Nature Lessons for the City Girl
Wow! My hubby & I just saved a hummingbird that my cat proudly brought in the house. I have a special attachment to hummingbirds ( they are my power animal-many cool encounters with this warrior bird) and I managed to get my cat to give up the bird and to my surprise it was still alive when I went to retrieve it under the table. It is a big male with a red breast and it took off in my kitchen in a flurry.
Fred is a animal whisper, he is always able to gently catch whatever critter finds it way to us. I was thankful he was close by and he came home and worked his magic and carried this little guy outside to his freedom. Teamwork is key
I am working on building a new business and I am deep in the creative process and I was beginning to lose a little steam and my whole afternoon came to a halt for this little guy. Got curious...did a search on the internet and found this little gem
- I just got schooled by this tough little guy

"Hummingbird a symbol for accomplishing that
which seems impossible.
It can teach you how to find the
miracle of joyful living in your own life.
Hummingbird reminds us to find the joy
in what we do
and to sing it out. "

How I discovered that Discipline is my Superpower

Discipline is my superpower

And I activate my superpower with my Effort

And I activate my effort with my Vision

And I activate my vision with my Heart

And I activate opening up my heart with my conversation with my Teacher

And I receive guidance through my expression of my Gratitude

And I activate my gratitude through my daily practice of listening in the Stillness

And I supercharge my discipline with my choice on where to place my Focus

And in each moment I practice the effort of letting go of F.E.A.R

( false evidence appearing as real)

And in each moment that I am given the clarity to let go of fear and choose instead LOVE

I am given the gift of Grace

And grace for me is every opportunity that I am aware of my Abundance

And I experience my abundance by being in the Present

And being in the present affirms to me that in the stillness I am connecting to Prescence

And stillness requires Discipline

Last year, I discovered that discipline is the superpower that I have been looking for all my life.

I went through another health challenge that required big changes in my habits.

I have learned from my trauma, drama & karma, that running makes it worse and it is best to just roll up the sleeves and do the work, and I have done this over & over again with varying results, depending on my efforts.

Challenges have come to me in all the major areas that can get our panties in a bunch.

I have experienced Financial, Health & Relationship challenges many times, including getting lost for a time in the dredded Bermuda Triangle of Broke, Lonely & Out of Shape.

In the past, I dealt with challenges by putting more effort into my suffering then I did into my healing. I was stuck in the old belief that I can only change with a bulldozer bearing down on me and that the gentle approach was for weaklings. I was stuck in an old belief that if I hold back my complaints that I will suffer in silence and nobody will be able to see that I suffering and I will drown in my stew of trauma, drama & karma.

What I have come to observe is that each time that I choose to put more effort into my healing and less into my suffering, I experience Grace.

Grace for me, is when the messy process of healing is accompanied by profound moments of clarity, gratitude and joy, and I experience joy when I get that feeling of being lite up from the inside so much that it must bubble over into my expressions to my outer reality.

The more that I choose healing over suffering, the more I am able to express my truth, my gifts, my heart in my daily actions and this leads to a decreased desire to live in my suffuring and increases my desire to make bigger efforts with my healing, so I can live in my Joy and experience the fruits of my Visions and the connection to all in a state of Love.

When I have let go of seeing Discipline as the ruler slapping my wrist and instead embrace the practice as a superpower to ignite my joy. When I have let go of seeing Discipline as the Hall Monitor and embrace Discipline as my Coach, I am then able to up my courage to play big with my Personal Growth Plan and celebrate my connection to the Great Mystery

and that for me is my inner game of the Hokey Pokey- cause for me that is what it is all about.

Joy*Love*Light

Carmel

www.carmelmorgan.com

*My Journey*

 

I took my first yoga class at Santa Monica College when I was twenty years old. I was recovering from bulimia and my therapist suggested that I find an exercise that would help me learn be comfortable in my own body.
Yikes! That was a very daunting request for me, since at that time, my body and I were strangers.

All my life, I considered P.E. class a medieval torture.
Yet...I did love to dance and I did love to walk outdoors- this was always my salvation.
It was when I became disconnected from nature and no longer enjoyed my walks or looked up at the sky & the clouds, that I had my "Ah Ha" moment to seek help for the pain that I was carrying around in my heart and in my body.
Sometimes, before people in bark on their healing journey, something momentous happens in their life,that wakes them up and they say that they felt like they were hit by a bus and my moment...I was literally hit by a bus! I was not seriously injured, because I was told that someone pulled me out of the curb before the bus wheels ran over me-one of my many guardian angels that have appeared in my life, many times!
I was very shook up and I had injuries to my right shoulder, neck and back. The thing is, that in the 80's, if the X-Ray did not show a fracture, you were told to take aspirin and go back to work. My family also believed that it was a Badge of Honor to work until you dropped. Unless there were broken bones or gushing wounds, you were expected to work and go to school, if you stayed home with a fever, you were teased for being a baby. My parents had so many wounds of their own, that their parenting philosophy was to make us, kids as tough as possible to face life's challenges.

So, here I am, broken and raw (putting on a front that I am O.K) walking into my first yoga class and expecting to meet weirdos and beautiful skinny girls that would sneer at me. I figured I would suffer through a couple of weeks and drop the class, with check mark in the column of "I tried".
Instead I was greeted by the most beautiful pair of blue eyes, filled with such compassion and kindness that my eyes welled up into tears, when she said "Hello". Betty, was about 70 years old and she was my first yoga teacher.
Here was a vibrant, healthy woman that defied everything I knew about aging. I was afraid to grow old because I thought it meant being trapped in a sick body. She was so beautiful and I wanted to learn how she aged so gracefully and I decided to stick it out.
She was patient and accepting of my struggles with the postures. I  huffed & puffed and swore under my breath, as I became reacquainted with my body.
Then the magic of yoga happened! I begin to feel my body open up. I could touch my toes for the first time in my life! I felt lighter in my body! I was hooked! Yoga opened a whole new world to me and helped me open up to the possibility that I too, could live life with joy. My healing journey brought me blessings, joy & love beyond my wildest dreams and the tools that were shared with me, help heal the parts of me that I felt were fragmented and damaged beyond repair.

In my life my yoga practice has become my center. When I am out of balance, I can look and see where I have let my practice go. When I am faced with challenges I have learned that yoga is my best tool and all that accompanies a yoga practice - meditation, mindful eating and compassion for others and most importantly for myself are the key.
Yoga was my companion through personal therapy, as I healed my soul from my trauma, drama & karma. I turned to Yoga, when I had to recover from two major car accidents that I was a passenger in both times, that took over a year to recover from my injuries both times. The doctors gave me a long list of things that I would no longer be able to do-No dancing, No Yoga, No Roller coasters!, and thankfully I was too stubborn to believe them.
I explored the spiritual depths of Yoga when I was recovering from hellacious heart break. I embraced the holistic healing of Yoga, when I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and I embrace yoga & dance when my spirit needs to be soothed or rejoice and sing loud!

My journey showed me that when I approach pain with healing my body, mind & spirit, that amazing transformations happened.
My curiosity lead me to study, Massage Therapy, Energy Work and Holistic Nutrition. I became a yoga teacher to help my clients keep moving between their body work sessions and then I fell in love with teaching!
I am so grateful for the numerous souls that come into my life and helped me to heal, and I always try to pay it forward.
Teaching for me is a space to learn, to share, and to pay forward the compassion that was given to me as I went through the messy & beautiful process of healing my mind, my body and my heart & soul.
I bring to my clients & students all I have learned from my own journey, my voracity for learning and a deep compassion for their own journey. 
*Joy*Love*Light*
       Carmel

Rock the Chakra ~ Upcycled Rings

"Gravity"

"Kiss with a Fist"

Rock the Chakra Coming Out Party

Guess what?


I have never blogged....wait..no not really.


Any whoooo.....I am not here to drops words of wisdom...I would like to in future posts to share some cool stuff that I like and have learned ...but that is another blog..isn't it?


Today, I am sharing my handmade jewelry and art work, that is inspired by my work as Chakra Therapist and my life journey.


Just a fun fact: I name my jewelry pieces after songs..some of the artists will be obvious but some will take a real music lover to figure out :0


Keeping on Rocking!
Carmel