The Soul Project - Conclusion

In April of 2009, I participated in Brooke Manning's Soul Project.  I first met Brooke when Broadview Espresso (aka my 2nd home) opened. She was one of BE's first baristas who sadly only worked there for a few months.

When I came across her a year later online, I was intrigued by a project she had embarked upon.

On her blog, Brooke wrote:

I am collecting souls. I am looking for individuals that are willing to give me their soul for one year. Don't worry. You will still exist. Think about what a soul actually means. Your soul may come to me in anything. It must be contained in some sort of package. You can stuff it into a jar, you can give it to me in a locket, you can mail it to me in an envelope, you can bake it in a pie and I will consume it if you wish. I am open to you. I am willing to cater to your needs. If you are a friend, then great. If you are a stranger to me, wonderful. I do not need to know you at all to get to know your soul.


I decided to share my "soul" with her in the form of about a dozen small zip-locked packets of sand that I had carried home from the Ganges River (near Rishikesh) after my first trip to India in 2005.   Given that my nature is to be a helper, I wanted to offer this sand, known for it's healing properties, as part of what I'm all about.

My soul needs to be nurtured and fed, so I asked Brooke to share my "soul" (packets of "magic sand") with others and have them offer me something in exchange. Something that might serve to exchange positive energy from another to me. I provided her with empty packets in which to enclose these items she would collect for me.

I originally wrote about my April 2009 submission here and Brooke's description and post-project reflections are here.

So back in June (2010), I was so happy to learn about my soul's adventures over the last year.

Brooke had sent me a nice package of things to tell me about my soul. She include a picture of my soul showing me where it lived for the past year.
See the packets of sand on the far right hand side of the picture?

What I was most anxious about, though, was to learn about what my soul had attracted, what I had received in return for sharing those emblems of my spirit.

I got back 12 packets of people's belongings including:

1. A beautiful jeweled gold sparkly button with "her jacket, street, halifax, Sept '09" written on the packet.
2. A plastic opaque oyster coloured bead with "plaid coat man, March '10" written on the packet.
3. A white green-tipped feather with "aime, October '09" written on the packet.
4. A small pale green flowery post-it note enscribed with "AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE" and "Andrea, July '09" written on the packet.
5. A small strip of cardboard with the word "BITS" written on it and "Nov 11, 2009" written on the packet.
6. A single black and red stripped stud earring with no backing and "April 26, 2009" written on the packet.
7. My original packet of "Magic Sand" containing the ripped corner of a piece of cardboard reading "Frag...." (probably "fragile" before it was ripped) with "Ryan blended, May 10 '09" written on the packet.
8. One STM ticket (with french writing and a picture of a bus on it....a bus ticket?) and "Montreal, August 2009" written on the packet.
9. Another of my original packets of sand containing a small ripped envelope (the kind with the red and blue diagonal stripes around the border that remind me of international postal envelopes) with nothing but my original writing on the packet.
10. A dried and crumbling reddish-brown leaf with "Brendan, pressed between a book" written on the packet.
11. A small white rectangular magnet with 'yes' written in red on it and "Jan 2, 2010, on her" written on the packet.
12. A 2 inch piece of ivory thread with "Feb 14, 2010, he gave it to me from his shoe" written on the packet.

What a variety of offerings! Some were likely meaningful to their previous owners, and some possibly were not at all important to them. Either way, what's most important to me was the spirit of participation and symbol of the offering.  There's that connectedness thing that comes up for me over and over again. Pretty cool.

I also appreciated the lovely hand written note from Brooke in which she told me...

"We have ended our time together, as souls contained, and I want to thank you for your most cherished gift....For a long while I contemplated where I could take you...where your multiple vessels would love to exist....I kept two vessels for myself. One will forever exist pinned to my bedroom wall and one travels with me when I leave the house. I intend to do this as long as the physical objects exist and then, forever after. I traded pieces of your soul for objects which existed on a person that day. I asked said person to put their soul into their object and then place it in the empty bags you provided. I only gave them pieces of you if their intentions were in love. I selected people according to the feeling they gave me. Most were strangers, some were very dear. ...Now you belong to the world within strangers and they belong to you. With love, respect, kindness and forever trust, Brooke"

This project reminded me how much I have to offer and how much I can benefit from being open to receiving.

Thanks Brooke.

(Find out about Brooke and her lastest unique project - the tape project - here)

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India - Second Post

As I have been unable to track down a USB cable that will allow me to upload my own photos, I have had to resort to Google images to get some suitable pictures for this post. That's probably for the best in any case, since many of my photos are not the typical scenery, travel companions or touristy shots. I have a propensity to capture the subtlties of where I am in my photos. For instance, yesterday I took a shot of an entire family's flip flops - there were little baby flip flops, a child's flip flops, flip flops I assume are for a school aged child, and giant adult flip flops... Yes, but this is not the point of this post.

Take a look at where I am right now. I'm in Goa (the state) but more specifically Arambol, close to the northern tip of Goa (it's in the region of Pernem and the Hindi name is Harmal).

Photo Credit

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Arambol is not quite "real" India. It is very westernized, with many European tourists. I'm not limited to chai...I can even get starbucks here (so far, no Tim's yet)!


Photo Credit


 



The beaches are just beautiful, the water is like a warm bath, and it's a treat to stay in a straw hut at a cost of roughly $3.50 CAD/night (just as long as there are no big bad wolves around, I'm happy...).


Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I'll be going parasailing at Anjuna beach to celebrate the day....

More soon!

Photo Credit

Please note: all the graphics and photos used in this post are Google Image Files.

The Soul Project

On Thursday, I submitted my entry for the Soul Project.

It's a project being run by the most *beau-ticious* Brooke Manning

Basically, she's asking for your soul, for a year, in whatever form that may be.

So I sent her mine.

The explanation is here:





These *magical* sand packets come from here:


This is the vestibule of *magical* sand (& rocks & water) from the Ganges river in India which I keep on my mantle. I keep it in plain view as a reminder of how restorative India is for me.









And this is the water. From the Ganges. They say it is healing and I believe it.






I look forward to April 2010 when I learn about the gifts my soul has given and received.

Thanks Brooke.

Sunday Scribblings #43 - Photograph

Photographs.

What an interesting prompt this week. To start, I just have to say that my friend Lina, whom I met in India in on Christmas Day 2005, recently told me about this amazing site for artists and and writers. It's called RedBubble. You can post and sell work online.Lina's on there, check out her profile here. She has some really AMAZING photographs up, and her writing is exquisite!

What follows is a photo montage of my trip to India this past February.

My task in this post is to name, but not explain each photo. Encapsulating the memory in a few words is the challenge I'm setting for myself...

(post script: turns out the spacing of these photos and their captions was the bigger challenge for this html neophyte! arghhhhh).

~~Radiance Turns Her Back on Nature~~









~~~~~~~~~Choose an Adventure and See it Through~~~~~~~~~





~~~~~~~~~ Stone Cold Earth Mother ~~~~~~~~








~~~~~~~~~ Bovine Marketing ~~~~~~~~~~~



~~ She Says She's Not Mortal ~~








~~ Might and Muscle ~~



~~~~~ Join me for a rest ~~~~~~






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Groovy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





~~ 'Splosion ~~






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cancer-stick foliage ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~






~~~~~~~~~~~~ Globot ~~~~~~~~~~~~~










~~~~~~~ WTF~~~~~~~





~~~~~~~~~~ Kleptomaniac toeses~~~~~~~~~~






~~ Evocation ~~






~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dripping digits ~~~~~~~~~~~~~





~~ He was there all along ~~

Past Lives - This occupies a lot of my thinking time lately

The first time I travelled to India, Nicole taught me about past life theories. We had this amazing experience when she practiced Reiki with me (my first experience with Reiki, and the whole reason I extended my first trip to India for!). Essentially, we both experienced a similar flash of me ~ as a man~ in a convincingly similar environment and set of circumstances. Although it was eerie (and quite frankly difficult to believe), there were too many similarities in our visual stories to ignore. She got me seriously thinking about the idea of past lives, something I'd never contemplated before.

Nicole recommended Dr. Brian Weiss' book called "Many Lives, Many Masters", and I quickly went and bought it (for about the equivalent of about $6 Canadian...!!!....). I cracked the spine with pure disbelief. Nothing I had ever experienced in my life up until then could have convinced me that this was anything other than quackery.

But now, after having been in India again, and having reconnected with my soulmate Linaji (just tonight, on the phone to California while writing this!!!), I have a little more buy-in about the whole thing. Even though Paul doesn't quite get it, that's ok. It soothes my soul to think about my issues spanning across life times and not being totally responsible for them (karma-wise).

Here's the bio of the author. His story makes me buy in to the potential validity of this...my scientific training can't handle anything too "woo-woo", and, thanks to 6 years and $40, 000 of tuition at U of T, I've been taught to critically evaluate subjective claims of success. Yet, this speaks to me. This captures my attention.

As a traditional psychotherapist, Dr. Brian Weiss was astonished and skeptical when one of his patients began recalling past-life traumas that seemed to hold the key to her recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks. His skepticism was eroded, however, when she began to channel messages from "the space between lives," which contained remarkable revelations about Dr. Weiss's family and his dead son. Using past-life therapy, he was able to cure the patient and embark on a new, more meaningful phase of his own career.

A graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School, Brian L. Weiss M.D. is Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.

Dr. Weiss maintains a private practice in Miami. In addition, Dr. Weiss conducts national and international seminars and experiential workshops as well as training programs for professionals.

In his first book, "Many Lives, Many Masters", there are an incredible number of compelling stories about a client for whom traditional methods of therapy have failed (I guess I can relate "traditional" therapy missing the mark). After Dr. Weiss reluctantly turned to hypnosis to help his client, Catherine manage recurring nightmares and chronic anxiety attacks, they both saw change. What happened was that Catherine began recalling trauma experienced in past lives that began to free her in her present life.

Even though Dr. Weiss remained cynical, after a time he could no longer deny Catherine's powerful recollections, some of which brought with them powerful revelations about his own life. Mostly it began to make sense to him that the influence of our past lives can really have an impact on our present behaviours.

So now, the second book I'm reading is called "Messages from the Masters". What I'm learning from it is that destiny brings us to our "guides" that help us choose and transition into our next life.

You know what else blows my mind? According to Dr. Weiss, we choose to come back into a present life with those who were part of our past lives. That's really reassuring to me. When I was about 6 years old, I distinctly remember being really scared about the possibility of eternal life. I think that was because I thought I was just going to exist forever in this state of nothing-ness. This re-frames those fears, knowing that I can come back with those whom I choose.

Have you ever heard of someone being referred to as an "old soul"?. Typically that means that this person is mature, thoughtful, serious, wise, and dependable. Yet, really, I think we're all "old souls". If what Dr. Weiss proports is true, then we all have innate wisdom that has been cultivated for thousands of years. So in this lifetime, our responsibility is to reveal that wisdom and act on it. To turn down the volume on those messages that turn us away from our true selves and to honour the truth of our own knowing.

This theory works for me. Despite the fact that my "rational" left brain tells me that having lived past lives is impossible, my body believes that this really could be true. I can offer some examples:

* what else could explain why it felt so familiar when I arrived in India in 2005? Even though I had suffered panic attacks in crowds here in Toronto, in India the crowds, noise, invasion of personal space and commotion was oddly calming...

* and what about my conflicted sense of gender? I always had this sense of really feeling what it's like to be a man - not in a transexual way, but I never really felt comfortable being a "girl". I can identify with living in a man's body, even though I know that's not what I need/want to be right now, in this life.

* and, freaky as it may seem, there are folks in my life that I know have been with me before. There's just this comfort and ease and sense of familiarity - a sense of knowing and being able to relate in a way that seems well beyond "clicking".

Mostly, this whole past life theory thing just makes me feel happy that we are all "old souls" and that we are all on the same path. That this life is not new, that we have the resources to make it work and to advance along the path towards consciousness.

India - Wrap Up Post

Here I am back in Canada. I arrived back on Monday (March 10) after 2 sleepless flights spanning about 18 hours in total.

I think a combination of things prevented my sleep.

Firstly, I had mixed feelings about leaving India. The struggle between simplicity and complexity of being there is really quite intriguing. Because of how complicated EVERYTHING is, when I'm there I'm forced to live life paying more attention to necessities and priorities.

Even though a homicidal instinct kicked in each time someone:
~ pulled out their carbon copied note pad to write down my order or purchase in triplicate, or
~ the power went out repeatedly at the end of an unsaved email, or
~ the guy who made my business cards promised to have them ready in "an hour" for days on end,

I learned.

What I learned was to be patient. Here I seem to have no patience. The world whirls around me and sparks this anxious furor to get more and more and more done. So I need to call on my memory of those times to bring myself back to the humour of life.

Secondly, I couldn't sleep so well on those flights because of my issues with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD). What goes along with that is something called Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). So, not only do I have this flinging limb issue (PLMD), but the RLS gives me this feeling in my left leg as though there is something crawling inside. It's a really uncomfortable and bothersome symptom. For some reason, even Gravol and the free booze courtesy of Air France couldn't dull this annoying sensation.
So is it any wonder that I felt more than just a tinge of envy as Trixie slept soundly beside me, almost the entire way?!

Needless to say, the last few days have been a bit topsy turvy. Adjusting to the time zone, weather and cultural changes has really challenged my mind, body, spirit and emotions. Luckily, I have my Nia to keep me going. Thank God for Nia. It is medicine for my being.

There are a few more pictures I wanted to share with you. Here's one of the family home that we stayed in while we were in Mysore. Truly I felt like I was living in a palace. Outside of their gate, we were in India, but inside those gates, it was heaven on earth! Marble floors, HOT water, really inspiring conversation partners, a fully working kitchen (stove and fridge!), and a beautifully manicured garden.


On our last weekend we took an overnight trip to Kushalnagar (District of Coorg, state of Karnataka). We stayed on a Mango Plantation, but can you believe that because there wasn't enough rain in December, there weren't any blooms to turn into mangoes? Gawd, how disappointing...
Nonetheless, I got to spend time with elephants on my birthday!
We went to Dubare Elephant Camp and I got up close and personal with a few massive fellow mammals. Our photographic quests seemed to agitate not only the elephant groomer, but at one point the elephant got startled and started to get up. Hence I was ready to make a quick exit. Trixie was fearless, though, as always!


And finally, I had to include some snaps of my Bollywood Dance teachers in Mysore (at Granduor's Institute of Dance on N.S. Road). Suresh and Prabhakar (whose name sounded like 'Rebecca' when he said it..) were excellent teachers, even though we had no common language other than body language to communicate with. The moves that came out of these brothers was inspiring and if I ever return to Mysore, I'll be spending some serious time at their studio! I came away with some refreshing ideas about how to play with beat and rhythm along with some funkafied new music to play with.

Check out Suresh's "Ladies moves". Too funny!

Jai, Jai India (celebrate India).

India - Sixth Post

I'm nearing the end of this wonderful trip. I have so much more to see and do, but time is running out. I've got a full agenda planned for my next visit!


Here's a picture of fire dancing on the beach in Arambol! Ok, so it's not me, but this is exactly the kind of playing with fire that I aspire to do. I continue to practice my moves here in Mysore under the tutelage of Trixie. I'm hoping that I'll be able to take lessons back in Toronto so I can play on the beach this summer.


This is a photo from back in Arambol when we were doing our Iyengar yoga course. I cannot explain the cinching, blood-constricting pain I felt the first time I hung myself upside down like a bat, but after awhile I quite looked forward to the oxygenating head rush! We were encouraged to practice this before our 6:30am practice. Coming into the yoga hall everyday at 6 am, which was in complete darkness, was a bizarre experience. There were usually 10 or more bodies hanging this way that we had to be careful not to bump into. Our teacher,
Sharat, hangs like this in his hut for one hour each day! One morning I was scolded for hanging only for about 3minutes or so because I was late...


Wanitha Ashok, AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America)certified fitness trainer and examiner was the woman who made my 2 day Intro to Nia workshop happen in Bangalore. She advertised in local newspapers and brought in over 50 participants, some of whom had travelled from Goa (about 10 hours by train) and Kerala (about 5 hours by train). I was lucky to have a really wide range of participants - from 20-somethings to septogenarians (70ish), everyone took something away and we all learned from each other. Wanitha's a real inspiration - not only is she active in the fitness community but she's also a mom of 2 teenagers and a recycled craft artist who works with waste like used greeting cards,wedding invites and bottles to create new works of original art. Her innovative nature is what brought Nia to India! And who would have thought that Facebook would be responsible for that (Facebook is how we met!).


This is the stage that the people at the Park Regency Hotel made for the workshop. I felt a little like a celebrity, especially after one of the participants gave me a glittery sparkly bangle to wear on the second day. The most fun was when others came up on the stage to join me during free dance and the photographers were taking action shots!

Everyone was really receptive and open to learning about Nia. There was this palpable excitement in the room that keep me fuelled up for this workshop, a first for me. There was much enthusiasm, particularly among the men (can you believe the workshop had 50% men? This is unheard of in North America!).

I couldn't escape the obligatory "class picture", but am now glad that the students insisted on it.

After a really energetic weekend in busy Bangalore, it was so nice to come back to Swaji's house in Mysore and sleep in non roach-infested surroundings (my choice of the Lonely Planet-recommended
Brindavan hotel in Bangalore turned out to be a disappointing one. I had a constant battle with the many staff who chose to leave half-eaten room service trays outside my door which invited the nasty critters in). Best of all was cuddling with Tashi's(Swaji's dog) 2 puppies after they'd had their feeding from mom!

India - Fifth Post

We arrived in Mysore on Sunday around 1pm after a 20 hour journey from Arambol, Goa. We took an overnight bus with MRI-like sleeper compartments. Trixie and I shared one and luckily I could lie down, because I couldn't sit up (we were on the top "bunk" and the roof of the bus was too low). The roads were so rough that at certain points I felt like I was inside a bulldozer. I got nervous when the bus swayed turning corners and thought for sure we'd be toast before we made it to Bangalore. But we made it. From Bangalore we took a 2 hour train ride (a luxury ride in comparison).

Here in Mysore we are staying in a private home that Trixie lived in for 4 months a few years back when she first came to India. The house is owned (and lived in) by a family consisting of a retired mom (Swaji), her adult son (Gautam), and his new wife (Katiya). The house is in a really nice area of the city and they have a beautiful garden and really nice property. There are 9 new puppies there too and the moms are VERY protective of them. We are occupying the top floor of the house, have private (and very clean) bathrooms, and are treated like gold. I've had my first restful sleep this trip (even though it's in a single bed and I worry I'll roll over and fall out!) It sure beats sleeping in a hut!

We are doing some pretty intense Ashtanga yoga classes here. The teacher, Shushadri, is really into pushing students deeper into the poses. I'm blown away by the depth to which I can get into poses when he or his son or one of the teacher trainees adjusts me. I'm actually enjoying the intensity of this style of yoga as the Iyengar yoga we did in Arambol was quite slow and precise. Ashtanga on the other hand has a nice flow and we work at our own pace.





This is Sheshadri, the guru at Mysore Yoga Mandala








We are also taking Bollywood dance classes here! It's hilarious! The teacher (a man) was showing us the "woman's moves" today - they included things like doing a catwalk and sassy pelvis thrusts. He was wearing a dress shirt and dress pants (the Indian uniform, I think), and watching him do these really feminine moves was quite funny. He had them down pat. I really enjoyed it and was flattered when he said to me "you a dancer, yes?".

I have been riding around Mysore on the back of Trixie's motorbike. At first I was refusing to do so, but later gave it a shot. I'm surprised at myself! I find it really liberating now, and am not scared. I am beginning understand the traffic patterns after watching drivers, and she's a really good driver. It helps that she knows where she's going (and that I now have a helmet).

I leave for Bangalore tomorrow (Thurs) for my Nia workshop which is happening on the 1st and 2nd of March. Last I heard we had 30-40 people registered and there will be both print and TV coverage!