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Mar 07
0

Signs of Spring

By | inspirational, self revelation, soul, Uncategorized

It’s been a long, cold, relentless Winter.  And I’ve been on a journey, searching. Searching for something nameless.  Searching each someone, for something, something……

I looked all around. In books, tapes, groups, community,  religion, family, in the faces of children, in service, in substances, but that evasive something wasn’t there.

Traveling through the Winter of My Life, I survived metaphoric scalding days, torrential downpours, lightening, thunder, tsunamis, volcanoes, flooding, blizzards, frozen steep mountains.  I’ve traveled far, far out of my comfort zone.

It was the earthquake that revealed the Something. The walls shattered my locked down heart and Something was revealed.  What I yearned for wasn’t out there because the someone or something was my personal meaning and purpose. The Someone was me. The Something was my true thoughts and feelings.

I journeyed, and I found My Self.  I found Myself.  I found the Real Me. The Real Me lives inside my carefully concocted me.

Not until I traveled could I make peace with that which I feared the most: my tears, my pain, my anger, my shame. Not until I learned to acknowledge the younger parts of myself could  I be here to listen, to hear, to understand, to accept, embrace, and nurture myself. Not until I became my own provider, protector, and lover could I see others independently, without the projections I had always cast clouding relationships.

Not until I journeyed and journeyed and journeyed within, did I begin to get to know myself. It’s been a difficult journey and one well worth taking.

I gratefully see signs of Spring.

Feb 20
0

Winter – Incubating 50

By | Uncategorized

Just found this in my drafts!  Hopefully Winter is almost over…….These were the reflections i jotted down last month…..

It is Winter and I have been hibernating.

Reflecting.

A human being. A human BEING.

Less doing.

Stopped running.

Stopped teaching.

Internally searching, quietly, for me.

Incubating, and integrating 50 years on Planet Earth. Each decade a different dance and expression.  All the parts of me taking turns at center stage. Getting to know who I am.

Half a century. Benchmark. Midlife assessment. Goals achieved and others set aside. Wisdom acquired and fool’s folly.

Journals filled, handiwork abounds, degrees acquired, friendships maintained, children raised,

Not going anywhere with this…..cause it’s Winter.

I’m incubating 50.

Love,

MindiMeira

Oct 31
0

Fall Update

By | Uncategorized

Well, if you follow me, you know I’ve been very quiet, not working much.

My husband’s been sick. I’ve been caretaking him, grieving the loss of my Mom, staying close to home. Trying to catch up emotionally on the last year or so.

I’m  taking a series of classes entitled Yoga as Medicine at the Institute of integrative Health, taking time to do internal work, sorting myself out.

Also currently working with private instruction clients, doing a little baking, counseling and looking forward to teaching group yoga again, Projected date for Yoga Classes to resume is in January 2014.

Thanks for your support.

I pray that your lives are filled with meaningful thoughts and actions.

Namaste,

MindiMeira

Jun 19
0

Graduation Speech from Yogali Institute

By | Uncategorized, yoga

MindiMeira’s Graduation Speech from Yogali Institute                                                                      June 18, 2013

To My Dear Teacher Shevi, and Fellow Yogis, Shoshana, Sara, Rivka, and Dena,
Thank you!!

Thank you for the opportunity to learn and practice “yoga,” to connect and grow in a heartfelt way with each of you, to deepen the connection to myself spiritually, and for enhanced mental and physical health.  I extend tremenduos gratitude to you all for your support and encouragement in helping me to create meaningful connection with others, through the mediums of Yoga and Meditation.

Shoshana, I am grateful for every ounce of effort you (and your husband) put into creating a safe, clean and local studio for our practice. Your focused efforts to find an observant Jewish teacher of the highest standards are truly bearing fruit. The dedication, love and support you showed me both brought me to the class and enabled my return. Moreover, my self-esteem blossomed, in large part because of you.  I cherish our friendship and aspire to your level of lovingkindness and generous, committed friendship. Your gracious attributes and devotion to sharing yoga and meditation are already benefiting our community. Namaste.

Rivka, Dena, and Sara, I cherish the time we spent together, connections we made, and learned from each of you as well. Your grace, sweetness, and presence added dimension and beauty to each class. You are all wonderful yoga teachers and I am certain that your students will benefit greatly from your instruction.

Shevi, my Teacher, I really appreciate your willingness to travel from Silver Spring. You have demonstrated great love, and patience towards us all, as you skillfully guided us from the status of students to teachers. I will be forever indebted for your teachings and commitment to assisting me in completing and attaining my certificate, despite the loss of my dear mother, A”H.

My personal intention when taking this class was to establish a regular personal meditation and yoga practice. The fact that I have now created a Yoga Studio in my home, was hired by the JCC, substituted Sunday yoga, the busiest class of the week, the Power Yoga Monday class, and have taught 7 classes, is nothing short of radical and amazing.

I also must mention my dear husband, Nisan Blaxberg, who encouraged me every step of this journey, essentially making it possible. Nisan pitched in at home, drove carpools, spent time with the children, shopped, cooked, and did whatever needed to be done to help me in attaining the serenity I so craved this year and have found through the teachings at Yogali.

This speech would be incomplete without expressing my overflowing gratitude to Hashem (G-d).  He provided the funds to the exact penny when I realized that tuition was beyond my means and carried me through the year, remaining by my side at all times.. With His continued Grace, I daven that I will be a teacher who impacts others for the highest good, and who promotes deep connection and healing.Thank you!!
~~~Namasate~~~
MindiMeira Blaxberg

Jun 16
0

My Spring Training

By | Uncategorized, yoga

Spring Training…..I thought it would be all about baseball this year….(read last post.)  Boy, was I wrong!!

Two days after I quit Yoga Teacher Training (for no good reason, purely on meditative insight and emotion), my Mother of blessed memory, suffered a massive stroke. With my brave husband’s encouragement (brave because we have several young boys at home and he works) I dropped everything and caught the last flight from BWI to FLL to be by my mother’s side. Eight exhausting days later, she passed peacefully, with her family nearby, in the beautiful atmosphere and setting that is Hospice by the Sea.

It was a month of turbulent emotion and intense familial bonding, to say the least. My sweet Mother will be remembered fondly by all whose lives she touched.

A week after I returned home, it came to me, again in meditation, that I had a great desire to return to Yogali Institute and attain my Yoga Teaching Certificate. My clarity is what was astonishing. There had been a barrier within to even talking or thinking about it and POW, I was emailing the instructor to find out if it would be possible for me to return and graduate with the class.  Luckily, I was welcomed back wholeheartedly by the teacher and my classmates.  I taught my first class to wonderfully positive feedback. And my second!

Looking around my rather large open spaced basement, I suddenly visualized a Yoga Studio. And now I have taught a few classes in that “under-construction” space.  This wasn’t a long-term well thought out plan. Teaching yoga brings me JOY. Teaching Yoga is a gift.

Yoga is the outcome of my Spring Training.

I am so grateful!!

Namaste,

MindiMeira
Please click the YOGA tab of the HOME page on this site to view my teaching schedule.

May 14
0

Inner Knowing

By | Uncategorized

The following post was written the day after I quit my yoga Teacher Training and the day before my mother suffered a massive stroke, April 16th. I just found it in my drafts.

I had such an experience of Inner Knowing that I just have to share.

First let me catch you up on the recovery, retreats and workshops I’ve attended in 2013. In addition to regular therapy, and equine therapy,  I tried EMDR a couple of times. Survivor Week at The Meadows in Arizona and SIA Retreat in Cape May, NJ were the long distance highlights. Best literature resources were Patrick Carnes The Betrayal Bonds, Don’t Call it Love, Pia Mellody The Intimacy Factor and audio inspiration was found via the ACA phone line meditations, speeches and readings. On that line, I found Lucia Cappachionne and her wonderful Journals and fascinating books.

Through the culmination of these therapies  and by journalling with my non-dominant hand, I’ve gotten a real sense of my Inner Chlid and Inner Wisdom. It’s taken almost 50 years, and today I know my truth. I have a profound sense of what’s right (and wrong for me).  What a gift!!

For example, I was about 3/4 of the way through a Yoga Teacher Training. I enrolled because Yoga and meditation have a been a meaningful path for my spiritual  and physical self. Yet, for all of the training, I felt super-stressed and dissatisfied with the growth of my practices.

It was only after the class took a significant break for Pesach and then returned to Class that I assessed whether the Class was the right place for me right now. Previously, I steam rolled over my discomfort and pushed myself through even though I wasn’t responding well to learning or being present in the class.  At home, I procrastinated  the homework and my own yoga practice suffered.  Procrastinate is not a word I can EVER remember using to describe myself!!

I journalled on the topic and was rewarded with absolute clarity! What a gift!

I realized that I don’t have to “make myself” finish this class!There are at least 50 excellent reasons why I “should,” yet I  CAN CHOOSE to let go of the “shoulds” and BE HAPPY right now, doing the myriad of things during class hours that I’ve been squeezing in between 4am- midnite. ie,meditating, parenting, exercising, baking, napping, learning, cooking, spacing out, therapy, reading, stitching, scrapbooking, sleeping!

Anyway, I just had to share! Doing what’s right for ME is a big win. It used to be that I couldn’t figure it out…..

Today I am grateful for Inner Knowing, choosing correctly and Peace!

On the horizon:  I’m getting out of town to celebrate my sister’s birthday with her in April. In May, I’m taking Equine Therapy Managing Emotions Workshop at Great Strides in Damascus, MD. And, in June, the Women’s Meditation Workshop in Baltimore, MD. Contact me for more details regarding any of the above resources!

{hugs}

MindiMeira