I've Moved

All blogging has been moved! If you still love what's happening in my world, visit http://blog.whatstherushco.com/

I'd love to see all of you there!

Jason

What You Focus On Will Grow Project Video 1

The Hub of the Human Wheel

   In order to explore this beautiful planet, this wonderful world, we must leave the safety and comfort of our home. It is in our explorations that we discover the boundaries of our life or more accurately, it is where our boundaries expand. But without a home to return to, there would not be a place to rest, to rejuvenate, or to cultivate peace. Without a home we would be groundless and life without foundation is confusing, directionless and exhausting.
   Our spiritual home is our heart center. Many of us have lost this home and have substituted it for the fleeting mind. As a result, much like wandering derelicts roaming city streets, we are lost beggars who are hungry and displaced. Finding our home again is the purpose of meditation. Of course we don’t interrupt our exploratory nature. What we do in meditation is align with the hub of this wheel so that our journey can be evolutionary not flighty and purposeless. The hub of human life is the heart. It is from the heart where all thought, all inspiration and all creation comes. It is the canal through which the spirit traverses to play delightfully in the playground of consciousness. To know this and to take up residence in the heart is to be at home wherever your feet touch the earth.    

Nourish the world with your bliss!

   Purpose can be wonderfully discovered in the things that bring us joy. To uncover it, it is helpful to ask yourself what you want in this life, what actions make you feel whole, what hobbies or talents give you thought seizing enthusiastic joy. Those things are your God given talents and you have the right and responsibility to share them with the rest of us. Our joys are given to us not only to bring us pleasure but also to bring the world pleasure. Life is not merely made up of biding our time hoping for good raises, healthy pension plans, and recognition from a boss we’d rather not work for. It is about expansion, and growth, it’s about reaching the limits of our possibility. Settling for a safe life free of risk, free of taking a chance on our bliss prevents us from living a glorious life and prevents joy from flourishing not only in our life, but also in the lives of others whom we may potentially impact.
   So we must develop the courage to follow our bliss and to listen to our intuition! Yes, to follow this invisible voice for our practical, scientific, thought filled minds can be scary. This is because intuition can appear to have no ground and can feel strange and unsafe. A life less risky feels much safer because it appears to have a bottom and on this bottom we crawl around the floor of our potential settling for unfulfilling jobs ignoring the mystery of greater purpose that surrounds us. We choose lack because of its tangibility, because it feels recognizable and secure.

   Real risk is placing trust in your bliss. Bliss is the messenger of universal love! Begin to put the brickwork of you in place by following your joy. The path that it weaves through your inner landscape leads to your emancipation. Let go of the idea that what you do can’t be something you enjoy and that your work is merely a means to an end. The work that we do and the life that we live must become the outward expression of our inner elation. After all, happiness is the reward for doing what we were born to do. In this moment there is opportunity to bring excellence into our life and into the lives of others. Nourish the world with your bliss!

The Rich Soil of Anger

   Some people will cling to angry emotions the same way that an alcoholic clings to alcoholism, as though it is a disease, as though they will never step out from under its shadow. In AA meetings I have heard that members will state their name followed by, “and I am an alcoholic”. There must be some use in this practice. Perhaps they hold memories of the ill times in their life close to their heart to remind them how easily they can relapse. My feeling is this: we are not defined by our past and we limit our ability to grow if we hang on to dusty definitions that stem from unskillful moments in our lives. I will never open a conversation by saying, “My name is Jason, and I’m pissed off!”  Yes I may still be sifting through feelings of anger, but I am not angry. Yes you may want a drink, but if you haven’t picked up a beer in 15 years you are not an alcoholic!
   It is a shame that we define ourselves by the emotions that we feel. Because you feel angry, does not mean you are an angry person. Because it rains for a week in the desert, does not mean it is no longer a desert. And because it is a desert does not mean flowers can’t bloom from its soil. Anger can become rich soil for the blossoming of our greatest potential. The rise of anger creates an opportunity to listen to the deeper dimensions of our heart. It is an opportunity to heal, to feel and to see with clarity our imbalances. When we make the decision to cool the coals of anger and move toward peace and when we hold on to that decision, our un-peaceful parts begin to rise to the surface to be healed. We hand down a great injustice to ourselves when we judge and label our fragile and vulnerable emotions surrendering to the altar of consciousness. Those tender parts are joining the peace movement. Give them the space they deserve.
   You don’t have to be angry simply because you feel anger. Indulging in those feelings or pushing them away only makes them stronger the next time they return. Spending time with them like an old friend weakens their hold on you.  Anger is an old friend that has guided me toward peace. By cultivating the ability to listen to anger and irritation, I began to understand that it is present in me not so that I may destroy my life, but so that I can heal. It is suffering within us that wants us to look more closely, to listen, and to mend. Only when we have the courage to lesson our reactions and increase our ability to stop and listen to our anger do we begin the process of transforming it into love.

Forgiveness

  

   We hang on to our resentments and our grievances toward others like they are the last meal to be had on earth. We tighten our fists around bad blood because we need to be right and we need others to be wrong. Over time the heart begins to decay. It becomes harder and harder to feel joy, it becomes more difficult to hear the voice of peace within and love begins to escape us. It can’t be felt. We run out of love for ourselves and for anyone else as barriers are built out of the putty and stone of pride. What is the use in this practice? Why is being right so valuable? It is much more precious to be at peace than to be the most right person on the planet; that person dies alone. I want to feel my inner warmth and to feel the merriment that radiates from my heart. Hanging on to grievances congests the pathway to this inner delight.

   There is enormous worth in knowing yourself, knowing what is best for you and understanding your truth. And there is nothing wrong with expressing this to another person. But when you defend your boundary with violence, you have reason to be sorry. Hanging on to a position of rightness in defense of some broken element of your pride stiffens your heart. Let go and apologize for the hurt you might have caused someone. Tell the truth; that you were afraid, that you are sorry for speaking from a place of fear instead of from love.

   Forgive yourself for feeling and acting this way. Forgiveness brings us into the now. When we are unable to forgive we are wedged in the past. It’s as if we are dragging an anchor in deep sand with our sails filled; we are working toward today’s mission, but are standing still. Whether our anchor has settled into the sea floor of personal mistakes or mistakes others have committed against us, if we lay in this unforgiving bed, we deny ourselves life’s beauty by veiling our ability to see it. The flowering of the heart cannot happen if it is constricted by resentments. Let the photons of forgiveness lift the petals of the heart and begin to bask in the glow of the present moment.    



Daily Draft

05:45 AM Dreams. Such strange things. Not the ones we stumble over in our sleep, the ones that move us through life. I realise I am the creater of my life, or more accurately I am the co-creater, and so should I let go of the the wheel of safety and grab hold of faith's wheel? This a constant question which has become a quest. What if I did? What could be lost? Am I already loosing by clinging to security? I realise I have more questions than answers. Like dreams and goals, questions are also the pavement beneath us. Once an answer comes though, it laboriously contracts giving birth to more questions. A dream is a question. Can I do this? I know I must because the heart pulls at me, but can I? Ahh, and there is so much love in creating it isn't there? In fact the real juice of a thing is not in its finality, it's in its process. Life could not be more wonderful than this moment right now. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

A Perspective on Death

    If we can view death through the eyes of detachment, then it is clear that in death nothing is lost. Obviously we will not be able to share time in the future with those that have passed, but what remains with us are memories and the impressions they leave behind. Nothing gained sharing life with another can ever be lost. Like a mountain cannot be what it is without the elements that shape it, like a river is nothing without the Sun, the clouds and the gravity that pulls it. We too would not be who we are now without the beautiful beings that fill our lives. So the impressions they leave remain long after they have left. 
   I believe the greatest lesson death teaches us is the value of being completely present to all of the blessings in our life that dance as gracefully as flowers moved by wind. We so very often miss the gifts! A day can pass without kissing what is loved as we are mired in deadlines and aversions. We must live to enjoy the finest fiber of each things blossoming within the field of existence. The dance of life is only a dance when the music is heard and when the dance is set ablaze under the spotlight of our looking, our loving and our giving to it what it gives to us. Otherwise it is a miss. In death we see the value of this presence. To miss the dance would be a shame.

In the Summer Wind

Where are the gates of heaven? I used to believe they were out there somewhere above the clouds in the hands of a grand and beautiful wise old man named God with a long flowing silver beard, smiling kind eyes and a visage as soft as spring mornings. And it was out there I pointed my aim and the congregation did the same as we reached up into the sky singing hymns of praise and glory and surrender.  Sunday fell back to a Monday feeling bemused and estranged by an ever present severance of me from others. My heart filled with worry and concern, “they will not go to heaven”, yet they had the brightest smiles and the warmest hugs and always made me laugh and feel loved.

They say God is selfish and he should be feared, yet I know that when I love deeply fear is left out in the cold with selfishness. In the lap of love there is nothing to be possessed, there is nothing that can be owned, there is nothing that can be lost and so only the grandest vastness of love remains. It is said that God is love, so how can love for God contain fear? How can God’s love if I am made from his likeness hold selfishness when my love’s reason reveals none? These are human words; fear, selfishness. These are human ideals; nonbelievers are destined for hell. And hell was in my home, as was heaven. I saw the flowers and the flames and had a God that wanted to be feared.

The great Earth and Sun are a pretense if the lessons contained on and underneath are worth only one religion’s beliefs. How is it that I see heaven in the eyes of a child, in the summer wind, in stones that ripple river water, in the space between hugs, in a face’s smile, in the radiance of a human heart, an elephant heart and the heart of the Great Barrier Reef? Clearly the gates are wide and welcoming and flowering like the fragrant petals of a poppy that blossoms when I decide to look, look, look! God is in an old silver bearded man watching the Sun rise above maroon swamps that swelter and breathe. God is in the lemonade and the corn pipe that sits just beyond his human glare. There is never out there; if it were not for within there could be no with-out. Heaven is our awareness, hell is our ignorance! God is our love and joy, our bliss and forgiveness, our delight and kindness. God is a lesson learned and is our will to persevere smelting the crudest matter pure.

Meditation

It's meditation where we learn not to react. It is there where we learn to avoid attaching ourselves to thoughts. They come, but we sit. We stay returning to our breath, returning to where the warm air hugs our heart and where our heart embraces breath and shares it with the body. The outside air becomes inside life and our blood roots us in consciousness. We are alive, we are connected. We are not our thoughts; we are blood, we are breath, we are life. Can you feel your arteries and organs smiling and saying, "beautiful sky, I am the same as you! I am you and you are in me! This life is abundant and I am everything; the rain, the clouds, the sun and the wind in the trees."

What a gift it is to share the atmosphere, and though we are wonderfully attached to this Earth, we hold weightlessness in our breath. The same air that holds the soaring hawk is swimming through our liver. With my eyes closed, I smile to the hawk gliding through my vessels.

A Thank You

Yoga is a deep well from which to explore the untapped greatness that resides within and I am very excited to begin this New Year offering its tremendous benefits to the Antelope Valley community. Yoga has paved the way for me to create the most wonderful life possible and has afforded me the opportunity to fulfill my greatest potential. It is a great pleasure to now be in the position to return to others what I have received through the practice. I would like to thank all of the students who have made our opening week a success. With Gratitude, Jason Galbraith

The Body

   Our body is the poetry of our lives. Within it is our story as it reacts to our choices and builds upon what is asked of it. It holds the rhythm of our history and moves with grace even when we are unaware. If you want to find the “now”, ask yourself, “What is the condition of my body? How am I standing? How am I breathing? Do I feel any warm sensations, or pain and where are they felt?”

   If you feel as though you have lost touch with the condition of your body, I suggest taking a class with a good yoga teacher. If yoga is not your thing, then go for a walk or run out doors. Spend time feeling the body in motion, feeling it push and pull. Feel your heart pump as it feeds the body prana (oxygen, vital life force). Bring your awareness into the fiber of your muscles as they work to fulfill your requests, or quite simply become more aware of your breath each moment as you sit or walk from one place to the next.

   Get to know your body again! Cultivating the awareness of the inner self will be difficult if the connection with the vehicle that navigates you through life is lost. The Divine is hidden within our very cells. We do not need to look far to see our truth; it is right under our nose. In fact, it is our nose.

Guidance of The Heart

     There is no risk in listening and following the guidance of the heart. I believe we risk much more when we ignore it. Each one of us has the ability to listen to the wisdom of our inner voice, each one of us is responding each day to it as it attempts to grab hold of our attention regardless of our level of consciousness. We are either responding ignorantly or consciously. Both responses shape our lives in their own unique ways.
   It is obvious how an ignorant relationship with our inner wisdom can impact the quality of our lives. There will always be a sense of lack that accompanies that choice, a sense of not being fulfilled or a feeling of incompleteness. The fluidity of life will be jammed and our sense of direction and accomplishment will be random.
   When you are listening though, when you are bringing your senses into alignment for the purpose of understanding the wisdom within, the light that spreads itself across the sky seems brighter. But also the darkness can seem darker and more frightening. This is why it seems risky to follow the heart, because in order to truly understand your truth you must know all of its ways of expressing itself which can often include facing fear and pain. But beneath turmoil stirs bliss and joy. It is the light of awareness that allows truth to emerge freely from dormancy to reach and spread itself across the open space of your life. To suppress truth, to ignore it is to stifle its ability to flourish. The flourishing of truth is the unfolding of purpose and life with purpose is abundant, joyful and fluid. What truth am I referring to? The deep well of love that we all drink from running freely through us like a powerful river.  

An Apple Seed

   Think of a seedling that has found its way into the soil. This seedling is from an apple tree. Even before it found itself wedged in the soil it always had within it the purpose of being an apple tree. That wisdom is never lost on this seedling. Finding itself in the ground, it instinctively begins to use the moisture and nutrients in the soil to begin effortlessly and patiently manifesting on the outside what it knows it is on the inside. Roots begin to emerge and very soon after, with graceful force it sprouts up from underneath its bed of earth knowing it needs the light of the sun to truly create what it knows it is. Harmoniously it uses the elements of earth, water and sun, as well as the powerful force of purpose to bring to life throughout the years a nearer representation of what it desires to become. All along though, even if most would not recognize it as an apple tree, it is and its purpose is to create apples that will be given to anyone who is hungry. It will give to give; it lives because it knows it is born to make delicious apples to be shared.
  We can live our whole lives without knowing what we are born to do, but as effortlessly as this seedling brings to life its purpose, we too were meant to do the same. This is the value in discovering what our purpose is and living it to its fullest. A thousand reasons can be made why we don’t want to, and we can go our whole life without knowing it or pursuing it if we choose. But still our spirit knows it and will reemerge from the soil of humanity until the most conscious body decides to listen and blossom as it should.
   Fear, excuses, stories, fascinations, latching on to the ego, dwelling in the past or being pulled away by thoughts about the future all block our view of this divine reason. Only a quiet and clean mind can clearly see the light of intention and the force of dharma. Just the same, only a quiet and clear mind can bring to life the light of intention and the force of dharma.  From stillness comes the grandest vigor. It is a deep knowing that seemingly without any movement moves mountains. From where do you think the seedling knows it is an apple tree? From within and this knowing from within aligns with what is all around it to penetrate the heart of creation. It is a divine dance; a body and a song swaying to the rhythms within each. It is an invisible melody born in the material. This melody is love.
   Being aware of your dharma is communicating with the Divine, and the Divine responds. The pulse of a seedling is its purpose, its dharma. Without question that is what it is to become. Keeping your awareness on purpose creates a pulse of waves that can be heard by the Divine, and it answers by giving that purpose a field in which to bring itself to life just like the soil, water and sun that is provided effortlessly for the apple seed.  

What's the Rush Yoga Studio

We are very excited to begin our dream of owning a yoga studio. The beauty in what we are sharing with the community is a yoga practice that is designed for all levels of experience. The use of props and the emphasis placed on alignment allows for the exploration of your body whether you are flexible or stiff, strong or working to build strength. This noncompetitive environment offers the freedom to enjoy the tremendous benefits of yoga without worry. So often I hear people say “I can’t do yoga. I am too stiff, I am not flexible.” That is like saying I can’t drink water because I am too thirsty. I also hear, “Those crazy yoga people tie themselves into knots”. Rest assured we do not tie people into knots in our studio. But we do offer the freedom of physical movement that you deserve. It is our right to live abundantly. Abundance can be joyfully realized with a happy and liberated body and mind. It is our pleasure to invite you to What’s the Rush Yoga Studio where you will find the hidden smile within you waiting to bloom.

  

  526 west Lancaster BLVD suite 105,
Lancaster CA 661-492-4011

Digging In

   If you are rooted in what you love and are filled with appreciation, could there ever be any concern in your life? The times in my life when I lack direction are the times when I have drifted from the practice that I love. It is only in those times that I feel my teaching is not clear for my students and that my life over all is out of balance. So life is simple for me, if I practice the yoga postures, if I meditate, if I am living consciously and gratefully, if I am writing and reading books that inspire me, then the gifts that I have to offer to my students are filled with love and clarity. This way I am never concerned about the quality of my teaching or the symmetry of my life.
   If we stay grounded in what we love and surround ourselves with all of the gifts in our lives, I can’t see what is impossible for us. Playing gracefully in what you adore, being grateful and joyful regardless of external circumstances and touching each thing with the greatest appreciation for it is a wonderful way to make the beauty in our lives lasting.
   There is so much magnificence that we miss by hurrying to life’s next thing. There is so much magnificence that fails to emerge from us because we fail to see what already is miraculous. Digging in to what we love and being grateful for the beauty that surrounds us is being rooted in our purest nature. Living this way, not only will we be free of our concern and fear, but we will also be free to enjoy life completely.    

Love, Action & Tattoos

Degree or No Degree? That is the Question.

  

   My good friend Steve Maher brought up a great point in conversation. He suggested that I get a degree in Psychology so that more doors will open in the field that I enjoy, which is empowering others to move beyond struggle so they may begin to live a wonderful life. I agree with him completely, doors would open up if a degree were in my hands; the value in a degree is immeasurable. But it inspired this question in me which I would like to pose to all of you. Do you feel that you need a degree to begin living your life’s passions? Should you wait for that degree to begin doing what you love?
   To be clear, Steve does believe that you should begin living your dreams regardless if you have a degree or not.  He simply feels that a degree may make that vocation easier to facilitate. This is quite true. A degree is not an easy thing to acquire though and the difficulty in getting one often scares people away from doing what they love. I am not saying that because a thing is difficult we should fear it, but it is often the case. The truth is, if you are compelled to do something it should be done by you whether it is challenging or not. But also for the thing to be done we should not wait for a piece of paper to permit our doing it. We can begin now by first imagining doing it, buying and reading as many books on the subject as we can, visiting and meeting people and going places where the thing we love is being done, and actually doing it if we feel ready. All the while we could be attending school if what we want requires it, but nothing of value requires waiting.
   I love writing! No I am not an English major, nor do I have a degree in English. Does this mean I don’t have the right to spill my guts on paper, or in my blogs? Blogs would never have been created if experts only were allowed to put pen to page. We can do whatever we want even if what we want doesn’t make logical sense to the examiners and critics out there waiting to judge. How much happiness can there be in life if everything you look at must meet a certain standard in order to be enjoyed?
   A piece of paper can never define the worth of a person. In three seconds a match can turn it into smoke and dust. It is from within that all the goodness comes. Begin being who you are now! This does not mean you shouldn’t go for the paper, but waiting for it to begin fueling the passion inside of you will extinguish that flame.
   I would enjoy your thoughts on this:  Do you feel that you need a degree to begin living your life’s passions? Should you wait for that degree to begin doing what you love? You know my opinion, I would love to hear yours!

Field of Joy

Within everything that is wonderful is some element of struggle and suffering. Even a grand and beautiful tree is rooted in soil composed of fallen trees and leaves, deceased animals and dead plants. Nothing that ever arose to become great in its expression of life has eluded pain and suffering. Knowing this, it is clear that it is how we see our suffering that defines how we allow it to shape our lives. That it is viewed as something to be avoided is where our mistakes come. In our effort to avoid our struggles, all we find are more struggles.
   We have not within us always the capacity to understand the turns and twists of the great plan for our lives. Only when we have the courage to surrender and trust that what is moving through our life is part of a Divine plan do we then lesson our resistance to it and begin to align with inner truth. Our question should not be, “Why do I struggle”, but “Where am I being led”. And that question can be asked with an open curiousness and faith.
   Growth reveals itself on the other side of difficulty. Being able to truly appreciate light only comes because we’ve experienced darkness. It is our will and love for life powering us through disharmony that becomes more robust and solid like the trunk of the same tree that roots itself in the soil of decomposition. Struggle is a test of our will and love for living. The more tests we pass, the less we face in the future as we graduate into the field of joy.

Removal of Fear