Category: Intuitive Living

Persephone and Pacific Northwest’s Winter

My winters for the past ten years have been while living in southern California, my winters were not very different from my summers. Although, I’m born and raised from New York, and east coast winters are intense! However, this year I found my own spiritual journey that had lead me to the Pacific Northwest where I found immense happiness– as well as my first true experience of living through a Pacific Northwest winter.

In Greek Mythology, there was a goddess named Persephone. She was a child of Zeus, the king of the Gods and Demeter, the goddess of Earth and nature. Persephone was wooed by many gods, but Demeter, ever the over protective mother rejected all their advances and eventually hid her daughter away. It was shortly after this that Hades, the god of the underworld abducted Persephone and swept her away to his kingdom. As Demeter desperately searched for her beloved daughter, the world began to change. Life came to a standstill. The flowers fainted away and died. The grasses faded away. Trees bore no fruit and the temperature turned antarctic. As Demeter’s anguish grew, earth continued to die and rest in peace. Zeus intervened and summoned Hades return Persephone to her mother. Before he agreed, Hades tricked Persephone into eating four pomegranate seeds, which effectively forced her to spend one month each year in Hades for every seed she’d eaten. When Demeter and her daughter were together, the Earth flourished with radiant vegetation and bright color, but for four months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became an infertile realm of darkness. This is an origin story to explain winter.

There is something about this season of winter that almost forces you to begin a process of turning inward, of reflecting upon the events prior to this slowed kapha activity.  Surely during this time, Demeter remembers happier times with her daughter.

This is a time of year when the world, and our own spirit, is renewed once more. It is a time of endings and new beginnings that fills our hearts with peace, joy, love and laughter. We are almost forced by Nature to spend more time with our beloved, with our friends and family, sharing our abundance with them.

#krishna

Lucky Pot of Gold 

You can chase all the silver ‘Cause I’ve found somethin’ to hold 

You can run after rainbows ‘Cause I just found my pot of gold 

You can chase all the silver ‘Cause I’ve just found my soul 

You can run after rainbows ‘Cause I just found my pot of gold! 

Shamrockin Sydney 

Irish Australians and Irish come together on St Patrick’s Day to celebrate Irish culture and St Patrick Day parades that are held in cities such as Sydney and Brisbane. 

The celebration of St Patrick’s Day in Sydney is almost as old as the colony. In time the public celebration of St Patrick’s Day, sometimes known as ‘St Patrick’s Festival’, has become a major event in Sydney. It extends to various entertainments, including horse races, banquets, parades, picnics, concerts, dancing and games. Nevertheless, it changed in form and tone over the century, often reflecting the change in mood of the Irish citizens of Sydney and their place in the wider community and over the course of the years St. Patrick’s Day celebrations took various forms. Sydney has observed St Patrick’s Day with much enthusiasm and the day does not  pass without some form of public celebration. 

St Patrick’s Day has continued to display its remarkable ability to adapt and change, ensuring that the feast day of the patron saint of Ireland does not pass unnoticed in Sydney. 

Gut Feelings

Intuitive decision-making is linked to gut feelings. The neurobiological gut-brain pathways. A gut-brain pathway carries gut-based, emotionally-charged signals carried by microbes from your gut to the brain where they can affect brain function.

 According to research, intuition and gut feelings are built on a series of both positive and negative gut-brain signals beginning at birth. These include gut-brain emotions such as reward hormones (dopamine), and hunger and craving hormones (ghrelin) which train the central nervous system. 
Years of repetitive gut-based brain signals form memories of emotional states that,  including predictions about the future and intuitive decision-making. 

In Ayurveda, predictions and intuition are similar concepts; both based on the extension of logic. There are many explanations for intuition, higher cognitive function, and higher states of consciousness. 

Ayurveda suggests living a positive, loving, giving, caring, lifestyle, called a sattvic lifestyle. A sattvic lifestyle is a prerequisite for the development of intuition and higher states of consciousness. 

Cultivating Intuition 

Intuition is the knowing of something beyond time, space, reason, the use of prior knowledge and the five senses.

What would be different if you led from your intuition more often?

Intuition is our birthright. It is an everyday awareness permeating our existence that we are intimately connected with and a part of. Life feels magical and our environment is filled with endless possibilities.

As we get older we lose touch with this sense of presence and guidance. Limited thinking and the responsibilities of life tak e centre stage, while our inner wisdom and unbounded connection with life are pushed aside, if not forgotten. 

Where can you begin answering your intuition right now?

Festival Of Love

Holi is a Hindu spring festival celebrated in India and Nepal, also known as the “festival of colours” or the “festival of love.” 

The festival signifies the victory of light over darkness, the arrival of spring, end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair broken relationships. It is celebrated as Rangwali Holi – a free-for-all carnival of colours, where people smear each other with colours and groups carry drums and other musical instruments, go from place to place, sing and dance. People visit family and friends to throw coloured powders on each other, laugh and then share Holi delicacies, food and drinks. 

There is a symbolic legend to explain why Holi is celebrated as a festival of colours in the honor of Hindu god Vishnu. In the Braj region of India, where the Hindu deity Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. 

Passions and Perspective 

Follow your passions. Whether it is dancing, writing, hiking or surfing, when you are enjoying yourself you move into alignment with your soul. 

Have you ever noticed that inspiration and fresh perspective come to you when you are relaxed and having fun? Remember, you don’t have to work at intuition. 

Life is about enjoying yourself, and when you remember to play you remember your spirit and why you are here. You say an inner Yes to yourself, and to Life as well!