Esoteric Belly Dance – Pre-Ascension Training

Esoteric Belly Dance (Oriental Dance) Uses Energy Work, Emotional Healing, and Spiritual Disciplines to Support “Pre-Ascension Training”

First question: What is “ascension”?

In brief, it is expanding ourselves vibrationally. It is a culmination of spiritual growth. For a reference, please check out Wanda Lasseter-Lundy’s blog. You can also read some useful material in The Soul and the Ascension by John Van Horne. You can also take a look at A Complete Ascension Manual: How to Achieve Ascension in This Lifetime (Easy-To-Read Encyclopedia of the Spiritual Path) by Joshua David Stone. For each of the books, use Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature; it will give you enough to get started.

Some of this is pretty strange; pretty weird. But definitely points the way to a form of spiritual growth.

Even the most cursory read will probably have you saying, “Really great; really cool – but so far beyond me!”

That’s ok. It’s far beyond me also.

But let’s not over-task ourselves with the whole “ascension” thing just yet. Let’s do baby steps.

In a recent blog, Static on the Brain, I pointed to – essentially – “corrosion of our spiritual/energetic selves” as causing us to function poorly; in dance and in life. I promised some resources.

Here they are. These are the ones that I’ve used to “pull myself together” after my Daddy died late this last autumn. I realized that I needed to do some pretty deep spiritual healing work. These “baby steps” worked for me (and they’re still working, and I’m still working them). They might work for you as well.

Here’s the four-point overview, freely adapted from Joshua David Stone’s book (pages 2-4).

  • Gratitude: Give regular love and gratitude to all levels of the spiritual realm – and invoke their transforming, ascending light for the earth,
  • Forgiveness: Clear out our karma, through persistently invoking the Law of Forgiveness, requesting karmic dispensation, ethical living, etc.
  • Meditation/Contemplation: Meditate on pure awareness or pure adoration of the Divine, and
  • Integration: Integrate the increasing light of God and the Soul into the body, through practices such as hatha yoga, working with energy centers, and cleansing our diet; work also with our mind through study of spiritual laws, and into our cultural/social institutions through service.

Alice (“Alicja”) Jones, in her forthcoming book, Own Your Power, similarly identifies these points. In her Jan. 12th section on “Forgiving All,” she writes:

Forgiveness is one of the three major reasons for incarnating on this planet. The other two are learning unconditional love, and learning to be of service to others.

In her January 14th section, she devotes attention to the “Law of Attraction” – which really becomes a lesson in responsibility.

So let’s do a wrap-up. And let’s keep in mind that, for each of us, the more important the lesson, the simpler we need to make the content. Let’s treat ourselves as Winnie-the-Pooh did, when he said of himself, “I am a Bear of a Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.”

Thus, here are our lessons. They are a combination of Joshua Stone’s and Alice Jones’ writings, and will undoubtedly resonate with works of every spiritual teacher/path on this planet:

  • Lesson 1: Forgiveness – We’re just going to have to suck it up and do this. (You know, it’s ok to pray for help if you feel that you get stuck here; I do also, and prayer helps.)
  • Lesson 2: Gratitude – A really good practice,
  • Lesson 3: Take Responsibility for Ourselves – This is very close to the “Law of Attraction,” and
  • Lesson 4: Give love – Practice “giving love” as much as possible; this also includes refraining from judging others.

There are a set of books that are useful for this. Those will be the subject of a near-term posting.


Alay'nya - author of "Unveiling: The Inner Journey"
Alay’nya – author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey

Very best wishes as you use Oriental dance (belly dance) as part of your own personal evolution!

Yours in dance –

Alay’nya
Author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey
You are the Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus. Become the Jewel!

Founder and Artistic Director, The Alay’nya Studio
Bellydance a courtesan would envy!

Check out Alay’nya’s YouTube Channel
Connect with Alay’nya on Facebook
Follow Unveiling: The Inner Journey on Facebook


Static on the Brain – And What We Can Do About It

“Static on the Brain” – What It Is, What It Does, and What We Can Do About It

“If You Can’t Be a Good Example, Then Be a Horrible Lesson”

There’s a woman in my life who is fundamentally sweet.

She’s intelligent. She has some sense of life-purpose. She has a number of very admirable habits, not the least of which is that when she puts herself together, she’s remarkably polished and attractive.

Yet she has a “habit” – actually a set of habits, all drawing from a single basic thought-pattern – that have (until recently) driven me to distraction. (Not to mention to a bad temper, etc.)

She has what  I call “static on the brain.”

"Static on the Brain"

“Static on the Brain”

“Static on the brain” manifests in many different forms.

For example, when she built a fire in the fireplace this last December, she ignored the word from myself and others that the fire needed to be built slowly. She put together a huge bonfire’s worth of logs, and lit the match. And yes, the flue was open.

But in this case, with a cold winter’s day and a two-story, very cold chimney flue, the fire caught just fine. And billowed smoke into the entire house. I’m still cleaning and repainting the living room (including the ceiling) as a result of her efforts.

If this were a one-shot thing, that would be one situation. But it’s not. This is a woman who can’t learn how to recycle, despite repeated demonstrations. (Throwing out an entire bag of limp spinach, instead of putting the spinach into the compost and the clean bag into the garbage … one of a couple dozen examples.)

Her common response is, “I guess I just wasn’t thinking.”

Right. Thinking. It’s a survival skill.

So What Is “Static on the Brain”?

“Static on the brain” happens when we have so many conflicting, low-grade, randomly-jumbled but non-productive thoughts that what would seem to be “common sense” simply isn’t common any more.

Another Horrifying Example (Especially for Dancers)

Years ago, I had a student. This woman was very intelligent; she held a high-status job. She was pursuing her Ph.D. She had a sense of elegance, flair, and drama. In short, she had a lot going for her.

But when it came to dance – she simply couldn’t “get it right.” When doing any choreography, if she was supposed to turn left, she’d turn right. Or vice versa. Or simply – stand there in the midst of “brain static.”

This wasn’t a matter of being clumsy. It was a matter of having so many little interfering thoughts going on that she couldn’t function well in dance. And if we stripped away the protective cover, it was (sadly) obvious that she wasn’t functioning well in life, either.

How Do We Get “Static on the Brain”?

We get “static on the brain” by having a chronic pattern of not only lots of distracting and undisciplined thoughts, but also a pattern of negative thoughts.

Static electricity on wig, courtesy Alan Hart-Davis, Natural Science

Static electricity on wig, courtesy Alan Hart-Davis (Natural Science)

When this latter woman was in class with me once, she said, “Let me tell you about this horrible thing that happened to me recently.”

“It’s really important that we focus on positive things,” I said.

“Yes, of course,” she replied. “And let me tell you about this horrible thing … ”

Sigh.

This was a woman who just wasn’t going to get it. No amount of coaching, no amount of pointing the direction, was going to make an impact in her life, simply because she didn’t want to make a change.

She didn’t last long in dance.

And today, she is probably making left turns when she should be making a right, or getting into a situation in which an intelligent response is required, and simply – sputtering in static. Now that is something “horrible.”

How Do We Deal With Static on the Brain

We’ve all got it. To some extent, each of us has “brain static,” and it affects our lives – more or less significantly and profoundly.

If we’re going to dance fluidly, gracefully, and effortlessly, we need to minimize brain static. (Sure, we’d like to eliminate it completely, but let’s focus on goals that can be achieved within this lifetime.)

I’ve had (and undoubtedly still have) “brain static” as much as the next person. A while ago, my life was going “down the tubes.”

After more than a year of teaching myself marketing (post launching my latest book), I’d had a whole lot of discouragement. My self-talk reflected that. There were more stressful situations – a tooth that looked like it would need a root canal. Financial challenges. Housemate challenges. And then – my daddy died.

Shortly after, there was the fire that “smoked us all out.”

One of my students – wise and compassionate beyond her years – pointed out that that the fire was necessary in my life. It was “cleansing.” It was “purifying.” (She is deeply steeped in the Hindu religion, and I was learning a lot from her about what profound wisdom and insights this religion offered.)

I sighed and agreed with her, and tried to keep what she was saying in mind as I scrubbed and repainted yet another wall in the living room.

But she was right. The fire was cleansing and purifying, because something within me had to get burned away. It was my own “static on the brain.”

I knew that I had to make a change; a real significant one.

So (and wow, doesn’t the Universe/Source/Higher Power/God really provide for us?), I was commissioned by a very dear friend and renowned spiritual teacher, Alice (“Alicja”) Jones, to help her get her latest book ready for publication. This book – soon to be available – changed my life. Own Your Power is like an approachable, easy-to-read-and-assimilate version of A Course in Miracles. And the core lesson in both?

Forgiveness.

Yup, hard-core spiritual stuff. Forgiveness. And also gratitude. And giving love.

The lesson from all of this?

The basic, fundamental spiritual lessons (forgiveness, gratitude, giving love, etc.) have a powerful influence on our energetic anatomy.

Specifically, forgiveness can remove “static on the brain.”

It’s like bathing corroded electrical parts in a solution that washes off all the corrosion, leaving them sparkling-clean and highly functional once again.

So an immediate result – from both my daddy’s death, the fire that “smoked us out,” and what I’ve learned through spiritual teachings – is that to be effective dancers (and effective in life), we need to bring spiritual principles into action.

We need to forgive, have gratitude, and give love.

Believe me, I am still learning and re-learning these lessons.

Because of this, I’ll be including them in curriculum and reference materials, on an ongoing basis. After all, “We teach that which we have to learn.”

In the next blogpost, I’ll provide links to and summaries of some of the books that have been most influential and useful during this turn-around time for me. These have held the core lessons that have helped me start washing the “static” out of my “brain.”


Alay'nya - author of "Unveiling: The Inner Journey"
Alay’nya – author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey

Very best wishes as you use Oriental dance (belly dance) to create an increasingly calm, centered, focused, and totally glorious springtime, with little (if any) “static on your brain”!

Yours in dance –

Alay’nya
Author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey
You are the Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus. Become the Jewel!

Founder and Artistic Director, The Alay’nya Studio
Bellydance a courtesan would envy!

Check out Alay’nya’s YouTube Channel
Connect with Alay’nya on Facebook
Follow Unveiling: The Inner Journey on Facebook