Transformational Travel

The month of December is when some people start thinking about all that has happened over the past twelve months and begin to make plans for how they want to spend their time in the coming year. For those interested in travel, but no longer content with South Beach or Vail, there is another option available.

A number of years ago, I took that option myself. I wanted a trip that was based on personal growth and discovery. Today this is called “Sacred Travel,” but back then it was about taking my savings and heading out with a backpack. I first went to Nepal and trekked in the Himalayas. It was there that I encountered yoga in a spiritual form and began the study and practice of it. I then went to Thailand to learn about Buddhism and sat for two 10-day silent meditation retreats. It was there that I began to see my mind in a way that I never had before! I traveled around Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia learning to live in the moment and listen closely to my intuition. So taken by yoga and Buddhism, the following year I went to India to study more yoga and begin the study of Tibetan Buddhism.

Today sacred travel is a growing niche of the travel market. It is a kind of travel that is not just recreational, but “re-creational,” where the focus is on personal growth and sacred experiences. It involves visiting “spiritual hotspots” where the traveler is able to tap into ancient cultures and philosophies through meditation, ritual, prayer and ceremony. In many cases, the traveler finds they are changed forever – in a good way. ☺

Karen Tate, author, lecturer and sacred tour director, leads trips specifically to sacred sites of the Goddess. These are sites around the world where the Goddess was prominent in the past and in many cases is
prominent today. Shiva Rea, internationally renowned yoga teacher and retreat leader, leads what she calls “pilgrimages” to places such as Bali, India, and Greece where “awakening shakti” is the intention. Lisa Black, another renowned yoga teacher and very dear friend of mine, leads an annual winter retreat in Mexico at Maya Tulum where the intention is to experience a “deeper sense of total health and well-being and leave more open, energized and inspired for life!”

If you are thinking of a special trip for the new year, what are you looking for? How will you renew yourself and inspire yourself for 2009? Will you take a trip of transformation?

Thanks For Everything!

Next week brings Thanksgiving and while reputed as a celebratory holiday of gratitude, it can also be a time of uneasiness and discomfort for many. Some gather with family members who, while blood-related, have nothing much else in common, others mourn the absence of a loved one who was at the table last year, and others feel sad about the geographical distance that keeps them from their families and loved ones during this holiday. So during a time that is touted as “celebratory,” how can we honor ourselves and the emotions that may show up that are not of a celebratory nature?

Last year I spent Thanksgiving away from my family. I had done this before due to geographical distance, but this time I did it for more than that reason. I wanted something simple, hassle free, relaxed – with no expectations. I wanted a day to honor myself and in the true spirit of the holiday, be in a place of gratitude. I wanted something simple – with friends – out in my new home in California. A dear friend, who I had known since college, invited me to spend the holiday with her and her family and a couple of friends. This sounded right up my alley. I planned the day with yoga in the morning with my favorite teacher, Saul David Raye, home to make the salad and asparagus plate for the meal, and then off to pick up a friend for the Thanksgiving gathering. The day was simple and warm and filled with sweet love – exactly how I had always wanted to spend Thanksgiving.

Now this is not to say that I did not miss my family. I did. I thought about them and smiled at the vision of them getting together. I was grateful that they were all together, grateful that I would see them soon at Christmas, and grateful that I had empowered myself to make a choice that was right for me this holiday. At that Thanksgiving, I celebrated with gratitude that l had a wonderful family back east and was creating a new wonderful family out west.

Recently I was listening to an interview on yogamates.com with Michael Beckwith, Founder and Spiritual Director of the Agape International Spiritual Center, on the power of gratitude. I was reminded that really in every moment we have a choice to be empowered by being grateful for our life, or disempowered by complaining and seeing life as “happening to us” rather than being a conscious creator of our life.

Is it possible that by making choices that empower us we enhance our possibilities of more good things for ourselves and therefore feel more gratitude — which in turn brings more good things? In other words, instead of a vicious cycle of complaint and misfortune, we create a virtuous circle of empowerment and good fortune.

As Beckwith put it, “So you wake up every single day and you ask – how can I practice this, how can I practice gratitude? How can I practice generosity? And then the Universe will answer that question.”

Do you think it is that easy? Do you believe that if you set up a cycle empowerment, gratitude and good fortune that it will grow?

Are We Our Own Healers?

As I sat in the waiting room at the dermatologist’s office today, I thought about how much our attitude affects our health and our healing process.

I was diagnosed with melanoma just over 10 years ago at my very first appointment with the dermatologist. I had made the appointment under the plea of my mother who had been heavily suggesting a check up for the past few years! I was young – in my 20s – and thought I was the queen of health and surely invincible. That particular appointment back in 1997 showed me otherwise.

Upon the diagnosis, I felt scared, confused, angry and guilty. I felt guilty that I had not taken better care of myself, angry that this was happening to me, confused about what my chances for living were and scared that I had NO idea what this all meant for my future. Could it spread in me unknowingly and that would be that? I was a victim.

As suggested by my doctor, I took care of the melanoma through surgery and began on a schedule of regular check-ups. Young and not wanting to believe that I had a condition that was life threatening – I tried to move on with my life. I took a job overseas, lived and traveled abroad for a couple of years and the “regular” check ups at the dermatologist became scarce. I was trying to convince myself that I had moved on completely. Actually I was in denial.

Within a couple of years I moved back to New York and decided it would be a good idea to get a check up. I was quickly awakened from my state of denial when I was diagnosed with a second melanoma. I felt helpless and angry at my body. What was going on in my body that I could not see? How could I feel so good and yet be confronted with something that is life threatening? A bit of the victim mode snuck back.

At this point I had been a victim, been in denial — and now was confronted with the fact that two family friends had died from melanoma in the recent years. I began to see that if I wanted to live I better shift my practices and my ATTITUDE. Instead of playing victim, I decided that I wanted to know more about what was happening “behind the scenes” in the cells of my body and become a player in my own healing.

One major tool I used to find out more was yoga. Yoga helped me become acquainted with my body in a deep and intimate way. I could feel when my kidneys were in fear, when my liver was in anger, and when my heart was closed. I could feel when my mind was relaxed, my hands happy, and my eyes at peace. I studied and explored yoga and yoga therapy and soon added Reiki, acupuncture and massage. I had my chakras read, my aura read and became a big fan of Louise Hay and her book “Heal Your Body.” All of this work helped me understand the connection between illnesses I was having (not only the melanoma) and the emotions and attitude behind the illness.

Today as I waited in the doctor’s office, I felt calm and secure. I felt that after spending years with a victim attitude and years in denial, that this time I was the one determining my diagnosis. I have learned tools that have empowered me to be my own healer. This is not to say that I won’t be going to the doctor on a regular basis for checkups, preventative care and early screening, but it does mean that I have a new attitude about healing. No longer victim, I am a partner with my doctors and I know deep in my heart that I have the power to change any negative result. As my yoga teacher, Saul David Raye, said in class tonight., “Our bodies have a deep intelligence…we have the power to change things…Look at the election!”

What is your attitude about healing?

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Tabby Biddle is a writer and editor specializing in helping women entrepreneurs and emerging authors get their message out. Additionally she is the founder of Lotus Blossom Style, a yoga lifestyle company created to support women in their personal transformation. She lives in Santa Monica, CA.

Hope Won…Now What?

Hope won on Tuesday. Many hearts broke open with joy with this result. What many never thought possible in their lifetime – an African American as the United States President — became possible. In fact it became more than possible, it became a reality. So now as many of us celebrate this history-making moment and revel in the excitement of what this means for our country, just as many are wondering what we will do to keep Hope the winner.

Proposition 8 in California, the measure to put a ban on same sex marriages, passed by a slim margin – making it illegal now for gay partners to marry and celebrate their love and commitment in the same way that heterosexual couples can. Can those Americans who are being denied this human right still be hopeful? Will hope win here?

Can we also stay hopeful in the midst of market meltdown and the calamity of being amidst two economically and emotionally draining wars? How about staying hopeful as health insurance claims are denied and our children are struggling at their underfunded schools? If things get worse before they get better, will we lose hope? And if we lose hope, then what??

Our new President elect, Barack Obama, gave us all a call to action to serve our country in some way during his acceptance speech on Tuesday night. Are we ready step up to this challenge? What will you do personally to help your country?

I believe that if we can come together in a commitment to choose love and compassion over hatred and division, then no matter what we are challenged with – we will come out as winners. I am proud of our country, proud of one another and proud to live in this time of great change. I think that with as many challenges as we face right now, we can in fact DO IT! Yes we can! Yes we can!! Let this great mantra awaken you each morning with a positive attitude and faith. No matter what side of the political river you are on, if we can come together to help others in need (which ultimately is most all of us), we can truly make a positive and lasting difference in this world.

I thought Congressman John Lewis of Atlanta who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights movement put it beautifully on Wednesday when he said, “I felt that Barack Obama had been tracked down by the spirit of history and was allowing himself to be used for the common good.” Can we also allow ourselves to be used for the common good?