The Single Breath Snow Globe Meditation

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Your Quiet Moment: Single Breath Snow Globe Quote

 “An amazing thing happens when we slow down. We start to get flashes of inspiration. We reach a new level of understanding and even wisdom. In a quiet moment we can get an intuitive insight that can change our entire life and the lives of the people around us in incredibly positive ways. And those changes can last a lifetime. Living more simply will make it possible to create those quiet moments. Out of those quiet moments miracles happen. Be open to them. — Elaine St. James

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Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American man of letters. Zen poet perhaps best known for Pulitzer Prize-winning Turtle Island (1975) (often associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance), he is also an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist.

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 “Zen aims at freedom but its practice is disciplined.”  Gary Snyder

Hi Everyone! I’ll be presenting a single breath Snow Globe meditation that I learned from Gary Snyder @ Disney Cal Arts. What stayed with me was his presence after he guided us through an effortless one breath zen exercise to reach stillness and taste silence. As if by magic, taking a mindful breath reminded me of a snow globe settling, where suddenly everything becomes clear. I recalled moments from my past of flip flopping from performance anxiety to zen like calm. However, with this centering breath charm, I now have an upgrade to carry on with fearless confidence. After my transformative experience with Gary Snyder, I knew it had to be shared with others.
Read more about the Legendary  Zen Beat poet, Gary Snyder,  in the New Yorker magazine.  Check out a few of  Gary Snyder’s awesome books available at Amazon:  A Place in Space , Pulitzer Prize winning, Turtle Island, and he wrote the foreword to  Zen Pioneer, the life and works of my great grandmother, Ruth Fuller Sasaki, wife of my great grandpa, Sokei-an Sasaki, Roshi.  Gary Snyder shared with me that my great grandpa inspired him to study zen, he wrote the Foreword to the book  Zen Pioneer. I am honored to share my zen wisdom with you, in the spirit of the FunZen girls.  
Grace says that, “As a voice over actress, I use the snow globe Single Breath meditation very often when I’m working. Whenever I feel anxious, or as if whatever I’m saying is not what the director wants, I take my single breath and center myself. When I worked on Lucy from Charlie Brown, I was told repeatedly that I had to slow down so I could sound more like the original voice over artist. I could’ve easily panicked, thinking that what I was doing was not good enough. Instead, I took some breaths and went from a worrier to a warrior. From a more mindful mental stance, I’m able to become relaxed and easily do what I need to do in the recording booth. Without my FunZen tools, I wouldn’t be able to have grace under pressure. By calming the inner storm of my thoughts, my snow globe settles and I am able to perform brilliantly.” FunZen fact: The sweet science of it is that the situation is the same, but the way we handle it is different as we go from a Worrier to a Warrior in the moment, under pressure.

To get familiar with the idea of being a Warrior, not a worrier, check out my twitter friend and founder of the Daily Love, Mastin Kipp’s article here.

Now, when you’re having one of those days that Lil Mama told you about, press your zen button: Ahhhh to center your spinning tea cup mind and SMILE shifting from Anxiety to Serenity now. unnamed Miracle Diamond Charm: “Help people to learn to move gracefully, to think clearly, to form– like artists–the matter of their lives.” Gary Zukav

Carry your miracle diamond of mindfulness to awaken your inner dancer; “When the body lifts, the mind shifts, (worrier to a warrior) and the spirit soars.” (See introducing The Miracle Diamond, Author, Artist, Mentor, Helen Fleder)

Update, Order Now, new amaZEN book, Shape Up, Shape Up as you sit, stand and walk, it’s nature’s Miracle Exercise  by Helen Fleder

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Lil Mama and Elle

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Jill (Mindful Mom), Elle, Liam, and Carson Mathews

Namaste in Action. – FunZen Girls OX 143 #urloved   To buy The Worrier and the Warrior, (the newest addition to our e-book collection!) currently only $3.99, CLICK HERE! worrwarr

Mindful Momma- Melissa Scanlon Shares Her Description of “The Worrier and the Warrior”

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Grace and I are grateful to serve up Melissa’s story about how the FunZen Kid’s life lesson re. shifting from a worrier to a warrior has positively influenced her life both personally and professionally.

Melissa totally gets it like Ryan, choosing to pivot from a worrier to a warrior prepares you to be a female hero of your own story.

Check out her blog where she has to use her mindful tools (such as the snow globe meditation) with her daughter in a story that brings a literal meaning to the expression, “Poop Happens”.

~FunZen Girls just wanna  Focus, Flow, and have Fun!

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 Melissa Scanlon’s  Sweetie Pie in the Sky Yum- Om
Quotables from the FunZen Bakery

Pie crust 101: Be open to changing your habits and practice being receptive.
You may enjoy the new flow! 

“In a delicious pie it is the filling that matters most. Our thoughts about our Self
and the world around us create our soul batter.”

Would you describe yourself as a Worrier or as a Warrior?  Do you know the difference? As a parent are you raising a Worrier or a Warrior? Your answer to the first question dictates your answer to the next two. When we become parents the choices we CHOOSE to make translate to the wisdom we pass on to our children. Like sponges, children absorb everything around them. Like adults, children feel pressure and stress. The way they learn to respond to these stresses mirror our behavior. We all want to be the best parent we can be to our children and the wisdom to be that person lives within our heart.

Michiko and Grace Rolek’s FunZen approach to parenting and to life reminds us that parenting isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being a parent who digs down deep to root, rise and soar. It is about being a parent who looks in the mirror and sees a Warrior smiling back. Clear vision often requires adjusting our lens. The Worrier and The Warrior is an invaluable tool that empowers parents with the wisdom necessary to make the adjustments to awaken our inner Zen Master –growing our wings of self-love to soar with our child through life’s happy-calm skies.

As a new parent I am learning that, “The real challenge of wholehearted parenting is to be the adults that we want our children to grow up to be.” We child proof our home, but quickly learn that our souls also need childproofing. A common misconception is that once we become an adult we stop growing. When children come into our life they invite us to rise to the challenge of raising our Self and attaining our Black Belt for the Soul.

As a yoga instructor focusing on children, one of my favorite things about children is their natural inclination to live life completely in the moment. In this total engagement there is beautiful, uninhibited self-expression. Self-love is the foundation of good parenting. Out of this glowing and flowing heart space we celebrate our Self and SHOW our children to celebrate their individuality by brightly shining their heart light.

There are a ton of parenting books on the market. It is easy to get bogged down with long words and lost meanings. The magic in Michiko and Grace’s FunZen Life Lessons is that they keep the lessons simple, pure and FUN! Written as a child-friendly narrative The Worrier and the Warrior is an interactive story you can read with your child to cultivate mindfulness and get the conversation started. In Michiko’s A-Z Life Lessons she teaches us that, “like an umbrella, the mind works best when it is open.  If we think we already know, how can we learn anything new? To embrace life’s possibilities, the Warrior is open to trying a new approach and thinks creatively.”

Namaste <3

FunZen Girl & Mindful Momma

Melissa

About Me

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I am an LA based yoga instructor focusing on children (Happy-Kid Yoga) and have been practicing yoga for 8 years. My passion is to help others find the inner strength and peace that my own practice helped me to cultivate. From this place of self-love our brightest light shines – life coaching with Michiko and her A to Z Life Lessons taught me to LIVE from that place of self-love and I have blossomed as a person and as a teacher since.

I have a 10-month-old daughter, Isabelle, who has caused my heart to blossom and grow in ways I never imagined possible. One struggle that we faced with Isabelle was getting her to sleep peacefully. We were going through all the motions; lavender baths, music, books, signing, rocking – nothing seemed to soothe Isabelle to sleep. We endured hours of crying at night for 8 months. Michiko reminded me to check in with myself and to nurture my Zen Momma soul with lots of MOMents and self-love. Bedtime had become such a stressful time for me and my stress was affecting Isabelle – she could FEEL it. I shifted my perspective and WHOOOOSH Isabelle’s sleeping has been improving and the whole family is happier at bedtime.

A mutual friend introduced Michiko and I, and in the short time that she has been coaching me her wisdom and approach to life has empowered me to wear my Black Belt for the Soul. I am honored to have the opportunity to write the book Description on Amazon (Kindle) for Michiko’s newest book and share with you how much her wisdom has helped me to grow. Thank you Michiko for sharing your Spirit to spark my inner light and helping to build a foundation of confidence to keep it shining bright.

Contact:

Facebook

Email: scanlon.mc@gmail.com

To buy The Worrier and the Warrior, (the newest addition to our e-book collection!) currently only $3.99, CLICK HERE!

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