Abundance – A 40 Day Practice

bugday_filtered_croppedOne of the ways you can add mantra to your life is by dedicating 40 days to a particular mantra. You chant your chosen mantra silently or out loud at least 108 times a day. I also strongly recommend my students and clients to use a journal and write down anything that comes up before, during, or after your mantra practice.

I want to give you an example of such a practice that I did last year, which led me to create this website and blog, as well as revamp my yoga business completely, opening up many growth and business opportunities for me inside and out. I chose my focus to be creating more abundance and worked with the Sanskrit mantra Om Shrim Mahalakshmiyei Swaha. Here’s what happened:

Day 1: Asking for abundance feels shameful. As soon as I take my mala beads to my hands, start my mantra, and ask the ever abundant universe to send some of its richness my way, I feel ashamed of doing so. I sense a deeply ingrained false belief that asking for abundance is wrong. I realize this is just the type of practice that I need.

Day 3: I see number 8 everywhere. My car clocks 8008 miles, dinner is cooked at exactly 8pm, my daughter asks me to read her a Robin Hood story on page 88 of her book (!), and so on. I take it as a good sign since 8 is the symbol of infinity and abundance.

Day 4: The only limitations about money are in my head. Up until this point I believed that being a yoga teacher meant offering weekly classes in a yoga studio only (and that is what I did for a long time). I start to come across examples of women who offer yoga in doctor’s offices, corporate meeting rooms, who specialize in helping people with a particular issue, and who create new opportunities for themselves. This realization also means that I am the only one standing in my way. If I change my beliefs and assumptions, I can change where I am and where I will be.

Day 5: I am abundance. I get this new insight in my meditation right after my mantra practice. I can feel new pathways forming inside and around me.

Day 11: Good news. A yoga teacher friend calls out of the blue, asking me to take over two of her weekly classes.

Day 13: I make a spreadsheet of what I make as a yoga teacher. Without going into details, let’s say that I immediately feel depressed and constricted inside, seeing the picture of my financial not-so-well-being in front of me. In my pit of darkness, I am unable to see a solution and I just go to bed.

Day 14: Uh-oh. My friend calls me to say that she made a mistake and I won’t get the classes (sigh). I decide to switch my outlook to a positive one even though I am not yet sure how to change my business focus and create more abundance. I make a new and bold product/service sheet, a big and hopeful plan for future workshops, trainings and more.

Day 16: I think the universe agrees that I should stay positive :). I get a $8.62 check from a credit card that I closed two years ago.

Day 22: I come up with an idea for a book. Not disclosing that one :).

Day 34: A good surprise. I see a random email in my inbox which talks about a webinar on yoga business, starting in two hours! My husband watches my daughter as I listen in. It talks about how to create abundance as yoga teachers, while keeping your integrity and desire to help people. I take so many notes and I am super-duper inspired with lots of ideas bubbling up inside me. This is just what I needed!

Day 40: Coming full circle. Universe is abundance and it gives/sends me what I project. I only need to be abundance and all will come (Tweet that). I need to shine my light and trust that all I need is already here.

In looking back at my 40 days, I realize that I already knew the final lesson. But I hadn’t yet felt it in such a strong and clear way. Mantra practice, combined with journaling, showed me my inner dialog and opened me up to possibilities.

Practicing an abundance mantra of course doesn’t mean that you will sit there chanting, doing nothing else, and will end up getting a big fat paycheck (although that is a possibility). During the 40 day practice, I read, researched, wrote, reflected, reached out, and did as much as I could to open up possibilities and abundance in my business and personal life. Where mantra helped me greatly was making me more alert to the signs and symbols all around. As if life was leaving little post-its for me everywhere, to lead me in the right direction (like seeing that email about the webinar and acting on it).

Creating abundance is just one example of how mantra can help you with life’s challenges. If you are interested in learning more and adding mantra to your life as a tool, check out my Mantra Immersion workshops. In Mantra Immersion Part 1, I will teach you everything you need to know to begin your own mantra practice right away, including how and why mantra works, why it is so powerful in changing false beliefs, and other classical mantra practices in addition to the 40 Day practice. In Mantra Immersion Part 2, I will introduce new ways to experience mantras and use them for self-love and healing. If you can’t be present at the listed days/times/locations for my in-class workshops, keep in mind that I can always meet with you privately for an in-person or online class.

As always, feel free to reach me with questions any time.

May your path be filled with mantra goodness, and lots and lots and lots of abundance!

With love and light,

Damla

 

Make Your Own Mantra

flower fields_filtered_croppedYou have a mantra, you just don’t always realize what it is. There is a missed opportunity there. Without that realization, you also don’t grab the power to change your reality. Mantras do just that, they help you change your reality by changing your thoughts. (Tweet that).

Mantra is a word, phrase or sentence that you repeat in your mind. But it is so much more than that. In that word or sentence, you are summarizing your life, your feelings, your state of being. In that sense, mantra is a symbol for being the way you are or the way you want to be. (Tweet that)

Let’s say that you are in a particular situation where you don’t necessarily like ‘the way you are’ or ‘the way things are’ (which will always depend on ‘the way you are’). And let’s assume that your yogic powers allow you to catch and watch your deep beliefs about the way you are (I am not healthy, fit, loved, enough, powerful, confident, outgoing, thin, beautiful, etc. etc.). In that moment of realization, you did something wonderful, you identified your mantra. The next question is, now what?

I remember sitting in my dentist’s chair a few years back. This was a surgery to remove all three of my wisdom teeth. I was afraid of the full-body anesthesia so I decided to brave the local anesthesia. My goal was to be upbeat and positive no matter what happened although I wasn’t exactly sure how to do that. The local anesthetic made me numb but I could still feel as the surgeon pushed and pulled against my teeth, cutting and forcing, and cutting some more. I closed my eyes and started to repeat the first positive thing that came to my mind: ‘Flower fields, flower fields, flower fields.’ and I pictured the most beautiful flower field I could conjure up. As I went back home with an increasing pain and the realization of my freshly cut flesh, I kept reminding myself: ‘Flower fields’. I didn’t know it yet but I had created my own mantra. It still took me a while to heal fully, but I smiled through the jaw pain and eating with straws, using my newly found secret weapon. The gift of the mantra was this: I had chosen my reality.

In Yoga, we have a name for it ‘Pratipaksha Bhavanam’ (Yoga Sutras 2.33), in other words, replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.  Ultimately, you want to be free of duality, going beyond the negative and the positive, arriving at a neutral, blissful state of oneness. For the majority of us though, liberation begins with Pratipaksha Bhavanam.

To help you decipher how to make your own mantras, I created an easy 4 Step Cheat Sheet, one that details exactly how to tap into your positive thought pool.  To download your Make Your Own Mantra in 4 Simple Steps Cheat Sheet, click on the button below and enter your name and email (which will also add you to my joyful yogini email list where I will continue to share lots of mantra goodness with you). If you are already a subscriber, enter your email one more time to get your Cheat Sheet right away.

GIVE ME MY CHEAT SHEET

 

As always, keep me posted with your comments on how your mantra journey evolves. What challenges inspire you to make a mantra? What positive or negative mantras have you already been using? Which new ones did you add to your toolbox after checking out the cheat sheet? I could talk about this stuff all day! 🙂

With love and light,

Damla

Yes

YesThere is a super simple mantra that covers almost any challenge you might face: ‘Yes’.

‘Yes’ is a way to acknowledge life as it is. It is to say that you accept your partner, parent, child, pet, co-worker with everything they are. It is to say that this moment or this situation that you are in, is one that you are willing to pass through. These flow of passing thoughts, this body you have right now, these flaws, aches and pains are ok. It is to understand that saying ‘No’ will constrict you in a way that won’t allow life to pass through you.

So say,

  • Yes to life, because there is joy in acceptance
  • Yes to your body, because it is your temple
  • Yes to your thoughts, because they are of this universe
  • Yes to your challenges, whatever they may be, to salute them as your teachers
  • Yes to people around you, because you chose them and they chose you
  • Yes to your child and pets, and play as often as you can, because they absorb your energy, your joy
  • Yes to love, yes to love, yes to love. Please say yes to love. Love with all your heart, love all there is and all there ever will be. (Tweet that).

Say it and imagine it permeating your body, especially the parts that you feel are in need of the healing vibration of ‘Yes’.

For more yogic tips, tools and mantra goodness, subscribe to my Newsletter and like my Facebook page.

With love and light,

Damla

 

 

So Who is a Joyful Yogini?

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When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”

Rumi

Joyful Yogini…

is a gatherer and creator of joyful moments.

knows that joy doesn’t just happen.

is prepared to take a leap and make a commitment to claim her joy and vitality.

is in touch with her feminine side (goes for both guys & gals)

insists on love and light. (Tweet that)

feels that her life is a work-in-progress.

is not enlightened, nor does she want to be a guru.

just wants to find love and light in her regular day, brackets of peace in her daily, stressful, chaotic and beautiful life.

is not perfect.

stumbles and falls many times.

picks herself up even more times.

is sometimes lost in a big, demanding, cruel, fast, complicated universe.

is sometimes lost in her struggles, judgements, fears, repeated patterns, and worries.

eats chocolate, lots of it.

eats cakes, pies, muffins, ice-creams, candy and cupcakes too. 🙂

loves to give, is hesitant to take.

is connected deeply to other joyful yoginis as soul sisters.

knows that she changes moment to moment, her being dances in waves.

doesn’t always know or feel how amazing she is.

is a soulful, loving, caring, joyful, life-full, beautiful, divine being.

If you feel I am talking about you, if this is you, join me in exploring ways to create more joy and light, in expressing ourselves as joyful yoginis.

To join the tribe:

Prepare to get your heart expanded because that is exactly what I am set out to do!

With love and light,

Damla

 

My Crystal Story

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My crystal story begins on my couch on a December night. It was a cold cold night and I needed some tv-candy as I call it (aka. mindless entertainment). And by that I mean I was browsing interviews on my favorite online subscription for new age stuff: Gaiam TV.

I came across an interview called ‘Healing with Gemstones’ with James Tyberonn. First of all, one minute into the interview, I remember sitting up straight to wake myself up. This was something I did not want to miss. James Tyberonn is a Geologist and an Engineer who worked with crystals his entire life. He was talking about his spiritual journey, which is really cool. But what amazed me was how he regarded crystals as living beings that hold consciousness.

This was my turning point. I decided to learn more about crystals. Next week, I went to a crystal shop and got myself ten new crystals. There was one issue: I didn’t know what to do with them! I started to research more about ways to use them. I came across an energy exercise where you slowly bring your hands towards each other and stop when you sense energy. Then you repeat the same thing with a crystal in your hand. I did this using a clear quartz crystal. I was shocked at how much more sensation I felt with the crystal compared to without!

I started to experiment with the crystals I have, laying them on my chakras and falling deep into meditation.

My next issue was not knowing which crystals to use. I still knew very little about their specific healing properties. Then it occurred to me to trust a better resource: my intuition. I started to use my Pendulum to decide on which crystals to use. The results were phenomenal! My meditations deepened. I was getting somewhere. I also found out how to use my Pendulum to measure if a chakra is blocked, depleted, overworking or healthy.

I decided to try what I learned on others. My first client was my mother-in-law, Zeynep (you can read her testimonial here.). While she was on the table, I intuitively added two guided meditations to get her into a relaxed state so that she could fully enjoy the benefits of the crystals. I also called upon her angels, guides, ancestors and ascended masters for healing help. Then I worked on her using some Reiki energy healing methods I know as a Reiki Master but mainly by letting my intuition guide my hands. She woke up telling me that she didn’t want to come out of it. There were tears on her eyes, she saw healing lights throughout the session and heard a beautiful music that I didn’t play.

My next few clients also reported seeing lights and feeling lighter at the end of the session. At that point I haven’t yet used these guided meditations in my own practice, so I decided to give it a go. I chose my crystals and followed the same process I now follow for my Chakra Bliss Healing clients.

Right after the guided meditations, I saw a bright green light and knew that I was visited by an angel. Even though I had called upon many healers, this Being told them to step aside and after getting my permission, worked on me extensively. My second chakra had been chronically blocked ever since my C-section. After this session, it measured as depleted, which meant there was some movement in it! Later I checked some reference materials and came across Angel Raphael who is said to emanate a healing green light.

This is the story of how my Chakra Bliss Healing sessions came to be. It was a natural intuitive progression for me. In the end I decided to give up my need to know everything and trust a source that is bigger than me to guide my hands and heal those who choose to work with me.

I continue to be amazed by crystals and the powerful healing they initiate, both in my own meditations and in my clients. I feel blessed to have found them and l look forward to exploring their gifts.

The strange thing is each time I do a Chakra Bliss Healing, it gets easier. I suppose that is the grace of the healers who are helping me.

If you would like to give the Chakra Bliss Healing sessions a try, visit my Chakra Bliss Healing page to schedule your session. I offer them in my home studio in Durham, NH and via Skype.

I hope to meet you soon 🙂

With love and light,

Damla

My Story

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Find a place inside where there is joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”

Joseph Campbell

For as long as I can remember I have searched for meaning and purpose in my life. I looked for them in a lot of wrong-for-me places. I got an engineering degree, an MBA, a well paying corporate job. Somehow my thirst for meaning remained there parching me for something deeper.

I stumbled onto yoga during a particularly tough time in my life. I had just lost my grandmother, got diagnosed with migraines, and was completely spent traveling and working  as a business process re-engineering consultant. Yoga was my magic. In the next 5 years, I immersed myself in it. I bought every book I could find, subscribed to Yoga Journal, went to classes, attended conferences, wore the yoga clothing, bought the yoga jewelry, you name it. If it had yoga written on it, I was all over it.

Finally I decided to leave my corporate life and took a 200 hour Yoga Teacher training. Completely life changing experience is an understatement. This was it. I had found ‘it’! Then came my 500 hour Certification, Prenatal Yoga Teaching Certification, Pfilates, Reiki and quite a few other ones.

Then came motherhood. My little sunshine daughter was born. She rocked my world, opened my heart chakra to the moon. The first year of motherhood did a number on me though, leaving me in a state of fog. My body didn’t feel my own. That yogic bliss, that sweet awareness was gone (together with my well earned yoga butt). I was feeling lost again. This time even deeper than before. I didn’t know where I was going, who I was as a person and what I wanted to do next.

Then I took a leap of faith. Even though I didn’t feel like it, I kept insisting on love and hope, and searched for ways to feel whole again. I also kept doing my down dogs. I remember crying after doing my very first sun salutation. It felt so strange to be in my body. It was around this time that I turned to mantra. Movement was still not mine to breathe into but I could chant while my daughter slept in my arms or in my tiny shower breaks. Something began to shift and lighten. I felt like being reunited with a long lost friend. I started to read more and more about mantra, and practiced it at every opportunity. I fell in love with the sanskrit mantras and the possibilities they created. And I decided to share my passion.

I still had very little time to myself, being busy with my daughter during the day. But I would take notes on my iPhone at every little opportunity. My daughter only slept in two hour increments at night (at best), so when she went into her deepest sleep at 3am, I would sneak out to my laptop and work on my notes and presentation.

That is how Mantra Immersion was born, a training to add mantra to your daily life to help you deal with challenging moments and give you a powerful tool to navigate through your thoughts and emotions. Everything I know about mantra, based on my own practice, training, and research, went into Mantra Immersion. I have been teaching it to joyful yoginis since then. Learning a ton from each and every one of you I encounter (you know who you are, namaste and hugs to you! 🙂 ).

Mantra Immersion was my gateway to dreaming this website and blog. I realized that after becoming a mom I had lost sight of my dreams, I had trouble remembering who I was before and didn’t know where I was headed. I started daily journaling and mantra practice. That’s when it hit me. If this, being a yoga and meditation teacher and a healer, is ‘it’ for me, I had to give it my all. I started to read and research about yoga and business. I realized that even though I did work on multiple studios as a yoga teacher, workshop facilitator, a studio manager and a business consultant, there is still a lot that I can do to continue to grow.

From that point to this one (designing my own website and blog from scratch, teaching myself web and photo design, making my own logo,… ) is another adventure in and of itself. I can tell you this: This feels right, in my heart and gut.

I know that with A Drop of Om, I have something to offer to you and it is this:

  • My honesty, what you see is what you get
  • My dedication, you will always know I gave it my all and will continue to improve on my offerings
  • My tried-and-true wisdom, what I teach and offer is what I know-for-sure works for me and my clients

So go ahead and sign up to my Newsletter, browse through my pages, check out my blog for new tips and tools on mantra, yoga and beyond, and keep coming back because we are just getting started!

With love and light,

Damla

Hey There!

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For today, all you need is the grace to begin beginning.”

Julia Cameron

Countless sleepless nights, pages and pages of dream journals, tons of ‘aha!’ and ‘oh no!’ moments later, here I am (I am Damla by the way) and here is ‘A Drop of Om‘, a place of inspiration, community, mantra, yoga and joy.

As with all new beginnings I have butterflies in my stomach. One thing is very clear to me, this feels right, this is what I am supposed to be doing (Tweet that), this is my calling, my service and offering of light. And there is a lot that I want to share with you, but first things first, here is a virtual hug! (consider yourself hugged 🙂 )

I invite you to subscribe to my Newsletter (see the box above) and like my Facebook page (to your right). While here, check out my blog posts and offerings. I will be sharing tons of yogic tips, tools and mantra goodness to add to your life right away.

Whether you are brand new to yoga and mantra, or a seasoned practitioner, or a yoga teacher looking to add some pzaz to her classes, you are at the right place.

This is going to be an awesome ride!

With love and light,

Damla