STEFANIE HONEDER

Looking forward to reading through “The Internet to the Inner-Net”. Creative thinking means that we are open-minded and willing to find new connections in our thought and actions all the time; there are always new connections to explore in the inner web, internet and outer net.

If plan A doesn’t work out, there is still plan B to install. If plan A doesn’t relate to person X right now, there is still person Y that is perfect for plan A.

Thinking and acting in a creative  and innovative way means that we stay soft and flexible in our minds. There is a structure, a frame, a plan and a deadline, how the form and content is molded and created through a process. This creative process can’t be foreseen and controlled all the time. If it doesn’t happen today, it doesn’t mean that it is not happening tomorrow, next month or year. So sometimes even the structure has to be molded in a new way. Suddenly we need a bigger frame, because we have found a higher or new perspective.

The creative process, journey and innovative work is a bold step into the unknown land.  In this unknown land, you create new connections, the world hasn’t seen yet. It is a land, our world, where forms and frames are created in new ways.

We are here to support each other.

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Steve Jobs

 

The benefits of meditation: a creative, peaceful life. 

In the last years I’ve been really interested how meditation enhances the creative process in our lives.

Whether you are an artist or just want to bring more freedom, peacefulness and creativity into your personal or business life, meditation is a perfect tool to reach those goals .

The best thing: It is simple, easy,  for free. Not to forget to mention the many benefits for your health. (reducing your stress level/cortisol level)

Meditation allows you discern what is important and what’s not and reveals your inner web. Here you find your resources, new thoughts and ideas, infinite perspectives and approaches and ways to handle your life and challenging situations.

Björk is using  Kundalini mantras to enhance her creativity. “Kundalini is very helpful for my voice, because it involves a lot of breathing,” she says. “I turn the sound off on a yoga DVD and put some amazing music on very loud.”(Interview, The Gentlewoman spring/summer 2015)

Film-maker David Lynch is using Transcendental Meditation to “Catch The Big Fish” (meaning for him the big important project), or Rick Rubin, father of many important bands, like the Beastie Boys or RunDMC, has also been using meditation as a tool to “see through” and bring birth to those creative projects.

Dr. Ronald Alexander (psychotherapist) wrote a book about the Creative Process and Meditation as well, which is called “Wise Mind Open Mind“.

Bufferzone: Silence: Focus on your Heart.

It is easy, it is simple:
That’s what I can recommend right now for you: I’ve been practicing this simple Raja Yoga meditation technique for some years now and it is also available with an app, you can download. Just check “Heartfulness“. It is a silent meditation technique and you keep your focus on your heart.

Here you can find more information about the meditation technique “Heartfulness”.

There is also a Heartfulness-Magazine .

Also Gopi Kallayil, who is responsible for “Brand Marketing” at Google; is speaking about meditation.  His latest book is titled “The Internet to the Inner-net”.

If you ever hear the word Raja Yoga, know that this means meditation. You learn to train your mind to focus on one point (which is called Dharana) and hence Dhyana (meditation) unfolds.

Maybe it is difficult in the beginning to integrate it into your daily life, but you will learn that meditation becomes like brushing your trees or taking a shower for your mind, heart and soul. With time it will be easier to integrate it and make it a regular practice.

The best thing about meditation: a creative life unfolds, because if one thing doesn’t work out, your neurons shift perspectives quickly and choose a new highway in your brain and hence you stay  in the creative flow called life. Infinite options and infinite love.

If you have any questions about meditation or the Heartfulness-meditation technique or yoga in general, please contact me for more information. Peace.

 

Create a peaceful life. Create a peaceful world.

 

 

Recommending this book by Rod Judkins “The Art of Creative Thinking”

1 out of 100 ideas is a good one, try everything like Salvador Dali, create anyway like Frida Kahlo or J Dilla , doubt and keep creating and turning our world upside down, ’cause it really needs to be changed and become a better place. Even the Beatles doubted themselves.

It is easy to read,  easy to jump from one chapter to another and helpful when you need some input to unblock, no matter what profession you are in.

If you need support to unblock for any project: You can contact me for a “Creativity Coaching Session”. stefanie.honeder@gmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you!

 

Over and over again: The Sanskrit word Samskara describes the deep interwoven unconscious patterns that we are repeatedly choosing over and over again. It is a bit like the ilm Bill Murray “Groundhog Day“.  The bus is just not driving anymore… 

These wheels or repetition are no problem until they become a problem. I guess for all of us (individually/collectively) these patterns of repetition become a problem after months, years, ages or centuries. We recognize that we can’t act like we did in the past. We need to figure out different ways to design our lives. The old way just doesn’t work out anymore. The world or our inner state has changed.

Get it right: So what can we do?
We can set new intentions. The Sanskrit word “Sankalpa”describes this act and process of intention setting.

You can imagine a “Sankalpa” is like a seed and you plant it into your unconscious.

Your unconscious starts processing and producing new perspectives and ideas how to (inter-)act with the world and voilá: suddenly you have a new picture in front of you, a new situation, a dream fulfilled, a new taste of life… a new scene in your own film.

So this is the way we can re-write our own script of life over and over again, re-invent ourselves, let go patterns/people/situations that don’t make us happy, and write new stories aka. “Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity and Freedom”  –

The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity and Freedom by Rod Stryker is one of my favourite Yoga books about the topic “Designing our Lives”.  He writes about many example how to plant a “Sankalpa” in the most effective way and release old patterns. 

One way you can also refine your decisions and see if your are acting out of a patterns or out of a new choice that fits to the present state of moment is to ask yourself:
Is it expanding my energy or is it making me feel narrow or small?

May we stay patient with this process of “installing” new patterns into our mind/body/heart and know that we all deserve a fulfilling, happy and peaceful life.

May we all support each other on this way of living our best life possible.

May all being be happy and free. Namaste. Much love.

 

 

Yesterday someone asked me for a Yoga book recommendation. So I decided

to make a short personal review about all the books that came into my life

in the last years. So this is what I can recommend:

These authors have been shaping my  my personal yoga / life philosophy.

Wow, it became a top 36 list!

1. Rod Stryker – The Four Desires  – Relax into your Greatness my dear. 
2. Elena Brower – The Art of Attention – a beautiful artistic yoga book with a few asana sequences 
3. before I forget: mine of course – Stefanie Honeder – Heartbeat A Yoga Symphony Mixtape   – a poetical interpretation of the yoga of sound to listen to your intuition, the whispers that guide you to live your own creative life.
4. Derek Beres – The Warrior’s Path: Living Yoga’s ten Codes – New School – Derek Beres bridging old wisdom with modern life
5. Derek Beres – Sound Against Flame  New School – about the power of SOUND / Nada Yoga, how music connects us all worldwide
6. Derek Beres – Global Beat Fusion: The History of the Future of Music New School – about the power of SOUND / Nada Yoga, how music connects us all worldwide 
7. Matthew Remski – Threads of Yoga: A Remix of Patanjali-s Sutras-s, with Commentary and Reverie  New School – Matthew Remski connects yoga philosophy with  a deep research connecting old wisdom with modern philosophy and psychotherapy, ancient texts into a revitalized form for our modern world
8. Matthew Remski – Yoga 2.0 -Shamanic Echoes – New School blending ancient wisdom with modern thoughts and approaches
9. Joachim Ernest Berendt – The World Is Sound: NADA Brahma: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness – Nada Yoga – The Power of Sound – well, there is a bigger force connecting us all, about the power of sound/music
10. Vanda Scaravelli – Awakening the Spine – beautiful layout, short texts, fascinated that even plants help each other in the evolutionary process, Take care of your spine my dear!
11. Baptist de Pape – The Power of the Heart. Finding Your True Purpose – Bhakti Yoga – Why our heart is super-intelligent; Follow your Heart!
12. Ronald Alexander – Wise Mind, Open Mind: Finding Purpose & Meaning in Times of Crisis, Loss & Change  – Why meditation helps us to find new solutions and approaches towards life. Meditation equals Creativity!
13. Judith Hanson Lasater – Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life – The Yoga Sutras connected to everyday life.
14. Christopher Sartain – The Sacred Science of Yoga & The Five Koshas – good desription about the Koshas, various layers of our SELF.
15. David Lynch – Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity – Easy to read, quotation-style about Meditation and the Creative Process. Meditation equals Creativity! & Why everything falls into its place in the end, when we catch the Big Fish! 
16. Anodea Judith – Wheels Of Life – Insights about the Chakras
17. Douglas Brooks – Poised for Grace – Philosophy, Non-Dual  
18. Gary Zukav – The Seat of the Soul – Why Your Soul has incredible answers and you should trust those whispers of your soul!
19. Ram Dass – Be Here Now – a beautiful artistic poetical work: be here now
20. Christina Sell – My Body is a Temple: Yoga as a Path to Wholeness – Why Yoga helps us to find our home in our body.
21. Steve Ross – Happy Yoga: 7 Reasons Why There Is Nothing to Worry About – New School – easy going, easy philosophy intro into the yoga world
22. Em Claire – Home Remembers Me:  – beautiful poems
23. Desikachar – The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice – individual humans means individual practice
24. Anna Trökes – Neuro – Yoga – Anna Trökes offers a research about yoga and its effects on our brain and neurolgy.
25. Iyengar – Light On Yoga  – old school classic – yoga philosophy in an elegant way
26. Iyengar – Light On The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali old school classic – Patanjali’s interpretations
27. Iyengar – The Tree Of Yoga: The Definite Guide to Yoga in Everyday Life – old school classic – yoga philosophy in an elegant way
28. Sally Kempton – Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga – for the ladies, but also for men about symbolic use and ideas of “goddesses” in the practice
29. Bernie Clarke, Sarah Powers – The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga – all about Yin Yoga
30. Judith Lasater – Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times – all about Restorative Yoga. Deep Relaxation with many bolsters and blankets 
31. KRS One – The Gospel of Hip Hop: The First Instrument  – kind of a Hip Hop Version of Yoga Sutras, about the process of self-knowledge, health and the power of music
32. Ram Chandra – Reality at Dawn – Raja Yoga: Meditation creates a different Reality: Peace and Freedom
33. Alan Watts – The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are – self knowledge, self inquiry
34. Carol Horton, Roseanne Harvey – 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics and Practice – Ancient texts need to adjust to a modern world, a lot of bullshit is  happening & a lot of good stuff happening…Run away, if you feel manipulated in any Yoga Class! 
35. Debra Diamon, David Gordon White, Tamara Sears, Carl Ernst , Sir James Mallinson – Yoga: The Art of Transformation – Exhibition Catalogue – Oh a really heavy book with beautiful ancient images and a good overview of all the ages
36. Hari Kirin Kaur Khalsa – Art&Yoga – a nice book about Creativity and Yoga based on Kundalini Yoga, good material for kids I would say

 

 

Rick Rubin is speaking about the “Art of Silence” , meditation and its transformative power .

Watch:

Nowness.com – Rick Rubin & Music

Yoga allows us to connect to the inherent intelligence of life, whether you call it prana, love, a form of god or goddess. It is the force that I call the “self-organizing principle” of love that is streaming through everyone and that is surrounding everyone and everything. It is a force that is breathing you, it is a force that guides you. It is a force you can surrender to and trust (sraddha) in every circumstance of life.

Ishvara – Pranidhana is the term in yoga philosophy that expresses this feeling of surrender to that greater force.

Yoga also describes ” skill in action” , which means to connect something, or (re-) act in the right moment. This brings more ease into (y)our life.
You learn to use your energy wisely  .

You are not using strength, you take action, you respond in the right moments when it is needed. So you learn to not using your strength and willpower until you are exhausted. Do you know these moments, when you just keep trying and trying and feeling like losing your energy? Then you need to foster patience and trust this intelligence to unfold. You need to release your own will and allow the intelligence to align and synchronize with the outer world.

Easy going.

Nobody can do it alone. You are already doing your best. You just need to listen and be aware and (re-) act and respond in the right moments. Then allow the intelligence to unfold.

Easy going.