Next Chapter Book Bloggign Group – Page 2

Week 1 – Next Chapter Book Blogging Group – The Joy Diet by Martha Beck

Posted by Ananda Leeke in Next Chapter Book Bloggign Group, OneWebDay, Yoga

autumnleaves

owd

NationalYogaMonth_newlogo3_400pxl

Happy Tuesday! Happy Autumn! Happy OneWebDay! Happy National Yoga Month!

As you can see, I have a lot to be happy about this month. It is a really sweet September because I am joining the Next Chapter Book Blogging Group (http://tnc-thejoydiet.blogspot.com). Our latest reading adventure is with The Joy Diet by Martha Beck. I love Martha’s column in The O Magazine. Click here to read Martha’s blog: http://marthabeck.com/blog.

The Next Chapter Book Blogging Group started on September 18. Click here to learn more about what the Group has been doing since the official start date: http://tnc-thejoydiet.blogspot.com/2009/09/welcome-to-journey.html.

Jamie Downtown

Jamie Ridler

2008 TWAM Photo Shoot 1 059

Ananda sitting in Balasana (child’s pose)

I started reading The Joy Dieton September 11. The first chapter encourages readers to do nothing for 15 minutes. I call it my do-nothing experience. So far, I have been doing no-thing in the morning as a pre-meditation session. I wake up and allow myself 15 minutes to just be. In this state, I don’t resist the whirling thoughts moving through my brain. I just let them go where they want to go. I start my 15 minutes in one of my favorite yoga poses called Balasana (child’s pose) and move into Savasana (corpse pose).

On September 12, I filmed a webisode about reading The Joy Diet and the Next Chapter Book Blogging Group for my OneWebDay 22 Countdown Campaign sponsored by kg yoga life practices (http://kgyoga.blogspot.com). See the video above. OneWebDay was established in 2006 on September 22 honor the presence and power of the Internet in our lives. Click here for more information: www.onewebday.org.

I’ll be posting another blog post about my adventures for Week 2 later in the week.

Thank you for stopping by!

Peace, Joy, OneWebDay, Creativity and Yoga OMs,

Ananda

Wreck This Journal – Week 6 – Creative Play & Gratitude

Posted by Ananda Leeke in Creativity, Next Chapter Book Bloggign Group, Wreck This Journal

WTJ

Happy Wednesday!

Today I decided to share what I have been doing in my Wreck This Journal book for Week 6. Click here to see what my creative sistaloves from the Next Chapter Book Blogging Group have done during Week 6: http://tnc-wreckthisjournal.blogspot.com/2009/07/wreck-this-journal-week-6.html.

2008 TWAM Photo Shoot 1 052

2008 TWAM Photo Shoot 1 058

On Sunday morning, I served as a volunteer yoga teacher for my free monthly yoga class (http://yoga.meetup/584) in Malcolm X-Meridian Hill Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_Hill_Park), a local slice of paradise in my U Street neighborhood in DC. After the class, I walked up 16th Street to All Souls Unitarian Church (www.all-souls.org) and picked some leaves from various trees. One leaf was shaped in a heart. It was yellow and green. It reminded me of my intention to maintain an open heart. This morning, I created a collage by pasting the heart-shaped leaf on a green piece of construction paper. I also wrote a statement about gratitude on the collage: I am grateful for waking up and seeing Mother Nature in a new day. While reading page 168 of Wreck This Journal, I decided to paste my collage as a secret message in my journal. I used the last two digits of the year I became a debutante for Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. as my secret page. That was a lot of fun to remember. I had big fun with the debutante training process and coming out celebration. What great memories!

I also enjoyed playing on the following pages:

Page 142 asked me to create a sign of what I wanted to say. I wrote a wisdom message that I have been using all week: be grateful for everything and everyone.
Page 122 asked me to trace my hand. I traced my left hand with a black ballpoint pen and thought about how I use my left brain (logical, analytical, objective, and rational) to manage the publication process of my new book, That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery (Summer 2009 – iUniverse, Inc.). My left brain has been spearheading the final stages of my book publication process (something I have tried to escape because all I wanna do this summer is play!).
Page 112 invited me to infuse the page with a smell of my choice. This was so much fun. I used my lavender oil and rubbed it on the page. Now my book smells fresh like lavender! Lovely!!!!!
Page 138 told me to write with my left hand. This was silly. I ended up writing “love is all we have.” I can barely read the message!!!!
Page 115 and 116 encouraged me to close my eyes and connect the dots from memory. My lines were all over the place. A few connected the dots. The exercise made me laugh a lot. It was all about CREATIVE PLAY!!!!!
Page 150 felt good to do because it told me lose the page, throw it out, and accept the loss. I needed to do this exercise. Last week I started releasing a lot of clutter in my home and life. After I dumped everything, I felt so much spaciousness in my home and heart. I also felt a sense of loss. I got a little stuck in a sad place until I realized that I needed to accept the loss.

So that’s all I have for Week 6.

Thanks everybody for reading my weekly updates.

Peace and Creativity,

Ananda

Wreck This Journal – Week 4 Update

Posted by Ananda Leeke in Contemplative Practices, Creativity, Healing, Next Chapter Book Bloggign Group, Self-Care, Self-Discovery, Wreck This Journal

WTJ

Hi All,

Last Friday marked week four for my Next Chapter Book Blogging Group. We are having a grand time with the book Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith. Click here to see what my creative sistaloves are doing: http://tnc-wreckthisjournal.blogspot.com/2009/06/wreck-this-journal-week-4.html.

change

fear

This morning I woke up feeling very anxious about a series of changes I am experiencing. These changes are transforming the landscape of what my current life looks like. They are pushing me out of the cocoon of a ten-year comfort zone. Sometimes they scare me. They show me my fears. They make me revisit old wounds. I don’t like them, but they don’t care. They are happening and will continue to happen. How do I want to respond? That’s the question I asked myself over and over again before I got out of bed and headed to the yoga mat. As I came into child’s pose, I asked Creator for guidance and help. The music of Jai Uttal kept me company. It seeped into my throat and before long I found myself chanting Sita Ram over and over again. The chanting helped ease some of my anxious feelings. Feeling more grounded, I began doing a series of 10 sun salutations. At the end, I sat down on my mat and did several rounds of alternate nostril breathing before chanting Sita Ram with my mala beads 108 times.

When my morning practice was over, I headed back to my bedroom to grab my Wreck This Journal book. Me and the book walked into the kitchen and sat down at a table filled with magic markers, scissors, gluesticks, and magazine clippings. I noticed a quote by Dante and decided to paste it on the cover of the book: “Follow your own path and let people talk.” I wondered what is my path in the midst of change? Four wisdom phrases emerged:

1) Keep your heart open.

2) Surrender and do not resist.

3) Embrace and enjoy the destruction and release of your old life as an opportunity to actively witness and participate in the transformation process.

4) Give thanks and be grateful for all changes even the ones that make you panic, scare you into old wounds, and cause you to feel doubts and fears.

Enjoy your week!

Peace, Surrender, Change, Release, Transformation, and Creativity,

Ananda