On Wednesday April 7th there will be a new set of AYP Beginners Yoga Classes starting at Tri-Yoga Calgary www.tri-yogacalgary.com. See here: http://blissedyoga.com/?page_id=31 for more info on time, location and how to register, and here: http://blissedyoga.com/?cat=6 for more info on the class description.
There is only room for 20 people so tell your friends and make sure you register early! Hope to see you then!
Posted on 3 March '10 by CarsonZi, under Class Schedule. No Comments.
Many of us know what it is like to feel addicted to something. But what often comes to mind when the word “addicted” is said, is a mental picture of a junkie, strung out, trying to find a way to score his next hit. In reality, most of us are addicted to something in one form or another. Addictions are not limited to substances like heroin, crack or methamphetamine. We can be addicted to money, to television, to our job, to sex, to lying to ourselves, to our thoughts and to hundreds and hundreds of other things, situations and concepts. Addiction comes in all flavors and varieties and we have all suffered from them to one degree or another.
So how does one overcome an addiction? Most would think that it would be obvious that the solution for a person who suffers from a drug addiction, would be totally different from the solution for a person who is addicted to television or to their job. Nothing could be further from the Truth. There is only one thing that can universally help anyone who suffers from any addiction, and that is a personal connection to Inner Silence. But before we can truly understand what this means and how Inner Silence can help save us from our addictions, it will be important to understand what causes addictions.
So…. what causes us to be addicted to something? The answer to that question is: Misidentification. Thinking that we are something we are not. Believing the thought that we are our body, that we are our thoughts, our beliefs, our ego, our job, our house, our relationships…… that we are something other then the consciousness that underlies all form. This misidentification causes us to feel “un-whole” and feel like there is a void inside that needs to be filled. We try and fill that void with all sorts of things…. with money, with sex, with toys, with drugs, with anything that will temporarily distract us from the reality that we don’t feel Whole inside. In the words of Greg Baer in his “Real Love” series of books, these are all forms of “Imitation Love”. They give us a brief period of relief when we partake, but soon after, we are back feeling “un-whole” again. And often the next time we partake we need just a little bit more of whatever we are addicted to, to help us feel some relief again. This easily and very quickly becomes an endless cycle…… a cycle that leads into a deeper and deeper sense of despair and hopelessness, as we continue looking for something that will fill that void indefinitely
What yogi’s and other mystics worldwide have come to realize, is that if we can learn to connect to that which we truly are, we can step out of that feeling of un-wholeness into the bliss of Reality…. we can become that which we truly are; Pure Bliss Consciousness.
So how do we learn to connect to Pure Bliss Consciousness? The answer to this is very simple….. Deep Meditation and other yoga practices. The practice of Deep Meditation, when undertaken in a consistent and self-regulated way, will bring us out of the cycle of needing different forms of Imitation Love for relief, and into the Reality that we already are that which we have been seeking all along…. that we have been looking for God with His own eyes. A consistent, twice daily practice of Deep Meditation allows us access to Inner Silence, which as we continue to practice, begins to leak out into our daily lives. We begin to notice that everything is perfect just the way it is….. even the stuff that used to cause us endless suffering, is perfect. We begin to notice that we have more “space” in our daily lives, and that the things that used to bother us, the things that used to trigger us to run to our favorite form of Imitation Love, no longer bother us so much anymore. We are able to see things from a completely different perspective. A perspective from which we can love things just the way they are, no longer feeling un-whole inside.
Now, you may be saying to yourself…. “This guy doesn’t know what he is talking about! How is Deep Meditation going to help me stop needing to have sex or do drugs or work 80 hours a week or watch 6 hours of TV a night? He probably has no clue what it is like to really be addicted to something.” Well friends, nothing could be further from the truth. When I first came to yoga I was addicted to heroin, methamphetamine, methadone, marijuana, sex, anger, fighting, control and just about every form of Imitation Love known to man. When I first started practicing yoga it was right after ending an 8 year relationship, my career, and being forced into bankruptcy, all in the same day, and then deciding I wanted to end it all by trying to kill myself with an overdose of heroin. It took time, and a bit of flailing for a while, but eventually I found the practice of Deep Meditation, and once I did, things started to change, and fast. Within 14 weeks of starting a twice daily practice of Deep Meditation I had downdosed off of my methadone prescription without feeling any opiate withdrawals (which is not biologically possible), I soon lost my desire to fight reality and anything that wasn’t the way I figured it “should” be, I learned to truly Love my ex (and all) unconditionally, I lost my need to have sex several times a day, I lost the desire to change the way my family relates to each other, I became content with my job, I no longer had a temper, and I began to help others find peace and silence through meditation and yoga as well. Now, I can say from personal experience, that everything you could ever want, everything you could ever desire, you already have…. you already are. It is all inside, waiting for you to touch, waiting for you to embrace, waiting for you to Be. Learn to silence the mind a few times a day, every day, and soon you too will find that all these forms of Imitation Love that you have been addicted to for months, weeks, years, decades, just aren’t necessary anymore…. that everything is perfect, just the way it is.
May all your Here’s be Now.
Namaste.
This article was commissioned by www.livingunbound.net
Posted on 20 February '10 by CarsonZi, under Blog Posts. No Comments.
Recently two close friends started a new website called “Living Unbound”…..LIVING UNBOUND is a system of Teachings, Techniques and Resources for creating, sustaining and sharing the freedom beyond imagination, which is humanity’s natural, fulfilled condition. A real treasure as far as websites go 
http://livingunbound.net/
Posted on 15 February '10 by CarsonZi, under Class Schedule. No Comments.
Posted on 21 January '10 by CarsonZi, under Blog Posts. No Comments.
Follow Blissed Yoga on our new Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Calgary-AB/Blissed-Yoga-Finding-the-Guru-in-You/197982369095
Posted on 4 January '10 by CarsonZi, under Blog Posts. No Comments.
Namaste Friends!
Recently I was asked by a friend to explain to him exactly what “Yoga” is. I was trying to explain to him about how Yoga was a great method for learning to end suffering in our daily lives when he asked; “How exactly are some stretching exercises going to help me learn to stop suffering!?” So I figured perhaps it would be a good idea to write a blog post on what “Yoga” is, and how it can help us stop suffering.
The word “Yoga” is an ancient Sanskrit word that means “yoke” or “to join”. But what exactly are we “joining” with the practice of yoga? Yoga teaches us to join the subject and the object, the observer and the observed, the small self with the larger Self. The small self is what most of us think of as “me”….this is our ego, our conditioning, our biases and beliefs….the things we think we are. The larger Self is an unbound awareness or pure consciousness that lies under our “thinking mind” and permeates all of existence….there is nothing that is not a manifestation of Pure Consciousness. When the mind is still, we are able to rest in pure consciousness….and the essential nature of consciousness is Blissful Silence. It is a storehouse of peace, bliss, and creativity. This is why in the Bible in Psalms it says “Be still and know that I am God”….to access the Divine all we have to do is know how to be still.
So how do we learn to “be still”? Well, with yoga practices. But “Yoga” is not what many of us in the West think of as yoga. Yoga is much more then stretching exercises, although it is that too. Patanjali, the Indian sage who wrote “The Yoga Sutras” outlines an eight-limbed path that is Yoga. One of those limbs is asanas or yogic postures/stretching exercises. But there are 7 other limbs! There is much more to yoga then just stretching the body. The word “asana” means “seat”….the purpose of the asanas is to stretch the body so that it is comfortable to sit for a period of time in meditation. Meditation is how we learn to still the mind. With the practice of meditation we learn to go past the thinking mind into that great storehouse of Bliss……Inner Silence. When we learn to still the mind for specific periods of time during the day (with a consistant meditation practice) we find that as we go about our daily lives we begin to react to Life a little differently then before we started a meditation practice. We find that the things that used to really bother us, don’t really bother us so much anymore. We find that we have more “space” to see our mind’s tendencies and we are given the option to not react as we instinctually would. This is the beginning of the end of our suffering. When we tap into that storehouse of peace that is Inner Silence/Pure Bliss Consciousness with a daily meditation practice, we begin to be able to choose to not suffer over things that used to cause us endless suffering. We begin to see that all suffering is an option. As the old saying goes “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. With a consistant daily meditation practice we start to see that all suffering happens when we believe our thoughts…thoughts about Life and the way it “should” be. We begin to see that Life is perfect just the way it is, and that fighting with reality is a lost cause. As Byron Katie says in her book Loving What Is, “When you argue with reality, you always lose – but only 100% of the time”. She goes on to say that “The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is”. And a consistant daily meditation practice allows us to begin to see that “what Is”, is just perfect….how could it be any other way!?
So, yoga is much more then just stretching exercises…..it is a set of practices designed to help us find peace within ourselves….a way of realizing that everything we could ever want, everything we could ever desire, we already have….we already ARE. Everything we could ever need is already inside of us. It is just a matter of getting in touch with, and coming to Know, That which we each and all are….Pure Bliss Consciousness.
I wish you all a Happy and safe New Years….may we all come to Know and rest in our True Nature.
Love,
Carson
Posted on 30 December '09 by CarsonZi, under Blog Posts. 1 Comment.
Posted on 18 December '09 by CarsonZi, under Products. No Comments.
Class Schedule recently updated!
Click the Class Schedules tab at the top for details.
Email me at carsonzi@blissedyoga.com or call 1-403-606-9464 to register today!
Posted on 18 December '09 by CarsonZi, under Recent Updates. 1 Comment.
Posted on 10 December '09 by CarsonZi, under Products. No Comments.
I am now available to offer private yoga lessons in the comfort of either your own home or in mine. The cost is $70 for a private yoga class but this is on a sliding scale…no one will be turned away due to a lack of funds.
These classes also include an optional 20 minute Thai Yoga Massage at the end of each class. Each class is approximately 1.5 to 2 hours in duration depending on you. In these classes we will work on finding out exactly where you are at in your Yoga practice, and designing a custom practice suited to you and your personal desires/goals/physique and other factors as well. A great way to become comfortable with Yoga without having to set foot in a Yoga studio or feel judged by others around you.
Everyone deserves to Know through personal experience the benefits of Yoga, and if you are the type of person who is shy or intimidated by going to public classes, then perhaps this is the option for you.
To schedule your own Private Yoga Lessons please contact me at carsonzi@blissedyoga.com or call me at 1-403-606-9464. I look forward to working with YOU!
Namaste
Posted on 6 December '09 by CarsonZi, under Private Lessons. No Comments.
Hello! My name is Carson and I am a Hatha Yoga Teacher (RYT). I teach a blend of postures, breathing exercises and meditation helpful for finding Inner Silence.
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