Making Space for Life

As we may all be aware, there are many ways to cultivate greater Well-Being—paying attention to Food, Breath, our Internal ‘Ohana, Movement, the Quality of our Attention, and so much more.

And yet, all of these practices may be only minimally helpful unless Well-being becomes a Priority in our lives. 

Not simply something we attend to when we have time.
Not something we do once everything else has been taken care of.
Not something reserved for when we are exhausted, depleted, or in need of repair.

But something we consciously make space for.

What is Well-Being?

Simply put, Well-Being is a state of being Well, on all levels of Being. It is more than the absence of illness, stress, or difficulty. It is a quality of inhabiting ourselves—a state in which we have enough presence, vitality, spaciousness, and balance to meet our lives as they unfold.

In essence, Well-Being is the space we need to inhabit in order for Life to move through us with greater ease.

When we are well, our inner world has room to breathe. We have greater access to ourselves, to our sensitivity, our creativity, our intuition, our vitality, and our capacity to respond rather than simply react

How we inhabit ourselves influences how we meet others, how we move through our relationships, how we work, how we create, how we respond to challenge, and ultimately, how we participate in the world.

The Habit of Being Well:

It is not always possible to bypass our other obligations and purt our Well-Being first. We have responsibilities, families, work and countless things that ask for our attention. But my guess is that most of us could choose a different balance.

One of my favorite tools is to use the timer on my phone to create a defined period of time in which I tend to my practice. Even five minutes can create a significant interruption in the momentum of our routines. It gives the nervous system a chance to shift. It creates space between what has just happened and what comes next. It allows us to come back into our bodies, our breath, our awareness, and ourselves.

Once we recognize how nourishing it is, five minutes can become ten, ten can become twenty....And eventually, tending to ourselves begins to feel less like an interruption to our lives and more like an essential part of living them.

This is how a practice becomes a habit.

Prioritizing:

In order to truly put ourselves first, we have to recognize our value—Not simply our value as an individual who has things to accomplish or contribute, but our value as a unique expression of Life. If we want to be an optimum vessel for Life to express itself, then we must care for that Life — by creating a personal practice, nourishing food choices, and tending to the quality of our attention.

This does not mean that we become self-absorbed or place ourselves above others. Quite the opposite. When we are resourced, coherent, present, and alive within ourselves, we have more to offer. We can meet the people and circumstances around us from a place of greater capacity rather than depletion.

Our Well-Being becomes part of our contribution.

A Small Beginning in Personal Practice:

What would change if you treated your Well-Being as something worthy of being scheduled?

What if you gave yourself five minutes today—not because you had finished everything else, but because you are important enough to receive your own attention?

Set the timer.

Close your eyes.

Breathe.

Move.

Rest.

Listen.

Feel your body.

Come home to yourself.

You don't have to know exactly what you need. You don't have to create the perfect practice.

Simply begin by making space, moving with care & attention, listening to how your body feels or sitting quietly with your breath.

Each time we choose to inhabit ourselves more fully, we strengthen our capacity to meet Life from that place, and become a gift to all that wants to move through us.

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What is one small change you can make today which could help to strengthen the practice of creating time for your Well-Being?

Finding the World In-Between

Lately, I’ve been noticing the subtle echoes of my childhood conditioning: the habit of placing my attention only on "Point A" and "Point B."

Growing up, I was taught to focus on where I am and where I am going. There was very little room for the space in between. That "middle space" was treated as an insignificant blur—something to be endured or hurried through to reach what really mattered: the goal or end point.

Learning this type of navigation was emotionally loaded. Completing the task or achieving the goal usually meant winning the approval of others, becoming more admired and valued. Over time, I came to believe that love was a reward for achievement.

Through Kahu, I discovered the idea of resting in the 'in-between spaces'. It was confusing to say the least. For a long time, I understood the idea but wasn't able to actually experience it. I was stuck in my head, mistaking recognition for realization. Even now, after years of practice, I still find new opportunities to settle into these micro-moments where no goal is in sight.

As my quality of attention changes, so does the quality of my movement, thought and breath. Every moment becomes a moment of arrival.

What lives in the in-between moments? Infinite possibility.  When I am no longer on my way somewhere (at least in my mind), I am available to see and feel so much more. When 'the goal' is not filling my awareness, I have more space to be informed by The Mystery and discover new ways of seeing & being.

Walking on the beach a few mornings ago, I suddenly felt I was skipping over something foundational. After a few moments in an open attention, I realized it was my walking. Although my mind had come to a kind of peace, thinking it was fully here in the moment, I realized that I was unconsciously focused on the goal of completing my walk. I was missing the journey.

As my attention shifted, it was as if the whole world opened up. I noticed so much with my eyes, ears and skin that eluded me before. My peripheral vision in all directions widened and it seemed like I was walking in a much bigger space. The beach was bigger. The sky was wider. The sound of the waves seemed much more full — like there were many notes instead of one note in it's transcendent song. My weight had changed to an effortless gliding into the middle of each step and I noticed now the varying temperatures and textures landing in my feet.

Essentially, it became a completely different experience, filled with more than  I imagined could be there all at once. Every moment was overflowing with more and more Life. By the end of the walk, I was in a fullness that had expanded with each step.

Sometimes, for one reason or another, we are not able to drop into such an expanded attention. But I believe there are many more opportunities than we may think! These in-between moments are waiting for us to discover them. All we need to do is detach a little bit from the goal and allow ourselves to land in the Eternal Now.

As you move through your day today, I invite you to notice one 'in-between' moment. Perhaps it’s the walk to your car, the time spent waiting for water to boil, or the space between two breaths. What do you find there when the goal is set aside? I’d love to hear what you discover.

Ancient Lomi Lomi — An Embodied Journey Home

What brings us home to ourselves? In an increasingly complex and fast-moving world, many of us seek embodied practices that reconnect us with our inner life. Yoga, breathwork, dance, somatic psychology, bodywork, and movement-based therapies all offer meaningful pathways into presence and self-awareness.

I have explored many of these modalities, each opening a different doorway into my embodied Self. Having grown up dancing, movement has always been a profound way for me to access deeper layers of being. Through dance, hidden aspects of myself are invited forward—felt, heard, and sometimes allowed to blossom. Yoga and breathwork have also played an important role in cultivating awareness, presence, and inner listening.

When Ke Ala Hōkū entered my life, however, my relationship to all of these practices fundamentally changed. I began to bring a new quality of attention—one rooted in deep listening, embodiment, and a willingness to let go of outcomes. Rather than striving or performing a practice, I learned to rest in its center. This shift allowed a much wider spectrum of my lived experience to be acknowledged and integrated.

As a result, each modality became more alive and more potent. Every practice turned into an exploration of truth—what is actually present in the body, the breath, and the moment. While the experience did not always align with my expectations, it consistently revealed something real, drawing more of my authentic self into awareness.

This is the foundation of the Pathway to the Stars: an ever-deepening capacity to meet what is awake, true, and alive in each embodied moment. Ke Ala Hōkū is not a belief system or doctrine, but a lived encounter with presence itself. The Life that we are does not need to be created—it simply is.

Through this work, we are guided in any moment, any movement, any breath, and any circumstance to step out of conceptual thinking and into direct experience. It is an invitation to inhabit the eternal Now with clarity, honesty, and embodiment. This is the foundation that allows the bodywork of Ancient Lomi Lomi to be transformational, beyond what we could intend or imagine.

Cultivating this embodied resonance will ignite any healing work, and will powerfully deepen the ground of our being—no matter where we are, or what form our lives take.

The Day The Ocean Disappeared

Landing back home after a teaching trip fills me with joy as I feel the welcoming ‘hug’ of Maui. I savor the time and space to settle back into life here and to notice what is new in my perceptions, my system, my body and my awareness.

Each Retreat holds full days of diving deeply into the listening, navigation and presence of Ke Ala Hōkū, The Pathway to The Stars. Unconscious and subconscious patterns are stirred, forgotten fears remembered, and unresolved trauma revealed. As we move in new ways through the embodiment practices of the work, we unlock a crucible of resonance in our Being, that can hold, and transmute what arises. If we are able to say YES to the sometimes difficult process of meeting parts of ourselves that are crying out for attention, we come into a new relationship with these parts. We experience a kind of cellular Ho’oponopono, in which more and more of our unresolved internal ‘ohana (family), can come to rest in us in harmony.

So the integration for each retreat experience is a potent time, where I get to experience a new balance in my system, new sources of nourishment and new horizons in my perceptive field. My favorite part of being in this space, is the surprise.

Recently back from a Retreat in Europe, I landed back to the warm welcome of Maui Island, and spent time settling in to my life at home. Most days, if my schedule allows, I like to head early to the beach do my morning movement practice, and, with permission from the Ocean, swim. On my third day back, I took the familiar trip to my favorite beach. After completing an easy movement practice, I asked permission, as usual, to go into the Ocean. Fortunately, this day, she was graciously inviting.

Entering the water, however, something was very different. I did not feel the sensation of liquid on my skin. Nor was there a change in temperature, no movement of current, and no texture. This odd feeling continued as I swam. I could feel absolutely no resistance in the water — though it was clearly a lively ocean with lots of waves. Swimming in one direction is usually a bit easier as I swim with the current, but when I turn around to go the other way, there is usually a marked difference in the waters resistance. This day, however, there was no difference.

I felt very attentive to the feeling in my skin, particularly, and, to my amazement, I felt as if I was surrounded only by air. I did feel more buoyant than on land, and at times felt the movement of ‘bubbles’ on my skin. Meeting no resistance in the water, my muscles felt incredibly strong. It was both a completely foreign and completely comfortable experience.

Without my eyes telling me differently, I would have said that either my body disappeared that day, or the ocean had, even though both were clearly in my field of vision.

Coming out of the water, I again felt no difference in temperature or sensation between the water and air. In over 30 years of swimming in the Maui Ocean, I have loved the fact that each time is different. I have experienced the colors, shapes of the waves, temperatures, currents, and feelings touched in me, in a wide variety of ways — many delightfully surprising. However I had never experienced anything even close to this.

I can’t say with any certainty what transpired that day, but since the work has so much to do with our Cellular Being, I will guess that it was part of my integration. The only lingering thought I’ve had about it, is a wondering: Is it a possibility that somehow, my frequency and the frequency of the Ocean matched each other exactly that day at that time?

Perhaps my body did not feel a ‘meeting’ because there was nothing to meet? Perhaps I got to experience the gift of the Ocean and I disappearing into each other, one and the same.

Kupuna — Those who walk in Beauty

A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to work on a Hawaiian Kupuna (elder). She was a small woman with magical eyes and a powerful presence. My sense was that she was deeply grounded in the wisdom of the land and the ancients.

Part way through the bodywork, the room grew very ‘quiet’. The music was still playing. Outside the leaves and wind chimes were still blowing in the breeze. But inside, my attention seemed suddenly ‘refined’. I was just ‘here’, and then ‘here’ and then ‘here’. Each breath, undulation, of my arm, temperature in my skin and feeling in my feet with each step, landing together in a continuous, combined Presence.

When this of nature alignment happens, there is nothing more to do. It’s as if the portal of ‘allowing’ has been opened and I can fall into it’s embrace. From the outside, it probably looked as if nothing had changed, but inside, the dance of movement, breath, sensation and rhythm had begun an endless expansion. It feels like the opposite of ‘working’, but rather like a joyful receiving of this precious ‘space of existence’ that Kahu speaks about:

The Kahuna understanding is that, our ‘Space of Existence’ is a magnitude that is our closest, most loyal, most loving friend that we have.  It is all that we can think about or wish for; all that we see with our eyes and our minds, all that we can hear, listen and react to; all that we can smell and breathe of the fragrances in life, enjoyable or not, all that we can ever eat, consume, or speak of, all our thoughts, enjoyable or not, every longing and desire, grief and sadness, all that has been listened to, and brings all of this song and motion, all that you can see, and react to, enjoyable or not; every heartbeat, every longing, every desire, every heartbreak, every spark of joy and happiness;  everything you can touch and feel, walk to, come from, or stand upon, high above and far below, in between and all around, every moment of your life”. —Kahu Abraham Kawai’i

Our ‘Space of Existence’ is always alive in us. In our modern world, we have learned that there are ‘much more important’ concerns, and so we take our powerful attention away from most of the ways that Life is speaking, calling to us, offering an opening to a potential fueled by Spirit.

When I find myself Present in this Space, there is an effortlessness, a joy and an excitement as I feel myself hovering at the brink of the Mystery. Each time, it is a space which emerges for the very first time. It is familiar and completely new at the same time. As I dive into each precious moment, discovering the vastness of what is here, the edges of time seem to lose their legitimacy. The Infinite breaks free from the concepts I have been taught and I am moving, breathing, feeling in Forever.

As the session continued, a memory flashed through from many years ago, when I had attended the Taro Festival on Kaua’i. I was perusing the educational and food booths when a group of people, dressed in traditional clothing appeared on the grass and seemed to be floating across the field. I learned later that it was a ceremony depicting a reenactment of The Royal Court of The Hawaiian Kingdom. I was dumbfounded as I watched them glide over the field. Their bodies seemed to emit a soft glow, and their legs were moving in a walking motion, but it was as if their feet weren’t touching the ground. My mind was on overdrive trying to figure out how, but nothing I observed could explain it. Perhaps it was an energy that surrounded them, the way they were breathing or simply their Presence. I had no idea, but the vision remains a mysterious and indelible memory.

This memory of the Royal Court floating effortlessly across an uneven field flooded me strongly for a moment and then disappeared. A little while later, I found myself at the Kupunas’ feet and found myself captivated by the softness in the soles of her feet. Although she was a slight woman, her feet were plump and puffy like the feet of an infant.

I thought afterwards that this woman must spend her days walking on clouds of softness. It was a definite possibility that her love, respect and care for the ‘aina (land) was expressed by the Life in her feet.

And then I remembered my vision of the Royal Court. Could it be that they were not actually floating, but touching the Earth with utter softness, care and Grace? Could it be that there was such a complete resonance between the humans and the land that there didn’t appear to be any separation?

The session has stayed with me for days. I am allowing my self to be more ‘in my feet’ as I step — noticing where my attention is, feeling the quality of this meeting. I realize that the quality of my motion reverberates back to me, up through my feet, into my legs and body. I am in conversation with the Earth the same way I am in conversation with anyone. The tone of my offering is answered in kind.

What a special honor it is to work with Kupuna, especially those who walk in Beauty.

The Sacred Journey

My Father has always been a beacon of Light to me. His unfailing support, love and encouragement have propelled me to travel a path I could never have predicted.  Over the past 4 years, I have watched his slow decline in a disease which is taking his mind, consciousness and eventually, all of him.  At first, I scrambled, searching for every possible remedy; Pestering him daily to at least drink more water; Buying supplements I hoped would slow the process. Little by little, I had to begin the process of letting go of my compulsion to fix him, heal him, change the trajectory of his life.

I had to come to the realization that this was his life, and not mine. My Father was walking steadily on a path leading into a dark wood, and there was nothing I could do to stop him.

Today, I sat by his bedside as he lay, unable to walk, speak, eat or move. I watched him breathe and wondered what life was like for him, locked in this shell. Either he failed to find what his body was crying out for, or, for reasons that we shall never know, this was his rightful destiny.

Today, I got to find out what remains when almost nothing is left.  I discovered that not only is Love always there, but that it only grows when there are no more words, no more actions, not even a purpose to being alive. Love emerges as the constant shining light that far outpaces any human ability or endeavor.

I found myself immersed in the deepest connection with the man who had given me life. I observed that when nothing is left to hold on to, just the breath, the presence of a human being is Love.

It is possible that I have experienced at least a glimpse of 'the Peace that passes all understanding'.

The moment when life was created was sacred. The moment life emerges from the womb, we celebrate a love we had never before experienced.

I had never realized that the moment we leave this body is also sacred, and also contains a possibility of expanding Love that I could never imagine. I am hoping that the shining Love that I feel, is only a glimmer of the vast ocean my Father will dive into — free of any pain, fear, loss or regret.

I hold this shining, Sacred space for him as he listens patiently for his time to be born into a new dimension.

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UPDATE: My profoundly dear Father is now on the other side. My gratitude to him, and to Life, is eternal.

My First Glimpse of the Ancient Path

There was a moment, about 27 years ago, where I wavered in what I now know was a crucial decision. By a hair’s breadth, I chose the direction most unknown and the one that changed my life forever. I was fortunate enough to step into intensive studies with Wisdom Keeper Kahu Abraham Kawai’i, ua'ia Maka'i'ole, 'Uliama.

Even after acquiring a Bachelor’s University Degree, I felt like I was in Kindergarten again.  I had been ushered into a world that was completely unfamiliar. I was in a place with no reference points, and where my usual ‘answers’ were completely unhelpful. Through gentle physical movements to open our bodies, and more strenuous ones to awaken dormant areas, we were gradually reintroduced to ourselves from the expanded perspective of Indigenous Mind. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.

As we moved through the ‘exercises’, sensations, emotions, long forgotten memories, and old mental ‘habits’ arose, seemingly out of nowhere. Suddenly, I was face to face with almost everything I had desperately wanted to forget about myself: every insecurity and fear. My logical mind was racing to find any excuse to stop or leave altogether, telling myself that I was just exhausted, and that I needed some time to recuperate and ‘pull myself together’. 

Although I didn’t understand it, a deeper current was propelling me forward through the discomfort. Deep down, there was a feeling that this was more ‘true’ than anything I had known before. There was a gradual feeling of returning to inhabit my whole being — all the parts that had been forgotten and even those I thought had been annihilated. As I clumsily navigated the discomfort of it all, the outer shell of my identity in the world began to crack.  As I got closer to the awareness of Life pouring through me in every moment, all the labels I had ever given myself seemed to rise and fall away, limp in comparison to this vibrant and mysterious force pulsing through me and through all of Life. All the facades of who I had imagined myself to be, tried to be, wanted to be, had come and gone. I was left realizing that much of my identity had been founded in illusion.  There was not much left of me, although in the midst of the emptiness something both foreign, and completely familiar, remained.

Each time, coming out of an immersive experience, I went back to a world I thought I had known, yet everything in my perception had changed. I felt more at home in my body, and though there was no logical thought process to support it, my life seemed to flow with less and less resistance from myself or others. My mind became less rigid, more quiet as well as more alert.  There was a sense of more spaciousness, more ability to listen deeply to myself and others.  Life seemed more expansive and full of possibility. The pace at which I moved through the world had slowed considerably. The way I met myself and others was irrevocably changed.

When I think back to that pivotal moment so long ago, in which I teetered on the edge of not going, I shudder.  I could have just as easily said no to this profound doorway. In a way, everything was against my attendance:  I had heard terrible rumors about the teacher, the immersions were on a different island than where I was living, and the cost was astronomical. The only thing guiding me to attend was a vague feeling somewhere inside. Something in me was saying 'yes' beyond all reason, and I am eternally grateful. 

I feel now that I stumbled upon a pathway that brings us back to our origin point as human beings. It brings us back to the simple truth that we are animated by, and infused with pure Life  — the same Life that inhabits the land, creatures, the stars, rivers and oceans. We are a part of the Living Continuum.

Coming back to Indigenous Mind gave me the opportunity to experience my body, emotions, and world from a completely different vantage point — one which was grounded in the pure experience of Life meeting Life, both inside myself and outside.

The great teacher, Alan Watts once said: 
"[Conceptualizing your life] creates a gap or lack of rapport between you and your life. You think about things so much that you get into the state where you are eating the menu instead of the dinner."

For the first time, I felt like I was truly inhabiting each moment, savoring and digesting what is actually here, instead of my thoughts about it. This Ancient Pathway gives us the opportunity to discover that the Sacred is alive inside of us, beyond our ideas about it. Seeing from the perspective of Life, we become open to more Life pouring through.

Somehow both gradually and suddenly, the mundane became magical, and the Sacred was everywhere.

The Natural World Inside

“When the mind is festering with trouble or the heart torn, we can find healing among the silence of mountains or fields, or listen to the simple, steadying rhythm of waves. The slowness and stillness gradually takes us over. Our breathing deepens and our hearts calm and our hungers relent. When serenity is restored, new perspectives open to us and difficulty can begin to seem like an invitation to new growth.

This invitation to friendship with nature does of course entail a willingness to be alone out there. Yet this aloneness is anything but lonely. Solitude gradually clarifies the heart until a true tranquility is reached. The irony is that at the heart of that aloneness you feel intimately connected with the world. Indeed, the beauty of nature is often the wisest balm for it gently relieves and releases the caged mind.”

—JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from his books, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace (US) / Divine Beauty (Europe)

Irish Mystic and Poet, John O’Donohue gives us this beautiful pathway to finding healing in Nature. If we have the eyes to see and ears to hear, we are indeed surrounded by, and living with, the most powerful force of connection, stability and peace.

The ancient work of Ke Ala Hõkū guides us to the experience of the rhythms, stillness, steadiness, slowness and tranquility of this very same nature, deep inside own system. Our cellular being operates as Life itself — just the same as the ocean waves, forests, stars & ecosystems. Underneath our thoughts and beliefs is the infinite flow of the the Great Mystery of Life.

We are being breathed, moved, illuminated and sustained by the Mystery Itself. Despite our numerous thoughts, emotions, belief systems, revelations and observations, not one of us can ‘operate’ the incredible complexity of blood, bones, hormones, cells, organelles, tissues, organs and nerves (among millions of others) that is our own body. We tend to take for granted that we will take the next breath, and remain fixated on our thoughts (circumstances, emotions, memories, fears etc.). Meanwhile Nature, and the Miracle of Life is in full bloom right below (and in) our nose!

The amazing news of this Ancient work, that I always want to shout from the mountaintops, is that this Life in us is ALIVE! In this Paradigm, and certainly in my reality, it is a conscious being — the same conscious being that moves in all of Life. It is always offering this ‘invitation to friendship’ as John O’Donohue so eloquently states. What would it be like to move through Life in a deep friendship with the Mystery which animates our trillions of cells?

Through the work of Ke Ala Hõkū, we learn to open forgotten channels in the body and mind, and expand our awareness of the Life that exists far below the level of our individual (and collective) conscious mind. As we listen more and more this deep ‘friendship’ restores us to an awareness of our innate communion with Life. We know ourselves to be our personalities, but on a deeper kaona, we are the very same rhythms that John O’Donohue speaks of — the rhythms of Nature — that bring us back to the Ground of our Being.

We are an embodiment of the Mystery. Inside is the stillness, steadiness, slowness and tranquility that we seek in the Nature outside of us. Inside, if we choose to meet it, is a letting go of our conceptual reality, and a new meeting with The Embodied Infinite.

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What is your favorite environment in which to find connection?

What is your favorite ‘listening’ practice?

Ancient Wisdom Series • Foundatio

Aloha and Welcome to the YouTube offering: The Ancient Wisdom Series.

These short videos introduce principles of this sacred work: Ke Ala Hōkū —The Pathway to the Stars. All of this work is from the far ancient past, and yet so applicable to our modern world. The principles give us pathways of meeting ourselves and the world from a new place.

I’m offering these ‘seeds’ so that more and more of us can rediscover The Sacred in our own being, and our communion with The Sacred in all Being.

This episode brings us into an awareness of our Range of Motion on many levels.

For deeper dives into the work, please visit Lineage of Light Online School.

If you enjoy the video format, you may wish to access: ‘Living In Wonder’ — a 21-Day course with a new, longer video each day, including Integrative Exercises so that you can experience the work, rather than just hear about it!

I look forward to seeing you for more of this potent work, either online or one day, in person!

Generosity of Spirit

At the waters edge one pristine morning, I was overwhelmed by the experience. The vibrant colors, texture in my feet on the sand, my skin being touched by the breeze — the simplicity of Life moving in such beautiful ways and landing in my awareness, my perception. A thought passed through that I had heard somewhere before, that “Life is here for us”.

Indeed, it seems true that the Earth, plants, air, sun, ocean and all their natural ecosystems clearly support Life. They nurture our well being and our very existence. I sat for a moment in gratitude that no matter what the trappings of our outer life look like, we are fully supported. Life is here for all of us.

If we observe nature, we can witness it’s incredible ‘generosity’. Everything just gives. The natural regenerative energy at the center of the Earth continues to make it’s way to the surface and create new land. A healthy soil continues to nurture healthy plants and the sun shines ceaselessly allowing our oceans to remain liquid, helping to sustain our atmosphere and feeding every living thing on Earth.

There is nothing in nature that is not an offering to the rest of Life. Even a forest fire offers new regenerative material to the soil and an earthquake resets the alignment at certain places in the Earth’s crust. In the midst of that continuous giving is also receiving, resulting in a deeply harmonious inter-connectedness. Life is meeting itself in complete and utter generosity, through many different forms.

As I sat, and my senses continued to expand, a feeling arose that I am also here for Life.

It occurred to me that the natural motion of the Life inside of me also, is meant to be an offering to the rest of Life. Here is where things get interesting, and we can begin to see a subtle, yet profound, difference between our modern way of thinking and the Ancient ways.

In Western Mind perception, my thoughts would fall well into the category of ‘being a good person’, including: ‘It’s better to give than to receive’, ‘Blessed are the meek’, and ideas that have been elevated in our society like ‘selflessness’. While there is nothing at all ‘wrong’ with these ideas, it seems clear that they are coming from doctrine, belief systems and perhaps ‘enlightened teachers’ that we are drawn to emulate. We become focused on the resulting behavior instead of the living journey of Spirit.

The elements of nature, on the other hand, have no ideology. They do not think, as far as we know. Plants, wind and the Earth do not have a centralized brain. There is no intent to give, to be kind, or to sustain Life. These are pure expressions of Life, and each blossom in their own natural fullness. They are simply being in the only way they know how.

This Ancient pathway takes us into a direct relationship with the pure Life inside of us — that which is simply Alive. This energy, just like the external nature around us, is not calculating in it’s generosity. It is fulfilling it’s natural expression as Life Itself. What beats our heart, lubricates our eyes, exchanges oxygen in our lungs (and every other chemical / electrical process in our bodies) is the Mystery of Life Itself. What we see as ‘functions’ of the body, were pathways of Spirit to the Ancients. When we can drop into this frequency of attention, and experience the awakening of this dimension of being, we develop new perceptions of ourselves, as well as our outer ‘reality’.

Meeting the Life inside of us, and allowing it more space, motion and voice will guide us towards a Generosity of Spirit we may not have thought possible. We become instruments of Life, not by trying to emulate a noble idea, but by embodying the Spirit that we are.

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What ways are you finding to come back to the Living Embodied Moment?

How does that change your experience of Life?

You Are Never Alone

Waking up this morning, there is a quietness in the air, and a stillness inside. i remember times in my life when I would interpret this as being lonely. In the light of this Ancient work, these times do not feel in the least bit lonely. In fact, although I am the only one here, I don’t even feel ‘alone’.

The breeze moving through the leaves touches me with the voice its of rhythm, sound, sensation and quality — all of which escape the interpretation of my mind and lead me deeper into the moment. I am caught in a song awakening inside of me, touched by the song of the wind. The Life inside me and around me seem to be dancing together.

This lineage guides us to the visceral understanding that our perception in each moment, on every level, is Alive. Not alive in theory, but as a multi-dimensional, living, breathing Being — just like You! Coming closer and closer to this perception is an awakening of our own indigenous mind — a perception that can receive awakened Life in all that it sees and experiences; a perception that we were born with, and that never leaves us.

How can we learn to listen to that which has always been here, just beyond our awareness? All of who we are — from the molecules in our bodies to the complex patterns of our thoughts and emotions — is Awake and Alive.

As we habitually take our attention to our programmed perceptions, we cut off the pathways of this vibrant Life, and live within a very narrow bandwidth of ‘reality’.

Years ago, I experienced a lot of feelings of ‘aloneness’ along with avalanches of loneliness. My need to avoid this state, and to fill my days with contact, became a primary goal of my life. I went to great lengths to ‘fill the void’. Each time I tried, I would find myself alone, only to begin again, over and over, in a pattern that didn’t seem to have an end.

To be honest, I don’t exactly know how all of that changed. The only thing I know is that I entered this profound work with my teacher, Kahu Abraham Kawai’i, which guided me towards listening in ways I never had before — mostly to my body and my internal navigation. Over time, I allowed myself to welcome more and more Life, in it’s many forms, into my experience. My mind, although keenly interested in ‘knowing’, began to soften and increasingly relinquish it’s programmed agenda.

The ‘Ohana (Family) of our cellular being and the same pure Life that permeates the Universe, also permeates each of us. That Life is Awake and calling out to be heard. If we are feeling difficult emotions like depression, despair, hurt, hopelessness, anger or fear, these are also alive as members of our family. They can be listened to just like any other being. In fact, if they are present, they are definitely trying to speak. We can learn to listen and meet these Family Members in ways that are nourishing, and that move us forward in life, rather than halting us or throwing us into chaos.

Meeting the fullness of my experience in each moment has become a vibrant adventure. Sometimes, there are things happening physically or emotionally that I’d rather not feel, but bringing them closer to me, rather than pushing them away, has proven to be profoundly healing.

There is an Ancient Wisdom inside each of us that connects deeply to Life — far beyond what our mind can perceive. This Wisdom lives only in the here and now. This single breath is speaking; this sensation on the bottoms of your feet, this blink of your eyes. Life is waiting for our undivided attention.

Just beyond our perception of reality, an infinite amount of loving family lies in us and around us. We are never alone.

Life is Waiting

Last week, I had a series of blessed encounters with the Honu. The first day, while swimming at a small beach, I came upon a massive sea turtle that I thought was a rock. He or she suddenly turned and started to swim directly towards me. I was startled by what seemed like the biggest shell I had ever seen! While I’ve been in the ocean with many honu before, none have turned to come directly towards me! I jumped a bit, let out a little squeal of surprise and quickly got out of the way.

After finishing my swim, I laid down on my towel for a tiny nap. I awoke to find this ancient family member inches from my feet! I noticed that he had come out of the water and judging by his tracks, had made his way up the beach on a diagonal to where I was lying. I chanted a greeting, said a few words of welcome and scooted away a bit, as we have distance laws here, and laid down again on my towel. Suddenly, a very distinct stream of energy flowed up through my feet and all the way through my body. It was like a pleasant, but strong electrical current. I had the clear feeling it was somehow coming from this meeting. At some point, it just stopped, like a switch had been turned off. I sat up again — both of us gazing into each others eyes. Over and over, he lifted his head and moved his lower jaw up and down, as if he was talking.

I was listening. Listening to the meeting, the life pouring through me, the life that seemed to call to me. I could feel my mind in the background trying to decipher what was happening, trying to draw conclusions and find symbolic meanings. Fortunately, our gaze was too powerful, the motion in my body and breath too strong, the meeting too potent for the mind to permeate. Life was speaking and I was listening — beyond all understanding.

For the next two days, similar occurences unfolded — one with another honu, and another with “my” honu. I am deeply grateful for this ancient family, for the speaking, and for the work that has taught me to listen to Life. These meetings felt exactly like that: Life Meeting Life, so clearly below even the awareness that I am a human and they are honu. Below all the separation that we can perceive, Life is waiting.

This ongoing journey of meeting Life in myself, in all the ways it rises has been the gift of a lifetime. This opening, I believe, brought me to a communion with the honu, transformed in ways I may never understand.

I am overwhelmingly grateful to my teacher, Kahu Abraham Kawai’i, and to the great luck or blessing that allowed his teachings to grow and continue expanding in this life.

You Are Consciousness in Motion!

For most of our ‘modern’ history, we humans have been under the illusion that we are living separate lives. For most of us, our primary attention has be centered on what we want or think we need — ways in which our lives can become ‘better’. We have created whole life trajectories around gaining more money, popularity, prestige, relationships, possessions, power and influence. The idea that our choices and movements in our own lives have any impact on humans, animals and ecosystems on the other side of the world seemed unlikely.

Today, we are slowly coming to recognize that our lives are deeply interconnected with all other beings on Earth, as well as the Earth Herself. Our most personal habits either contribute or damage individual and therefore global ecosystems. We are being shown, in undeniable clarity, that we do not exist independently of the whole.

ORIGINAL RELATIONSHIP

Ancient peoples have known this for millennia. They knew that when we influence the river, we influence the life in it & around it. We influence the life in the ocean, and eventually in the weather patterns. Indigenous people, living in deep relationship with the Earth, instead of it’s ‘master’, acted knowing that each choice they made would ripple far afield through the pathways of Life.

There is a loud call, from many sources today, to drastically alter our choices — what we choose to buy, eat, drive, reuse or throw away. While I believe every effort has impact, I also believe that transforming our perceptions — the foundations from which we act — are even more important.

THE MIRACLE THAT WE ARE

Ancient Wisdom guides us to come into a new relationship with Life through our own bodies — the closest manifestation of Spirit in form. In this tradition, we are living inside of Creation Itself. We humans have been conditioned to overlook the breathing miracle of our own bodies in favor of the machinations of the mind. We have become locked in a way of seeing and being that denies the living existence of Spirit in our own cells. Beginning to cultivate a new relationship with the Life inside of us, creates a recognition and receptivity to all of Life.

We having been living for hundreds of years under the leadership of the almighty brain, and forgotten that Life is more than a scientific measurement, it is Alive! Just as you and I are unique and complex beings among 7 billion other unique and complex beings, so is every cell, organ, tissue and drop of fluid in the body in the midst of 100 trillion other cells!

INFINITE CONSCIOUSNESS IN OUR CELLS

We are not a compilation of anatomy, are are Consciousness in Motion. We have come to believe this consciousness is limited to what we can perceive in the mind, but Ancient Wisdom shows us that it is much more vast, and that we inhabit this consciousness, cellularly, in every moment of our lives, whether we acknowledge it or not.

ALLOWING OURSELVES TO BE BREATHED

Ancient Lomi Lomi trainings give us an opportunity to step beyond the habitual ways of perceiving ourselves and the world. They bring us to meet what is awake and alive in the depths of our awareness, and in our tissues themselves. As we allow ourselves to be breathed and moved by Life, we come back to our Natural State of Being.

We are each a new world unfolding from an Origin Point deep in our cellular being. This wide-awake Life is waiting for us to step, with more and more of who we are, into to a new paradigm.

We Are Mauna Kea

I woke up in the middle of the night last night with a heightened awareness that someone was awake and and watchful at the top of the highest mountain in the world — Mauna Kea. For a split second, it was as if I was looking through his eyes, or was just behind his head looking out on the cold, dark shapes of the mountain. I could feel a calmness in the alert gaze, a watchfulness that was full of love, a welcoming of this kuleana (responsibility) to watch over the land and the people even through the night.

There is a growing movement at the top of Mauna Kea, and all over the world, to support the Hawaiian people in protecting their sacred mountain. They are fighting a century and a half of oppression after having the sovereign and internationally recognized Kingdom of Hawai’i invaded and captured by the United States. This is the same United States that goes to war around the world to ‘protect’ other nations from foreign invasion. Since the invasion, Hawaiians have been maginalized, exploited, and robbed of their land.

They have finally said ‘Enough’, and are standing to protect their most sacred mountain from the building of a thirty metre telescope (the TMT). Hawaiian communities and supporters have awoken all over the world to stand in solidarity with the protectors. Thousands have gathered at the access road to the summit to prevent construction crews from heading up the mountain and breaking ground. As they gather, they feed, educate and celebrate with all who come, and with the world. They gather in a peaceful resistance called Kapu Aloha. In other words, they stand in Love, Acceptance and Unity no matter how they are treated. In this powerful practice, the Hawaiian people are showing the rest of us, that nothing is more powerful than reaching for our deepest humanity, our highest ideals — recognizing that all of us are in this together. No matter what ‘side’ we fall upon, we are one human family.

Our world has a lot to learn from Kapu Aloha, and from the commitment to recognize and protect what is Sacred. Since the industrial revolution, we have barrelled down the path of ‘progress’, blindly consuming and producing with the misguided belief that ‘more is better’. We have invaded and overrun the lands and lives of indigenous peoples everywhere, labeling them ‘savages’ and ignoring thousands of years of profound wisdom gained from their deep communion with the land.

Now, we are paying the price.

And yet, as the environment hangs on a tenuous edge of supporting life, we continue to barrel blindly forward into sure disaster.

Protecting Mauna Kea is not just a cultural issue. it is not just a reclaiming of rightful lands and autonomy. Although all of that is of utmost importance, this movement is also about protecting Life. It is the voice of our indigenous brothers and sisters giving us the opportunity to open to a wisdom which is in all of us at a foundational level.

Somewhere deep down, we know that we are Life itself. We know that the air which is breathed by the trees is also breathed by us. We know that the rivers and oceans support life, oxygen and energy which allows us to live. What we have forgotten, in our blur of wanting more, is that all of this is our Family — our ‘Ohana Nui. There is a mutual relationship of nourishing and being nourished, respecting and being respected, loving and being loved.

This movement is calling all of us to remember what is true — to let go of our modern arrogance and to re-learn the meaning of Life — that it infuses all Being.

Mauna Kea is not just a land mass. It is awake and alive with beingness. Standing for Mauna Kea is standing for all of Life. It is asking us to remember that the same life that moves through our veins, also moves through the mountain. It breathes with the same Life we do. It is clear that if we can remove the programming from our minds and the veils from our eyes, that ‘progress’ pales against the Sacred.,

The protectors on Mauna Kea are standing for their beloved mountain, but they are also standing for all of us, for the Life we have forgotten. Whether we realize it or not, we all are Mauna Kea.

As I fell slowly back to sleep after my vision of being on the Mauna, my body was shaking. I felt as if I was part of a momentous occasion, some event of epic proportions, the depth of which I could not possibly know.

I stand in honor of those on the Mauna. I stand, in Kapu Aloha, with Mauna Kea. I stand in gratitude to the Hawaiian people. I stand with Life.

Kū Kia’i Mauna!!

To support the protection of Mauna Kea, please visit Kahea.org

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What is Sacred to you? What do you honor?
Is there somewhere in your life or inside of you where you have forgotten the Sacred?

Take some time to notice if any ignored parts of your inner family or life experience are longing for a connection with the Sacred.

Comments are welcome below.

SECRETS OF THE ANCIENTS

I heard a spiritual teacher say that if you’re looking for magic, you'll find it. When it comes to uncovering the secrets of mystical teachings, however, sometimes just the opposite is true.  In my experience, these 'secrets' are often revealed when I have let go of the search!

OUR ANCIENT HOME

For the past 27 years, I have been deeply immersed in a far-Ancient Healing modality.  It’s original name was ‘Ke Ala Hoku’ — Pathway to the Stars, and though it is a form of Hawaiian Lomi Lomi, this rare work has it’s roots in the profound Wisdom of the original peoples of Hawai’i, and their embodied mysticism. This teaching guides us to little known ways of accessing abundant Health, Well-Being, Energy, Clarity, Inspiration & Joy. It is a pathway which holds a direct experience of The Divine, and brings us into an embodied resonance of Love, Healing and Wisdom. It brings us home to our original state of Being.

STEPPING ONTO THE ‘PATHWAY TO THE STARS’

People get very excited when I share this beautiful (and true!) description of the work. What can surprise them, however, is the pathway itself:  This profound opening is here, now, inside of each of us. I’m not sure why this is often anti-climactic for some people. Perhaps because they’ve lived with themselves for as long as they can remember, and figure they know themselves pretty well. Seemingly no Divine Light has shown up in their love for chips or dislike of long road trips!

This pathway, however, is not found in our conscious perceptions, nor just in our goodness, our light or our beliefs. It is found in this breath you’re taking right now, in this emotion of hope, anger or indifference. It is found in these sensations of your eyes blinking, the air on your skin, and even what you can’t feel or know, hidden in your subconscious & unconscious mind.  The Ancients opened a pathway to Creation itself inside of our cells.

UNCOVERING THE MAGIC

Many of us have been seeking with our minds, for an ideal destination we think we already know. What if the Light, Intelligence & Wisdom of the Divine, in it's wholeness, has been pouring through us all along? The secrets of this profound work are hiding in plain sight, but our minds are already so sure of what they are seeing, these powerful truths may just as well be buried deep underground.

This Ancient work calls upon us to step into a kind of perception that does not necessarily filter through the mind. We are asked to take a step back — to allow our mind to relax without an answer. See if you can listen with an open attention from a place that doesn’t need to make sense or draw conclusions — a place that is willing just to listen. The Great Mystery infuses every aspect of who we are — beyond our understanding. As we soften our need for ‘the answer’, we enter dimensions of experience that cannot be defined. We learn to listen to the language of the Soul, as it passes through our waking experience in each moment. According to the Ancients, that which we seek, the Source of all Being, is ‘closer than breath’.

WE ARE ALREADY FREE

Beyond our ideas of the Sacred, Holy and True, lies the moment in which we find ourselves right now — this moment that includes and embraces every aspect of who we are. None of who we are is unworthy of the Sacred. None of who we are is left behind. We are the doorway to the Mystery. In it’s vastness, lies our wholeness.

Are you ready to open to a new paradigm?  Inside of you, there is a new place to listen from, and it is bursting to be Free!

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Where in you life have you exhausted yourself pushing for an outcome?

Can you find, even small ways to let go of this goal and listen to Life with an Open Attention?

*Published in part by Atlantis Magazine, Ireland, 2017

The Poison Is The Medicine

“Change is the only constant”

The wise saying: “Change is the only constant in life." was originated by Heraclitus, an Ancient Greek philosopher.

As this New Year opens, this truth seems more evident than ever. So far this year, change in both small and massive ways, has been ever-present in my life — from the smallest details of appointment times, to surprise health issues with friends & family. Sometimes, I feel like I’m skiing down a steep hill, with unexpected people, landscapes, boulders and trees suddenly appearing. The pace seems relentless, and yet the more I can say ‘yes’ to the changes, and adjust my course with Grace, things seem to remain in a surprisingly harmonious flow.

More clearly than ever, I notice how futile it is to resist the ‘landmarks’ that arise, asking me to shift something in my perception, trajectory, or way of moving. If I insist on the path I had expected, and make no adjustment, I find myself on a collision course. Although I know intellectually, that I cannot thrive by fighting ‘what is’, this year has offered seemingly constant opportunity to experience this profound truth in real time.

Opportunity is always knocking!

According to Ancient wisdom, we are constantly being guided by Life. The seemingly random occurrences of our daily lives are resetting opportunities, guiding us towards the next step in our journey.

Sometimes we are able to move effortlessly — even with seeming upheaval. At other times, we try to hold on to a static vision of reality that we want, expect or think is ‘right’. This can feel like holding tight to the tail of a thrashing alligator — we use great effort holding on to an uncontrollable force, and ultimately must let go in order to stay alive.

The difficult part about letting go, is that we know somewhere inside, that we will have to change. As we face, and learn to open to the undulations of life, we learn also to open to new places in our own being. This Ancient paradigm offers the possibility that, even in the most dire of circumstances, Life is guiding us into more of who we are. We are being led to a more intimate union with our essential Self.

Listening from the Center

Our integral foundation, and our ability to listen deeply, is what guides us. Where we stand in the center of our resonant field will offer the ‘right’ response to any situation. In some cases, we will be asked to be silent, still, and wait. At other times, we will be called upon to move, adapt, dance with the motion of what is happening, and other times, to walk away.

When we are able to access it, ‘Right’ action creates an opening for all concerned. Our deeper Self is more in alignment with the Whole, and naturally moves in a way that is supportive for all. Where we ‘live’ in our listening, determines what we ‘hear’ and what choices we make. As we inhabit more and more of the Source that pours through us, we will make choices that expand us, as well as every person & circumstance we touch.

As we may all have experienced, change is inevitable. The question is: Where do we find ourselves in the midst of it all? And to what degree are we able to listen and be willing respond in integrity with our deepest Self?

Life is conspiring in our Favor

‘Pushing the River, and ‘Fighting the River’ come from the agenda of our ‘tiny minds’ and leave us depleted. How can we befriend the River of Life that is moving inside and outside of our body/mind? How can we learn to meet the changes with Grace, and even ‘love’ them? We can recognize that Life is happening for us, not to us. In this paradigm, the particular undulations we experience are tailor-made for our unique journey. The Grace of our inspired, wiser Self is ever-present. The challenge — and the Joy — is to become aware, and choose this Presence as often as possible. It will likely not be what our ‘tiny mind’ wants, but this practice will strengthen our ability to navigate Life as it unfolds, and find ways in which every circumstance is indeed a gift.

There is a magic of transmutation that occurs from this place. Our perception shifts. Our failures and disappointments become opportunities. Our difficult times, become the fuel that propels us into greater awareness, wisdom and growth.

The poison & The medicine

At our core, we humans are Creation Itself in motion. We inhabit the ever-changing flow of Life. The paradigm of Ancient Lomi Lomi invites us to drop into this natural state of being. In so doing, we ignite the synergy of Life meeting Life, and become the raw material, the catalyst and the embodied alchemy of transmutation.

Change itself is the poison & the medicine. It’s up to us to make the leap.

“We are the Ones we have been waiting for.”
(—Hopi Elders’ Prophecy)

“We are the Change we wish to see in the world.”
(—Mahatma Gandhi) (~paraphrased)

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What do you notice shifting in your world?

In your awareness?

In your responses?

Make a daily list of all the gifts you received from both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ experiences.

Awake In Our Own Skin

Are we awake in our own skin?

We may feel alert in our minds, astute in our knowledge, clever in our way of solving problems, but is there more to our full spectrum of being?

Where does the ‘magic’ come from — the type that sends shivers down our arms, or melts us from the inside out, while viewing an extraordinary landscape?

What are these butterflies in our stomach that spread to our heart at the thought of seeing a new beloved?

What is this exhilaration that moves through the body when we jump into a pristine mountain stream?

In these moments, we are powerfully moved to remember a wider, and more mysterious sense of being than our day to day, routine awareness. We often attribute our responses to the exceptional beauty, power or attraction that surrounds us, but the truth is, that this emergence of phenomena is originating deep in our bodies. In these ‘special’ moments, we can no longer ‘block’ our bodies’ relationship with it’s surroundings, and we are surprised by sensations, emotions and feelings that seem to come out of nowhere.

As we widen our awareness, we might notice that there is a deeply interconnected communication between our cells, our conscious mind and our environment in any given moment. In fact, there is no clear separation between any of those categories. We are constantly immersed in temperature, texture, light, color, breath, thought, emotion, sensation, memory, energy, sound, attention, desire, and more — all shifting and changing in concert with each other. Every aspect of our environment affects the most subtle chemical processes in our bodies. We are not just in communication, we are in communion with the continuum of Life.

ARE WE SPIRITUALLY AWAKE?

In a spiritual sense, ‘Being Awake in our Own Skin’, takes us from contemplating the Mystery of Existence, to inhabiting it. We start to listen to, and to move with, something much bigger than anything our minds can contain. As we have become more conceptual as a species, the irony is that the pathway to our home as spiritual beings, may well be in the place we have ignored the most: our bodies.

While we inhabit this life, the light, energy and spirit of our essential self is in a seamless meeting with our cellular being. With our powerful will and attention, however, we have found ways to inhibit, block or contain the embodied expression of our essence. Certainly for millennia, various religions have been telling us that our spiritual life is a reward that comes after this life, and that the body is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the purity of our Spirit. We may have come to believe that our essential self is somehow separated from the part of us that is here, now.

THE GIFTS OF ANCIENT WISDOM

Ancient Wisdom speaks to us of the unity of all being. The planet is one being — nothing is separate from anything else, and everything affects everything else in synergistic motion. Our bodies, minds, emotions & spirit are also one being — each aspect in constant communion with the others.

When we say ‘no’ to our wholeness and hold ourselves in a conceptual paradigm, we are moving in opposition to Natural Order. We are fighting ‘what is’. We are taking an idea of ourselves and trying to impose that on our natural state of being. It takes a great deal of energy to fight Life, and eventually, we might notice some version of disharmony developing — if only the sheer exhaustion of the attempt to battle what is unstoppable.

The life inside of us is powerful, mysterious and beautiful. Trying to deny or fight this force is like attempting to stop the flow of lava from a volcano, or thinking we can somehow keep the rain from falling, or halt an earthquake.

Can you imagine, then, that your sensations, cells, toes, organs, nerves, muscles, bones, atoms, electrons & neurons are awake and alive, informing your existence in every moment and inseparable from all of Life? Can you imagine that you are awake and alive in many more ways that just what you ‘know’ in your conceptual mind?

In gratitude to The Ancients, we can step onto a pathway that begins and ends in wholeness. We are One Being — within and without. The Brightness of our Spirit is here, now, in every breath. The Wisdom of the Mystery is speaking intimately through us, in each moment.

If we can, begin to listen, in a new way, moment by moment, we may discover a sense of Being that is closer than breath. We may begin to touch a potential of existence that cannot be understood or described, but can be felt, experienced and embodied.

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Are you able to shift your attention at times to an expanded listening?

What do you notice in your body, awareness, emotions or ?