In this Wellness Universe article, I share how we can all play with the skills of Jazz Living to make the world a more vibrant, brilliant, and joyful place.
Tag: spiritual direction
Clarify Your Intentions for 2019
What kind of life do you want to be creating for yourself, your loved ones and the world around you?
We live in a challenging world in challenging times. You may notice people around you falling into despair. Some days it might feel like enough of a challenge to keep your own head above water without trying to hold others up from sinking beneath the surface too. Maybe your office environment gets snarky when co-workers feel stressed. Maybe your family members act out when they feel angry, sad or unloved.
It takes focus and determination to stay on track creating a world where you want to live – a world where you feel loved and appreciated. A world where the people around you are stable and joyful too.
So, how do you keep yourself stable enough to be a light in the dark for others – without extinguishing your own light in the process?
Practice the art of Spiritual Pilates to strengthen your inner spiritual core muscles so you can intentionally create the life you love and desire – a life where you show up as your best self and others contribute to your well-being rather than drag you down. Consistently practicing the skills of Spiritual Pilates leads to new levels of self-mastery.
Self-mastery does not mean that you never make mistakes or need to re-calibrate your vibrations to get back on track toward achieving your goals and dreams. Self-mastery is about how quickly you get back to center once you have gotten off track.
You are invited to join the Spiritual Pilates online community to practice skills leading to self-mastery.
In Spiritual Pilates, you learn skills to manage your subtle energy vibrations so that you can:
- Get yourself out of a slump more quickly and feel better faster;
- Respond to the ups and downs of life without feeling flustered when things don’t go as planned;
- Improve the quality of your relationships and have more rewarding interactions with people;
- Feel energized enough to make dinner at the end of the day;
- Calm your mind chatter and stop making things worse for yourself;
- Experience more God in your daily life and feel blessed moment to moment;
- Shine your inner light more brightly so people around you can find their own path more easily.
The next session of Spiritual Pilates: On the Road to Self-Mastery begins November 13, 2018.
- The live online workshop meets four Tuesdays, 7–8:00pm CT, 8-9:00ET, 6-7:00MT, 5-6:00PT November 13, 20, 27, December 4
- Recordings available
- Live and recorded Q&A Weekly
- Meditations, homework
- Two live 10-minute mid-day energy resets weekly
- Closed Facebook group
In Spiritual Pilates we focus on physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy vibrations and how to:
Week 1 – raise and sustain your physical energy vibration so you feel energized and not depleted;
Week 2 – work with emotional vibrations that stop you from moving forward so you can stay on track toward achieving your goals and desires;
Week 3 – assess whether your thoughts are in integrity with your intentions or keeping you stuck in old patterns of behavior;
Week 4 – align body, emotions, mind and spirit for optimal well-being so you are living your life on purpose and you feel fulfilled.
Check with your inner guidance to see if Spiritual Pilates resonates with you. Then, call or text me and let’s set up a time to chat about whether Spiritual Pilates is the next right step for you. Leah 651-472-3995.
Wisdom for Younger Self
With my 40th high school reunion looming ahead, (40?! Really?! How did that happen?!), another layer of my teenage angst is resurfacing for processing. (Really? Again? I thought I dealt with you already!)
A 40th reunion sounded old when I was 18. But, I don’t feel as old as a 40th reunion sounded then. I am experiencing PMZ— Post Menopausal Zest. I’m just getting started! We baby boomer women are the healthiest, wealthiest women the world has ever known. So let’s Rock It! Who’s in?!
To honor my 40th high school reunion, I am writing a letter to my 18-year-old self with some wisdom I have gleaned over the years. Maybe this resonates with your inner teenager. Maybe you have some wisdom to add.
Dear Teenage Self,
You turned out OK. There’s still the money, relationship, and health stuff to deal with, but that’s the stuff of life. You have the skills you need to manage life. You are wiser than you know and not as wise as you think.
In case you’re feeling a little anxious about whether you really do have the necessary skills to manage your life, please let me share a few insights that I have learned so far on this journey called life.
- Pay attention to your wise inner voice. Call it whatever you like — Intuition, Soul’s wisdom, God tapping you on the shoulder. The still, quiet voice under the yapping voice of ego-mind will guide you when life gets stormy.
- Balance the feminine and masculine energy within yourself first before trying to find that balance through a romantic relationship. Find a balance of receiving and giving, listening and expressing, resting and taking action. Sometimes it’s fun to get a little off-balance, but don’t create drama. Just get back in balance.
- You are good enough. You always have been good enough. You always will be good enough. The ego on the outside makes mistakes and misses the mark. That’s OK. You fell down learning to walk and you will fall down learning to navigate life. Just pick yourself up, forgive yourself and others, then, move on.
- Always remember, at the core of your being you are innately, infinitely good and worthy of love. Divinity — call it God, Spirit, Divine Spark — is inherent in every cell of your body. You are composed of atoms infused with divine substance. Your body is a holy temple of spirit.
- You are a wave in the ocean of God. Don’t confuse the wave with the entire ocean.
- Embrace your uniqueness. It’s OK to be different. Everyone in your class is unique and has their own gifts and talents. Explore and master your unique gifts and talents. You are here to share them with the world.
- Don’t drink too much alcohol or smoke weed. It makes you look and act stupid.
- Life is not all about you. Bless somebody’s life today.
- Life is a paradox. It IS all about you. Set your inner compass to your North Star. What do you want to create? What kind of world do you want to live in? What are you contributing to the world? If you get off track from your North Star, self correct and get back on track with your divine purpose — the reason you came to this life.
That’s it. That’s enough to get started.
Tap into your inner wisdom. You are wiser than you know.
Oh, and, call your parents. They love you and miss you. You never know when you’ll have to borrow a car.
Peace out!
Your Older, Wiser Self
More Love? Yes, Please!
You manage stress relatively well.
BUT WAIT! Isn’t there more to life?
You want more joy! More fulfillment! More satisfaction!
Yes! You can have more!
Access the deep inner reservoir within your Soul of INFINITE love, peace, joy, abundance, harmony, freedom and well-being.
But, how do you tap into that reservoir of peace within
when the external environment is not peaceful?
You build your inner spiritual core muscles and reset your default at a higher vibration through practicing
Spiritual Pilates:
On the Road to Self-Mastery
beginning October 9, 7:00-8:00pm
(recordings available)
In the 4-week, online Spiritual Pilates workshop, you learn skills to respond to the stress of the life from your Higher Self so that you can:
- feel calm when you arrive after driving through stressful rush hour traffic;
- educate the rude co-worker about how you prefer to be treated rather than make the situation worse by dishing it back;
- elegantly shift to Plan B when the dinner burns as the guests arrive.
You also learn to align with your higher energetic vibrations so you can:
- connect to your personal power center and feel more grounded
- access your Source of innate Well-Being within and feel deeper self-love
- align ego-mind with Divine mind to transform negative thoughts into self-forgiveness.
Hi! I’m Leah Skurdal, author of Seeking Serenity: How to Find Your Inner Calm and Joy. For over 25 years, I have specialized in helping women experience more of what they DO want to create in their lives. Check in with your intuition about whether Spiritual Pilates is your next right step. Contact me at leah.skurdal@gmail.com and let’s chat.
“You set me back on track today. You are a great listener and fast on your feet! Hoping to practice more in the moment like this. I could have easily written off the rest of my day because I seemed to be scraping by, but it’s never too late to have a great day.” Spiritual Pilates Workshop Participant
Toggle to Joy
In sync. Out of sync. In sync. Some days my outer light flashes green and red like my wifi connection needing to be re-synced. Funny thing is that the inner light of joy is always on – like the internet is there waiting for me to reconnect. Your inner being is always joyful and loving. It is the connection between the inner and outer that fails. When our inner light shines through to the outside, we feel joy. When we drop out of joy, it’s time to re-sync.
I call that connection re-sync to the inner light, Toggling. On your electronic device you can toggle between screens. When we are paying attention, we can toggle between the inner and outer screens of our awareness. We can toggle between the screen of Always Joyful Inner light, spiritual center, Soul or whatever you call it to the outer light of Sometimes Joyful ego- personality. I notice that I just barked at someone. “oops! I just dropped my Joy Connection.” Usually these days, I stay in joy most of the time. Sometimes, though, I notice my dropped connection more often.
Someone cuts me off in traffic and I cuss. Yikes – just dropped my joy connection. Toggle to Joy. I am way short of sleep and I grouse at the kids. Oops – Toggle to Joy.
If my internet provider dropped my wifi connection as often as I drop my connection to my joyful center, I would get a new internet provider. However, I am my own connector to my joyful spiritual center through my awareness.
Personal mastery is not that you never drop the connection to your joyful spiritual center, but how quickly you get the connection back. Personal Mastery is a process – not a destination – and toggling is a tool for your tool belt of personal mastery.
I am offering two opportunities to play with Toggling in my Toggle to Joy workshops:
Sunday, April 3, 2:00-3:30pm
Unity North Spiritual Center
11499 Martin Dr. Coon Rapids MN
Cost: Suggested Love Offering $20
Tuesday, April 26, 6:30-8:00pm Save the Date!
Anoka Ramsey Community College
Integrative Health & Healing
Complementary & Alternative Medicine Club
Student Services Bldg. Riverview Rm SC200
11200 Mississippi Blvd. NW, Coon Rapids MN
Cost: No charge
Please join us for one of these Toggle workshops so you stay in joy more often too!
Call me with questions or to pre-register. 651-472-3995
The light in me sees the light in you! Namaste! Leah
Three Ways to Nurture Your Spirit
Fall time – a fun time of new beginnings, fall sweaters, pumpkin spice latte.
Fall can get stressful for me with the added parent meetings, workshops, and new projects to complete.
Three simple things I do when I am feeling stressed to nurture myself and nourish my spirit are:
- Breathe – Most of us severely under-rate breathing on our daily importance scale. With less oxygen on the planet than 100 years ago, our bodies have to work harder to stay oxygenated. Breathing fully and deeply into the bottom of your lungs gives your body an energy boost from the extra oxygen. Count in 4, hold 4, count out 8. Try 4-5 of those full breaths several times a day to relax, restore and regroup.
- Move – Physical movement helps you process the energy of the day moving through your life. Feeling anxiously overwhelmed? Try some aerobic exercise to jump start your fire and digest the energy more efficiently. Feeling angrily stressed? Try calming yoga movements to slow down and just be present. I set aside time to move however my body wants to move in the moment. Whatever movement you choose, MOVE to get out of your head and into your body where you can take action to reduce your stress.
- Nourish – Eat more fresh fruits, vegetables and the cleanest meat you can get. The artificial ingredients in processed foods clog your system like cheese clogging a sieve. When I am feeling stressed, a fresh veggie sandwich and pro biotics like fermented vegetable sauerkraut or a pro-biotic drink like kombucha gives me a lift. Giving your body higher quality fuel will give you more stamina to deal with daily life. If you can’t get high quality food, bless the food you do have with gratitude and raise the vibration of the food you are consuming.
When I want to push the refresh button on my life screen, I retreat. Sometimes retreating to the bathtub for an hour suffices. Other times, I am ready for the full weekend retreat get-away. I was fortunate to get that weekend retreat away last weekend with a group of amazing women. We laughed, danced, meditated and ate delicious food prepared especially for us. I came home feeling refreshed and full of life. I would like to offer you two delightful retreat opportunities!
Here are two retreat options for you to renew your spirit.
http://leahskurdal.com/classes-and-workshops/
I hope you can join us!
Enjoy the Beautiful Fall Day!
Be Well,
Leah
Recharging Your Batteries Efficiently
When did you learn efficiency of time?
Daughter #2 and I arrive home at the same time. I shovel snow, eat a snack, pack an overnight bag for an away basketball tournament, throw in a load of laundry, clean up the kitchen and am ready to go – in the time it takes for Daughter to finish packing the bag she started the night before.
When do we learn that level of efficiency? Apparently not at birth. Is it a personality characteristic or a mommy tool honed over years of supervising multiple activities? Perhaps both.
Sometimes that efficiency overlooks an important detail: ME Time. Sometimes I get so focused on getting things done that I neglect adding “Down time for myself” onto the TO Do list. Maybe you are like me and squeezing in an hour of yoga, 20 minutes of meditation and a cup of tea before bed is the best quality ME Time you get. Actually, that’s pretty good for one day, but paltry as the sum total for the week.
Some weeks feel like a roller coaster with hairpin turns. Maybe you land gracefully, ready to dance on Friday night. Maybe you catapault into a heap on the sofa with a bag of potato chips and a soda. By the end of the week your inner battery needs serious recharging.
When your batteries run low, here are three tips for efficiently recharging your body, mind and spirit before running off to your next activity.
Breathe. Find a quiet space for five minutes. Yes, you can. Go sit in the bathroom. Imagine that you are breathing through a nose in the center of your chest. Touch your thumb to each finger while saying, “I am at peace.” Repeat for ten heart breaths. Notice your energy move from your head to your heart. Listen to your inner voice.
Move. Find your own body rhythm and stretch. Reach overhead, up on your toes, stretch side to side, bend down low. Listen to your heartbeat. How does your body want to move? Notice, stretch and breathe into an area of tightness. Relax the back of your tongue. Wow! You didn’t know your tongue was tense until you relaxed it, did you?
Ask. What would feel good now? A luxurious, sweet smelling bath? Clean sheets on the bed? A foot massage? Extra care washing and moisturizing your face? Choose and schedule a self-pampering activity. Then, be sure to do it.
Efficiently recharging your batteries on a regular basis helps you stay out of depletion mode. You stay available for your loved ones, remain productively in the flow of the things you love to do, and you can monitor your own wellbeing. Periodically, though, a deeper recharging of your batteries benefits the entire clan as well as yourself. A weekend spa sounds great but not practical with our schedule. A half-day to myself feels doable and luxurious though. Dedicate some extended ME time just for yourself to nourish and renew yourself and to recharge your batteries. You will be glad you did.
