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“We will not have peace on��the Earth��
until we have peace with the Earth.�� ��

—Julia Butterfly Hill

For those who might not remember��, she’s a woman who spent two whole years 180 feet off the ground, living in an ancient redwood tree to keep it from being logged. She lasted through two cold and stormy California winters (back when it rained more) and her feet never touched ground the whole time. People brought her food and water, and she managed to take care of all her survival needs from a 10 x 10 foot platform up in the air. Now she is����on environmental issues. What dedication! ����

Now, more than ever, the future of our planet is at stake.��A paradigm that has denigrated the Earth and our bodies still prevails, even as we calculate the measurements from all sectors that tell us our world is in danger.

The����was in 1970, 44 years ago.��At the time, worrying about our environment was a brand new concept. Rachel Carson’s book,��Silent Spring,��had alerted the nation to the dangers of DDT and other chemicals released into the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the plants we eat.

Earth represents our first chakra, our foundation. We must build a strong foundation to last into the future and to reach our highest heights. That foundation needs to have its roots in the Earth, in nature. Without harmony with our senior partner, we simply will not survive.

Prayers are not enough. We need activism. Activism is not enough, we also need prayers.��We need to connect to the Earth every day, not just on Earth Day. We need to remember our ancient mother, and heal the single parented culture that grew up with only a father. We need to find our way back to not only embodiment, but “emplacement�� or realizing that we are embedded in a place that is divine, alive, intelligent, and exquisitely sophisticated.��

Earth is our home, but it’s time for some deep housecleaning.

If our job is to make Heaven on Earth, that means a healthy environment, wholesome food, clean air and water, and green energy. ��

I highly recommend listening to Shift Network’s����for ways you can learn and serve.

Anodea Judith
4.22.14

Scared is what happens when the sacred gets scrambled.
What does it mean to enter the sacred?��

Sacred is something that is essential, something with great meaning, something we can’t do without. It is a moment of stillness so full we can’t afford to lose a drop of it; a moment of meaning so illuminating that it opens the combination lock of life and lets grace pour through. It is that moment when someone gets in touch with a great truth inside themselves, and feels the juice of their vital energy pouring into their chakras, a moment when we are incredibly alive.�� It is alignment with our deepest core.

Too many religions have scrambled the sacred. They have dictated what it is and what it’s not, surrounded it with fear, taken it from the hands of common people and sequestered it to the privileged. The result is a culture of fear, politics without meaning, education without wisdom, separateness without unity.

In truth, the things most sacred are the air we breathe, the land we walk upon, and our moments of deep connection. Sacredness is a space, not a thing, an experience, not a concept.

There was a time—and there still are places on this earth today—where the sacred was part of everyday life. In Bali you see little prayer offerings on the streets everywhere. In India, shrines are found in the most unlikely places, and worship of the sacred continues under the harshest of conditions. Native Americans saw the entire land of North America as sacred, without boundaries or divisions. Our Pagan ancestors saw the dance of the sun and moon as sacred, with holidays that marked the passing of the seasons.

I see many things as I travel about the world, but one commonality that stands out is a hunger for the sacred.�� When a ritualistic element is added, attention changes, energy quiets, and something unifies in the group. At the end of a workshop, it is not what people have learned or written in their notebooks that stays with them, but those moments of touching into the sacred: whether it be the sacred centers of the chakras, the sacredness of being centered in themselves, or the sacred gathering of people coming together to learn, to grow, to celebrate, and to open to something larger that gives their lives meaning.

Sacredness is a mystery. It can’t be described but we know it when we touch it. It can be invited and honored but it is a co-creation of our highest aspirations. It is something we remember when we do it, and something we do when we take time to remember.

Take time each week to enter into the sacred, however, you create it or find it. Whether it’s going into the forest, or celebrating your child’s birthday, whether it’s entering a church or temple or a moment of staring into your partner’s eyes, let those moments define the rest of your life.

Getting our Priorities Straight

I once heard about a science teacher who did a demonstration with a large glass jar, a bowl full of golf balls, a pile of pebbles, a cup of sand, and a thermos of coffee.

What do these things have in common, you might ask?

First he asked a student to place the golf balls in the large jar until it could hold no more. He then asked the class if the jar was full and they agreed that it was. ��

Next he asked another student to pour some pebbles into the jar. They slid down around the golf balls until the jar could take no more.

He asked the class if the jar was full, and they said that it was.

Next he poured a cupful of sand into the jar, which found its way around the pebbles, until the jar could hold no more.

Warily, the students suggested that the jar was now completely full.

Then the teacher poured a cup of coffee (some say it was beer. . .) into the jar, which seeped in around the sand. Holding up the jar for all to see, he then explained:

“The golf balls are what is most important to you. They are the things that have the deepest joy, your highest purpose. Extraordinary experiences, learning, time with family, time for yourself. Always place them first on your priority list and on your calendar.

“The stones represent your work and the things you do to make a contribution and a living. They are important, but they can fit around the golf balls.

“The sand represents those things we do everyday, like washing dishes, doing the laundry, and taking out the garbage. We fit them in after our work. They too, must be done, but they can always fit in around the more important things.

“If you started with the sand or the pebbles, you would never be able to fit in the golf balls, which represent what is most important. But if you start with the golf balls, you can always fit in the rest.��

A curious student raised his hand. “What about the coffee?”��

He replied: “The coffee represents your unexpected moments with friends. We often think there is no room for it. But you can always make some time for a friend if everything else is in place, even when your life seems totally full.��

Anodea Judith
4.15.14

Click the picture to hear Anodea discuss how she defied all logic.

We all have dreams.�� Dreams are how we would LOVE life to be.�� In fact we spend much of our time comparing our current reality to the reality we really want and whine about the difference. We do this in our relationships, our jobs, and the way we judge our body, our behavior, and our accomplishments.�� Most of us wish we had more money, more fun, a better relationship, or were making a bigger contribution.
But do we actually take time to plan for our dreams?�� Do we dream equally in the various areas of our lives, such as career, home, community, learning, or spirituality? Do we understand how all our dreams fit into a larger life purpose?
Come learn how to create with me! Create your life on purpose and live a happier, healthier, fuller life!��I have offered this Creating on Purpose workshop throughout the world to rave reviews, with past participants commenting,��“I am fulfilling my wildest dream,����and��“I smashed through my limiting beliefs.����

If you feel stuck in your life, simple obstacles may be preventing you from creating what you want. In this workshop, learn tools, techniques and practices to clear the obstacles at each chakra and catapult you into the life you want.��Please join me at�� . These four days will set your world on fire, enabling you to create miraculous results.��“I have a deeper knowledge of who I am, what beliefs have hindered me, and what to do next. I felt supported, encouraged, and empowered.�� ~Jessica Phillips�� Can’t make it in person? Try our HOME LEARNING COURSE! ��

Everybody’s talking about Energy Psychology these days. We seem to have finally figured out that the mind alone does not heal, and that the body is an essential component of mental health. We also know that allopathic medicine, while capable of many wonders, fails to address the psychological role in the perpetuation of disease. We desperately need models that address this integration in order to become whole.

Energy is the interface between mind and body. Just as the electricity in your computer allows the hardware and software to interface, the life force that runs through you connects your body and mind. That life force is known by many names: Yogis call it��prana;��Oriental medicine calls it��ki��or��chi;��the Star Wars movies called it “the Force.�� Bioenergetics is the study of the human personality in terms of the energetic processes of the body. In Bioenergetic therapy, we call this energy “charge.��

By whatever name you call it, the internal software of the mind �� basically our beliefs �� tells our life force where to go in the body �� and where not to go. How we distribute energy through the body can make us feel anxious or depressed, vibrantly alive, or full of blockages. When we block our charge we shut down our chakras, our feelings, and our sense of aliveness.

I like to think of the word “charge�� as standing for: Consciousness Having a Really Genuine Experience. When we are full of charge we are intensely alive, regardless of whether that charge feels pleasant or painful. In the moments when we’re angry or afraid �� we at least feel real and present. We also feel alive when we’re charged up with excitement or pleasure.

We seek charge because we seek aliveness. Whether we label our charge positive or negative, the amount of��charge��present in an experience is directly correlated to the meaning or impact that experience has on us. ��If we minimize our charge, we minimize our aliveness and life starts to feel like it has no meaning.

The human body/mind/spirit complex keeps a balance or “economy�� of charge throughout life by charging and discharging. We charge up by engaging in challenges or receiving love and affection, as well as through more biological activities like eating and sleeping. We discharge through releasing emotion, such as crying or yelling, as well as through physical activity.

However, our “economy�� of charge may get stuck at a high charge level, which we call anxiety, or a low charge level which we experience as depression.�� This is because of faulty regulation in the charge/discharge cycle, where charge is instead bound into body armor, such as excess weight or chronic muscular tension.

Mind-Body Integration requires connecting with the basic “charge�� or life force, learning to follow it deep into the core, and allowing it to move through the body. Energy then awakens the chakras, clears blockages, brings insight, and dissolves body armor. This process is an art, but it can be learned. Whether you apply it to yourself or your clients, it will transform your understanding of yourself, your relationships, and your clients.

Blessings,
Anodea Judith, Ph.D.
4-07-14

Optimizing Sustainability!��

Blessings of the Equinox!��Since spring has sprung, I encourage you to ask this week: “Where can I create a little more heaven on earth in my life? Where can I ask a question that informs my inquiry? Where can I open myself to the great work?”��

Close your eyes and find your core. Take a breath and just say to yourself, if you will, if it’s in agreement with you:

- I open my mind to the supreme understanding of the great work.��
- I open my vision to see my path in the great work.
- I listen to my inner voice as guidance for the great work.��
- I open my heart to the profound love of the great work.��
- I am energized by the power of the great work.��
- I align my emotions and energies to flow effortlessly with the great work.��
- And I honor my body as the vehicle for enacting the great work.

If you’ve had a long dark winter, you can take a breath now and smell the first fragrance of Spring. For a short time, the nights and days are equal, and at last, the light will begin to overtake the dark.��Balance��is the key to this Equinox holiday and indeed to the renewal of Spring.

Blessings,
Anodea

Mind-Body Therapies

by Anodea Judith

Many are the clients who come to me from years of traditional therapy and say, “I’ve done all this work on myself and learned all about how my problems are connected with this and that from my childhood �� but it still hasn’t changed.�� This is often because traumatic experiences are stored within the tissues and muscles of the body, becoming chronic holding patterns, or body armor, that keep us from feeling energetic, healthy, and at peace. Unless we address the “issues in the tissues,�� our unconscious responses stored in the body become habitual recreators of patterns we would prefer to move beyond.

Talk therapy can be extremely helpful in understanding the source of these issues, but may do little to change health problems, or dissolve the chronic tension held in the musculature. Bodywork therapies, on the other hand, may do much to help relieve tension, restructure one’s alignment, or make contact with deeper issues, but if this material is not processed into consciousness, the mind cannot implement the necessary changes in one’s life to make this healing permanent. Thus we return each week to our bodyworker with the same sore shoulders or aching back.

Mind �� Body therapies work both sides of the equation at the same time �� uniting the physical and the spiritual as an integrated whole. They link our psychological problems to the experience of the body and link our physical problems to the experience of the psyche. This gives us an embodied experience of being whole in the world �� fully present, active, and aware.

The interface between mind and body is energy. We can think of the body as hardware, like a computer, and the mind as the software that we run on that computer. But what makes the hardware and software work together is the electricity running through the system. Without electricity, nothing works at all. If the current is not flowing smoothly �� if the voltage is too high or too low �� the programs will not run correctly, and the hardware itself may even become damaged.

So too with a human being. It is energy that enlivens both mind and body, allowing them to connect. The body runs that energy through its cells, its muscles, and converts it into action. The mind, both conscious and unconscious, holds the programs that tell the body how to channel that energy �� when to hold it in, when to let it out, how to coordinate a task, and how to heal oneself. The programs we hold in our minds �� such as feeling unsafe, feeling unworthy, or feeling compelled to accomplish Herculean tasks �� all run energy through the body in particular ways, creating either repression or overload. Bringing this into balance requires understanding the programs that are running us, and simultaneously getting down into the deeper structures in the tissues that have been hardwired for these programs.

The body is the unconscious mind. Filled with nerve endings that all connect to that central processing unit called the brain, the body records everything that happens to us. It also speaks to us in its strange cellular language. Diseases are ways of telling us what the unconscious mind remembers that our consciousness has ignored. When these messages come to awareness, it allows the body to be released from having to hold that message. Tension or disease is then free to dissolve, as the energy finds new and healthier pathways.

There are many systems for working the interface between mind and body, often loosely collected under the heading of “Somatic Therapy.�� Bioenergetics is the art of moving energy through the body and dissolving body armor. Originating from Wilhelm Reich and then through Alexander Lowen, bioenergetics works with basic character structures �� patterns of behavior and ways of holding the body that are inextricably linked. Bioenergetics works to unblock the energy, resinstating the natural flow, thus softening the tissues and simultaneously expanding the mind.

The chakras (energy centers in the body) are also points where the mind/body interface takes place. Together, the seven chakras, form a systematic link between the earthly orientation of physical survival, through the egoic realms of interpersonal relationships, and into the spiritual realms of transcendent consciousness �� seeing them all as integrated steps along a continuum. To work through the chakras is to also work through that vital interface of mind and body, spirit and matter.

Dance, movement, yoga, and martial arts, are all forms of somatic therapy. All can be used as healing modalities to enrich our experience in the world, and help to “get us out of our heads,�� and more into the body. All provide a simultaneous spiritual experience �� but one that is grounded in the body rather than intellectual abstractions.

The archetypal divorce between spirit and matter which has fostered the serverance of mind and body, is one of the greatest tragedies of our time, creating a wound that further separates culture and planet. To heal this separation �� and reintegrate body and mind �� is to move ourselves, and the world, toward greater health and wholeness.

Are you ready to learn how to��dive into your inner core and dissolve the��blockages caused by��wounds?��Anodea Judith will teach you easy techniques you can use on your own or with clients for effective awakening and release of energy through the body. Open your heart��with Anodea for a weekend of transformation!��

Chakra Therapy TrainingIntro to Chakra Therapy:
Awakening and Healing the Energy Body
with Dr. Anodea JudithNew York Open CenterNew York, NY
(Saturday and Sunday)

Last night I was teaching about the second chakra, focusing on its element:��water.��I live in California, where we have extreme drought, yet recently I traveled from parts of the country buried in snow and ice, while other areas are drowning in rain. We can all see that the waters of the planet are unbalanced right now and becoming more so every year.��

Drawing parallels to the second chakra our culture has also repressed sexuality, pleasure, and emotions, to say nothing of the feminine��and is it any wonder that the element of water is affected as well?��

In our own lives, we sit still at a desk for hours at a time, overriding the body’s basic need to move and flow. We repress emotions, locking their energies into the body and creating density and blockages. We work too hard, forgetting to relax, enjoy, and play.

And then we wonder why we don’t feel good anymore!

Reclaiming the waters of the second chakra is essential for health. Water is cleansing and helps us discharge toxins from the body. Water is renewing, essential for growth. The second chakra opens us to sensation and change, both of which stimulate consciousness and help us evolve.

��

It was a masculine superimposition that demonized sexuality and pleasure, replacing it with shame and guilt. That is now a plague that is driving our culture to destruction, replacing with more damaging or addictive secondary pleasures.����shows how societies that repress pleasure and sexuality have been shown to have more violence (witness the Taliban, for example) while permissive societies are more peaceful.

In the ancient texts, the downward current through the chakras is calledbhukti,��or enjoyment. To enjoy is to have joy within, just as enthusiasm is to have��theos,��or the divine within. Can we enthusiastically enjoy what creation has given us? Is that not our birthright?��

Today, let yourself out a little. Give yourself a little more room for pleasure, relaxation and fun. Do your part to balance the waters of the world, and enjoy the process!

Light and love,

Anodea

2.26.14

��Upcoming Workshops:

:

Therapeutic Techniques for Wholeness

March 13-17

Yoga Shakti

Stockholm, Sweden

��

:

A 7-Month Intensive!

March 29-August 16

Yoga Kula

Berkeley, CA

��

:

Awakening and Healing the Energy Body

April 5-6

New York Open Center

New York, NY

��

Return to the Sacred!

May 19-30

Anodea’s Beautiful New Home

Novato, CA

��View our full event calendar��!����

“Most people spend more time planning their summer vacation than they do planning the rest of their life.�� —Author and life coach, Dave Ellis��

We all have dreams.�� Dreams are how we would LOVE life to be.�� In fact we spend much of our time comparing our current reality to the reality we really want and whine about the difference. We do this in our relationships, our jobs, and the way we judge our body, our behavior, and our accomplishments.�� Most of us wish we had more money, more fun, a better relationship, or were making a bigger contribution.

But do we actually take time to plan for our dreams?�� Do we dream equally in the various areas of our lives, such as career, home, community, learning, or spirituality? Do we understand how all our dreams fit into a larger life purpose?

Not that there’s anything wrong with planning a summer vacation. When I first examined my dreams in all the areas I’m going to suggest, I realized I hadn’t made a plan for a vacation in several years, and because of that, I hadn’t taken one. Once I considered what I most wanted to do (take a trip to India) it manifested by itself within a few weeks with an invitation to teach at a conference there, which covered my whole trip, plane fare and traveling.

I dare you to look into each of these areas of your life and write down your dreams for each one. Allow yourself to dream big. Notice which areas represent dreams you are well aware of, and which ones haven’t quite grabbed your attention. Maybe you long to lose weight but have never considered having a fit body a viable dream you can actually plan to accomplish. Maybe you never considered a dream for creative expression, like learning to paint or play an instrument. Maybe your dreams have been self-oriented, and it’s time to dream bigger and create something that serves the world around you. Or maybe you’ve been working on the same dream for a long time, getting bogged down.

All dreams have obstacles. Obstacles can be internal, such as thoughts and feelings, or external such as the limitations of time, money and skills. Obstacles are just things to handle. The difference between those who manifest their dreams and those who fail is not the number of obstacles, but knowing the proper tools to handle them.

In , we show you how to handle the obstacles, internal and external, at each chakra level, so that creating your dreams becomes joyful and ecstatic.

But first, dare to dream in each of these areas, and write down the obstacles you need to handle:

������ DREAM CATEGORIES / OBSTACLES

Relationships, Children, FamilyMoney and financesCareer and workLeisure, fun, recreation, play, and relaxationBody, health, and vitalityLearning and teaching, intellectual stimulationPersonal growthSpiritual fulfillment or studyArtistic or creative expressionHome, surroundings, and natureSocial and political involvementCommunity service and environmentService to the worldAny others?

Take the test. See what your dreams are made of in each of these areas, and join us if you want to bring some of those dreams down into reality, by learning how the downward path of the chakras brings your thoughts and ideas into concrete manifestation.

Upcoming Creating on Purpose Workshops:
��
February 8-9

Berkeley, CA
��
February 14-17

Lenox, MA

October 2-5Ontario, Canada

��
Can’t make a live workshop?�� Get the next best thing! ��
to learn about our Creating on Purpose home-learning course!!

Here it is, the first Monday of the new year, where we are putting away the last vestiges of the holidays and getting grounded for the new year.

Getting grounded pulls us down to practicalities, down to the root chakra, muladhara, whose name means root support. Plugging into the earth is like plugging a television set into the wall socket. Once it’s connected, it’s then ready to receive on the various channels.

The chakras are the various channels in which we receive, assimilate, and express life force energy. If we are not grounded, we limit our ability to handle energy effectively, just as a flower without roots will burn out quickly in the sun.

Grounding also implies the limits of the earth plane, which act as a container to hold our roots. Just as a flower pot holds the dirt around the roots of a plant, our ability to hold and contain energy is essential to filling up and activating the higher chakras. This means knowing our limits, having good boundaries, and being able to focus, concentrate, be still, and settle down into our body.

Grounding is the final destination of the manifestation current, and it is here that we aim our higher energies, into the target of whatever we choose to manifest. For more about the manifestation current, .

Here’s a simple exercise to help open your legs as the roots to your first chakra:

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, heels out slightly wider than the toes. Let your knees be slightly bent.

Press down and out into your feet as if you were trying to push apart the floor­boards beneath you. Feel how solid your legs become.

To charge up this ground, inhale as you bend your knees out over your toes and exhale as you push your legs into the floor SLOWLY. Imagine you are pushing into the core of each leg. Continue inhaling while bending and exhaling while SLOWLY straightening your legs, being careful not to lock your knees at any point.

Within a few minutes you should start to feel a slight tremble in your legs. Allow the trembling to happen; surrender to it. Notice what movements make the trembling stronger. The longer you do the exercise the more intense that trembling will become. See if you can let the energy flow up your legs, into your root, and then up through your whole torso.��

You will feel more awake and alive!

PS: If you feel over-charged as a result of this exercise, stamp or kick your feet into the ground a few times, or go for a walk or a run.

Light and Love,

Anodea Judith
1-6-14

Endings and beginnings are essential. Even though one day rolls into the next and they don’t really differ from each other all that much, there’s something about starting a new year that’s like getting out a blank canvas. Still virgin, it begs the possibility of almost anything. We get to create the reality we want.

It’s not like we mourn the outgoing year. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Oh, I’m so sad, I was really attached to 2013. I’m not ready to let it go!�� ��No, we like the idea of throwing away the past, drinking enough to forget all about it, and waking up the next day to start fresh.

But now we are entering the end of an epoch as well, along with the beginning of a new one. We are hospice workers to what is dying and midwives to what is emerging. And it is we who are birthing this new world, we who are privileged to live in a time when everything is provided: the roads, the stores, the internet, houses, cars, airplanes, computers, cell phones. We live in a time of the greatest privilege humans have ever known.

This privilege gives us enormous capacity to do something.

A good thing, too, because we are simultaneously entering a time of extreme danger, more dire and daunting than anything humans have faced in our long journey to now. This will be the year, I predict, that this realization reaches the general population that climate change, and all the environmental problems that face us are real and serious. There’s nothing like common problems to unite a people.

In my meditation the other day I saw how we are not only giving birth to a new world, we are being born into a new form. That form doesn’t look outwardly any different from our current form, but inwardly it is the first awakenings of our divinity, a new state of grace, shining, sensitive, and awake. Barbara Marx Hubbard called this new form homo universalis, the universal human.

Our awakening is simultaneously inner and outer. The chakra system provides the map to both worlds, opening the portals within ourselves that lie between them. To navigate the journey, we need a good map, a sturdy vehicle (our body) and a conscious driver.

Join me this year in giving birth to a new world of possibility. Take the journey upward for liberation from fixed forms, or downward, for manifestation of your highest aspirations. Journey deeper for sacred contact with the divine within, or outward for social change.

Dream big this year. Ignite the light within and let it shine forth in its full spectrum of possibility. I’ll provide the map—you decide where you want to go. See you on the Rainbow Bridge!

With love and light,

Anodea Judith
12.31.13

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