Twenty Minute Pause: Recent Episodes
Nichola Johnson
Podcast weaving together the mundane and sacred in our daily lives. Sharing stories, wisdom and musings from the author to illustrate the potential and beauty of the embodied form. Guest speakers join to elaborate on specific topics related to taking a PAUSE in the moment, and in life.
We are in the beginnings of a Saturn retrograde. There are many opportunities to capture the Saturn essence and use it to our benefit.
How do we dull our experience of life by parsing out our exuberance based on our judgements, fears and control?
Practicing Right Speech can be experienced to ourselves or out into the world. We must tend both avenues.
The mind always makes you interested in things far away, out there, so that you can be led away from here.
We offer love through our actions, and support; we also offer love through our presence.
Learning to see ourselves a BOTH spirit and human in all things dissolves the barrier of body centric or spirit centric. Are a woven tapestry of the finite and the infinite, the concrete and the subtle.
In the chaos of the world, it can be difficult to align our inner and outer life experience. While we each commit time and discipline to maintaining our inner life stability, the outer world is unpredictable. The aim becomes to balance our inner and outer life through intention and awareness.
The world needs loving kindness more now than ever. Use this recording to practice the Maitri meditation so that you might experience loving kindness and offer it to all sentient beings.
“Fearlessness" is the underlying request we make each and every time we sit on our meditation cushion, begin our spiritual sadhana or muse about our spiritual journey. Fearlessness=Expansion. Why else do we endeavor to navigate a spiritual life if not to cultivate our confidence to face and handle life as it comes to us?
Commitment comes in many forms. As we develop along our spiritual journey we move towards a deeper attitude and behavior of commitment to consciousness and compassion.
We are highjacked by our opinions and ideas when we bring our past experiences into our present experience.
How does the brain develop different levels of negativity and how to offset this in your daily life.
What happens to our soul when we encounter a trauma, a disappointment or a series of emotional moments? We may fragment-lose touch with pieces of our essence. How to call back these pieces.
Profound Forgiveness occurs when we are able to hold a larger, nuanced view of reality.
In the challenge of LIFE, we often do not claim the TRUTH of who we are. We leave pieces of ourselves abandoned, unclaimed and denied. Step into the fullness of your HIGHER SELF.
“No thought’ is one of the portals to PEACE, TRANQUILITY, and EQUANIMITY. Who does not want those states of being? NOW is the time to incorporate a practice which develops ’no thought.'
Yantras are the physical form of energetic frequencies found in mantras and other spiritual tools. How we prepare yantras at the ashram.
The Hindu and Buddhist Goddess, White Tara, embodies the qualities of compassion, peace and longevity. Holding her in our consciousness reminds us of these qualities in ourselves.
Taping into our JOY is our responsibility. The most significant gift we can give to ourselves and to others. Joy is the opening for inspiration, creativity and soul sustenance. Bring it ON!
Visiting Morocco and experiencing the intersection of a history of multiple traditions.
One of the most valuable tools is discernment to recognize when we are fabricating or altering our perception of reality.
The disturbance to ourselves may be greater than the effort to cajole someone into changing.
Learning how to live with a foundation of JOY is a practice in self-awareness. Stepping out of needing cause to experience Joy is our human journey in the embodied form.
What is the journey back home; to the expression of all aspects of oneself? Where do the embodied form and the eternal nature meet?
There are four major steps and practices to help hone our ability to be living in Self-Observation allowing us ultimate FREEDOM.
Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment (Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching, Sutra 33)
Know Thyself, weary Traveler. I am lost. I have forgotten who I am and why I came here. To Know Thyself is one of the foundational spiritual teachings of humanity. Self Observation is the primary tool for knowing oneself.
Choose each day to step out of your comfort zone, familiar pace, safe path to embrace an alternative way of seeing, experiencing and responding.
It is time for us to step into our capacity as warriors-to protect, defend and transform ourselves and the world around us.
A recurring theme SILENCE. Silence is the portal through which our Spirit Journey emerges. Without an internal silence, we are challenged to deal with external noise, disruption and unpredictability.
There are many expressions of Beauty. The Blessings of the embodied form is the intersection of as many of these expressions as our life offers. Drink in the Beauty.
The most critical aspect of our spiritual maturity is learning to calm our Monkey MInd.
We are all impacted by what is transpiring around us. Often the unsettled nature of the world triggers fear in us.
It is a common complaint...you finish a really inspiring yoga or meditation retreat and a week or two into your 'At Home' practice and you find it difficult to keep the daily commitment. What to do?
Because intuition is a portal to JOY, it is worth taking another look into the process of accessing and honing our intuitive nature.
Silence is the state which gives us most access to our intuitive nature and higher wisdom. It is valuable for us to incorporate silence into our lives and spiritual discipline.
Life is simply a series of transitions. How we adapt and ride this wave is a contributor factor to how much JOY we can hold. Tension with transitions is a limitation.
Sound impacts us whether it is coming in from the outside or generated inside of us. A powerful tool which should be used wisely.
The energy and health in a conscious decision to step out of a situation or relationship is wholly different from fleeing the same situation or relationship. Equipping ourselves to move consciously through transitions in our life changes our stability and vitality.
Holiness is a state of being, established through connection with the Divine Source, attentiveness to Truth and Grace. How do we bring these qualities together?
Our life circumstances are often out of our control. Our responses are within our control. Calling for our most pleasant self. This is a boon for ourselves and for others.
The sacred is everywhere. Everywhere includes the mundane so therefore the mundane is also sacred. There is no differentiation between sacred and mundane except in our minds eye.
Do you have freedom in your life? How is this freedom intertwined with spiritual liberation?
The quintessential question in the spiritual world is, "What is my Dharma?" How does my destiny intersect with my freewill.
Forgiveness is an intense practice in self care. Heal yourself so that you might venture into the world whole, brilliant and Joyful.
How to redirect negative emotions and reactions before they over-power you and a situation.
Often we look for grandiose ways to offer ourselves into the world. It is truly the simplicity of LOVE that holds the most impact.
What is the hierarchy of responsibilities in your life? Often we take care of others before ourselves. It is always best to put on our own oxygen mask before assisting others. See how!
We all carry many super powers which can be honed and developed to assist in our daily lives. Listen to this podcast to find out how.
We are both form and energy. The practice of holding both add richness to our experience of life.
How we choose to live out our life, in-spite of external circumstances, is a result of our intention.
Detachment does not mean ambivalence or distancing. It is more about health attachments.
Fear is offsetting to our peace of mind. Learning to trust will diminish our fear and expand our peace.
What can appear as opposites are simply points on a continuum. The more we fix ourselves on opposites the more pain and suffering we bring into our life.
Our heart send electromagnetic signals and messages to our brain all day long. This impacts our thoughts, reasoning and higher order functioning. Entering into Heart Coherence is one way to support our heart in its heavy lifting.
Intuition has several layers. The deeper we penetrate, the more be come into a state of receptivity which embraces the Divine.
Infusing ourselves with the attributes and qualities which inspire and open our lives to the life we wish to embody.
The fastest way to take away the barriers to Joy is to align our Outside World with our Inside World.
In our busy world of activities, it is common to see ourselves adding more to our lives as a response to restlessness.
Step up and let your unique qualities and attributes shine into the world. If healing is to happen within our humankind and on the planet, we must claim our contributions.
The heart is the center of our energetic system. It is the doorway to our more intuitive centers. Cultivating a juicy heart space sends a message to our entire body-mind-energy system.
There are many layers to our experience of criticism. If we are aware, we can learn about the deep grooves in our history, patterns and traumas.
Our internal resources are keep us upright. The normal chaos of the external world around us will bounce up against us time and time again. How we have developed and prepared ourselves to be in an internal state of ease and connectedness to cosmic flow will determine the frenzy of the situation. Being in THE FLOW definitely beats the alternative states.
Our frequency of vibration impacts how we experience life. Literally, being more rooted or grounded opens up more possibilities for us.
We sabotage ourselves in subtle ways. Our brilliance comes from our acceptance of self and from living into our capacity.
We have come to identify ourselves with our physical self and the attributes associated with our physical movement in the world. In connecting to self we must be reminded that we are actually spiritual beings having a human experience rather than human beings having a spiritual experience.
It is a mind trap we get into when we limit the possibilities and conclusions about life. Just because there is consensus regarding the use of an item, a belief or an outcome does not make it eternal truth. We must encourage ourselves to remain open to expanded ways of thinking and to possibilities outside our current experiences.
The spiritual journey always brings up challenges, u-turns, and upheavals along with the ah ha moments, and sublime experiences. Perspective allows us to travel this path through the Joys and Dark Nights.
Loving ourselves is not the same as self love. Self love is more interested in the finite aspects of self, whereas, the most boundless love is for our essence and eternal nature.
Our lives are magical, unpredictable, and full of transformation. Every moment offers a new possibility for us. Using the smallest pieces of our day, we can literally become the alchemist of our own process of living.
As spiritual beings on a spiritual path, it is our responsibility to step up to what is needed on the planet, with our global neighbors, our family and of course ourselves. This is not a time to be complacent.
Recognizing that everything in life is sacred is one of the enduring spiritual truths. The struggle is between our ego and judgement and TRUTH.
Truth is a journey. We must tend our thoughts, our judgements and our desires for they can high-jack the truth. Let mindfulness keep your attention on truths sharp edge.
On this, the eve of St. Valentine's Day, it is an opportunity for us to ask ourselves, "What is my offering of LOVE into the world?" Become an activist of the HEART! This podcast was taken from the weekly discourse for the Women's Saturday Morning Sangha.
We are taught that control=power. Perhaps in race cars and politics this is true, however, in the more subtle expressions of our humanity, surrender is the power tool. Paradoxically, the more we surrender, the more power we hold. Listen to the discourse from our Saturday Morning Women's Sangha. EnJOY.
Guest Judith Royal, Archetypal Astrologer, and Nichola chat about the interconnectedness between the cosmic, collective and individual experience of reality. We leave you with a homework assignment for self-observation and awareness.
Recorded in 2012 at Spirit House by facilitator Elise Lorimer, this guided meditation is as relevant now as it was at the time of recording. Use it as a daily tool to strengthen the connection between your breath and your soul essence. Enjoy!
Easter Sunday, 2020. Join us for a conversation on becoming the temple in your life and in the experience of the collective. What does it mean to be able to both ask for help and support in your own life and to simultaneously offer solace into the world. To use this new spiritual tool, 'shelter in place' to ground ourselves in awareness. Namaste'
Twenty Minute Pause makes its debut amidst the Age of Coronavirus. Join us for twenty minutes of humor and wisdom as we weave together the sacred and the mundane.