Category: General

Insight Sessions

An insight session supports you in setting aside time in your life to make important decisions and create clarity around your priorities.  During insight sessions, we will address a singular concern, decision you are trying to make, problematic relationship, or goal and using relaxation, visualization, somatic feedback and energy work.  For clients who are interested in or open to divine insight through oracle card readings, Sharon will also use oracle cards to help clients clarify issues and priorities in their lives.  These cards are not used to “predict the future”, but in many cases, the images, words, and themes spark memories and invoke a heart-centered response to the challenge at hand.  Sharon also uses aromatherapy with pure essential oils for clients who are open to this type of healing work.  Obviously, aromatherapy is not possible for distance sessions, but Sharon will make a recommendation for clients about an essential oil or flower essence that might be helpful in their decision making.

These are 45-minute sessions for $60 each.    These sessions can be held using SKYPE, FaceTime or at Mookshi Wellness Center in Regent Square.

Purchase and Schedule Your Insight Sessions at Your Convenience ONLINE

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Mary of Greenfield

Statues and images of Mother Mary are pervasive in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh.  Even out on a short 6-block urban walk, I passed many unique images of Mary.  Even if we aren’t out looking for the divine, the presence of this nourishing mother figure impacts our lives in ways we may or may not be aware of.  Regardless of your personal connection to this figure, her presence in this neighborhood impacts the spirit and energy of the community itself.  Intellectually, we may allow ourselves to live such distracted lives that we don’t notice the divine images all around us.  We may think that we are non-believers or non-practitioners and that we need to go to a church or temple or religious center to find the divine, yet even a simple and brief urban walk of a quarter mile results in opportunities to think about the presence of beings more powerful and compassionate than humans.  All we need to do is go out and be a witness to what is perceivable to the eyes.  I find it interesting to find that so many statues have been placed beside utility meters.

Wisdom Body Yoga & Meditation

Have you ever witnessed a friend, family member or colleague at work create suffering or patterns of suffering for themself?  It’s so hard to watch.  It’s so easy to identify the pattern, the problem, the mistakes.  It’s equally simple to see an obvious solution.  On the other hand, you know that communicating your clarity and the obvious solution is unlikely to have the desired effect for the sufferer.  Your suffering friend will likely defend their actions, their pattern and even fight to maintain their problem (or that there isn’t a problem at all) until their last breath.  What you would witness, if you ever got the courage to approach your suffering person knowing that the friendship or relationship might be forever damaged, is the power of the ego.  Your ego knows that suffering and the commitment to that pattern is comfortable and complete.  The ego will jump in to defend itself and hear everything as a criticism.  The ego will not be defeated.  And, even worse, the truth for all of us is that we are also just as suffering, just as stuck in patterns of our own demise.  We are, at all times, the witness to suffering and the sufferer.

There is excellent news though!  We are not actually stuck in this wheel of suffering (aka. samsara)!  And, I imagine that you already know what the solution is, but, your ego is so strong that you aren’t permitting yourself to act on it.  If you have read any magazine, journal, newspaper, been on Facebook, made a new friend or overheard a conversation at a restaurant in the past ten-years, then you know that meditation and yoga are good for you.  REALLY good for you.  If you are reading this, it means you likely have an even deeper knowing.  Also, through trial and error you likely know that lots of things that you thought would make you happy haven’t actually relieved you of any suffering at all.  Examples might include: getting into college, getting laid, falling in love, having children, getting a new job, graduating, passing that test, buying a new car, when summer arrived, the day your book was published, that time you won that award, etc.  Sure, there was momentary pleasure, bliss, joy, excitement, passion, delight…………but, you woke up the next day your same miserable self.  Or maybe you were back to suffering in an hour or maybe the things you thought would bring you happiness didn’t at all, but everyone expected you to be happy and that expectation made you feel even worse?  And, there you were, back on the wheel of suffering.

For me, this is what I like about Wisdom Body Yoga and Meditation.  This yoga, based on Tibetan Buddhist yoga and meditation practices, brings a state of balance and equanimity that is immediate and satisfying.  Although many of the physical postures are identical to the Indian yogas that informed the practices traditionally, the intention, visualizations, and breathing techniques are very different.  With regular practice, we come to understand that we have the ability to generate a feeling of calm.  If this feeling of calm and joy is self-generated, then it is not so far of a stretch of the imagination to know that we are also creating our own suffering.  In addition, we are empowered to know that we don’t have to rely on anyone else acting in any particular way to feel calm and happy.  We can cultivate these qualities anytime we want and, in many cases, all it takes are a few deep breaths or some mindful movement or even a little nap.

The physical movements in my Wisdom Body Yoga and Meditation classes are not all that difficult.  Because the movements require certain breathing patterns and also visualizations, they are mostly practiced slowly and with great compassion.  This makes the practice available to anyone who wishes to try it.  I offer this class once a week on Wednesdays from 10:00 to 11:00 am at Mookshi Wellness Center in Pittsburgh.  The energetic principles behind this practice are the foundation for my group coaching program, Make Room, which can be accessed anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

I can’t make you do yoga or learn to meditate.  But I will assure you that it is worth the investment of time and energy to give it a try.  It is my life’s work to practice this and share the practice.  Of this, I am sure.  I am just as sure that your new purse isn’t going to make you happy by the end of the week, but a commitment to your meditation practice will give you a lifetime of security and well-being.  Oh, I know, your ego just whispered in your ear that you: don’t have the money, don’t have the time, would have to give up your knitting group, would miss precious time with your children, can’t get out of work in time for class, aren’t flexible enough, are too fat to take a yoga class, can’t let anyone see your ugly feet……blah, blah, blah.  Tell your ego to take a hike for an hour!

Written by Sharon Fennimore, an Integrated Health Coach, yoga instructor and doula based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Find out more about Sharon and her global services by clicking HERE.  If you want to learn more and receive updates and free wellness resources, sign up for Sharon’s newsletter by clicking HERE.  Do you need a good laugh RIGHT NOW? Check out this website for hilarious videos and content.  Do you wish you had a fabulous website?  Then you need to work with Kenneth Feldman.  Seriously.  He’s the best. 

Sattvic Diet: Eating for Equilibrium and Essence

For the purposes of Make Room, I would like to suggest that you only think about adding things to your diet.  Although I’m sure that this means different things to different people, the reality is that there is only so much food you can fit into the human body in any given day and so, my thinking on this is that you can create a big shift by just adding delicious whole foods.  If you just really enjoyed a lovely miso soup and a grilled mushroom sandwhich, chances are, when you pass Pizza Hut, you won’t give stopping by all that much thought.  You might consider it, but you will be full.  So, when you get the new newsletter, check out the list of foods suggested and see about adding something that sounds good.  If nothing seems familiar, go on an adventure and try something new.  If there is something you love, go ahead and eat more of that.

A sattvic diet has the following qualities:

  • Highest quality, freshness and close-ness to life-force (recently picked, in season, etc.)
  • Food categories include grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, dairy and legumes like tofu, lentils, peas, mung beans, and aduki beans.
  • Food is recently prepared (not frozen, shrink wrapped, preserved, etc.) and is cooked to perfection, not oily or greasy
  • Spices are used in moderation
  • The cook was in a mindful and calm state themselves when they prepared the food

Sattvic food is very simple.  In some of our meals, there are over a dozen ingredients and even if all those ingredients are healthy and fresh, this produces an overload of mental and digestive sensory information to process.  If you wonder if this is true for you, try to eat simply for two days.  Then, just notice how your mind and body feel.  If you eat simply for a few weeks, you will likely find that you feel clearer, brighter and stronger and the best energy of your lifetime.

Pritchard warns us that, “The modern denaturing of foods through massive refining and chemical treatment deranges their pranic-qi life force, making them unable to foster Sattva equilibrium and essence.”  The sattvic emphasis on complex carbohydrates and dairy products promotes brain chemistry rich in tryptophan, seratonin, and melatonin.  Your diet is very important.  You can sit in meditation all you like, but following it up with a lunch of Swedish Fish and Diet Coke (I know this from personal experience…….) will make you jumpy and feel strained and low energy.  (Pritchard, page 640-641)

MISO

Whether you have been cooking with miso for your whole life or you’ve never used it before, this miso cookbook has many gems.  Miso is a fermented soy product and it makes for a very tasty sauce for cooked greens, in soups, and many more stews and dishes.  As you try new things, I can’t recommend adding miso to your diet highly enough.  Here is a Miso Soup Recipe with Mushrooms including greens.  Miso is salty and flavorful like a rich broth.  You will love it!

LENTILS

I prefer to use the green “french lentils” for this slow-cooker recipe.  There’s no reason why you can’t just create this dish on your stove-top if you are spending an evening at home and can keep an eye on it.  Also, when I make these Honey Lentils, I like to use half the honey recommended and then substitute another sweetener for the other half.  I have successfully used barley malt syrup and brown rice syrup for the other “half” of the sweetener.  Try it out for yourself, but this is also a great time to experiment with different sweeteners that you may have never used in your cooking before. And, if you are into slow cooker use, then you need to sign up for Stephanie O’Dea’s website newsletter because she sends out great ideas for free in the newsletter and she sells packages of grocery lists and meals that make cooking warm and nourishing meals with basic ingredients pretty much a no-brainer.  Here is a link to her honey lentils.  

REFERENCE

Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition.  Third Edition. By Paul Pritchford. North Atlantic Books 2002.

Power Feng Shui

You’ve certainly heard of power yoga….right?  Well, this nine-day challenge is power feng shui! I would like to invite you to an extreme feng shui challenge:

For nine-days, on each day, throw out/donate/sell 27-objects.

Yes, I’m serious.  And, honestly, it isn’t going to be THAT difficult.  When you take the challenge, you start to see the objects around you in a whole different light.  You start to think, “Do I really like that?  If not, I’ll use that as one of my 27-objects today!”.  You start to remember drawers filled with broken pencil erasers that you happily dump.  You have thousands of objects around you at any given time and you can live without at least 243 of them: decks of cards without all the cards, that note your college girlfriend sent you when you were living in Istanbul….20-years ago, photographs of relatives (are they relatives?) you can’t name, pens that don’t work, all the supplies you need to make a godzilla hook rug.  Trust me. You can do this!

What happens at the end of nine days feels miraculous.  A huge weight is lifted from your heart, mind and body and wonderful new things come to you.  New ideas, new friends, new activities, new objects, new jobs………Here is the deal, you have to trust that the empty space you create will be filled by fabulous new things.  Are you willing to trade that drawer of old underwear that you will “just use for when you have your period”, but, you and I both know you just never wear anymore (maybe because the elastic is unraveling too…….) for the time and supplies you need to start a new hobby, read a new book, start to write poetry again, for a friend to give you a new pair of earrings just because?

I hope you will take the challenge and I also hope that you will join my new online coaching group called Make Space.  For just $8 a month you can be a part of our support group for adults who want to be mindful of their personal environments.  The objects we choose to wear, use, and keep around us have a significant impact on our health, relationships and ability to be creative.  You can join at any time and we will warmly welcome you to the group!

I’m going to take the challenge myself and I’ll be posting my nine-days of release and about the miracles that follow right here on the blog.  I hope you will share your experience too by commenting below or

Make Room

In October of this year, we discovered that my nine-year old son Nick has significant issues with impacted teeth and a lack of space that is going to require two-phases of comprehensive orthodontic care and surgeries.  The first phase of orthodontic care, the one where we will make space, costs almost $6,000 and his health insurance does not cover any part of this.  Many of you know that my little family has already been through a difficult number of years.  My children and I have moved over four-times in two-years and, in January of 2015, my son was in a very bad sledding accident and ended up in a wheelchair for almost five months.  We lost our apartment and I wasn’t able to work for a number of months while I carried him everywhere and took him for medical appointments and helped him heal.

Nick’s orthodontic care is necessary to save him from a childhood of pain and to make every effort possible to save his adult teeth.  This is not simply a cosmetic need.  Without intervention as soon as possible, Nick will likely have a great deal of pain for years until he eventually loses all six of his front teeth in his upper jaw.  Since some of his adult teeth are impacted, they will require surgery so that they can be captured and slowly pulled down.  Right now, they are both impacted and coming out at a 60 degree angle.  Last week, for the first time in our lives, I received a call from Nick’s school saying that he was in so much mouth pain that he needed to be picked up from school.  Until Nick’s sledding accident, he had only missed about 3-days of school due to illness since kindergarten.  Nick is a wonderful student and loves being active at school, being with his friends, and working really hard.  To see him suffer like this is terrible.

I know that a lot of my students, clients and members of the Yoga Matrika community have already done a great deal to help support me and my family.  Last year, someone sent me an anonymous gift card for Giant Eagle in December and it came at just the moment when I wasn’t sure how I was going to buy groceries that week.  When we had to leave our house and my children needed to share a room, two of my students bought a bunk bed and other furniture that eased the loss and made the move more fun.  And, it gave my children a safe place to sleep.  I don’t want to ask for “donations” as I am not a non-profit.  Although I hope that my work in the world is of service and creates greater peace and well-being, it is work and this is my business for which I intend to financially profit from.

In honor of my family’s critical need for more space at this time, I have created a new program called “Make Space”.  Just as I need to invest in care that will help make space in my beloved son’s mouth, I know that many of us feel that we need to make room in our lives for both necessities and desires.  We feel like those impacted teeth: cluttered, stuck, overwhelmed and cramped. Your investment in this program will go directly to helping me pay for Nick’s comprehensive orthodontic care and, I hope, to making room in your life for what is a priority for you.

What is MAKE SPACE?  Make space is an online program with instruction in how to clear physical clutter from any space from your purse to your bedroom closet to your car and office. We will also look at how to make mental space by releasing fear, worry and negative thoughts that hold you back.  You will learn how to use breathing, visualization, meditation and gentle movement to create mental and physical space, open your heart and find the courage to name what you want and to go and get it.

MAKE SPACE: Enroll Today and You will Receive

  1. A monthly newsletter for 12-months (start at any time as the months are numbered and not associated with any particular calendar month or season) with recommendations for readings, activities, recipees and lifestyle upgrades for letting go, making room and then living with the greatest joy possible.
  2. Access to an online course with interactive discussion boards, videos and audio recordings that will help you learn the meditation, breathing and visualization techniques that help you make room.
  3. Monthly teleseminars (12-total) and quarterly webinars (4-total)  that you can participate in live, ask questions and interact with Sharon and other participants.  If you miss them for any reason, they are all recorded.
  4. An opportunity to study meditation with Sharon privately (using SKYPE or in her office in Regent Square for Pittsburgh participants) at a 50% discount.

Investment Options

A. $85 One-Time Payment

B. $8 per month for 12-months Payment Plan  (Be honest, you spend more playing Candy Crush or on drinks every month.)

C. Choose your amount of investment: Give what you can and at the frequency that is best for you (make a one time payment, or make multiple payments over time).  Any amount is appreciated and is important to me.

Within 48-hours of making your investment, you will receive an e-mail invitation to the online course AND you will receive your first of 12-newsletters.  If you do not receive online course access within this time frame, please send an e-mail to Sharon directly so she can look into it.  Make sure you check your SPAM folder first.  Some firewall software at corporations where security is exceptionally high (or even Universities that have to have broad protections), will block online course access.  This should be rare.  Otherwise, once you receive your invitation, you will have unlimited online course access and you can download any of the MP3 audio files, MP4 video files and all PDF handouts to use at your convenience.  Sharon’s e-mail is: sharon@yogamatrika.com.

 

What is a Health Coach Session?

Recently, my sister suggested to me that I start a website called “NotaDoctor.com” and offer intuitive medical counseling to clients.  You see, I’m not a doctor.  I’m not a doctor by any definition.  But, after 20-years of facilitating yoga and movement therapies, studying anatomy and reading as much as I can about the relationship between mind and body combined with a natural ability to “see” my clients as whole and well regardless of their current health and wellness concerns, I have a great deal to offer my students and clients.

These sessions are especially helpful for adults who have been told by their therapist or doctor that meditation, mindfulness practices or yoga would be helpful to them in their healing or wellness, but they don’t know where to begin.  I can work with you on sequences of breathing, visualization, relaxation, meditation and/or gentle movements that help you make these healing practices a part of your daily life.  There are many different kinds of meditation and I can help you decide what works best for your personality, lifestyle and health concerns.  We will practice together until you feel confident that you can practice daily on your own.

I am especially skilled in working on women’s health concerns offering modern menstrual education, optimum fertility and conception planning, pregnancy support and nourishing guidance for parents of newborns and infants up to two-years of age.  I am also of the belief that women experience and manage stress in unique ways from men and provide very specific relief from anxiety, worry and pervasive fears for women.

I am particularly concerned with the anxiety and crisis of the self that young women and teens are experiencing.  From test anxiety, body shame to social concerns, it can be near impossible to find your divine purpose and self in the sea of mixed-messages and social and family stress.  I provide very specific stress management skills, lifestyle enhancement and organization tools for teen girls.

For women who suffer from chronic concerns or who have been diagnosed with cancer or other life-transforming illness and disease, I can provide centering so that you can make the best choices for your healthcare out of the options you are presented with.  I am not a doctor and can’t provide diagnosis or medical advice, but I can support you in finding your intuitive senses so that you feel confident about your options and choices.  Many life-changing illnesses also require painful treatments, frustrations and challenges including debilitating fear and anxiety.  I can teach you very simple techniques that can relieve anxiety and help you find all available comfort.

You can find all of my health and lifestyle coaching packages HERE.

Imperfect Vessels

I’m always reading.  Whenever I come across common themes in my reading, I try to make note of it and then think about what that theme means to me in my life, my practice and my work.  Two-weeks ago, in everything I was reading, the word or theme of “imagination” kept popping up.  This week, in two completely different books, the Buddhist teaching of the imperfect vessels revealed itself to me.  This teaching provides a way for us to study ourselves and then develop practices that support our current state of mind.

The first type of imperfect vessel is an upside down vessel.  It’s impossible to fill a vase with beautiful flowers if the vase is upside down.  In this type of vessel, the opening is completely closed off.  In this “closed mind” there is no role for meditation or yoga practice.  It is likely that all of us experience times when our minds are the upside down vessel.  It is just as likely that we can think of someone that we know or have been forced to work with or relate to that seems to have a mind like an upside down vessel at all times.  Nothing you say, no workshop, no training, no professional advice, no class—nothing penetrates or makes a difference.  In my yoga classes I never have to worry about having students with this mind-type because just deciding to take a yoga class is an opening—however small that crack or pore might be.  In general, anyone who reads this and thinks to themselves, “Wow!  Sometimes my mind is completely closed off like an upside down vessel.” isn’t the type of person who has a mind like this all the time.  It’s likely you have one of the other types of imperfect vessels that you are working with.  If you read this and think, “I’m never upside down or closed off.”—well, hate to be the one to tell you, but then it is likely your mind is more like an upside down vessel for most of the time than not.  There is a Buddhist sutra that says, “Things are not what they seem to be, nor are they otherwise.” (1)

The second type of imperfect vessel is the dirty vessel.  This is a mind that is impacted by physical body toxins, being psychologically toxic and needing to take steps or adapt a practice with an emphasis on purification.  The dirty vessel pollutes whatever is poured into it.  So, this mind can study all the teachings and practice yoga and meditation, but all the information received is polluted.  Personally, I’ve been thinking about this a great deal because one of my vices is Diet Coke.  Whenever I get stressed out or tired or lonely or sad or just want to choose a beverage to go with what I am eating for lunch, my first choice is a nice bubbly Diet Coke.  Well, this pollutes the vessel.  I can do all the yoga I want, but my body has to work really hard to get rid of the carcinogens, food coloring, blah blah blah……it’s hard to find any enlightenment when you have to work that hard just to get clear.  Part of my personal practice right now is to make other choices that are nourishing and support the qualities of mind that I wish to enhance through my meditation and yoga practices.

The third type of vessel is the leaky vessel.  This type of vessel has some kind of crack or hole in it and it can’t hold what you put in it.  A mind like a leaky vessel is unstable, there are too many distractions and it feels impossible to make decisions.  The type of practice for this quality of mind requires discipline.  Bringing the quality of discipline into one’s life through regular practice of yoga and meditation, no matter what, is a way to work with this type of imperfect vessel.

The fourth type of imperfect vessel is the tilted vessel.  In this type of mind, you receive teachings, but you are unable to maximize your full potential.  If this is the type of mind you are working with, then practices that are designed to help “right” your vessel are what you would work with.  In this case it is more about fine-tuning the subtle body and making choices about including practices that enhance the flow of energy through the chakras, work with sound and subtle body anatomy with pranayama and visualization.

Self-study and considering our quality of mind at any given time isn’t about judgment.  These imperfect vessels give us the tools to consider our quality of mind at any given moment and step-back from our habitual responses to criticism, stress, fear or confusion.  We can observe ourselves and others with curiosity and drop our attachment to specific outcomes or trying to control ourselves or others.  It’s a way to be more open and creative and find solutions to the challenges that we face with equanimity.

This post written by Sharon Fennimore who is offering a series of workshops exploring five Buddhist sutras in translation starting in fall 2015 in Pittsburgh, PA.

REFERENCES

“Things are not what they seem to be, nor are they otherwise.” is from the Shurangama Sutra. 

 

 

Practice Notes: Rainbow Body

rainbow bodyEach week, I teach a mindful yoga class on Tuesday nights at Mookshi Wellness Center.  Recently, I have adapted a new preparation technique for teaching my classes and find the foundation theme for my class through daily prayer and meditation.  I have always been guided to teach from the wisdom of my practice as I was encouraged to do so by my compassionate and insightful teacher and mentor, Jill Satterfield.  But, for the past two-months I have been randomly choosing a sutra from Lorin Roche’s beautiful translation and commentary of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, The Radiance Sutras, and allowing the message of that particular sutra guide my choice of breathing, asana and visualization practices.

This past spring I took a truly amazing distance learning course with Janet Conner called “Soul Vows” (also the title of her newest book, which is phenomenal) and was able to do so through a generous full scholarship that she offered to me.  The truth is that I had a hard time with the course.  I still haven’t come up with my soul vows.  But, I had found her course through some research I was doing for my Radiant Heart course that I was in the process of creating and the soul vow discovery process required that I choose a spiritual book to accompany me on the work to nourish and keep it sacred.  The Radiance Sutras are “112 Gateways to the Yoga of Wonder and Delight” and while I couldn’t seem to identify my Soul Vows during the course, I kept thinking of the phrase “Choose Joy!” and these sutras and the commentary truly are about choosing joy regardless of circumstances.

This week, in preparation for class tomorrow night (if you are in Pittsburgh, please join us–it’s pretty much the most beautiful gathering of people I’ve ever been a part of, not competitive and you are warmly welcome), I randomly chose the 20th sutra and in the commentary, Roche suggests that we “sense all directions simultaneously” (Radiance Sutras, page 214):

Above me is endless space.
Below me is endless space.
Behind me is endless space.
To my left is space.
To my right is space.
Within me is endless space.

Roche suggests that “As the directions dissolve, so does your definition of yourself (214).”  When I read this I was drawn to Rose Taylor Goldfield’s instructive description of the Rainbow-like body in her book, “Training the Wisdom Body”.  She says, “The main point to remember about your body is that it is appearance-emptiness like a rainbow; it is purely the energy and play of luminosity-emptiness, like a body in a dream when you know you are dreaming.  Recall that your body is naturally light and luminous as you practice yoga movement.” (Taylor Goldfield, page 97)

The “Rainbow Body” in Dzogchen (an esoteric Tibetan Buddhism), refers to a level of realization.  This realization is when the separation between all living beings and phenomenon dissipates and all is one.  Taylor Goldfield instructs, “As you move your body, dissolve fixation on the duality of your own body here and the surrounding environment out there.  Melt into space.” (page 97)

In our practice this Tuesday night we will play with space and expand our inner and outer light for the benefit of all living beings.  Can’t wait!

REFERENCES

The Radiance Sutras: 112 Gateways to the Yoga of Wonder and Delight
Author: Lorin Roche

Training the Wisdom Body: Buddhist Yogic Exercise
Author: Rose Taylor Goldfield

Path to the Rainbow Body: Introduction to Yuthok Nyingthig
Author: Dr. Nida Chenagtsang

Soul Vows: Gathering the Presence of the Divine in You, Through You, and As You
Author: Janet Conner