Jean Marie Murphy http://jeanmariemurphy.com Artist, Poet, Designer, Yoga Consultant ... Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:26:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 IT’s TIME http://jeanmariemurphy.com/?p=207 http://jeanmariemurphy.com/?p=207#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:17:14 +0000 jm2 http://jeanmariemurphy.com/?p=207

In the non-profit I created we had no clocks on display.  I tried to create a place of timelessness.  When I taught my yoga classes, right next to me, I had a very small clock only I could see.

Most of the people we were working with were losing the battle against time; they were marching surely towards their death.  It might sound crazy or like some new-aged hair brained idea but it actually had an amazing impact.  It was often one of the things that people spoke to on their way out the door.  I mean way out the door, as in, saying goodbye because they knew they wouldn’t be coming back again.  Death, for them, was just a short TIME away.

As some of you know, I have an issue with time.  How things must be done, the order you could say.  It’s probably a reaction to growing up in a family that had to eat dinner every night at 6:00 PM.  It’s 9:00 and I have not yet eaten dinner; I will shortly.  I was sending a post to acknowledge the receipt of another manuscript I have been asked to read, when I was inspired to put pen to paper myself.  My stomach can wait. 

Whatever has been going on for me energetically, I am learning that time, or existence in its entirety, is circular.  I keep coming around the bend and visiting things again and again and each time with more nuance, and availability of my consciousness.  I look around and no one or nothing looks the same.  I am taking everything in differently; colors, shapes, the textures of things.  I think (always a dangerous thing for me) I saw the essence of my plant today, not just its leaves and flowers, but its actual essence.  I could almost hear it say “Please see me, all of me, not just the surface that others typically see”. 

No, I have not resorted to mind altering drugs. Yes, though, I am sipping a bit of tequila right now.  Yoga has a way of opening a larger aperture for which life to move through, and towards us. 

I know you’re probably saying “She always brings it back to yoga” and maybe I do but it’s such vast territory in which to discover the world, within and without.  It’s all about becoming.  It’s there in the circle, the spiral, the finally coming around to yourself and having the guts to tell the truth about who you are. 

I am finally at a place where I am less concerned about people pleasing, a habitual pattern of mine, and more comfortable being the introvert that I am.  A new friend, who spent most of his childhood in his room making model airplanes, has somehow invoked this resurgence of introvert in me.  Sitting next to each other at boisterous dinner parties, the designers and architects he works with posturing for the spotlight, listening to one grand design after another, and in our quietness feel more connected to each other, than the world wind around us.

I’ve indulged being a homebody for the past 10 months or so, really building a home for myself, infusing it with my sense of place and style and energy.  I guess hearing about all those renderings had an effect on me.  Yet, I don’t feel like a boring or routine laden domesticate, just someone who likes home.  I just made some Muhammara and a scrumptious Moroccan Tagine with dates, spices the color of sunsets, orzo, Harissa and Dersa.  My neighbors across the walk way came over with empty bowls proclaiming a desire to do my laundry and later, came back enacting the whole Oliver scene, much to my delight.

Maybe it’s all an externalization of the archetypal journey of the hero returning for Self, not other.  That process of releasing our false selves in favor of being our truer natures. The wholeness of who we are; the person we often hide from others, for fear of rejection, judgment, or ridicule.    I think it’s time to not be a hero for others, but to be a hero for our SELF.  For whatever reason this energy has spiraled around again for me, I am grateful for its time. 

I found this old writing above this morning from 2009 and thought “Isn’t that, in part, what Occupy Wall Street is all about?  Finding the hero/heroine within and standing up for Self, and in doing so, we end up standing up for each other?”

The Apple Back On The Tree

If evolution is about changing and growing,

then why expel for reaching for nourishment?

Did not the nourishment of that apple help them grow?

Did not the plucking cause that tree to change?

Instead, our forefathers tell a story of shame,

masking our naked bodies,

of expulsion from His garden.

False gods will always knock us off our paths.

True gods will always bring us home to nuzzle in the bosom,

knowing “this, is where I can grow”. 

God intended a different Eden for us, 

One where we can truly be ourselves,

without judgment.

I am putting the apple back on that tree.

The snake and I are going to find our true homes.

© Jean Marie Murphy 2008

 

]]> http://jeanmariemurphy.com/?feed=rss2&p=207 0 Related. http://jeanmariemurphy.com/?p=170 http://jeanmariemurphy.com/?p=170#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:58:30 +0000 jm2 http://jeanmariemurphy.com/?p=170

Until you say it, some people don’t notice how deeply their inner landscape and outer landscape reflect one another; how you feel on the inside often shows up in the way you structure your outer world.  It shows up in the clothes you wear, the colors you choose and how your clothes do, or don’t, fit your body type.  It shows up in the furniture you choose for your home or office, and the colors or shapes of that furniture.
 

Do you choose clothing that fits your body type well, in a style and color that uplifts your spirits?  Do you just fill your home or office with furniture defined by the trend of the time, or do you select special pieces and collectables, then arrange them in a manner that is artful, beautiful, and inspires the creative process?

Architects have always known that their building designs evoke a sensation, a feeling tone, a time and context.  Their design and materials articulate a message behind and within the structure, within every angle, texture and color selected.  My client Matt always says “shape matters”.

Artists too, in the abstract expressive camp, know that shapes and colors positioned next to each other, or away from one another, evokes an influence that inspires meaning. Place this object or color next to that and I invite someone to drop more deeply into my painting.  Place that object next to this and the viewer is inspired to move on, or away.  Hotels are notorious for selecting busy patterns in their carpets to keep guests in motion.  Health Spa choose soothing and calming influences- music, colors, textures, and fragrances- to inspire us to slow down, move inward, disconnect from the outside world.  Gardeners arrange colored and textured plants that inspire the eye, invite interaction with birds and butterflies, and set a tone for enjoyment.  As my client Chris newly discovered, a garden can be a place to end your day:  ”I want to spend time in my back yard, sitting on my deck, just looking at my raised bed vegetable garden.  Before my backyard was a burden that I spent time  cleaning up.  Now it’s a new canvas that offer me peace of mind as I prune, weed or sip a glass of wine while enjoying the setting sun.”

This is all also true of our interior space; our sacred interior.  How it is structured, either with our conditioned past or the creative process, determines how we show up in the world.  Our inner and outer spaces either allow life to flow through us as a natural expression of our essence or they impede that expression.   How we engage our sacred interior, how we grow our interior, reflects in how we experience the external world and what we choose to engage with.  There is often a whole being inside us, our Being-in-Potential, which lives in our interior exclusively yet once evoked, begins to actively direct us towards our Life’s Work. 

Working with our inner structure through a simple ancient yet time honored relaxation process called Yoga Nidra, we can begin the process of de-cluttering our internal space so we can connect with our Being-in-potential.  Illuminating family and educational conditioning, we can begin to choose what influences we want to maintain and which one’s we’re ready to let go off. 

As we continue to establish a strong and resilient rapport with our sacred interior, we could begin to notice that there are things in our lives that we’ve out grown.  We can outgrow beliefs, behaviors, hobbies, pastimes, possessions, relationships, even foods and recreational activities.  We even outgrow family heirlooms.  Our stuff is one of the biggest factors that interferes with the outer manifestation of our internal growth.  Our stuff, and external environments, can hold us to a past self that really no longer exists except in habit. 

Using Yoga Nidra we can de-clutter and remove the object de’ resistance to the very growth you have been waiting for.  I promise it’s already there; you are not just yet, perceiving it.