to diving in dumpsters for food, or spending time in homeless shelters, I have experienced the struggles of lack. However, all during this period of my life my mother continually fell back on her religion and found strength in prayer. I witnessed despicable human behavior as well as extreme generosity. I began to associate piousness and spirituality as being disconnected from money and wealth. These were unconscious beliefs that I was taking on from my limited view of my life experience; nonetheless, they would plague me for most of my adult life. I bring this specific one up because it’s easy for me to see that many people in the spiritual community have a similar disconnect between the money and spirituality. I hope that through this article others are inspired to investigate their own beliefs and start making positive changes that will lead to greater abundance not only for themselves but to the projects and missions they desire to bring to the world.

The place I had to begin was self honesty. I had to acknowledge that while I may be at peace with life and love my fellow man that I was still suffering because I was not always able to make my ends meet. There was still a little more month left at the end of my paycheck. This did not go hand in hand with my concept of an abundant universe and all pervasive creator. I knew there had to be a lesson here for me and I subscribe to the concept that we are co-creators of our own realities, so I had to go deeper. As I did this, I began to come across books that didn’t just give me affirmations and prayers, but helped me see that the root of my struggle was the program received growing up and observing the life around me. It’s these beliefs that we came up with ourselves by our own observation that are the hardest to bring into the light of day because they have become a part of our hardwiring. It’s much easier to identify the one’s that we’ve been taught like, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”, “I’m not made of money.”, or “Time is money.” We can all recall hearing these types of limiting beliefs about financial abundance, but we have to dig much deeper for when we came up with the belief that “You can’t be spiritual and live an abundantly wealthy life.”

Just as in the practice of yoga or meditation, changes aren’t usually seen until one has built the discipline through consistent application. We have to be patient with ourselves while we apply the principles and continue to breathe through any place we feel stuck or even a little bit of pain. The beauty of the situation is that if you already have a practice that you have been pursuing in your life then you already have developed the muscle of will power. This will be your greatest ally on this journey to greater abundance in your life. If you can acknowledge that we truly exist in an abundant universe and that it is only our limited beliefs and ways of thinking that restrict us from experiencing this abundance in the different aspects of our lives, then you are standing at the doorway of a new adventure. In order to step through this threshold, you must be willing to face your own belief structure and acknowledge that those thoughts and beliefs are not truth.

You want to begin the process of reprogramming yourself. It’s one thing to be say affirmations and have daily prayers, but if we never dig deep enough to get to those hardwired beliefs it’s like putting icing over a pile of crud. It might appear tasty and even start off sweet, but dig a little deeper and the root of issues have never changed. Don’t get me wrong, affirmation and prayer, can be powerful tools especially when they are built on a solid foundation core belief structures that are in alignment with the true nature of our universe.

I do want to make it clear that I am not abdicating for a lifestyle of excess and wastefulness. I believe that the people I am reaching truly have a desire to not just selfishly amass wealth, but to live in abundance purposefully for the improvement of their own lives and the lives of those around them. You deserve to have personal financial abundance in your life as you continue to experience an abundance of health, love, and peace. It is my true desire that those involved in this community achieve great wealth because I know that the wealth will be used to reach others and help them transform their lives for the better. I will leave you with a list of books that have aided me to transform my own life and some I still have yet to read but have been recommended to me by those I respect greatly. If you’d like to reach out to me personally my contact information will be listed below. Namaste.

The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Ecker

Money: Mastering the Game by Tony Robbins

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuck

Unshakeable by Tony Robbins

The One Thing by Gary Keller

Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

About the Author:

John Mestyanek has studied, applied, and taught metaphysical principles for almost 2 decades, is CEO of Custom Life LLC, and is a member of Our Infinite Company helping spread financial awareness. It is John’s mission to help individuals self realize their own power and potential, so they can live rich and fulfilling lives because they deserve it.

Email: [email protected]

The post Abundant Universe appeared first on Dallas Yoga Magazine.

By: Janil Jean, Branding Expert at LogoDesign.net

Your wellness brand is no longer just the shop around the corner. Believe it or not, you’re sitting on a goldmine right now. Don’t believe it? Check out these statistics. According to the Global Wellness Institute the global wellness market is currently estimated at $4.2 trillion with a growth rate of 12.8 percent from 2015-17. If only you knew how to mine the gold. Well, I can’t promise to give out the goldmine secret but I can tell you how to supercharge your wellness brand and capture untapped audiences.

First, you need to know that wellness is the new luxury lifestyle. Of course you know that! But did you know that wellness luxury is all about branding? Think over this for a second. All major luxury brands of the world sell style and experience. From Audi to Body Shop, Nike and Hilton etc. all sell to their customers by designing the style and experience of their products and services. That’s the reason why you need to consider designing your wellness brand as well.

Secondly, if you haven’t figured out yet, the service industry is pretty homogenous-how will you distinguish your brand from the rest of the crowd? Through brand experience of course! We’ll talk about this in a bit.

Starting with the visual identity, you can actually enhance your wellness brand image, with a little investment, a whole lot more than you can imagine.

Getting a wellness logo design that tells your brand story is the first step towards a distinctive brand identity. It doesn’t have to be an expensive one either. You can get one through a custom logo designer or any type of DIY logo maker like LogoDesign.net to start branding.

Once you have the logo design, use it to amplify your brand by using it in all marketing materials: stationery, website, email signature, flyers, apparel, towels, equipment and signboards, to name a few. The idea is to create a visual appeal to your audience and catch their attention whenever they come into contact with your brand, after all you’ve only 8 seconds to capture their attention.

Once you have the visual identity in place, the next step is to get to brand the experience. For this though you’ll have to consider a holistic picture.

Branding is not like a one-night stand that you’ll get over quickly. Branding is designed to make a lasting impression and motivate the user to experience it again and again. That’s why brands like Calia, 22 Days Nutrition, Urban Remedy, and Love Wellness spend big bucks to be endorsed by celebrities. Of course, as a small business you can’t afford to do that. You’ve got the next best thing – the experience which is totally in your control. Create a wellness brand that your audience will want to experience again and again.

Start off by creating a standard for your staff and wellness center. Things to consider include greetings, see-offs, processing time, accessibility, location, space, and interactions design that are uniquely your brand. All these must be curated and designed to deliver first class brand experience such as excellence in customer service, cleanliness, health consciousness, and researched products or services.

Moreover, your brand experience needs to appeal to the emotional void that your audience wants to fulfill – for a younger crowd it’s more about hanging out than being fit; for Millennials it’s more about family and wellness than the money; and for Gen Z it’s about accessibility and control of their health. Manage these aspects than your brand is sure to win customers over. You’ll be surprised that even Disney designed their brand experience to the “T” based on these factors.

The best designed wellness brand today is one that gets customers and visitors speaking about them long after it’s over. That’s what you are aiming for.

Janil Jean is a top management executive at LogoDesign.net. She oversees marketing, operations as well as graphic design teams at LogoDesign.net. You can connect with her via Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post Wellness & Design Go Hand in Hand appeared first on Dallas Yoga Magazine.

Dallas Yoga Magazine is honored to have Arthur Graye share his experience and journey with us in the yoga and holistic community. He is an Artist, Writer, Teacher, Reader and Healer. He owns GreenMan Studios and creates beautiful artwork, photography and malas. We know our readers will enjoy his inspiring story as much as we have! Check out their booth at the Cosmic Yogi Festival on 4/20!

DYM: How long have you been in the DFW Metroplex?

Arthur: I was actually born in Irving, Texas and grew up in Lewisville, so I am a true Texas Native. (Laughing)

DYM: Share with us a little bit about your upbringing and background.

Arthur: I was born into a very conservative Christian fundamentalist family. My whole family was like fourth generation Nazarene and pretty strict. I went to Southern Baptist school for most of my life. My great grandparents were extremely religious. They didn’t believe in TV or radio or anything like that. Visiting their house was like visiting a different planet. My grandmother never cut her hair and she never wore anything but long dresses. I remember I was looking through photo albums once and found a picture of her in riding breeches sitting side saddle on a horse and she was so embarrassed. My home life with my parents was still very conservative but nothing like that. We had a television and watched movies and such, but I was still very sheltered and we went to church three to four times a week. I got a head start on education due to the accelerated program in the private school I attended. I am thankful for that, but as we got older the indoctrination into the Southern Baptist mentality really began to grate against my inherent knowing that there was more to the world than the box of Christianity. I am thankful that my mother was a “bra burning hippie” before they found religion in their early 20’s. I have always felt it was her understanding that helped me make it through my childhood.

DYM: You are the owner of the GreenMan Studios, explain what GreenMan Studios offers. Arthur: The GreenMan Studios is a metaphysical business that offers everything from Handmade jewelry and spiritual tools- prayer beads and such- to Meditation, Yoga, Reiki and Tarot classes. I do a little bit of everything and we are always growing and expanding. I try not to keep my business model in a box- new is good!

DYM: Why did you start GreenMan Studios and with whom?

Arthur: I started the GreenMan Studios on my own in 2010 in an attempt to give people the tools and information to help them on whatever spiritual path they happened to be on. I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine arts in Studio Photography in 2009 and I had been struggling with creating a wedding photography business. I finally decided that I was not happy at all trying to do this and I felt guided to create something a little more my speed. The GreenMan is the god of the forest and I have always been intrigued by him and consider him to be one of my guides or Patron deities, if you will. To me, he stands for the natural world and what we can gain from realizing that we are a part of it. Today’s society would have us believe that we stand separate from it, but no matter what we do- it is where we came from and it is where we will return. The GreenMan Studios is my passion. I am lucky enough to have had the opportunities over the years to work and learn from some really great people and the opportunities for growth have been phenomenal, especially in the last six months when I was able to go full time with it.

DYM: That’s awesome! Your background in dogmatic religion is very different from your belief system and spirituality today. Can you share with us your journey into your personal spirituality today?

Arthur: Spirituality and Metaphysics to me is really just the laws of the natural world that our science has not come to understand as of yet. I have always been a little more “in tune” with things than most people and even from a very young age I knew that dogmatic religion was not for me. I would consistently get in trouble for raising questions and challenging the church authorities until I learned it was easier to just keep quiet and bide my time. I have also known that I was gay since I was 11 years old and I kept it as a secret- a necessity for survival in that environment- until I was 17. I got very good at keeping my mouth shut, but that did not by ANY means, mean I didn’t have my own opinions and thoughts and ideas. We had a huge change in our family when I was 17 due to a domestic violence situation and I decided that I didn’t have to hide who I was anymore. At that point, I came out of the closet as Gay and Pagan. I studied Wicca for a few years until I realized that many parts of that religion are just as confining as traditional Christianity. I am glad it works for some people and I do think that all paths (traditional and non-traditional) have beauty to them, but it didn’t take me long to branch out and start collecting my own beliefs and forming my own system. There was a point in my early 20’s where I had no control of my “talents” and that, coupled with everything going on in my personal life such as school stresses caused me to question my sanity a bit. This was a pretty dark time for me, and I began using recreational drugs in order to shut up my empathy and stop the voices in my head. It wasn’t until 2003 when I met my husband that I was able to embrace my talents and eventually fine tune them through learning to read the Tarot around 2008. I consider myself lucky to have had all of the experiences- good and difficult- that I have had because I believe it is these very experiences which allow me to connect to my clients and help them through the troubles they might be having in their own lives. All of my experiences have led me to pull from many different schools of magic and belief systems from different cultures and from all over the world. I don’t subscribe to just one theology. I believe that true spirituality comes from within each one of us and we have to use whatever tools and talents we have in order to fully develop our own belief system. What works for some, might not work for others and it is imperative that we listen to our own intuition and guidance to find what is right for us.

DYM: WOW! Your journey is very interesting. Many consider you a healer. Will you explain your gifts and share some examples with our readers?

Arthur: My healing tendencies started with my childhood. My mother has always had a passion for animals and our house was the house where the entire neighborhood would bring any sick animals or other wild things they would find. I grew up nursing baby birds and bunnies back to health. We raised rabbits and sold them for pets and my fav thing to do as a child was to take all of the bunnies and put them in a pen in the back yard and lay in the grass with them and read my books. Animals always understood me better than the people I was around, so they were my main companions as I grew up. As I made my way into adulthood and began to find more people that were going through the same things that I had gone through I began to realize that I truly did have quite a bit of compassion for other humans- not just animals. (Laughing) It was around the time I was 20 that I heard of Reiki for the first time, but I didn’t have the opportunity to pursue it until almost a decade later. This was my starting point in 2009 and I realized I loved helping people heal on an energetic and emotional level. It wasn’t long until I started using herbs to make products for physical healing as well.

DYM: You have many certifications in healing. What are they and what inspired you to get educated more in those particular areas?

Arthur: When I first started delving into metaphysics as an adult, I simply did everything that I could do. I was interested in all of it and I took every class and every seminar and workshop that I possibly could. Many of them were obviously not for me and I never went back to them, but I was fortunate, and I found quite a few things that did resonate with me- at least for a time. I have taken many certification courses including Usui, Holy Fire and Karuna Reiki, Basic and Advanced Theta Healing, The Oneness Blessing, a modality called Galactic Healing, and many years of Crystal Healing. I am also a 500 hour certified yoga instructor. These are just the things that interested me. I am a HUGE proponent of following your intuition. If it feels right in your gut, do it. If it doesn’t feel right in your gut, pass it up. Hands down. That is the way I have lived my life for the last decade, and it seems to be working out very well.

DYM: We never knew you were a yoga teacher! 500 hours is a lot…you constantly amaze us. When did you know you had a special gift of healing others?

Arthur: Being super emotionally and psychically sensitive, my childhood was not an easy place or time for me to be in. Until I was 13, I was an emotional basketcase. At that time, I developed a big persona and I was loud and sarcastic and, honestly, a little mean. This was a total self-defense mechanism and it was very useful in getting the other kids- and some adults- off of my case. I was a little fearless after discovering this and I would hold nothing back. My sensitivity seemed to give me an edge where I could zero in on what was going to be the most efficient way to put up my offense and in effect, defend myself. People don’t like it much when you know their secrets and as I grew into a teenager, I began to make some real friends and realized that this innate knowing I had could be used for good, instead of just defending myself from people who were being bullies. I can remember kind of counseling my friends from the time I was 14 and on. I think this was when I realized it felt good to help people and do something good for them. Before all of the Christian policies of “helping others” and “being kind” and such, had been tainted by the hypocrisy I had experienced and related to the religion. Making my own version of kindness and morality became very important to me as a teen and continues to grow throughout my adulthood. It wasn’t until much later I began to become interested in using energy work as a healing modality. Another memory I have of my childhood is I was always in the backyard making mud pies and playing with plants- drying them out and making powders and such. I find it interesting that such a large part of my adult life is doing the same- making concoctions with oils and plants in order to create healing herbal products.

DYM: You also offer Spiritual Counseling. Can you explain the different ways you do this?

Arthur: I have been seeing clients now for over a decade. Whether this is for my Intuitive Reading Sessions, Healing Sessions or my Spiritual Counseling Sessions, I have a lot of people who come to me for some sort of guidance and I am so very thankful for these opportunities. A lot of times my sessions bleed into each other. A client might approach me because of a recurring dream, a heaviness that they can’t shake or odd psychic phenomena that they are experiencing. I usually sit them down and talk it out with them. Many people just need to tell their story to someone who does not think that they are out of their mind. There are so many different strange, scary and exciting experiences people have on a daily basis and many times they don’t know or are scared of what to do about them. A lot of times they are just looking for validation and someone else who understands. This is where I come in. My spiritual counseling sessions usually involve a tarot reading just to see what is going on, a LOT of honest conversation and might end in an energy healing session or something else. It is very different for each individual and I am very glad I have the life experience and the intuitive sense to help the clients who come to me.

DYM: What would you say to someone who was not open to using tarot, oracle cards etc. and how would you explain their purpose?

Arthur: This is a big question because even though it is becoming more and more mainstream, there are still HUGE taboos about the tarot. I think if you partake in magical practices, then the tarot can be a very magical tool. If you don’t practice magic, then the tarot can be used as a FANTASTIC tool to connect with your angels, your guides, God, the universe or even just your own intuition. I even have some prominent psychologist friends who use them as a tool to help people work out their own psychological issues.

DYM: Why do you think people sometimes are afraid to ask or try the more non-traditional paths such as cards?

Arthur: Honestly, I believe that restrictive Christian religious morals are so ingrained in the foundation of our country that it bleeds through into our daily life without us even realizing it. I think that as we move forward into the coming years, we will continue to open up more to these “alternative” paths. The last decade has seen LEAPS AND BOUNDS in this area, and I believe it will continue to happen exponentially. I believe we are opening up more to these things because we are realizing a lot of the “answers” we currently have are not really working.

DYM: That is so true. Will you explain the difference between Tarot cards and Oracle cards for those who don’t know?

Arthur: The Origin of the Tarot is somewhat of a mystery. There are rumors that they come from ancient Egypt, but in my opinion, those are just rumors. We actually have historical proof that there were fortune telling cards in use in Italy in the 14th century and this is most likely where tarot comes from. There is a messy and sordid history behind the tarot. In the mid 1900’s there was a group of people who called themselves the Golden Dawn. This group included Aleister Crowley and Arthur Edward Waite. These are very prominent names in the metaphysical community. These two had very differing views on what the tarot should be. Waite wanted the cards to be easily accessible to the public and Crowley wanted them to remain esoteric. The result of this conflict was the Ryder Waite deck (Waite) and the Thoth Deck (Crowley). The Waite deck is considered the standard and has been largely used by the public since its birth. The main difference between Tarot and Oracle is the structure. Tarot is very structured and Oracle decks have no set structure. Oracle decks are usually a series of artwork that are made around a central theme and are used in their own way for divination. Tarot has rules. The way I read and teach people to read means a lot of times these rules get broken. (Laughing)

DYM: Interesting. You also use Lenormand cards. Can you explain what those are and how you use them?

Arthur: Lenormand Cards are very interesting fortune telling cards and are named after Marie Lenormand, the Oracle of Paris in the 1700’s. They are a system of 36 cards that give very direct and accurate information. The draw of the Lenormand is they are extremely factual and rely less on intuition, although the readers intuition is a factor, of course. Another intriguing thing about the Lenormand is once you learn all of the cards and the way they interact with each other, you can lay out all 36 cards and the client can ask as many questions that they want and they can all be answered from that one layout.

DYM: That sounds awesome…we will have to try those cards. This might sound like an odd question, but how do you know what cards to use with each person?

Arthur: I don’t think it’s an odd question at all. Tarot is my chosen tool. I have three or four decks that I will choose between (although together, my husband and I own over 500 decks) but I usually use the Juvel Mor Tarot, since I created it myself and it has special meaning to me. My husband is the Lenormand Guy and he rarely uses tarot in his professional readings.

DYM: You created special cards called “The Juvel Mor Tarot” and they were gorgeous! Did you draw them yourself?

Arthur: The Juvel Mor Tarot is the product of a collaboration between myself and my friend Matt Gatlin. Matt is a very talented artist with some very difficult challenges- MS and Epilepsy. We took about three years of going back and forth- probably about five times for each card- and deciding what we wanted them to look like. I told him what I wanted, and he did an amazing job of drawing it out. Then some color matching and digital editing on my side to get them publisher ready and VOILA! We had a deck.

DYM: These cards were very important to you, will you share why with our readers?

Arthur: The Juvel Mor was and is a complete labor of love. It is dedicated to my co-collaborators mother who passed away a few years ago, but more than that the name is dutch for Jewel Mother and the deck is a nod to all the mothers and mother-like caregivers who have ever had the pleasure and heartbreak of raising a child or caring for one as if it were their own. The Juvel Mor is a completely intuitive tarot deck and spans many different cultures and time periods.

DYM: You have incredible Malas…some of the nicest I’ve ever seen. Can you explain what malas are for people who don’t know?

Arthur: The main complaint I hear from my clients when I inevitably suggest that they start a meditation practice is that they can’t clear their mind. Monkey Mind is what we call it and it is a SERIOUS problem in this day and age. This is when I suggest Mantra Meditation because when you use a mantra (a specific saying that is repeated over and over) it gives your monkey mind something to hold on to instead of wondering what you need to buy at the grocery store later that day. (Smiling) An important part of mantra meditation is the use of a mala. A mala is a numbered string of beads that are used to keep track of your mantras when you are practicing mantra meditation. The GreenMan Studios is pretty much based off of my malas. They were the first thing I started making and they are my passion. I hand tie each one in the traditional hindu method and I charge them all with Reiki. I make three different sizes- 108 (traditional), 54 and 27(both multiples of 108- an extremely spiritual number in many cultures). I make my malas out of all kinds of different crystals and woods and they can be used as both decoration of your person or as a sacred object. I love teaching people mantra meditation and how to use a mala.

DYM: What inspired you to create malas?

Arthur: This is a funny story. I bought a mala when I was a manager at a retail store that sold them. I loved the way it looked and when I got home, apparently so did my dog. She ripped it off of my wrist almost immediately and all of the beads went flying in 108 directions. Me, being the artsy guy that I am, I hunted all the beads down and did some research on how they were traditionally made, and the rest is history. I started making them for myself and then had some interest from friends and then they started to sell. About two years after I started making them, I was exposed to mantra meditation in my advanced yoga training and it literally changed my life. I use mantra whenever I need to center or ground myself and once, I learned this technique there was no going back. Complete game changer.

DYM: We would love to learn how to make a mala…you will have to teach us! Do you have a favorite service you like to do?

Arthur: While I absolutely LOVE my healing sessions, I think my first love will always be my readings. It is where I started and what allowed me to get my abilities under control. Tarot changed my life and I will forever be grateful for that. I love being able to share my gifts with my clients by showing them what the cards can tell them.

DYM: Why do you like being a Spiritual Counselor?

Arthur: While I do enjoy doing what I do, it is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable to show and tell people what they need to see and hear. My style is I don’t beat around the bush or sugar coat anything that I receive from my guides. I tell it like I hear it. I mean what I say, and I say what I mean. I don’t think I really had a choice as to whether to do this or not. My readings and my Reiki sessions were becoming spiritual counseling sessions in and of themselves and I felt very guided to continue to explore this venue. I love being able to help people get the results they are looking for. I find that to be the most rewarding aspect of all of my work.

DYM: What was one of the most interesting experiences you had as a reader/counselor?

Arthur: I have so many stories that a “normal” person would consider to be insane, but I guess one of my favorites would be when I had someone’s grandma show up in a reading. Like, in the room. (Laughing) I was reading for a young girl and I look up and behind her left shoulder there was an elderly woman in a while shirt and a grey skirt looking at me very sternly. She audibly said to me “YOU TELL HER TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL!!!” This has happened many times since, but this was the first and I was very surprised. I gave the client the message and she just smirked and said, “That sounds just like something my grandmother would say.” And the description matched her grandmother who had passed away two years prior. I don’t advertise myself as a medium, but it does happen on occasion and I always find it interesting.

DYM: You are also an amazing artist and photographer. Your pictures are so unique and stunning. How did you get involved in photography?

Arthur: I have always been artistic- another thing I get from my mother. I found photography my senior year of high school in the midst of a life changing family crisis and I clung to it. I found out in a high school photojournalism class I had some talent for it and I ran with it right through six years of art school. Photography is my safe place. I travel the world as much as I can to create my surrealistic photos of beautiful places. I try to mix my metaphysical and magical beliefs into my art as much as I possibly can. You can see a large part of my portfolio at arthurgraye.com

DYM: Do you have a particular kind of photography you prefer or like shooting best?

Arthur: After years of being asked what I like to shoot pictures of I have this answer honed down pretty good. I shoot NOUNS- people places and things. I am currently shooting a series of black and white portraits of people in the Dallas metaphysical and yoga community. I find this very satisfying, but other than that, I mostly shoot locations form my extensive (and obsessive) traveling of the world.

DYM: We can’t wait to see those black and whites you are shooting of local people. You are going to be at the Cosmic Yogi Festival, Saturday, April 20, 2019. We are so happy you will be joining us again. What you will you be offering at your booth?

Arthur: We will have the entire plethora of merchandise the GreenMan Studios offers- including many new prayer beads, new crystals we brought back from our trip to the Tucson rock and mineral show and our entire assortment of metaphysical jewelry and products.

DYM: Thank you so much for sharing your journey with our readers. It is truly remarkable and so are you!

Contact Arthur Graye & The GreenMan Studios:

Go to www.thegreenmanstudios.com and find all of the services, classes and products they offer. You can also find the upcoming events they will be attending.

If you are interested in Arthur’s photography, please visit him at www.arthurgraye.com

All of the photos are available printed in almost any size.

Contact Arthur for details and questions at [email protected]

Social media:

Facebook- Search Arthur Graye and/or you can like and follow his business page at The GreenMan Studios. Look for the same names on Instagram– please follow him!

The post The Journey of Arthur Graye & GreenMan Studios appeared first on Dallas Yoga Magazine.

By: Mary Chandler

You will be able to experience a Labyrinth first hand at the Cosmic Yogi Festival on 4/20! Unity Church will have their labyrinth set up and guide you through the beautiful process of this meditation.

In the broadest sense, a Labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey to the center of your deepest self and back out into the world, with a better understanding of who you really are. There is no right way to walk a labyrinth; you only have to enter and follow the one path into the center and back out.

Labyrinths are popping up in hospitals, public parks and schools, retreat centers, colleges, and churches, such as the canvas labyrinth at Unity of Dallas on Forest Lane. Labyrinths are examples of one of the oldest spiritual tools, dating back at least four thousand years.

Reasons for a labyrinth are many, and often unknown. Consider a labyrinth a way to have a walking meditation; using a labyrinth as a way to slow down, become centered, and mindful. Recently labyrinths have been rediscovered as a wonderful way to reconnect your spiritual self to your mind and body.

There must be something special about labyrinths considering their presence throughout history in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The oldest, a Cretan Labyrinth is estimated to have been built around 2500 B.C. Labyrinths, found in many sizes and shapes, are crafted out of various materials.

Perhaps the best-known labyrinth is in the floor of the Cathedral in Chartres, France. The Cathedral was completed in approximately 1200 A.D. (walking the labyrinth is on my bucket list as we are planning on walking it in June of this year). These labyrinths were used by Christians throughout the Middle Ages for a symbolic pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

However, today, the experience of walking one helps clear the mind, detach from the daily grind and really focus on issues in life you may be facing. The labyrinth appears to be nothing magical, nor endorsing any particular religion or faith. It is simply a spiritual tool to remind you that everything in life is sacred.

The labyrinth is not a maze that has tricks and dead ends. There is only one path in, which takes you to the center, then back out again. The idea is to enter, walk along the path, with its twist and turns toward the center during which time you release yourself from the daily details in an emptying or cleansing process. As you reach the center, you may meditate or pray for direction and vision in your life. Then you leave the center, and travel back along the path, perhaps passing others along the way, just like life.

Labyrinths can be powerful tools, open to seekers of all beliefs. Your walk can be healing and sometimes profound. Or, it can be just a pleasant walk. Each time is different.

Unity of Dallas has a beautiful canvas labyrinth that is a Classical Seven Circuit design, also know as the Cretan Labyrinth. It was used on New Year’s Eve as a way of letting go and receiving guidance for the upcoming year.

The labyrinth will be available for your walk April 20th at the Yoga Festival. Unity of Dallas will have an outside booth, near the entrance, with Power Stones for walkers to choose a power with which to walk. There will also be Power Bookmarks available at the end of your walk.

How to walk a Labyrinth:

As a guide to walking a Labyrinth, stand at the entrance and take a deep breath. Connect your heart with Spirit. Give thanks for this labyrinth as an instrument of healing, power or whatever quality that is important to you.

Here is a simple way to think about walking a Labyrinth as we make our way on our Pilgrimage. We will use three phases.

There are three parts of an ancient Pilgrimage, setting out, arrival and return. These three stages are reflected and mimicked in the three stages of a labyrinth walk. Labyrinths might have even been used as a substitute for an actual pilgrimage, when conditions prevented dangerous travel.

Start your journey. Enter the path and see where it takes you.

About the Author:

Mary Chandler has been walking and studying labyrinths for over 20 yeas. She has helped make several Labyrinths and has her own 32-foot, eleven circuit Chartres Labyrinth at her home. She has led Labyrinth walks and introduced them to many schools, churches and spiritual groups.

The post The Wisdom of the Labyrinth appeared first on Dallas Yoga Magazine.

By: Candice Frazier, Certified Life Coach

You have superpowers that I bet you did not even know! Inside all of us is our own personal guru that can guide us, rescue us and even save us!

If you have ever listened to that internal voice, and avoided a bad situation, that was your intuition guiding you.

I have experienced that myself… I found myself overweight, unhappy, abused, feeling angry, broken and lost. Are you ready to learn how to honor that voice and to connect to your super powers? Let’s get started.

What and Who Is This Intuition/Internal Guru?

Have you ever asked yourself a question and listened to the answer that you hear in your heart, mind and soul?

Have you ever wondered about that voice screaming at you when are about to do something scary?

Have you ever had an internal battle when deciding what you want to eat?

Have you ever wondered why when you meet someone within a minute you have an internal “sense” of them?

Intuition is the quiet knowing that is felt deep in your core; singing the truth of your soul’s unique song. The melody of your truth is a gift from your higher self, meant to guide you on your path to your highest good.

Sit silently with yourself. Breathe. Be present in the stillness of you. Listen.

Your intuition will guide you to the right path so you can enjoy the best health, happiest relationships, abundant prosperity and peace within.

When we each are individually aware of our internal guru, we remove ourselves from the nature of victimhood. This deep place of awareness and understanding empowers us as the creators of our lives.

Why Tune In:

First, I ask that you honor where you are in this moment and thank this version of you for all they have done and give yourself a hug!

This creates the energetic shift into a place of acceptance, loving awareness and out of the negative energy of self-criticism, doubt, fear and expectations.

Intuition can be very helpful when you are seeking to connect to your body. You can gain knowledge about foods you are eating, people you are around, your job, and your time spent with self to understand if they are making you feel energized or if they are depleting you.

4 Ways to Meet Your Intuition

Trust that from birth at every turn, your intuition has been there keeping you safe and guiding you to your inner wisdom.

As with any new skill, patience and practice will help you gain mastery. And with this practice will come insights and wisdoms that will make you feel like the true superhero you are!

What next? Get in Touch

So, if you were looking for a sign it is time to do things from an intentional space, you will want to take action and contact me.

Let’s connect and learn more about how to transform your life.

In my practice, I teach how the simple basics of self-love through self-care opens the door to living an empowered and full life, free of fear and full of abundant joy, love and prosperity.

I like to offer my clients a complimentary discovery session before joining my program. This provides the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about my programs and my coaching philosophy.

To schedule your discovery session please call me 916-542-9853 or email me at [email protected] and mention “INTUITIONGURU”.

Otherwise, years will have gone by and you will have spent more time in the negative energy and have more of what you don’t desire and less of what you do desire.

Remember to LOVE SELF FIRST. Be the peace, patience & compassion that the world needs more of.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Candice Frazier is a Certified Health/Life Coach, former Certified Medical Assistant and an Air Force Veteran. She an Author Sensuality of Self Care (coming Spring 2019), Founder, Creator and Host of Awakened Sage Podcast, Wellness With Candice and Elite Care Coaching Consultants.

Implementing a holistic/alternative health approach, she overcame the adversity of childhood abuse & trauma, and is a 2x suicide survivor. She has overcome own health struggles of multiple autoimmune illnesses and debilitating fibromyalgia, and narcissistic abuse. Her A-HA moment came when she realized that all the disease and illness in her body, was it communicating to her that she was not in alignment with her truth and was ignoring her intuition.

After tuning into her intuition and allowing it to guide her in her daily actions, her new reality is now health, peace, happiness and connection to self.

Her goal is to teach humanity how to be complete mind, body and spirit through reconnecting to love of self through sensuality of their self-care to create confidence, intimacy and prosperity.

Her passion is to share the knowledge that healing is possible. Her healing was not found in a pill or in doctor’s office. Her healing was right inside her all along, and with the help of her own Internal Guru, she can now enjoy a fuller life.

She will empower you to honor your need for sensuality and guide you in way that excites you to show up for your daily self care date with yourself.

Her philosophy is that self-love is the path to freedom and happiness that allows you to live an empowered and full life and be the best version of you possible for self and others.

The post MEET YOUR INTUITION: Your Internal Guru appeared first on Dallas Yoga Magazine.

By: Marie Williams, Writer Dallas Yoga Magazine & Yoga Enthusiast

Everyone desires to be successful in life, but few really understand the process by which to follow to achieve it. Most success involves an eventual destination, somewhere we hope to end up. This destination will include roles we may play along the way, desires we hold close and individuals we meet on our journey to guide us. Our destinations usually start with some sort of vision we have. Since there are so many parts to our journey, it becomes multi-faceted. In retrospect, such a journey requires a multi-faceted vision.

In the book, Visioneering: God’s Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision, author Andy Stanley talks about how visioneering is the path an individual follows to make his/her dreams become a reality. It is a process by which ideas and convictions take an identity. Initially, visioneering is the engineering of a vision.

Within the last seven months, I have had a vision to start my own business involving affiliate online marketing where all my networking and communication is done using my smartphone, tablet and laptop. My grandest desire is to help others discover their gifts and upon doing this, tap into their truest and purest potential to become the best version of themselves. I am also using my blog site as a way to promote both myself and my brand on social media. My blog site content is derived from mindset books I am currently reading or have read in the last year. I am also a magazine subscriber and read Yoga Journal each month to find articles I like that compliment a holistic lifestyle I feel will resonate with my readers and viewers. Through the use of social media and typed up content, I envision myself changing people’s lives on a global level from the inside out, while becoming a social media phenomenon.

Visioneering has many components to it and each one plays a significant part in this process of achieving success. Each part can be thought of as necessary “building blocks” that help an individual complete one part at a time. If visioneering were thought of in the way of a formula, it would look something like this:

Visioneering = Inspiration + Belief + Action + Determination + Completion

Inspiration can start when a single thought pulls at us and stays on our minds. This inspiration starts developing as a belief that we can do whatever it is we have set our minds to and through this belief, we become convicted or moved by such faith in what we can do. This conviction then compels us to act. Our actions, when done consistently, provide the determination needed to work on the vision to see it through. Completion is the final result of all these “blocks” that produce success over time.

Vision also encompasses being able to see where we desire to end up. We should be able to look past what actually “is” and visualize images of what could be or what could be manifested in our lives. However, this vision must be clear because if it is not, we may come to the end of our lives wondering what all we could have or should have done. We may even wonder if our lives mattered at all. One of the good things about a vision is that it gives significance to what would otherwise be meaningless details of our lives. It helps to bring our lives into focus by bringing order to chaos. A clear vision allows us to see everything from a different perspective.

There are four key elements that must be a part of a vision; these factors help to evoke emotion and they are passion, motivation, direction and purpose.

Passion stems from a clear, precise vision that when executed, allows us to experience all the emotions associated with our predicted future outcome. All these emotions reiterate our commitment to the vision based on what we can visualize ourselves doing or where we see ourselves going. These feelings are eventually channeled back into our present reality. Feelings are powerful and compelling, but we must remember they are just a form of energy passing through us that we can either choose to attach or detach from. The clearer the vision, the stronger the emotion coupled with it.

Any vision provides motivation, or the urge to follow through with a specific plan. Vision-driven people stand out because these individuals include all details from the mundane to the most important in the process. They cannot wait to get started and they see the planning aspect as something fun, not actual work. Vision can also serve as motivation to even get things done, such as finishing college, graduate school or acquiring a new job. These are all big milestones in which an individual should be focused. The end goal would hopefully lead to possible jobs and future careers.

Before a vision can take flight, an individual must have a direction they desire to go in, so they can carry out the vision. The direction will then serve as a road map to guide the person with all decision-making concerning the established vision. Anything or anyone who moves us closer to accomplishing the vision gets approval. Anyone or anything that does not help us should be either eliminated or approached with caution.

Vision also helps us to prioritize our values, while helping us determine any distractions that would hold us back. We are able to redefine our lifestyles and adjust our schedules to fit so that everything balances out.

Our vision should give us purpose, a reason to get up and start moving towards progress. If we do not show up, things will not get done and lives cannot be impacted. A good example is my current job at the community college I have been working at for six years now. Four days a week, I am blessed to be able to help students improve their grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and critical thinking skills in the subjects of English Composition I and II, History, Psychology and Government. Being a part of their academic journey inspires me to work just as hard as they do to start up my own online business. I am encouraged when my students tell me I am making a difference in their lives because I helped them improve their writing ability or was a significant factor in their making an A on a paper. My passion for my work further fuels my own vision of becoming an entrepreneur. My work at the college serves the purpose of helping my students become the best versions of themselves in preparation to attend college after graduation.

All visions are born in the souls of men and women who are filled with thoughts of what currently is and what could be. Anyone emotionally involved who fills things could be improved in any way, including in their own lives, is a candidate for a vision. Visions are birthed in the minds and hearts of those dissatisfied with the status quo or desiring to see significant change in their lives. They are a preferred future, a way of life. Visions demand change and push an individual to exceed well beyond his/her perceived limitations, but most importantly, require courage to act on bold ideas.

Just seven months ago, I was financially struggling and growing more frustrated and discouraged by the month. It had become difficult to take care of monthly financial obligations and I felt like everything was overwhelming me involving money.

I talked to a close friend about the difficulty I was having, and she told me about a new business idea she felt aligned with she was excited about starting. Every time my friend talked about the new business concept, her eyes glowed and her passion seemed to be oozing out in her words. I could not help but wonder what she was doing to change the course of her income and how she thought about money.

My friend and I would meet at Starbucks to discuss the questions I had about starting this online marketing business. She would text me tools or ideas she was exploring about new business concepts so foreign to me. With both her persistence and encouragement, I began watching webinars, which broke down the business concepts and provided personal testimonials of people already thriving in this business. She connected me to her personal contacts whom have become some of my closest friends I consistently stay in touch with today. Finally, my friend discussed with me the power of shifting my mindset. I did this before I fully decided to commit to start a new journey to become an entrepreneur and wear a different hat as a businesswoman. Through the mindset shift, my vision of having my own business to live abundantly has never felt more possible! This just goes to show that timing is everything when beginning a new adventure and going down an unexpected path!

Establishing a vision for our lives takes time and can sometimes be a painful and uncomfortable experience. Due to the time needed to be put towards the vision and the manifestation involved, the process itself yields a beautiful product that is worth all the hours, days, weeks, months and years that are worth such a sacrifice.

Timing is everything and at the beginning of a vision, there is a tendency to be so involved and obsessed to the point of moving too soon, instead of waiting for the clarity to make the best decision and allowing things to fall in place naturally. The online affiliate marketing business is my biggest and grandest vision yet! Based on where I am at in my life financially and the fact that my other areas of employment are all encompassed in my business platform, now is the perfect time to take a leap of faith on something I really feel aligned with and watch myself and my life transform into something magnificent!

In order for a vision to truly take flight, it first starts as an idea in our minds we cannot stop thinking about! Time allows us to identify between both good or bad ideas/thoughts linked to the vision. Patience gives us a chance to identify any and all feelings that surface and examine these emotions to see how they will factor into our vision. Then there is society, which can be tough and even cruel towards a vision, especially when these people do not understand the premise behind the vision. Visions involve change and most of the time, change is not welcomed because it serves as an interruption to what is expected or familiar. Visions can only survive if they are mature and healthy before exposure to cynicism, criticism, a stubborn environment and negative energy. These characteristics will quickly damage or possibly wipe out any premature vision.

As our vision matures, we should be maturing as well. This maturity could mean talking with a mentor either professionally licensed in the areas we are desiring to cast the vision or close friends who are already experiencing success and growth within their visions. Finally, we mature from experiences we have from our mistakes that can serve to teach us what we may be missing so that we learn from these mistakes and turn them into positive gains that help us grow.

There is usually some investigation or research needed before implementing parts of the vision. Asking the right questions to gather necessary information, doing independent research online and taking notes, watching webinars and attending lectures on topics of interest are all great ways to dive in and for an individual to start educating his/herself on what he/she might need to carry out his/her vision.

Before a vision can come alive, a person needs to feel assured and confident in what he/she is desiring to undertake. Prayer is a powerful way to connect to the Universe for granted requests as well as clarification about what direction to move in regarding the vision and wisdom concerning decisions needing to be made.

When I truly committed to the reality of starting my own online business, suddenly going into business for myself became larger than life! I knew I needed more wisdom than I currently had about something I had never done that seven months ago, seemed crazy! Each day after I woke up and at night before I fell asleep, I talked to the Universe about my visions (which were actually dreams) I was having about the business. I needed the Universe to reveal to me what these dreams meant. By consistently praying daily, the Universe not only provided me excellent knowledge, but helped me focus on the mindset shift needed to start up the online business.

Prayer is critical to vision development because it allows us to see exactly what we are searching for. It keeps our eyes and hearts in a mode of expectancy because we are certain of the Universe’s divine intervention. Prayer makes us sensitive to subtle changes involving the situations connected to the vision. Once the Universe moves on our behalf, we recognize its presence and at that point, we can rest assured if we remain optimistic and full of positive energy, we will not miss future opportunities centered around the progress of our vision. Therefore, we need to pray for the Universe to grant us more chances to connect on deeper levels with our vision. Lastly, our prayers should be focused on what we determine needs to happen in order to get our vision off the ground. We also need to pray for the individuals involved who have the power, resources and influences to help make our vision a reality.

No successful vision can be accomplished without some type of planning. The type of planning I am referring to is strategical planning, where careful thought is given to what needs to be done in preparation, how the process might be carried out and tactical decisions that may need to be made concerning money, overall time spent and networking to get specific people connected to the vision. The idea here is to develop some sort of plan, even if it fails or does not quite fit. Plans can be adjusted as the vision unfolds and often, they will need to be because it is not easy to have a perfect plan when executing a vision.

Before I knew I would be launching my own online marketing business, I had to seriously think about what my business platforms would be, meaning what services could I offer potential clients?

It did not take me long to figure this out. I immediately wrote out a two-page business platform and met my good friend over tea to discuss it. She liked it and thought it was brilliant! I came up with the platform in a matter of hours, based off of what I am passionate about, which is helping people discover their true gifts and using those gifts to tap into their truest and purest potential. Then, another idea came to me: create my own blog site and use articles from Yoga Journal and mindset books I have read to create blog posts over interesting topics people would want to know about.

I created my own blog site within three days with the help of an e-book I stumbled across on WordPress and set about creating content. That was back in September. Within three months, I had quickly blogged 50 posts over various subjects! The key to great blogging is to keep all the material fresh, interesting and up to date.

I had never done Facebook Lives, but knew I needed to make some kind of visual connection. I was scared to get behind the little screen on my iPhone and talk. Who would want to listen to me? Was my presence worth it? How would I talk without letting my nerves get in the way? All these questions hit me at once, but I also knew that I desired to become a social media phenomenon and someone everyone could connect to in their own way. I gave my first Facebook Live video in August. After getting past the initial shock, I decided to give two Lives at month, each for 30 minutes on one or two topics that were relevant to my life I thought others could relate to. I did not get as many views, but my putting myself out there through a live video, I made my presence known.

My plan came together rapidly and as my creative spark started to ignite all sorts of great ideas, I wrote every one of them down on paper. Afterwards, I reviewed my ideas, often tweaking my notes, usually adding something. My friend and I discussed all my ideas, sometimes through text. I read an e-book in a matter of weeks before designing my blog site in three days, which I had never done before. I designed new content as it came to me. I also searched for and found professional development courses to watch over subjects I never studied in school and did not have a degree or background in: content marketing, advertising, personal branding, business writing/blogging and tax law for small businesses. These are just a series of the things I felt I needed to do in seven months to adequately equip me to go independent in launching a vision I feel aligned with.

There are good ideas and then there are ideas from the Universe. If we are only pursuing a “good idea,” then most of our time will be spent devoting effort trying to figure out how to pull it off. On the contrary, a divine vision is limited only by the Universe’s potential and resources. Anything is possible! This vision keeps us focused because it is a reminder of our depending on the Universe. Those individuals with a vision live with a certain sense of expectancy. They look to the Universe to show up and perform. They lean into that “gap of uncertainty” believing something great will happen. These types of people are referred to as visionaries. Visionaries see themselves contributing to society. They look for every opportunity to move and shake things up! They are not satisfied with the status quo. I consider myself a visionary.

In order to be convincing, we must be able to state any problems associated with our vision along with solutions as well. The problems are usually apparent, but not always easy to address. Solutions usually come later after trial and error has occurred. A vision must also include compelling reasons why the urgency to complete it is important. In my case, I desire to have more income to not only pay my bills, but to travel with and spend on other things I desire, rather than on what I need to have each month. I desire to re-create a luxury lifestyle that fits who I am and live life by my design.

One thing that I bear in mind is that my vision is not my problem; it is actually a solution to a problem I have had for several years now and that is not having enough income to pay my bills and to enjoy later on. The problem should provide a clear context for setting up the vision.

Another solution is that my business can be run and operated from my laptop, smartphone or tablet, all of which would allow me to work from home. My vision of operating my own business allows me to imagine my future in a unique way that will bring about change right now! By sharing my vision with others as I work towards putting it into motion, I am engaging these individuals’ imaginations as well.

The process by which a vision starts in the mind is truly fascinating! My reason behind what could be with this online business moves me to believe that it should be. Having crossed this line, I am committed to jumping in! I am passionate about taking a leap of faith and some risks to acquire something worth the investment in both the business and myself! I find I am getting more energized by the mere thought of a great opportunity sitting before me! This urgency translates into the incentive to live an abundant life and truly thrive in ways I never expected possible! One other factor that is so important is all the inner work I have done over the last seven months to summon up the courage to start something bold and new I believe in!

Stanley feels the majority of the visions we cast will be centered around other people and their futures. He says our “…words can help to point people in a direction because they work to plant mental seeds…” (110). Our words can make or break someone else’s self-image. In turn, every relationship we establish can be grounds for a potential vision-casting opportunity. “The position we hold in other people’s lives determines the weight of our words and our potential to shape their future” (110).

Any vision worth going after will require great sacrifice and risks taken. An individual must be willing to leave the all-too-familiar and comfortable behind so he/she can embrace the unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Of course, there is the nagging thought that the vision itself we are investing so much time and ourselves into may not work out, but this is sort of the point! We will not know whether or not our vision will work unless we are willing to make the honest effort to try! In addition, both the risk and the payoff later far outweigh the present feelings of fear and uncertainty.

In regards to launching out on my own independently, I am nervous about getting involved in business I have no current background in. I do not know what will happen, but I am excited to find out because by starting my own business, I have so many great opportunities to expand the business once it gets going and grow into a new and improved version of myself! I consider myself a confident individual after not having any confidence until the age of 25, but confidence actually comes after we have done something and we see the results of our efforts. Any vision requires a person to venture out into unknown territory as if they were absolutely sure of an outcome. No vision can become a reality until someone is willing to jump in and wholeheartedly commit with everything they have, both internally and externally. The risk factors will be there, but he who shrinks back will never know what could have truly been for fear of failure or worse, never even having had the courage to try.

I have to admit that I have no idea where the money is coming from concerning my online marketing business; I am just continuing to trust I will have what I need to get it going and keep it running efficiently each month so that I can maintain consistency throughout this process of starting up something new.

Apparently, money usually follows vision and the way we handle our money is an indicator of where our hearts are. The success of my latest online business venture depends upon others’ willingness to rally and help me out where and when I need it, serving as mentors and guides as I learn and grow into an entrepreneur. As an employee team leader at work involving collegiate tutoring, I cannot expect to lead people any further than I am willing to go myself; moreover, I cannot cast a vision out to people if I am not courageous enough to take risks and make any sacrifices myself.

Stanley feels it “…it is hypocritical to ask anyone else to take a risk we are not willing to take ourselves…” (134). By moving forward, the vision becomes a part of us and as we carry out these sacrifices we have made, our ability or potential to lead others in our direction increases. Unfortunately, if we sink back into our limiting beliefs, doubts and any negative feelings that surface, we will always be wondering or guessing what could have happened if only we had the courage to face our fear and go for it!

As a visionary, I know this business will impact my life in so many wonderful ways! Although I am a little bit nervous as to what awaits me once I make the transition, I am excited to become a part of an online business community where I can creatively shine, bless others and work with other bright and like-minded individuals. This business is heart-centered and my first apprenticeship. I joyously embrace such an opportunity granted me by the Universe!

About the Author:

Contributing Writer and Advertising Representative of Dallas Yoga Magazine, Marie Williams, is a dedicated yoga practitioner who specializes in the genres of both narrative nonfiction writing and profiling. She enjoys taking her yoga experiences and infusing them with vivid imagery and detail to invoke a deeper connection within her readers. Marie’s passion is to focus primarily on both her yoga and meditation journey in her articles, while giving her readers fresh and unique perspectives about life.

Contact her by e-mail at marie@. or by cell at 214.215.8120. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram as littlestblackswan37.

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