Photo Credit: Smithsonian Museum’s Yoga: The Art of Transformation
Happy Yoga Monday!
This month, I am participating in the 21 Day Meditation series led by Oprah Winifrey and Deepak Chopra. Today’s meditation focused on getting in touch with my heart’s desires. One of my heart’s desires is to deepen my connection and understanding of yoga. So I am headed to the Smithsonian Museum’s Sackler Gallery to see the Yoga: The Art of Transformation exhibition. I am really excited to see the groundbreaking exhibit. It is the world’s first exhibition on yoga. I will write about my visit next week.
Last week, I visited Spelman College Museum of Fine Art’s Posing Beauty in African American Culture exhibition. Posing Beauty features over 75 photographs that span 12 decades (1890 to the present). It is the first exhibition I have ever seen that explores and challenges widespread and historic notions of African American beauty in photography. Deborah Willis, Ph.D., served as the curator of Posing Beauty. Willis is one of my favorite authors and photographers. She is also one of leading historians of African American photography.
While exploring the exhibition, I discovered and fell in love with a selection of cabinet cards featuring Spelman College faculty, students, and alumnae. Cabinet cards are photographic portraits mounted on 4 1/4 by 6 1/2 inch cards that people traded with each other in the early 1870s. They reminded me of several cabinet cards I have of my great grandmother Eunice Ann Thomas Roberts.
Recently, I chatted with the dynamic digital diva founders of MadameYou.com at the Women Interactive Creativity Technology Festival held on November 9 at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. During our chat about how their company uses technology to celebrate African American women’s hair, Candace, Chanel, and Jess told me their Madame You mobile app was now available for iPhones. WOO HOO!!!! Visit http://madameyou.com to learn more about it.
The highlight of my practice is being kind and gentle with myself and taking my practice off of the mat and into my daily life (doing Tadasana at work while I am seated or breathing deeply as a mindfulness reminder when I am doing email).
Yoga has given me an arsenal of tools that help me handle stress better. Here are some of my stress relief tools.
1) Taking a lot of time to center myself with pranayama exercises (three-part breath, alternate nostril breathing, and humming).
2) Cleansing my chakras with sound vibration through mantra chanting as I give myself reiki healing touch.
3) Yin poses that help me massage my connective tissue.
4) Learning sacred mantras (Gayatri Mantra) to close my practice and chanting a sea of OMs.
5) Saying Namaste and bowing at the end of my practice.
Having a diverse community of support in various cities has been one of my greatest blessings as an artist, author, and creativity coach. Atlanta is home to one of my strongest communities of support. Whenever I visit the “ATL,” I am surrounded by love and positive energy.
Last night, I was surrounded by ATL love and positive energy at a book reading for my new book, Digital Sisterhood: A Memoir of Fierce Living Online. Everywhere, a social media marketing firm led by my digital sister Danica Kombol, hosted the event. Danica and her team rolled out the red carpet for me and my digital sisters and brothers. I got to see old friends and made some new friends. During the book reading, I shared an excerpt about my work with the Heart of Haiti campaign and my connection to Danica and her team. I also answered questions and asked the guests to share the key ingredients of digital citizenship. What a powerful discussion we had! As the evening was winding down, I looked around the room and realized how truly blessed I am for my ATL community. A deep feeling of gratitude washed over me. Many thanks to Danica, the Everywhere team, and my ATL community for showing me big LOVE!!!!
This week, I am headed to Atlanta to speak at the second annual Women Interactive Creative Technology Conference that will be held at Spelman College on November 9. I am giving a tech talk on “Digital Sisters + Digital Citizens = Social Media Leaders.” My talk is rooted in one word: SERVE. It is an acronym that I call my secret ingredient for being an authentic Digital Sister, Digital Citizen, and Social Media Leader. Check it out below.
•S – SEE yourself as a social media leader. If you have at least one person who follows and/or interacts with you through your blog, web site, and/or social media sites, you have a platform of influence. Your influence impacts people in your online network. That makes you a leader. The moment that you see yourself as a social media leader, you begin to own your identity. Once you own your identity as a social media leader, you are faced with some important choices in how you interact online and offline in your relationships.
•E – EMBRACE digital civility practices in your online and offline interactions and relationships. Digital civility includes being respectful of others, especially in the midst of any disagreements. Treat people the way you would like to be treated.
•R – REMEMBER to UNPLUG from your digital life and practice SELF CARE by creating and following a digital wellness plan. Take breaks from your digital life. It will give you an opportunity to recharge and rest.
•V – VISIT and participate in a diverse group of online and offline communities to broaden your knowledge base and network.
•E – EXPRESS generosity in all you think, say, and do. Give back to others. Your generosity creates social capital in your online and offline relationships. Social capital is that warm, fuzzy feeling or positive impression you create about yourself in people’s hearts and minds. It paves the wave for unexpected blessings that manifest as collaborations, invitations to events, learning opportunities, partnerships, relationships with key people in your local/national/international networks, revenue generating streams, speaking engagements, and other forms of blessings.
Women Interactive is a two-day interactive technology festival for women who produce and share digital content with a special emphasis on women of color. It’s one of my favorite learning opportunities. I attended the festival last year and learned so much. If you are in Atlanta, join me at the event. Click here to register.
Today, I am remembering the beauty and power of Swamini Turiyasangitananda a/k/a Alice Coltrane and her music. In 2006, I had a chance to see Alice perform live at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey. That evening was and remains a high point in my life. Words cannot begin to describe the beauty of what I witnessed. You had to be there.
Photo Credit: Alice Coltrane.org
Right now I am listening to her Astral Meditations CD. Track 10 entitled “Peace On Earth” is playing. It is a composition that was originally written and recorded by Alice’s beloved, John Coltrane in 1966. See the album — John Coltrane: Infinity.
Photo Credit: JohnColtrane.com
There is a point in the composition where Alice’s divine talent as a harpist is prominently featured. My ears tingle as they hear her gracefully weave a golden thread through the entire composition. It connects all of the instruments and musicians as one. Together, they create a musical quilt of peace for humanity to enjoy. Their creative collaboration also reminds me that we can accept and honor humanity’s beautiful quilt of cultural diversity when we choose to practice peace.
The wonderful thing about peace is that it gives birth to ahimsa, a Sanskrit word that means nonviolence. In yoga, ahimsa represents the first of five yamas (satya – truthfulness, asteya – non stealing, brahmacharya – relating to another with unconditional love and integrity, and aparigraha – non-clinging/grasping). Yamas are ethical guidelines or levels of awareness that one aspires to achieve. They apply to our actions, words, and thoughts.
Through the principle of ahimsa, we are called to refrain from causing pain or harm to any living being through our thoughts, words, and actions. When we choose our thoughts, words, and actions carefully so that they do not harm others, we are creating peace. When we are peaceful and nonviolent, we are at ease. We are more relaxed.
Instead of becoming angry at ourselves and others because of the differences we share, we can use that ease to create understanding and tolerance. With understanding and tolerance, we create sacred space for the acceptance and appreciation of our cultural and individual differences. As we come to accept and appreciate the beauty of what makes us different, we can also accept and appreciate the love that connects us as one.
Blogalicious Creative Coaching participant Cassandre and Ananda Leeke
Happy Creativity Thursday and Happy Halloween!
During the Blogalicious Weekend Conference that was held on October 3 through October 5 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, I had an opportunity to conduct creativity coaching sessions with a dynamic group of bloggers and social media influencers. It was my first time offering 15-minute sessions. During the sessions, I used a breathing exercise, six-word memoirs, key questions, and deep listening to support each person in identifying strategies they could begin using to focus on their creative dreams and projects. After the sessions, I realized how much I enjoyed working with the Blogalicious Weekend Conference community. That’s why I am offering community members a special discount package on my creativity coaching services that expires on December 31, 2013. See details below.
My Creativity Coaching Practice: Click here to read more about my approach and background as a creativity coach.
Discount Period: The creativity coaching packages must be purchased via PayPal by October 31 to December 31, 2013. They must be used by December 31, 2014.
Contact Information: If you are interested in one or more of the packages, please send me an email at kiamshaleeke@yahoo.com. I will send you a SurveyMonkey link with 10 easy questions that will help me determine how best I can support you.
Every culture in the world appreciates and understands laughter. It is part of the universal human vocabulary. It also helps us stay healthy by enriching the blood with ample supplies of oxygen. In addition, laughter helps to remove the negative effects of stress and boosts our immune systems. Other benefits of laughter include:
• controlling high blood pressure and heart disease
• increasing stamina through increased oxygen supply
• alleviating pain and giving a sense of well being by releasing endorphins
• serving as an effective antidote for depression, anxiety and psychosomatic disorders (laughter boosts the production of serotonin, a natural anti-depressant)
• massaging the digestive tract and enhancing blood supply to the liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys and adrenal glands
• ensuring a good night sleep and reducing snoring because laughter is very good for the muscles of the soft palate and throat
Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of Laughter Yoga, discovered that anyone can laugh for fifteen to twenty minutes without depending upon a sense of humor or comedy. As a result, he designed a blend of playful, empowering laughter, gentle breathing, stretching, rhythmic clapping and chanting exercises to help release tension. Through his work, Dr. Kararia discovered that laughter yoga is a great way to distance yourself from anger, stress, fear, limitations, and anxiety.
Ananda Leeke 